Interesting Bits and Pieces
From recent happenings or stories around Australia and the world.
Endangered bilby numbers bouncing back in Charleville.
Bilby numbers in Currawinya National Park are conservatively placed at more than five times what they were two years ago. The Save the Bilby Fund has estimated bilby numbers to be about 150 inside the 25 square kilometre predator exclusion fencing in the Currawinya National Park.
Extensive upgrades to the Charleville Breeding Facility are on track to begin in July, which will help achieve an insurance population of 10,000 bilbies held securely in the next 10 to 12 years.
Have visited the Bilby centre in Charleville. What a wonderful experience.
Dispute over peanut butter branding to cost US giant Kraft Heinz $9 million.
Bega Cheese and Kraft Heinz had been locked in a long-running legal dispute, centred on Bega's use of a jar with a yellow label and yellow lid.
A string of failed legal proceedings concerning peanut butter has ended with a US food giant agreeing to pay Australia's Bega Cheese $9.25 million. Bega Cheese says it will discontinue legal proceedings when the payment has been made.
It is a wonder that they did not put in a claim on Capalano honey too
or being yellow that the Chinese did not put in a claim on it.
100th Archibald Prize won by Melbourne artist Peter Wegner with his portrait of 100-year-old artist Guy Warren.
Wegner, a finalist for the sixth time in 2021, won against a field of 52 finalists that included previous winners Euan Macleod and Fiona Lowry, and stalwarts Jun Chen, Kate Beynon, James Powditch, Tsering Hannaford and Lucy Culliton. Accepting the Archibald Prize, he said, "Guy is probably one of the most remarkable 100-year-olds I've ever met."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-04/archibald-prize-winner-peter-wegner-guy-warren/100188212
Artist Kathrin Longhurst won the Packing Room Prize for her portrait of Kate Ceberano, in the Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW
Personally my choice is the Packing Room choice
Inspired by a trip to the US where they saw a graffitied Cadillacs display, Graham Pickles and his wife Jana, started a collection of Holden utes at their farm at Ootha in in NSW's Central West.
"We were just imagining if we could get a collection of Holden utes and mount them properly out of the dirt at different angles, and get Australian artists to use them as a canvas and paint a history of Australia."
The display has now been moved to the town of Condoblin and is continuing to attract tourists amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
This interested me because I was brought up in the area (lived near Ootha and spent time at school in Condobolin) and have also been the owner of a couple of beloved Holden utes.
Critically endangered swift parrots spotted in Port Macquarie spark hope and excitement.
A flock of almost 60 was recently spotted at Port Macquarie on the NSW mid-north coast. With the species being critically endangered with less than 1000 estimated to be left in the wild, the sighting has sparked excitement among birdwatchers.
So far this year — not just Port Macquarie, but also in Canberra, Melbourne, and other parts of the swift parrot's wintering range — there have been reports of flocks of 40-60 birds, so it's really encouraging to see bigger numbers.
Dylan Alcott wins a third straight French Open title at Roland Garros.
The win is his 13th overall grand slam title in the quad wheelchair singles.
The 30-year-old Australian took out his 13th career grand slam title with a 6-4, 6-2 defeat of 21-year-old Dutchman Sam Schroder. The match was a much tougher affair than when Alcott beat Schroder 6-1, 6-0 in this year's Australian Open final.
Cooper officially confirmed as the largest dinosaur ever unearthed in Australia.
The dinosaur has been scientifically named Australotitan cooperensis.
The new species of giant sauropod is thought to be in the top 15 of the largest dinosaurs in the world, entering an elite group of titanosaurs previously only discovered in South America.
Winter has come with a blast.
Alpacas in the snow at Blackheath in the NSW Blue Mountains this morning.
Significant snowfalls across NSW whilst things look grim in Victoria with widespread power outages, wind damage and many flood warnings. People near Traralgon Creek in Gippsland have been urged to evacuate the area to escape rapidly rising floodwaters.
At the start of winter, Winston gets to work finding truffles in oak-filled fields in Wattle Flat, north-east of Ballarat.
The Australian shepherd uses his keen sense of smell to help locate the fungus during the annual harvest, which begins in June and typically comes to a close in August. Australian shepherds and Lagotto Romagnolo are two breeds of dog that excel in truffle hunting.
Strange but true ...
During lockdown, it seems the world has turned to carrots, with Australian exports hitting $100m.
The world's appetite for Australian carrots skyrockets during the global pandemic. AUSVEG chief executive Michael Coote said more than 110,000 tonnes of carrots were exported last year with the majority sent to Asia and the Middle East. He said Western Australia accounted for 85 per cent of carrot exports.
The Queen marks her first official birthday without Prince Philip to watch 'mini' Trooping the Colour parade of the Household Cavalry and a Red Arrows flypast at Windsor Castle.
The 95-year-old watched the ceremony unfold with Guardsmen in their scarlet tunics and bearskins and the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment in their breast plates and plumed helmets.
Hoover, an Australian dog now holds the title of the world’s most expensive kelpie after he sold for auction at $35,200 on the weekend.
The Edenhope-bred kelpie, named Hoover, sold at the Casterton working dog auction to a northeast Victorian sheep and cattle farmer. The previous record was $22,200, but Hoover smashed the record due to his ability to work with sheep, cattle and goats in yards and paddocks alike.
It’s the most money ever paid for a working dog.
New recordings of the critically endangered night parrots is music to ears of Kimberley rangers and scientists.
Recordings of night parrot calls from sites in the Great Sandy Desert indicate Australia's largest population of night parrots.
The night parrot is an almost mythical bird species, known to older generations of Indigenous traditional land owners and early European explorers, but only seen by modern science as a few dead specimens until 2005.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-26/biggest-night-parrot-population-discovered-great-sandy-desert/100159378