Fagan Park, Galston

Took a trip to Fagan Park at Galston yesterday.  It's been a few years since we last visited and it was good to see there have been many improvement, including a new play area for the little ones.  The weather was beautiful and people were out in force, picnic baskets in tow.

In1980, Bruce Fagan donated his property to the NSW government which included the family homestead and 160 acres (55 hectares).  He had no children of his own but his wish was for the people of North West Sydney in the beautiful Hills District, to come and enjoy the rural experience of his farm, free of charge.   To help with the enormous cost of keeping the park pristine, Hornsby Council charge a $5 entry fee.

The park is a popular venue for weddings, concerts and community events.  The Rotary Club of Galston and Pacific Opera have organized Opera by the Lake featuring Australia's brightest young opera stars and a massed choir on May 6.

Set up your picnic from 12 noon ready for a 1.30 start, expected finishing time is around 4pm.  Tickets:  Adults $40, Concessions and Seniors $30, children 16 years and under $10.

Craig Thomson Untouchable

The Health Services Union (HSU) is a health union with over 70,000 members working in all areas of healthcare across Australia.  The membership of the union includes doctors, nurses and allied health professionals such as physiotherapists and radiographers, ambulance officers, clerical and administrative staff, managers and support staff.


Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has said what everyone is thinking – that there has been a deliberate “obstruction of justice” orchestrated by the allies of the Labor government involving the Craig Thomson affair. And it stinks to high heaven. Here is a man whose behaviour was so despicable while he was Secretary of the Health Services Union, the ACTU has sacked the union and told them to clean up their act.

Thomson followed the tradition of other union executives down through the ages - he discovered his own personal money tree - he had access to Union funds and could withdraw money at will.   Alleged cash advances of $100,000, overseas trips, school fees, visits to brothels, it was all so very easy and the poor suckers who paid him their union dues, would never know. But they know now.  

But it looks likely that we will never see a fair and just outcome to this sorry affair because it seems that Craig Thomson is untouchable. After waiting three years for FWA to investigate the allegations of financial mismanagement, no charges have been laid and the only response from the PM is to reiterate yet again the fact that “FWA works independently of the government.”

We are told that the FWA report is not a brief of evidence from which charges can be laid and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions is not able to conduct its own criminal investigation. But FWA found 181 contraventions of workplace laws by three former or current HSU officials and a fourth person but they refuse to name them.  We want to know who they are and have them charged.

The reputation of Fair Work Australia is now in tatters.     Craig Thomson said yesterday he was “encouraged” by the latest development and so he should be, this pathetic obstruction of justice by the Labor government is working very well.

Matthew Barclay Funeral

The funeral of the third young man to die competing in the Life Saving Championships at Kurrawa Beach on the Gold Coast was held today. Matthew Barclay was a quiet, nice-looking 14 year old who drowned in a board race at the championships last week.  

He had a bright future in the sport, the young ironman champion belonged to the Maroochydore Surf Club and won last year’s Junior Coolangatta Gold. His parents said they don’t blame anyone for his death and completely support the Life Saving Association.

Searching for Matthew's body

Two years ago on the same beach, Saxon Bird was knocked unconscious by an out of control ski and drowned but his parents aren’t so forgiving, in fact they are still bitter and angry. His mother said officials were warned to call the event off because of foul weather but they refused and she lost her son because of it. “I will never forgive them for that – ever” she said. In 1996 Robert Gatenby 15 also drowned on the same beach in the same competition.

So what is it about Kurrawa that makes it so dangerous? Apparently it's an open, raw stretch of coastline and has currents that run north to south, south to north - it also has currents that run out to sea, basically west to east in your traditional rip pattern. And it has waves, when it's large, breaking on an outer bank, a middle bank and an inner bank with a large shore break.

