Today is Australia Day. Despite the heavy rain this morning I went down to the harbour to see some of the events. The highlight of the day (for the second year in a row) was the display by the Australian Defence Forces.
Category Archives: Australia
Sydney Symphony in the Domain 2012
Last night I went to Symphony in the Domain with a group of friends from uni.
The quality of the concert was exceptional. There were a number of violin and saxophone solos and the orchestra overall sounded superb.
Most of the music performed was not very well known. But the rendition of The Blue Danube Waltz was brilliant, and the traditional final piece Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture rounded out a very good evening.
Below is a video of the last three minutes of the 1812 Overture with the full fireworks and cannon display.
A day at Garie Beach, Royal National Park
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I spent today with mates at Garie Beach. It was a stunning day and we spent it swimming, chatting, eating, and hill climbing.
Happy 2012 – Fireworks from Barangaroo, Sydney
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I spent New Year’s Eve with a group of friends at Barangaroo on Sydney Harbour. As we waited for midnight we ate, chatted, danced, and had a great time ending one year and bringing in the next.
The video below shows the countdown to midnight, and still photos show the rest of the evening.
Perth to Geraldton Roadtrip
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While we were in Perth we spent two days travelling on a quick two day road trip up the coast to Geraldton.
On the trip up we stuck to the coast and drove up Indian Ocean Drive, and we returned via Highway 1.
As the photos below show we stopped at many cool and random places and had a great time.
Photos: A week in Perth
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Last week I was in Perth for the 24th Australasian Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence
You can download the paper and presentation I presented from my uni homepage.
Below are photos from around Perth that were taken on the day I arrived and during the evenings.
Overall, Perth is a nice city to visit. Fremantle, in particular, is particularly beautiful. The city feels like a cross between Wanganui and Christchurch, and it was a lot quieter than Sydney.
#gobacksbs What now? How can we go from passive watchers to active change makers?
Over the past three evenings SBS have aired Go Back To Where You Came From – their Amazing Race meets Survivor reality TV documentary on refugees. It is compelling and emotional watching and the interactive feedback via Twitter and Facebook has seen it get decent media coverage.
Now that the show has concluded the question that lingers is “What now? How can we go from passive watchers to active change makers?” As of this morning smh.com.au is reporting that the government is continuing to push on with negotiations to send asylum seekers to Malaysia for “processing”.
The Malaysian solution is the first thing that needs to be stopped. Even refugee advocates believe Nauru is a better alternative than Malaysia. As #gobacksbs showed Malaysia is home to 100,000 refugees who live in extreme poverty and are at risk of beatings just because they are refugees. UNICEF Australia has a letter writing campaign in force to object to the Malaysia solution, it may only be a symbolic action to get involved but please do.
In the long term Australia needs to close its detention centres and take a much more humane approach to dealing with refugees. Richard Ackland makes these comments in another smh.com.au article:
“…people who were treated humanely and in non-detention environments were more likely to be compliant with authorities, including those facing return to their country of origin. Rates of absconding were also very low – about 1 per cent.
We’re talking about countries where asylum seekers are processed in the community, including open reception centres. This is the norm in many European countries, as well as South Africa and New Zealand.
In Australia people held in detention deteriorate quite quickly, they develop grievances and are less able to engage with the authorities. There are the inevitable pitched battles and rarely are those facing removal compliant.”
Unfortunately the only way we are going to see change in Australia is through political pressure. I hope that some back-bench Labor MPs saw #gobacksbs last night and will put internal pressure on the Labor party to stop pandering to racists. I also hope that in the wake of the grass roots action will increase. Imagine seeing a day of action for refugees like we saw for the carbon tax a few weeks back.
Most importantly it is time for those 600,000 viewers of #gobacksbs last night to find their voice and speak up. Start local – talk to friends and family about the refugee crises and the myth of “illegal immigrants”. Send letters to MPs and media outlets voicing your opposition to mandatory detention and let them know there is a better way. Finally, if you want to take direction action, get involved with UNICEF, World Vision, and other NGOs. The only way change can be made is through people power.
Sydney Domestic Security Meltdown – The Day Paranoia Reigned
About 3.30pm yesterday one of the security scanners at Sydney’s Domestic Terminal lost power resulting in 16 passengers passing through security without being correctly screened. Out of the many thousands of passengers who pass through Sydney Domestic every day this is a very minor problem.
However, the paranoia that has strangled the airline industry since the September 11 attacks saw what was a minor security machine malfunction turn into a farce that affected flights and travellers across Australia. All passengers in the terminal, and on flights that were still boarding at Sydney Domestic were forced to leave the air-side area of the terminal and planes landing at the airport were made to queue for hours on the tarmac until every passenger was re-screened.
In other words the failure to correctly screen 16 passengers resulted in thousands of people being stuffed about by overbearing and unnecessary security regulations which see public freedom curtailed in the name of fighting an invisible and mostly physiological enemy.
