"No Walls, no fear, refugees are welcome here"

An excellent little gathering yesterday in Hyde Park, followed by a march to the US Consulate in Martin Place.

It was organised by the Refugee Action Coalition Sydney. It was in support of the refugees detained in Australia's offshore detention camps, of bringing them here at last, and it was to denounce both Donald Trump and Malcolm 'Trumble' for their respective crimes against refugees and race relations.

Colourful isn't the word for these occasions. And the wit and humour on display was priceless. It's such a pity it's all so serious too though.

The thin blue line at the MLC Centre. The police are always pretty good on these occasions. And if there was anyone home in the Consulate, I feel a bit sorry for them. Not only do they suddenly have a thousand chanting natives outside,  but they also have a childish, ignorant, malignant narcissist oaf to report to!

I must admit, it took me a while for the subtle brilliance of the sign below to sink in!

Biodiversity bunfight

I attended a colourful and impassioned gathering in Martin Place yesterday, within earshot of NSW's Parliament House. It was organised by the Nature Conservation Council, and it was to protest the Government's proposed 'Biodiversity' legislation.

In fact, far from protecting biodiversity or endangered species, it's really all about allowing open slather land clearing in rural areas, and open slather tree removal in urban areas too. Huge areas of now-protected habitat would be removed, and several more native species could become extinct. So-called 'offsets' would be made, whereby allegedly similar areas would be found and 'improved' in return for destroying the land you want to develop. That would preserve overall environmental value. Yeah, sure.

Speakers included the state Labor leader, Luke Foley. The Labor Party is always an environmentally wonderful party while it's in opposition.










I thought I saw Premier Mike Baird there for a moment, but no, it was a fake. The real one wisely kept well away.






The Greens' Mehreen Faruqi did a good job, as ever.









The Animal Justice Party's Mark Pearson gave an excellent and constructive speech about possible legal challenges to the legislation, along the lines of excessive and unnecessary animal cruelty due to vegetation clearing.








Among the colourful props on hand were several life-size koalas. But I was rather taken too by some (endangered) red-tailed black cockatoos, fashioned out of old umbrellas.

Vivid again

It's Vivid time again. Better go and check it out, I thought. I never could quite decide what Vivid's for, but it's been getting bigger year by year, and the punters are liking it. The crowds are big.

Rather than the prime Circular Quay venue, this time I went to see some of the newer, more peripheral sites. Like Martin Place, Central Park, The Galeries, and Pitt St Mall.

Living on the edge in Sydney

Or in this case, about 100km west of Sydney, at Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains.

Sydney was a bit on edge this week, after the events in Martin Place, but I'm still reliving my edge-of-the-world experiences at Lincoln Rock with my Thursday walking group the other day, and plotting the next one.

Funny, I actually don't feel that I take risks on clifftops or elsewhere, but we do look closer to the edge than it seemed at the time! But we stay calm, focussed, and stoic. And it generally works out fine.

Picture courtesy Saf Barbour