The Australian Bite
Whales do their bit for carbon reduction
17 June 2010
Listen and download: MP3
On the Australian Bite this week, we’ll hear how a small group of refugees and migrants are blazing a new trail in rural Australia – learning to be jackaroos, or stockmen. Author Robyn Catchlove will tell us about her adventurous life that’s seen her go from professional barramundi fisher to something very different. And we’ll find out how whales in the Southern Ocean are doing their bit for the environment, by reducing carbon emissions.
Refugees ride tall in the saddle
A small group of refugees and migrants are blazing a new trail in rural Australia. Over the past few months they’ve been tractor driving, hay bailing, fencing, working with farm animals and learning to ride horses and motorbikes. It’s all part of a specialist jackaroo and jillaroo course run by the Southern Queensland Institute of TAFE. (Technical and Further Education) Cathy van Extel caught up with a couple of these would-be jackaroos, including Afghan migrant Mohammed Sadeeq, at work on a farm near Warwick.
Whale poo helps fight climate change
We know that methane and manure from livestock are supposed to be a big contributor to global warming, so you might assume that the same would be true of big ocean mammals. However new Australian research has turned such thinking on its head. A study by Flinders University PhD candidate Trish Lavery shows that whale faeces in the Southern Ocean actually lowers the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. Reporter Meredith Griffiths reports.
You can read a transcript of Meredith Griffith’s report here
Memoir of an adventurous life
Back in the very male-dominated world of 1970′s Australia, Robyn Catchlove rejected the idea of a quiet family life, ran off with her lover and became one of Australia’s first female professional barramundi fishers in tropical far north Queensland. She’s written about these extraordinary, exciting and sometimes trying times – and her subsequent discovery and embracement of Tibetan Buddhism – in a new memoir called Somewhere down a Crazy River, published by Pan Macmillan Australia.
Music (not in podcast)
Melbourne five-piece Little Red are back with some new music two years after their excellent debut album “Listen to Little Red” (2008). They’re currently on tour in the UK and about to head back to Australia to tour their new single Rock It – with a new album soon to follow. You can listen to the song here on the Litte Red MySpace page
Artist: Little Red
Track: Rock It
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