A plaque to the plague

SuperFreo! and I took a roadtrip out to Kalgoorlie this weekend to trawl for blog fodder.

Alas, the only fodder I found was the green of the Tammin bowls club, which was plagued - quite literally - by locusts.

An end to the war. Grumpy no more.

Behold, the calm before yesterday's Armistice Day march in Northam.

Pommie, Jimmy, Aussie! Oi oi Oi!

This morning, Hazel took this pic of the local bank near regular contributor, K.'s, home town which lies in the Westralian wheatbelt.

Not too many Aboriginal blokes leading hakas in there, I suspect.

Urban decay

The sun is setting on this perfectly good fish factory.

It will soon be a block of townhouses - the kind that a fly-by-nighter like the Cheetah would like to live or invest in. (If he knew where Fremantle was).

Resistable Force

Yeah, I joined 37,036 other rugby fans at Subiaco for the Western Force's first-ever game last night.

The Force lost 25-10 to their more experienced opposition from Australia's well-fed capital.

Though the Force backs weren't very zippy (with the exception of Digby Ioane who looked dangerous all night), and the team tired badly in the last 20 minutes, their forwards played well, particularly in the scrum. And the men in ocean blue will get better.

However, after all the hype in the years leading up to the game, I left the ground feeling underwhelmed. While the crowd was vocal, and the night balmy, it was all very Dalkeith.

Until I can afford a house up there, I think I'll stick to the mighty Dockers.

Crowd puller

Here's the pub where I more than likely will stop for a beer following the Western Force's first ever game on Friday night.

The Force will face the might of two-time champions the ACT Brumbies in the first round of the southern hemisphere Super 14 provincial rugby tournament.

Subiaco Oval, normally home to the mighty Dockers and over-rated Eagles Australian football sides, will be bulging, with the current Australian provincial rugby crowd record of 42,600 expected to fall.

The Force's CEO reckons a new record would, "show the traditional rugby powerbases on the eastern seaboard that the new home of Australian rugby is in the west."

Get your hand off it, mate.

You can ring my bell

Here's Perth's bell tower.

Hazel reckons it looks like a beetle burrowing head-first into the ground. I think she's spot on.

The tower contains the Bells of St Martin in the Field, which were made famous by some old poem or other.

The tower is a symbol of Richard Court's years as Liberal premier. He was ousted on the back of criticism he was spending too much money on Perth's north shore to the detriment of the rest of Western Australia. Subsequent Labor governments have disowned the bell tower.

But I like it.

Occidental tourist

Here's the windy old city of Perth -

the most Westerly city on earth.

Old York

Hazel took this top shot of York today.

The town is only 100 km east of Perth, but feels 100 years away.

Canis Familiaris

The dignified dingo patrols the blue seas
and stays high and dry on his red dingo skis.