Welcome from Suzie, Kim and Bob to our first monthly OzTales E-zine

We're very excited at the moment about the rapid growth of our website and the introduction this month of our first newsletter.

The newsletter is designed to firstly keep you informed of the new developments with the website and of the fresh information being uploaded almost on a daily basis.

It will also bring you news items of interest, stories, yarns and introduce you to some of the characters we come across in both the cities and out in the bush.

And we'd like to hear from you too. If you have any suggestions about the website, the videos, our You Tube channel, the Blog or Facebook page, we'd certainly love to hear from you. In the meantime enjoy our very first newsletter.


Well it's coming up to Christmas for us so we thought we'd share one of our mums wonderful poems - this one is not on our site as yet but we thought you might enjoy the 'Christmas Spirit'

THE CHRISTMAS PUDDING

On a table that was groaning
With plates both big and small
With bottles full of liquid cheer
And glasses short and tall.
Midst turkey, beef and suckling pig,
All steaming from the roast.
Waiting splendidly, with holly top
For the usual Christmas toast.
In pride of place, with spicy smell
Stood the largest Christmas pud.
It has to feed so many mouths
And Mother knew it would
She'd spent much time in mixing,
Given it such loving care,
With fruit and nuts and spices,
And rum too ----- a goodly share,
Now Mother hadn't ever before
Used rum flavour for her pud,
She'd always added sherry
The way her Mother said she should.
But when she'd come to making it
No sherry could she find
So she asked of Father if he knew
A flavouring of some kind.
Now Dad was something of a wag,
And he knew the family well
He knew the friends who'd join us then
And all the tales they'd tell
He thought of Uncle Oscar
And how he'd brag and boast,
Of Christmases he'd spent before,
Of the puddings and the roasts.
He chuckled when he thought of
Aunt Emily and the voice
That grated every nerve he had.
It was foremost to his choice.
He searched through all the bottles
That he had stowed away
"For emergencies" he often said.
"Or that oft told rainy day."
He brought to Ma a bottle
Saying "try some of this one, dear,
I think you'll find 'twill do the job,
And will spread a little cheer."
The contents of that bottle
Meant little to our Mum
She thought it looked like water,
But decided she would use some.
The mixing of the pudding
Was something for us all,
Each had a turn at stirring
(That's one thing I recall)
Mother poured some rum into the bowl
Of spice and fruit and flour
Then stood there looking thoughtful,
Her face was kind of dour,
"It doesn't look too strong" she said
"Not like it ought to be,
I think I'll use some more of it"
And she smiled then right at me.
In her hand she held the bottle
And she emptied it all out
Into the bowl of pudding mix,
Then she stirred it all about.
When all the mixing had been done
And the cloth was filled and tied
The pudding was put in the pot
And watched with loving eyes.
The aroma that spread through the house
As the pudding bubbled on
Brought anxious looks from Father
And he asked about the rum.
Well Mother told him she couldn’t see
That the stuff was very strong
So she'd used it all, used every drop
And did he see that as wrong?
He threw his hands above his head
And walked away from her
But his chuckle drifted back to us
On the clear, still morning air
Now Christmas Day dawned clear and hot
And the family gathered there
To join in the festivities
And Christmas dinner then to share
Everything went rather smoothly
Even Oscar praised our Mum
The food was eaten with delight
Til at last there came the plum
Dad sliced it up with reverence
And passed the plates around
To Oscar said "you’ll like this lot
And come back, I'll be bound."
The flavour and aroma were really quite unique
Just almost pure alcohol
And Oscar almost squeaked.
His eyes were huge with sheer surprise
His voice was almost gone
As he passed his plate for seconds
Said to Dad, "I say now John,
That has to be the best I've had
But what the hell's in it
It packs a wallop like a mule
A really hefty kick."
Mother's face was really anxious
And she turned then to our Dad
With pleading eyes she asked of him
If it was very bad.
He shook his head in merriment
Said no that wasn't it
Too good would be a better phrase
But why not try a bit.
Mother's hand was tentative
But she tasted of the pud
Then her eyes grew round with horror
"Oh dear, now I know I never should
Have used the contents of that bottle
Or at least not used the lot
For that pudding is remarkable
Alcohol is all we've got"
Well everyone enjoyed it
It was really quite a gag,
And about it Oscar tells a tale
The way he likes to brag.
Aunt Emily even smiled that day
And Dad says that was a feat
For it had never happened
So Mum's pud was hard to beat
But Mum will never speak of
That pudding or that day
I think she hopes the memory
Will somehow go away.
And every Christmas since that time
She is careful that she choose
The right kind of flavour for the pud
And nothing from Dad's hoard of booze.

Stella P. Bell

News Pages And New Videos On The Australian-Tales Website

The video associated with the page has already received a large number of views, likes and comments.

"When creating the video I was unsure initially about what to use as the visual component of the video" said Bob "but a good friend of ours who travels regularly in the outback had just given us hundreds of photos he had taken on his recent travels. As I was looking through these amazing photographs it suddenly struck me that they would be an ideal montage of images for the video"

See some of those outstanding images below!

Would You Be Afraid of a Cuddly Koala?

Iron Mike Tyson Couldn’t Cuddle a Koala!

It happened while Mike was visiting Fig Tree Pocket's Lone Pine Sanctuary as part of his trip to Australia promoting his Day of Champion’s Tour.

Iron Mike suddenly went to water when confronted by Tracy a five year old female koala.

In fact Mike was so rattled by the mini marsupial that he even brushed off a request for a photo opportunity with Tracy by promoters and photographers who were all present for the occasion.

He may have once owned a pet tiger at his Las Vegas mansion but refused to get close to the koala and grimaced as soon as Lone Pine's Kelly Wilson approached with Tracy in her arms. "I'm not touchin' it" Tyson lisped "These things have sharp claws and a lot of bacteria"

The press pack surrounding him goaded Tyson to man up! "Come on Mike, just give it a pat" they implored. However the self-styled 'baddest man on the planet' was clearly uncomfortable.

Several burly black-shirted bodyguards escorted Tyson away from the non-plussed koala.

Help Save The Kimberley

Kimberley Supporters Fight For Their Region

Their purpose is to educate the Australian and international community about the threat to the Kimberley Coast and its inland wilderness areas posed by large-scale industrial developments (mainly mining).

The Kimberley is a vast and very sparsely populated region of Australia. The landscape of the region is as immense as it is beautiful and is home to thousands of plant and animal species, many of them highly restricted or specialised, whilst some are threatened, vulnerable or endangered.

Put simply, there remains so much to learn about the region that nobody can claim that bringing heavy industry into the region will not be forming a threatening process.

The group has stressed that Save the Kimberley does not oppose development. 'save the Kimberley supports appropriate development that looks after people and the environment of the Kimberley’'according to their website.

If you'd like to discover more about the Kimberley and the group and help support their work you can visit their website at; Save The Kimberley

A Rock Wallaby in the Kimberleys

Males are slightly larger than females with a body length of up to 59 cm and a 70 cm long tail.

Rock-wallabies are nocturnal and live a fortress existence spending their days in steep, rocky, complex terrain in some kind of shelter (cave, overhang or vegetation) and ranging out into surrounding terrain at night for feed.

The greatest activity occurs three hours before sunrise and after sunset.

We hope you enjoyed our OzTales E-zine.......