H5N1 (Bird flu) in Australia

The deadly strain of bird flu, H5N1, arrived in Australia last week and threatens a list of 100 native animal species, including birds, land and sea mammals.
Two birds, the brown skua and the giant petrel flew from the sub-Antarctic region to southwest Western Australia, have been confirmed to be infected with the deadly virus.
Until last week, when the skua was found on a remote beach near Esperance, Australia was the only continent free of the deadly virus.

Brown skua

A giant petrel, found several kilometres away, also tested positive for the H5 strain.

Brown skuas and giant petrels are a common sight offshore in southern Australian waters in the winter months, but they will rarely risk venturing on to land.
So when two of these birds were discovered sick on beaches a few kilometres apart it was a sign something might be wrong.
Both birds have since died.

Giant southern petrel

Australia’s unique wildlife, which has evolved in isolation for millions of years, could be particularly vulnerable to H5N1.The list of at-risk animals includes: bird-eating raptors, including white-bellied sea eagles, powerful owls and wedge-tailed eagles; black swans with no defences to the virus; Australian sea lions; rare parrots, including the tiny populations of orange-bellied and swift parrots; and Tasmanian devils as they eat carrion.The risk of an outbreak in farmed birds is also high, with potentially devastating consequences. Australia’s largest chicken meat producer announced on it had locked down access to all its farms in Western Australia, even though they are all north of Perth and more than 700 kilometres from where the infected birds were found.Experts had warned it was inevitable for the virus to make its way to Australia via migratory birds. 

H5N1

Now that it has come from the sub-Antarctic region, governments and experts say a wild outbreak is likely.However the Agriculture Minister who is responsible for biosecurity, and the Environment Minister said that only two positive cases had been identified and there was no evidence of widespread fatalities to indicate an outbreak in Australia.The Australian government committed $113 million to preparations to deal with an H5N1 incursion, with an emphasis on planning to swiftly identify an outbreak and responding to limit its spread. This includes teams to swiftly remove carcasses of infected animals to prevent further spread and stopping farmed poultry from mixing with wild birds.

Stay tuned for updates!

The Australian Fuel Crises

Just over two decades ago eight oil refineries in Australia produced up to 98% of our petroleum.

Today only two remain, one in Brisbane and one in Geelong.

The cull was due purely due to economics.

The infrastructure of the refineries was old. 

Much had been built in the 1940s and 1950s.

It became more cost affective to import refined fuel from the Asia Pacific region.

Now 80-90% comes primarily from Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan and India.

It made sense, given Australia’s high transport and labour costs not to mention stricter environmental laws, to import our fuel requirements from Asia’s large scale oil refineries.

Then in late February in retaliation to USA military strikes, Iran effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz.

This cut off 20% of the world’s crude oil supply much of which goes to Asian refiners.

Australia held only 44 days of petrol, 33 days of diesel, and 30 days of jet fuel in reserves. 

This included both onshore storage tanks and fuel in transit via shipping and is one of the world’s smallest fuel reserves.

So there was an immediate concern we would have a fuel shortage.

Panic buying and substantial price increases followed.

Rationing raised its ugly head but never eventuated.

Diesel was of the greatest concern where farmers were harvesting their summer crops and preparing for winter sowing. Road transport and the mining industry were also affected.

There were instances of petrol stations running dry, particularly in rural areas.

Before the war I was paying $A1.70/litre for 91octane. It went up to $A2.65/litre.

The government stepped in and managed to secure promises of substantial uninterrupted supplies from our Asian neighbours.

Korea and Japan, as well as Singapore and Taiwan are all locking in crude oil from the Atlantic basin which comes from the USA, Canada and Latin America,

The government also reduced the fuel excise by 50%.

The situation calmed down.

I am back to paying an average of  $A1.70/litre although the fuel excise reduction will finish on 30th June* with a resulting increase, probably to over $A2/litre.

Around 50-80 ships deliver around 3.5 billion litres of fuel every four weeks to Australia.

To secure the nation's energy sovereignty, the Australian Government is expanding critical reserves to 50 days by increasing mandatory stockholding obligations and creating a permanent, government owned one billion litre emergency stockpile.

There is no intention to look at new refinery construction.

In addition to onshore tanks, Australia maintains a separate national crude oil reserve housed in the United States (as part of a strategic buffer agreement) to hedge against extreme global shocks.

But this situation is not over and will not be until the USA/Iran conflict is settled.

And there is no end in sight for that.

Or is there?

The situation changes on a daily basis.

*Update: 21/06/2026

Government has extended the fuel excise rebate for another month albeit at $0.16/lire rather than the original $0.32/litre.

