Roaring Fun
“In Australia and New Zealand, long ago, it was called a ‘bull roarer’ and used to scare away evil spirits; Native Americans made it hum during rain ceremonies; South American fisherman swirled it over rivers to…
Tag Archives: Australia
Brain Gain
“We’ve made the decision to go home, and I urge other New Zealanders to do the same. Let’s stop helping the economy of a country where we’re not welcome,” says Phillipa Hawkes, packing to come home following…
It’s Shirley, Isn’t It?
The Shirley Convention 2001 is expecting “500 Shirleys from across Australia and New Zealand”.
Benefits Suspended
New Zealanders, the group with the highest rate of employment in Australia, will lose the right to benefits under new immigration restrictions.
Temping It
An influx of hard-working New Zealand and Australian temps has lifted industry standards in the UK.
15% Pure
All ingredients in New Zealand and Australian food are to be labelled by percentage. “Meat” pie anyone?
John Bull (& Kiwi)
Michael Wills’ mother was a New Zealander, and his father an Austrian. Today he is charged with putting British patriotism on New Labour’s agenda.
Godzone/Godawful?
Australian-based Kiwi Bernard Lagan trashes New Zealand’s health, wealth and spirit. Helen Clark exercises the right of reply.
Tuna Tussle
How much is too much? New Zealand, Australia and Japan have brought in independent scientific experts to settle the row over tuna quotas.
Idiosyncratic Mambo
Designer Reg Mombassa, “the quintessential idiosyncratic Australian artist, even though he’s from New Zealand,” is a key part of Mambo’s international success.
Home Brew
New Zealand horse takes out the Melbourne Cup. “Brilliantly ridden by 20-year-old South Australian jockey Kerrin McEvoy, the regally bred Brew made light of 49kg when scoring a two-length victory after starting from the outside barrier.”
International Treasure
Enterprising techno-toy hounds have devised a use for hand-held GPS systems: geocaching. 120 caches have been laid in 31 states and 13 countries, including Australia, New Zealand and Chile.
Dame Delights
“Well, little Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is a friend of mine. She’s a little New Zealand singer.” Dame Edna Everage of Australia on her illustrious mate, Kiri.
Cullen a Keeper
Christian Cullen has resisted overseas contracts to concentrate on winning the World Cup for New Zealand in 2003 (which will be held in Australia and New Zealand). “The World Cup is the only thing I haven’t won…
V Good
New Zealand company Frucor, dominant in the NZ and Australian energy drinks market, feels V ready to compete with international behemoth Coca-Cola. “We believe we can grow the market fivefold in Australia,” says CEO Mark Cowsill.
Kiwi Water Winner
The gold medal in women’s 470 sailing class at Sydney went to Australia – with a Kiwi doing the work. New Zealander Jenny Armstrong teamed up with Barbara Stowell, originally from Zimbabwe, to win Australia’s 50th medal.
Through Now
Seepower, global/ Wellington IT company Compudigm’s data visualisation software, delivered smooth connection of more than 500,000 calls from Stadium Australia on the opening day of the Olympics.
Crushing Cushing
Ansett International is looking to expand into Asian and European routes, challenging Australian giant Qantas. Asked how worried Qantas executives should be about the new competition, Air New Zealand executive chairman Selwyn Cushing advised them to “take…
Seeding Change
New Zealand scientists from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research have been collaborating with their Australian and British counterparts in experiments that may hold the answer to global warming. By adding extra iron to the…
Dollar for Dollar
Ian MacFarlane, Governor of the Australia Reserve bank, has been positive about the idea of currency union with New Zealand, but has left the initiative firmly on the Kiwi side of the ditch. Earlier this month…
Rugby: Brits Gush About All Blacks
“To watch the sheer brilliance of New Zealand’s opening passage of play against the Wallabies, and then to have that followed by the marvellous fightback which took Australia to level pegging—and for that quality to be sustained…
Initiative Edge
In a tough call, trust your instincts, says cognitive psychologists Gary Klein. “The best decision makers that Klein has seen are wildland firefighters … They fight fires 12 months a year – in western…
The purloined piano?
