Ask the Australian

[user 139760]

Are there still abhoriginal people living in the country like we've seen in the movies, spears and all,or is it just a stereotype from movies?
Also, are there parts of Australia still un-owned where you can like, walk to and build a house on and call it home?

 

[Minus]

 

[Pathfinder]

^^ or there is this version which got me last week while I was on my phone.  ( shudder....)

[youtube]fd_2YitOL_4[/youtube]

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Question: If I'm trying Vegemite this week......what is the best way to eat it?

 

[TheRealCallie]

Stay away from the vegemite!!!!!!!!!!!!! :club:

 

[TheLoadedDog]

Are there still abhoriginal people living in the country like we've seen in the movies, spears and all,or is it just a stereotype from movies?
Also, are there parts of Australia still un-owned where you can like, walk to and build a house on and call it home?

There are Aboriginal people who do live traditional lifestyles, just as there are some in the cities.   Mostly, it is halfway though, where there are remote Aboriginal settlements where people might live (so there'll be houses, a shop, etc), or they often stay on the edges of the big towns like Alice Springs.  It's a very complex culture (world's oldest).  Not that it's one culture though - there are hundreds of language and kinship groups.

There is no unowned land in Australia.  If it's not privately owned or National Park, it is "Crown Land" and belongs to the government.  The closest you can come to free land is some remote towns that nobody wants to live in, and somebody has had their house forcibly sold for failure to pay rates (dunno what you call them in Canada - municipal fees for rubbish collection, street maintenance, etc).  The council will give you the land but you have to sign an agreement saying you'll pay the rates each year.

 

[TheLoadedDog]

Question:   If I'm trying Vegemite this week......what is the best way to eat it?

For a beginner, I would say spread it thinly on hot buttered toast.  Thinly enough you can see the butter through it.  If you like it, you can increase the amount.  It is nice with melted cheese too.

A lot of people overseas have this strange fascination with Vegemite.  I wouldn't like it either if I ate a spoonful of the stuff.  It is fairly strongly flavoured, but not that weird.  Just think salty, vaguely beefy, what the Japanese call "umami" (savoury).  Approach it with an open mind.  Youtube is full of videos of Americans eating it and making theatrical gagging faces - ignore those.  We actually smear it on rusks for teething babies - start 'em young.

I guess an analogy is hot English mustard - lovely when smeared on something, but you wouldn't eat a spoonful of it.

 

[TheLoadedDog]

Do magpies really attack people in spring? Has anyone been hospitalised due to an attack?

A magpie intimidated me into giving up my sandwich while I was in a park so I feel like this might be true

Sorry Amelia, I missed this one.

Yes, the little bastards DO attack is spring when they are nesting.  They tend to swoop from behind, and if you are lucky, you'll just feel their feet drag through your hair.   I don't know of any figures for hospitalisation, but I would guess it has happened.

Defence techniques:
1. Walk via a different route (you don't look very stupid)
2.  Walk forwards towards their tree, sideways past it, and backwards away from it, maintaining eye contact (you will loook quite stupid)
3.  Get a four litre ice cream container (umm... an empty one), paint big eyes on it, and wear it on your head, with the eyes facing backwards (you will look extremely stupid)

 

[Bubblebeam]

Do magpies really attack people in spring? Has anyone been hospitalised due to an attack?

A magpie intimidated me into giving up my sandwich while I was in a park so I feel like this might be true

Sorry Amelia, I missed this one.

Yes, the little bastards DO attack is spring when they are nesting.  They tend to swoop from behind, and if you are lucky, you'll just feel their feet drag through your hair.   I don't know of any figures for hospitalisation, but I would guess it has happened.

Defence techniques:
1. Walk via a different route (you don't look very stupid)
2.  Walk forwards towards their tree, sideways past it, and backwards away from it, maintaining eye contact (you will loook quite stupid)
3.  Get a four litre ice cream container (umm... an empty one), paint big eyes on it, and wear it on your head, with the eyes facing backwards (you will look extremely stupid)

When we lived in Mackay, the magpies there would actually hang around outside the windows of the rooms we were in making a racket, as if just to be a pain in the arse. It was making us all so irritable that we tried out this flat bird shaped thing with a hawk pattern on it, from eBay. It worked like a dream. Suddenly the neighbourhood became silent.

Here though, we've befriended the magpies by feeding them. Some of them will hop right up to us and even hand feed. No swooping problems whatsoever with these ones. I get the impression they are actually very smart animals, just protective. 

Now let's talk about the wedge tail eagle. Holy cow, we passed two of those things eating roadkill once. Came within feet of them in the car and they did not even flinch. Hubby said if it weren't for the car they'd have torn us limb from limb. Not sure if he was exaggerating but they certainly don't look like something to mess with.

 

[TheLoadedDog]

Heard about the feeding the magpies thing. Think I was too lazy to put the effort in, and too cowardly to overcome the first few days.

I wouldn't mess with a wedge tail either. Incredibly beautiful though. Not something you exactly see in Sydney...

 

[Bubblebeam]

Their favourite food, at least these ones, seem to be plain crackers or rolled oats. We started by watching them at a short distance, and they gradually grew trust in us. After a while even Ibis birds were visiting the yard. Don't expect much from them in terms of trust though, lol.

 

[Seahorse]

Is NEighbours still on tv?

 

[TheLoadedDog]

Is NEighbours still on tv?

I think it might be.  I don't watch TV.    If you want to know about Neighbours, just ask anybody in England.  It used to be a thing where Australians would get random phone calls from British teenagers asking for the latest plot developments (UK was a few months behind).  This was pre-internet days, so I don't think it happens now.  I always wanted to receive one, just to say that Summer Bay had had a chemical attack and everybody was dead....


Oops. Wrong Soap. Summer Bay was that other equally awful one. Neighbours was in Melbourne (everybody IS dead in Melbourne. I kid I kid. I love you guys).

 

[Seahorse]

I was a teen in the UK in the 80s and moved to Florida. Omg I missed Neighbours

 

[TheLoadedDog]

Funny part was, it made its debut in the 80s on Network 10. They dumped it after a few episodes, and the 7 Network bought the rights, and squeezed three decades of mondo profit out of it. So somewhere, there is a former Network 10 executive flipping burgers.

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And Kylie Minogue made her millions as a gay icon. Can't believe she's 50-something now. She was a squeaky-voiced teen we used to call the "singing budgie".

 

[Seahorse]

I also was surprised to read how expensive it is to live in Australia. I read that one of the most expensive commodities is a bunch of roses. Random I know

 

[TheLoadedDog]

It's insane expensive. Give me NZ or Canada. Australia needs a general strike.

 

[Seahorse]

Thanks for the thread of engaging in pleasant chit chat, although not common on here for some reason.

 

[TheRealCallie]

How do you feel about this?

[youtube]XltvwqBZIPc[/youtube]

 

[Seahorse]

Ill check back in a week or 2 when there might be a new thread and hopefully the bossy people haven't ran the new people out of town

 

[TheLoadedDog]

How do you feel about this?

[youtube]XltvwqBZIPc[/youtube]

It's kinda sorta maybe true...  for a tiny per cent of the population.   It would like me walking up to a person in New York City and saying,  "HOWDY PARDNER!"

99% of Australian life is car commuting, metro transit, mowing lawns, paying bills, taking kids to Saturday soccer etc.