Unfortunate fact of life that a minority of people are dishonest. I think everyone should be taken at face value originally but even so it would be naïve not to be wary.
Some of the best false pretenders I ever spoke to are the ones who are overly nice and try to establish a rapport with you through shared interests.
I married a lady from Ayr, Queensland which is only a small town so everyone there knew my name even though I worked in Townsville. One day my staff came back to the station and asked me if I knew "so and so" because they had just stopped him in a car and he professed to being my close friend. I had never heard of him so I took off my nametag and went around to see him. For 15 minutes he continued to profess to being my best friend and when I introduced myself he suddenly "realised" he must have been thinking of someone else.
Then he got 2 tickets instead of 1.
hey !!
my doggie is from Ayr/Homehill
a little cane field terrier - they call them 'ratters' cause they kill the rats in the cane fields
pretty area
my niece was a nurse at the hospital in Ayr/Homehill before she moved to Innisfail - hubby was a firey there too
small world
Quote from: 'robbiegal' pid='28548' dateline='1379415098'they call them 'ratters' cause they killed the rats in the cane fields
I thought the 20ft carpet snakes ate the rats and the terriers were called "lunch" for the crocs down Plantation Creek.
In Laws had a cane farm down Rita Island for a while then he was a builder in town. I miss those wideflap bucks (mudcrabs) straight from the pot into the urn (back in the 70's).
I worked in Ingham and was at the Petrol Station one day when someone came in with a rolled up snake skin that they rolled out and it started before the first bowser and ended after the last bowser.
One of our cars was coming back into town from Forrest Beach late one night and hit a snake. The head was in the canefield one side of the road and the tail was still in the cane on the other side. Gave the car 2 flat tyres and slithered off as if nothing happened.
Also used to be a croc in the creek outside town. Everyone knew it was there and they only lost a dog every now and again. A farmer was on the way into town one day and came across the croc literally across the road. The tail was in the water one side of the road and the head was in the water on the other side of the road and it wasn't moving. National Parks and Wildlife thought they better move it on.
Quote from: 'Steveqld' pid='28551' dateline='1379416358'Quote from: 'robbiegal' pid='28548' dateline='1379415098'they call them 'ratters' cause they killed the rats in the cane fields
I thought the 20ft carpet snakes ate the rats and the terriers were called "lunch" for the crocs down Plantation Creek.
In Laws had a cane farm down Rita Island for a while then he was a builder in town. I miss those wideflap bucks (mudcrabs) straight from the pot into the urn (back in the 70's).
I worked in Ingham and was at the Petrol Station one day when someone came in with a rolled up snake skin that they rolled out and it started before the first bowser and ended after the last bowser.
One of our cars was coming back into town from Forrest Beach late one night and hit a snake. The head was in the canefield one side of the road and the tail was still in the cane on the other side. Gave the car 2 flat tyres and slithered off as if nothing happened.
Also used to be a croc in the creek outside town. Everyone knew it was there and they only lost a dog every now and again. A farmer was on the way into town one day and came across the croc literally across the road. The tail was in the water one side of the road and the head was in the water on the other side of the road and it wasn't moving. National Parks and Wildlife thought they better move it on.
Bloody Queenslanders and their SKINNY roads :laugh2:
Some of the biggest crocks (and I have seen heaps) are at a place called "Shady Camp" off the Ahrnam hwy on the way to Jabaru in the Northern Territory :ok:
my mum had a carpet snake in the ceiling in a house that we lived in along the banks of the Brisbane river
i'd lay in bed at night when a kiddie and listen to the familiar sound - like a hand slowly rubbing sand across paper
then i'd hear a squeak squeak eeek ekkk .... quiet
bye bye mousey
speaking of carpet snakes and crocs eating terriers and north QLD
we've seen our little ratters catch ém (rats not crocs or snakes) and by God those dogs are fast - the rat is near their size - they just latch on, flick and drop the dead rat
then they strut around knowing that in rat killing territory - mate, they're hot stuff ha ha
i'm scared of snakes but somewhere here I have a picture of one that was sunbaking on a dirt road near Carnarvon (QLD - might have the spelling wrong with this spell checker) anyways, the creature goes entirely across a fair sized dirt road - we had wait quite some time for it to slither off the road as we were on the motorbike or else we could have ended up in quite a tangle with the big fella
I used to go up Ingham from Townsville for my work (to the hospital and around the place seeing people at home - some, way the billio out in the mountains)
the best 'home visit' that I did - the family had fresh mudcrab and fresh white bread waiting on the table when I arrived - I totally appreciated the feast and they totally appreciated a health worker doing a home visit that took in 170 klms
even though I never go back there - I do have some fond memories
the hubby goes back every year to Townsville -
my father was a crocodile hunter in the Solomon Islands in the 1950's - I thought that movie with Paul Hogan was sort of stupid having grown up in a house with a man who really did hunt them for a living
Quote from: 'Cooper S' pid='28555' dateline='1379417256'Steveqld you just got up other people for posting in the wrong part of the forum this discussions going off topic and has nothing to do with (coin chit chat)
hey man
sorry i'm off topic too
threads can tend to go that way
I spose we have to delete them or put them somewhere else
i'll start a crocs and rats and chat thread
steve and I can chit chat til the cows come home - me being an ex north queenslander and all !
