What's wrong FOXY, I've written two post's thus far, for topics which you've initiated, and you've completely ignored me? I must have upset you in some way - I'm sorry if I have.

Good evening to you BANJO...And I have to agree with you 100%, it's really upsetting to see this fantastic Nation of ours rapidly going down the 'gurgler '! Unfortunately it's my generation (pre-baby boomers), those born in the late 1930's and the war years, who are the catalyst for this decline? Not all of it, but it's us that saw it happening, and it's us who choose to ignore those early warning signs.

Your very last sentence says it all, '...Not much to look forward too I'm afraid, yep afraid for our grandkids. As they say poor fella my country...'?

Nick, the Indonesians only traded along the Nth Coast and the
aboriginals in the rest of Australia knew nothing of them.
That was corrected when Captain Cook sailed up the east coast and
aboriginals must have started to realise that there was a much wider
world out there than they imagined.
It is a pity that we do not seem to have any history of aboriginals'
contemplations of where these white men in their enormous canoes came
from and what sort of tribes they had. How do they get that very
hard wood that they dig the ground with.
Pity,but that is the result them not inventing writing.
They must have had a lot of interesting questions to ask.
That is why I said they were jerked into the 18th century.
Only some Melanesians had similar shocks during the war when the
planes came with the cargo cults.

However , Bazz , Indonesians knew about Australia and didn't take it. No-one had to. China doesn't have to take Tibet and England didn't have to take Scotland . Aboriginals it seems had a better diet than the British , 18th century.
'Lieutenant James Cook on 15 May 1770,... noted the presence of about 20 Bundjalung Nation Aboriginal people ….(north NSW). Sir Joseph Banks also noted these people and remarked that they completely ignored the presence of the HMS Endeavour. This would seem to indicate that the HMS Endeavour was not the first ship that they had seen.
Sir Joseph Banks also noted the same as Lieutenant James Cook FRS RN, .. that:
... not one was once observed to stop and look toward the ship; they pursued their way in all appearance entirely unmoved by the neighbourhood of so remarkable an object as a ship must necessarily be to people who have never seen one. _ Richmond River Historical Society {RRHS}, 1997.
This resembles Botany Bay in 1770 when people who were fishing in bark canoes ignored the British ship of James Cook. Maybe ships were familiar to people in east Australia.

Foxy,
I cannot share your faith in Turnbull, as I recall you had similar faith in Rudd and Gillard and they were a mitigating disaster.

After WW11 we recovered well and had a very high standard of living until the 1970s. The Whitlam government brought in Multiculturalism (without consultation) which started the rot for Australia. Fraser made it far worse by bringing all those muslims in (against advice) and it has been downhill ever since.

I cannot see any worthwhile achievements since then and the only thing that has grown has been our population and house prices. The standard of living has fallen and it takes longer to get to work and buy a house for most. Queues are longer, people work longer hours, shopping is a pain and we are not better off. Increased population has not provided any benefits. Immigrants are the only ones that have benefited from them coming here. Diversity has not given us anything except social problems that we do not need.

There is nothing to be proud about for a nation since the 1970s. Its time we stopped importing people, we owe the world nothing except our massive government debt for which we have nothing to show for it.

Nick, now that you mention it I do remember of reading about them
ignoring the ships. Some postulated it was because they were thought
to be from the "spirit world".
They could not have seen other ships often. It could have been a
hundred years since a Portuguese sailor had passed that way.
It would be so infrequent an event that there would be plenty of
younger men who had never seen a ship. Like young men everywhere they
would have been very curious.
Yet if they were so familiar with ships then at least several must
have made their way back to Europe.

No that theory just does not hold up.

It is not thought that Torres realised that he had passed by close
to Cape York. Torres Strait Islanders probably saw his ship as had
Papuans as he made his way along the coast of Papua. He mentions large
Islands in the area.
He went through and discovered the Strait in August 1606, 164 years
before Cook.
It was always the practise that detailed navigation reports are made.
It seems impossible that so many ships passed that way and never
returned to Europe, or the East Indies, or went on to Panama.

Banjo, "I am thankful we do not have 'Merkels million muslims' yet but Turnbull will get his 12000 here, so look out girls"

From that populist decision, millions of taxpayers' dollars will flow into the grasping hands of NGOs and professionals and to build and maintain anthills of federal bureaucrats.

It will not be just for one year either, it is a labour-intensive industry and their needs will go one forever.

Which explains why there are so many astroturfing NGOs and public bureaucrats involving themselves in political comment. It is the gravy train.