Geography of Australia from Brian Blair on Vimeo.
2. Geography of Australia (Discovery Channel playlist)
Geography of Australia from Brian Blair on Vimeo.
"At the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve 1900, as the clock ticked into 1901 and the 20th century, whistles, gongs, church bells, rattles, pots, pans, accordions and all manner of noise-makers joined the sirens of boats on Sydney Harbour.
It was to be a special day"
Do you know what special day it was? No? Then go here to find out :-)
Let's hear more form the historians because it will lead us to other topics.
"Just after that midnight, a storm broke and winds gusting up to 50 miles an hour swept into Sydney. Forty points of rain drenched the harbour city.
But the New Year’s Day morning of 1901 broke clear and fine, and an eight-kilometre procession headed out to Centennial Park, just beyond Paddington, where the federation rites, uniting the erstwhile separate British colonies into one federal Commonwealth, finally took place."
Australian weather has never been easy on the settlers. Southern regions suffer from severe fires, while the North often faces tropical cyclones and floods.
Click the picture above to watch a heartbreaking account of Black Saturday - the 2009 Victorian Bushfires.
Click the picture below to learn more about the 2009 Queensland Flood.
You will find more information about floods clicking on the little poor fellow below.
We touched upon the topic of the Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia very briefly two weeks ago. This time we'll have a closer look at their work and importance for communities living in distant, remote areas of Australia.
S21-3D from S21film3D on Vimeo.
by Cara Nash | September 15, 2010 12:41 | Edited September 15, 2010 12:42
We speak to local producer Laura Sivis about a 3D film to be shot in Australia next year.
Nearly three years ago, French filmmaker Olivier Parthonnaud was one of the few to believe in Stereoscopic 3D (S3D) as a viable release format. While James Cameron worked on Avatar in New Zealand, Parthonnaud began moving forward in France with Australian Producer Laura Sivis, and a small but experienced Stereoscopic 3D team.
Parthonnaud wanted to prove that it was technically possible to make a sci-fi live action film in S3D. Sivis says investors were initially reluctant to back the technology because of the cost and the fact that many saw it as a passing fad. "People didn't wish to invest the manpower or resources required to get up to speed," she recalls. "Even those who acknowledged that James Cameron would make a groundbreaking film assumed Avatar would be an event film which would be limited to a few IMAX screens, not an industry changer that would permeate into mainstream expectations."
Parthonnaud and Sivis' currently untitled sci-fi film in the making is an ambitious project, but an exciting one. The story revolves around a lunar prisoner who escapes to earth via a holo-transport link. The lunar station commander finds himself trying to stop a killer hologram that can hold a weapon, but against whom weapons are completely useless. However, the commander then discovers this dangerous prisoner is the creator of the holo-transport link, and must be kept alive at all costs.
As a way of researching and developing the film, Parthonnaud and his team selected parts of the feature that they knew would constitute technical challenges in 3D and began exploring how these could work. Those pieces were rescripted and from them Parthonnaud wove a sci-fi short film titled S21-3D, which won the 2009 Australian SMPTE Dimensionale 3D Film Festival and was released recently in France.
Compiling the short - which tests and incorporates 3D lunar landscapes and vehicles, futuristic city skyscrapers, fight sequences and hologram characters - was an invaluable experience. "Prior to doing the short, we were heading down a different path creatively, but this new path is infinitely more spectacular," Sivis says. "That's very much thanks to our R&D team who used their collective experience and hunger to push the boundaries of what can be done."
Shooting the feature length version of the film is scheduled to begin in Australia in the first half of next year and Parthonnaud and Sivis have already begun assembling an award winning creative and technical team which they hope will feature a mix of local and international talent. "For key cast we are speaking to successful Aussies who are currently based overseas who will happily jump on the next plane back once we set a start date. There will also be a couple of international cast too."
While the film is to be shot in Australia, Sivis acknowledges some of the restrictions in casting local actors. "Packaging films has become much tougher since the world financial crisis. Sales agents and distributors want to see at least four to five internationally known actors even in the smaller films," she explains. "It's understandable that they are trying to mitigate their risk. But it has ramifications. A greater slice of the budget needs to be allocated to cast, sometimes as much as 30-50% of a budget and more for smaller films."
