Round the New England blogging traps 20 - potpourri

I am very behind at the moment on everything, including posts on this blog. Still, I wanted to do a quick New England blog round-up since it is over three weeks since my last one. 

My blog reporting really is a bit of a hit and miss affair. It's not just that it's sometimes irregular, more that I don't know how representative my coverage is, given that blogs rise and fall all the time. At present I have fifty blogs on my list. That may sound like a lot, but its actually not once I exclude blogs that haven't posted since my previous round-up. I really need to do some more blog searches to find out just what I'm missing.

As you might expect, the inclusion of Newcastle in Lonely Planet's top ten cities list has attracted attention and not just from me.

On Canon of Medicine 2.0, a blog written by a student from Sydney now doing medicine at the University of Newcastle, the news was greeted with acclaim. In Lonely Planet: Newcastle one of the hottest cities in the world!?, Marcus Westbury responded in a similar if lengthier way. He put his views about Newcastle this way:

I love Newcastle. I love its culture. I love its creativity. I love its natural environment. I love it’s old buildings. I love its fading beauty. I love its creative community. I love its unpretentious awesomeness.

Craig Wilson from Media Hunter joined the chorus. In Newcastle named among world’s best cities by Lonely Planet, he wrote among other things:  

I’m proud to come from Newcastle. It’s town that has never had it easy. We’ve taken our lumps over the years (earthquake, major industry withdrawal, flooding) and have been poorly neglected by government at both State and Federal level despite contributing significantly to the economy. We don’t complain, and we just smile at those who condescendingly dismiss Newcastle as an unfashionable old steel town.

Why? Because we all know how bloody good it is to live here. And now Lonely Planet is letting the cat out of the bag.

Those who read this blog will know that I am not a Newcastle person, coming from further North. Still, I know the city well. My own biased take was set out in my Armidale Express column:

As it happened, Monday’s announcement by Lonely Planet that Newcastle had been listed as one of the world’s top ten cities for travel in 2011 has really put the cat among the pigeons when it comes to tourism promotion.

In the parlance so beloved by officialdom, NSW has two tourism brands, Brand NSW and Brand Sydney. Both brands are tired, neither has worked very well.

There has been little room in this two brand world for a more differentiated tourism strategy. Newcastle people have long complained about this.

Now, in a single blow, Lonely Planet has created a third and rival brand, Brand Newcastle based on life style and the visitor experience. I think that that’s a good thing.

And so I do!

I have only just discovered Marcus Westbury's blog. I had never heard of the Renew Newcastle Movement, nor of the plan to take the Movement national. Wow. Here is something that I must write about. In the meantime, please visit Marcus's blog.

In 5 facts about digital life – post #14 on Media Hunter, Craig has continued his fact series. While the individual facts sometimes seem trivial, they provide a picture of the evolving digital world. You can find the whole series here.

When Craig first began, the blog provided information and comment on the Northern media. This has dropped away for reasons that I can understand.

This is a professional blog linked to Sticky Media. Craig may be a proud Novocastrian, but his firm operates in a national and global marketplace. He needs to reflect that. Further, and as I know from my own experience in operating a national consulting business out of Armidale, to be typed as local or even regional can be a kiss of death in a nation that counts everything outside the main metro centres as second rate.

Changing directions entirely, Jeremy Fisher is a writer and Senior Lecturer in Writing at the University of New England. Until December 2009 he was the Executive Director of the Australian Society of Authors. As you might expect, his blog is about writers and writing. Just at present, his posting is irregular. I hope that that changes.

Bronwyn Parry is another New England writer, one that I mention often. Bronwyn hasn't been well; Deadline distractions - and a winner records her efforts to progress her latest book before her operation. We wish her well.

On lookANDsee, Gordon Smith, Bronwyn's partner, continues his photographic exploration of the Northern Tablelands, this time with a focus on fungus. 

This mean looking creature is a bracket fungus.

There is a fair bit of angst around the Hunter just at present on environmental issues. On the Newcastle Australia photo blog, Julia uses irony in a plea for better planning. By the way Julia, just at the moment, whenever I click on a photo or a post title or archive on the side bar, even if I click on comment, I get a message asking me if I want to make a particular web address as home page. Something wrong?

