This picture shows pipes being laid at West Beach as part of the $23 million sand management project under the Adelaide Living Beaches Strategy.

The existing program of beach replenishment places 160,000 cubic metres of sand each year at strategic locations on southern and central beaches. This maintains the sandy foreshore, builds up dune buffers, and protects coastal infrastructure.

The strategy provides for existing sand supplies to be recycled more effectively using sand slurry pumping and pipelines. This will minimise the need for trucks to cart sand along beaches and suburban roads.

The pipeline transfer systems involves a sand acquisition system at Torrens Outlet to remove sand from the beach, mix it with seawater to form a slurry mixture, and pump this slurry into the pipelines.

Sand will be discharged from the pipeline to where it is most needed through a series of outlets directly onto the beach.

The sand will be distributed more evenly than it would be otherwise because of the multiple discharge points. It will remove most truck traffic from coastal roads and halve the amount of sand carted by truck.

The ongoing maintenance cost is estimated at $5.75 million a year.

As a local resident I’m pleased the work is being done in cooler months when fewer people are enjoying the beach.

The cost initially surprised me, but it’s worth the investment given how popular the beaches are in summer.

A report says the “do nothing” alternative would quickly result in the loss of sand from beaches and progressive damage to foreshore infrastructure and buildings.

“The cost due to loss of beach value alone would be very high, with further costs incurred for the management of subsequent debris and pollution.”

I made it to the twins’ school assembly yesterday. James’ class performed Shake A Tail Feather, which had the kids all bopping.

Maggie was awarded a certificate of achievement for being “a positive and exciting member” of her class.

It’s good to know that I’ve passed on my excitement genes.

Black Caviar

I rarely go to the races for that reason, and I’ve never been inclined to bet on four-legged creatures.

Like just about everyone else in Australia though, I’ve taken some interest in the mighty mare, Black Caviar, which today won her 20th consecutive race, making her arguably the best sprinter in the world.

Black Caviar is trained by leading Melbourne-based trainer Peter Moody, and has been ridden by Luke Nolen in all her starts apart from her first two runs and one other.

A sell-out crowd of 30,000 people packed into Morphettville, Adelaide, to witness the occasion. I wasn’t among them, but I’m impressed and proud that an Australian horse has achieved this record and done so in Adelaide.

According to the ABC:

Trainer Peter Moody expected her to derive plenty of improvement from Saturday’s run as she heads toward The Goodwood (1200m) at Morphettville in a fortnight. That will be her final appearance in Australia before heading to England to contest the Diamond Jubilee Stakes (1200m) at Royal Ascot on June 23.

I like this: “While many race fans bet a mere dollar on Black Caviar and keep the winning ticket as a souvenir, one punter on Friday placed $100,000 on her at $1.04 — a $4000 profit from her 70 seconds’ work.”

I didn’t have a punt, but I’ll follow Black Caviar’s overseas progress with interest.

Here is Gerard Whateley’s call of Black Caviar’s historic 20th consecutive Australasian win in the Robert Sangster Stakes at Morphettville in South Australia:

Burra declined again as Australia fell off the sheep’s back, but is now rising once more as a well-preserved heritage town.

We obtained a Burra Heritage Passport (cost $25 per adult), which gives access to eight locked sites including parts of the Burra Mine and powder magazine, Redruth Gaol, Hampton village, smelter, Unicorn Brewery Cellars and miners’ dugouts.

Burra has a considerable Cornish and Welsh heritage as miners came from those places to extract the copper.

Accommodation was short in the 1850s and at one time an estimated 1800 people lived in dugouts along the Burra Creek out of the then 4400 total population. Infant mortality was high and many people lost their homes in flash floods during 1851. Two of these dugouts have been restored for viewing.

The kids really liked running around in the Unicorn Brewery Cellars. The Redruth Gaol, which was converted to a girls’ reformatory after the gaol closed, was also popular.

Hampton Village is an intriguing place. It was founded in 1857, comprising 30 miners’ cottages and a chapel. It was virtually abandoned in the 1920s.