For USA readers : One US gallon ≈ 3.8litres and $A1= $US0.70

For UK readers: $A1 = £0.75

For European readers: $A1 = €0.60

A Surfing Career

I became interested in surfing around the age of ten when we moved from Melbourne to Brisbane and spent a lot of time on the Gold Coast during weekends and most holidays.
At that stage the light short surfboards of today were virtually unknown. In use were extremely heavy hollow long boards and skis.

Surfing was brought to Australia in 1915 by Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku.

He demonstrated this ancient Hawaiian board riding technique at Freshwater in Sydney, New South Wales.
Kahanamoku's board is now on display in the northeast end of the Freshwater Surf Lifesaving Club.
There is a statue there commemorating the event.

Surfing's massive cultural explosion in Australia took off in 1956, when a team of American lifeguards visited for the Melbourne Olympics and introduced lightweight, manoeuvrable balsa and fibreglass Malibu boards at a carnival in Torquay, Victoria.

I was a junior member of a local Gold Coast surf lifesaving club for a while where body surfing was the main recreational activity.

But then some guys from Sydney brought up their light boards, surfed ‘my’ beach and I was hooked.

Clubies and surfies were a different breed. 

Sitting for hours on a tower during your lifesaver shift watching families splash around in the shore break while beautiful rideable waves rolled in outside the flagged area was very frustrating.

My first board was a second hand fibre glass covered balsa wood ‘log’ just like the one pictured below.

And no leg ropes then. A wipeout usually meant a long swim, not to mention a danger to those paddling out.

But it was all a great learning curve.

My first polyurethane foam and fibre glass board was shaped by Joe Larkin in Kirra in the early 60s.

My third board was made by Ray Woosley in Brisbane in the mid 60s.

It was to be my board for the next 30 years.

Despite replacing it a few times over the following decades I couldn’t get rid of it.

It was beautifully made and covered in heavyweight fibreglass and strengthened with a big central stringer.

Heavy compared with today’s boards but extremely tough and ‘ding’ resistant.

When leg ropes became a thing, I drilled a hole through the fin to attach one.

Sadly it was burnt when we lost property during the 2019/20 bushfires.

Obviously unlicensed, we relied on parents and older friends to drive us to the various surf spots.

But then with our own cars we were ‘free’ and the years of surfaris began.

To Gold Coast beaches and those in northern New South Wales.

Snapper Rocks & Greenmount

Byron Bay

Angourie

To the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane.

Noosa

Moffat Beach

And one long three week trip down the east coast to iconic Bells Beach in Victoria where I rode some of the biggest and most powerful waves of my life. 

Bells Beach

There was a bit of a hiatus when I moved to Sydney in 1969 to pursue a business career and eventually raise a family but the call of the ocean was strong.

I took up the sport again in 1988 mainly on the beaches of the Sutherland Shire and south to Wollongong.

Cronulla Beaches

Then with my move to the south coast of New South Wales, I enjoyed waves at many of the then deserted beaches all within a few kilometres of home.

Tabourie 

Racecourse Beach

Golfcourse Reef

Unfortunately a shoulder injury in my early 70s ended my surfing career. No amount of physiotherapy could fix it. 

I was content with a bit of boogie boarding for a while but when you know it’s time, it’s time.

Am happy now to watch surfing videos on YouTube and the WSL on television.

Anzac Day 2026

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Easter and Hot Cross Buns 2

Traditional hot cross buns are spiced sweet yeasted buns containing raisins or currants which are traditionally eaten on Good Friday.
They are decorated with a flour-paste cross representing the crucifixion and are often glazed with syrup and served warm with butter.
Common spices include cinnamon, mixed spice and nutmeg. Sometimes citrus peel is included.

Then a decade or so ago chocolate chip versions appeared.

Now it’s open slather. Anything goes.

Back in 2019 I posted about new versions.

All sorts of even more weird combinations are now available.

Here’s a few from our region.

.

Traditional 

Croissant scrolls

Chocolate 

Salted butter

Pistachio 

Custard filled

Chocolate and hazelnut filled 

Croissant couch

Australia’s Winter Olympics

So the Winter Olympics are over for another four years.
Australia had its best performance ever, winning three gold, two silver and a bronze.

In the Paralympics Australia won one silver and one bronze.
A lot of people around the world are a bit surprised that the ‘sunburnt country’ would even be participating.

Do we even have snow?

Ski resorts are primarily located in the New South Wales (NSW) Snowy Mountains and the Victorian Alps, operating during the Southern Hemisphere winter (June to October). 

