The PR Blog

On 19 March 1932 the Sydney Harbour Bridge opened to the public. This landmark bridge is almost the poster child that is synonymous with Australia and is no doubt one of the most instantly recognizable bridges in the world.

The brainchild of John Bradfield, the Sydney Harbour Bridge is tribute to the man who brought us the concept of the much touted " Bradfield Scheme " and also the Storey Bridge in Brisbane and Sydney's rail system. He oversaw the rebuilding of the bridge over the Hawkesbury River and the construction of dams such as the Cataract and Burrinjuck dams. In 1917 he wrote a paper predicting Sydney’s population would nearly triple by 1950 to more than 2.2 million. This was used in Bradfield’s day as an argument for suburban electrified trains as a way to open up new land for development. source. 

Last year ANZAC Day was subsumed by the Coronavirus lockdown and we were denied the right to celebrate it and honour our Diggers in the usual way by government decree.

As the day approaches it looks like this year it may be subsumed again by the furore of the March 4 Women’s Rights movement or the demonstrations by the Aboriginal Industry asking for MORE.

Either way, I expect that we will still get the usual collection of the bearded unwashed telling us how wrong we were/are for participating in any war because we should be celebrating peace.

These angry shots are not the first, nor will they be the last salvos we ordinary grateful citizens will be subjected to by this ignorant element in our society. Ignore them and roll with the punches.

When one talks about real angry shots and the peaceful scenario of Port Philip Bay on a calm and cloudy day one does not normally connect the two in the same sentence but on 4^th August 1914, they did.

Ad-Free ABC?

(Australian Broadcasting Commission)

In recent decades “our” ABC has become a pampered left-wing mega-phone.

The 17th of March marks the date of the death of St Patrick, the patron Saint of Ireland. St Patrick was actually born in Britain but, when he was 16, he was kidnapped and taken to Ireland as a slave. It was about the year 415 and there was no kids helpline or social media available to send out a cry for help. So he planned and plotted and eventually managed to escape. Sadly, Paddy was no Houdini and he was sent off to France where he was introduced to Christianity. 

He escaped again and managed to return to Ireland, which he now accepted as home. Converted to the Christian religion, he set about spreading the Word throughout Ireland.  Perhaps the most well-known legend of St. Patrick is that he explained the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) using the three leaves of a native Irish clover, the shamrock.

He is credited with ridding Ireland of snakes and is generally regarded as being a pretty good chap. 

Of course, he would never have risen to the levels of global recognition that his name enjoys today, had it not been for one singular event: The Irish Potato Famine.

An 89 year old woman has died from the horrific neglect she sustained in a Brisbane " care " home. She was suffering from sepsis and her leg had rotted down to the bone. Her back was covered in burns from having lain in her own urine for God knows how long. 

It is not often that I am moved to tears when I read an article, but this one has broken my heart and destroyed what little faith I have in humanity. That this has happened in Australia is incomprehensible and that it went unnoticed or ignored for so long is a symptom of a deeper rot and sepsis within our society.

Any commentary or reference to the contribution by Heston Russell on 10th March (Moral Injury) may seem somewhat belated. Fact is that this whole disgusting witch hunt makes me so furious with anger that I find it difficult to put words together coherently, rationally or civilly. Civility really has no place in this discussion because the discussion does not deserve it.

I have followed, among others, Heston’s site, Voice of a Veteran, since its inception. I am not a veteran myself. I was a Nasho during the Korean War which ended hostilities during the time I was conscripted. At the time I was under 21 and the law then was that persons under that age could not be conscripted for overseas service unless they had parental consent. My mother would not give consent. I remained in the CMF as a volunteer after my 2 year conscription was finished. By the time the Vietnam War started I was married and too old anyway.

This purge on our most elite soldiers is a matter of national shame because it rejects the notion that these men have put their lives on the line in defence of our nation and our way of life. This is a matter that we should all be eternally grateful for but instead, we have a collection of little nobodies who think that they are on a higher plane than the rest of us and sit in judgement of those who have volunteered to defend us.