Balmoral (D25)

Today we went to Balmoral beach. This is one of the posh parts of Sydney, exclusive and rich. There's a fine beach which over looks the Sydney Heads, the opening point of Sydney Harbour or Port Jackson onto the Pacific Ocean. With a name like Balmoral it was bound to be posh. Interestingly it has a Chinaman's bay

The Aussies seem rather ambivalent about the monarchy. They had a referendum about ten years ago which asked a rather awkward and complicated question. Cynics suggested that it was drafted by a Monarchist deliberately to confuse. Anyway the upshot was that they decided for no change.

The view amongst my fellow travellers is that , while not being Monarchists, they don't feel strongly enough to upset the apple cart at the moment. Things will change when this present queen dies.

Australians are nevertheless proud of their country and are fiercely independent minded. They like to play their part on the world stage. Many are also genuinely concerned about the future, and in particular the influence and power of China. They are allies with America and support them in Iraq and Afghanistan directly because of any future threat from China. I have referred earlier to many of their attitudes to the Chinese.

Australia is also a growing nation. People who come to Australia may decide to become residents, or after a while to become naturalised. In the later case they have to go through a ceremony declaring allegiance to their new country etc. They can still hold dual nationality and passports. So I understand.

Earlier in the day we'd been round Balmain again on foot. We went to Elkington Park and from there were able to see Cockatoo Island (Warianbah) which we had kayaked around the previous day. In the harbour is also Gong-Ul (Spectacle Island) and Mullinagal (Snapper Island). From this park we can also see the Iron Cave bridge, Birkenhead Point, Drummoyne and the City itself.

This area of Sydney was formally the home of many Aboriginal tribes. The Eora people were on these very foreshores, but also the Wanagal and Caddigal tribes further inland. Now there is little left of their presence. Aboriginals have been here for about 40,00 years. Some people are trying to say that they themselves drove out a pygmy people in a brutal manor before they settled here. There is little evidence that this happened and I get the impression it is the sort of story that is all too convenient for some people. It excuses, for them, some of the atrocities perpetrated towards the Aboriginal. We shall never know the truth I guess. Whatever your prespective it is difficult not to escape the feeling that a people, it's culture and wisdom is being destroyed. And it's sad.

Sea, sand and sharks (D24)

Predictably the Emissions Trading Scheme has been voted down. It seems this is no bad thing after all. It was a weak compromise scheme. The Prime Minister will nevertheless put the bill to the Senate again in the next session, hoping that mature minds will come round to it, and that the people will blame the opposition for forcing a general election. The Greens, whose support is needed will not sign up to the ETS in it's current form anyway. They, and many, want a more radical proposal.

That was the news on a bright, wind free morning. A perfect day for another go at kayaking. This time we will venture through the Iron Cove Bridge and on to Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour itself on the Parramatta river. It is a former imperial prison, and was a shipyard until just 25 years ago.

In 2005 the island was re-opened to the public for the 'Cockatoo Island Festival'. It is being renovated as a site of historical interest, and there's a campsite there as well. Rob has a friend whose great great grandfather was imprisoned here and also knows of someone who spent 50 years there for a murder he probably didn't commit. For me there were some splendid views of Sydney which you wouldn't otherwise get.

It seems that wind and rain are not the only hazards faced by kayakers in Sydney harbour. Rob tells me that sharks only rarely come into the harbour, and then only when hungry. Hardly ever. He is a card. You can't tell they're there until suddenly they jump out at you. They are just dark shadows. Yes OK I got the picture.

Then, right on cue, an enormous flying fish jumped out of the water right over the front of me. I shouldn't publish what I said, as a warm feeling spread down my legs. My paddle technique improved markedly after that. He's a laugh old Rob, isn't he?

The other hazard is, of course, other boats. Some seem to delight in not seeing you until the last minute. The big ones couldn't do much about it anyway, but leave you bobbling about in their wake and hoping the sharks have been fed. Brilliant.

In the afternoon it's off to Bondi. Yeah. We parked at Clovely beach and took the coast walk to Bondi. We past Tamarama (find out what it means yourself) and Bronte beach. At Bondi, and it is fabulous, we walked along the beach watching the surfers waiting, falling over and sometimes gliding gracefully with the wave. Then a beer at the iceberg club overlooking the whole scene. I can't tell you how much the beer cost as I'd left my money in my other shorts. I'm guessing it was at the high end of the range. Another marvelous day.

