ARLINGTON

Eugene Rossell sent me this. I hope you like it - I do.

Lt. Col. Eugene Rossell served with the Air Commandos during the Vietnam War. 47 thousand US defence personnel were killed in action during the Vietnam conflict. Altogether 55 thousand, in round figures, died as a result of the war. Will it ever end? We salute the men and women who gave their lives during the Vietnam War and since!

Honey Bees

The image is of the eye of a European honey bee. It is from the book "The Buzz about Bees, Biology of a Superorganism", by Jurgen Tautz, pictures by Helga R. Heilmann and published by Springer in 2008.

The good news comes from an article in the Guardian Weekly dated 31 December, 2010 to 6 January, 2011 on page 2.

" A breakthrough has been made in the battle against the varroa mite responsible for decimating honey bee populations. Scientists at Britain's National Bee Unit and Aberdeen University have found how to "silence" natural functions in the mites' genes so they self-destruct."

Luckily in Australia we do not have the mite yet! We hope we never have it but New Zealand has. The mite has destroyed many colonies of bees in the United States. They also have Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) as well in the US. My bees here in TARADALE, Victoria, are doing fine. The winter and spring this year, 2010, was very wet and they got off to a slow start. But there was so much food about that almost every hive swarmed.

Professor Jurgen Tautz refers to the bee colony as "a mammal in many bodies." They are intelligent creatures. Here's an example. A couple of years ago I opened a hive of bees to have a look. After about twenty I closed them up and left the apiary. A couple of hours later I was down in the garden about 20 metres from the hive I previously opened. I happened to look up towards the hive and suddenly a bee from the hive spotted me and made a bee-line over and stung me on the neck. So she had remembered me and recognized me without my bee suit on. That pretty smart for one tiny creature. So bees are conscious I'm sure.

Ray Kurzweil has been telling us since about 1990 that computers will soon be able talk with us. What he means that they will possess consciousness. Bees are conscious but they have little brains. I say Ray, there's no way that is going to happen, doesn't matter how much grunt the computer has.

Electronic Locusts

The community of Castlemaine is engaged in a fight to prevent an organization based in another shire from installing 65 poker machines on Victorian government property at the Castlemaine railway station. The organization we have formed to spear head our efforts is called EPIC which stands for "Enough Pokies in Castlemaine." There are already 35 poker machines in the Cumberland Hotel in Barker Street, Castlemaine. That is 35 too many, because every dollar put into one of these electronic locusts is a dollar that can't be spent with local businesses. We want a strong community that is able to take care of our children and elderly and for that to happen we must have good viable businesses in the area.

Organizations like clubs and pubs who have these machines are tax collectors. So businesses pay tax twice at least, the yearly income tax and the one that is invisible; that is when the dollars that would have been spent by Castlemaine's people on goods and services from local companies, have been put into the poker machines. Members of clubs and patrons of pubs who have these machines get their drinks and food at a discount paid for by the forlorn gamblers. That is an artificial market. If the same sort of thing happened at the Australian Stock Exchange the ACCC would investigate the scam. This practice puts a burden on cafes and restaurants trying to produce wholesome food and drink at a competitive price.

Lt. Col. Harry Smith (Rtd.), Battle of Long Tan

HARRY Smith is still leading the charge for the men he commanded at the Battle of Long Tan 44 years ago.

But this time it will be in the Federal Court of Australia rather than a battlefield in Vietnam.

The retired Australian Army commander today announced he would pursue court action in the new year to have the efforts of 11 diggers, who fought in the 1966 battle, officially recognised with medals and commendations.

Lieutenant Colonel Smith, who previously vowed to maintain the fight for his men “until they put me in a box”, is scathing of the way medals were awarded during the Vietnam War.

“The ugly truth about Long Tan, and in fact the entire Vietnam War over a decade, is that senior officers took most of the awards at the expense of soldiers who fought in action,” he said in a statement.

