Category: AUSTRALIAN

Source: SMH

Five copper coins and a nearly 70-year-old map with an ‘‘X’’ might lead to a discovery that could rewrite Australia’s history.

Australian scientist Ian McIntosh, currently Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University in the US, plans an expedition in July that has stirred up the archaeological community.

The scientist wants to revisit the location where five coins were found in the Northern Territory in 1944 that have proven to be 1000 years old, opening up the possibility that seafarers from distant countries might have landed in Australia much earlier than what is currently believed.

Back in 1944 during World War II, after Japanese bombers had attacked Darwin two years earlier, the Wessel Islands – an uninhabited group of islands off Australia’s north coast – had become a strategic position to help protect the mainland.

Australian soldier Maurie Isenberg was stationed on one of the islands to man a radar station and spent his spare time fishing on the idyllic beaches.

While sitting in the sand with his fishing-rod, he discovered a handful of coins in the sand.

He didn’t have a clue where they could come from but pocketed them anyway and later placed them in a tin.

In 1979 he rediscovered his ‘‘treasure’’ and decided to send the coins to a museum to get them identified.

The coins proved to be 1000 years old. Still not fully realising what treasure he held in his hands, he marked an old colleague’s map with an ‘‘X’’ to remember where he had found them.
The discovery was apparently forgotten again until anthropologist McIntosh got the ball rolling a few months ago.

The coins raise many important questions:

How did 1000-year-old coins end up on a remote beach on an island off the northern coast of Australia?

Did explorers from distant lands arrive on Australian shores way before James Cook claimed it for the British throne in 1770?

We do know already that Captain Cook wasn’t the first white seafarer to step on Australia’s shores.

In 1606 a Dutch explorer named Willem Janszoon reached the Cape York peninsula in Queensland, closely followed a few years late by another Dutch seafarer Dirk Hartog.

And the Spaniard Luiz Vaez de Torres discovered the strait between Papua New Guinea and Australia, which was later named Torres Strait in his honour.

However, none of these explorers recognised that they had discovered the famed southern continent, the ‘‘terra australis incognita’’, which was depicted as a counterweight to the known land masses of the northern hemisphere on many world maps of the day.

McIntosh and his team of Australian and American historians, archaeologists, geomorphologists and Aboriginal rangers say that the five coins date back to the 900s to 1300s.

They are African coins from the former Kilwa sultanate, now a World Heritage ruin on an island off Tanzania.

Kilwa once was a flourishing trade port with links to India in the 13th to 16th century.

The trade with gold, silver, pearls, perfumes, Arabian stone ware, Persian ceramics and Chinese porcelain made the city one of the most influential towns in East Africa at the time.

The copper coins were the first coins ever produced in sub-Saharan Africa and according to McIntosh have only twice been found outside Africa: once in Oman and Isenberg’s find in 1944.

The old coins might not be of monetary value, but for archaeologists they are priceless, says McIntosh.

Archaeologists have long suspected that there may have been early maritime trading routes that linked East Africa, Arabia, India and the Spice Islands even 1,000 years ago.
Or the coins could’ve washed ashore after a shipwreck.

When Isenberg discovered the copper coins he also found four coins that originated from the Dutch East India Company – with one dating back to 1690 raising memories of those early Dutch seafarers that stepped on Australian shores well before Cook.
McIntosh wants to answer some of these mysteries during his planned expedition to the Wessel Islands in July.
And it’s not only about revisiting the beach that was marked with an ‘‘X’’ on Isenberg’s map.

He will also be looking for a secret cave Aboriginal legends talk about.

This cave is supposed to be close to the beach where Isenberg once found the coins and is said to be filled with doubloons and weaponry of an ancient era.

Should McIntosh and his team find what they are looking for, the find might not only be priceless treasure, but relics that could rewrite Australian history.

Source: PerthNow

Cancer survivors, your numbers are up

THE lives of 61,000 Australians have been saved by improvements in cancer prevention and treatment over the past 20 years.

The first ever tally of the effects of cancer research shows it has been responsible for a 30 per cent reduction in cancer deaths since the late 1980s.

It’s the human dividend of a series of scientific breakthroughs, new drugs and cancer prevention programs, according to new Cancer Council NSW research to be released today.

“The other way of looking at it is that there are 8000 people alive this year who would have been dead in 1987,” Cancer Council NSW Associate Professor Freddy Sitas said.

The biggest drop in deaths has occurred in lung cancer, with 2154 fewer deaths each year now compared with the late 1980s.

Smoking was banned in the workplace in 1986 and on aircraft a year later and together with public health campaigns and rising tobacco excise they were responsible for cutting the number of people contracting lung cancer from smoking, Professor Sitas said.

The success rate for this cancer has been the result of campaigns to prevent people developing the disease in the first place by encouraging them to quit smoking or never start smoking.

Life expectancy is still very poor for those who do develop lung cancer.

The second biggest fall in cancer deaths has been bowel cancer, with 1797 fewer people dying each year than if late-1980s trends had continued.

An increasing number of exploratory colonoscopies and improved national bowel cancer treatment guidelines that standardised chemotherapy and radiotherapy helped slash the death rate for this cancer.

A national bowel cancer screening program began in 2006 and it has already led to early detection of some cancers that will prevent further deaths.

Breast cancer deaths have fallen by 773 between 1987 and 2007, partly due to free mammograms introduced in the late 1980s and new clinical treatment guidelines.

One of the other big factors has been the drug Tamoxifen which is prescribed to fight tumor growth in women who have breast cancer with tumors that are fuelled by estrogen, Professor Sitas sayid.

Sinead Forbes says she owes her life to cancer research after she developed breast cancer at the age of 37.

The mother of three young children says standardised treatment and a breakthrough breast cancer drug Herceptin helped her beat a stage three cancer that had already begin to spread through her body.

“It felt terrible to know I had a life threatening condition. All I kept thinking was I had three beautiful children and an adorable husband and I’m going to lose them,” she said.

“I’m so grateful for medical research, without it I wouldn’t be here to be a mum to my kids and a wife to my adorable husband,” she said.

Sinead finished her 17 months of harrowing treatment in 2011 and her cancer is in remission.

The Cancer Council expects about 8000 deaths to be avoided each year if current advances in cancer treatment are maintained.

Professor Sitas says even more gains could be made if the fifty per cent of Australians who shun cancer screening programs could be enticed to take part.

There are still some cancers including brain, pancreatic and oesophegeal cancers where improvements in death rates have been slow and more money needs to be spent on research into better treatments for these diseases, he said.

“What this study shows is you donations towards cancer research count,” Professor Sitas said.

The Cancer Council will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea next month and Professor Sitas encouraged people to donate generously knowing their money would save lives.

Source: News

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has announced the Medicare levy will increase by 0.5 per cent to pay for Labor’s National Disability Insurance Scheme.

The average worker on $70,000 a year will pay an extra $1 a day in Medicare levies, Ms Gillard said.

She made the announcement in Melbourne this morning, and said all funds collected from the increased levy would go into a special fund to pay for disability support.

The Medicare levy will increase from the current 1.5 per cent to 2 per cent and starts on July 1, 2014.

The increase is expected to raise $3.2 billion a year towards Government’s major share of the NDIS.

The Government had previously ruled out a levy to fund the scheme.

“The choice me and my colleagues have made is that disability care should be supported by a 0.5 per cent increase to the Medicare levy,” Ms Gillard said.

“Every cent raised would be spent on disability care.”

She said the Government had hoped to fund the NDIS through savings in the Budget “but I do today say that I have thought about this deeply and I have changed my mind”.

“I want to be clear that the amount raised from the additional levy will not fund the full cost of disability care,” Ms Gillard said.

“There will be no free ride for states and territories, they will have to step up too.”

Treasurer Wayne Swan said it was vital the NDIS had a “stable, secure funding scheme”.

“The advantage of this fund is that all of the money raised from the levy goes straight to this fund and cannot be used for any other purpose,” he said.

“We are asking people to pay a little more to do a little more for those with disabilities that have been left behind.”
Ms Gillard said she spoke to state and territory leaders about the NDIS and potential increase to the Medicare levy at a COAG dinner last month.

Ms Gillard is also expected to announce a clampdown on the disability support pension scheme today.

Earlier this week Ms Gillard flagged a $12 billion shortfall in one year of tax revenues and said all options had to be considered.

NDIS survey

Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin spoke about a family in Melbourne who had a disabled son at the announcement today.

“(They) have explained to me how hard it is to get respite, how hard it is to get a couple of days off,” Ms Macklin said.

“How hard it was to get a new wheelchair for him as he got older.

“This is the reality for families and carers and people with a disability in Australia at the moment. This is why we need the … National Disability Insurance Scheme.”

Ms Macklin also said there would not be any further changes to the disability support pension in the coming Budget.

“I do want to assure families and their carers that this very important part of the disability support net will remain,” Ms Macklin said.

It is important to have certainty around NDIS funding, Every Australian Counts campaign spokesman John Della Bosca said.

“A levy does have its attractions… it;s transparent, people know what they’re spending their money on and that they’re getting a benefit from a social insurance scheme,” he told ABC Radio today.

“Anyone can suffer a severe and profound disability at any time.”

Mr Della Bosca dismissed comments from former Treasurer Peter Costello and business leaders claiming that now was not the right time for the NDIS because there was no Federal Budget surplus.

“Australians with a disability have waited long enough,” Mr Della Bosca said.

“It’s a question of priorities.”

Source: RocksWindmill

In colonial Sydney, windmills were most often the tallest structures on the harbour foreshore. However, within a 100 years of settlement, this romantic vision had been swallowed by the smoke belching chimneys of the Industrial Revolution. Our modern preoccupation with pollution and climate change might see us judging this development as entirely reprehensible, but in the 19th Century, such chimneys symbolised progress and prosperity.

When bringing The Rocks Windmill concept to fruition, the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority took the approach that the historical remains of the built environment shouldn’t define our understanding of the past – rather, what is absent from the picture is just as, if not more, compelling.

One aspect of this is explored by the Authority’s resident archaeologist Wayne Johnson (pictured above), in his talk From Wind to Steam and Beyond, co-presented by Historic Houses Trust. Held on Thursday May 2nd, this presentation provides a fascinating explanation of how the rise of steam based technology sealed the windmill’s fate, erasing them from the colonial landscape.

The key, says Wayne, was the discovery of coal in Wollongong in 1797, and then later in Newcastle, allowing steam power to be seen as “a more reliable power source, and unlike windmills, worked regardless of climatic conditions.” Indeed, the climate also played a bigger role in the windmills’ demise. Most were ‘post mills’ and made from timber, which the early settlers found deteriorated quickly in their new homeland. They were also highly susceptible to termites and, worse still, often damaged by the very wind from which they derived their power.

However, as Wayne will share, the true driving force behind the windmill’s demise, was the engineer John Dickson. Holding one of the earliest patents for steam technology, he arrived in the colony with his steam mill in 1813. Between coal and Dickson’s entrepreneurial spirit, the colony’s windmills didn’t stand a chance.

Whilst From Wind to Steam and Beyond looks at John Dickson’s legacy, Wayne Johnson’s talk highlights the importance of not taking our understanding of the past for granted. “While we often celebrate mansions and public buildings,” he states, “our industrial heritage is often swept away.”

Jacqui Newling, from Historic Houses Trust of NSW, delves into another forgotten aspect of colonial life in Our Daily Bread. Long ago, bread was considered to be the ‘staff of life’, and once the windmills had regularised the settler’s supply of flour, bread became the mainstay of colonial diets. However, not all bread was created equal in Sydney Cove and, in Our Daily Bread, Jacqui will show how the quality of one’s flour ration was directly linked to their social standing.

Contrary to common belief, meal-times at Sydney Cove weren’t defined by the rations each settler received. Between foraging for wild food and the establishment of kitchen gardens, early settlers were eating fare far superior to their contemporaries in England. Our Daily Bread is one for foodies who’d like to travel back to the dinner tables of yesteryear – as gastronomer and head cook at the Historic Houses Trust of NSW – it’s a journey Jacqui Newling makes all the time!

EVENT DETAILS

Please note, both From Wind to Steam and Beyond and Our Daily Bread, are being hosted by the Historic Houses Trust of NSW. To secure your seat, register using the links below:

From Wind to Steam and Beyond – Register
Thursday 2 May
5.30pm – 6.30pm
Free

Windmills – Skyscrapers of the Colonial Era / SOLD OUT
Sunday 5 May
2 – 3.30pm
Free

Our Daily Bread – Register
Thursday 9 May
5.30pm – 6.30pm
Free

Source: TheDailyTelegraph

SYDNEY’S top designers are uniting to support the Sydney Children’s Hospital Gold Telethon fundraiser on June 10.

Bassike, Camilla and Marc and sass & bide have teamed up with babywear brand Marquise to create a line of limited-edition bodysuits. The screen-printed designs will go on sale tomorrow with 100 per cent of sales going to the charity.

Candy Weinbren, the mother of one of the poster children for the campaign, Max Jesse said she wanted to show her support to the campaign and the hospital, which helped when her one-year-old son fell ill.

“When Max was only two weeks old he had bronchiolitis and it was so reassuring to have a world-class hospital on our doorstep,” she said.

“We were so lucky but there are so many children who are sick and in the hospital for long periods of time so I wanted to do anything I could to help.”

Over the next month the bodysuits, worth $24.95, will available to purchase through theiconic.com.au

Source: TheDailyTelegraph

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has reportedly reached an agreement with NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell on Gonski

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard has reached an agreement with NSW on the Gonski reforms.

The Daily Telegraph understands that Ms Gillard and Premier Barry O’Farrell will hold a joint press conference this afternoon to announce that they have reached an agreement on unlocking billions of dollars for NSW schools.

It comes just four days after the Council of Australian Governments meeting in Canberra, where Ms Gillard was unable to support a single state or territory to support her Gonski reforms.

Ms Gillard has asked the NSW government to commit $1.7 billion to the new funding model and the Commonwealth will pay $3.3 billion.

It represents a 35 per cent funding increase for NSW schools.

NSW has been considered the most likely Coalition government to sign up for the reforms.

Under the model, every Australian primary student would get $9271, secondary students would get $12,193 each and there would be extra money in six loadings for disadvantage, size and location of the school.

The Commonwealth will provide $2 for every extra $1 invested by the states and a premium indexation rate of 4.7 per cent if the states commit to grow their school budgets by 3 per cent a year over the next six years.

Ms Gillard said the Commonwealth’s contribution would be partly funded by a $2.3 billion cut to higher education, leading to criticism of “robbing from Peter to pay Paul”.

Source: TheAge

Australia’s population will tick past the 23 million mark on Tuesday night as the country continues to grow at the fastest rate in the developed world.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics population counter will tick over to 23 million at 9.57pm. Social researchers say the milestone baby will – statistically – be a boy called Jack. Odds suggest his mother will be 31, his father 33 and he will live in western Sydney.
Jack isn’t real, of course. His likely arrival time has been reached by averaging the expected number of births, deaths and net overseas migration intake (incoming residents minus outgoing) since data was last collected in September 2012.

