HOW WE SEE IT! Saturday Snapshot

With Bryan Littlely and Shaun Hollis

Bryan Littlely

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Cartoon by SHAUN HOLLIS

Not in the change the date debate

I don’t really weigh in on the change the day debate… I am neither bothered if Australia Day is marked on January 26 or if it is moved to another day.

And, despite my strong connection to many Indigenous Australians and their communities across Australia, I don’t consider moving the day we celebrate being a great nation is going to significantly change the path to productively coexisting and is certainly not going to add anything to the work that needs to be done to close the gap in health, education and employment for Indigenous Australians.

I do, though, mark Australia Day. I go to ceremonies - which I absolutely agree should be held on whatever day it is we as a nation recognise as our National Day - I sing the National Anthem, I celebrate and show gratitude to those whose hard work and achievements are recognised in our community.

I’ll have a Lions or Rotary Club sausage. I’ll whinge about the weather and the price I got for my cattle at the market this week. I will talk to mates and likely have a beer with my Austrian in-laws, Cambodian “brother” and Indigenous Uncle who is down from Darwin.

I mark Australia Day because I know how lucky I am to have my slice of this great country, how I contribute to making it a better place, and how I get to share all that is good about it with so many from so many walks of life.

Australia has afforded me some great adventures with local Douglas Shire events and happenings I’ve covered over the past four months reminding me of some of those.

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Tallship terror

Low Isle Launch Rally will be a great spectacle on Australia Day. Despite growing up in a strong trailer sailor community, I never really got the hang of sailing and cruised on to other sports.

I have, though, had some experience on tallships, including spending some time around the Whitsundays on Solway Lass a few years back.

But it was the time I boarded the Young Endeavour at sea, and in motion, off the coast of Adelaide to report on its voyage that sits as a great Aussie adventure. We thought it better to get images aboard the tallship as it sailed into Port Adelaide in a fleet, rather than docked, so I organised my mate who planned to go fishing that day to run us out to the Young Endeavour having coordinated our boarding with its Captain.

I wasn’t confident when I jumped in the tinny, and almost all hope of avoiding absolute disaster drained from me as we raced down a wave of the towering ship’s wake, the small outboard having no impact on our motion.

Somehow, we did slide into and against the ship safely, a rope ladder thrown over the side and myself and the photographer scrambled up the side… my larrikin mates heading off to fish for another day.

Launching into Australia Day

 

Aussie racing with a Bob each way

There’s a lot of characters in country racing… and we seem to have our share in the Douglas Shire if the recent rise and success of a horse by the name of Choir Boy is to go by. I like to see connections enjoy a day at the races which does inject a lot of money into a wide variety of business in country towns. It is even better seeing them have a win.

I’ve gone the journey when it comes to country racing, having rough and ready bush track racehorses run in SA, NT, Queensland, Victoria and NSW. There’s been multiple round trips of 3000km towing a float to pick up horses, rehabilitate them to return to racing or to be retrained and rehomed.

On one such trip, to Louth out the back of Bourke, NSW, I picked up my boy Digger, (I’m A Soldier) and watched his Cunnamulla, QLD, stablemate Aussie Bob run second to last… returning home and scoring a pet goat, suitably named Cobar, on the way home when my wife bet me I couldn’t catch a goat.

I was back that way a couple of months later to collect Aussie Bob whose form had not improved. Lame and in need of rest and recuperation we took him home to our farm and, considering him a bit of a battler with some real Aussie spirit, sent him out to Broken Hill in new Green and Gold colours 6 months later with only a glimmer of hope considering the bush trainer said “he was pretty quick when he got away on me down the creek”.

A $9 chance, Bob led and kept growing his lead to win by nearly 10 lengths. He went on to win another five races for us and now lives his life at our small rehab facility his winnings paid for.

 

Ready, Set…. Crawl

It is true, Aussies will bet on just about anything…. Or at least try to race or make a sport of many things.

Or maybe that is just me!

In the wake of the devastating Kangaroo Island bushfires in 2020, I decided to test the “build it and they will come” theory to run a fundraising event. Neighbouring farmers were eager to join in putting on a BBQ to bring the community together in support of fire crews and those hit hardest.

The BBQ offering grew pretty quickly with two steers, a couple of lambs, a pig, a goat and plenty of chickens donated. We had competition standard BBQ chefs lined up, a potato bake and pavlova competition organised, free music acts and kids activities… we just needed an “event”.

Bringing in the Yabbies - freshwater “crays”... if you like.

I spent a month catching the biggest and best looking yabbies I could, had the Men’s Shed build a race track and set up for a day spectacular action which raised more than $10k

I guess what I’m saying is if the cane toad population is ever seriously diminished… I have a yabbie racing track Chilly’s can have!

Caning the toads

 

Great Aussie Adventures

I love a great Aussie adventure and can drive for days to a destination and typically consider the trip there was just as good as the final port of call.

My journey to Port Douglas came at the end of one such trip… a charity motorcycle trip from Cape Jervis and via Cloncurry, Burketown and Bamaga at the tip of Cape York.

Another great Aussie adventure I tried to take was a trip across the country from Adelaide to Darwin on a railway Kalamazoo…. Think Loony Tunes cartoons. That was the result of drinking too much Ghan commemorative port one night!

The plan was to pump our way along the Ghan train line over the course of two weeks as a fundraiser for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

Two years in the planning and having met every safety and logistics requirement thrown at us by rail authorities, gathered great sponsorship and drawn international interest for the crossing, we were one week away from setting off with a $500,000 fundraising target when American owned Genesee Wyoming derailed us, saying we couldn’t use “their” track from Tarcoola through to Darwin.

When asked why their change of tune after they had outlined and helped facilitate all of the required training, tech and tickets we would need - aka jumped through all their hoops - their response was: “We thought you would have given up ages ago’’.

We made the journey not pumping a kalamazoo but at least entertaining a Winnebago safari to raise around $30k for the good Doctor.

Surgeon’s world record attempt

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