Officials said the swell on that day was only around 1 metre but Terry McDermott, one of the stars of Bondi Rescue said “The beach can still be dangerous at one metre, make no mistake, it's about how the conditions are breaking, how the waves are forming up on that particular stretch of coastline - you need experience and very professional people making these decisions if you're going to run young kids out in large or dangerous surf.”

Chief Executive

So why did they ignore advice and press on with the championships? Saxon Bird’s father said “They're locked into contracts, there's a whole lot of implicit and explicit inducements to be there. There's too much commercial interest there to move it." 


He went on "They have agreements with state and local governments to help fund the event. In 2010, the Queensland Government paid more than $1.3 million in the first year of a 12 year contract but here’s the bottom line – Surf Life Saving must refund money if the titles are cancelled, postponed or not broadcast. Telstra paid $1.5 million but also gets money back if the titles are postponed, cancelled or abandoned. Same conditions apply for the $600,000 2 year contract with Sensis and the Gold Coast City Council who gives $175,000 in cash and $330,000 in services."

So it’s clear there’s a lot to lose if it’s cancelled or postponed but they need to move the event to a safer beach and to hell with the consequences. Kurrawa beach has already claimed three young lives, it’s time to move on. 

The Beatles - a new generation

Sir Paul McCartney's son James has had an idea that is hard to take seriously - he wants to launch a new band featuring the sons of the Fab Four.  He says that John Lennon's son Sean, now 36, and George Harrison's only son Dhani 33, have both shown interest in the idea.  Ringo's eldest son Zak 46, was less keen but suggested his younger brother Jason 44, could fit the bill.


Even though Sir Paul has helped his son break into the music industry, he is still virtually unknown.  After his mother Linda died in 1998, he and his father were said to have a falling out when he was married to Heather Mills but now the relationship is strong.

James McCartney 34, began performing under the pseudonym Light.  He released his first solo EP in 2010.

Sean Lennon 36, son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono.  Two years ago he formed the band The Ghost of a Sabre Tooth Tiger.

Dhani Harrison 33, is the only son of George Harrison and his second wife Olivia.  In 2010 he joined US artists Joseph Arthur and Ben Harper to form Fistful of Mercy.

Jason Starkey 44, youngest son of Ringo Starr and first wife Maureen.  He continues to drum for various bands and lives with his partner and their three sons.

Carmel Brookes disappears from yacht

An international investigation is underway, looking into why a fit, healthy woman, in calm seas, would suddenly vanish without a trace from a yacht in the middle of the night.

Dr. Gerry Goeden, a prominent marine biologist, is a very unlucky man – this is the second partner he has lost to accidental death.  His first wife, Ellen Goeden,  died from a "tragic accident" in January 1984.  A newspaper report at the time said a 37 year old woman was walking in the Barron Gorge, north of Cairns, when she slipped while crossing a waterfall and fell 10 metres to her death.  Now his current partner, Carmel Brookes 60, has mysteriously disappeared from her yacht, the 14m Moondancer 2, as they sailed from Langkawi to Phuket.

The couple were taking turns steering the yacht and Dr Goeden told police he got up to take over the night watch at 1.30 am and found her gone  He told her brother Bill Heang that two bean bags in the life raft were missing, plus the boat hook, so he believed she fell in while trying to retrieve them.  They were red bean bags and would float but they haven’t been found.  Her brother said the Australian Consular officials could do no more because no official report had been made to Thai police about her disappearance so he reported her missing himself to police in Brisbane. 

Dr Goeden said he searched the area for almost a week before sailing to the Thai resort island of Krabi yesterday.  The couple were living in Penang, Malaysia and were on their “dream trip.”  Ms Brookes and Dr Goeden had part-owned a sailing business in the Whitsunday Islands before selling up and moving to Penang.  Dr Goeden is an Australian citizen, formerly from the United States.

Ms Brookes, a dancer, once toured with the production “Cats” and was incredibly fit and a very experienced sailor.  Whitsunday Escape owner Trevor Rees, a former business partner of Dr Goeden and Ms Brookes said she was a very cautious person.