Related Coverage

• Court to decide Vietnam honour Courier Mail, 1 day ago
• Vietnam War Adelaide Now,22 Apr 2010
• Battle for recognition The Australian, 20 Apr 2010
• Upgraded award for Vietnam hero pilot The Australian,31 Mar 2010
• Vietnam War - 1962-1975Courier Mail, 8 Nov 2007

“Many more went to major-generals, brigadiers, colonels and lieutenant colonels far from the action.”

The federal government has refused to award more medals and commendations for those who took part in the battle, saying that would amount to “excessive recognition”.

The government acted on a review by the Defence Honours and Awards Tribunal in arriving at its decision.

Colonel Smith claims the tribunal's review was “seriously flawed”.

The Battle of Long Tan in 1966 was Australia's first significant engagement of the Vietnam War.

It is considered the defining event of Australia's experience in the war, and the anniversary of the battle - August 18 - is recognised each year by veterans.

Outnumbered by more than 10 to one, 108 Australian and New Zealand troops led by Colonel Smith held their position against 2500 enemy troops for three hours in a rubber plantation deluged by monsoonal rains.

Eighteen Australian soldiers died and 21 were wounded.

But controversy over bravery medals has long dogged the memory of the battle.

Colonel Smith belatedly was awarded a Star of Gallantry for his role, having been downgraded from a Distinguished Service Order in 1966.

His list of soldiers deserving of awards for gallantry was slashed by senior officers.

In 1996, Colonel Smith launched a campaign to gain recognition for all the soldiers on his list when the awards were denied at a formal review in 1998, which approved 81 other Vietnam War awards.

The pending class action is in support of the final 11 men “left out in the cold” and Colonel Smith is confident the court will look favourably on the action.

“We wanted to appeal in 2009 but couldn't because the tribunal wasn't a statutory body under the Defence Act,” he said.

Now the tribunal has a new status which has opened its review to legal scrutiny.

The Federal Court will hear new evidence that includes claims of an invalid scale of awards introduced by Canberra just prior to the Long Tan battle, but not approved by British authorities until 1968.

It will be claimed also that Australian military chiefs at the time falsified statements about the dismissal or downgrading of half the awards Colonel Smith recommended for his soldiers.

At least three of the soldiers covered by the court action are dead, including one - Gordon Sharp - who died at Long Tan.

AAP

Finally Recognition for Long Tan Soldiers

It's been awhile since I posted to my blog. Lot's of things have happened in the meantime and I guess that's true for us all. However, what's important is that finally the soldiers who prevented the probable demise of 1ATF base at Nui Dat, South Vietnam on the 18 August, 1968, have been recognized. Former Delta Company commander, Lieutenant Colonel Harry Smith (Retd.) received the Star of Gallantry, the Australian equivalent of the imperial award of the Distinguished Service Order for his excellent leadership during the battle. Major Geoff Kendall (Retd.) former commander of 10 Platoon Delta Company, 6RAR received the Medal of Gallantry for his part in the battle and former 2nd. Lieutenant Dave Sabben, commander of 12 Platoon received the Star of Gallantry as well.

The Victorian Branch of the Vietnam Veteran's Association of Australia fought hard to have these men recognized forty years after the event. I believe that the surviving rank and file members of Delta Company received the South Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm Leaf Citation for their heroic efforts during the battle.

Of course it also is true that many brave soldiers who took part in the 10 year conflict, and who performed beyond what duty called for, will go unrecognized. That's the nature of war. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we do not glorify war.

Long Tan Commemorative Dinner at Kyneton

I seem to be getting behind in my posts. Vietnam Veterans Badge Week Appeal was a big drain on my time. I spent five full days collecting. Then followed Vietnam Veterans Day and the Long Tan Commemorative Dinner on Friday 17 August 2007.

