The best news is that Lesley feels so much better today, still a bit wobbly and not yet eating to capacity but much brighter looking and we went for a short riverside walk in the early evening.
The bush fire that damaged some homes in the southern suburbs of Perth and was raging out of control this time yesterday seems to have been contained and no one was hurt which is also good news.
A late start to the day saved a meal as I opted for brunch then went to revise the pick up day for the hire car as a result of staying in Perth an extra night. Then off on the CAT, a free set of city bus routes, on way to the WA Museum where I spent time on the galleries devoted to the historical development of Perth and WA generally and the first peoples of the area.
I stood reading and looking at the exhibits and must admit to being a bit disturbed with some feelings of having read similar accounts of man not taking care of the natural environment and the insensitivity of one nation towards another. I am not a member of the Green Party or a particularly ardent environmentalist, though I do my bit, but reading the accounts of how large areas of bush were cleared to make way for crops that may not have been suitable but that led to increased levels of salination and mining operations that have turned lands into virtual desserts reminded me of similar stories in America. Both resulted in land becoming infertile and it seems that in WA the authorities are still trying to address the high levels of salt in the land.
On the inhumanity of man towards man, well, I found it really hard to believe that at a time when so many people in Britain had fought to end slavery and been successful that the very same British Government who passed abolition laws turned a blind eye to the treatment of indigenous natives in Australia. Whilst that was more than 150 years ago, the racist attitudes during the 20th century were similar to those exhibited in Europe during the period of the 3rd Reich, in the USA for centuries and right into the 1980s and in South Africa with apartheid. I do recall the apology made to the First Peoples by the Australian President in 2008 but apparently and despite numerous laws and policies, the culture and lifestyle of many Aboriginal people is still constrained, not understood nor accepted on equal terms with those of more European persuasion. It was really quite a shock and some of the film footage of those who were removed from their parents so they could live 'normal' lives alongside white Australians right into the early 1970s was heart rending. Of course many of these children felt dispossessed as they were neither Aboriginal nor white. Hindsight is of course an amazing thing and it is so easy perhaps now to see how such good intentions were really misguided and an infringement of human rights but it is so sad.
Anyway, end of rant, I walked back to apartment via a bar and discovered why so many Australians go to Bottle Stores to buy beer for drinking at home or on the beach when I parted with the equivalent of £5.50 for a pint of light ale!
During dinner Lesley and I toasted our seventh day of the holiday accompanied with a chicken curry and noodles of which Lesley had a small portion.
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