DVN61

Saturday, 14 January 2023

Sunday, 1 January 2023

Friday, 9 December 2022

Merry Christmas Part 2

A classic Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame Christmas annimation.

Part 1 here

Thursday, 1 December 2022

Merry Christmas and have a fantastic 2023

It's been a great year here at DVN61 headquartes.

So to celebrate I'm giving links to all my digital works for free.

Just click on the links below.

ART by OTHERS stories by me. Volume 1

ART by OTHERS stories by me. Volume 2

Game of Kings Picture Book

Holidays the Huner S Thompson way.

Pious & Mole's Misadventure in Rattown.

Tuesday, 1 November 2022

The new cat and what became of it.

The new cat.

“The smallest feline is a masterpiece” Leonardo Da Vinci.

I wrote this piece three years ago, now Marlie is an adult.

Marlie - 6 months old with present for us.

I’d forgotten what it was like to have a kitten in the house. Not too long ago our most beloved Tiddles passed away after 18 years of servitude as protector, pal and valued family member. We didn’t know if we could ever replace him, but he left such a hole in our everyday home life that we decided to look for another cat to help heal the loss. After much consultation about what was the most respectful mourning period and then much researching and traveling meeting new hopeful additions, we finally decided on an eight-week-old tortoiseshell tabby from the RSPCA, but it was more of a case of the kitten choosing my wife.

The naming process took just as long and after many democratically held secret ballots, it was decided to call it what mum wanted. So now we had Marlie, a female kitten and new companion to Gracie, our two-year-old Cavoodle.

Then the stark reality set in. Kittens are cute, fluffy, and weigh almost nothing but I can see all the benefits of getting an older rescue cat now. I don’t remember kitten’s claws being so sharp, or that you had to peel them off like Velcro from any fabric surface that hung near the floor. Or, that they bounce around faster than those parkour guys who jump stairs and balconies like they’re Spiderman.

For example, I was at my desk typing and I felt something land on my shoulder then felt the weird contrasting feelings of something wonderfully soft on my neck and the snake-like fang penetration of pain in my shoulder. Somehow, the kitten had leaped/ climbed/transported over ten times its own height from the floor to my shoulder to see what I was doing. I understand how curiosity can kill the cat, it took all my self-control to avoid the sheer reflex action and nearly sending the poor thing flying.

Kittens have nature's best self-defense mechanism. No matter what they do, what they destroy or maim. They only need to look at you or start playing with anything, a ball, a feather, a bug, your sock and your heart melts.

At least the dog and cat bonded quickly and I look forward to another 18 years of friendship, scratched furniture and being ignored every time I enter a room.

We still miss Tiddles but welcome to the family Marlie.

Postscript:

Well, the cute kitten grew up to be an arsehole.

She shows afection to everything and everyone by biting or scratching deep burrows in their exposed skin.

Marlie is a beautiful cat to look at. Her mother must have been a pedigree, who got raped by a feral tomcat.

But the dog and her get along so that's one thing.

Pity she kills anything that enteres the backyard, be in by air, tree or on foot.

Origin article appeared in the BBCN June 2018 edition

Saturday, 1 October 2022

IN SEARCH OF THE REFOUND

IN SEARCH OF THE REFOUND

The original crash path coming up the mountain

The Memorial cairn

The Kyeema disaster in 1938 when a DC-02 passenger plane slammed into Mount Dandenong was at the time Australia’s worst civil aviation accident, responsible for the death of eighteen passengers and crew that included prominent businessmen and a Federal member of Parliment it would result in important safety recommendations that would reshape Australian domestic air services with the creation of the Civil Aviation Authority. The new body would be given increased resources and policing powers. Making it increasingly safer for the nascent aviation industry.

The crash site itself left a scar on the Western face of the mountain due to the impact and the resulting fires. But Mother Nature is a wonderful thing and she and time both heal. So well in fact, that 40 years later it was discovered that the record-keeping was not as detailed or accurate as expected and the exact location of the original site had been lost.

In the early 1970s questions were being asked and were unable to be answered by the Department of Civil Aviation’s Investigation Branch due to incomplete records of the crash, A team led by Macarthur Job was tasked with righting these discrepancies.

Thanks to leaf litter build-up, bush fires and regrowth over the years the mountain wasn’t eager to give up its secrets too easily. So, using original search material documents, local knowledge in the guise of ex Forestry Commission workers, and archive photos from The Herald and The Sun newspapers taken of the crash site, the team were able to determine the point of impact in the form of two trees still standing matching the old photos and a stump where that confirmed some of the original but vague bearings from the 1938 report. They even unearthed molten aluminium chunks and various small items overlooked by the original investigation such as bolts, seat springs and an engine valve.

The missing sign

With the original site mystery solved a stone memorial was erected to celebrate the 40^th anniversary not long after and still stands today with an additional plaque added in 2003 identifying the eighteen victims.

An accident that if it happened today (albeit in clearer conditions) I would be able to witness and hear from my backyard in Boronia.

On this realization, I decided to see if I would still be able to find some traces of the crash another forty years after the rediscovery of the original crash.

The sign as it should be

Having some spare time during my summer break, I made my way up the mountain nice and early to beat the heavy holiday tourist traffic, which I did but unfortunately caught all the early morning holiday cyclists instead.

The site, thanks to the previous expedition was easy to find, the memorial cairn is located only a stone throw from the Bourke’s Lookout Carpark, opposite the memorial is a very informative notice board packed with interesting data on the crash and subsequent studies.

Behind the memorial cairn is a well-worn and winding skinny track. I followed this down the steep incline before I checked my bearings and realized I had descended too far. My inappropriate footwear trying hard to keep a hold on whatever rock I could find purchase on what to my mind was a 45-degree angle. Thank goodness for the saplings that I grabbed hold of to stop the snowball effect of me wiping out whatever lay below me. This of course meant the hard slog back up again. That’s when I noticed something just off the path. Two round pine poles jutting out of the ground.

I recognized it as the “Kyeema” Crash Site sign I had seen in my research but hadn’t to this point been able to find. I had mistakenly assumed it was part of the notice board display up higher.

The wooden sign that virtually pinpointed the site had been removed for repair, taken as a souvenir or vandalized I don’t know but the posts remained with bolts intact leading me to think the latter.

Getting my bearings and using photos on my phone from the book The Kyeema Disaster by the aforementioned Macarthur Job I found myself staring straight at one of the trees used to pinpoint the original crash site.

McCarther Job's references

Relic Number 1

I found two of the three landmarks from the crash identified in the 1978 expedition. Though they had been worn down by age and decay there was still enough left to make a match and positively identify them. I was quite proud of myself. Knowing that in a few short years even these last remaining pieces of evidence will vanish into the ground but at least I had a chance to touch an important piece of local

Relic Number 2

and national history.

There is one lingering question I couldn’t find an answer to. If all the tall buildings in the city have red flashing lights to warn aircraft, why doesn’t the towers on Mount Dandenong?

Does anyone know?

original crash investigators 1934

original crash investigatorssite photo

original crash investigators 1934

originally published in the BBCN Feb 2022

Tuesday, 6 September 2022

Daffodils are Forever.

Daffodils are Forever.

I like to go for walks, and I like to explore the various tracks, parks and reserves that are nearby. One that I hadn’t walked through, even though I have friends living on its border, is not very far from my house and it’s been the subject of much controversy lately. I refer to the Koolunga Native Reserve.

So off I went to see what all the fuss was about. My First impression was how thick the bush was from my entry point which was the car park off Forest Road but when you move along the many trails also how wonderfully mysterious it could be. I was surprised when I stumbled across a waterway that winds beside the path that snakes through the heavy bush. I was unaware this was a drain, it looked so much like a creek the way it follows its own path, though I did find out later it leads directly to Blind Creek. The bush eventually opens up and reveals some nice open lawned areas bordered by huge pine trees. All along the way noticing benches for sitting and enjoying the scenery. I was surprised by how compact it was but also how much it was being enjoyed, not just by the number of people strolling through it but also by the little tree houses made out of fallen branches by local kids and the water bowls beside trees. Whether they were for dogs or local fauna, I wasn’t sure. I had a quick peek at the sign indicating future works regarding the implanting of a wetland area. So when I got home I decided to look into it a bit more.

Being a local history buff, I immediately got hooked on the fact the park was part of

the original Chandler daffodil farm. Roughly over 50 Hectares in its prime and to be able to see it now

when the crops were in full bloom on a sunny day with the Dandenongs in the background would be a sight to behold. Owned originally by Alfred Chandler, part of the Chandler dynasty that is responsible for much of the progress and development of this corner of what is now Knox council can never be lauded enough. It was Alfred’s son Gilbert who probably had the most influence on the area. As a horticulturist, his tenure as a local and state politician culminated as a Minister for Agriculture, during this time under his leadership he led a remarkable advancement in research in many areas of Farming disease control and primary industry. Gilbert was also a conservationist of the first order with a passion for preserving the beauty of the Dandenongs and for being instrumental in the buyback of the Western face of the Dandenongs to incorporate it into the National park, thus stopping future development in that area. He was also responsible for selling the land that is now Koolunga Reserve to the council on the proviso it remains a natural bush setting. In the 1950s, other members of the Chandler family sold adjoining land and helped establish and develop the Boronia Bowls Club. This led to the beginning of housing development in the area and in 1972 the daffodil farm ceased operations which led to further development to the point where the only part of the original property remaining in one form or another is the Koolunga Native Reserve. This, of course, is a very abridged version of the history and I encourage everyone to look into the fascinating lives and history of the area and the Chandlers themselves. There is currently a movement to stop a section from being turned into wetlands by the council. The section takes up about an eighth of the existing park. This is where I decided I had an opinion on what was happening.

Wetlands are a good thing, they provide an important resource in the stability of the local environment for both fauna and fauna. I, however, find them aesthetically unappealing. Since arriving in the area I have seen three areas developed into wetlands. Wicks Reserve, the area below the library on Dorset rd. and the redevelopment of the lake at the Arboretum. Though all provide important functions, I never felt they added to the original vista. To me, they made the original messier. Less attractive. With the proposed Koolunga wetlands, to me, it is not so much how it will affect the area it is in but the area around it. This brings us back to the Daffodil farm. Below where the wetlands are proposed lies the open area I mentioned earlier flanked by pine trees, Originals from the early days of the daffodil farm that were used as windbreaks, This open area is part of the fields where daffodils grew and it didn’t occur until it was pointed out to me, still have the rise and fall of the flower beds. Something you can see more clearly when the lawn is mowed or from another point of view, on Google Maps the rows can be seen clearly when viewed from above. Basically. this is the last remaining area that exists as part of the original farm and from what I can ascertain is in the path of heavy machinery to construct the earthworks to build the wetlands. I’d like very much to see this part preserved and perhaps a historical marker or board proclaiming what this particular area was a small part of.

I sincerely hope that a compromise can be made, we are in an enviable position where our local history is treasured and incorporation of the old with the future is always an option.