On Wollombi Valley (and on Facebook too), Peter Firminger continues to support the campaign against coal seam gas mining. Sharyn Munro (The woman on the mountain) shares Peter's general environmental concerns. In Scenic drive she records  her reactions at the drive through the Hunter valley's open cut mines.

It's actually quite hard for someone not living in the Hunter Valley to keep track of all the environmental and planning issue around at the present time. There are just so many of them.

Staying in the Hunter but with an Armidale link, in the Ultimate Shehan, Bolting Bear records a very strange dream he had. The story begins: 

I took a nap this afternoon after returning to the hostel, and I had a dream.

Basically I was in a small house with two companions, a male rhinoceros and a female pygmy elephant, both capable of speech. They were actually intergalactic warriors on some mission, but they had taken those forms for some reason that now escapes my memory.

Now if this were my daughter, I would say that she had been watching too much Sanctuary!

In Voting, Bolting Bear explains his reservations about voting. He also notes that he thought of joining Sporting Shooters Association of Australia upon his return to Armidale, but was puzzled about the views of the Shooters & Fishers Party on immigration. Indeed, he wondered why they had a policy on this issue at all.

While it does seem like a reasonable statement, personally I suspect that people are uncomfortable with immigration because of the increase in numbers of ethnic minorities and foreign cultural practices, rather than an actual fear of a shortage of resources. We export a lot of food, and my understanding is that there are skills shortages in a number of different fields, Medicine being one. Also there is the ageing population.

Reading Bolting Bear, he is into hunting but with bow and arrow. It's clearly a very modern bow complete with lights and a sight. However, I did wonder whether or not there might be a possible link with my old Armidale blogging friend Le Loup and A Woodsrunner's Diary.  I really do enjoy this blog. While I have no desire to get dressed in historical clothes and go adventuring with historical equipment, it is fun to read.

Turning to matters political, and as I have already mentioned on my personal blog, North Coast Voices has just turned three. My congratulations.

It has, I think, been a little while since I mentioned Lynne. In nellibellingen she has continued to record details of her life in the Bellinger Valley. One thing that struck me, though, in A WEEKEND ALONE was the cost of the bus fare between Bellingen and Armidale.

The two places are 154k apart, around the same distance as between Sydney and Newcastle. The return train fare between Sydney and Newcastle is $15.60. The return bus fare to Armidale is $90. Yes, there is more traffic on the Newcastle-Sydney run. However, train fares are subsidised, bus fares are not. It's one og the things that makes life difficult.

Enough for now.

Belshaw's World - not such a lonely planet in a cafe full of cobbers

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express on 3 November 2010. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because the Express columns are not on line. You can see all the columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010

Eighteen months ago we promised to take Clare (youngest) to Greece. She is studying Ancient History at Macquarie University.

It proved to be a bit of a battle to get there, but we had promised, and finally we went. In doing so, we decided to focus on the Greek Islands. I had always been interested in the Islands, partly for historical reasons, partly because they are the ancestral home of so many Australians of Greek descent.

I write a fair bit about history because I love it. That’s one of the things I can blame on my old school history teacher, George Crossle!

The history was fun.

The Greek Islands are saturated in history. Each island has its own history, stretching back thousands of years.

The ancient Minoan city of Akrotiri on Santorini had running water several thousand years before Armidale! Kind of puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?

The sea was central to Akrotiri’s prosperity. Its merchants traded across the ancient seas, visiting exotic lands. The things they saw were recorded in art, some of which has survived to this day.

The history of the Greek Islands is a bloody one. The sea could bring prosperity, but it also brought threats. Over the years, competition among the varying powers led to occupation and re-occupation of the various islands. Long periods of peace were followed by bloody war.

There is something very modern about this competition. It resonates.

Venice acquired control of Crete in 1204AD as part of the distribution of spoils that followed the sack of Constantinople. Like the Athenians before and the British later, the Venetian maritime empire depended on trade and control of the sea. Huge fortresses were built, but in the end power depended on the navy.

Venice’s strategic position was always complicated. It was constantly threatened by bigger powers, caught in the ever changing web of political and religious rivalries between east and west.

