It is hard to believe that twenty-eight years have passed since the world lost Diana, Princess of Wales. Her death on 31st August 1997 shocked nations, silenced newsrooms, and left millions in mourning. To some, she was “the people’s princess”; to others, she was a mother, a campaigner, a truth-teller who dared to show both her courage and her frailties. To me, and to countless others, she was a rare figure who could cross boundaries of class, culture, and circumstance, touching hearts in places where compassion was seldom seen.
For me, it takes me back in time to a day when a group of hardened criminals sat me down and held my hand in united grief.
Read more: Diana, 28 Years On: A Princess of Light, A Legacy of Division
Few figures divide Australians as sharply as Ned Kelly. To some, he is a larrikin folk hero, a defiant battler against a corrupt system. To others, he was a murderer and thief who terrorised the countryside. His last stand at Glenrowan in 1880, clad in homemade iron armour, cemented his place in folklore.
Yet this month, echoes of Kelly’s story resound in Victoria’s alpine region. A massive police manhunt is underway for Dezi Freeman, a 56-year-old man accused of shooting dead two officers in Porepunkah. Like Kelly before him, Freeman has fled into the rugged bushland of north-east Victoria, evading hundreds of police in terrain that offers both sanctuary and danger.
The parallels are hard to ignore. Both stories centre on defiance, armed confrontation, and the challenge of pursuing fugitives in the High Country. But the differences – in context, ideology, and community support - are equally striking.
Read more: Outlaws in the High Country: From Ned Kelly to Dezi Freeman
Scurry through the dusty streets of our part of the bush, and you’ll catch a whiff of magic - golden dust, tiny shamrocks, and the laughter of Paddy, Dusty Gulch’s Irish leprechaun. Yours truly, Roderick (Whiskers) McNibble, a rat with a nose for burger crumbs and pub gossip, knows this town’s sparkle comes from Paddy’s wit, Dusty McFookit’s quiet genius, and a larrikin spirit that embraces a bit of fun - rat tails and all. But when the world demands we call a spade a “little digging thing,” what’s at stake for Dusty Gulch’s diverse chaos and cultures everywhere?
Grab a McFookit Burger, dodge Maurice the E-Duck’s snooping beak, and let’s scamper through the tale.
Read more: Dusty Gulch’s Straight-Talking Soul: Paddy’s Parody and the Fight for Free Banter
We are told it’s all under control. Markets are managed, energy transitions are planned, and the future is green and bright.
But every promise comes with a bill. From the speculative frenzy of Bitcoin, Australia’s costly flirtation with renewables to Norway’s rare success with hydro, the lesson is clear: good intentions are never free. Not in Australia, anyway.
While governments assure us they have the answers, the quiet drip of cost - economic, social, and personal - tells another story.
In the shadow of climate pledges, tech booms, and economic experiments, we find ourselves staring at something that feels a little like Seymour’s “Audrey II” from Little Shop of Horrors—an ever-hungry plant demanding more blood.
Read more: The New Versailles? Weimar, Net Zero, and the Powder Keg of Collapse
“Some of us may forget that, of all the Allies, it was the Australians who first broke the spell of invincibility of the Japanese Army.”
- Quote from Field Marshall Sir William Slim, Commander of WW2 Commonwealth forces in Burma (and later Governor General of Australia).
And that first fracture in the Japanese Land Forces strength came at Milne Bay in September 1942. Alongside Guadalcanal weeks later, Milne Bay marked the first land defeats of the Japanese, shifting the Pacific war’s momentum.
When 5 Ducks Take on Snakes, Dusty Gulch Prepares for Bloodshed
By Roderick (Whiskers) McNibble, Special Correspondent for the Dusty Gulch Gazette
Dusty Gulch Stadium is no place for sneaky ducks.
This morning, word hit the paddocks: five Plentaview ducks are squaring off against a band of unruly American sidewinding snakes, and the locals are not impressed. They like their ducks in a neat row, thank you very much ...but order is clearly on holiday.
I tracked the contenders down to Dusty Gulch Rugby Field and filed this exclusive: the ducks and snakes aren’t just playing ...they’re threatening the very rules of the game and everything we hold dear: trust, honesty, and a fair go.
In this sun-scorched arena, where politics tackles rugby, the ducks have swapped their tidy formation for a chaotic dance with the Yankee Coilbacks, while a goose- media mogul Goosie Loosie - hovers, honking half-truths into breadcrumbs of confusion.
Referee possum Didelphis Noxbridge keeps a wary eye on proceedings, but with Dusty Gulch citizens ready to blow the final whistle, this isn’t a match. It’s a reckoning - for trust itself.
" Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same. " Ronald Reagan
Churchill understood this truth. In the darkest days of World War II, he made decisions no leader envies - sacrificing the few to save the many.
But today, the equation feels reversed. More and more, our governments cast us adrift in pursuit of their fevered dreams of a ‘better world’...one where the majority scrape by on scraps, clutching our books in secret, listening for the jackboot at the door.
We’re told to sacrifice the many for the sake of the few. But in doing so, we risk squandering everything our forebears bled and died to protect.
Read more: When We Forget History, We Become Its Next Cautionary Tale
By Roderick (Whiskers) McNibble, Special Correspondent
It began with a harmless question over a cup of tea and a lamington: “How many toes does an emu have?” The answer - three - ought to have settled the matter.
But in Dusty Gulch, even a question of toes can lead straight to trouble and once Gondwana is mentioned, you know you’re in for an argument about migration, belonging, and who gets to rearrange the paddock. Yes, dear readers, Gondwana’s Great Ratite Rumble: Who Rules the Paddock? has begun.... murmours in Dusty Gulch are rife as Emus Defend Paddocks as Ostriches Demand Savannah in Dusty Gulch Showdown!
Read more: Ostrich Invasion: The Feathered Feud of Dusty Gulch!
During World War II, Australia was a vital cog in the Allied machine, sending troops abroad, supplying bases, and hosting American and British forces across the Pacific. But not every sector of the nation was fully committed to the fight.
On the waterfront, the Waterside Workers’ Federation (WWF) - known to most as the wharfies - became infamous for strikes, obstruction, and outright sabotage at the very moment the nation was fighting for survival.
What made their conduct so divisive was not only the disruption, but the question: were they fighting for workers’ rights, or for ideology?
Read more: The Unions’ War Within the War - Country or Cause?
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