Monday, February 12, 2018

RETURN OF RED BARON IMMMINENT ?

Prowling about the Townsville  boondocks , North Australia's only S(h)ipping Reporter took  this  shot of  the cleared for action  mooring  for  the Red Baron seaplane  , indicating  he  might splash  down  soon  after  missing in action on the West Australian  front  for  many  months .  Will  the  local  media  notice ?
 
The  nautical  snoop also reports that last week  the Victory in the Pacific  fountain  was  actually full of water, not working , of  course , rubbish still visible .  
He managed  to  snap the  new   puzzling  name  for  The  Parlour  of  Prophecy-Lighten up- just across the road  from the fountain of strewth, rotten bananas  and graffiti .  How anybody  could  relax with all  the  noisy  construction work going on  outside   the   former  parlour  is  hard  to  understand . Media still  has  not  noticed  that  The Parlour of  Prophecy has  vamoosed.
 
The S(h)ipping Reporter  nearly fell off  his  barstool at  Molly Malone's Irish  Pub  when the Townsville  Bulletin  actually had  a  page two report about a waterfront drama...a steer  drowning after escaping from a cattle  export  boat . Headed Steer's sad watery death, the  story included  the SMILING  stock photograph of reporter Victoria Nugent . The paper has a long history of repeatedly  running inappropriate  photos of  beaming  staff reporters with  tragic and  serious events . (More about  the  paper's subbing and layout  problems  later  in  new  North Australia  Media  Watch  series .)  
 
The drowning report , strangely, did  not include the  name of  the  cattle  boat , to what  country  the  beast   was  going  to  be shipped , this apparently  top secret  information . 
 
Over the weekend ,  in the ABC  TV  Landline  show  it was  stated   about  five overseas  cattle  shipments  would  be  made  out  of  Townsville  in   coming weeks . Surely  the Townsville Bulletin   will follow  this up , or  will  cattle  exports  mainly   go  unreported  for   some   odd   reason ?