Aaron from Dandenong was at the Oceania Glass Factory (old Pilkington Glass Factory), in the process of closing the factory for architectural glass manufacturing, typically 3mm to 12mm window glass for construction. The issues driving the closure were cheap imports (Indonesia, Vietnam, China), the furnace needing to be repaired, and the rise of energy and gas prices. The factory employed 250 people. Since announcing the closure, Chinese glass has gone up in price. The end of 169 years of glass making in Australia, as they were the last manufacturers of glass over here. Aaron had spent 20+ years cutting up glass and will now have to look for a new job in a new industry. Listen to the closure being discussed here.
Drone flyover of the huge factory here:
Ross Smith from the Australian Light Horse rang in from the Chauvel Light Horse Trail Ride from Shepparton to Tallangatta. Six weeks and 750km. It’s an anniversary ride, commemorating 80 years since Harry Chauvel died, doing educational talks along the way. Find out more here.
An insight into the important history of the Australian Light Horse here:
Tony from Singleton rang in to talk about the King Island Racing Carnival he had ridden at, riding seven winners. The horses were taken over on a barge, shipping on and off the island was difficult. He talked about King Island Dairy being sold to an Australian with the help of the Tasmanian government, saving the famous cheese brand.
This video talks about the King Island Racing Club Struggle:
Jalal rang in from KC in ACT to talk about Ramadan, which started on March 1 to 30 pr 31 (depends on lunar cycle). He was originally from Bangladesh. All muslims celebrating will have breakfast before sunrise and dinner after sunset.
Marion from Benalla rang in having sold her cherry farm, after 35 years. The children didn’t want to inherit it. She was organising a Women on Farms event, which is the 35th annual event, focusing on letting women know what’s happening in farming. The event is over 3 days from March 14-16, find out more here.
Bob Crowther’s book “The Wonders of the Weather” the tropical cyclone season in Northern Australia is normally from December to April. The earliest season recorded cyclone was Cyclone Innes in 1973 and the latest was Cyclone Herbie in Western Australia in May 1988. The average number of cyclones per year is 10 of which six cross the Australian coast. The highest number in one year was 16 in 1963. Cyclones cross the coast most frequently between Onslow and Cape Leveque in WA and between Mossman and Maryborough, Qld. Tropical Cyclones do less damage in Australia (compared to other countries) because coastlines are often sparsely populated.
John wrote about Cyclone Trixie which happened in February 1975. He was living in Dampier, he was working for Hammersley. Construction in the town had been to Cyclone standards, partially due to the managing engineer of Hammersley visiting Darwin to inspect what had happened after Cyclone Tracey where the city was smashed. The maximum recoded wind speed was 246km/hour, yet very little damage was done. He and his family hid in the bathroom in the centre of their house.
Rocks in Rockhampton rang in to talk about stem cell donation. Every 28 minutes in Australia someone gets diagnosed with Blood Cancer. Many of these people require a Bone Marrow Transplant. The Red Cross Blood operations used to be the only places to be able to register. Now cheek swabs are being used to register, making it more accessible to join the register.
Bob from Flaxley, who talked about not having had rain in South Australia for 12 months. They are desparate for hay and so are getting it delivered from Gippsland, Victoria to the Adelaide Hills, Rotary are donating them, costing three trucks of 32 bales at $110 per bale. They are calling out for donations to Rotary Australia World Community Service, Project 42/2024/25. Donate here.
Wayne rang from Belladonia Road House heading to Shepparton for the 20th GT Falcon Nationals. He was in a group of eight cars from Perth, in a 1972 XA, yellow fire colour.
Suzanne from Canterbury, Melbourne was just back from her 6th cruise on the Queen Elizabeth, which no longer boards in Melbourne due to increased docking fees. The ship has been taken over by Carnival from Cunard.
Andrew from Maroubra was on his way to Freshwater, representing South Maroubra SLSC for the first time at the age of 50. An Irishman who loves the surf movement, his club has 1,300 nippers, the largest cohort in the world. He was heading to the Surf Life Saving Championships. He grew up in County Sligo in Ireland, in 13-14 degrees sea temperature, migrated to Australia with work and met his wife at the Coogee Bay Hotel. He was competing in team of six in the Champion Patrol, the first time South Maroubra had a team in the event for 25 years. He waxed lyrical about the Sunday Social at South Maroubra SLSC.