Mrs Butler and Anita (D23)

We got the 504 bus to Circular Quay. The roads are busy into town. The people of Sydney have rejected a congestion charge for similar reasons to us in Manchester. These include having an inadequate public transport system. Surprisingly they don't have an underground metro service, unlike most modern European cities. Anyway we got there and walked to the New South Wales art gallery. Here is an exhibition of Aboriginal art. The paintings are on tree bark and of animal spirits and strange shapes. I'm not allowed to take photos as the artists feel it would offend those spirits. Of course I comply.

We have lunch in the cafe overlooking Wooloomooloo. I've done a separate blog of Wooloomooloo. Over lunch Jocelyne reminds me that she came to live with us for a while in Beau Bassin. Her parents, Matant & Guidou and the family had moved to Mahebourg. She was at Queen Elizabeth College (for girls) in Beau Bassin. Although only about 20 miles away, commuting was out of the question. It took all day to travel so far in Mauritius. Mum taught at the college. On the way I and later my brother would be dropped off at the Kindergarten. This was run my a Mrs Butler. I'd forgotten her name, but I do remember her being a lovely lady who told us interesting stories and kept us amused until we were collected again.

So Jocelyne knows a little about our family from when I was about four or five years old. Interesting. Anita, my nanny and the household's Indian servant was ever present. She would speak creole and so my father would have to translate to my mother. One story Jocelyne reminded me of was when some of my older cousins played a practical joke on him. They hid my dad's car. It was an old Wolseley with flick up indicators. He was very proud of it. Remember he'd be about thirty at the time. Very funny I'm sure, only dad didn't quite see the funny side. Several stories emerged which we shall keep to ourselves. So excited was Jos about telling these tales that her coffee went flying into her lap. Oh dear.

When we'd finished we went on to the Botanic Gardens. There is an extraordinary variety of trees and shrubs here. It is also the home for 22,000 fruit bats which are destroying he precious plant life. The Aussie is much angst about what to do about them. They're so cute. I say cull them, the fruit bat that is.

One of the most rare trees in the garden is the Wollemi Pine. It was discovered only as recently as 1994, in a remote series of narrow, steep-sided sandstone gorges of the Wollemi National Park, 150 kilometres north-west of Sydney. It is the sole living species of the genus Wollemia. It is called the fossil tree since the only other relatives are fossils that date from approximately 2 million years ago.

So two contrasting examples. One species colonising, adapting, proliferating and destroying everything else. Another not adapting, pushed to remote areas and dying out.

Our return journey was on the Port Jackson ferry which connects Drummoyne to Circular Quay. There is a great view of the different suburbs from this aspect. Public transports not so bad in Sydney after all.

Wooloomooloo

Wooloomooloo is a must go place for the tourist, and I love it. We went to it as part of our perambulation yesterday. It was made famous by the Monty Python sketches based on a fictitious Aussie University and people called Bruce. In real life Woolloomooloo was historically a poorer working class district of Sydney. This has changed only recently with recent gentrification of the inner city areas of Sydney. The redevelopment of the waterfront, particularly the construction of the housing development on the Finger Wharf, is stunning.

I turn to my guide for some more information. The origin of the name Woolloomooloo uncertain. It may be from an Aboriginal word 'Wallamullah' meaning either place of plenty or 'Wallabahmullah' meaning a young black kangaroo, or even from the word 'Wala-mala' meaning an Aboriginal burial ground. It has also been suggested that the name means field of blood, due to the alleged Aboriginal tribal fights that took place in the area, or that it is from the pronunciation by Aborigines of windmill, from the one that existed on Darlinghurst ridge until the 1850s.

Woolloomooloo is home to the Finger Wharf building. It was built between 1911 and 1915 and became the largest wooden structure in the world. Commerce was dominated by shipping at the wharf and by sailors & officers from the nearby Garden Island base of the Royal Australian Navy.However, by the 1980s the wharf lay derelict and empty and in 1987, the state government decided to demolish the Wharf. A new complex was approved to replace the wharf in Woolloomooloo Bay, but when demolition work was due to begin in January 1991, locals blocked entrance to the site. The Unions put a stop to it by imposing a Green ban which stopped demolition crews from undertaking work. Paul Keating, the then Prime Minister also lent his weight to the conservation of this impressive building. In the mid 1990s the wharf was renovated into a hotel, restaurant and apartment complex. The actor, Russell Crowe, lives in a $14 million penthouse in the wharf, so we are told. Another famous site is the Andrew "Boy" Charlton Pool, which sits on the western side of Woolloomooloo Bay, amongst the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Walking through it's streets we came across the Juanita Neilson community centre. Ms Nielsen was a campaigner against the indiscriminate development of the area. As a result she came up against the forces of organised crime. She disappeared on the 4th July 1975 and has never been seen since. The case has never been officially solved. Rumour has it that she is under the concrete of Sydney airport runway.