Key resorts include the massive, multi-area Perisher and steep-terrain Thredbo in NSW, alongside Victoria’s Mount Hotham, Falls Creek, and Mount Buller.

Australia first competed in the Winter Olympic Games in 1936 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and has participated in every games since, with the exception of the 1948 Games in St. Moritz.

In the early years, Australia's athletes did poorly with only two athletes placed in the top half of their events before 1976.
Australia won its first medal, a bronze, in 1994 in the men's 5,000 metres short track relay speed skating event. Zali Steggall gained Australia's first individual medal in 1998, when she won bronze in the slalom event. 

In 2002, Steven Bradbury won the 1,000 metres short track speed skating and Alisa Camplin won the aerials event, making Australia the only southern hemisphere country to have won a gold medal at a Winter Olympics until 2022.

The Bradbury medal is an epic moment in the history of Australian sport and has achieved immortality by spawning the phrase in the local vernacular ‘doing a Bradbury’.

The primary Australian Winter Olympics training facility is the Geoff Henke Olympic Winter Training Centre at the Sleeman Sports Complex in Brisbane, Queensland. 

Opened in 2020, this world-class venue allows freestyle skiers (aerials/moguls) to train year-round, featuring a 37-metre high steel structure with seven jump ramps landing into a heated water pool.

The National Snowsports Training Centre in Jindabyne offers high-performance gyms, acrobatic centres and airbag training for ski and snowboarders.
Perisher and Thredbo Resorts have on-snow training bases.
Buller Air Zone located at Mt Buller, offering trampolines and airbags for aerial training.
AIS European Training Centre (Italy) located near Milan serves as a vital base for athletes during the European season.

Australia is very serious about their winter sports’ success.

Australian Currency

Australia transitioned to the metric system primarily between 1970 and 1988, with the main phase-in period occurring from 1971 to 1976.
However in February 1966, we changed our currency from pounds shillings and pence (£.s.d) to dollars and cents. 

A big publicity plan was instigated

That was sixty years ago!

Time flies.

£A1 became $A2.
That meant who whole lot of new notes and coins.

Below are the latest.

A two-year period was established, during which both decimal currency and the old currency were legal tender.

Despite the planned two-year transition, the new currency was adopted rapidly, with roughly 85% of the old money removed from circulation within a few months.

Eventually the dollar and two dollar notes were replaced by coins in 1984 and 1988 respectively.The one and two cent coins were done away with in 1992.

Australia was the first country to introduce polymer (BOPP plastic) banknotes,

The first note was released in 1988 and a full transition completed by 1996. 

Developed with the CSIRO, the national Australian research agency, these notes are durable, recyclable, and secure, featuring clear windows and advanced counterfeiting protections. 

They last significantly longer than paper money, making them cost-effective.

Over 45 countries now use polymer for some or all of their currency, including Canada, the UK, Singapore, New Zealand, Romania, Philippines, and Vietnam, due to the increased security and durability.

The Australian Magpie

The Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) is a black and white passerine bird native to Australia and southern New Guinea.
There are nine recognised subspecies.
G. tibicen tibicen is a large subspecies found in southeastern Queensland, through eastern New South Wales to almost to the Victorian border.
It is coastal or near-coastal and is restricted to east of the Great Dividing Range.

That’s the one we have here.

The adult magpie is a fairly big bird ranging from 37 to 43 cm (14.5 to 17 in) in length, with black and white plumage, gold brown eyes and a solid wedge-shaped bluish-white and black bill. 

The male and female are similar in appearance, but can be distinguished by differences in back markings.
The male has pure white feathers on the back of the head where the female has white blending to grey feathers. With its long legs, the magpie walks rather than waddles or hops and spends much time on the ground.

It is a very accomplished songbird having an array of complex vocalisations as well as the ability to mimic  various sounds.
We get serenaded from morning to dusk on most days except when it’s really hot and they retire to the shade of the trees.
It eats both animal and vegetable matter with the bulk of its varied diet made up of invertebrates.
They frequent our composting vegetative matter on our garden and follow me around while I’m mowing picking up the disturbed insects.

Our guy

It is generally sedentary and territorial throughout its range.
Common and widespread, it has adapted well to human habitation and is a familiar bird of parks, gardens and farmland in Australia. 

This species is commonly fed by households around Australia, but in spring and occasionally in autumn a small minority of breeding magpies, almost always males, become aggressive swooping and attacking those who approach their nests.

Research has shown that magpies can recognise at least 100 different people and may be less likely to swoop individuals they have befriended.

We have never been swooped.We consider our small flock of around six to eight birds to be part of the family now.

