Australia Day 26.01.20

After looking at stacks of hay - see previous post - I turned to the main task of the day, celebrating Australia day by attending the Armidale Regional Council's awards and citizenship ceremony at the town hall. Unlike previous years, the event was poorly attended, which surprised me to some extent. But thinking about it, I found a couple of reasons. This Sunday, the last in month, provided an alternative and simultaneous attraction, namely Markets in the Mall. Also, of course, this is summer holiday season in Australia and the town has been very quiet for the last 3 weeks as many residents are on the road, especially to the coast.

While awaiting for the ceremony to commence at 11 am, we were entertained  by a brass band, pictured here in a corner of the town hall just in front of the stage. Many of the performers looked young and they played a lot of traditional Australian songs like 'Waltzing Matilda'.

Then the leaders of the ceremony took to the stage on cue. They included the mayor, Simon Murray, in traditional robes on the right standing next the Council's General Manager, Susan Law.

Together, they summoned the very young choir, now seen standing on stage, to sing the national anthem: Advance Australia Fair. Interestingly, the sang both verses rather than usual one that everyone knows. We all sang the first, but most of the audience, including me, didn't know the second verse and kept quiet!

At this point, a guy came on stage and recited (a) some traditional versus and (b) some, I gathered he had penned himself and focused on local community events.

Then came the ceremony where the mayor bestowed Australian citizenship on numerous people from all over the world: Asia, Europe, the Americas, etc.
























Then a local master of ceremonies took over to handle various community awards, Citizens for this that and the other contribution to life in the Armidale Regional Council












 The young girl below won the youth award.





Right at the end of the event, a group of 'firies' were invited. These are the people who have played a lead role in fighting the numerous bush-fires in our extensive region. None was close to damaging Armidale, but they had to be controlled to prevent environmental disasters and the smoke haze we endured. They were given a tremendous round of applause.






Thereafter people retreated from the auditorium with me in the lead!. I had to get back to Dot who hadn't been feeling the best today! I'd attended the ceremony alone.

AS

Hay Run

As you will have heard just about anywhere on this planet, Australia has just witnessed its worst drought event ever. My home-town of Armidale, NSW, was one of the worst hit areas and in 2019 we only received about one-third of our normal rainfall. Moreover, the back half of the year from July to December saw very little rain at all.

Needless to say, most local farmers have had to reduce stock levels. This is especially sad as New England, our region, is a premier livestock grazing region, focusing mainly on beef-cattle and sheep - for both wool and increasingly sheep-meats. Charitable organisations have put great efforts into helping our local farmers and yesterday, 25th January, we saw a mammoth hay delivery event. You might find what I'm about to say unbelievable, but it is true! No less than about 170 trucks carted hay in a convoy up the New England Highway from Singleton in the Hunter Valley - c. 300 km away - to Armidale.

We were told that the convoy would probably arrive between noon and 12.30 pm. So, Dot and I along with several others went to the end of our street, which joined Erskine Street which was the route the trucks were going to take. Here we are awaiting the great event and there's a view eastwards down to the nearby traffic lights where council staff lay in wait to control the lights to let the truck through efficiently.

Alas, the convoy was late and eventually arrived at 1 pm. I couldn't be there for the simple reason that I was playing contract bridge with my usual Saturday partner just a little way from the above intersection. Never mind! I took my usual early morning Sunday walk down towards Armidale show-grounds where the trucks parked, the hay was unloaded, and farmers would later to arrive to collect their allocation. At one of our nearby motels I came across this guy who had his allocation aboard and was about to head home.

The I took a wrong route and when I attempted to cross Dumaresq Creek, which flows through the centre  of town, I found it in flood! So I retraced my steps home and took one of cars instead. Isn't it ironic that the hay arrived after we have experienced one of the wettest months in a long time. Our home rain gauge is now showing about 180 mm over the 26 days so far!! That's over 7 inches of rain. Well, we now know that seasonal weather patters are returning to normal, which augurs well for 2020. Since we have a summer maximum of rainfall we'll not reach 80+ inches for the year.

Armed with our Rav4 4wd vehicle, I crossed the offending creek without getting washed away and was stunned with what I saw. Despite many vehicles having offloaded their hay - I saw one or two departed for home - the showground was awash trucks of hay, as these pictures show.

Here's a truck with the name of the convoy on its side! It's an odd name: BURRUMBUTTOCK, about which I know nothing. You may have noted that Australia trucks tend to be enormous. And, out west in remote locations, it is common to see prime movers like the one shown here towing not one, but three, trailers.

As you can see, our show-ground is massive, as is typical of many country towns. And, when I found an open entrance to the area, I could see many of the trucks and their contents parked neatly in long rows. Impressive isn't it! Let's hope that the dispersal of the contents well. I do not know the outcome because these pictures were taken at c. 8.30 am.

Look at the colour of the sky! Well within two hours fluffy clouds began to emerge and I expected heavy rain. Guess what! By 5 pm when I began typing this we heard a few claps of thunder and another downpour commenced. If this goes on, we'll be back to mowing our grass twice a week.

AS

Flood Event

After enduring one of the worst droughts Armidale has had in well over a century, we were delighted in the last three days leading up to Christmas to have had a major rain event. Over this period we must have had c. 32 mm (1 inch = 25 mm) in a series of major storms and loved every minute of it! And the intensity of the rain just yesterday - Christmas eve - led me think that Dumaresq Creek might have been in flood. So Rebecca, who is staying with us over Christmas along with Max, drove down to the creek to look for ourselves. And I was right in my assumption. This is what we saw:




















 Instead of an almost bone-dry creek bed with no stream-flow at all, we found a considerable flood event and fast flowing water. Footpaths were submerged and police were erecting barriers to prevent motorists trying to navigate a route through the water from one side to the other.