Venice responded with a mixture of force and diplomacy. To assist this, a constant stream of secret intelligence and diplomatic reports flowed back to the city from different parts of its empire and beyond.

Today, visitors to Venice or to the old Venetian provincial city of Rethymno on Crete marvel at the faded grandeur. What struck me was just how long Venice survived. After all, it ruled Crete for four hundred years.

Despite my interest in history, my attention was constantly attracted by other things.

I was travelling with four women, all addicted to shopping. I suspect I speak for most males when I say that shopping is not a spectator sport. Still, this gave me plenty of time to gaze around, to watch the passing parade.

Tourism is central to the Greek economy, more so to the Greek Islands. Many of those islands would have been completely de-populated without the combination of tourism with remittances home from migrants in countries such as Australia.

Partly because of our high dollar, the Australian presence is very noticeable.

On Santorini, I was attracted to a local café by a huge din. I found myself watching the last five minutes of the first AFL grand final, surrounded by fellow Australians. Not one but two cafes broadcast it live. Both were crowded.

Over the trip I chatted to many tourists from various nationalities including Australian, asking what drew them to the Greek Islands. Of course they all mentioned things such as ancient sites, but in the end it came down to what I can only describe as the experience.

I have suggested before in this column that one of the reasons for failure in New England and NSW tourism lies in out failure to focus on the tourist experience. We obsess about attractions and events, but lose sight of the broader picture.

As I watched and chatted on the various islands, I started jotting down notes for a new series on tourism promotion. Then, when I came back, I got out the guide books to compare the Australian and Greek equivalents. The comparisons were quite stark; Northern NSW really suffers as compared to its Greek equivalents.

As it happened, Monday’s announcement by Lonely Planet that Newcastle had been listed as one of the world’s top ten cities for travel in 2011 has really put the cat among the pigeons when it comes to tourism promotion.

In the parlance so beloved by officialdom, NSW has two tourism brands, Brand NSW and Brand Sydney. Both brands are tired, neither has worked very well.

There has been little room in this two brand world for a more differentiated tourism strategy. Newcastle people have long complained about this.

Now, in a single blow, Lonely Planet has created a third and rival brand, Brand Newcastle based on life style and the visitor experience. I think that that’s a good thing.

Belshaw's World - Obsessions with Reading

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because the Express columns are not on line. You can see all the columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010

Jim Belshaw is on holidays. While he is away, Jim’s column is featuring some of his previous writing. This is an edited version of a post that first appeared on Personal Reflections in August 2009.

There was a time in recent years when reading, other than that which had to be done, dropped away. Reading for pleasure diminished to a small field; fantasy, a few pot boilers, re-reading old favourites. The last was really dominant. I knew the books, they were old friends, and I could escape drifting within the covers without thinking too much.

Today reading has once again become a passion, although the focus this time is mainly non-fiction. Writing, more accurately the desire to write, has been the driver. I am always looking for new ideas, as well as material to support or deepen my understanding of particular topics.

When I began what I now call my train reading, reading on the train to and from work, I did read a lot linked to the history of New England. However, I also deliberately chose older books from my shelves that I had not read before, books that had come to me from family collections.

My choices could only have been described as somewhat eclectic, deliberately chosen so as to be outside my immediate interests. A funny thing happened. I started choosing other books that might compliment in some way those that I had already read; a book chosen almost at random became the start of a chain.

Outside New England history, my train reading is not meant to be highly structured. I find it interesting that, despite my best efforts, it has started to connect and re-connect. It has, in fact, become a little world of its own: books widely separated in time, space and subject matter link in unexpected ways.

This world is sometimes far more interesting than the world around me. I become absorbed, lost. On the train I sometimes look up to find people watching me. No, I am not talking to myself, although I have to watch this given my habit when alone of saying things out loud just to taste the sounds. Rather, the sight of someone obviously absorbed and sometimes scribbling always attracts attention.

Strange this obsession with thought.

To this point most of my writing and thought has been object focused, deadline driven: prepare this briefing by, complete this advice by, make so many calls by.

