Australia

[Verde]

Best to just allow the animal to finish feeding (an hour or so) and clean the wound with a little detol or other antisceptic

When I lived down in Mandurah (WA) a few years back, we had quite an infestation of numbats. Having no luck with the local [human] female population, I learned to enjoy the nightly caresses of the little beasts.
It was more of a tickle than a violation, and even giving up a pint or so of blood could easily be replaced the next day with a couple of pies and a pint or two.

BTW, you misplet "Dettol". Wouldn't want anyone using the wrong stuff.

The italicised bit is well noted, of course.

V.

 

[Lucian]

When I lived down in Mandurah (WA) a few years back, we had quite an infestation of numbats. Having no luck with the local [human] female population, I learned to enjoy the nightly caresses of the little beasts.
It was more of a tickle than a violation, and even giving up a pint or so of blood could easily be replaced the next day with a couple of pies and a pint or two.

BTW, you misplet "Dettol". Wouldn't want anyone using the wrong stuff.

The italicised bit is well noted, of course.

V.

Location: Where the jackalopes roam.

Do jackalopes roam in Australia? I thought they were a North American thing. Now there's a fierce critter if ever I saw one.

 

[MG1962]

Apologies for the delay in reviews, but a dead computer has now risen to life again and so onwards and ups

Forty Thousand Horsemen 1940

‘The Australians are coming’

This film has often been cruised for being nothing more than a propaganda piece. Those making this claim fail to realize that shooting for the film took two years, and had virtually completed production when Australian entered WW2. The truth is Charles Chavel, set out to make and Australian story about Australians, for Australians. For Chavel, the Sinai campaign of WW1 was a natural setting for this film, his grandfather being the commander of the Australian forces involved.


The patriotism is obvious as the stoic Australians struggle against the elements of combat in the desert, the tough but honourable Turkish enemy, and their need for a good time, preferably involving girls. Red ultimately captures the heart of a French girl, who’s father is working as a double agent against the Germans. It is fun to watch this romance evolve; she doesn’t fall for Red because he is dashing charming or romantic. He does it because he is Australian, and who can resist Australian men


Chavel leaves little doubt about who he considered the good guys and the bad guys in the film. Although the Turkish forces had their own officers, these in turn answered to German commands. In a number of scenes we see both Turkish soliders and civilians being brutalised by Germans. And at one point a German officer shoots a Turkish officer – his crime, refusing to set off explosives around the town that would have killed his fellow countrymen. In another interesting moment, the Turks self impose a ceasefire when they see Red Cross wagons entering the battlefield to tend to the wounded.


Chavel is a at his most consistent when he is dealing with the personal relationships of the film. The constant banter of the Australians, their reaction to being in a bit of a spot, to the near riot they start in a Cairo nightclub. This fits with many of his earlier films that dealt with very small casts and very intimate storylines. Other than the later “Rats Of Tobruk’ he maintained this theme throughout his his career.


The battle scenes are very forced, and unrealistic even for the day. There seems to be endless framing shots of Australian troops riding horses across the desert, cheerfully whistling Waltzing Matilda. The desert itself was and extensive dune field south of Sydney in Cronulla. Today these dunes are all but gone, swallowed up by urban development.


Of the actors, only Chips Rafferty playing Jim, went onto any extensive film credits. Larry played by Pat Twohill never made another film. Betty Bryant, playing the French love interest made one other film before marrying and moving to the United States. Chavel himself continued his excellent career with Rats Of Tobruk in 1944 and perhaps his best film, if not one of the best Australian films of all time Jedda in 1955. Before finally passing away in ’59.


It is easy to be very critical about the production values of this film. However if one’s viewing is tempered with the realization that this is how Australians saw themselves in 1940, a wonderful cultural time capsule can be opened and enjoyed.

 

[Hallo Alfie]

Do jackalopes roam in Australia? I thought they were a North American thing. Now there's a fierce critter if ever I saw one.

Nope, no jackalopes in Austraia - we have real wierd animals like the platypus.
Can you post the piccie of the jackalope you saw?

 

[Wildy]

Nope, no jackalopes in Austraia - we have real wierd animals like the platypus.
Can you post the piccie of the jackalope you saw?

I saw a fake one over here once. Someone stuck some fake antlers on a platypus.

 

[Akhenaten]

I saw a fake one over here once. Someone stuck some fake antlers on a platypus.

Well that's just silly. Everyone knows that Australian Jackalopes don't have antlers.

 

[Lucian]

Nope, no jackalopes in Austraia - we have real wierd animals like the platypus.
Can you post the piccie of the jackalope you saw?

Well, there's a sculpture of a jackalope on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis. It's near the library. Surely a respectable university wouldn't have sculpture of a pretend animal? Sadly, I couldn't find a picture of Wash. U's jackalope, but it's there.

 

[Audible Click]

Forty Thousand Horsemen is one of my husband's favorite movies. thanks for the review,MG1962.

 

[HawaiiBigSis]

What is interesting is that many beachside suburbs, not only Bondi but including Coogee, Cronulla and Maroobra were proudly working class (the northern beaches not so).

True of the beaches in my baby-time area too.

How about the numbat?

Nope. Don't trust anything with a pointy face.

I vote for the platypus.

Forty Thousand Horsemen is one of my husband's favorite movies. thanks for the review,MG1962.

Sounds very interesting. I'll have to see if it's available to me.

 

[Lolly]

I vote for the platypus.

Are we only going on how they look? Because the platypus is venomous. The numbat really is sweet and lovable.

 

[Hallo Alfie]

Don't you believe it!

