Numbers spoil charm

SWANSEA mid-winter tourist season. Two to three of us overnight visitors enjoying the beauty of sunrise over the Hazards across the calm of Great Oyster Bay. Quadruple the tourist accommodation there and eight to 12 of us on the sand at dawn. The line-up of the two bespoke viewing seats on the pier multiplied. Put another way: one coach of streaming tourists becomes three big buses parked in the tree-framed architecture of Ross. The narrow wandering footpath of the high street of Stanley needs a two-people passing lane. How is the charm of our treasure island to carry an oversized tourist overlay? non-indigenous citizens of this place to apply for a visa to be here. There are Aboriginal land councils and local bodies the length and breadth of the country that could issue one for a fee. The Federal Government is in the employ of the likes of Gina Rinehart, Twiggy Forrest and BHP Billiton who pay them 5c for every dollar’s worth of resource they take. A treaty would jeopardise that cosy little deal. Treaty now! porters be segregated according to club loyalty. What would possibly happen to couples who go hand-in-hand to the MCG for instance, in club colours of opposing teams?

During an Anzac Day game between Essendon and Collingwood, we had the misfortune of witnessing a Collingwood supporter offering what could only be described as unintelligible advice to Essendon players, when a father sensed his son’s distress by saying “don’t argue with a fool son, as a casual observer may not be able to distinguish the difference.”