The Piano secured Jane Campion as a major director and catapulted her from the art-house to the multiplex, but the Oxford Companion to Australian Film recently cast doubt over the originality of the screenplay for…
Genie Rubs Up Well
Genie Systems’ OrderWare is now running in 10 US Babies ‘R’ Us stores, and is set to fully installed by next year. “Australasian software businesses have a unique style of software, and therefore I think there are many…
Legendary Kiwi Credited with Giving Great Journalist His Start
Rex Lopez died late last month, ending an illustrious career as a journalist and critic. Lopez spent much of his life in Australia, but legendary Kiwi journalist, radio commentator, war correspondent, novelist and television personality Eric Baume…
Maori Mystique
The Washington Post’s Kid’s Section “Web@tlas” spotlights Australia and New Zealand, inviting readers to “take a peek into the world of the Maori – including the intricate tattoos that “they’re known for” by linking…
Sailing Away with the Kenwood Cup
New Zealand was officially named champion of the 12th Biennial Kenwood Cup Hawaii International offshore series, with Big Apple 3, after stopping to help a distressed boat, still coming in ahead of Australia, the USA and…
Bloodlust ballet brings in the crowds in Australia
The Royal New Zealand Ballet’s Dracula is slaying audiences across the Tasman. Described as “grand gothic entertainment layering gloom, psychological gutsiness and new eroticism over a hackneyed old plot” it has opened in Melbourne…
Silence is Regulated Golden
Not doing a great deal to dispel the stereotype of the loud-mouthed ocker, an article on the art and science of noise in the Sydney Morning Herald looks at the menace of noise pollution,…
More Rings Buzz
No, not the Lord of the Rings … amidst speculation about upcoming productions of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, New Zealand soprano Margaret Medlyn has been picked to sing the part of Kundry in the State…
The End of an Aussie Icon: Hats off to NZ Scientists
“It just may spell the end of the world’s ugliest headgear: that staple of the Australian tourist shop regular, the cork-fringed hat.” Two researchers from Massey University have developed a technique that kills female fruit flies in…
Satellite Spies: Big Brother is Watching.
‘Echelon’, a mysterious spy network between the United States, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, has come under fire from the European Union, as well as defenders of civil liberty. The station at Wahopai, in the South…
Te Whaea opens Options
Options, a tertiary dance festival for Australian and New Zealand students held in Sydney, was joined on its gala day by the New Zealand School of Dance. The Kiwi dancers shone in a generally…
Chris Cairns Nominated for International Cricketer of the Year
Daniel Vettori was also nominated for International Young Cricketer of the Year. Unfortunately the Aussies took out the double with Glenn McGrath and Brent Lee taking the respective awards.
New Zealand Not Giving Up on South Pacific Whale Sanctuary
A bid by New Zealand and Australia to establish an ocean sanctuary to protect whale breeding grounds failed at the International Whaling Commission Meeting in Adelaide. Despite securing two-thirds of the vote, they were blocked by the hard-lobbying…
Graham Henry First Non-British Coach of the Lions
Call it post-colonial, call it usurping, but New Zealander Graham Henry will be charged with giving the British Lions Rugby-Union team a new roar for their tour of Australia next year. Citing his will to win…
ANZACS Cautious in South Pacific
New Zealand and Australia in recent years have turned their attention away from the South Pacific, and increasingly cast it towards Asia. Two coups in as many weeks, in Fiji and the Solomon Islands, have re-focused attention,…
Helen Clark: Good Bloke
“Good bloke” politics is playing well in “reform-fatigued” Australian electorates. The new model is not gender-specific. Prime Minister Helen Clark in New Zealand may like to imply that it is, but she has profited from the same…
Dallas Cowboys in the Super 12?
