Global Media Post

“Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono cool on Kevin Rudd’s Asia plan”

Editor — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:57:40 +0000

“President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has told [Australian PM] Kevin Rudd that Indonesia is unlikely to support his push for a new Asia-Pacific community as Jakarta sees the existing ASEAN bloc as its priority. The Prime Minister discussed the community plan when he telephoned Dr Yudhoyono in Jakarta on Sunday night. Dr Yudhoyono told Mr Rudd the community was an ‘intriguing idea to explore’ but said Jakarta’s foreign policy priority lay instead in strengthening the Association of Southeast Asian Nations”

Iraq to announce initial election results

Editor — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:50:26 +0000

“Iraqi electoral authorities say turnout among the country’s minority Sunnis was strong compared to the last parliamentary elections in 2005 when many Sunnis boycotted the process. The UN Security Council praised the elections as a key step toward strengthening Iraq’s national unity and independence. The 15-member body said Iraqis have shown a commitment to a ‘peaceful, inclusive and democratic political process’ “

DPRK: “Ready for both dialogue and war with US”

Editor — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:42:17 +0000

“North Korea said it would strengthen its nuclear deterrent in response to US military threats and is prepared for both dialogue and war with Washington. The comments from a foreign ministry spokesman follow Monday’s launch of a major US and South Korean military exercise which the North depicts as a rehearsal for invasion. The communist state said it had ordered its military on full alert and announced readiness to ‘blow up’ South Korean facilities”

DPRK sees the annual US and ROK military exercise as a rehearsal for invasion

“Researchers probe Hep C-diabetes link”

Editor — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:17:13 +0000

“Australian scientists looked for the reason why people with Hepatitis C often go on to develop diabetes, and they made an unexpected discovery. The heightened risk of type 2 diabetes was thought to be linked to fat build-up in the liver caused by their Hep C, but tests on people with the blood-borne virus found something else was awry. The Garvan Institute of Medical Research study confirmed the 29 study participants all had ‘high insulin resistance’ – a precursor to diabetes – but the problem was traced to their muscle and not their livers. Professor Don Chisholm said this result was ‘contrary to all expectations’ “

South Australia: French Film Festival 2010

Editor — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:43:37 +0000

This year the Festival is bigger than ever with 25% more films and 30% more sessions!

For the first time in its 21 year history, the Festival will feature six distinctive sections encompassing a range of genres that will showcase an impressive forty three new French Films: Blood Is Thicker Than Water, First Feature Film, Comedy, Love At First Sight, Resistance and Kids.

2010 Gala Opening Night: MICMACS

AMELIE director Jean-Pierre Jeunet brings his trademark style and whimsy back to the screen with the thrilling new comedy MICMACS.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet is one of cinema’s most inventive and inspired talents and the creator of Amelie, Delicatessen and A Very Long Engagement. In his new film MICMACS, a man and his friends come up with an intricate and original plan to destroy two big weapons manufacturers, and in the process find answers to such questions as: Are zebras white with black stripes or black with white stripes? Can you get drunk from eating waffles? What’s the human cannonball world record? Can a woman fit inside a refrigerator? Is it better to live with a bullet lodged in your brain, or have it removed?

“Packed with great little touches and surreal flights of fancy, this is witty,
wonderfully inventive as well as a visual joy”

Join us for a fun-filled celebration with French cinema, wine and food!
The cocktail party will commence after the Adelaide premiere of the opening night film,  Micmacs.

Thursday 18 March
7.00pm screening of the main feature
All tickets $40 which includes finger food, wine and Cointreau cocktails

2010 Closing Night event:

Gainsbourg: Je T’aime
… moi non plus

Meet the filmmaker event:

Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinksy

The Festival’s Closing night event for 2010 is graphic novelist Joann Sfar’s audacious directorial debut, an amusing and fantastical biopic of the debonair Serge Gainsbourg - iconic singer, poet, writer, actor and general provocateur. This surreal and evocative record of Monsieur Gainsbourg – iconic singer, poet, writer, actor and general provocateur - traces his youth growing up in 1940s Nazi-occupied Paris, through to his transformation into the hard-living showman, enfant terrible and successful songwriter during three decades (as famous for his glamorous lovers including Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin as he was was for penning such hits as Je t’aime … moi non plus. A visually and narratively innovative project that features special effects from the makers of Pan’s Labyrinth, GAINSBOURG is inventive and groundbreaking filmmaking.Wednesday March 31, 9.30pm. Tickets are $18 members/concession and $21, and include a Cointreau Blush Cocktail on arrival.