Your wish is my command!
WOOHOO, the crocodile Robeeee thread :yahoo:
Copied from the old thread.........
Until the thread's split I love the old tales - like reliving one's youth.
We had friends up Innisfail and like all cane farmers they had a ski boat so we went skiing on the Johnstone River. Years later I did a joint helicopter flight up the Johnstone with Boating and Fisheries. We saw about 8 good sized crocs. One (only a baby about 8' long)was sunning on the bank and we hovered about 10 feet away and he wasn't in the least bit fazed. Thought it was dead until a quick flick of the tail and it was off.
The hills outside Ingham would be up near Wallaman Falls, largest single drop falls in the southern hemisphere. Spectacular in the wet season and they don't have them near "Shady Camp" off the Ahrnam hwy on the way to Jabaru in the Northern Territory.
Trout, can the NT match this one from Cape York???
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/archive/news/death-of-a-monster/story-e6frg8gf-1111118162303:taunt::taunt::taunt:
Quote from: 'trout' pid='28567' dateline='1379419077'WOOHOO, the crocodile Robeeee thread :yahoo:
I read with interest..
Loved reading that Steve , Thanks Mate :good:
Quote from: 'trout' pid='28576' dateline='1379420007'Loved reading that Steve , Thanks Mate :good:
They are beautiful animals. Snakes however are another matter.
Quote from: 'trout' pid='28556' dateline='1379417371'Bloody Queenslanders and their SKINNY roads :laugh2:
You got THAT right...
I was coming back from Cairns in a brand new Magna Executive a few years ago, and decided to go inland to Townsville via Charters Towers to get away from canefields.
140kph, on a dead straight highway about 3 feet wide, with a bloody great truck trying to climb in my boot. Six foot tall grass either side, and suddenly six roos jumped out in front of me.
Talk about needing new undies... not a damn thing I could do. Touch the brakes and I'm flattened, swerve and I roll, so full steam ahead.
Luckily, the big ones jumped again across the road, the rest hopped back to the left, except for the little bloke, who went under the left corner.
When I managed to stop, about 2km down the road, the plastic bumper was a bit wonky, but otherwise all OK.
Mr Avis ended up charging us two and a half grand for that little episode when I got back to Melbourne, and my boss was NOT happy. Still, the bastard cheated me out of thirty grand not long after, so I could care less.
But yeah, give me Victorian roads
ANY day! :)
Quote from: 'Nevol' pid='28565' dateline='1379418919'Your wish is my command!
fanks aunty!! :heart:
Quote from: 'Steveqld' pid='28570' dateline='1379419459'Trout, can the NT match this one from Cape York???
