When I was young, our family house was only a hundred metres or so away from the railway line. As well, my father worked for Queensland Rail for many years. Consequently it wasn’t surprising that I took an interest in trains, rolling stock and all that goes on above and around the rail tracks. In […]

When describing our landscape we find much that is attractive – verdant green pastures,  majestic forests, rippling streams and, of course the beautiful blue sky. Let us focus a little on the latter. When we look up at the heavens we can be faced with a myriad of vistas. The sky is often obscured from […]

In the early years of Australia’s history, legislation was inevitably weighted in the favour of business and to the detriment of employees. Initially trade unions were suppressed on the basis of being a “restraint on trade”. In general, the law required absolute obedience of employees to the whims of employers. Any act of disobedience could […]

It seems that more and more of us take our cherished freedoms for granted. Recent surveys of young people indicate that many of them see no great advantage in our democratic way of life. Sure, I guess many of them have known no other way and haven’t had to struggle as our forefathers did to […]

When I look back at our household when I was young, I can’t but help admire my parents’ tenacity and resilience.  When I was a child I had no perception that we were poor, and compared to some around us, we weren’t. My mother was frugal and as early as March would start putting a […]

Every now and then, after a little nagging, my wife prevails on me to clean up the cupboards in my office. I am a little sentimental and that causes me to be somewhat of a hoarder of the various mementos and awards I have collected over my career. In cleaning out recently, I came across […]

It is within my mind, then, that I measure time. I must not allow my mind to insist that time is something objective. When I measure time, I am measuring something in the present of my mind. Either this is time or I don’t know what time is. St Augustine, Book Xl of the Confessions. […]

Here is a provocative title for you! Bryan Caplan, professor of economics at George Mason University, wrote The Case against Education; Why the Education System is a Waste of Time and Money. Caplan’s thesis is that most of what we learn in the traditional education system is irrelevant. Much of the subject material, apart from […]

It is far better to render Beings in your care competent than to protect them. Jordan Peterson, 12 Rules for Life It is fast becoming the dominant ethos in our society that we must shield people from every possible harm, whether physical or psychological, real or perceived. Unfortunately this futile task renders us vulnerable as […]

It is a source of great frustration having an interest in indigenous affairs coming to realise how ineffective we are at making a difference. Recently the annual “Closing the Gap” report was published highlighting the usual disappointments in trying to reduce the disadvantage of indigenous Australians. The only statistic we seem to have been meeting […]