FISHY RESPONSE TO DARWIN FIND INVOLVES ROLF HARRIS AND A PIXIE

As the result of the Little Darwin post about ABC announcer, peace campaigner, and social historian , the late John Clements ,who produced a long play record ONCE AROUND THE SUN, being West Australian children reciting their own poetry, circa 1970, we received a surprising email from Perth.

The sender , a talented lady who may well write a book about her experiences in Darwin, with fascinating observations about wretched members of the media , said she had been brought up in Bayswater, a suburb next to Bassendean, where Clements had lived on a farm with his family. Until reading Little Darwin, she had never heard of Clements , and she doubted if anybody living in Bassendean today knew about the admirable fellow.

However, she added “everybody” knew entertainer Rolf Harris came from Bassendean .When she was a child , being driven past the Harris house , they would all chant that Rolf Harris lived there. In an unsolicited testimonial, our correspondent said the" best fish and chips shop in the world "–called THE OLD TROUT – is in Bassendean .

With the expert services of Darwin’s ProVideo , Little Darwin had the ONCE AROUND THE SUN LP converted to a disk so that we could listen to the poetry composed and spoken by Australian children nearly 50 years ago. What we heard was indicative of a more innocent time , despite mention of Hitler’s dream (a nightmare ) , and a boy predicted that with shows like Homicide it seemed TV was here to stay, perhaps indicating that the poetry may have been written in the late 1960s. The record , discovered in the Nightcliff Uniting Church Op Shop, made the claim that it was the world’s first recording of poetry written by young people and spoken by secondary and primary students.

NOTE: Rolf's talented Welsh aunt,Rhona Olive Harris, daughter of the chairman of the Royal Arts Society of Cardiff , disliked her first name and on the boat coming over to Australia was called "the Welsh pixie,"so she adopted Pixie. Then a printer’s error in the Sydney Morning Herald gave her name not as Pixie O. Harris , but Pixie O’Harris , and it was maintained . Pixie had a prolific output as an artist, illustrating newspapers, magazines and books, bookplates and sheet music covers. Another outlet was painting children’s hospital wards with fairy tale murals. In 1977 O’Harris was made patron of Sydney’s Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children . She also wrote and illustrated poetry and song books for children.

Not thought to be the work of Pixie O'Harris because she had moved to Sydney in the l920s,these are photos of Ward V for children at Perth Hospital,decorated for Christmas 1934.The ward was festooned with many cobwebs,butterflies,moths and insects. For the Walk into my Parlour, said the Spider to the Fly, there was a very large spider, left,which probably gave the kids nightmares, and Miss Muffet, apparently represented as a nurse, was sitting on her elaborate tuffet. The other snap features the old woman who lived in a shoe with cat silhouettes . These photographs are from the albums of "The Most Bomb Chased Australian Nurse of WW11," Marjorie Congreve,who worked at the hospital. The albums were discovered in an Adelaide antique shop by Peter Simon and will be the subject of further Little Darwin posts.

WIKILEAKS FOUNDER FILM

A top American documentary film director, Alex Gibney, was recently in action on Queensland’s Magnetic Island working on the Julian Assange story for Universal Pictures . There he had extensive dealings with George Hirst, editor of the Magnetic Times online newspaper, which ran the world exclusive story about Assange’s mother when she lived on the island with her young son. Esquire magazine last year described Gibney as becoming the most important documentarian of our time .

Films Gibney directed in the past have included Enron:The Smartest Guys in the Room , nominated for the 2005 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature ; Taxi to the Dark Side,about an innocent taxi driver in Afghanistan who was tortured and killed at Bagram Air Force base in 2002 , recipient of an Academy Award ; Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr Hunter S. Thompson (2008); Freakonomics and Casino Jack and the United States of Money ( both 2010); Client 9. Rise and Fall of Elliot Spitzer ,shortlisted for 2011 best doco . Gibney also writes for the influential Huffington Post blog. *** Drawing of Assange by Magnetic Times editor, George Hirst, a former exhibitions officer at the Perc Tucker Gallery, Townsville, increasingly involved in making films with a message. FOOTNOTE : Wikileaks documents released in recent weeks contained US Embassy cables revealing highly critical comments by and about key players in the Timor-Leste regime and apparently went unnoticed by the Darwin media.

SNAPPY PENGUIN IN DARWIN UPROAR

Happy Feet, the celebrity King Penguin, is in more trouble. Little Darwin recently brought readers the world scoop that Happy Feet , missing on his return journey from New Zealand to the Antarctic , had been arrested in Darwin’s nightclub precinct for driving an iceberg under the influence of smelly sardines. Since then, Happy Feet has turned into a mug lair,dressing like a toff. The toast of the town, he is given free drinks wherever he goes and fed choice Thai barra fillets .