What is known is our annual population growth rate of 1.7 per cent – 1048 people per day, or the equivalent of a new Gold Coast every 19 months – is the fastest of any OECD country. The US is growing at 0.9 per cent, and Britain at just 0.6 per cent.

The world’s population is growing at 1.1 per cent, having surpassed 7 billion people in late 2011. Australia’s population growth is even outstripping countries with traditionally high birth rates, such as India on 1.4 per cent.
Demographers say it is migration, rather than an elevated birth rate, that is the main driver spurring Australia’s growth.
Net overseas migration accounted for 60 per cent of Australia’s population increase last year, with the proportion from births falling from 46 per cent to 40 per cent.

Bob Birrell, from Monash University’s Centre for Population and Urban Research, said aside from a surge in the early 2000s, Australia’s fertility rate (the number of children per woman) has remained stable at about 1.9.

Dr Birrell said the population was driven upwards by people on temporary visas, who make up about half of the growth in net migration. ”Working holiday makers, visitors, 457 visa holders, New Zealanders – they have all been going up sharply,” he said.

”There is no cap on working holiday makers and we are a very attractive destination now for people from Ireland, Taiwan, England, where the labour markets are dead.”

Almost two-thirds of permanent arrivals last year were on some kind of working visa. Thirty per cent were on family visas and 7 per cent on humanitarian visas.

Bjorn Jarvis, director of demography at the ABS, pointed out that the 488,100 permanent arrivals last year was proportionally a smaller group relative to the rest of the population than the influx following World War II.

In 1918, Australia’s population was just 5 million. It passed 10 million in 1959, 15 million in 1982, and 20 million in 2003. While a lesser contributor than migration, births still hit a record high last year, surpassing 300,000 for the first time. Australia recorded twice as many births (303,600) as deaths (149,100). By 2028 there will be more people aged over 60 than under 20.
Professor Billie Giles-Corti, director of the McCaughey VicHealth Centre at Melbourne University, warned that the health system would be overwhelmed unless the elderly remained fit and active.

She said people in retirement housing close to shops and services did better than those living further out, even if they had facilities in their own village.

The minor premiership-winning South Sydney under 16s Harold Matthews Cup side will take on the third-place Penrith Panthers this Saturday for a spot in the Harold Matthews Cup Grand Final.

The South Sydney boys won their qualifying final against Newcastle two weekends ago and will now prepare to do battle with the Panthers at St Marys Leagues Stadium at 10am on Saturday 27 April.

The South Sydney side has gone through the competition undefeated and will need to be focussed to remain that way and to win through to the Grand Final to be played the following weekend.

Unfortunately the under 18s SG Ball Cup side lost their semi final to the Balmain Tigers on Saturday, going down 26 points to 24 at Campbelltown Sports Stadium.

Five-eighth Paul Momirovski, fullback Alex Johnston and prop Cheyne Whitelaw were South Sydney’s best, but unfortunately the young Rabbitohs went down by just the two points.

The under 18s had a fantastic season, finishing in second position on the ladder, but lost both of their finals matches to be eliminated from the finals series.

Congratulations to Coach Arthur Kitinas, Assistant Coach Willie Peters and their team for a fine season.

Balmain 26
defeated

South Sydney 24 (Tevita Cottrell 2, Israel Davis, Thomas Hughes, Devon Makoare-Boyce tries; Paul Momirovski 2 goals)

Source: TheAge

Water bills for the average Melbourne household could soar by $290 next financial year under proposed price rises being considered by the industry regulator.

On Tuesday, the Essential Services Commission will decide whether to approve water plans by city retailers seeking price increases of an average 34 per cent – mainly to recoup costs from the Wonthaggi desalination plant. If approved, Yarra Valley Water customers would see their bills rise from about $910 to $1220 from July 1, an increase of $310.

South East Water bills would jump from $829 to $1118, an increase of $289.

And City West Water bills would rise from an average $793 to $1060 next year, an increase of $267.

