Not sure what you are saying there Is Mise "The invention of machine guns saved lives." Is that except for the ones who got in the road. Or is it like saying taking arsenic prevents deaths from strychnine. As Pauline Hanson would say "Please explain!"

Orange is not fertile ground for The Greens at this time, having much more success in an alliance with farmers to the north affected by CSG mining. Maybe Orange needs me back.

p/s I was born in Orange. (Orange Base Hospital) My maternal grandfather was a man of the land, sheep farmer near Orange, part time gold miner, Voted for, and was a member of the Country Party.

Paul,

There are more and better (?) machine guns these days but the infantry etc., have become more adept at avoiding them and other fire from guns, the changes in tactics were inspired, in great part, by the existence of the machine gun.
In WWII the Australians fighting the Japanese were helped very
much by having reliable machine guns, saved Australian lives.

I know Orange well, having lived in the Bathurst district for some years.
A mate and I once walked from Mullion Creek to Hill End, one Easter to publicize the Easter Events at Hill End (must look it up on the old newspaper site, as I don't have any of the cuttings now). We carried dried vegetables/salt/sugar and tea and our muzzle loading shotguns and shot rabbits for a bit of meat.
Took us two days.

Paul, what is your judgement of my "shark post"? Your response confounds me.

I think I am alive today because I was allowed to carry a weapon for self defence.
Just having that defence capability gave me confidence.

Sharks can hear or sense heart rate increase associated with panic.
Having a bangstick or power head gives confidence that prevents panic and stirring sharks into frenzy.

Being torn apart by a shark or a crocodile or an insane person can have the same result. Dead.

These days in the Pacific islands I am often asked to go diving with a torch at night to spear fish, but I decline because of salt water crocodiles and having no defence.

Different weapons suit different tasks.

Anyway, what is your relevant judgement, Paul?

Hi Is Mise,

I suppose its not that far from Mullion Creek to Hill End, maybe 20 miles overland, rough country, further by road.
Interesting about rabbits, I like wild rabbit myself, when they were in plague proportions us kids could set 40 traps and catch about 35 rabbits, no trouble. Rabbit pelts fetched a shilling each, no bad money in the 1960's.
Gold panning is a lot of fun, as is catching yabbies with meat on a cotton line, picked blackberries by the bucket, another plague! Kids today don't know what they are missing out on. Now brown snakes that is another john dory, had the occasional run in with those things, do well to avoid them, aggressive fellas, not like black snakes.

Hi JF Aus,

You are confounded? Sharks, my attitude is pretty much, they live their life, we live ours. We don't harm them, they don't harm us. Often people who are attacked by sharks, will take the attitude of not blaming the shark. If man is going to go around in the sharks environment unintentionally acting like a seal he may become the sharks dinner. People attacked by crocks, usually don't heed warnings, go into the water at the wrong place at the wrong time, sometimes involves alcohol. One must be responsible for their own actions.
I see mosquitoes as being far more dangerous than both sharks and crocodiles.

Paul,

Yes, and now I am further confounded by you comparing mosquito's to shark attack.
It is bewildering to me that anyone can liken a mosquito bite and/or disease to a shark attack and being torn apart while the person is alive.

It may even be possible for a victim to see a shark swimming off with a leg, before the victim then dies from shock of loss of blood. I had a friend who had a leg taken, his girlfriend saw the sharks swimming away with his leg.

We all live our lives, animals also.
And it’s also our domain in the ocean.
Should we compare a road accident on a city street. Should we be there? Is that roadway the domain of indigenous people?

Should we not fly in aircraft because the sky is the domain of birds?

I agree people should be responsible for their own action, for example I used to take responsibility by taking a power head with me for self defence while exploring underwater.
I used to carry a weapon for self defence but now I understand that is breaking the law. How absurd.

Should everyone stay out of the water?

You Paul, have insight from other threads here on OLO that underwater exploration has led me to finding links between heat in algae and change in regional weather and climate.
That change may even mean more mosquito's in some regions. lol.

Being in the shark's so called 'domain' has led to evidence revealing collapse of world seafood sustainability.

Humans and sharks need food.
Sharks are not immune to starvation and therein is evidence of need for law to allow self defence, even if underwater.

In any case more people die from car accidents and plane crashes than from cowards using guns to kill innocent people.

I am also confounded by media making so much news from death of jst 4 people on a water slide (RIP those good people), while the same news editors ignore thousands of people dying due to under-nutrition on islands off Australia's shores because of fish devastation.

Paul,

Great times! I still enjoy a feed of yabbies, the only crustacean that I eat, for some reason I don't like any of the others except tiny prawns as used in fried rice.

We did a bit more than 20 miles, we walked from Mullion Creek Rly Station down to the Ophir then a short way down stream then cut across country to the Macquarie River, as the river was up a bit we had to hit one of the long calm reaches to be able to swim across.
Took about 150 yards to get across because of the strong flow, then we walked to the Turon crossing on the Bridle Track then up the mountain to Hill End.

That was in the early 1960s, we were fit!!