Daniel, Brose and Yatesy from Bogengay were working on the railway with his workmates, moving the tracks to “avoid people spilling their VB on the Indian Pacific”. In the big yellow machines repositioning the track, they’ll end up in Barinua near Forbes.
Ben from Echuca was about to take part in a fun run for Headspace: 380km – nine marathons in four days, four hours, 44 minutes. He had been training for 18 months, having lost a brother to suicide after his other brother lost his life in a ski-racing accident. He’s raised $270,000 so far for it, aiming for $440,000. Starting at Mildura Bay Hospital and finishing in Ecucha on Friday 7 March. It will be 33 degrees, 36 degrees, and 37 degrees over the three days. He will run at night as well. There will be a live track on an Instagram page.
Barry at Newry in Gippsland rang in to talk about his group Gippsland Wild Dogs Advisory Group. His group is rescuing sheep being attacked and killed regularly. In the last give months about 45 sheep have been killed by the wild dogs, as well as some calves and alpacas. The government decided all wild dogs are now dingos, he said, which means these wild dogs are protected. When it snows in the mountains the dogs move down into the farms and they are taking up residence on some properties.
Tony in Port Vila, Vanuatu pointed out that Radio Australia no longer covers the South Pacific so NRL games and “Australia All Over” as well as a range of Australian radio is no longer available over there. “We had a pretty big earthquake in December”. Tony operates an aircraft service with Britain Nortern Islanders and a Chieftain and an Aero Commander 690B Turbo Prop (bought from Kenya), having been in Vanuatu since April 1971. “My mum was a mechanic by trade so my fascination was with making things work.” Macca explained that Radio Australia was setup to showcase Australia to the outside world like the South Pacific but it was ended, which Macca didn’t agree with. The Vanuatu region had had a lot of cyclones lately which caused planes to be grounded.
Leo drives a road train to the Port Adelaide Wharves, carrying 140 tonnes of HMC from the Murray Durkin Mines. This gets shipped to China. The Chinese have just bought a farm of around 200,000 acres for $17-18 million just outside Murray Bridge. The heavy metal content gets refined through water filtration process, then the product is picked up and taken to China. There is zinc and titanium and many other minerals in it. Seventy tyres on his truck and three trailers.
Anthony travelling on the Great Ocean Road to Kennett River for a surf. Surf has a two-foot swell with the odd larger wave. He rides an old single fin. He lives in Torquay and surfs most weekends. He’s been going to Kennett River since he was two years old. Kennet River was a logging township, the remnants of the sawmill are still there. Water temperature was around 19-20 degrees.
Andrew wrote in about the decline of country towns. He says that in the last few years, he has spent time in other countries, where they have focused on boosting R&D into design and manufacturing, as well as aiming to retain the populations in their rural areas. The Nordic Countries, particularly Finland (his benchmark), has the productive area of Victoria with a smaller population; yet he says it outperforms Australia in Manufacturing, R&D, Education, Defence, and National Energy Security. He had only found three Australian brands in Finland which were Jacobs Creek wine, Yellowtail wine and an inflatable lifeboat whereas he listed over 10 big Finnish brands sold in Australia. The railway network in Finland, he says, is key to enabling a decentralised population. The Finnish has a highly trained defence force and has national service, producing 30,000 in the forces and 900,000 well trained that can be accessed. They also use their forests in the regional areas for bio mass and a range of timber products. Bio-energy and bio-economy, as well as regulated forest, are not things pursued by Australia.
Anne wrote in about William Lane who was the leader of a group of Aussies in Paraguay called Utopia.
Kevin wrote in about the best tasting tomato: “brandy wine” tomato, sensational fried on toast. He had been given the seeds.
Trevor talked about a TV advert where a boy and girl recited “I love a sunburnt country,” which massively reduced rubbish being dumped on roadsides.
Adam, a pro tennis player, has been on the ATP World Tour for 12 years. He reached 195 in the world in doubles, initially with his brother, for 10 years. He grew up in Port Macquarie. His dad coached him and his brother. Nowadays, he takes young players on the tour to improve their ranking. Julia was invited to visit her friend in New Caledonia. She sat in the wrong seat in the wrong row of the plane. Adam did as well, and they met and they are now together. Adam and Julia travel together, often competing with jet lag and managing loneliness. Julia built the first AI Charity game in the world and consults to tech companies.
Judy from Rye was about to go on tour with her Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir (two guys involved).