Picking up the story of Chanel more or less from where Anne Fontaine’s “Coco Avant Chanel” left off, director Jan Kounen beautifully captures the charisma of two monumental personalities against the opulent backdrops of 1920s Paris. The opening sequence sets the film’s grand tone by unfolding one of the great artistic scandals in its original venue: the 1913 premiere of revolutionary composer Stravinsky’s radically modernist ballet, Rite of Spring. Seven years later, rendered penniless by the violently negative reaction to his work, Stravinsky accepts the newly successful Chanel’s offer to lodge him and his family, in her new villa. And so begins their frenzied liaison, paralleled by revolutionary ideas – the designer’s desire to transform women’s fashions and the composer’s redefinition of musical taste.

Director Jan Kounen will be our special guest at the screening.
Sunday March 28, 6.30pm.
He will introduce the film and conduct a question and answer discussion after. Tickets usual prices.

Other highlights of the festival include:


Welcome Winner of the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival, and a surprise hit with audiences in its native France, WELCOME is an emotionally affecting drama about intersecting lives, unlikely friendships and the hope of new beginnings. Bilal, a 17-year-old Kurdish refugee, has travelled across Europe in an attempt to reunite with his girlfriend who emigrated to England. When he is detained by local authorities in Northern France, Bilal devises a plan to swim across the English Channel, and heads to the local swimming pool to start training. It is here that he crosses paths with Simon (Vincent Lindon), a swimming instructor in the midst of a divorce, who decides to risk everything by taking Bilal under his wing.	OSS 117, Lost In Rio (OSS 117, rio ne repond plus) The laughs are up, the tops are down and cultural sensitivity is at a record low in this send-up of super-spy Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, aka OSS 117, the foreigner-fighting, Cold War hero of the popular de Gaulleera novels by Jean Bruce. Sent on the trail of a microfilm that could compromise the French government, OSS 117 fumbles merrily through Brazil, here a bossa-nova dreamland of bikini-clad women, perma-tanned foreign agents and pesky, gun-wielding ‘Chinamen’ (as he calls them). In this follow-up to international hit “OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies”, director Michel Hazanavicius delivers more international scandal, hijinks, outrageous chauvinism and self-ridicule with this audience pleaser: a merciless skewering of 60s colonial arrogance.

Father of My Children (Le pere de mes enfants) Winner – Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize – Cannes 2009 This superbly perceptive new drama from emerging young talent Mia Hansen-Love is a thought-provoking and deeply moving portrait of a family undergoing a dramatic rupture. Film producer Grégoire Canvel has it all – a wife and three delightful daughters he adores and a stimulating job that he’s devoted to. On the surface he seems invincible, maintaining humour and charm as he tirelessly juggles the never-ending demands of his company with his domestic responsibilities. But when Grégoire’s reserves, financial and emotional, reach a dramatic cracking point, his wife Sylvia and children are forced to cope with the repercussions…	The First Day of the Rest of Your Life (Le premier jour du reste da ta vie) This sleeper smash-hit is a funny and moving portrait of how a single day can irrevocably alter the course of one’s life. Between 1988 and 2000, we meet the Duval family on five decisive days in their lives… days where they find themselves individually and collectively dealing with the sort of life changes that affect most families. Bezançon’s crowd-pleaser is fuelled by terrific performances and buoyant energy. Bound together by an era-defining soundtrack and intelligent editing, this is a sharp and moving homage to family life, and the gentle shifts in mutual appreciation among parents and progeny.