Australia Day 2026

I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons,

I love her jewel-sea,

Her beauty and her terror -

  The wide brown land for me!

                                                                     -Dorothea Mackellar

The day celebrates the formation of modern Australia when the British landed in what is known now as Sydney Harbour to establish a penal colony in 1788.
It’s a day of some controversy with aboriginal people calling it Invasion Day.
They had been here at least 40,000 maybe 60,000 years.
This somewhat divides the country and there’s always a discussion about alternative dates.
We don’t participate in any related activities in deference.
We are just happy to live in a country far removed from all the crap going on elsewhere in the world especially in North America, Europe and the Middle East.

Prosecco

We like Prosecco rather than Champagne or other sparkling white wines when it comes to bubbles.
It’s not only the price difference that is attractive but the light dryness with just a hint of fruit.
The wine is made from the Prosecco grape also known as Glera, a white variety of Vitis vinifera of Slovenian and Italian origin, possibly from the traditionally Slovenian-populated village of Prosecco on the Slovenia-Italy border, now in Italy.

The bubbles are produced by use of the Charmat Method not the more expensive Méthode Champenoise or Méthode traditionnelle
The Charmat Method is a way of making sparkling wine where the secondary fermentation ie. creating the bubbles takes place in large, pressurised stainless-steel tanks instead of individual bottles.
It involves adding sugar and yeast to a base wine ie. a previously fermented wine, in a sealed tank, trapping the CO2 for effervescence, and then filtering and bottling under pressure.
This results in fresh, lively bubbles and prominent fruit flavours.
The wine is very popular in Australia and is made from locally grown Prosecco grapes.
The first commercial vineyard in Australia was planted in 1999 and its first vintage was produced in 2004. It is now grown across 20 Australian wine regions.

The Italians are not happy that our locally produced wine is called Prosecco. 

The UE renamed Prosecco to Glera in 2009 to make room for the protection of ‘Prosecco’ as the name of the Italian geographically protected wine as in the map above.

The change was supposed to reduce the ability of other producers (in Italy and overseas) to label sparkling wines made elsewhere as Prosecco by using the grape variety's name.

In 2013, the Australian wine industry successfully challenged an EU application to protect Prosecco as a GI in Australia, with Australian Deputy Registrar of Trademarks verifying that Prosecco is a recognised grape variety in Australia.

The name change has been rejected by wine producers outside Italy in addition to Australia.

Having said that we only drink Italian Prosecco.
We have tried at least 10 from the DOGC and DOC areas of the region.
The one we have settled on is above.

2026! Happy New Year

Christmas 2025

Christmas greetings to all my readers.

Welcome to Summer / First Bushfire of the Season / Update 7/12/25

Late afternoon on 30th November we were advised that a bushfire had broken out in the state forest 3km to the north of us.

Winds at the time were gusting to 50km/hr from the north west which meant we were in the fire path.

The NSW Rural Fire Service put the fire at Advice Level meaning we should monitor the situation.

Within an hour the wind swung around to the south, accompanied by ten minutes of teasing light rain, pushing the fire away from us.

On 1st December, the first day of our summer, the Advice Level remained.

The fire had burnt out around 13ha overnight.

We heard a helicopter mid morning but assumed, as they were not ‘water bucketing’, they were  checking the fire via thermal camera.

At lunchtime the winds were once again gusting from the north west at again around 50km/hr.

However around 6pm the southerly change came in with reasonably heavy showers dropping 11mm over three hours.

We all breathed a bit easier and now wait hopefully, for the RFS all clear.*

There are two free camping grounds in the vicinity of the fire ignition point.

Whether someone’s fire got away there or not is just supposition.

But there has been a lot of rain over winter and spring so copious amounts of undergrowth has sprung up in the forests.

With hot, low humidity weather and gusting winds any carelessness with open fires is a recipe for a potential disaster.

Readers may have gleaned, we are a bit paranoid about bushfires around here, even the smaller ones.

Back in 2019 a small fire started west of us and burnt unchallenged for a week or so until adverse weather conditions turned it into a raging inferno, known as the Currowan Fire, eventually destroying 500,000 ha (1.25million acres ) of country and taking lives and property over 74 days.

Once bitten. Twice shy.

Update: 7th December 2025

*Our fire is finally off the list.

Others have not been so lucky.

Saturday 6th December was a brutal day. Temperatures in the high 30s, strong dry westerly winds and low humidity.

Total fire bans in many of the state’s districts.

Unfortunately there were some major fires.

One in the Woy Woy area of the central coast just north of Sydney destroyed homes.

More than 76 fires burnt across the state, 20 of them uncontained, this morning.