Michael from Acheron rang in to talk about feeding the cattle in his long paddock. He said Victoria is running out of water. He confirmed the dog problem mentioned by Barry at Newry, as he had lost 15 calves taken by wild dogs through winter-time. He said they are cross-bred domestic dogs and dingoes. As government assistance is decreasing, the problem is increasing. They are being culled one mile into the bush, but there are so many of them that the problem is out of control.
John calling from Eucla to talk about what he sees on the Nullabor. It’s so green. There are no kangaroos seen on the roadside where there used to be and the road toll is very low as they have plenty to eat away from the road. He said there’s an old telegraph station on the beach.
Andrew from Vancouver, Canada told the story of last week his city, hosting the Invictus Games where he was a volunteer and was very proud of the Australian team’s performance. He had been living there for 20 years with a Construction Consultancy business.
Andrew reported that Prince Harry was on location, overseeing the event. This one being the 10th, the next one in 2 years will be in Birmingham. He also said that the construction industry in Vancouver has been hit by a 30-40% increase in costs, plenty of talk of getting young people into trades, “Vancouver has similiar problems to Sydney”. It costs way too much to build, but it will only get more expensive with the US tarrifs.
Christine from Northern Tasmania, a first responder for medical support with the firefighters, talked about her experiences. She’s be in Tasmania for 20 years but moved to Latrobe, “it’s quiet, it’s beautiful and it’s blooming cold!”
Rob Pollock rang from Maria, referring to the bombing of Darwin, he’d just done a charity row to PNG for Black Dog (Men’s Mental Health), Horn Island was the 2nd most bombed place in the war and he went past it. Horn Island being the most northernmost airport in Australia, hence it was heavily defended in WW2. On Thursday Island they had a rich heritage of Japanese pearl divers during the war so putting together a defence force to defend against the Japanese would have been fraught given the local Japanese cultural heritage.
It started at Seisia (on the tip of the Cape York Peninsula), they then rowed to Thursday Island then rowed through Islands in the Torres Strait, stopped at Mabuiag, then to Turn again Island, uninhabited but crocodiles everywhere. They called themselves the “Mussel Rowers” in a surf boat, a group of Surf Life Savers from all over NSW. It was a 4 day row to get there. Getting permission to go to PNG was tough as during Covid, PNG was shut off from Saibai Island, where the PNG people would go and sell their produce, but during Covid it was shut down, which caused a tough gig getting the visas, but with the help of a few influential people they got them. The local kids ran out to meet the boats and were delighted to get some free St George Illawara and Sydney Roosters merch. The previous year they took 150 pairs of second hand football boots as well as Roosters and St George Illawara gear, and footballs which will be dropped off by Border Force helicopter whilst they scan for the huge drug trade operating through there. He saw Dugongs and Turtles but no crocodiles in the water.
Troy from South West Ross called in to talk about the meeting at Kempsey Racecourse about the rural and regional crime. Local police are great but not enough of them there he said, “we are all living in fear”, he said. “Hopefully we’ll get some intervention and rehabilitation programs out of it instead of the lynch mob.”
Insights into the meeting and the crime being experienced, can be found here.
Anita rang in from the town of Tea Gardens in NSW and said “I grow peanuts”, her husband’s grandmother used to grow peanuts in Castle Hill over 60 years ago”. “I had some raw peanuts in the pantry, so i put them in some water and put them in the ground and low and behold they came up!”, she said. They have little yellow flowers. “I’d never seen anyone growing them in their gardens”. She said she lived on the hill and she has clay soil so she uses a raised bed, “the peanuts fix the nitrogen for my pumpkins.”
Find out more about how to grow peanuts in this video.
Marcus and Robin rang in whilst on the road with his Mustang going from Melbourne to Warrnambool, he’d just got fined $325, a speeding fine doing whilst being clocked at 116km/hour in a 100 km/hour zone. They reported it looked exceptionally dry on their way to Mortlake yet not far away in Gippsland it is very green.
John rang having just landed at Alotau in PNG, on the last P&O cruise, operating out of Australia, with approximately 2,800 aboard. The demographic has changed dramatically since Covid, he said, lots more younger people on cruise ships now. He had been involved in establishing a memorial to the Kiaps that died in PNG, a service will take place on the 50th anniversary of PNG Independence Day, on September 16 in Canberra. He called out to family members of soldiers that died in PNG during the war. He reminded us that PNG is only 4km from Saibai Island.
