Buckshot Bear

‘THE WITCHETTY GRUB’ The witchetty grub is one of the most famous and popular from the nation’s bush tucker menu. For many generations the larval stage of the large cossid wood moth has been chosen as a key source of protein by the Aboriginal communities. Growing up to 12cm in length, they bury themselves about 60cm below the ground feeding on the root sap of the Witchetty bush. However, the name ‘witchetty’ is now used for any ‘fat, white, wood-boring grub’ including swift moths, longicorn beetles and other wood moths found in Australia; and are said to hold a similar taste. Between November and January, Aboriginal women and children from many tribes would find these grubs by digging around the roots of the Witchetty bush. Historically, witchetty grubs have been a staple for Aboriginal communities, and today is still an important food and nutritious snack when living in the bush. Acting as a rich source of protein, it has been found that ’10 witchetty grubs are sufficient to provide the daily needs of an adult’. The liquid centre of a raw witchetty grub tastes like almonds. Witchetty grubs can also be cooked on hot ashes or barbecued. When cooked, their skin becomes crisp like a roast chicken, whilst the inside meat becomes white and chewy. Depending on your taste buds, these cooked grubs will taste either like chicken or prawns with peanut sauce. Often eaten as an appetiser, they are a quick and easy meal, rich in protein. Not only are witchetty grubs a staple food, but they also serve as one of the top Aboriginal bush medicines. By crushing the grub into a paste and spreading over injuries, burns and wounds are seen to heal more effectively.

Whilst rabbit meat sold well at the markets, pelts – at first – attracted little commercial interest. Yet by the 1880s, Australian rabbit skins were being auctioned in their millions in London, a centre for felt- and hat-making. In Australia, hat-makers established themselves where rabbits were most plentiful: in Tasmania, Victoria (where, according to Warwick Eather and Drew Cottle’s recent study, the number of hat manufactories doubled between 1870 and 1880) and in New South Wales. Whatever the Australasian pastoralist may think to the contrary, the world cannot do without Australasia’s rabbits. Percy O Lennon, The Queenslander, 1929. From the start of the twentieth century to nearly 1950, Australian hatters and furriers bought around one billion rabbit skins, however most were still shipped overseas. Over this time, the majority of export skins went to North America, where buyers sought rabbits as cheaper alternatives to, and even substitutes for, luxury furs such as sable. With creative preparation, rabbit pelts could be made to look like (and were successfully sold as) fashionably desirable furs. Accordingly, rabbit skin prices rose dramatically. Australian papers duly reported on potential increases in the cost of hats, then a widely worn item of men’s fashion. Demand was such that anyone able to catch rabbits could make money by selling skins. PHOTO - About 6,200 rabbits in crates at Woodstock, New South Wales, 1906.

I'm really glad that your dream was about an Aussie Sheep Ranch.....now if it has been about a New Zealand Sheep Ranch.....that would be a worry!!!!!

Eyesa they milk the Funnel Web Spiders to make antivenom antidote....it saves a lot of lives.

Yep its a HOT COUNTRY....and blokes wore this to the office - Thankfully Air Conditioning took off!!!

I used to use nail polish on .303 rounds in my powerhead to waterproof them.

It might just be the secret ingredient

1963 Drumstick ice cream introduced Peters Drumstick was launched in Australia in 1963. It wasn’t invented here though. Like its predecessor the Eskimo Pie, the ice cream was invented in the United States. Drumsticks are now sold in the USA, Canada, Malaysia, Hong Kong and elsewhere across the world. The Drumstick name is owned by Froneri and the product is sold under the Nestlé brand in the US. There have been many variations on the original format of vanilla ice cream in a choc-lined waffle cone, with a chocolate and nut topping. According to Nestlé, the ice cream was invented in 1928. Their American website says: At the 1904 World’s Fair, an ice cream maker ran out of bowls. He asked a nearby waffle vendor to roll waffles into cones, turning them into a finger food. In 1928 the Parker brothers took this great invention even further by adding chocolate coating topped with nuts. One of the brothers’ wives said it looked like a fried chicken leg, thus the “Drumstick” was born!” Today Nestle® Drumstick® is America’s #1 sundae cone. Yes, it took 35 years for the Drumstick to reach Australia but, with Aussie ingenuity, we managed to make it better. One of the favourite things about the ice cream is the blob of chocolate at the bottom of the cone. It seems this was invented in the Peters factory in Queensland as a way to solve the problem of leaky ice cream cones. In 2020, Peters doubled down on the idea by introducing a range of “Mega Tip” varieties, with twice as much chocolate. The ownership of the brand caused some problems in Western Australia, where, for five years in the early 2000s, you couldn’t buy a Drumstick. Instead, you had to ask for a Trumpet. (The Trumpet had previously been seen on the east coast as the Toppa Trumpet – another Drumstick look-alike.) When Nestlé bought the Western Australian Peters Ice Cream operation in 2009, the Drumstick returned. The Streets Ice Cream competitor to Drumstick has a much shorter history. The Cornetto has an Italian-sounding name for a reason – the cones were first produced in 1976 by Spica, an ice cream company based in Naples. Unilever, which owns Streets, bought Spica and began to market the product under their various brands in Europe and around the world

‘THE VICTORIA DOCK’ - 1933 State Library of VIC. Steam Train R 317 pulls a rake of coal on Victoria Dock. The ship shown is the 11.215 GRT KPMs "Neiuw Zealand"" a Dutch troop ship which was sunk by a torpedo on Nov. 11 1942. The tug shown is the "Taronga"

Had a Cox PT Trainer as a kid that looked like this.....boy oh boy did that plane used to make me dizzy!!!!!!!!!

Got razorbacks.......I do like raccoons....I reckon they are SO cute!!!!!!!!