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/archive/news/death-of-a-monster/story-e6frg8gf-1111118162303:taunt::taunt::taunt:
hey Steve
I remember those people from when I lived in Karumba
it's great when people turn conservationist
but yes, that was exactly how my father hunted crocs
in long boats and at night and when at best, with the single shot
it was a small extra job just to earn extra money, fashionable at the time and an expensive sought after commodity and it helped to feed a family
and the shootings helped to keep the small islands a little safer as the salties there were definitely man eaters in those days
Quoteas the salties there were definitely man eaters in those days
Nothing has changed (Except that the population of Crocs has risen) they are still Rather good at killing people :ok:
:agreed:
it's a bit like the dingos on fraser island where the situation has gotten downright ridiculous
Quote from: 'robbiegal' pid='28684' dateline='1379501725':agreed:
it's a bit like the dingos on fraser island where the situation has gotten downright ridiculous
:agreed:
They definitely need a permanent "Dogger" on that island :good:
Boating and Fisheries weren't well staffed up Ingham way so if they were working one out and had to go out of a night and do a job they would ask one of us to go with them. I recall that the Barramundi and the Salties had a reflection of the torch in their eyes. From memory Barra were red eyes and salties yellow or vice versa.
Bit of a worry when you can see both colours.
Oh those were the days.
bit of a worry when you fall overboard in their territory !!!
i'd reckon a man could walk on water and very fast!! ha ha
Most crocs are nocturnal hunters and as Crocs eyes strongly reflect light, even from a distance, anyone searching for crocs finds that using lights to scan the water for their eye-shine is the best way to spot them at night allowing you to see their glowing red eyes. This eye-shine comes from a special crystal layer at the back of their eye called the "tapetum lucidum" which reflects light. Crocodiles have excellent night vision as a result of this layer.""
Ii sometimes wonder what's wrong with people in this country, who get all bleedy-heart about peak predators like crocs and sharks. As if any amount of culling would ever drive them to extinction. And even if it did, nature itself has no problem with mass extinctions, which have been regular events since the dawn of time.
And then there are morons who want to try and re-engineer dinosaurs.. as if Jurassic Park didn't show why that would be a very bad idea. Even the efforts to clone a Mastodon are a bit wrong-headed, and a LOT closer to becoming reality in the very near future.
Surely life is already dangerous enough?
'spose so Fulvio
although I don't like crocs and snakes to be in my backyard
they do have a role in the ecosystem - just as we humans do
so sustainable levels are ok in my books
I do confess that I kill spiders
because I don't like them living in my house and I've been bitten three times over the years by doing usual stuff like putting on shoes or sitting at a table,
so it's sort of a type of revenge really
Quote from: 'robbiegal' pid='28742' dateline='1379577186'they do have a role in the ecosystem - just as we humans do
Ah, and this is where the discussion gets interesting... I have a few friends who are eco-warriors, and they all seem to totally not get what an ecosystem IS. They think its the status quo... that every living thing is critical to the survival of the planet and so on.
Which of course is complete BS. The planet has been wiped clean of ALL life at least five times in its history, and yet here it still is. Wipe out an ecosystem and a new one takes its place, often better than the previous one. Even in recent times, when Krakatoa exploded, nothing but a pile of ash remained. Fast-forward a few years and there was more life there than before, and more diverse at that.
Not that I'm against conservation. Far from it. I think we are altering the environment to a degree that we will cause irreversible harm to ourselves and many other species in the medium term. But I do think that if something endangers you, you get rid of it and remove the danger. Simple logic. That croc sees you as its next meal, so there's no problem seeing IT as a handbag or a pair of shoes, in my book.
Not an eco warrior but I don't think we should wipe out a species because they're dangerous. I know people who have died from a horse kick to the head but none that have been taken by a croc.
There's no place for crocs or dangerous snakes in populated areas. Current policy is they should be caught and relocated. I don't have a problem with making that solution more permanent.
Perhaps a permit system to reduce the number of crocs. My concern for the snakes is that I believe most snakebites occur when the person is trying to kill the snake. Not sure how we get around that.
Quote from: 'Steveqld' pid='28787' dateline='1379591878'Current policy is they should be caught and relocated.
Dog bites kid, cop shoots dog. Or vet makes with the jabby-jabby, for the same result.
Croc eats kid, aww, poor croccy.. let us catch you and take you someplace nice where you can eat as much wildlife as you want, you naughty boy.
We as a species have no problem murdering poor defenceless creatures of all ilk. Calves shot in the head at a couple of days old simply for being male. Chicks killed for the same reason. And never mind the billions of creatures slaughtered daily for hamburgers and the like. Not just domesticated animals, but all manner of wild things give up their lives for our dinner, clothes, accessories and knick-knacks.
I see no reason to draw the line at critters that are ACTUALLY dangerous to us.