The Daily Telegraph LOSES appeal against $2.9MILLION Geoffrey Rush defamation claim

Three judges have dismissed an appeal by Nationwide News against a finding it defamed Geoffrey Rush and against the awarding of $2.9 million in damages.

Australia could give safe haven to Hong Kong residents amid crackdown on protesters

Australia is considering offering safe haven to Hong Kong residents to come to the country after controversial national security laws imposed by China came into effect.

Oh yes and who is going to pay for that expense?

Anyone would think Australia has no limit to the expenses that this would bring!

Aboriginal stone tools dating back 8,500 years discovered off the coast of Western Australia mark out the sites of two ancient settlements submerged underwater since the last ice age

Divers found the two underwater sites through a series of surveys in the Dampier Archipelago. The sites may provide insight into Aboriginal life when the seabed was dry land, researchers hope. Divers mapped 269 artefacts, including tools and grinding stones, at Cape Bruguieres in shallow water around 7.8ft (2.4 metres) below modern sea level. Radiocarbon dating and analysis of sea-level changes show the site is at least 7,000 years old, the researchers say.

Celia, I just heard something in W.A about some guy called Jules Cosberg (not sure of the spelling) being appointed in a environmental protection role (not sure what it was) and he has photos of himself on social media after hunting in Africa, what the?

I cannot find anything on the internet to clarify what I heard on the late news.

WA Government confirms King Leopold Ranges to be renamed the Wunaamin-Miliwundi Ranges.

"Wunaamin-Miliwundi" is a combination of the Ngarinyin and Bunuba traditional names for those ranges," WA's Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-03/wa-king-leopold-ranges-renamed-wunaamin-miliwundi-ranges/12416254

Well this afternoon has been interesting, friends we have not see for months came around, part of the conversation was about their friends who has met up with Prospectors coming over from the East Coast.

I guess the warmer weather has attracted them, but nobody has tried to stop them from the Outback Highway.

Map of Australia that gets rid of Victoria goes viral as Melbourne goes into a second coronavirus lockdown - after an infected worker slips into Sydney 

The state has recorded 289 new cases since Monday and 36 north Melbourne suburbs have now been locked down to contain the outbreak.

Virgin Australia have been purchased by:-

   baincapital.com

DescriptionDescription  Bain Capital is an American private investment firm based in Boston, Massachusetts.

It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, public equity, impact investing, life sciences, and real estate. Bain Capital invests across a range of industry sectors and geographic regions.

WikipediaHeadquarters:

Boston, Massachusetts, United StatesAssets under management:

105 billion USD (2018)

Founded: 1984, Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Number of employees: 1,000+ (2018)

Subsidiaries: Kantar Group,

Bob's Discount Furniture,

MOREFounders: Mitt Romney, Bill Bain

Slim Dusty may have wanted to have “a beer with Duncan” — but down Rockingham way all they want to do is have a beer with Mark.

Joe Spagnolo

Premier Mark McGowan visits The Swinging Pig in Rockingham, meeting Keri O'Keefe, who celebrated her birthday and met the Premier.Source:The West Australian

Slim Dusty may have wanted to have “a beer with Duncan” — but down Rockingham way all they want to do is have a beer with Mark.

WA Labor Premier Mark McGowan today got a rock star reception at a his local pub — the Swinging Pig — as the beers flowed to toast the fact that life was pretty much back to normal in the west as even more COVID-19 restrictions were lifted as part of Phase 4.

And they toasted Mr McGowan — Australia’s most popular leader — on a day when COVID-19 cases in WA totalled just four, and there were no new cases of coronavirus recorded overnight.

“Thank you for easing the restrictions for my birthday,” Keri O’Keefe said, lifting her glass to a smiling Mark McGowan.

But there was another reason the beer was flowing at the Rockingham pub.

The beers were free — for anyone who was at the Swinging Pig just after noon when Mr McGowan arrived at the pub.

And that meant about 180 free lagers.

Anyone who was named Mark, also got a free feed — as long as someone else at the table ordered a meal too.

Rockingham man Mark Wilcock was chuffed that he didn’t have to pay for his feed — or beer.

“I think he (Mark McGowan) has done an excellent job,” he said.

“He’s been up against a lot of people who wanted the borders open — including the Prime Minister.”

When Mark McGowan came close, Mr Wilcock reminded the Premier they shared the same first name, telling him that Mark “meant warrior in Latin.”

Source:The West Australian

Mr McGowan said he didn’t know Mark meant warrior, telling Mr Wilcock his mother Mary had picked the name “because it was popular”.

“I was born in 1967, so it was a common name,” Mr McGowan said.

“I went to lots of different schools. One of the schools I went to had at least three Marks in my year.”