Kathleen, who this year began studying Archaeology at Flinders University, found it all very interesting.

Burra reminds me of Beechworth in Victoria as a well-preserved mining town, but is less commercially tainted. We’ll return for an overnight stay sometime later this year.

Enjoy the Flickr slideshow below or visit here for more pictures.

My team Fitzroy used St Kilda’s old ground at the Junction Oval.

Teams were 20 a side, with 18 on the ground and no interchange. The 19th and 20th men could only come on to replace players who were unable to return, either for injury or tactical substitution.

There was only one umpire. A deliberate infringement after a mark or free kick was a 10-yard penalty.

Changes gradually occurred. The reserves became interchange players; two umpires officiated, then three; South Melbourne became the Sydney Swans; a 15-metre penalty was introduced, and so on.

Because I’m nostalgic and Fitzroy has gone, I don’t regard any of the changes as improvements.

I’m more happy following a local club as I used to do with Myrtleford, and now with West Adelaide in the SANFL. The crowds aren’t big, but the game still feels tribal. The pies are hot, the sausages taste good and the terraces are a great place to stand and let the kids roam free.

And here’s a great goal by Fitzroy against Collingwood at the old Junction Oval:

I bricked my Samsung Galaxy S2 mobile while trying to root the phone to install a custom rom with the latest version of Ice Cream Sandwich.

The good people at psyTech Electronics in Hindley Street, Adelaide, said it was a rare feat to brick the phone without removing the battery.

They optimistically hope it may be repairable in a couple of months when an “unbrickable” rom is released.

In the meantime, my employer has provided me with an iPhone 4. It’s my first experience with using an iPhone, but having had an iPad now for more than six months, the interface is obviously familiar.

• Some first impressions comparing the iPhone with the Samsung:
• Android is easier to customise.
• The default iPhone email app is terrific.
• More iPhone apps cost money.
• SMS is better on Android (I used Go SMS).
• It’s annoying having to synchronise everything with iTunes.
• Many apps work equally well across both platforms (eg Dropbox, Springpad).

I’ve been experimenting today with the iPhone camera, using a couple of paid apps. Here are the results from a walk along the river to the beach:

Georg Balthasar von Neumayer

I had never heard of him before, but he rates mentions in the Australian Dictionary of Biography and Wikipedia for his contributions to science.

When Georg arrived in Sydney on the Reiherstieg with my forebears he was 26. He was a qualified seaman who carried out geological and magnetic investigations during travels in Australia after the crew of the Reiherstieg deserted the ship for the goldfields.

He spent eight weeks on the Victorian goldfields himself and, on returning to Germany, found support and money for his plan to build and organise in Melbourne an observatory for geophysics, magnetism and nautical science on Flagstaff Hill.

King Maximilian II of Bavaria and the British Association for the Advancement of Science gave him funds, and Johann Godeffroy, a Hamburg senator and owner of a shipping company (builder of the Reiherstieg), gave Georg free transport for himself and all the observatory equipment on the La Rochelle. He arrived in Melbourne in 1857.

In 1859 he was made a member of Victoria’s “Exploration Committee” and travelled briefly with Burke and Wills. In 1864 he left his directorship of the observatory and returned to Germany.

His most spectacular achievement was completing a thorough magnetic survey of Victoria, carried out almost single-handed in 1858-64, travelling some 11,000 miles on foot or by pack horse, and setting up 230 magnetic stations from sea level to an altitude of 7200 feet.

He was elected a councillor of the Royal Society of Victoria in 1859, a vice-president in 1860 and a life member in 1864.

Antarctic expedition

In 1895, Georg established the German Commission for South Polar Exploration, which culminated in the first German Antarctica Expedition in 1901, the so-called Gauss expedition.

The German polar research station in Antarctica, “Neumayer Station”, is named after him.

His fellow passengers, my great-great grandparents, lived much more ordinary lives, but did establish a successful vineyard in the rocky soil of Castlemaine.