We passed Harry's Cafe de Wheels, the eating place for the stars. Celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Robert Mitchum and Marlene Dietrich have been there. There's even a picture of Rolf Harris stuck to the side of the hut. Harry "Tiger" Edwards opened the original caravan cafe, named simply Harry's, in 1938. It closed during World War II while he was in service, then re-opened at the end in 1945.

Harry's specialises in pies and mushy peas. During the 1970s Harry's introduced hot dogs, mostly to appease the American sailors. We'd had lunch, but the pie and peas looked gooood.

Kayak Schmiak (D22)

The sky was clear and Iron Cove was calm. A day for Kayaking for sure. So off we went, Rob and me. Iron bay is an extension of Darling Harbour, and in fact if you go under the Iron Cove bridge that's where you end up. In the middle of the bay is Rodd Island pictured left. We kayaked across the bay and between the moored boats.

We weren't to know the wind would get up and the rain would come down. Still, as a very amateur kayaker I think I did pretty well. Warm rain is fine. Wind is not. I managed to stay upright, just. I got completely soaked of course, but there you go. At the end of our time we had a race back to shore. You'd have thought Rob might have at least pretended to be out of breath. It was great fun, and if I'm good we might go up the Parramatta river later in the week, weather permitting.

The Parramatta River is the main tributary of Port Jackson, along with the smaller Lane Cove and Duck Rivers. Port Jackson is the place discovered by Captain Cook and named after Sir George Jackson, one of the Lord Commissioners of the British Admiralty, and Judge Advocate of the Fleet at the time. Sydney harbour is one of it's bays. The river begins at the confluence of Toongabbie Creek and Darling Mills Creek west of Parramatta city and flows into Port Jackson, still about 21 km from the ocean. It is tidal all the way to Parramatta, approximately 30 km from Sydney. It'll take all day and I doubt we'll get very far, but it'll be fun.

The Darug Aboriginal people called the area Baramada or Burramatta ('Parramatta') which means "the place where the eels lie down". The waters are rich in nutrients created by the saltwater of Port Jackson meeting the freshwater of the Parramatta River.

After kayaking we went off to Abbotsford Wharf. It is a peninsular jutting into the Parramatta river. From here harbour ferries join various stops along Port Jackson. People commute to Sydney this way.

Talking of Abbotts, at the end of a turbulent few days in Aussie politics, the new Liberal Party leader, Tony Abbott is ready and prepared to lead the Coalition to victory at the next federal election, according to former prime minister John Howard today. The Coalition is a right wing affair between the Liberal Party and the (rural) National Party. In a shock result this morning, declares ABC news, Mr Abbott wrestled the leadership from Malcolm Turnbull by just one vote and promptly announced the Coalition would oppose the Government's emissions trading scheme (ETS).

If the ETS doesn't go through, it may trigger a 'double dissolution' and a general election for both the Senate and the House of Representatives. No-one wants that. Mr Abbott has fundamentalist Christian views, anti-abortion, anti-stemcell research and is vociferously against letting in more scrounging refugees. He is likely to send his party further to the right. Sounds like a nutter to me, but he's popular in red-neck country. An election now is likely to be a close fought thing. The ETS is going to be a key issue and already the right wing press, like Murdoch's Daily Telegraph, is frightening people off by saying it will cost each household over $2,000 each year. I reckon you can save at least that by using energy better, eating less beef, driving less, and more recycling. They are swimming against the tide of public opinion here, 66% being in favour of the ETS.

Come to think of it, I wonder if paddling down the Parramatta river after high tide might be a better idea. I wouldn't want ot be left higher up the river without a paddle.

Afghan cameleers

I thought you might be interested in this unexpected little bit of Aussie history. Afghan camel drivers, arriving in the 1800s, were vital in the early exploration of inland Australia and in the establishment of service links. Their camels were able to cope with the harsh conditions of the Aussie interior. They were also among the first Muslims to settle in Australia.

