They say wisdom often arrives wearing old boots, sipping strong coffee, and wielding a spanner. Well, maybe they don't and I just made that up.
But my Uncle Pete was that kind of man.
A bewhiskered, big-hearted farmer who skydived despite chronic illness, helped us teenagers fix clapped-out cars, and somehow made life’s hardest truths sound like plain old common sense.
Today, of all days....his birthday...I remember a story he told that now rings louder than ever, in an age when governments dodge responsibility by hiring 'experts' and hiding behind consultants.
A lesson in responsibility from a man who never needed a whiteboard consultant.
Read more: Old Boots, Big Truths — Uncle Pete's Take on Responsibility
I wonder how many people realise that Australia’s concept of a minimum wage began with the landmark Harvester Judgment of 1907, a case that forever changed industrial relations in the country?
Fewer still might know that the man at the heart of that case was also behind one of the most significant agricultural inventions to come out of Australia; the combine harvester. Alongside the stump jump plough, the combine harvester was one of two inventions I learned about from a young age as being quintessentially Australian. Yet the origins of this groundbreaking machine, now used by the thousands worldwide, are largely forgotten.
Here is the story of the machine that revolutionised farming around the world, and the forgotten legal legacy it left in its wake.
Read more: From Paddocks to Parliament: How the Harvester Changed the Law of the Land
If you grew up in Australia, chances are you’ve heard the name Henry Lawson. Maybe it was in a dusty old classroom, or maybe someone quoted The Drover’s Wife around a camp fire.
But Lawson isn’t just some long-dead poet tucked away in schoolbooks.....he’s the voice of the bush, the battler, the bloke trudging through drought and dust with a swag on his back and a story in his heart.
There’s something timeless about a billy boiling over a campfire, smoke curling into a pink sky, the tin crackling, the smell of eucalyptus and damp earth. Henry Lawson didn’t just write about that scene...he lived it. And in While the Billy Boils and Joe Wilson and His Mates, he brought it to life so vividly, it’s as if you’re there beside him and waiting for your cuppa.
Read more: Stories Around the Camp Fire: The Life and Legacy of Henry Lawson
To the people of the bush, the paddocks, the backstreets, and the wide horizons:
Australia's cities have grown tall, bright, and loud. But in all their noise, they forgot the quiet strength that built this country. While bureaucrats sip lattes in glass towers, the bush swelters, floods, burns, and perseveres. We carry the weight of droughts and bad harvests, of crumbling roads and shrinking schools, while policies are written by people who've never set foot in a sheep yard.
They talk about progress, but it's a one-way road out of the bush. Hospitals are closing. Rail lines are rusting. Kids are leaving. And what's replacing them? Mega-farms owned by offshore shareholders. Decisions shaped by algorithms. Rural voices drowned by imported ideology.
Delivered by people who’ve never watched a bore run dry. They came for the land. They came for our water. And they do not care about us.
Read more: Forget MAGA - Think RATTY - Rural, Autonomy, Truth Tradition... and You
On the moonlit night of May 16, 1943, a squadron of young RAF pilots flew into the jaws of Nazi Germany on a mission so audacious it bordered on madness.
Armed with a revolutionary "bouncing bomb" and led by the unflinching Wing Commander Guy Gibson, the men of 617 Squadron, soon to be immortalised as the Dam Busters, took to the skies in lumbering Lancasters, tasked with shattering the great dams of the Ruhr Valley and crippling the industrial engine of Hitler’s war machine.
What followed was a feat of precision flying, raw courage, and tragic sacrifice - etched forever into the history books of wartime legend.
Read more: The Dam Busters: Precision, Bravery, and the Bomb That Bounced Into History
Not all wartime heroes wore uniforms. In the heart of WWII, in 1942, my great uncle, a metallurgist, was working in the jungles of Papua New Guinea as Japanese bombs fell on goldfields and airstrips.
Unable to fight, due to deafness, he carried on his duty in the shadows...until the order came to flee. What followed was a gruelling jungle escape on foot, a rice bowl in his pack and enemy planes overhead.
This is a piece of family history long buried and largely forgotten. It's a story of endurance, of quiet courage, and of the forgotten Battle of Wau....a turning point that helped swing the Pacific war.
Read more: One Foot After the Other: My Great Uncle’s Jungle Escape and the Battle for Wau 1942
In a top-secret cross-galactic reassignment leaked by sources wearing sunglasses indoors, Agents J and K of the Men in Black have been deployed to handle their most temperamental alien yet: Prince Harry.
Tasked with managing diplomatic meltdowns and navigating emotional wormholes, the agents are now stationed at an undisclosed Californian compound, code-named “Netflix Nebula.”
Experts warn: the subject’s volatility rivals that of a Zarthonian slime monarch in a custody battle. Their mission? Protect the prince, his privacy, and his podcast schedule...at all costs. And Agent H wants to bring back the neuralyzer. To wipe the public memory of the past few years.
Read more: Men in Black Assigned to Royal Red: Agents J & K Now Guarding Planet Sussex
How a fearless squadron of female pilots turned plywood planes into weapons of war - and fear. These women flew under the radar - literally - to bomb the Nazis and change the face of combat
As the war raged on the Eastern Front, the Soviet Union was in dire need of pilots to combat the relentless advance of the German forces. In response, Marina Raskova, herself a pioneering aviator, proposed the formation of female combat air regiments. Thus, in October 1941, the 588th Night Bomber Regiment was born, later to be known as the "Night Witches" by their German adversaries.
What set these women apart was not just their gender but their method of operation. Flying Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes, these wooden-framed, canvas-covered flying machines were dubbed "crop dusters" by the Germans, hardly a match for the formidable Luftwaffe. However, it was precisely this underestimation that became their greatest advantage.
Operating under the cover of darkness, the Night Witches struck terror into the hearts of the enemy. Flying low and slow, their Po-2s emitted a distinctive whooshing sound, resembling a witch's broomstick, hence their ominous moniker. With no parachutes and minimal defensive armament, they navigated through the night skies, dropping their payloads of bombs on unsuspecting German encampments and supply lines.
Read more: Soviet Sorcery in the Skies: The Legacy of the WWII Night Witches
This Mother’s Day, I’m thinking of one woman in particular. She’s 92 now. We call her Redhead - not just for the colour of her hair, but for the fire that’s still in her spirit. She was just a child when the world went to war, yet she grew up to raise children of her own, then grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and yes, even a great-great-grandchild. Five generations held together by one woman who never needed a spotlight - just a bit of commonsense, an honest tongue when needed, ( which is often! ) and a heart big enough to weather every storm.
Redhead didn’t fight on a battlefield, but she’s known her share of battles .... the kind that happen in kitchens, in school parent teacher meetings, and around dinner tables where love and stubbornness sometimes clash. She’s lived through wars and family skirmishes alike, and somehow kept us all stitched together with nothing more than fierce loyalty, dry humour, and a no-nonsense kind of love that never wavered.
There are thousands like her. Women who carried nations without ever carrying a gun. This tribute is for them ... and especially for our Redhead.
Read more: Not Just Mothers of Children, But of Nations: A Tribute This Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day, as we know it in Australia, traces its roots to the heartbreak and hope of wartime America.
Born out of the compassion of two peace-minded women during the Civil War, the first “Mother’s Day Work Clubs” weren’t about flowers or cards. but about caring for the wounded, no matter their uniform.
Adopted in Australia in the early 20th century, the day gradually took hold, especially after World War I, when a Sydney woman began collecting gifts for mothers grieving lost sons and husbands. It’s no coincidence that Mother’s Day often falls near VE Day, the anniversary of victory in Europe during World War II. Behind the celebration lies a deeper truth: mothers have always stood quietly at the heart of history, bearing both the joy of life and the sorrow of sacrifice.
Read more: From Battlefields to Breakfast in Bed: How Mother’s Day Began
By Roderick "Whiskers" McNibble, Hangar Correspondent at Large
In a tin shed somewhere beyond the Black Stump, in a town called Dutsy Gulch, under a corrugated iron roof that’s more rust than shelter, a political storm is brewing. And it smells faintly of eucalyptus, woodsmoke, and yesterday’s meat pie.
Enter the Ratty Party: a larrikin coalition of bush rats, shed shakers, lamington libertarians, and retired school canteen warriors and CWA ladies. Their campaign? A great uprising of commonsense, crusty dignity, and suspiciously sticky election posters made from leftover marmalade.
Their leader, Dusty McFookit, emerges not in a suit but in a gravy-stained Jackie Howe singlet, quoting Lawson and scratching where it itches. His platform? Honest. Blunt. Slightly flammable.
Read more: Breaking Ratty News- The Ratty Party Launch to Restore Old Australia
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