Films for families (all tickets $11):

Lucky Luke A flamboyant action-comedy based on the worldwide bestselling Belgian / French comics from Morris and Goscinny about a fearless gunslinger who travels the Old West, righting wrongs and bringing evildoers to justice.	Trouble at Timpeltill (Les Enfants de Timpelbach) This adaptation of the famous novel by Henry Winterfield is a whimsical fantasy comedy about a village where the children awaken one morning to find their parents have left them.	Little Nicholas (Le Petit Nicolas) Based on the famous comic books of Jean-Jacques Sempé and René Goscinny, students will enjoy this sly and delightful comedy about the misadventures of a mischievous little boy in 1950s France.

Tickets on sale now from the box office and online at www.palacenova.com
Pick up a free programme at the cinema or go to the official website www.frenchfilmfestival.org

“Criticism for how Haitian money spent”

Editor — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 04:04:18 +0000

Haitian leaders are frustrated with the way billions of aid money is being delivered and spent.

“The world’s bill for the Haitian earthquake is large and growing, now $US2.2 billion ($A2.44 billion), and so is the criticism about how the money is being spent. As half a million homeless people received tarps and tents, far more are still waiting under soggy bed sheets in camps that reek of human waste. More than 4.3 million people got emergency food rations; few will be able to feed themselves anytime soon. Medical aid went to thousands, but long-term care isn’t even on the horizon”

“British child-killers jail debate”

Editor — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:59:45 +0000

“The pink-cheeked 10-year-old staring from the front pages of Britain’s newspapers is, some argue, the face of evil. The photo is a mug shot of Jon Venables, one of Britain’s most infamous criminals, convicted along with another boy of murdering a toddler in Liverpool in 1993. The crime shocked Britain and has remained vivid in the public memory, due partly to video images, replayed countless times on television, of two-year-old James Bulger being led to his death by the two bigger boys”

“Johnny Depp campaigns for convicted murderers”

“Liberals rap Kremlin as Stalin is worshipped”

Editor — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:56:07 +0000

“Russian communists paid homage to Soviet leader Josef Stalin, while liberals accused the Kremlin of conniving to whitewash the dictator. Communist Party chiefs led a procession of largely elderly people across Red Square on the 57th anniversary of Stalin’s death, laying flowers at his grave by the Kremlin wall. The solemn visit is an annual tradition for communists steeped in nostalgia for the Soviet era. But this year, it comes as Russia’s bitter debate over Stalin’s legacy sharpens ahead of May 9 celebrations marking 65 years since the Nazi defeat”

Chile: Official ’sacked over failed tsunami alert’

Editor — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 01:40:42 +0000

“Chile has sacked the head of its oceanographic service following the earthquake and tsunami that killed about 800 people. The service, part of the Chilean navy, has been widely criticised for failing to issue a nationwide tsunami warning immediately after the quake. The navy has also launched an inquiry into how the disaster was handled, a government statement said”

Japan: “Aiko skips school after boys rile her”

Editor — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 01:34:11 +0000

“Princess Aiko has been reluctant to attend school since Monday after being “treated harshly” by boys in her grade, an official of the Imperial Royal Household said”

“Nicole Kidman slams Australia”

China: “must reduce rich-poor gap”

Editor — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 01:12:18 +0000

“Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has said China must reverse its widening income gap between rich and poor. He said benefits of a growing economy – expected to expand by 8% this year – should be distributed more fairly”

“BOJ’s Noda rebuffs government, says no policy changes”

Editor — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:53:08 +0000

“Bank of Japan board member Tadao Noda rebuffed government overtures for looser monetary policy to support the fragile economy, saying he saw no need for further easing now. He also ruled out increasing the amount of government bond purchases made by the BOJ and reiterated the central bank’s view that an inflation target could undermine its attempts to achieve price stability. Facing upper house elections expected in July, the fiscally constrained government is pressing the central bank for action to overturn deflation, which some policymakers worry could drag the economy back into recession”

“Greece draws strong bond demand at high price”

Editor — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:50:20 +0000

“Debt-burdened Greece drew strong demand for a crucial bond issue but paid a steep risk premium that underscored its plea to Germany and other EU partners for support to help lower its borrowing costs. A day after the government announced draconian new austerity measures, a 5 billion euro 10-year syndicated bond was more than three times oversubscribed at a final price of about 6.4 percent — twice what Berlin pays, banking sources said”

“China must shed light on local government debt”