One of the major projects involving Afghan cameleers was the development of the rail link between Port Augusta, Southern Australia, and Alice Springs. It became known as the Ghan railway (pictured right). The rail line was extended to Darwin in 2004. Cameleers played an equally important role in the development of the overland telegraph line between Adelaide and Darwin during 1870 and 1872, which eventually linked Australia to London via India.

Through these early exploits, a string of ‘Ghan’ towns were established along the railway. Many of these towns had at least one mosque, usually constructed from corrugated iron with a small minaret. However, the advent of motorised transport meant the end of an era for the cameleers. While some returned to their homelands, others settled in areas near Alice Springs and other parts of the Northern Territory. Many married local Indigenous people. Descendants of the Afghan cameleers have since played active roles in numerous Islamic communities in Australia.

Medicare (D21)

Yesterday I went to see Newtown. A busy working class suburb. Reminds me of Longsight, Manchester, famously named in an Oasis song. But without Asian people. It is very white. There is a bustling main street with lots of little shops on both sides. There is also the University Teaching Hospital and the Heart Research Institute. A schooner costs $6.

I'm going to try to tell you about the Aussie health service, so if you're not interested move down to the end of the page. Aussies have a National Health Service called Medicare. They are proud of it and it is paid for from general taxation. The Medicare levy is 1.5% of taxable income. It is free at the point of need. Well, not quite.

The Medicare system will pay for a lot of things at a government set tariff price. This includes visits to the GP, cost of drugs, and referrals to specialists. Doctors, both GPs and Specialists can charge the government tariff or they can charge more if they like. The patient pays the doctor, then fills out a form and gets reimbursement at the Government tariff price. So any extra comes out of their pocket. There are Medicare centres in various places where people can cue up to get their reimbursements. Patients will judge if they want to go to a doctor that only charges tariff price (what's called 'bulk billing') or go to another doctor who charges more. The bigger your practice the more you can charge and the richer you get. Meanwhile those who can't afford it go to 'bulk billing' only doctors.

Some individuals and families on incomes above the Medicare levy surcharge (MLS) thresholds who do not have private patient hospital cover may have to pay the Medicare levy surcharge. This surcharge is in addition to the Medicare levy and is at the rate of 1% of your taxable income (including your total reportable fringe benefits). With me so far?

So you pay the surcharge if you are a single person with no dependants and a taxable income for MLS purposes greater than $70,000 (35,000 pounds); or a member of a family and the combined taxable income for MLS purposes was above the relevant family surcharge threshold shown in the family surcharge threshold table and you do not have private patient hospital cover. Yeah?

In the last year you do not have to pay MLS if you were in an exemption category for the whole of 2008–09 and you did not have any dependants or, if you had dependants, they were also all in an exemption category and/or they all had private patient hospital cover for the whole of 2008–09. Obviously.

You do not have to pay MLS if you had private patient hospital cover for the whole of 2008–09 and you did not have any dependants or, if you had dependants, they also all had private patient hospital cover for the whole of 2008–09 and/or they were all in an exemption category. Got it?

You do not have to pay MLS for the full year if you had private patient health cover for part of the year and:
you and your dependants, if any, were not in an exemption category at any time during 2008–09, and your taxable income or combined taxable income for MLS purposes was above the relevant threshold. However, you must pay MLS for the number of days you or any of your dependants did not have private patient hospital cover.

So many people take out extra insurance to cover extra costs if necessary and avoid the MLS.

Simple.

Doctors in big towns do alright for themselves, and so do accountants.

From the patient's point of view it seems much like the UK system. There is more freedom to pick and choose who you see, but you would usually pick a GP and stick with them. The waiting times for surgery and outpatient appointments are longer. There is also a proliferation of what we'd call complementary medicine. Every main street has Chiropractors, Thai massage, podiatrists, sports physios, you name it, you can get it. I'm not sure how they are regulated. Many GP practices will have these attached. They are not covered by Medicare usually. The bureaucracy is a constant complaint, not surprisingly, and successive governments try to address it. nevertheless Aussies are proud of it and will defend it as fervently as we defend our health service. Anything but the American system.

Now here's something I learnt yesterday. Granpere was a male midwife on Rodrigues, an island close to Mauritius. It was here that Matant Marcelyn was born and, Jocelyne thinks, he and Granmere were converted to Adventicism. Need confirmation of this, but another piece in the picture.