Duty largely consists of pretending that the trivial is critical.

Hobart in the Summer! Mount Wellington, as seen from New Town, February 2011.

Quick, I need a Sunday Top Five!

Ummmm….

How about Top Five Statistical Details About Tasmania That You Might Not Be Aware Of?

Most Tasmanians live in urban centres, with nearly 90% of the total population living in Hobart, Launceston, Burnie and Devonport.

Over the next twenty years the proportion of Tasmanians under the age of fifteen is projected to decline by approximately 7% while the proportion of people aged 65 years and over could grow by almost 60%.

In the ten years to 2006 there was a 10% decline in the number of households with children in Tasmania, while the number of childless couples increased by 17% and the number of people living alone increased by 15%.

Although the proportion of welfare-dependent households has declined in recent years, Tasmania still has the highest proportion of welfare-dependent households of all states and territories at 34%. Of these households, the majority (52 %) were in receipt of retirement pensions and benefits.

Tasmania had a significantly higher percentage of its population that are rated as ‘low socio-economic status’ as defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics at 55% of its population. The next highest is the Northern Territory at 28.4%, with Queensland and WA hovering around 23%. The Australian Capital Territory has just 0.3% of its population rated as ‘low socio-economic status’.

Comments

Roddy said…

I suppose with your job these statistics are readily at hand.
How about your dad and mum becoming amongst the retirees and pensioners?!
We are in Gladstone Queensland today and it is rather cool for this neck of the woods. No snow though.

3 April 2011 at 12:33

Kris McCracken said…

Lots of wind today.

3 April 2011 at 12:46

Roddy said…

We had lots of wind yesterday.

3 April 2011 at 16:52

Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth.

This is the moon. Have I mentioned how much I adore the zoom on my camera? It's Theme Thursday you see, and after last week's limp effort, I have been thinking about how I might redeem myself. Then I clicked on the topic and discover that it was BUTTON. We've been hearing a lot about the moon in the past couple of weeks. Apparently some fellas went up there and played golf and what-not forty-odd years ago. The desire to get to the moon, however, was not simply about enhancing opportunities for Meg and Mog titles and skirting local planning by-laws in the construction of new and innovative golf courses. No, all of your Sputniks , "One small steps" and freeze dried ice cream was about one thing , and one thing only : MAD Now, I don't mean mad in terms of "bloke breaks record for number of scorpions he can get up his bum", no I mean MAD as in Mutual assured destruction . When I was a young man you see, there was a lot of talk about the type of m...

Hold me now, oh hold me now, until this hour has gone around. And I'm gone on the rising tide, to face Van Dieman's Land

Theme Thursday again, and this one is rather easy. I am Tasmanian, you see, and aside from being all around general geniuses - as I have amply described previously - we are also very familiar with the concept of WATER. Tasmania is the ONLY island state of an ISLAND continent. That means, we're surrounded by WATER. That should help explain why I take so many photographs of water . Tasmania was for a long time the place where the British (an island race terrified of water) sent their poor people most vile and horrid criminals. The sort of folk who would face the stark choice of a death sentence , or transportation to the other end of the world. Their catalogue of crimes is horrifying : stealing bread assault stealing gentlemen's handkerchiefs drunken assault being poor affray ladies being overly friendly with gentlemen for money hitting people having a drink and a laugh public drunkenness being Irish Fenian terrorist activities being Catholic religious subversion. ...

Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it...

I still have the robot on the job. Here you can see the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery . And here is a poem: Soliloquy for One Dead Bruce Dawe Ah, no, Joe, you never knew the whole of it, the whistling which is only the wind in the chimney's smoking belly, the footsteps on the muddy path that are always somebody else's. I think of your limbs down there, softly becoming mineral, the life of grasses, and the old love of you thrusts the tears up into my eyes, with the family aware and looking everywhere else. Sometimes when summer is over the land, when the heat quickens the deaf timbers, and birds are thick in the plumbs again, my heart sickens, Joe, calling for the water of your voice and the gone agony of your nearness. I try hard to forget, saying: If God wills, it must be so, because of His goodness, because- but the grasshopper memory leaps in the long thicket, knowing no ease. Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it... I like Bruce Dawe. He just my be my favourite Austral...

This will hurt me...

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