Monday, November 9, 2015

ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME AND ARTY FARTY , MEDIA MAD AYR

To  hell with melancholy John  Masefield  wanting   to  go  down to  the sea again , this  writer  wants  to  return  to  the interesting Queensland  sugar town of  Ayr  ,  which is not far from the  briny anyway . This  desire  developed  as a result of  a recent  one  day trip  from Townsville to Ayr  and  environs  in  a small  car  fitted  with   four new  spark plugs,  causing it  to run like a  powerful , dodgy  VW diesel .

In  a  search and discovery drive  about  picturesque  Ayr  several streets  were noticed  bearing the  names of   Australian capital  cities. Checking , it was  found that  every capital has  a  street  named  after  it , the start of Canberra  Street  below.
 

Ayr  has a special place in the  fading memory bank of  this  writer as  my wife and I  quickly  passed  through  the  town  on  the way to Adelaide from Townsville   after  Cyclone  Aivu  in  1989   and  noticed  the wooden  Catholic  church  at  Brandon  leaning  at  a  drunken angle . The church   has been  rebuilt  and  seems  to  be  on  a  new site .  As  shown in the previous  post in this blog, Ayr  has interesting  buildings , the post office , below , another  one  of  note . 

Famous  artists are also  daubed  about  Ayr's streets-Picasso, Rubens , Gainsborough ,  Drysdale , Constable. The  royals also  get  a  run .
 
 It is good , however, to see forelock tugging is  not rampant  in  the area as  an irreverent online publication , The Burdekin Herald , takes the  mickey out of the local establishment, the Queen, politicians , the Murdoch  owned punchy Burdekin  Advocate , ( online it  claims to punch above  its weight ) , even sportsmen.  
 
One of the Herald's  many  exclusive  stories  revealed that  the  Burdekin Shire Council planned  to  release  thousands of  deadly  Black Mamba  snakes to  eradicate  cane  toads . The newspaper  claims  to  employ 200 journalists  in  the media  capital  of  Australia-Ayr.
 
Wandering about Ayr on foot , this  writer came across some Nazi daggers  for auction and only bought  one  book from  an op shop because the  Salvation  Army  store , unfortunately, was  shut  and one could only  press a pointy nose  against the   window  and stare at  all  those  volumes on  the shelves , the  titles of which  were unable to  be  read  at  the  distance. The  chair , above , attracted a lot of attention  in  a  large furniture  shop .

LUCKY  RABBIT  FOOT NOTE : Little Darwin has been  flooded  with requests from people  wanting   this blog to give  their   town  a quirky  write  up   like  the  ones  we recently did on  Ayr  as  someone  there  won  $23.3 million  in  Powerball  soon after .