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Welsh / Green Machines that rattle and those that don’t

Green machine of the shiny sort on display at the Holden show and shine. Photo by Mike Welsh

THE Canberra Raiders might have turned a corner with a convincing victory over the Canterbury Bulldogs, but a pothole has appeared in involving fullback Jack Wighton.

Mike Welsh
Mike Welsh.

Fox Footy commentator Paul Kent’s early predictions that “charges will be laid” are proving accurate. He also believes the NRL will stand him down for the season “and the Raiders might end up sacking him”. At the time of writing, Wighton was scheduled to appear in the ACT Magistrates Court to face charges arising from a pre-season Civic nightclub incident. 

MEANTIME, the other Canberra “Green Machine” predictably dazzled crowds at a recent show and shine. One hundred and fifteen Holdens that rolled off the GMH production line between 1956 and 1959 turned the Hall showground into “Holden Heaven” for the bi-annual FE-FC Holden Nationals. Among the meticulously restored and immaculately modified machines was the “Trilogy”, a multi-award-winning 1959 FC Holden owned by Canberra couple Peter and Michelle Fitzpatrick.

HIGHRISE heavyweight Geocon is spruiking even loftier structures for Canberra as being fit for those employed in Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Belconnen is to be home to the city’s tallest building. The second stage of the construction company’s Republic precinct, the 27-storey “High Society”, has been described by managing director Nick Georgalis as a “first-class property” where “James Bond would feel right at home”.

AS Cricket Australia scrambles to hold on to lucrative sponsorship deals, a local roller derby team has nailed a high-profile backer. Canberra Roller Derby League (CRDL) team the Surly Griffins has announced Blumers Lawyers as sponsors. The Surlys make up the four-side CRDL roster, which includes the Black ‘n Blue Belles, The Red Bellied Black Hearts and the Brindabelters.

The team, which proudly boasts players Anne Thrax, Harlot O’Scara and One Hit Pony, cryptically posted: “It’s exciting to find a team (Blumers) who take injury events more seriously that we do.”

STILL on red bellies, local reptile experts fear there is a thriving, illegal, exotic snake-breeding industry operating in the territory. The concerns come after a second exotic reptile (a pet milk snake native to the Americas and illegal in Australia) was caught at the Braddon McDonalds.
Last month Alex Borg, operator of the Canberra Snake Catcher service, removed an albino corn snake from outside a house in Calwell. Borg says of the snake: “It clearly wasn’t imported, someone must be breeding them here.”

THE newly created southern ACT electorate of Bean, named after war historian Charles Bean, has already been trivialised. Former NSW Labor senator and now media “mouth for hire” Sam Dastyari, who dines out on a “questionable” resemblance to the Rowan Atkinson character Mr Bean, tweeted that he was “being trolled by the electoral commission.” Surely the relevance-deprived Mr Dastyari is aware of the Wikipedia description of Mr Bean as “a childish and selfish buffoon who rarely speaks and when he does it is generally only a few mumbled words.”

THE Barr government is under mounting pressure to install a set of traffic lights at what has been been described as one of Canberra’s worst black-spots, the intersection of Tillyard Drive and Ginninderra Drive.
Charnwood resident and Liberal MLA Elizabeth Kikkert apportions some of the blame for the frustrating inaction at the site on retired Labor MLA Mary Porter. Kikkert says she contacted the then member for Ginninderra after each accident in 2015 (a year in which there were 16 crashes at the site) but nothing was done.

APRIL 1 usually belongs to wacky breakfast radio types testing their credibility and the gullibility of their audience. But this year the “Yass Tribune” took the lead and ran with the clever story that the Yass Valley Council was “considering a petition from a local tourism group to rename the town Yaasss”. The paper rounded off the gotcha, reporting that a new slogan “My Yaasss” was also being considered for the town.

 

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Mike Welsh

Mike Welsh

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One Response to Welsh / Green Machines that rattle and those that don’t

Chris says: 9 April 2018 at 12:59 pm

The the intersection of Tillyard Drive and Ginninderra Drive has been recommended for traffic signals. Seems we may have to wait for the tram to paid off first. Only 20 years?

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