The Australian Bite
Surf and love-heart strawberries
4 February 2010
Listen and download: MP3
Australian beaches are beautiful, but they can also be dangerous – especially to people who aren’t experienced in the water. In fact Australian surf lifesavers rescue tens of thousands of people from potentially life threatening situations at the beach every year. Well a program called Migration 2 Surf, being run by the Coogee Lifesaving Club in Sydney, is teaching adult migrants beach and water safety skills, and we hear more about the program on this week’s Australian Bite. Also on the program, John Barrington drops by to talk to the residents of Hall’s Creek in remote Western Australia, which has been dubbed Australia’s worst place to live. And heart-shaped strawberries may be all the rage as this year’s hot Valentine’s Day Gift.
Australia’s worst town? The locals don’t think so.
Imagine if the town you lived in was dubbed the worst town in the country. Well here in Australia, Halls Creek in the Kimberley region of Western Australia currently holds that title. Halls Creek has suffered years of bad reviews in the press and one business survey has ranked it as the town with the lowest quality of life in Australia. But given that it’s home sweet home to more than one thousand people, can it really be that bad? Reporter John Barrington went there to investigate.
See John’s photos of Hall’s Creek – and listen to the story again if you like – at the Triple J Hack website
Halls Creek on Google Maps
Migration 2 Surf – teaching migrants beach safety skills
The Coogee Life Saving club in Sydney has been running a fabulous program called Migration 2 Surf. It’s a one day free theory and practical program for adult migrants who want to build their confidence in the water and learn important safety skills. Rob Gibellini is Chief Instructor at Coogee Surf Lifesaving Club, and Naresh Kumar is one of the Migration 2 Surf project Team – he’s been involved in the project since the beginning, and has also done the course as a participant. I had a chat with them about the program.
Migration 2 Surf at the Coogee Life Saving Club
Migration 2 Surf on Twitter
The Surf Life Saving Australia website has great information on surf life saving in Australia, as well as information and links to lots of beach safety information.
Want to know more about rips and how to escape or better still avoid them? Click here
Strawberry hearts for Valentine’s Day
With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, Australians can forgo the usual flowers and chocolates, because they now have a novel way in which to impress the one they love. A northern Tasmanian farm is growing strawberries inside clear poly-carbonate heart-shaped moulds – where they expand and ripen into a perfect red heart shape. The idea is that of 22-year old Melbourne engineering and commerce graduate, Josh Engwerda, who’s been hard at work at the Hillwood strawberry farm fitting 5000 of the moulds to individual fruit. Rosemary Grant asked him how he came up with the idea.
The heart shaped strawberries have been named ‘seduberries” and you can check them out here
Music (not in podast)
Sydney outfit The Hoodoo Gurus formed way back in 1981, and almost 30 years later – with a couple of breaks along the way – they’re still going strong with a new single, and a new album due for release in March called Purity of Essence. But this track is from their heyday in the mid 1980’s.
Artist: The Hoodoo Gurus
Track: Like Wow, Wipeout!
Album: Mars needs Guitars (1985)
Watch their new single Crackin’ Up at the official Hoodoo Gurus website.
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