Sivis says our talented crews were an incentive for shooting the film in Australia and she hopes that the film may signal a shift in support of science fiction. "Australian crews are simply really really talented with sci-fi films. Look at The Matrix Trilogy, Star Wars 2&3, Red Planet, Farscape, and Pitch Black," Sivis enthuses. "The irony and the tragedy is that we never make any of our own. It's historically been outside the Australian government funding bodies' brief to make or support Hollywood style blockbuster stories, let alone sci-fi. I for one am hoping that we can swing that around."
Białoń Natalia |
Bieniek Marcin |
Bryniak Danuta |
Cabak Wiola |
Cebula Monika |
Dara Karolina |
Deker Judyta |
Depczyński Marcin |
Druzik Marcin |
Dudek Małgorzata |
Franiak Anna |
Frączek Edyta |
Frączek Renata |
Geniec Monika |
Górski Bogusław |
Grzeszczak Anna |
Izworska Natalia |
Janisz Katarzyna |
Jasińska Olga |
Jurecka Katarzyna |
Kania Aneta |
Konicki Adam |
Konstanty Alicja |
Korneluk Magda |
Kotlicka Sabina |
Kowalczyk Marcin |
Krawczyk Krzysztof |
Król Joanna |
Kuciel Justyna |
Laskosz Anna |
Liszka Magdalena |
Łukaszczyk Ewelina |
Małojło Grzegorz |
Morańska Katarzyna |
Myśliwiec Katarzyna |
Pawlik Angelika |
Pawłowska Paulina |
Pitwor Lucyna |
Radzik Ewa |
Repel Dominika |
Skraba Joanna |
Smoleń Magdalena |
Socha Artur |
Sochaj Katarzyna |
Sroka Maria |
Stanek Alina |
Stolarczyk Olga |
Stroka Izabela |
Strzelczyk Łukasz |
Szczepanek Anna |
Szczygieł Ewelina |
Szkaradek Jolanta |
Topór Donata |
Trybus Łukasz |
Wargoła Natalia |
Zając Dorota |
Zwolińska Joanna |
Żak Jakub |
Sudden change of leadership comes after Kevin Rudd steps down rather than face Labor party ballot
Ellen Connolly in Sydney
Australia has its first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, after Kevin Rudd stepped down as Labor party leader, avoiding a ballot he was certain to lose.
In an extraordinary day in Australian politics, Gillard told a media conference in Canberra's Parliament House she was "truly honoured" to become prime minister.
The 48-year-old who came under attack in 1998 when she entered parliament for being single and childless, said it was also an important milestone for Australian women.
"I think if there's one girl who looks at the TV screen over the next few days and says 'Gee, I might like to do that in the future', well that's a good thing," Gillard told reporters.
Gillard, who was born in Wales and came to Australia in the 1960s with her parents, said she accepted her new role with "the greatest humility, resolve and enthusiasm" because she believed a good government was losing its way.
Gillard said she would stay in a suburb in Melbourne's north, and not move into the prime minister's Canberra residence, The Lodge, until after she had won the next election.
"I'm very happy in my home in Altona (in Melbourne's north) … very happy in my flat in Canberra," she said.
"Indeed, I believe it is appropriate for me to stay there until we have an election and I have fulsomely earned the trust of Australian people to be prime minister."
Her historic – and unexpectedly swift – rise to the top job was sparked by a report in yesterday's Sydney Morning Herald that Rudd had used his chief of staff, Alister Jordan, to sound out the backbench on the level of support for him. This followed a Herald/Nielsen poll which showed the government would lose if an election were held now.
Gillard, who had been publicly and privately loyal to her leader, was livid, and regarded Rudd's action as a sign that he did not trust her repeated assurances that she would not stand.
"It was offensive and disloyal," said a Gillard supporter.
It led to a push to oust the leader, and in the end Rudd, aware he didn't have the numbers, stood aside this morning.
Rudd, who was once regarded as Australia's most popular prime minister which led to him being known as "Mr 60 Percent", for his high approval ratings, has seen his support plummet to record lows this year as the nation reacted angrily to a series of government U-turns on key election promises.