I still keep time sheets, although I break time into ten minute blocks rather than the decimal based six minutes so loved by lawyers and accountants. To my mind, six minutes is just too short to have real meaning. However, now my time sheets actually record my growing obsession with reading and writing, as do my to do lists. Other things struggle to get in!

The real joy of my train reading is the freedom to go in any direction I want, to follow through threads that I would otherwise ignore. I actually have to discipline myself to do this. There are rules.

I will not read work related matter on the train unless I have a pressing deadline. I ration my New England history reading and also things like reading the Financial Review. Mind you, sometimes I actually have to allocate time to my straight professional reading because I realise that it is getting lost.

My train reading is a liberal education, a chance to explore. The act of selecting a book that I have not read and might not otherwise do so forces me into new ways. This is reading with purpose but without objective. This is luxury reading.

I am, fortunately, a very fast reader. Over the last few years my reading skills had actually dropped. I was still fast, but was in clear decline. Now my reading speeds are back to something approaching their old levels. This adds to my enjoyment.

I charge through a book, then stop, go back, find a linked point. Then onwards. Sometimes I stop and just muse.

You cannot read the way I do on-line. With exceptions, the computer is just too slow. The key exception is graphic rich text where the computer's bigger screen makes it easier to see things.

Recently I have been sorting books, discovering new ones that I have not read. I wonder, what next to select?

Mulling over water

Delayed in posting because I have been researching and writing a longish post revisiting New England's water wars. It's one of those issues that's been niggling at me for a little while.

I do hope to complete the post today, but it may be tomorrow.

Is the New England lion Finnish?

Yesterday in Saving New England from the dump heap of history I said that I had just done a short radio spot with Kelly Fuller on ABC New England North West on new state symbols.

I was pleased to find that ABC has put up a page on the story. This includes a mp3 of the interview with me plus an earlier conversation between Kelly and Max Ellis.

The interview with Max contains a very new piece of information. The New England lion was based not as I had thought on the Scottish and English lions, but on the Finnish lion! 

Now that's a new twist. There appear to be various versions of the Finnish lion; the graphic shows one.

Certainly the Finnish lion is a fearsome beast. Maybe that's just as well as we try to cut ourselves lose from NSW!

Saving New England from the dump heap of history

This morning I did a short radio spot with Kelly Fuller on ABC New England North West on new state symbols, a spot triggered by When was the New England rampant lion first raised?. She had already followed up with Max Ellis, Ulrich Ellis's son. Ulrich both devised the flag and wrote the lyrics for the New State anthem.

Listening to the broadcast, Max apparently has a recording of the anthem being sung that he is going to lend to Kelly. I will follow up with her to see if we can have it put on line. Given my voice, I dare not try to sing it myself!  

Those who are interested in the words and lyrics can find them in Battle Song of New England.

You know, it's interesting. Slowly but surely we are bringing New England's past back from the historical dump heap to which it had been assigned under the influence of changing historical fashions.  

Wednesday Forum: Leveraging Newcastle's inclusion in the Lonely Planet global top ten cities

In Newcastle makes Lonely Planet top ten global cities, 2011, I said of Newcastle's inclusion in the Lonely Planet 2011 top ten global cities from a visitor perspective:

I really was pleased, although the gains will be affected by the NSW Government's response. The biggest risk is that it will simply build the decision into its Brand Sydney strategy, essentially promoting Newcastle as a place to visit from Sydney rather than an end destination in its own right.

If it does this, benefits to Newcastle will be reduced because more people will come on short trips, fewer to stay. Just as bad, it will further increase the fragmentation in tourism promotion further north, splitting Newcastle from its hinterland.

What do you think that Newcastle might do to gain maximum benefits from its inclusion in the Lonely Planet top ten list? 

Blog Performance October 2010

The graphic shows blog traffic over the year ending October 2010. Yellow visits, yellow plus red page views.

In my last post on September traffic, I noted that after the big traffic increase in August, September numbers were down, in part I thought because I was away and could not post.

The decline continued in October. Hopefully, November will be better. 