But they weren’t just locals who had come to see the popular Premier.

Kelly George had driven all the way from Kalgoorlie to see him.

“I was coming down to Perth anyway, so I thought I’d come to Rockingham when I heard he’d be here,” she said.

Source:The West Australian

“He has been steadfast in his leadership.”

Another group of 12 young men travelled from Perth to meet Mr McGowan — dressed as Mark McGowans.

“We were inspired by the professionalism of him, and how well he has organised the whole COVID situation,” Will White.

“We kept our fingers crossed he’d turn up and luckily he did.

Source:The West Australian

“We got a photo taken with him. “

Mr McGowan said he was humbled by the support.

“It is great of the Swinging Pig to do this,” he said.

“It’s great to meet so many Marks and people from Rockingham.

“It’s been a humbling experience being the Premier and I’ve been very lucky.”

Welcome to Coober Pedy, the world's strangest town

Back in 1915, a 14-year-old boy found a gemstone in the remote South Australian outback. From this discovery, Coober Pedy was born – a remote, fiercely hot place of a few thousand inhabitants today, sustained by its supply of opal and curious visitors. Here are a few of the things that make a visit to the town such a quirky experience.

Most of the world’s opal comes from this tiny outback town, but there are no big mining companies, because opal can’t be quantified through exploratory drilling – the only way to find it is to get digging. Budding miners simply turn up, obtain a land permit, peg a chunk of land and burrow.

Visitors who can’t afford to hire expensive tunnelling machinery can try their hand at noodling – the name given to the practice of digging through the piles of excavated earth which dot the landscape. Some still strike it lucky – one local told me how a neighbour had found a large chunk just hours after he started excavating his new dugout. “Before long, he’d excavated 22 rooms and found more than enough to cover the cost of his new home,” he said – but there are far fewer miners than there once were.

Coober Pedy (meaning “white fella’s hole in the ground”) was named by indigenous Australians baffled by the early settlers’ preference for subterranean living – something avoided by the superstitious Aboriginal population but embraced by miners, who liked the cooler, sheltered conditions.

Serendipitously, many of the early settlers were former soldiers who’d recently returned from the trenches of World War One and were experts in the art of excavation.

Most residents still live underground. Some dugouts are huge – I was shown around the home of handyman Rod Wells, who has an indoor pool and an underground beauty parlour used by his beautician wife.

There’s even an underground campsite (camp-underground.com.au; from AUS$16 per person), where visitors can turn up and pitch their tent in an abandoned mine.

Alternatively, there’s the Desert Cave Hotel (desertcave.com.au), where I stayed, which offers the darkest, quietest bedrooms I’ve ever known. High ceilings allay feelings of claustrophobia and the temperature hovers around 23C.

The town’s team, the Coober Pedy Saints, take part in the Far North Football League. The only problem? Their closest rivals are all in Roxby Downs, 280 miles away. The side plays a dozen games each year, racking up a bill of around AUS$15,000 on transport.

There’s a golf course in Coober Pedy, but because it’s usually too hot to swing a club, most games are played at night with glow-in-the-dark balls. Signs warn players to keep off the grass, which isn’t hard, because there isn’t any. It’s also unique for another reason – it’s the only course where members have reciprocal rights with The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews in Scotland. 

This is an extreme part of the world and nearby Lake Eyre is no different. It is the lowest natural point in Australia, and visitors to Coober Pedy can sign up for a flight over it. On the very rare occasions it’s full, wildlife flocks to its edges, but most of the time it’s a giant white salt pan. It covers more than 3,500 square miles, and the highly reflective salt crystals transform the landscape into a startlingly bright, white desert which stretches as far as the eye can see.

It’s also significant for another reason, as the place where the British racing driver Donald Campbell set the world land speed record of 403.1 miles per hour in 1964.

New South Wales-Victoria border will be closed for the first time in 100 years after Victoria recorded a death and 127 new coronavirus cases - its biggest total since the pandemic began.

The decision to shut the border at 12.01am on Wednesday was agreed by both premiers and the Prime Minister in a three-way phone call this morning after NSW Chief Medical Officer Dr Kerry Chant recommended the move at 8am.

The hard border will be enforced by New South Wales Police and the Australian Defence Force with roadblocks and drones to keep Victorian officers free to battle the state's outbreak. 

I have to totally agree with Pauline Hanson this time when she says ethnic people need to learn to speak English, I went to Croatian classes saturday mornings to learn to read and write Croatian!

I also went to the WA Education Department to help out [volunteer]  with overseas people that came into Australia and wished to learn to read and write and also practice their conversation!   

The 'Today Show' needs to grow up and make themselves useful also!