It’s highly likely they became reacquainted with Georg Balthasar von Neumayer during some of his Victorian travels.

A whole weekend without the iPad! That’s a daunting proposition and not one I’d like to encounter again any time soon.

Along with the mobile phone, the iPad is the must-have gadget I would struggle to go without.

I pick it up first thing every morning to check my emails and to download newspapers using PressReader. I usually read the papers on the bus to work.

The iPad is with me constantly during the day. I use it for email when I’m not at my desk, for reading Twitter and Google News feeds, checking the weather and web browsing.

In the evening I use it for reading books, if I have the time.

In the absence of my iPad I had to buy newspapers this morning for the first time in almost a year. I had just about forgotten the feel of newsprint and the ink smudge it leaves.

It brings home the realisation that newspapers really are dying. Journalism will continue, and so will newspapers I suppose, but their relevance is likely to decline even further. They are just one method of distributing written news, among many.

The other notable fact of my first full day this year without an iPad is that I’ve rediscovered my mobile phone.

The Samsung Galaxy SII is a great device, but I’ve been using it pretty much just as a phone since I got the iPad.

It has most of the same apps and functions that I have on the iPad, only in a smaller package. I could even read the newspapers on it, if I wanted to.

According to this website, the most popular places where Carnival is held are Maastricht, Roermond, Heerlen and Venlo, but every town and city celebrates in its own way.

There is usually a parade with dressed-up groups, musicians and elaborately built floats. Other traditions include a fake prince plus cortège (“council of 11″), the boerenbruiloft (farmer’s wedding) and the haring happen (eating herring) on Ash Wednesday. However, the traditions vary from town to town.

This year’s Carnival went smoothly, with only seven arrests in Venlo and fewer people than usual admitted to hospital with alcohol poisoning.

This YouTube video shows footage from a parade last year.

I got thinking about Carnival this long weekend while scanning historical photos. One that I came across shows my mother (the small one standing) and two of her siblings dressed up for Carnival about 1952 or 1953.

Mum has no idea why she was wearing a paper Chinese hat.

I was born at the West Gippsland Hospital in Warragul and my parents lived just a few miles away towards Nilma.

Looking back on 1967 it seems to have been a break-out year, with post-war austerity largely forgotten, but Vietnam serving to threaten peace and prosperity.

Twiggy in 1967.

Leaders of 1967

• Prime Minister of Australia: Harold Holt and John McEwen (Holt died in office)
• Premier of Victoria: Sir Henry Bolte
• Premier of South Australia: Frank Walsh and Don Dunstan
• Governor General of Australia: Baron Casey
• President of the United States: Lyndon Johnson
• Prime Minister of the United Kingdom: Harold Wilson
• President of France: Charles de Gaulle
• Monarch: Queen Elizabeth II (some things don’t change)

Events of 1967

• Vietnam War
• Ronald Ryan was the last man hanged in Australia
• Rolling Stone magazine was first published
• The United Kingdom and Ireland applied to join the European Economic Community
• Six-day War in Israel
• Australian Aborigines were given the right to be counted in the national census
• Interracial Marriage was declared constitutional by the USA Supreme Court
• The Australian dollar was unlinked from the pound sterling
• Foot-and-mouth epidemic in Britain
• Evel Knievel jumped his motorcycle over 16 cars
• The Beatles released Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
• World’s first heart transplant operation by Christiaan Barnard
• A national polio immunisation campaign began in Australia
• The first Boeing 737 made its maiden flight

Sports in 1967

• Richmond won the VFL grand final for the sixth time
• Sturt won the SANFL premiership
• The Australian cricket team lost to South Africa 1-3
• Jack Brabham was named Australian Man of the Year and awarded an OBE
• John Newcombe won Wimbledon and the US Open

I’ve been posting pictures and videos from 1967 to my Tumblr site. The most striking are related to fashion, sport and popular culture.

Carnaby Street, London

Elvis Presley married Priscilla Wagner on May 1, 1967

Celtic won every competition it entered in 1967.