Numbats are much like (say) a ground dwelling vampire bat, or leach. The extraction of your blood will not cause too many problems, but removing them from your body prior to them completing their 'meal' invariably leads to medical complications and death in extreme instances.

The tongue of the numbat once having penetrated the skin, has the feature of being able to seek our major blood veins, acting as a straw, it redirects the food source from the body of the prey into their mouths.

The tongue itself has a number of properties that will cause severe infection and by removing the animal (say by pulling hard) will leave it inside ones vein, and the rasped features of the tongue also see it move up through the vein (much like say a grass seed) and without treatment can find its way into major organs.
Nasty!

Best to just allow the animal to finish feeding (an hour or so) and clean the wound with a little dettol or other antisceptic

 

[Lolly]

But that's just made-up stuff. I'm talking about un-made-up stuff.

 

[Hallo Alfie]

Look at the tongue, and tell me there is nothing sinister there.

 

[Lolly]

Only if you're a termite.

 

[MG1962]

Forty Thousand Horsemen is one of my husband's favorite movies. thanks for the review,MG1962.

Thanks - it is a real favorite of my dad as well. It seems to be very special to many people who saw it when originally released.

Saw the dreadful typo on the first line lol

 

[Wildy]

Well that's just silly. Everyone knows that Australian Jackalopes don't have antlers.

[qimg]http://www.yvonneclaireadams.com/HostedStuff/CrocoPus.jpg[/qimg]​

Except that they weren't trying for an Australian Jackalope. They were trying for a USian one.

 

[softstuff]

Thank you guys, upon reading the first post about the Numbat I had to look it up. I'll be looking up gullible next.

All of these new and interesting creatures are difficult for me as a self-defined "New-Australian" to deal with. I'm learning not to be as immediately scared of the wildlife as I was though. Recently we had a snake on our deck, and I went and had a look. This contrasts nicely with my previous approach of "lock all the doors and windows and plug up the sink", but I'm nowhere near the native Australian approach of "pick it up and wave it at someone to scare them".

I'm learning as I go. Recently I learned that if a Tawny Frogmouth lands on the chair on your deck you can approach quite close, you can photograph, but it doesn't respond well to you trying to feed it a bit of chicken in some kitchen tongs.

 

[HawaiiBigSis]

Are we only going on how they look? Because the platypus is venomous. The numbat really is sweet and lovable.

Well, you learn something new every day! I didn't know about the males being venomous. (But only the males, right?)

 

[novaphile]

Recently I learned that if a Tawny Frogmouth lands on the chair on your deck you can approach quite close, you can photograph, but it doesn't respond well to you trying to feed it a bit of chicken in some kitchen tongs.

I can add to your Tawny Frogmouth lore...

While walking across someone else's land... I came to the corner of the fences, where the strainer posts are (the wooden bit that lets the wire fence be put under a lot of tension...) this looked like a good place to cross the fence line...

As I put my hand on the corner post, it came alive! Shrieking and squarking!!!

I nearly died of fright.

Apparently it was a Tawny Frogmouth having a sleep... It was pretty much indistinguishable from the old timber corner post...

 

[Akhenaten]

Thank you guys, upon reading the first post about the Numbat I had to look it up. I'll be looking up gullible next.

I think some of us forget from time to time that this thread is in the HL&A sub-forum and get a little carried away with the spoof posts. I'm sure we'll try to keep it more in mind in future.

I'll do a genuine article on Numbats in due course.

All of these new and interesting creatures are difficult for me as a self-defined "New-Australian" to deal with. I'm learning not to be as immediately scared of the wildlife as I was though. Recently we had a snake on our deck, and I went and had a look. This contrasts nicely with my previous approach of "lock all the doors and windows and plug up the sink", but I'm nowhere near the native Australian approach of "pick it up and wave it at someone to scare them".

That's an interesting insight. Despite being brought up in inner Sydney I've spent all my adult life more-or-less in the sticks, and it's never really occurred to me that some people would (with quite good reason, now that I think about it) be genuinely fearful of the critters that they might encounter.

I have to confess to mostly being a 'pick-it-up-and-waggle-it' person. My bad.

I'm learning as I go. Recently I learned that if a Tawny Frogmouth lands on the chair on your deck you can approach quite close, you can photograph, but it doesn't respond well to you trying to feed it a bit of chicken in some kitchen tongs.

I've encounterd a lot of frogmouths and they all seem to be like that. They'll rely on their near-invisibilty way beyond what seems reasonable and you can quite often walk right up to them and give them a pat because they're convinced you can't see them. Good at hiding they may be, but they don't seem to be the brightest pennies in the purse in other respects.

I've never had any success whatsoever in getting one to take food from my hand.

I can add to your Tawny Frogmouth lore...

While walking across someone else's land... I came to the corner of the fences, where the strainer posts are (the wooden bit that lets the wire fence be put under a lot of tension...) this looked like a good place to cross the fence line...

As I put my hand on the corner post, it came alive! Shrieking and squarking!!!

I nearly died of fright.

Apparently it was a Tawny Frogmouth having a sleep... It was pretty much indistinguishable from the old timber corner post...

That echoes my own experience with them as I've related it to softstuff above. I'm sure the things believe that they're actually invisible

Well, you learn something new every day! I didn't know about the males being venomous. (But only the males, right?)

Yup, it's only the males. They have a venomous spine on their hind legs, and I assume it's mainly a defensive arrangement, since I can't imagine a Platypus attacking anything other than the yabby it's planning on having for lunch.

Article coming soon!