Month: July 2012

THERE comes a time – like reaching the big six zero – when you should do something completely different. As a result, I am learning to sail. Not taking a dinghy around Lake Burley Griffin, but rather taking a 14-metre yacht from Brisbane to Port Douglas, north of Cairns – about 1800km — with my brother, Greg, and his son Timothy. Continue reading “Learning after 60 — the big sail”

IN THE holidays between school and university I had a job at a soft-drink factory in Beechworth, Victoria. On Day One I began the task of sorting used empty bottles – crown tops, screw tops, bottles with ceramic labels, bottles with paper labels, large bottles, small bottles, medium bottles and so on. Continue reading “Deposits on containers work”

A CASE decided in the Family Court last week has revealed a quirk in Australia’s native title law and highlights once again some of the difficulties in native title. One of the biggest objections to native title in Australia is that it ties up the land.

The theory goes that Indigenous people cannot deal with their land. Native title vests in groups of people or trusts who hold it on their behalf. Continue reading “Native title — benefit or burden?”

YOU CAN see it any day at Canberra Airport – a great contest between the owners who want to gouge as much as they can get away with from anyone coming near the place and those determined not to pay one cent more than they absolutely must. Continue reading “Airport gouging and shock jocks”