Editor — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:47:37 +0000

“China needs clearer rules to govern borrowing by local governments and to bring their debt holdings into the transparent light of day, a senior government economist said. But Jia Kang, a research director in the Ministry of Finance, said that worries about local debt were overblown and systemic implications limited, because default rates were likely to be low. Some economists have pointed to debt incurred by local governments as a growing risk to Chinese public finances. Provinces, cities and towns have circumvented restrictions on their own borrowing by obtaining financing through investment subsidiaries, making it difficult to gauge the full extent of local government debt”

“The Holy Grail of Japanese politics”

Editor — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:45:11 +0000

“Two major parties cleaved neatly along policy lines: it’s the Holy Grail of Japanese politics. Now, speculation that the defeated Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) will unravel and doubts that the ruling party can get a clear win in a mid-year upper house election are reviving talk of a broad political realignment. However, doubts persist as to whether any rejig would clear up the policy confusion that plagues Japan’s two major parties. Members of both the LDP and the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) run the gamut from proponents of market-friendly reforms to those who favor a gentler capitalism”

“Dutch anti-Islam leader is major winner in polls”

Editor — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:39:48 +0000

“Dutch anti-Islamist leader Geert Wilders scored major gains in local authority polls making him a serious challenger for power in a June national election, preliminary results showed. In the first test of public opinion since the collapse of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende’s coalition government last month, Wilders’s Freedom Party (PVV) led in the city of Almere and was second in The Hague”

“Israel, Palestinians set for indirect talks”

Editor — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:35:28 +0000

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday Israel hoped to begin indirect negotiations with the Palestinians next week during a visit by Washington’s Middle East envoy. Palestinian officials said they wanted the US-mediated talks to focus initially on defining the borders of a state they hope to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. With the blessing of the Arab League, the Palestinians have agreed to four months of indirect negotiations sponsored by Washington, which has been trying to break a deadlock and revive the two-decade-old peace process”

“UN Council ready to tackle Iran nuclear issue”

Editor — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:28:03 +0000

“The president of the UN Security Council said it was ready to tackle proposals for new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, while US diplomats worked to persuade China that action is needed. Gabon’s UN Ambassador Emanuel Issoze-Ngondet, president of the Security Council for March, said the Iranian nuclear issue was not on the agenda of the 15-nation panel this month, but council members might still hold a meeting on it”

“Israeli army nixes raid after Facebook leak”

Editor — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:23:28 +0000

“The Israeli military called off a raid in Palestinian territory after a soldier posted details, including the time and place, on social networking website Facebook, Israel’s Army Radio reported. The soldier — since relieved of combat duty — described in a status update how his unit planned a “clean-up” arrest raid in a West Bank area, the radio station said. Facebook friends then reported him to military authorities”

“Chile keeps shaking, rattling survivors”

Editor — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:20:17 +0000

“Frightened by more heavy aftershocks, coastal residents in Chile camped out on hillsides, five days after one of the strongest earthquakes in a century killed more than 800 people. An emotional President Michelle Bachelet, a popular leader who steps down next week, pleaded with Chileans to stop hoarding supplies as aid reached central Pacific coast towns that were hardest hit by Saturday’s 8.8 quake and surging tsunamis”

Chief suspect: “Inflammation that the immune system normally uses to fight infection”

Editor — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:06:01 +0000

“What if you could be fat but avoid heart disease or diabetes? Scientists trying to break the fat-and-disease link increasingly say inflammation is the key. In the quest to prove it, a major study is under way testing whether an anti-inflammatory drug – an old, cheap cousin of aspirin – can fight the Type 2 diabetes spurred by obesity. And intriguing new research illustrates how those yellow globs of fat lurking under the skin are more than a storage site for extra calories. They’re a toxic neighbourhood where inflammation appears to be born”

“Diabetes and heart disease usually tag along with extra kilograms, a huge risk for many who are overweight or obese. What is not clear is what sets off the cascade of damage that ends in those illnesses. After all, there are examples of obese people who somehow stay metabolically fit – no high blood pressure or high blood sugar or high cholesterol.

‘If fat cells functioned perfectly, you could be as obese as you want and not have heart disease,’ says Carey Lumeng of the University of Michigan. ‘It’s something we don’t understand, why some people are more susceptible and others are not so susceptible.’

