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Bushfire smoke on outskirts of Townsville resembles the sacking of Panama by Captain Morgan and is visible from the sea , sniffed on Magnetic Island . Another bigger plume the following day ; poor Miss Piggy , atop Castle Hill , can be heard as far away as Ingham coughing her lungs out and is in danger of being turned into smoked bacon .
With monotonous regularity, the Murdoch Townsville Bulletin newspaper sends a photographer down to The Strand on the waterfront to get an eye candy shot of two young female packpackers to go with a few puff pars about the weather . Smiling Olga, from the Volga , for example , is quoted as saying she does not think there will be a cyclone in the near future and she is looking forward to exploring the rainforests further north , if they have not been clear felled , and wrestling a bunyip like President Yeltsin .
Our friendly waterfront scribe, the only one north of Woop Woop , regards this as annoying , tropical journalism . To illustrate his point , he sailed to The Strand in his yacht to give the female backpackers a big welcome on a hot and windy day during the week and found numerous unreported news stories floating about like flotsam and jetsam . The first one was the striking vision of mainland fires near Townsville at the head of this post .
The stand out ghost fleet in port included two livestock carriers : Shorthorn Express and Galloway Express, cattle trucks alongside the latter .There is a puzzle in the name of the second vessel as one of the same , mentioned in the " shameful record "of sheep and cattle, was " thankfully scrapped ", some years ago. Why would you give another carrier a discredited name ?
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At a time when the live export of stock overseas has been and still is a red hot issue you would think the loading in port would rate coverage . Questions that could be asked : how many cattle , destination ; from whence cattle came , in what condition considering the drought, shortage of feed ; are some stations now devoid of stock ; is there an independent stock inspector aboard , if so ,who ; any more shipments this year , etcetera .
MAGNETIC ISLAND TREASURE GALLEON / WILD PIRATE EVENING
The superluxury catamaran MYWAY (above) worth a buried trove of looted Spanish dubloons , slipped into the island marina without the media picking up an interesting feature about its special features , the colourful skipper, the cruises it makes in northern waters with select passengers . It dwarfed all other vessels in the marina . Our S(h)ipping Reporter is hot on the trail of a yarn about an islander who had a rum encounter with Captain Morgan which left him looking as if he had been keel-hauled during the night.
Needless to say , the Victory in the Pacific Memorial Fountain in the garrison city is still not working and Admiral Harry Harris has been heard mutter-in mild ambassadorial reproachful language-he would like to have somebody's "ass in a sling" for this intolerable situation to continue for so long . Three cheers for the Admiral .
Needless to say , the Victory in the Pacific Memorial Fountain in the garrison city is still not working and Admiral Harry Harris has been heard mutter-in mild ambassadorial reproachful language-he would like to have somebody's "ass in a sling" for this intolerable situation to continue for so long . Three cheers for the Admiral .
