Adventure Ausrama Blog

All children are taught in history class about the Eureka Stockade but they do not learn about the Darwin Rebellion. The Northern Territory was annexed by South Australia in 1863. In 1911 the federal government took control of the NT. Dr John Gilruth was appointed administrator. He had great plans to develop the territory, but he was aloof and would not listen to the community. The administrator was involved in opening a meat works and would not negotiate pay. Consequently Vesteys Meatworks failed. On December 16, 1918 Dr Gilruth refused to allow two bartenders working at the Victoria Hotel the night off to go to a party celebrating the end of WWI. The union leader Harold Nelson went to the police station and got a permit for a protest. A month after the hotel incident a group of men marched from Vesteys Meatworks to Government House. The small group of protesters grew into a crowd of thousands. Things got out of control. People demanded the resignation of the administrator. Dr Giru...

Western countries are heading for a crisis. Young people are not being taught skills that are of use in the workforce. Australia under Prime Minister Tony Abbott is moving back to the three "Rs" - reading, writing and arithmetic in schools. However, it will take at least a decade for this to take effect. It looks unlikely that future Australian governments will keep this change going. More and more irrelevant subjects are being introduced into an already crowded curriculum. Students are studying different things. There is no uniformity in education. Will we reach a stage where machines run the world and there are no technicians with the skills to repair them? This is a strong possibility. It is just a short step back to primitivism, back to the stone age. Students are not applying to enter the scientific field. Scientists are an aging bunch. Much research funding is channelled to them because they have proven themselves. Bodies with funds do not have any faith i...