Geoff, a consultant for Energy and Clean Water, from Darwin rang in, a big electrical monsoon the previous night, it was the latest monsoon Darwin had ever had. He’d done a 7 day trip through Java on 7 different trains. He was a train buff and went on his own, started at Banyuwangi on the East Coast, had a look at the Dutch railway history and visited temples and museums in each city, went on a train in Java that reached 327Km/hour, built by the Chinese (who won the contract ahead of the Japanese). Very few caucasians were on the trains, “apart from cuttings and tunnels you could see houses at every stage of the trip.”
Captain Rebecca Levitt rang in about Navy Week which starts on March 3rd, the Navy 124th birthday is on March 1. She was not disconcerted by the recent Chinese Navy drills. Navy Week is around Australia, celebrating the strengths of the Navy and it’s contribution to the National Interest. She is the Commanding Offier for HMS Kuttabul at Woolloomooloo in Sydney. They are opening up to the public on Saturday March 8, where the public can get on the ships and talk to Navy people.
Lexie from Alexandria called in about a Bunnings BBQ on behalf of the Sydney Sirens Ice Hockey Club who play in a national league. They are the only women’s NSW team, the finals are coming up in Melbourne. The BBQ was to raise funds for the club’s travels, many ice rinks have closed in NSW so the club is rebuilding after Covid suspending the sport.
Chrissie from Hobart rang in about her local Rotary Roadshow, which is celebebrated the 100 year anniversary in Tasmania last year. They will go to various community events in Launceston and across Tasmania. Chrissie’s club is Salamanca Sunrise. She related that Rotary perform 47 million volunteer hours across the world each year.
See how they are celebrating their centenary here.
Allan was just leaving the King George Sound in Albany heading west to Freemantle on the boat, Southern Cross. He had visited the National Anzac Centre in Albany, which had a good interactive museum. Their trip can be followed on Social media #SouthernCross.
Christa from Inverell, rang in about Navy Week, “in the 60s when i left school i lived right alongside HMAS Cerberus at Western Port Bay in Victoria, three german girls including me landed jobs at the port and I loved the role.” She got married on the Naval base, the church was packed with people from the base. Her late husband were sprinkled in the Bight off HMAS Brisbane on the way to the Gulf war.
David rang in 15 years after calling in from the Qantas Flight Deck 128 from Hong Kong to Sydney. He left the job with A380s during Covid. He started flying sail planes as part of the Military Cadets in 1972, joined the Air Force in 1977, joined Qantas in 1985, always flying gliders and sail planes in his spare time. He had just left the 20m National Gliding Championships in Temora, heading back to Kingaroy. Kingaroy pilots did very well at the event, coming 2nd as a team, with a male and female pilots both winning their events. He is going to Boar in the Czech Republic representing Australia soon. He talked about Winglets at the end of each wing, becoming standard on all aircraft around 15 years ago. Macca asked what Gliders cost, he responded $6k to $500k+ and $30-50k would get you a reasonable performer but joining a gliding club is a far more economical option. He talked about the Morning Glory in Arabia, being the pinnacle of the Gliding world.
Watch this video to get an insight into the Morning Glory:
Alistair emiled from a large dairy complex in Saudi Arabia, he was there carrying out annual maintenace on 4 bottling lines at Nada Dairies. He related that the staff there from less developed countries have to do a 2 year stint before being allowed to visit home. He said there are over 70,000 Fresians there under cover from the desert sun, it’s winter and about 25 degrees but it was 52 in summer.
John talked about his mother steaming envelopes to reuse the stamps and get free postage.
Brendan called from Wagga Wagga, was running a young sheep judging competition, the winners going onto the Royal Sydney Easter Show (April 11-22, 2025). He was from Gurley, and is President of the Moree Show Society.
See more about this year’s Sydney Easter Show here:
Daniel wrote in from a gas and oil site at the Cooper Basin in the Strzelecki Desert, a FIFO mechanic keeping the landcruisers going, he sees some beautiful flocks of budgies at times.
Learn more about the geology of the Cooper Basin in this video:
Rob called in from Blackman’s Bay in Tasmania and recalled being on board when an earlier caller’s husband’s ashes were sprinkled in the Bight on the way to the Gulf War.
Listen to a fascinating coverage of the HMAS Brisbane here:
