In deference to our New Zealand brothers I thought it would be fair to do an item about them rather than make this series of contributions an exclusively Australian affair and recognise the NZ part of the ANZAC legend.
The River Plate (Rio de la Plata) separates Argentina and Uruguay.
In 1939 it was the scene of one of the most dramatic naval battles of the war and has been the subject of a movie of the same name.
Read more: THE BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE
Last week has seen the conversation surrounding the need for a Royal Commission into Veteran suicide come to a head. With a unanimous vote in the Senate, the nation is now set to watch this Monday, March 22nd, with the expectation that it will also pass the Lower House.
For too long now, this debate has been dragging on, inflicting further insult to the moral injury that has been plaguing the Veteran community for decades. While politicians continue to argue which party has the better policy, Australian Veterans of all generations have continued to suffer from the inaction and failed understanding of the key issues at hand.
As NSW and southern Queensland are being rained out, flooded out, and emotionally wrung out, the Governments and bureaucrats are hanging Australia out to dry albeit with soggy feet, destroyed lives and submerged under a sea of despair.
The story I am about to relate to you is one which will be vaguely familiar to some, the detail unknown to almost all. Australia’s contribution to the defense of the Empire in the very early days of WW1 is barely recognised and never acknowledged such was the extent to which we were taken for granted by Britain.
In my posting of The First Angry Shot I described the German strategy known as The Schlieffen Plan and its Pacific and Far East Asian Empire. It is suffice to say that Germany was very well prepared for WW1. If it had not been triggered by the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the Grand Duke of Austria and his wife, then I am sure that some other cause or incident would have taken its place.
We have so many Veterans taking their own lives and disappearing into a sea of despair, that I have to wonder if there is an answer that is right in front of our noses?
Recently, it was World K9 Day: the day that the world is supposed to celebrate the gift of loyalty and dedication that our four-legged friends have given to our Military men and women. Our canine friends have fought beside us and stood beside us and comforted us in times of trouble and we are increasingly, as a species, forgetting their dedication and love and consigning them into the same bin that we place our unborn children.
We are reading more and more stories of heartbroken and dispirited Veterans who are taking their own lives.
After so many decades of service to us, surely we should recognise the role these quiet companions play in a world post-war? Are dogs the answer to the pandemic of Veteran suicides confronting our Nations?
Read more: K9 Veteran's Day - is it time for our best friends to become our BEST friends again?
As a child, we spent our Christmas holidays at a remote coastal sheep farm, The car would be loaded up with camping gear and we would head off on the long drive to spend 2 weeks of fishing, mucking around in the shearing shed, hiking across the paddocks and exploring the rock pools at low tide. Our Aunts and Uncles would already be there and our cousins would be smug that they had already scanned out the best places to build forts, swim and generally get into mischief.
Read more: I remember when I learned that memories are a precious gift
On 19 March 1932 the Sydney Harbour Bridge opened to the public. This landmark bridge is almost the poster child that is synonymous with Australia and is no doubt one of the most instantly recognizable bridges in the world.
The brainchild of John Bradfield, the Sydney Harbour Bridge is tribute to the man who brought us the concept of the much touted " Bradfield Scheme " and also the Storey Bridge in Brisbane and Sydney's rail system. He oversaw the rebuilding of the bridge over the Hawkesbury River and the construction of dams such as the Cataract and Burrinjuck dams. In 1917 he wrote a paper predicting Sydney’s population would nearly triple by 1950 to more than 2.2 million. This was used in Bradfield’s day as an argument for suburban electrified trains as a way to open up new land for development. source.
Last year ANZAC Day was subsumed by the Coronavirus lockdown and we were denied the right to celebrate it and honour our Diggers in the usual way by government decree.
As the day approaches it looks like this year it may be subsumed again by the furore of the March 4 Women’s Rights movement or the demonstrations by the Aboriginal Industry asking for MORE.
Either way, I expect that we will still get the usual collection of the bearded unwashed telling us how wrong we were/are for participating in any war because we should be celebrating peace.
These angry shots are not the first, nor will they be the last salvos we ordinary grateful citizens will be subjected to by this ignorant element in our society. Ignore them and roll with the punches.
When one talks about real angry shots and the peaceful scenario of Port Philip Bay on a calm and cloudy day one does not normally connect the two in the same sentence but on 4th August 1914, they did.
Ad-Free ABC?
(Australian Broadcasting Commission)
In recent decades “our” ABC has become a pampered left-wing mega-phone.