The ten most popular posts over September were:

• Wednesday Forum: the NBN and New England 155 page views
• Wednesday Forum: New England's greatest needs 124 page views
• Wednesday Forum: the regional development deal 118 page views
• Wednesday Forum: reforming the Federation 97 page views
• The Poetry of Judith Wright - Bora Ring 93 page views
• The Poetry of Judith Wright - South of My Days 68 page views
• New England Story - Stockton Beach 48 page views
• Round the New England blogging traps 18 - mainly political 76 page views
• UNE's strategic positioning 45 page views
• A 1954 Sydney view of the New England New State Movement 41 page views
• The colours of New England 39 page views

Excluding search engine traffic, the most referrals came from:

• twitter 38 visitors
• http://belshaw.blogspot.com/ 14 visitors
• http://wollombi.nsw.au/yoursay/ 7 visitors.

Newcastle makes Lonely Planet top ten global cities, 2011

The news that Lonely Planet has ranked Newcastle number nine on its 2011 global list of best cities to visit has met with a mixed reaction in Sydney to the south. That city missed out again.

I really was pleased, although the gains will be affected by the NSW Government's response. The biggest risk is that it will simply build the decision into its Brand Sydney strategy, essentially promoting Newcastle as a place to visit from Sydney rather than an end destination in its own right..

If it does this, benefits to Newcastle will be reduced because more people will come on short trips, fewer to stay. Just as bad, it will further increase the fragmentation in tourism promotion further north, splitting Newcastle from its hinterland.   

A 1954 Sydney view of the New England New State Movement

Browsing the Sydney Morning Herald, I found this article from Monday 18 October, 1954. The slightly bemused tone is reasonably representative of SMH reporting of the time. Acceptance of the arguments, but somewhat dismissive of the outcome.

"NEW STATE MOVEMENT

New England's Golden Lion Is Determined

By A STAFF CORRESPONDENT

New Englanders, or at least a goodly number of them, have chosen a golden lion rampant as the symbol of their desire for secession from the State of New South Wales.

Their lion, an angry beast with all claws extended, stands upright and brandishes a sword.

By contrast, the golden lion gardant on the N.S.W. coat-of-arms seems apprehensive; it clutches the State shield with both paws and looks back warily over its own shoulder.

That, at any rate, is the wishful interpretation of the two lions by members of the New England New State Movement.

Their description of New England's lion is justified by their own vigour and self-confidence; but their description of the N.S.W. lion is a little misleading.

The New Staters arc indeed vigorous. During the last five years, they have sent a deputation to the Federal Government, appealed by petition to the N.S.W. Government, and held their own referenda to demonstrate New England's desire for self-government.

They have, strangely enough, persuaded visiting Texas oil man, Mr. Hugh Cullen, to inform President Eisenhower of their movement.

They have asked Sir Winston Churchill, as a representative of Old England, to visit New England; they wear their own badge (gilt lion on a white ground); and they will soon fly their own flag (yellow lion on pale blue).

At their annual convention in December, they will plan a representative assembly, a shadow parliament as it were, for New England.

The N.S.W. Government is not quite so worried by this activity as the appearance of its lion gar- dant would suggest. The Premier has ignored New England's petition; and his Minister for Local Government has tried to deter New England municipal and shire councils from holding referenda.

Undeterred, the New State Movement will soon make an ap proach to the Crown. This approach cannot succeed, though, unless the N.S.W. Government is prepared to co-operate. According to the Australian Constitution, New England cannot secede with out the consent of the N.S.W. Parliament.

New England State, as envisaged by the movement, would far exceed the present boundaries of the New England region. New England is a plateau 100 miles wide and 180 miles long, bounded on the south by the Moonbi Ranges and on the north by the Queensland border. It includes the towns of Walcha, Guyra, Uralla, Inverell, Glen Innes and Tenterfield, and the city of Armidale.

In summer it is, like England, a green and pleasant land; in winter, its high grazing lands are sometimes covered by snow.

The new State's boundaries were drawn in 1934 by a Boundaries Commissioner, Mr. H. S. Nicholas, appointed by the N.S.W. Government. They will take in not only New England but Newcastle and the Hunter River Valley, the coastline from Newcastle to Queensland, and the north-west slopes and plains as far west as Brewarrina.

This area of 64,000 square miles is three times as large as Tasmania and contains a population of 680,000-100,000 more than Western Australia.