As a result , he has become bloated,looks like a member of the federal Shadow Ministry, and becomes aggressively pissed as a Fairy Penguin after only three shandies. He is shown above, shortly before he regurgitated over some Irish packpackers and further infuriated them by saying the All Blacks could beat the Irish footie team in the World Cup if all the Kiwis were blindfolded and mortally wounded by explosive tipped Japanese whale harpoons. A wild riot immediately resulted in Mitchell Street, the Irish did unspeakable things to his top hat and chased him with made- in- China shillelaghs . Police Commissioner McRoberts says he is sick and tired of swim in - swim out troublemakers from the South Pole who upset the peace and quiet of Darwin.

Still able to hold a lump of valuable ambergris - solidified whale vomit- between his feet, bruised trouble maker, Happy Feet, poses for another police mug shot with his battered top hat, festooned with toilet paper, after being attacked by crazed Irish river dancers in the Darwin CBD .

STOP PRESS: MURDOCH DECLARES WAR ON BESTIAL CHASER BRIGADE

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Seeking revenge against the smartarse Chaser team, soon to launch the HAMSTER WHEEL on ABC TV , media magnate Rupert Murdoch has ordered production of a sexed up similar show on a commercial channel , at the same time, to confuse viewers ,split the ratings and crush the f/mockers.

Called HANNAH, THE HOT HAMSTER , it will be compered by a slinky, dancing hamster , seen above posing for publicity shots, with her favourite book-the Kamasutra - that she often curls up with in her luxury London burrow.( A plastic surgeon is soon to remove the rather large black beauty spot on her face which makes Hannah look as if suffering from the mange , a common hamster problem.) Before closure of News of the World , Hannah used to be a regular P3 pin-up girl in the world’s biggest selling paper, much admired by lonely Pommies, especially descendants of Jack-the-Ripper .

In an exclusive Little Darwin interview this morning with Rupert Murdoch in downtown New York, the mogul said he is furious about the way the Chaser used him in a promo for the irksome HAMSTER WHEEL. “My hamster will be bigger and better than their hamster,” he thundered.”I’ll teach those young pups to take the piss out of me .”

Sultry Hannah , he pointed out , had often been a star attraction as a pole dancer at a New York gentlemen's club frequented by high ranking amnesiacs from overseas. If Hannah revealed what went on in that nightspot ,Rupert hinted, domestic fur would fly in many prominent households. Meanwhile, Mrs Murdoch, also furious with the juvenile Chaser mob, has arranged for a squad of graduates from the Police Academy to bombard everybody who attends the launch of the HAMSTER WHEEL with rhubarb and custard pies.

ART NOUVEAU BALLERINA

From a near 100-year- old Adelaide autograph book in the Little Darwin Collection comes this unusual rendition of the great Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova after whom the open meringue tart filled with cream and fruit is named,said to have originated in NZ.

HAWAII DUO

From Hawaii comes news that the lively Magnetic Island online newspaper-Magnetic Times - is going to be produced for the next six months while its proprietors are on a study tour soaking up experiences and ideas in America ,especially in film making.

Little Darwin pointed out in the past that the Magnetic Times website is an ideal model for a similar one in Darwin to give the city a different, enlightened kind of news service to what is provided currently by the conventional media .

Magnetic Times recently ran the world exclusive story about Julian Assange’s mother revealing details of the time she lived on the island with her son, which included photos of the Wikileaks founder when he was a youngster. (See www.magnetictimes .com). Editor George Hirst and partner Penn are talented activists , concerned citizens, in recent times into making films with a message . Some of our far-flung readers may have interesting Magnetic Island stories or photos that they could enter in the competition announced by editor Hirst .

UN PEACEKEEPERS ARRIVING

Descending on Darwin for a conference are Australians who have served in UN peace keeping missions around the world . It is an insight into the part played by a small, but influential nation to try and sort out global conflict and help struggling nations to a better future . It is to be hoped that the local media gives these oft neglected heroes the coverage they deserve as they have seen action in many countries and have interesting stories to tell. While this gathering is in progress , the Chief Minister , the Mayor of Darwin, the battalion of armchair generals and freshwater admirals might apologise for the spelling error in the disrespectfully treated Darwin War Memorial, which lists UNITED NATION (sic) PEACEKEEPING when it should be plural, along with other clangers. Before we make political capital claiming that Australia forgot the bombing of Darwin, we should explain to the world how Darwin has allowed gross spelling errors exist for so long , Little Darwin having pointed them out several times in the hope that the embarrassing situation would be rectified. But no. Incidently, Baz Luhrmann's movie, Australia , starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman , in 2008 featured the bombing of Darwin and was said to have had a vast audience which put Darwin on the World Map, according to the Hollywood-hype and local spin . February 19,2012 ( not far off ) is the 70th anniversary of the bombing -it will be a day of shame for Darwin if the errors,including incorrect spelling of two countries, have not been corrected.