Solving that mystery could point to more targeted treatments for obesity’s threats than today’s effective but hard-to-follow advice to lose weight. The chief suspect: inflammation that the immune system normally uses to fight infection runs amok with weight gain – simmering inside fat tissue before spreading to harm blood vessels and spur insulin resistance.

‘We all think it’s bad, and we know a lot of people with really bad inflammation die sooner,’ says Myrlene Staten of the National Institutes of Health’s diabetes division.

Steven Shoelson, at the Harvard University-affiliated Joslin Diabetes Centre, noted reports from 150 years ago that one of the oldest anti-inflammatories around – salsalate, from the aspirin family – could lower blood sugar. Less harsh on the stomach than aspirin, generic salsalate is used today for arthritis, and Shoelson discovered that it inhibits what he calls a master switch in inflammation regulation.

‘We put those pieces together and sure enough, it does work,’ says Shoelson.

Pilot trials found short-term use of salsalate, added to regular diabetes medication, helped poorly controlled Type 2 diabetics lower their blood sugar substantially. Fasting glucose levels dropped from about an average of 150 down to 110, Schoelson says.

Now an NIH-funded study is recruiting several hundred Type 2 diabetics at 21 medical centres around the US to take the drug or a dummy pill for a year, to track long-term effects.

But what sparks that inflammation in the first place? Other researchers are hot on the trail of immune cells called macrophages that cluster inside fat tissue.

In a novel study, Preeti Kishore of Albert Einstein College of Medicine took 30 somewhat overweight but healthy volunteers and infused free fatty acids, a type of fat molecule, directly into their blood. She was mimicking what happens in the obese, when these fatty acids spill out from stored fat and continually flow through the body.

The results were startling: for five hours, the volunteers’ bodies quit responding effectively to insulin. They also experienced a surge in a protein called PAI-1 (pronounced Pie-one) that sets off a chain reaction linked to heart disease-causing blood clots and diabetes. When Kishore took samples of the volunteers’ fat tissue, she found the macrophages start producing more PAI-1 as they are bathed in the fatty acids.

The more kilograms you put on, the bigger fat cells called adipocytes become until they release fatty acids and eventually die. The theory is that macrophages come in to clean up the dead cells but are hijacked to produce inflammation-causing chemicals – signals that also spur further adipocyte dysfunction. Kishore’s work suggests fat tissue primes macrophages to be switched on by a boost in fatty acids, starting the inflammation cycle.

‘What’s really exciting to us, is trying to understand these mechanisms can essentially help us to target therapies more effectively in the future,’ says Kishore, whose research was published last week in the journal, Science Translational Medicine.

She points to Shoelson’s study of salsalate – which blocks a related protein found in macrophages and other immune cells – as a first step.

‘Four to five years ago, no one thought fat tissue matters for this stuff,’ adds Michigan’s Lumeng, who studies the macrophage link. ‘There clearly are going to be anti-inflammatory therapies for diabetes coming out of the pipeline.’ “

Rwanda: “President’s widow held in France over genocide”

Editor — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:48:36 +0000

“The widow of former Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, whose assassination triggered the Rwandan genocide, has been arrested in France. Agathe Habyarimana is accused by the current Rwandan government of helping to plan the 1994 genocide, and has long been sought by prosecutors there. Mrs Habyarimana, who has been living in France for several years, denies the accusations. More than 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus died in the massacres of 1994. French officials said Mrs Habyarimana was detained in the Paris region by police executing a Rwandan-issued international arrest warrant”

“Swift rebuke”

Editor — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:38:56 +0000

“The programme has been credited with helping to capture the mastermind of the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed more than 200 people, including some 50 Europeans. It was instrumental in 2006 in thwarting al-Qaeda plans to detonate liquid bombs on North American-bound flights from London’s Heathrow Airport and critical in 2007 in helping to disrupt terrorism plots involving the Islamic Jihad Union, including one in Germany. Over the past eight years, it has generated some 1,500 reports that have been shared with European allies”

Chile: Struck by a new 6.2-magnitude aftershock

Editor — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 07:46:20 +0000

There are initial reports of a powerful new 6.2-magnitude aftershock having struck central Chile in the wake of a major 8.8-degree earthquake. The US Geological Survey says the epicentre of the tremor was 35 kilometres underground and 109 kilometres northeast of the city of Talca

Adelaide Festival review: Shanghai Beauty by Maggie Scott

Editor — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 07:41:47 +0000

Opening with a giant close-up of the almost disembodied head of artistic director Jin Xing on a screen being made up and dressed in the style of Chinese Opera, Shanghai Beauty is slow to start but soon establishes its own genre to a backdrop of Chinese music both classical and avant-garde.