The most damaging was the decision to shelve its flagship emissions trading scheme until 2013. He also came under fire over plans to tax the "super profits" of the key mining sector by 40%, earning the wrath of resources firms and their many shareholders.
Rudd, the first Labor prime minister to be dumped by his party before he could complete a term in office, was in tears today as he declared "I have given it my all".
He said he was particularly proud of the apology to the so-called stolen generations – the tens of thousands of Aboriginal children taken from their families in a strategy of white assimilation only abandoned in 1970.
"What I am less proud of is the fact that I have now blubbered," a teary Rudd said.
He said he would stay on and fight for the re-election of the Labor party at the next election.
Gillard's partner, Tim Mathieson, said he was greatly surprised at the rapid chain of events that led to her appointment to lead the country.
"She will absolutely be a fantastic prime minister,'' Mathieson said. "She has the right mindset and she is very consultative.
"I am so proud to be her partner and to be able to support her today.''
In parliament this afternoon, Gillard defended her role in the leadership ambush of Rudd, saying she did what was best for her party and the country.
"I formed the view that the best way of making sure that this government was back on track … was to take the course that I took last night and this morning," she said.
Cane Toads: The Conquest 3D Review
Director Mark Lewis has a made a career out of directing odd and quirky documentaries that center around animals. He’s directed documentaries about rats, chickens, cattle shows, and ferrets. In his latest film, Cane Toads: The Conquest 3D, the director returns to a subject which he explored previously in 1988 with Cane Toads: An Unnatural History. In that film, Lewis told the story of the cane toad and how it was taking over Australia. The toad had been brought into the country with hopes that it would eliminate a pesky bug which was ruining the countries sugar plantations. The cane toad failed at doing that job and instead began to multiply by the hundreds and began to spread around the country at a incredibly fast pace.
Cane Toads: The Conquest picks up decades later from where Lewis last left off. The cane toad has now spread all over Australia with 1.5 billion toads hopping around and the number just keeps on getting higher. Lewis not only revisits this odd bit of history and how it’s affecting Australia, but he also spends most of the film documenting the colorful characters that have been affected by these toads as well.
What Lewis has made is not a scientific nature documentary, but instead a deadpan comedy which just happens to be a nature documentary. From its opening scene set “million of years ago” that ends with a giant cane toad starring you down before rushing at you while the screen cuts to black and its title card appears in the most dramatic fashion, it’s clear that Lewis isn’t taking this subject too seriously and just wants to have fun.
Thankfully, the rest of the film is filled with scenes like this. There are dramatic inserts of toads spliced into archival footage, a scene depicting an acid trip as experienced by a dog after licking a toad, and a sequence showing an art piece done by a man who decided to pose all of his dead stuffed toads reenacting a wrestling scene and a car accident. All of these scenes and a lot of other ones are done in such a serious manner that you can’t help but laugh.
If the documentary wasn’t fun enough by itself, the 3D surely helps. Lewis constantly decides to use 3D to his advantage by creating a number of scenes which show the beauty of Australia, but shows the depth and distance of all of the scenery by placing a toad in the forefront. Plus, the acid trip as seen from a dog’s perspective is also something great to see in 3D. If you’re able to not take anything in the documentary too seriously and see it as a comedy, then Cane Toads: The Conquest really is a surprising amount of fun and I recommend you seek it out if it comes by your town.
Can't wait to see it! :-)Australia has 3 Time Zones
Standard Time | Daylight Savings | ||
1 | Western Australia | + 8.0 hours GMT | no change |
2 | Northern Territory | + 9.5 hours GMT | no change |
3 | South Australia | + 9.5 hours GMT | + 10.5 hours GMT |
4 | Queensland | + 10.0 hours GMT | no change |
4 | Lord Howe Island | + 10.5 hours GMT | + 11.5 hours GMT |
5 | New South Wales | + 10.0 hours GMT | + 11.0 hours GMT |
5 | ACT | + 10.0 hours GMT | + 11.0 hours GMT |
6 | Victoria | + 10.0 hours GMT | + 11.0 hours GMT |
7 | Tasmania | + 10.0 hours GMT | + 11.0 hours GMT |