Dr Goeden sent an email to Ms Brookes’ ex-husband saying “I’m very sorry, she was a great girl and I know I’ll miss her.  All I can say is that I know she loved being here and that the last few weeks were wonderful for her.”

Missing Persons Unit Detective Senior Sergeant Damien Powell said “We are assisting the Department of Foreign Affairs and Interpol in their investigations.”

Black and white twins turn 7

Kian and Remee

The odds of a mixed race couple having twins of different colours are a million to one but that’s what happened when these two baby girls were born. Although twins, born one minute apart, one was black, the other white. Their parents genes are to blame - mother Kylee Hodgson and father Remi Horder both have white mothers and black fathers.

Now as their seventh birthday approaches, they say that racial prejudice has never been a problem. "They are such a perfect example of how it should be" their mother said.    She remembers the moment she first saw them when they were born back in 2005. “I thought they would start to look the same as time went on” she said.    But Kian’s eyes changed from blue to brown and her skin got darker and Remee’s complexion got lighter and her curly hair stayed blonde. They learned to walk and talk at different times but their first words was identical - ‘Juice”. According to their mother, Kian is bossier and louder and Remee is more reserved and laid back.

Today they are in different classes at school and have a different set of friends but at home, they do everything together. Sadly, their parents are now separated and the girls live with their mother in Dudley, West Midlands.

Gina Rinehart imports cheap labour

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart intends to bring in semi-skilled migrants to work in her mines.   She doesn’t want Australian workers because our wages are too high so she’s had a brilliant idea - bring in desperate people from other nations willing and overjoyed at the opportunity to work for half the Australian wage. She’s trying to convince anyone who will listen that it’s got nothing to do with profit, she’s not being unpatriotic, she is simply suffering from an acute labour shortage.

Mining magnates

Her new Roy Hill Iron Ore project is currently negotiating with the Government on Australia's first Enterprise Migration Agreement (EMA). It’s all very hush hush but her plan is to bring in around 1,500 semi skilled migrants such as scaffolders, riggers, bulldozer drivers etc.  There are thousands of young unemployed people able to fit these job descriptions in other states who would jump on a plane in a heartbeat if only given the opportunity.

But surprise surprise, it’s already been going on and the Government supports EMAs.  Immigration Minister Chris Bowen says they are important to keep big projects moving. "We need EMAs to cut red tape for very large resources projects which will have a very strong demand for labour," he said. "The biggest risk for many of these projects proceeding is simply to assure people they will have the labour for the job."

Ms Rinehart wants us to believe that she’s a humanitarian at heart and has even written a poem about it.

The Globe is sadly groaning with debt, poverty and strife

And billions now are pleading to enjoy a better life ...

Embrace multiculturalism and welcome short term foreign workers to our shores

To benefit from the export of our minerals and ores.

Very nice sentiments but what about us Gina?

Needless to say the union isn’t buying it. The CMFEU's national secretary Dave Noonan said "Gina Rinehart's proposition is that she wants to extend a hand of care and raise up the poorer people in the developing world. Some people might believe that but I don't," he said.   A large number of workers brought in on 457 visas to work at the Sino Iron project near Karratha have been underpaid and are working for half the Australian rate. “The Immigration Department has received numerous complaints about this and have been derelict in their duty about doing anything about it.”

Fairfax news

And here’s the bottom line - there are well over 80,000 workers in Australia already on 457 Visas and migration expert Dr Bob Birrell says he expects at least half will stay on as permanent migrants. "All of this is shrouded in secrecy, there are thousands of domestic workers being precluded from gaining access to those jobs," he said. 


He worries about the reluctance to train Australian workers. He says there has been no growth in the employment of the construction workforce over the last two years and there’s been a downturn in employment in the eastern states. “There are now tens of thousands of domestic workers who would like to get access to these jobs," he said. 


So now we know.