A Mini Holiday

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Yeah it looks awful and only 25 degrees, I just hope those poor people survived and didn't get frostbite. (it was -32 here recently).

A little story for you, from Darwin in the late 90s. Darwin has a high itinerant population, a lot of people go there because of the opportunities but leave again when they discover they can't cope with the climate. This is also true of the medical staff that work in Darwin Hospital, many are only there to do the compulsory practical element at the end of their degree and then they're gone again.

Because the hospital is constantly staffed by so many southerners the temperature on the airconditioning kept getting turned down lower and lower. It was common to see patients sitting outside in the carpark during the day because it was too cold for them inside, even bed-ridden patients would have friends or family to come and push them outside every day.

Then there was a group of aboriginal women brought in from a remote community over near Gove. There had been a big argument and a big brawl in the community and most of the women were only suffering a few bruises and a couple of broken bones. They had been flown to Darwin and hospitalised as much to get them out of the community and let tensions die down as much as because there was anything wrong with them.

The temperature inside the hospital was only 20 degrees, these women had never experienced 20 degrees in their lives before. All of them ended up with pneumonia and 2 of them died.

There was a huge inquest over those deaths, and now the temperature inside the hospital is regulated by law, it can be no lower than 27 degrees.

 

[Forest Cat]

There's not many places in mainland Australia that ever get below 0, to us 10 degrees is too cold to go outside. No one would think of going swimming unless it's over 30.

You make it sound so nice. I watched something called Outback Car Hunters last night, I like to watch Australian tv shows because the weather is always warm and nice on those shows.

 

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You make it sound so nice. I watched something called Outback Car Hunters last night, I like to watch Australian tv shows because the weather is always warm and nice on those shows.

You'll have to visit one day, 24 hours sitting in a plane isn't much fun though. Our early spring would seem like summer to you.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

This reminds me of a photo I saw in the US newspaper some 50 years ago. At the end of the Vietnam war, many Vietnamese were airlifted out of their country and to southern California where the temperature was in the 70s (F).

The poor kids were huddled in soldiers' jackets coming down to their ankles because they were so cold.

 

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This reminds me of a photo I saw in the US newspaper some 50 years ago. At the end of the Vietnam war, many Vietnamese were airlifted out of their country and to southern California where the temperature was in the 70s (F).

I saw a lovely tv interview with a group of Vietnamese boat people who landed east of Darwin and walked 200 Km of crocodile infested swamps to get to Darwin and alert authorities to their presence. During the interview they asked one of the men if they saw any crocodiles. The man hung his head in shame and said "We are sorry. We were very hungry.".

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

I saw a lovely tv interview with a group of Vietnamese boat people who landed east of Darwin and walked 200 Km of crocodile infested swamps to get to Darwin and alert authorities to their presence. During the interview they asked one of the men if they saw any crocodiles. The man hung his head in shame and said "We are sorry. We were very hungry.".

So they caught the crocs and ate them? How did they catch the crocs with no equipment? Even small ones would be difficult to catch.

But the temp in Darwin was probably closer to temps in their home country. Are there crocs in the Mekong delta? I bet there are. Google says there are small freshwater crocs there.

Back when alligator hunting was still legal, men would walk through the marshes carrying a shotgun, and slowly, slowly shuffling their feet. When they felt a sleeping gator, they lifted up the foot and shot the gator.

 

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So they caught the crocs and ate them? How did they catch the crocs with no equipment? Even small ones would be difficult to catch.

Crocs are cunning but not necessarily intelligent, they tend to react rather than act and can be tricked in to trapping themselves. Drop anything in the water next to a croc and it will automatically bite the object and go in to a roll. If the object is just a lead weight and some string they bind their own jaws shut, this is similar to how Parks And Wildlife trap and remove many of the smaller ones from popular swimming areas.

Back when alligator hunting was still legal, men would walk through the marshes carrying a shotgun, and slowly, slowly shuffling their feet. When they felt a sleeping gator, they lifted up the foot and shot the gator.

Pity any poor fool that tries that here. To an alligator humans are not a part of the food chain and an alligator will only attack a human if it believes it's being threatened in some way. Crocodiles are quite different, they do see humans as food and they're incredibly aggressive.