OZ Spot: ‘Dear Del …?’

Everybody’s sweetheart …

DEAR DEL’S QUESTIONS WERE FULL OF THE PRESENT FRUSTRATIONS. THERE WERE SOME THAT WERE SPIKEY AND HONEST. BUT, ON THE WHOLE, LARGELY TRUE TO LIFE. 

THERE WERE OTHERS THAT MADE HEADLINE NEWS. HER REAL NAME WAS DEL CARTWRIGHT. DEL WAS WITH THE DAILY MIRROR FOR ABOUT SIX YEARS IN THE 1960s. 

SHE ASSISTED ME SEVERAL TIMES IN JUDGING OUTSIDE ASSIGMENTS AND WAS BILLED AS “DEAR DEL FROM THE LEADING NEWSPAPER THE DAILY MIRROR.

AFTER A WHILE, SHE GOT TO LIKE IT; IT WAS ANOTHER HIGHPOINT IN HER LIFE. 
DEL SPENT HER EARLY CAREER IN RADIO AND TELEVISION. LATER ON, THE CHANNEL 7 PROGRAM, THE NATIONAL DEL CARTWRIGHT AT HOME SHOW, WAS PACKAGED BY THEIR TOP PRODUCTION CREW. SHE DIED IN 1990 – FM.
 

The Great Aussie First! 

In 1841, Strode paves the way!

This year, 1992, marked the sesquicentenary of the country press in NSW.  The first newspaper published outside Sydney “appeared suddenly” on December 11, 1841. 
It was Thomas Strode’s Hunter River Gazette, priced at one shilling. Strode, a former chief printer of the Sydney Herald, several years earlier, produced in partnership with George Arden, the Port Phillip Gazette in Melbourne.
 

ABOVE: Thomas Strode … the paper “appeared suddenly”.
 

Although Strode has written himself into the history books, his newspaper had only a short life. 

He discontinued the Gazette “ungraciously” in June 1842. A special symbol was designed to celebrate the publication of the country newspapers in NSW 150 years ago. The logo appeared on the front page of  country newspapers throughout the state.

Australian newspaper history is rich in colour, turmoil, and unforgettable characters.
 

NZ Scene: Take a taste of the garden, land and climate …

Hamilton Gardens . . . colour, colour everywhere!
 

... and you will instantly fall in love with Aotearoa, New Zealand.

“Glorious”! That’s how New Zealand gardens have been described by our visitors. New Zealand, per sa, is a nation of gardeners.

Wherever you look there is a patch of land, big or small, that someone is lovingly tending. with flower beds to magnificent public parks.
 

NZ SCENE: SPECIAL FEATURE

This passion for gardening will present different faces as you traverse the country. The diversity of landscape and climate means that you’ll find sub-tropical and semi-arid gardens, coastal and alpine gardens – often only a few hours’ drive from each other.

Being a temperate country, New Zealand has four separate seasons during which a variety of flowers bloom.
 

Queenstown has plenty going for it.
 

The land itself is a beautiful, ever changing canvas. The northern King Country gives way to the electric coloured live earth of the volcanic heartland. Rotorua is densely forested.

In the South Island, golden sandy shores at Nelson flow, to patchwork plains of Canterbury, and wild lupin rimmed southern alpine highways lead to lush pastureland plains.

The climate is mild and temperate. From all over the world flora has flourished alongside our bountiful native flora.

Being an island, uninfluenced by any close land mass, the yearly range of temperatures is around 10 degrees Celsius variation between winter and summer.

In the north of Auckland, the climate tends to sub-tropical and the rest of the country is temperate. In the South Island, extensive snow falls on the Southern Alps during winter, but seldom on the plains.

– Frank Morris. Background from l00% New Zealand.
 

Cottage Garden

OZ Spot: Walking with Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs were land-living reptiles which existed during the Mesozoic era – that’s about 65 to 225 million years ago. Tyrannosaurus is the largest known of  the carnivorous dinosaurs. Its skull was mega strong, possibly to withstand the impact caused when the creature attacked its prey. Its teeth were 15 to 20 centimetres long, all with shaped serrated edges – like a streak knife. Styracosaurus, with a shaped neck frill was probably used to attract mates or threaten rivals. The large horn on its nose would have been a formidable weapon.

<< WALKING WITH DINOSAURS, ABC, STARTS JUNE 3. SERIES.