Rugby, the sport of choice in countries like New Zealand and Australia is gaining a strong foothold in the States, and particularly in Dallas, Patricia Lowell finds out why. “Rugby may have a reputation for being…
Teddy Tahu Rhodes: Kiwi man singing Houston
Teddy Tahu Rhodes, “a New Zealand baritone well known in Sydney for his Opera Australia appearances”, is playing the lead role of Joe in the Houston Grand Opera’s rendering of Dead Man Walking. It…
Save Our Sea-mammals : Pacific Plan for Whale Sanctuary
New Zealand and Australian governments are set to pressure the International Whaling Commission into creating a whale sanctuary in the South Pacific, believing that a plan must be implemented to protect stocks already severely depleted by whaling.
Kiwi’s Big Fightback in the War of Whiteware
They might have won the eponymous netball cup, but at least someone’s beating the Aussies: Fisher & Paykel increased its Australian market share and boosted its annual profit above expectations to A$43 million, a 290% improvement…
Six or Sex? Looks Like Fush and Chups Hasn’t Affected Kiwi Males’ Performance in Bed
In an extensive new study by Shere Hite (the author credited with fuelling the sexual revolution) it was found that “in the English-speaking world Australia generally lagged behind New Zealand on the sex-scale ……
Tomlinson, Richard Tomlinson, MI6
Richard Tomlinson, New Zealand born Cambridge educated British spy, faces prosecution under the Official Secrets Act for revelations about his past work for M16. Tomlinson, claiming wrongful dismissal and already sentenced to prison for…
Kiwis Romp to Victory in World School’s Golf Championship
New Zealand were runaway winners of the Golf Foundation team championship for schools international two-day final which ended at Royal County Down Golf Club on Wednesday. The New Zealanders won the R&A Trophy for the first time with…
Singapore looks to New Zealand Model in Fair Trading Laws Debate
Edmund Baker, Executive Director of the Consumers Association of Singapore is pushing the Kiwi and Australian Fair Trading Acts as model examples in debates over fair trade legislation in Singapore.
Australian Style the New Zealand Way
“If you look over those lists of favourite shows, as picked by two key international delegates, something even more interesting emerges: a third of the top-scoring designers were born outside Australia. Kiwi born and…
Thrills and Spills in Testosterone City
“Fly is the epitome of the New Kiwi, chattier than the chattiest Aussie, more fashionable than the most fashionable Aspenite”. Minty Church gets a personal introduction to the daredevil sports Mecca of Testosterone City, aka Queenstown,…
“And Did the Countenance Divine/ Shine Forth Upon Our Clouded Hills?” ANZAC Remembered in Jerusalem
The memory of the New Zealand and Australian soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice in WWI was honoured at the annual ANZAC Day ceremony at the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem.
Memorial for Gallipoli Dead
The Prime Ministers of Australia and New Zealand have unveiled a new memorial on the Gallipoli peninsula in western Turkey to commemorate thousands of their countrymen who died fighting at Gallipoli against the Ottoman Empire during the…
New Generation Makes Pilgrimage to Gallipoli
A new dawn rose in Gallipoli as generation of young New Zealanders and Australians, mostly backpackers, (the first generation in either country’s history not to have seen war) came to ANZAC cove.
5000 Mourn ANZAC Deaths at Gallipoli
“We shared the calamity of war,” Helen Clark, the New Zealand Prime Minister, told the crowd. “Things that happened here tied us together for ever. We share the grief of our losses.” She was joined on the…
Why is There an NZ in ANZAC?
“In Australia the word Anzac has slowly changed its meaning. The letters NZ – and the New Zealanders – have virtually been excised … It is worth recalling, occasionally, that at Gallipoli the smaller nation paid…
Peacekeepers Mourn Tragedy of War
Indonesia: More than 1,000 United Nations peacekeepers from the Australian and New Zealand contingents attended the ANZAC service, with additional participants from Fiji, Singapore, Pakistan and the United States. Of added significance was a small uniformed delegation…
Dinnigan Takes Hip-elegance to London
In Australia, Collette Dinnigan is famous. In Europe, it is her clothes – pretty and sexy in the sophisticated manner that is loved by women for whom femininity and style outweigh the need to…
