The Australian Bite
Great sporting moments & sheep wearing backpacks!
25 November 2010
Listen and download: MP3
This week on the Australian Bite, veteran sports journalist Ian Heads joins me to talk about some of the great moments in Australian sport over the last 200 years. We’ll meet the leader of a group of Indigenous students from Western Australia’s remote Kimberley region as they prepare for a trip to Vietnam. And we’ll hear why sheep are wearing backpacks in rural New South Wales!
And the Crowd Went Wild: 200 years of Australian sporting highlights
If we look back at the last two hundred years in Australian sport there have been many memorable moments. Like Australia’s history-making Americas Cup yacht race win in 1983; Don Bradman’s record-breaking innings of 334 in the third Ashes test at Leeds in 1930; and Cathy Freeman winning the 400 metres at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Well these events and many more are detailed in a new book called And the Crowd Went Wild: Sporting Days that Thrilled a Nation. The book celebrates 200 years of major Australian sporting events and achievements, beginning with the the Great Race Carnival of 1810, and ending with the Vancouver Winter Olympics held earlier this year. Veteran sports journalists Ian Heads and Gary Lester co-authored the book, and Ian Heads joins Heather Jarvis to talk about it.
Kimberley students Follow the Dream to Vietnam
A group of Indigenous students from Kununurra High School in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia is preparing for the trip of a lifetime. They have been chosen to travel to Vietnam as part of the Follow the Dream/Partnerships for Success program. The Follow the Dream excursion will see them helping build an organic garden in Tra Vinh and teaching English as a Second Language classes in Ho Chi Minh City. Gary Dagg is the co-ordinator of the Follow the Dream program, and he speaks with Richard Aedy.
Sheep wear backpacks for science
Australian sheep are now wearing backpacks. But they’re not running away from home and they are not New Zealand tourists. They’re part of a trial to measure methane emissions from the sheep’s bottoms! The University of Wollongong is using infrared equipment to work out if different pastures change the amount of methane sheep emit. Dr Frances Phillips is the University’s Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry explained the technology to Laura Poole.
Music: (not in podcast)
Gotye (aka Wally De Backer) was born in Belgium and grew up in Australia. We play his new single Eyes Wide Open from his forthcoming album due for release next year.
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