We as a race were unique before we began wearing our caps backwards, wearing baggy trousers singing bad poetry, and forgetting our own rich heritage in favor of US heritage and customs, we are for all intents and purposes simply another State of the United Sates of America now.

Connie Rice visits little rodent every now and then to tell him what he will do, and Bush reinforces it whenever he can. Ask our children who Ned Kelly was, or Captain Starlight, they don't know, we have lost all that being Australian was.

To be honest though Thomas, Australia actually performs very well considering the percentage of GDP that is spent on research. We get much more "bang for the buck" than other countries. Unfortunately because of this narrow underfunding of our science, many of our top performers go overseas, even if temporarily, to make their greatest breakthroughs. We have capability in this country and the ability to punch well above our weight, unfortunately we just don't want to spend the money on it. We'd rather subsidise housing to the point that it becomes so unaffordable that even our best young scientists would never be able to buy one because even a PhD gets paid less than a tradesman thats just finished their apprenticeship!.

this will at least lead to more tradesmen.

the editor of the sunday herald, back in the 80's, characterized oz as "a nation of huddlers", when discussing the unwillingness of oz money to back oz brains. he was right, and i think it's related to the unwillingness to want democracy as well. this is a nation that has been collar-trained, waiting for the gummint to do something. gummints do nothing, if they can avoid it.

A strange article, but it must appeal to some. I notice that the book from which it comes is recommended by that strange fellow, Robyn Williams, the pseudo scientist from the ABC.

I prefer the mapping of the Australian self reliance by writers such as C.E.W.Bean, and of Geoffrey Blainey , in “The Steel Master”, where he describes Australia’s war effort in the second world war.

I consider that the tradition remains, although we lost our direction for a while, and watched our degradation at the hands of destroyers like the greens.

We will have another opportunity to see it function, now that we have emerged from the depths of years of leaving our wealth in the ground, and employing our population in servicing tourists, as the dollar declined.

The last twelve years have seen us emerge as a wealthy nation at the beginning of a boom, where our resourcefulness will reassert itself.

We need to nurture our pride in our self reliance, backed by our inventiveness, and not be sidetracked by pointless comparisons. We are a great nation, about to reassert ourselves, and do not need nitpickers.

A somewhat pointless article I would have thought. It neither informs nor amuses, only disparages. Have I missed smething here?

Thomas, I note by your snapshot you are very young. Must say as an aged West Aussie going on 87, that as far as farming innovations are concerned I beg to differ per your thesis.

Must say that Aussie farmers have been very adaptive to even roughly fashion their own machines to our particular agriculture. First the stripper harvester was an Australian invention. A very simple piece of machinery to harvest grain crops under Mediterranean summer conditions, simply stripping the grain from the heads without cutter knives, and threshing with pegs rather than with rubbing bars.

Also the stump plow was an Aussie invention, and like the stripper harvester was in great demand in countries similar to Argentina. Also it was Australian farmer engineers who had the commonsense to create the reaper-thresher, suitable for all types of grain crops world over, and which is simply the adaption of cutter-bar and threshing drum to suit most world conditions suitable to grow grain crops - and in fact is still the same adaption set-up that styles the huge combine harvesters now mostly purchased from John Deere, USA, helping to build up our overseas trading debt to nearly the 500 billion dollars that it now goes close.

Of course, the Victa Mover is an Australian innovation, which spurred off all the multiple small area mowers all around the world.

Also any grain Cockie like myself can tell how we still are forced to change machinery to suit our own conditions, small innovative improvements very often stolen from farmers, who have that unfortunate ability to yap, or blow their bags too much.

Fact' is, Thomas, could reckon that much of the blame for lack of innovation goes to our present government who prefers people better trained for a non-everlasting quarry economy, not looking far enough ahead, as well as far enough behind, as proven by today's average school kid, mentality only just behind the eyes and ears, rather than in the deeper recesses where we find both commonsense and better understanding.