Read more: Is it time to give Aunty the boot? A Thursday thought from Viv Forbes
The 17th of March marks the date of the death of St Patrick, the patron Saint of Ireland. St Patrick was actually born in Britain but, when he was 16, he was kidnapped and taken to Ireland as a slave. It was about the year 415 and there was no kids helpline or social media available to send out a cry for help. So he planned and plotted and eventually managed to escape. Sadly, Paddy was no Houdini and he was sent off to France where he was introduced to Christianity.
He escaped again and managed to return to Ireland, which he now accepted as home. Converted to the Christian religion, he set about spreading the Word throughout Ireland. Perhaps the most well-known legend of St. Patrick is that he explained the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) using the three leaves of a native Irish clover, the shamrock.
He is credited with ridding Ireland of snakes and is generally regarded as being a pretty good chap.
Of course, he would never have risen to the levels of global recognition that his name enjoys today, had it not been for one singular event: The Irish Potato Famine.
An 89 year old woman has died from the horrific neglect she sustained in a Brisbane " care " home. She was suffering from sepsis and her leg had rotted down to the bone. Her back was covered in burns from having lain in her own urine for God knows how long.
It is not often that I am moved to tears when I read an article, but this one has broken my heart and destroyed what little faith I have in humanity. That this has happened in Australia is incomprehensible and that it went unnoticed or ignored for so long is a symptom of a deeper rot and sepsis within our society.
Starlink vs NBN: An Outback Reality Check (With Bonus Waiting Music) One Outback resident tests…
170 hits
Sadly, the beautiful country of Australia has become a bastion of progressivism. The country’s government…
76 hits
For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by non animal means…
348 hits
Do We Still Love our Nation to Fight For it? Reflections 81 years after the…
335 hits
Australia's Spirit at the Crossroads – Time to Shake Off the Mud At dawn, when…
334 hits
Muddy, Battered, and Waiting for the Next Kick-Off After a rugby match, the ball always…
313 hits
Dusty Gulch Gazette – Special Edition (Front Page) RUCTION AT THE GULCH OVAL: SETTLED THE…
474 hits
Some men belong to history. Others belong to the national conscience. Bruce Ruxton was the latter.…
380 hits
The Prime Minister Who Disappeared There are many ways for a Prime Minister to leave…
440 hits
From Whitlam to Bondi Beach, how moral evasion became cultural habit Australia has woken up…
451 hits
At 9:41am on Monday, 15 December 2014, Man Haron Monis forced Tori Johnson, the manager…
527 hits
Recent news in Australia has sparked debate: a ban on social media for under-16s. The…
402 hits
Dusty Gulch Gazette – Special Scandal Edition By Roderick (Whiskers) McNibble – Foreign Correspondent, Rodent…
397 hits
Back in 1904, H. G. Wells published a short story called “The Country of the…
415 hits
Education, often celebrated as a beacon of enlightenment and progress, can also become a potent…
414 hits
On December 9, 2019, New Zealand's White Island erupted .claiming 22 lives and leaving survivors…
428 hits
They say the pen is mightier than the sword, and nowhere is that truer than…
408 hits
Before the sun had fully risen over Hawaii, a chain reaction had begun — one…
502 hits
“Minor Problem: I Identify as a 73-Year-Old Tabby, Therefore I’m Legally Entitled to X (and…
540 hits
Dusty Gulch Gazette – Special Duck Census Edition By Roderick (Whiskers) McNibble – Foreign Correspondent,…
409 hits
Flysa spent some of the early years of his life managing construction projects in the…
447 hits
In the heart of Ballarat in 1854, a ragtag coalition of gold miners took a…
561 hits
The Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Forty-One Years On — A Legacy That Still Breathes, Bleeds, and…
418 hits
Henry J. Kaiser: The Self-Made Miracle Worker and the Legacy of Vision This article builds…
480 hits
The birth of Australia’s iron ore industry wasn’t just an economic milestone - it was…
468 hits
The Quiet Hanson: Why Lee Sherrard Might Just Save One Nation (and Why She Might…
669 hits
Dusty Gulch Gazette – Emergency Midnight Edition November 27, 2025 – Vol. 147, No. 320…
476 hits
From a disease-ravaged ship anchored off a windswept coast… to thirteen scrappy colonies telling the…
444 hits
In Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, a charismatic Edinburgh teacher enchants her…
613 hits
Elon Musk is more than a billionaire tech mogul...he’s a disruptor, a visionary, and a…
449 hits
Yes, let’s be honest. The days when the Irish, Scots, Italians, Greeks, Poles, Hungarians, Poms,…
474 hits
Picture this: You’re sitting down for a family dinner, and instead of chatting about school,…
464 hits