Speaking on behalf of the industry, Yarra Valley Water’s managing director, Tony Kelly, said the cost of the desalination plant – which requires retailers to make $650 million in payments to the project’s consortium, AquaSure – was ”the main component” of the proposed increases.

But he added: ”The water industry in Melbourne has very good programs in place to assist customers who are struggling to pay bills – and we’re adding further to these programs to ease the burden of the next price rise. Customers should go to their water utilities websites for further details.”

Tuesday’s draft decision by the commission comes after the water retailers submitted a five-year plan, outlining their service delivery objectives, revenue requirements and proposed prices between now and 2018.

In country Victoria, most regional water businesses had suggested price increases ranging between 1 per cent to 28 per cent over the five years to June 2018.

The exception was Wannon Water, which sought a 3.4 per cent reduction.
But last month, the commission decided not to approve its plans. The commission chairman, Ron Ben-David, said that although retailers wanted to generate revenues of $4.2 billion over the next five years by marking up their prices, the regulator had proposed to reduce this amount by $185 million, in turn, giving customers lower water bills.
”Most of this reduction has come from savings we identified in the labour costs, energy costs and financing costs proposed by the water businesses,” Dr Ben-David said.

Consumer Action Law Centre spokesman Gerard Brody said he hoped the commission undertook a ”rigorous analysis” of the desalination costs to ensure that the retailers’ costs stacked up.

”We’ve also raised the prospect that some of the costs could be capitalised over a longer period – over the life of the asset,” he said.

”That could mean the initial price rises that have been forecast might not be as great.

Source: By medical reporter Sophie Scott – ABC

There is now a low-risk and relatively painless treatment available for the thousands of Australian men who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Each day more than 30 Australian men are told they have prostate cancer and every three hours, one man will die from the illness.

For most patients, the options are surgery, radiation treatment or simply watching to see whether the tumour gets bigger.

But now, those men with low-risk prostate cancer have another option, called focal therapy.

It is an umbrella term for a number of non-invasive techniques for killing small tumours inside the prostate.

Some focal therapies use either heat or cold to destroy tumours and another option, called the Nanoknife, uses electrical currents to kill the tumours.

Doctors compare the procedure to a lumpectomy for breast cancer patients.

It can destroy specific areas of cancer, while preserving normal prostate tissue and surrounding organs.

Professor Phillip Stricker from Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital is trialling focal therapy using the Nanoknife for some of his patients.

Small wires are inserted into the tumour then electricity is directed across the cancer.

‘Fairly straight forward’

One of the first patients to have the treatment is Kris Stolzenheim, from Camden in New South Wales.

Mr Stolzenheim was diagnosed with low grade prostate cancer 18 months ago. He researched his options and discovered focal therapy.

He says he is not worried that it is a new procedure.

“I like the technological side of it. It’s fairly straight forward and simple,” he said.

“It takes a lot less time, recovery’s quite immediate, and if it works it’s the way of the future I believe.”

He wanted to get rid of the cancer, but minimise his recovery time.

Mr Stolzenheim says he had the procedure, which took about two hours, and was back home that afternoon.

“The only trouble, I had a cold three days afterwards and that’s been much worse than the operation,” he said.

“There was no pain really to talk about afterwards and no side effects afterwards either. Everything seems to be quite normal.”

But Professor Mark Frydenberg from Monash University says the use of focal therapy is very much still at the trial stage.

“What’s crucial is the accuracy of the biopsy in detecting the cancer,” he said.

“Through the MRI, you need a good map of the prostate. The concern is that you will end up treating disease that is not the main area of cancer, as MRIs are good but not perfect,” he said.

At the moment, focal therapy is only being done by a handful of specialists.

But Professor Stricker thinks that will change.

“Once a majority of urologists and professionals decide that it’s a reasonable option in a group of people then I think there’ll be lobbying to Medicare to have an item number for this type of treatment,” he said.