The picture on the left was taken at the dinner on Friday night of the 17 August 2007. Dave Sabben was the guest speaker. Dave was the 12 Platoon Commander of 'D' Company 6RAR at the Battle of Long Tan that occurred on Thursday 18 August 1968 in South Vietnam. It was an important battle for Australia because if 'D' company, under the command of then Major Harry Smith, had not stood firm against odds of twenty to one the Australian Task Force base at Nui Dat in Phuoc Tuy Province would surely have been wiped out. That would have been disastrous for Australia.

Dave Sabben is signing a copy of his book for former Victorian State Labor MP Bruce Mildenhall. The book is titled "Through Enemy Eyes" and is an book of "faction" about the battle as seen by the enemy. The book is published by Allen and Unwin and is available in most bookshops.

Dave spoke about the battle after dinner. Dave's account of the battle is different to the official one at the Australian War Memorial. The official account says that 'D' Company was ambushed. Dave said that was not the case and gave a list of reasons why it was not an ambush. The official story was one made up by the Australian Military Command to protect politicians and generals at the time that had made several bad decisions. The talk covered the military and political aspects of the battle and the aftermath. Dave took all questions. Ninety percent of people atending the dinner were Vietnam veterans.

A Drive to Sale in Gippsland

On Friday morning, which was August 3rd I drove down to a small city called Sale. Sale is on the South Coast of Victoria and is a sea port. It was also home to an Australian Royal Australian Air Force base during the Second World War. My uncle was a gunnery instructor there. I believe it is still a RAAF base and is soon to include an officer training school. It's a three hour drive for me and I went by the Melbourne Airport, Tullamarine, to pay for a hire car that my friend Garry Cooper is to use when he arrives next week. I was supposed to arrive there in time for a meeting at 12:30 pm but I didn't arrive until 1:00 pm.

The meeting was for sub-branch presidents of the Victorian Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia. We are trying to arrive at plan for the future of the organization. It's difficult to get a bunch of veterans to agree about anything. They're like economists, if you have ten together you will have ten different opinions. The organization has been around for 25 years and was formed so veterans could mutually support each other. The Australian returned and Services League couldn't do anything for us after the divisive Vietnam War ended in 1975. In fact they were hopeless and more a part of the problem than the solution.

I stayed overnight in Sale and attended the Victorians Vietnam Veterans State Congress. I found Sale to be a very clean and tidy and a friendly country town. The Council meeting ended about 3:00 pm and I departed for the long drive home. The weather was overcast but not raining. The road is reasonably good and I had a good run and was home by 6:45 pm. On my way home I thought to myself that we have not learnt much in 4 000 years as we are still having wars across the world. There must be money in war otherwise we wouldn't do it.

Tomorrow I will be selling badges to raise money for the welfare of Vietnam veterans. The Australian public get behind us and we use the money to help veterans in need. The picture at the top of this post is this year's Long Tan Cross badge. We get a donation of five dollars each for them. The Australian Government looks after us well but the little extra helps us to do a better job.

98 Year Old Cockatoo

This is a wonderful story about Australian birds. A friend of mine Ray Puddy, has a sulphur crested cockatoo called Alex. I have two cockatiels that are each one tenth the size of Alex. One is called Linus Pauling after the great American chemist, and the other is call Lucy Lupins. Now I'll get back to Alex Hurley.

Alex the cockatoo was taken from his nest when he was little in 1910 or 1911 in a Victorian town called Dargo. Dargo is at the foot of the Victorian Alps in Gippsland, Australia. The little bird was taken by a boy named Alex Hurley. Alex was the son of Dan and Jane Hurley who owned the Dargo Hotel in Dargo. The Dargo Hotel was the last stop to the local goldfields called Grant-and-Crooked Rivers goldfields. Dan and Jane raised eleven children and all the children were born at the Dargo Hotel. How about that for pioneering spirit!

Alex was a free pet and free spirit and had the run of the hotel and the surroundings. In 1950 Alex had a ring and a chain fixed to his left leg. By then he was was forty. Would you like to have been chained up when you were forty? Well Alex responded by being a nuisance. He learned how to let down the tyres of the only two motor vechiles in the town. He learned to pull clothes-pegs from the clothesline while the washing was attached, and also pulled the roofing nails out of the hotel's roof.

Eventually Dan and Jane Hurley crossed the river. The Dargo Hotel was left to Jane's sister Jean whose married name was Lee. Alex remained in the hotel until the late sixties when the hotel passed from Hurley ownership. Alex the cockatoo was given to Tony Hurley a grandson of Dan and and Jane Hurley. Tony was young and the only person that could handle Alex. The bird spent thirty years in the hotel environment. He breathed in the cigarette smoke, he put up with the drunks and all the other things that happen in hotel bars.

When Tony left for the big smoke in Melbourne he took Alex with him. From Melbourne the pair went to Tootgarook and stayed there until 1969. They left Tootgarook in 1972 and returned to Melbourne. Now Alex's whereabouts becomes fuzzy. However, in 1980 Alex found a new home in Mildura where he resided for seven years. In 1987 he went to the Parkmore Caravan Park with Ray Puddy. Ray is a Vietnam Veteran who was looking for a friend after attending the Vietnam Veterans' Welcome Home March in Sydney in 1987. Alex didn't like men. Who can blame him after spending 30 years in a pub! Ray and Alex got along great, as long as Ray didn't try to handle him.

Alex still resides with Ray and his partner. Ray's partner can handle Alex but Ray can't. I hate writing stories with morals. However, there is a moral in this wonderful story of an Australian icon, the Sulphur Crested Cockatoo. Alex is 98 years old this year 2007.

The Honey Bee Story

There are many species of bees, but only four of these are honey-bees. Three of these species are Asian bees: Apis Florea, Apis Indica and Apis Dorsata. The fourth species is Apis Mellifera. The two Latin words mean "Bearer of carrier of sweets or nectar". Apis Mellifera originate from Africa and Europe. They were imported into North and south America, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and China. These countries had no honey-bees of their own.

Apis Mellifera was successfully introduced into Australia in 1822, when the early settlers realized the poor results obtained with fruit crops was due to a lack of pollination. Earlier attempts to transport bees from England failed because of the long sea journey of approximately six month duration. The honey bee is the main pollinating agent of most horticultural and agricultural crops and therefore is of great economic importance in these industries. Other pollinating agencies such as wind, individual insects and birds are not very effective when it comes to mass pollinating.

The three main races within Apis Mellifera used in commercial honey production are Italian from the Mediterranean area, Caucasian from mountain areas of Russia and Carniolan from Northern Europe. The Black Bee, Apis Mellifera Mellifera from the British Isles and Northern Europe was first introduced from England, but has fallen out of favour because it stings readily. The Black Bee has a nervous nature, running around its combs and that trait makes it difficult to find the queen. Commercial beekeepers need to be able to find the queen for proper management of their apiary.

The honey bee is a social insect and lives in a large family unit called a colony. A colony of bees consist of only one queen bee, some male bees called drones and thousands of worker bees that are females. Worker bees are the field bees that collect the nectar from a wide range of flowers from ground flora, small plants, shrubs and trees. Nectar gathered by the bees has a water content of about 80%. The bees drive off the moisture by fanning their wings to create an airflow across the honey comb that reduces the water content to 17%. The honey has anti-bacterial properties.

The queen bee is the mother of all the bees in the colony. In the first few days of her life she leaves the hive and goes on a mating flight to a drone congregation area and mates with one or more drones while flying. She receives and stores enough spermatozoa to last for the duration of her egg-laying life of two or three years. Honey bees belong to the insect world of Parthenogenesis. Unfertilized eggs produce drones that have 16 chromosomes. The queen bee has the full complement of 32 chromosomes. Worker bees have 32 chromosomes but their eggs, if they lay any, have only 16 chromosomes. That is workers can only produce drones. The queen usually fertilizes each egg as she lays it in the bottom of a cell in the honeycomb. The eggs mostly develop into female worker bees. In spring when breeding takes place, she will lay unfertilized eggs in drone cells that grow into males that propagate the genetic message that adds variety to the honey bee genome, which helps the honey bee survive. The worker bees make drone cells larger than normal cells. The queen detects the difference and doesn't fertilize the egg. The question is "Which of the bees control the hive?" Is it the queen or the worker-bees? A drone bee emerges in 24 days from the time the egg is laid.

For more information on bee genetics try this link http://members.aol.com/queenb95/genetics.html. Honey bee genetics is a fascinating subject.

Worker bees and queens are bred from the same type of fertilized egg. Worker bees hatch from the same honeycomb cells used to store honey. Drone cells are also used for honey storage. However, queen-bees are raised in special cells that hang down from the face of the honeycomb. Worker bees emerge in 21 days. Queen bees emerge in 16 days. If a hive loses its queen bee for any reason and they have some new eggs less than three days old, they can have a new queen in 16 days. Isn't that remarkable?

Since both worker bees and queen bees can be raised from the same egg how does the hive manage to turn one into a queen bee? The answer is in the way the young larva is fed. The workers and drones are fed from white creamy larval food after they hatch in 72 hours. The queen larva is fed Royal Jelly that looks the same as ordinary larval food. Its ingredients are similar but Royal Jelly has less protein more sugar and is thicker than normal larval food. Royal Jelly has more energy. The queen larva is fed for five days and then its cell is sealed. In contrast the worker larva is fed for six days before its cell is sealed.

The Royal Jelly fed to the queen larva promotes the full development of the queen-bee's ovarioles in her ovary. The better her ovarioles the better egg layer the queen bee. If the queen bee is lost through accident and there are no fertile egg in the hive the worker bees will lay eggs that produce drones and the colony is doomed to die out without human intervention.

Honey bees will set up house in any sheltered hole that protects them from the weather and predators. They will establish colonies in hollow limbs of trees or in a cupboard, a wall cavity or even a chimney. These colonies are known as feral and the bees can be a nuisance. However, there are not many feral colonies of Apis Mellifera. There are colonies of little native bees here where I live in Taradale because I've seen the little worker bees busy collecting nectar and pollen from my garden plants. These native bees are only about one tenth the size of Apis Mellifera.

Swarming honey bees will not generally settle in a hollow that is occupied. Honey bees will protect their colony and stores of honey. Worker bees have a barbed sting at the end of their abdomens and they will perish if they use it. In contrast the queen bee has a barb less sting and she can sting multiple times like a wasp. The hive entrance is guarded by guard bees that examine every bee that comes into the hive. The whole hive of some 50,000 bees can be summoned to defend it. The word beehive can mean a box or container with or without bees. Man made beehives dimensions are 300 millimetres wide by 460 millimetres long and 240 millimetres deep. The boxes usually made of pine 20 millimetres thick. The boxes have to be protected from the weather by a few coats of paint. The boxes are usually painted white to reflect the sun on a hot summer day. Bee colonies at Lightning Ridge in outback New South Wales, have to live with summer temperatures that reach 50 degrees Celsius in the shade of a coolabah tree during the summer. A good and nearby water supply is absolutely essential to the welfare of bees.

The painted pine boxes are filled with removable frames that the bees use to store honey and raise young. The box dimensions above will accommodate eight frames. The hives are opened regularly for inspection to make sure the bees are not diseased or infested with a pest and to manipulate the colony. For example many beekeepers raise their own new queen bees during the spring. The colony will replace its queen as she reaches the end of her egg-laying life. The bees detect that the queen is about to run out of spermatozoa. She will be replaced to guarantee the persistence of the colony. This event is known as supersedure. When the new queen bee begins to lay the old queen bee is finished.

During the winter the bees live on honey stores they stockpiled during the previous spring, summer and autumn. The beekeeper must make sure that he leaves enough honey for the bees to survive the winter. Also the entrances to hives should be diminished during the winter to make it easier for the bees to guard it. The bees know when spring is coming and they forage whenever they can. I have seen them forage when the temperature is about 12 degrees Celsius. The winter bees are fairly old bees. During the active months the life of worker-bee is about six weeks. By then their wings are worn out.

Depending on the temperature and the weather, the queen bee starts laying more eggs about two weeks before spring. When spring arrives she ramps up the number of eggs she lays depending on the signals she gets from the worker bees about the amount of pollen and nectar available. I have a good crop of cape weed that the bees love. It provides good quality pollen that is turned into larval food. Now it is one month before the official start of spring according to us. It is still cold and wet but the cape weed is looking good. When the worker bees first leave their cells they do hive duties for the first three weeks. They are nurse-bees, guard-bees, cleaning-bees and wax-building-bees. After this they begin field duties, collecting nectar and pollen for as long as the day's temperature is above about 15 degrees Celsius and daylight lasts.
While the bees are collecting pollen they are fertilizing the plants. That's why I have a good crop of cape weed.

Agriculture is dependent on bee pollination. My fruit trees depend on my bees and so do the local eucalyptus. Large numbers of bees are used to pollinate fruit trees, almond trees, canola crops and many other commercial plant varieties. As well as honey, bees produce beeswax that humans use in other products. Honey bees are fascinating creatures and are an important part of our lives. They have been around a lot longer than us as well.

Some of the material for this article was taken from The Australian Bee Journal, July 2007. I thank Eddie Moylan from Seymour for writing "Today in the Apiary". Eddie is an experienced commercial beekeeper.

Children of Vietnam Veterans' Health Study

1st August, 2007

To all members of the veteran community who have supported COVVHS.

It is with great sadness, that I write this report. When COVVHS was formed in 2003, we honestly believed we had a reasonable request. In 2004, we asked the government a simple question:

Is there a higher incidence of chronic health conditions in the sons and daughters of Vietnam veterans than their peers?

If so what can be done to help these young members of society. And what can be done to stop this continuing in the children of younger veterans?

The former Minister for veteran Affairs, Mrs. Dana Vale instigated the feasibility study in 2004. Since that time, thousands of veterans and their children have informed COVVHS of their calamitous health problems and are waiting for some action.

An eminent panel of scientists, appointed by the government, has recommended that such a study was feasible and was worthy of doing. They reported to the Minister for Veteran Affairs, Bruce Billson in September 2006.

Instead of following the recommendations the Minister took another line. He formed another panel of experts to readdress the issue.

One he said would deliver quicker results!

If you read the Ministers speech to the 92nd State Congress of the RSL Victoria branch 4th July 2007. On page 6 he talks of the health issues and reasons surrounding his decisions. He puts a reasonable case. But is it really true?

The Minister chooses his words carefully and takes parts of the original scientists report, out of context. Had he accepted their recommendation we would be well along the way to knowing the health status of our children.
The minister talks of caring and compassion. He has not responded to any of us…other than one phone call to the COVVHS Chairperson to complain vigorously that we were clogging up his Fax machines!!

When we started this journey, I really believed that we lived in a true and just society.
What a naive individual I was!!

When governments can play with words to their own justification, what hope do we have?
When a Minister can sit in front of a group of women and agree to do something and then completely ignore that offer and not even have the courtesy to reply to them as to why he has reneged. (I refer to the meeting with members of the PVA in April, this year)
We are being treated with utter contempt by the Government and Ministry for Veteran Affairs.

I can only hope the “pen is mightier than the sword” when the Election comes.

I can only hope the next government will have more understanding of what is right and follow through on issues that are ethically and morally correct.

What hope have we as a community when the government spends literally hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight one World War 2 widow who only wants a war widow’s pension??

To all of the veteran community whose hopes I have raised and once again we have been let down, I humbly apologise.

Early in this venture, I received an a-mail from someone who wished me luck, but said she doubted we would get anywhere as it has been tried in the past and failed. I would hate to think she proves to be right!

Our men, and now women, who are sent to fight for their wonderful Australia are still just “canon fodder” and so are their families.

I make no apologies for any of this message. It just saddens me greatly that this government throws a pittance of dollars for projects to keep “the veterans” quiet and millions of dollars for “cold hard monuments”.

Surely something really productive could be done for the health of our warm breathing innocent children and their families.

I guess honest caring groups of people will continue to be overpowered by the “wordsmiths” of Parliament!

Sincerely
Sue Parker, National Spokesperson of Partners of Veterans Association
Mother

I had a mate come to see me yesterday. He is a photographer and is here in the Central Highlands of Victoria taking pictures and researching the Fryers Town area. In the 1850s Fryers Town was another gold mining shanty town. There were no police nor law and order. It was there before the Cobb and Co coach route started. I live on the old Cobb and Co route in Taradale. It is now called Davy Street here. My friend Ken is tracking the old road that went through Taradale and up over Fryers ridge to the west and down again into Fryers Town. From there the coach continued on to the gold mining town of Castlemaine. The old route is difficult to see, both because of age and because it was sluiced for alluvial gold, probably in the early 1900s. However, when the coach was running people built their shanties along the track and at this time of the year the daffodils are beginning to poke through and flower, marking the old road. I don't suppose it was a road, more like a rutted track. This has helped Ken plot the track of the old coach road to Castlemaine.

The area is littered with the remains of old towns. For example there is Irishtown that is not too far from me. The remains of Irishtown is in what is now called the Fryers Ranges State Forest. The area was was deforested in the gold rush days of the nineteenth century. The trees have grown back. They are mainly long leaved box, and stringy bark eucalyptus. The are not large trees as the country is poor and typically gold mining country. The average rainfall is about 650 millimetres a year although it has been a lot less in the last couple of years.

I slept in today because according to the weather forecast there would be no frost. They were wrong and my lemon trees endured another frost. I usually get up and hose them down before the sun rises. They lived through last year when we had twenty consecutively frosts at least. By the time spring arrived they were severely damaged. I pruned off the dead bits and they survived. I will have to cover the asparagus with straw soon because frost bitten asparagus spears are not very nice to eat. The spears start to grow in August here in Taradale. August is the last month of winter.

Tomorrow is my birthday. I went to the eye doctor this morning in Bendigo. I've got glaucoma and it wasn't diagnosed by my optometrist. It was only when I changed optometrists that it was finally discovered. Luckily it is under control. I had a peripheral vision test as well this morning. They're like torture and I hate doing them. I have to put in eye drops each night before going to bed. The trouble with that is I can't read in bed. I asked my eye specialist, Andrew Atkins, if I needed to keep using the eye-drops. He said you don't if you don't mind going blind.

I was home by about 1:30pm and I started up the ride-on for the first time since February earlier in the year. I have a lot of Cape weed because the bees fertilized it last year. Bees like Cape weed because it provides them with early protein in the form of pollen to raise young. I am looking forward to raising some queens this year from a very good hive of bees I had last season. They were good bees and I took about 50 kilograms of honey from them. The queen in that hive is a very good layer of eggs and the bees are quiet.

Australian Civilian Surgical Teams Vietnam 1964 - 1972

To commemorate the service of the South East Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO) Civilian Medical/ Surgical Teams in South Vietnam 1964 to 1972.

As an Australian Government initiative, civilian nurses, doctors and allied health professionals volunteered to give their time, skills and expertise to care for the sick and injured Vietnamese people.

445 skilled people gave service under challenging working conditions and often their lives were at risk.

These visiting civilian medical/surgical teams were also called upon to provide care to some Australian Defence Force and United States Veterans.

Ba Ria

Bien Hoa

Long Xuyen

Vung Tau

At 10.30am on August 17th 2007 in the Memorial Garden, Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital in Melbourne, a commemorative plaque will be dedicated to the men and women who gave much to the embattled South Vietnam people in their designated areas.

Australian Surgical Teams in South Vietnam

Time is flying and it's true what they say, the older you get the faster time flies. Last night I had dinner with Barbara Sutherland who was a civilian radiographer who worked in the Long Xuyen hospital. Barbara was part of the old South East Asia Treaty Organization's effort to help Vietnamese civilians in the early stages of the war in Vietnam.

Barbara arrived in Long Xuyen in October 1966 and returned home to Australia in April 1967. She revisited Long Xuyen in 2005 and again in May 2007. She said the hospital in Long Xuyen was immaculate in 2005 but has since has not been so well kept. Barbara showed us lots of photograph of Long Xuyen as it was in May 2007.

Beryl McLachlan was another member of a SEATO surgical team present at the dinner, which was an informal one. Beryl lived in Long Xuyen from September 1967 until September 1968. She was there during the Communist Tet Offensive that began at the end of February 1968. In those days she was known by her maiden name of Beryl Nichols. During the Tet Offensive Beryl and other members of the team were moved to Vung Tau and Bien Hoa although there was no uprising in Long Xuyen itself. Beryl was a medical scientist and worked in haematology and biochemistry.

The Australian War Memorial has made an audio CD of an interview that Barbara Sutherland gave of her experiences in South Vietnam.

It's been a warm sunny winter's day in Taradale. The cape weed is getting untidy around the place but the bees love it when it flowers. It provides much need early protein for them to raise young bees. The hive has been dormant for a couple of months now and soon the queen will start laying eggs and the young lava will need to be fed. That's what the protein is for. I don't spray chemicals around the property because they would end up in the honey. Still I'll have to cut some of the cape weed because it is getting too thick.

Vietnam Veterans Day 2007

Vietnam Veterans Day falls on the 18 August, which is the anniversary of Australia's Battle of Long Tan that took place on August 18 1966 in a rubber plantation in Phouc Tuy Province South Vietnam. Eighteen young Australians were killed as they held fast against a large enemy force. Had they not done so Australia would have suffered many casualties.

This year we are having two special guests attending our commemoration ceremony at Kyneton in the Victorian Central Highlands. One is former 2nd Lieutenant David Sabben who was the platoon commander of 12 Platoon 'D' Company 6 Royal Australian Regiment. Dave is our guest speaker at the commemoration service.

Our second special guest is former RAAF fighter pilot Garry Gordon Cooper DFC. Garry was a forward air controller who was seconded to the USAF and flew small Cessna 0-1E aircraft known as Bird Dogs. The one he flew now hangs in the Pensacola Navy Museum in Florida. Garry was in South Vietnam in 1968 and he will speak about his experiences of the war. Australia provided 36 pilots who were forward air controllers during the Vietnam War, Australia's longest.

Honey Bees

It's been cold here for Australia. It's winter we can't complain. My half a million honey bees are tucked away in their hives. If it's sunny they fly and collect pollen where they can. Bees are marvelous creatures. They have been around for over two million years. I find that fact humbling. I have to get busy now and start painting their new hives. I have twenty eight boxes to paint and I have to build about 160 new wooden frames. The bees have been living on the honey I left in their hives. I also put some irradiated pollen in the top of their boxes so see them through the winter. My bees are in a good location in Taradale, Victoria. It won't be long and I have to get them to build this year's new queen bees.

I think it's g0od that so many young people want to reduce poverty. What we first have to do is put structures in place to reduce corruption so the the money gets to where it is intended.