HOW WE SEE IT! Saturday Snapshot

With BRYAN LITTLELY AND SHAUN HOLLIS

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Cartoon by SHAUN HOLLIS

A ding-dong dingo debate

I seem to have dodged a bullet, but not the backlash, so far as a result of publishing pictures of the dingoes of Port Douglas playing in the suburban streets that were shared by a well-known environment advocate who obviously considers it fine to shoot dingoes…. with a camera.

While surprised those dead-set on protecting the dingoes think posting a picture of their much loved native dogs is what is going to have them killed, I’m not shocked that Douglas is divided on the topic.

Another point of the dingo debate which has surprised me this week is that the vocal protectors with the most bite have known the traps have been set for their dingoes for up to two months. It seems the Douglas dingoes, and any threat they may or may not pose to public safety, and the real threat to those very dingoes, should both stay secrets in the minds of some.

Dingoes are far from foreign to me having lived and worked in Alice Springs and covering much of Outback Australia as an agricultural and environmental reporter.

I am quite fond of them and know their importance. I just wouldn’t consider putting one on a lead and walking it down the street past the Newsport offices as a dingo debate rages.

As an investigative journo, I also have great insight and an evidence-based answer to THAT question… Did the dingo do it?

I’m not sure Port Douglas is prepared for the answer.

Street smart dingoes of Douglas

 

It’s loco to let go of all the locos

Forget insurance costs, securing easements, logistics and all of those grown up things you would actually need to consider to run a tourist train from Port Douglas to the Daintree and just do it!

Given the Daintree was trucked, not tracked, out of Mossman early on Tuesday morning, followed by all the other Mossman Sugar Mill locos… it’s unlikely my childhood fascination with trains will play out in future.

As a South Aussie, I’ve grown up with steam trains - the famous Cockle Train from Goolwa, adjacent the mouth of the mighty Murray, to Victor Harbor, and the Pichi Richi Railway to Quorn.

My first memories include playing on the big loco in the foreshore playground of my home town and I was witness to the return of the Victor Harbor Horse Drawn Trams after years of Granite Island being serviced by a cute road running train car. My daughter works on the trams and I once almost nearly drove a charity trek from Adelaide to Darwin on a railway Kalamazoo named Olive.

Call me “loco” but I love trains and reckon one little sugar loco inspired railway trip even out to Mossman Gorge to keep a loco on the streets and in our hearts would be worthy, no matter all those adult accountabilities.

Trucked, not tracked, out of here

 

Thar she blows… my story

In one of our earliest How We See It columns, I made mention of my marine biology credentials, a perfect mark in my final year of school and on par with Mossman State High School 2024 Dux Niamh Zillfleisch (congrats Niamh).

I also may have said my specialist field was whales and I was your go to guy should there be any whale sightings off the coast of Douglas. Not untrue, but can the really rare ones like the Omura's whale spotted this week not be sent to test my knowledge.

My comeback is that the species was only discovered in 2003, more than a decade after I walked out of the classroom.

A wonderfully rare whale sighting

 

Blown away by your resilience

I wasn’t here, I wouldn’t know. But I have heard some of the stories over the past few months of what went on in the face of Cyclone Jasper and the subsequent floods.

We have tried to capture some of that on yesterday’s first anniversary, but we know that there’s likely as many shocking and spirit raising stories as there are trees that have come down….or at least a number equal to the days waited for work to start on Captain Cook Highway.

One quirky one I heard recently was how the crews from Paddy’s and Rattle N Hum kept the Christmas spirit going despite the kitchen closed in the Irish pub. It involved take out pizzas cooked at Rattle and reindeer outfit run down Macrossan (no faster than 30kph surely) for diners.

It is little wonder they, and all the hospitality venues across the Douglas region, are so nimble now when the gas and power goes out… again!

Christmas is coming for the Cook

 

Dear Santa….

Trevor Frizelle has set the bar high this week with his wish list of things for the Douglas Shire.

And while he has covered all of those adult, responsible things we probably need, there has to be some pointless bells and whistles for Port and beyond… did someone say “like the splash park”?

My Douglas Shire Christmas sack would surely include a Spiegeltent, at least a couple of locos and a torch. I’d do away with the bike and no, I don’t want a puppy for Christmas, of any variety

I might get Trev to write the letter.

A sack full of ideas

 

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