This paranoia and curtailing of public freedom has sees us live in a society where you are many times more likely to be killed in a plane accident than a terrorist attack. Yet in the United States $8.1 billion is spent on the TSA to enforce compulsory child molestation air-line security while only $77 million is spent on investigating airline accidents.
It is all a bit ridiculous isn’t it? Which reminds me of this infographic:
My hope is one day we will wake to the realisation that the biggest threat to our safety and freedom is not a few men who live in dusty caves in the middle-east but instead our own governments curtailing our freedoms in a manner akin to that of Orwell’s 1984.
Pray for Australia
As I write this tonight the State of Queensland and parts of northern New South Wales are facing some of the worst flooding in almost 40 years. Currently the death toll stands at 9 and there are at least 66 people missing, upwards of 50,000 people from around 100 towns have been evacuated and around 200,000 people in total have been evacuated. An area the size of Germany and France combined, or 3-4 times the size of New Zealand is affected. In the coming days it is expected that more people will be affected, more towns flooded, and the death toll to rise.
There are many dramatic photos, stories and videos being played out in the media of the current crises in Queensland. And while it is fascinating to get caught up in the media frenzy can it also be asked of you to take time out to pray for those caught up the disaster that people will be found alive, that lives can be rebuilt, and that the levies and dams will hold.
$32 million has already been raised in donations towards flood relief, but much more is needed and if you can donate please do so here: http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html
Update: If you are in Brisbane the police need volunteers to help to urgently fill sandbags. There is more information here.
There is a song about Australia, written 20 years ago, called “The Great Southland” and some of the lyrics seem quite appropriate tonight.
This is the Great South-land
Of the Holy Spirit
A land of red dust plains
And summer rains
To this sunburnt land
We will see a flood
And to this Great South-land
His Spirit comes.
Best New Year’s Eve Ever
Embarrassing as it is, last night was the first time in two years I have been out on New Year’s Eve. However, if you live in Sydney you simply cannot miss the best fireworks display in the world.
Most of the good viewing spots for the fireworks are taken very early in the morning with some people camping out for over 24 hours to get a perfect spot. I am too lazy and not silly enough to try this so I figured I would find somewhere where I could be guaranteed a great view without a massive wait. That spot was on the headland at Barangaroo which is to the west of the Harbour Bridge. Entry to Barangaroo cost $5 but it was the best five dollars I have ever spent, especially as others were spending five hundred dollars to view the fireworks from the Opera House which is about the same distance from the Bridge.
Gates to Barangaroo opened at 6pm and we joined the queue at 5.30pm. Upon entry people were split into two groups – those with bags and those without. To get the best view our group gave all our bags to a few people, took the rugs out of them and we through the smaller queue for those with no bags to get a good spot set up. The plan was brilliant and we ended up against the safety barrier with an unimpeded view of the harbour bridge and inner harbour.
Fireworks over the harbour
One of the great things about going to a managed site was that speakers were set up broadcasting the official soundtrack to the evening. The soundtrack was anything but the expected dry and boring music. Instead it was remixed versions of hits from the 80s, 90s, 00s that had people dancing in both the licensed and non-licensed areas of the site. Living on a Prayer, would fade into Blink 182 which would be followed by The Offspring to be followed by Keshia.
The 9pm family fireworks were enough to convince me that at midnight we would be in for a good show. The fireworks were somewhat timed to a mixture of classical and pop music – including Justin Bieber. The fireworks were coming off buildings in the city, the bridge, and barges in multiple places in the harbour so everywhere you looked something was happening. Believe me photos simply cannot show how amazing it is.
After the 9pm fireworks a lot of people left. Mostly families, but I was somewhat surprised by the number because of having to pay to get in and having one of the best spots I expected most to stay. The almost three hour wait between 9 and midnight became long and boring at times. There was a parade of boats on the harbour but there was not enough happening to keep you entertained. At around 11.15pm lots of people started to push forward, and at one point we almost lost out spot against the guard rail as people just pushed in front while we were sitting down. Lucky for us they moved after we gave them a dirty look.
Crowd in George Street after fireworks
The midnight fireworks were different to what I expected. What you see on TV (and it lots of my photos) is the Harbour Bridge being the centre-point of all the fireworks. In reality the Harbour Bridge is only one part of the show. More fireworks were launched off barges than the Bridge. But like the 9pm fireworks everywhere you looked there was things exploding. The attitude of people was really good, with people ducking so other could take photos over their heads and the like. In total there was 12 minutes of fireworks but because of how awesome it was it only felt like 3 or 4.
Once the fireworks were finished we started the long walk back to Hyde Park for buses. The media was reporting there was 1.5 million people in town but you didn’t really notice it until you got to George Street. George Street was at a packed and essentially stopped. It took close to an hour to get through to Hyde Park from there. After getting friends onto buses I walked home arriving at 1.30am.
Eight friends, best fireworks on earth, music, dancing, fun. Best New Year’s Eve Ever.