It’s when the dancing ensemble of the Jin Xing Dance Theatre, from Shanghai, begin to move in syncopated movements unfolding a hypnotic and eclectic repertory, created in tandem with Jutta Hell and Dieter Baumann of the Rubato Dance Company in Berlin that the exploration of the relationship between East and West becomes evident through the dance movements of its creators.

Reminiscent in part of Maurice Bejart’s early work in Belgium with his Ballet of the 20th Century from 1960 to 1987, it’s the generous energy and complexity of the dancers’ portrayal of the choreography that gives this modern dance production a life of its own.

Two artists in particular deserve a mention, though it is not possible to name them as the ensemble is listed without mention of the roles danced (and much of the complimentary progamme is devoted to Jin Xing herself).

These worthy artists are the lady with the long flowing hair who danced a mesmerising solo and the man in the white boxer shorts who was extraordinary strong and rhythmic in his movements and who was justly awarded a round of applause at the end of his routine… Both are extremely talented dancers in their own right.

Clearly Jin Xing’s biography as a dancer is as extraordinary as her personal life, which is a story on its own… She has studied modern dance technique at the schools of Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham in New York, and has taught and performed all over Europe including La Biennale di Venezi, Dance Umbrella London and Impulstanz Vienna.

This is a must see production for all dancing aficianados!

At the Dunstan Playhouse of the Adelaide Festival Centre

Dive with the fish on the Eyre Peninsula

Editor — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:11:02 +0000

“The Eyre Peninsula’s aquaculture industry offers a unique diving and snorkeling experience found nowhere else in Australia. The region’s yellowtail kingfish nets give divers and snorkelers the opportunity to immerse themselves in large schools of tens of thousands of fish a concentration that is impossible to find in the wild. Each pen holds between 20,000 and 25,000 yellowtail kingfish, which can reach more than two metres in length and weigh up to 65kg. The fish take 15 months to grow to 4kg, when they harvested and sold to domestic and overseas markets”

As the boat ties up to the pen you can see the bright yellow tail and dorsal fins of the fish slicing the surface of the water, and silver flashes as the sun reflects on the smooth bodies of the fish swimming just below the surface.

From the moment you slide into the water you are surrounded by fish, with hundreds of pair of eyes staring blankly back at you.

Unlike their cousins the tuna, kingfish have no sense of personal space. They rub against, peck and even swim straight into divers.

But there’s no feeling of claustrophobia. The school thins out around the edges of the pen and most of the fish give way to bubble blowers.

More adventurous divers can swim straight into the middle of the throng, which blocks out the sun in a swirl of scales and fins.

The only time the school exerts its force is during feeding time, when the automatic feeding machine shoots pellets into the middle of the pen.

The excited fish swim quickly around the pen, creating a whirlpool. There’s no danger of being sucked to the bottom of the net, 15 metres below, but the force of the whirlpool does push you out out to the edge of the pen.

The feeding only lasts five to 10 minutes and the kingfish quickly return to their cruising laps.

Whyalla Diving Services owner Tony Bramley wants to turn this unique experience which was has been for select divers and journalists into a regular tour for divers and snorkelers.

Mr Bramley has been servicing the aquaculture nets in Fitzgerald Bay since 1998, and has taken a few hundred people to dive the nets as guests with the permission of the kingfish farm owners.

“I just know how well this is going to go because I know how many times people ask me now if there’s something like that available,” he said.

Mr Bramley hopes to have the tour operation up and running in time for this winter’s Australian giant cuttlefish mating aggregation, which attracts divers from around the world to Whyalla from late May through July.