Throughout this region the word "decentralisation," so often paid little more than lip service in Australian cities, has deep significance. Centralisation has stunted New England, its citizens declare; decentralisation is its only hope. And Statehood-the word enters any conversation sooner or later-is the only acceptable basis for decentralisation.

"New South Wales has borrowed £243m for capital works during the last five years," complains one New Stater. "We of New England are responsible for our share-one fifth, since we comprise one-fifth of the State's population-which is about £48,500,000. In point of fact, though, less than £10m has been spent in New England during this period. Thus we, the people, have been robbed of £38,000,000 in the last five years."

New England could have made good use of that money, too, say the New Staters. There is no rail link between New England and the north coast. Lines have been started at different times from Guyra, Glen Innes and Tenterfield, but never finished. There is not even a good road down from the highland towns to the coast.

The Keepit Dam, near Gunnedah, was started in 1938 and is still unfinished. Iluka port at the mouth of the Clarence River has not yet been developed.

The New Staters know very well what has happened to the missing millions. Sydney is the thief. Residents of Sydney would be surprised at the genuine anger aroused in New England by the proposal that a tunnel should be driven underneath Sydney Harbour.

"Of Course!"

If the State Government's first concern is Sydney, let New England become its own State. "Of course" New England could support itself! Would it not have an annual production of £.192 million - considerably more than that of Tasmania, Western Australia or South Australia? And did not Queensland start life in 1860 with only 7id in the Trea- sury?

It is against this kind of feeling that the New England New State Movement must be viewed. Agitation for a new State of New England has risen and subsided several times during the last 50 years. The present movement started in 1948 under the encouragement, principally, of Mr. Phillip A. Wright, who is now its president. "P.A.," a big man in his late sixties, is a cattle man and, it is popularly and proudly supposed in New England, a millionaire.

There are other cattle and sheep men on the executive of the movement: Mr. Peter Wright, of Lana; Colonel H. F. White and Mr. Richard White, of Bald Blair. But the movement is by no means confined to graziers or, in fact, to members of the Country Party.

One recent executive meeting in Armidale was attended by a schoolteacher and a retired auctioneer from Tenterfield, an Armidale solicitor, a teacher from the Armidale School, and an Oxford graduate whose know- ledge of constitutional law has been of value to the movement.

It could not be denied, however, that the most active support for Statehood comes from the pastoralists of New England. The townspeople do not show the same enthusiasm. And the Labour M.L.A. for Armidale (Mr. Jim Cahill) is pessimistic about the chances, and indeed is doubtful about the immediate need, for a new State.

Active support for the movement seems small when the number of subscribers (2,000) is compared with the total population of the New State region (680,000).

But this is misleading. The movement enjoys passive support throughout New England. There is a unity, a feeling of common interest, in New England which derives from a feeling of common neglect by the N.S.W. Government.

New England already has its own university, its own airline ("East-West-the Decentralised Airline"), and its own brand of beer.

The movement has asked the N.S.W. Government to hold a referendum to test the support for statehood, but the Government has so far refused. Last December, New England held its own poll in conjunction with local government elections conducted by many councils in the area. Much to everyone's surprise, a majority of voters (77 per cent.) favoured the establishment of a new State.

Final Arbiter

The arguments for a new State - mainly decentralisation; federalism rather than unification - can scarcely be refuted. The logical extension of regional development, a policy favoured by the N.S.W. Government, is state- hood. But is New England ready for statehood yet?

The New Staters are impatient: "of course" New England is ready on the score of population, area, industry and income. The N.S.W. Government is not so sure; at any rate, whatever its opinion about the rights or wrongs of statehood, it is unwilling to permit secession. And its permission is essential.

The Federal Constitution em- powers the Federal Parliament to "admit to the Commonwealth or establish new States." And the Federal Parliament may "with the consent of the Parliament of a State and the approval of the majority of the electors of the State voting upon the question increase, diminish or otherwise alter the limits of the State." Again, in the next clause, a new State may be formed "by separation of territory from a State but only with the consent of the Parliament thereof."

Clearly, New South Wales will be the final arbiter. The issue is not so much whether New England wants to leave New South Wales, but whether New South Wales wants to lose New England. And New England would be a very valuable territory to lose.