One of the recent surprises for me in recent weeks is that several other small rain events have markedly greened local vegetation. But now I expect struggling trees, shrubs and flowers to get a real boost.

Notice that the parkland on either side of the Dumaresq Creek is fairly green. Of course, places further away from the creek - like where we live - have been really struggling to stay green even with some light showers, but that has been worsened by the very high temperatures we've experienced.

The December average daily maximum is around 26 C, but this year that figure must have been about 32 C - quite an increase!

Armidale is now at level 5 water restrictions, which prevent the artificial watering of gardens except where households catch and store water from showers, clothes laundering, and dish-washing. Showers are nominally restricted to 3 minutes, but that could also mean 6 minutes every two days.

Hopefully, our summer will see a return to average - or better than average -  rainfall conditions and our lives can get back to normal. By the way, our adverse conditions are just about nation-wide.

AS

Quick Trip to Sydney

Just recently I had a quick day-trip to Sydney to meet up with an assortment for friends, colleagues and family. I had a lovely time meeting people but also wandering around Sydney's CBD. This is what I saw after arriving there at 8 am and catching the train into the city, alighting at 'Museum'. Since my first engagement was scheduled fro 10 am, I decided to walk around various well-known parts of the CBD. First stop was Hyde Park. I did a selfie and took a nice picture of the impressive skyline.
















Hyde Park has a lot of interesting sights, including fountains like this one.



A short distance away on George Street I saw, for the first time, Sydney's new tramway in operation and decided to take a ride.



The carriages are quite swish and modern and I headed to the front to get a similar view to the driver. As you can see, most cars, trucks and buses have been removed from that thoroughfare, leaving behind just pedestrians and the trams.

 Alas there was one thing wrong with the system. Pedestrians could walk faster than the trams because of lots of cross-traffic and the slow pace of the trains with their new drivers.

Still, I found it an interesting experience and a foretaste of getting rid of much of Sydney's traffic congestion.

Heading up to Circular Quay I witnessed many familiar sights, the ocean liner and ferry quays, the harbour bridge, and museum of modern art.



























It was also interesting to look back from the historic Rocks area - much dating back as far as the early 19th century -  towards the city's modern business core, which is home to towering office blocks.
















I also walked, for the first time, through Barangaroo, seen here on the left. I guess Dot and I won some of this because the whole district has been developed by the Lend Lease company in which we have a shareholding. After this experience, I took a walk through Martin Place, the very centre of the CBD. I was rather taken with this massive artificial Christmas tree adorning the middle of the pedestrian precinct. Then I headed into the Queen Victoria Building, a massive and rather old, but up-market, shopping centre. It has two magnificent clocks handing from the ceiling.


And there was another humongous artificial Christmas tree.
































I think you'll agree that this shopping centre, viewed on the left,  is much better crafted than the modern ones. Why did I keep on with my lengthy walk? Well, my 10 am meeting at Sydney's University of Technology was cancelled by most host for private family reasons. We chatted on the phone instead. My next meeting, which I will not report on at length, was with the CEO of Sydney's Centre for Independent Studies. This is market-oriented think-tank that I've supported for 40 years. But it now has a new CEO with whom I wanted to hold a discussion. And that went very well.

After that, I met my Cousin David, who lives in Sydney's up-market Eastern Suburbs. And together we went to a Stock-Broking company, Ord MInnett, through which I trade our Self-Managed-Superannuation-Fund (SMSF) investment portfolio. My long-time advisor was retiring on the day I arrived and I wanted to meet up with, and get to know, his replacement. The meeting went very well and I sold two shareholdings, while purchasing another..

After that, David and I walked around the city for a while before he had to head home while I made my way back to the airport for the return journey.

All up it was a great day out - profitable in meeting up with quite a few people and also, I hope, with financial outcomes!

AS

A Summer Soiree

Late yesterday afternoon I had the great pleasure of attending yet another brilliant orchestral concert held at our Music Conservatorium here in Armidale. . The performers were the Errol Russell Sinfonia of New England, but this little group of c. 21 players is very special. To start with they all play string instruments, except for the pianist / harpsichordist. Moreover, their average age couldn't be much over about 21!! In effect they're all students. At least two-thirds were women.

The conductor, Gwyn Roberts, was however at least 3 times that average age and a retired University of Queensland musicologist.

Here he is:

Some youth orchestras are a little scratchy, but yesterday's performance was superb. The works performed were top-notched, often dynamic and complex, yet the orchestra was perfect in timing, tempo, and impact. The program contained 5 works played without intermission:

Mozart's Divertimento in B Flat Major K 137, written when he was just 16 years old.
Marcello's Oboe Concerto in D Minor. This composer lived from 1673 to 1747, and was a                                 contemporary of Vivaldi.
Hindemith's Trauermusik. This work, written in one day on 21 January 1936, was an elegy to King                   George V who had died the day before! Hindemith, then just in his early 40s, was visiting                   the UK.
Vaughan Williams' Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus based on a 16th century tune, dating from                     1939.
Palmer's The Ruritanian Dances.
Not heard of George Palmer? Nor had I until yesterday. He's about my age, born in 1946. He's a retired Australian High Court Judge and has become a frantic composer in his retirement - opera, choral works, chamber music and symphonies. The Ruritanian Dances were brilliant - dynamic, nuanced, tuneful, and so on. Try to listen to them! By the way, Ruritania is an imaginary kingdom in central Europe.

Two of the works played had soloists. The oboist in the second work, James McKay, is University of New England student about 23 years old. He was excellent. And Sophia Mackson, who played solo violin in the Dives and Lazarus, is just 18 years old. If I'm correct, here she is standing close to the conductor.

And, standing on the left is James McKay.

 Aren't we a lucky community?

AS