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Another thing that riles me is the extent to which Australian companies have fallen into foreign hands since this Free Trade debacle was foisted upon this young and vibrant nation.

In my last post I alluded to Australia making almost everything up until the 1970s. I mean everything.. washing machines, furniture, kitchen appliances, textiles, confectionery.. even ships and a civilian transport plane from memory.

These were mostly made by Australian companies. Anton you have no doubt heard of Arnotts Biscuits, worn a Speedo swimming costume or savored a Streets Ice Cream or a glass of Milo milk.. You most likely have sipped a Fosters beer. The following companies may be a little less known to non Australians.. Chef Ovens, Simpson washers and dryers, Allens lollies (candy). MacRobertson Cherry Ripe choc bar.

Due to a combination of cheaper imports, our small local market and the reluctance by some companies to create export markets all these Oz companies fell into foreign hands. We also lost local ownership when the company became too big and were a genuine thorn in the side of powerful multi nationals.

We Australians, specially the Baby Boomer generation, grew up with these beloved home grown Australian companies.

Losing them makes us ropeable to be brutally honest!!

Below are former Oz companies that now have either full or controlling foreign ownership.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/vi...3c587e73432c0a.



I'm Anthony, a Frenchman in France.
@spookiemoviemania


Yes, this world obviously is unstable. I live in a bubble of apparent stability floating in an ocean of tensions. How long will that stability last? I must accept it will end sooner or later and adapt.



Anyway.


I'm not even sure I've directly seen anything made in Australia in my life in France. Transportation costs are high from Oz to here, while we can get anything we need much closer to my location in France. So anything Australian is like precious exoticness, a rarity, as I see it here.


I can't relate to any of the trademarks/companies you've mentioned, except Vegemite, which I've heard of online and which intrigues me. I wonder what taste and smell it has. I guess it tastes salty and like yeast. I've never found any wherever I went. I may find some in Paris or, simpler, I can order some online (I guess it is possible that way).




Upon reflexion, I know one Australian item here in France: the frozen meat of Australian kangaroos (I see some for AUS$47/kg). Emu meat is sold as well but those emus don't come from Oz (Europe, Canada, ...). Ostrich meat is better known here.



I think I'd always thought Oz produced just a little and imported a lot. Thanks for explaining the history of it all.
That's sad obviously, as Aussie manufacturing used to flourish.


What future do you see for Oz & Aussies?



How annoying is it when you type a long piece and you lose it before you can post.


while we can get anything we need much closer to my location in France. So anything Australian is like precious exoticness, a rarity, as I see it here.


This may change if the EU and Australia sign a free trade agreement as is being mooted when Brexit happens. I have never eaten Kangaroo.. am told it is tasty. Emu is an Australian native so you will have eaten ostrich.


I am pleased to announce that we are "buying back the farm" an expression for returning former Aussie companies into Aussie hands. An Australian company now owns Kraft peanut butter, that candy with a hole Lifesavers has been bought back from Nestle and Vegemite is once again in our hands. It is also being mooted that Arnotts Biscuits could partially return to Aussie ownership.


If we dont all reduce ourselves to vapour I see a big future for my country. We are so fortunate to have enormous exportable natural resources. These protect us from economic damage during tuff times such as the Global Financial Crisis when we spent ourselves out of trouble. Below is a graph of our export pie in 2017.






A majority of our natural resources are also in Oz hands.. so
the profits remain here and not in some foreign bank. Was reading this morning that we are about to get a huge lift in our coffers over the next decade with the growing world demand for electric cars. Australia evidently produces 70% of worlds Lithium deposits.. Lithium batteries as you may know is the main power source for electric cars. They are saying that revenue from our Lithium sales in the future could go into the multi billions of dollars.



Australia it was said in the 50 and 60s " prospered off the sheeps back" meaning the deep pit of money we made from selling wool to the world. Now we can say it could " prosper off the back of Lithium"



I do worry about the future for my son and his children with the planet warming. We already have one of the worlds largest incidence of skin cancer (per capita) The worlds oceans are warming.. Will there be the abundance of seafood in 20 years as there is now? Drauts are becoming more frequent and more devastating than the past. Will the farmer simply walk off his parched lands and abandon farming altogether. What then will we eat? It is all a bit of a worry anton. Australians tho are a resilient people.. We will endure I have no doubt about that...



@anton.



Who didnt play street cricket in Oz while growing up. Cricket is our national sport and is ingrained in every Aussie kid. With green space at a premium, specially in the inner city in the 50,60,70s cricket was played on the main streets, back streets, laneways in fact anywhere that had an area long enuff to cater for the popular sport. I lived in an outer Sydney suburb. Most back streets were still unpaved and made for a great place to play an impromtu game of cricket. All that was needed was someone to purloin a neibors garbage bin to use as a wicket. If no one had an actual cricket bat we would use an old piece of flooring wood and an old tennis ball. Six over the fence was also out and the poor unfortunate that hit it there had to go and fetch it. The object of street cricket was fun exercise and a chance to give mum a break from us pesky kids for a coupla hours until dinner. It was a chance for us working class kids to emmulate our heroes, Lillee, Thomson, Bradman, Greg Chappell. These days there is more open space for cricket games so traditional street cricket has allbut passed into sporting history along with those cricketing greats.



Probably the 70s.



We already have one of the worlds largest incidence of skin cancer (per capita)
Totally preventable though.
__________________
I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.



Totally preventable though.

No doubt. Problem is Australians can be silly and full of bravado. Many do not realise that a majority of us have an Anglo/Celtic complexion in a semi tropical climate. It reached 43C on several occasions last summer. First time ever above 40C in Sydney. My son used to sun bake without protection. I asked him why. "I wanna get a tan dad" he told me. " Look up melanoma online. You are risking cancer for vanity.. that is plain dumb". I retorted. The next time he sunbaked he applied 30 strength sun screen.



Our summer was record-hot this year in Connecticut. For us to go above 90 degrees F. is fairly remarkable, but this year we had several days with temps around 95 degrees. And if the ground level ozone kicks in, it makes it even hotter.

I had a bad scare a few years ago at the dermatologist. I don’t lie in the sun, but I walk every day for about 2 hours. Sun hats + sunscreen every day since then between the spring & fall equinoxes.



Our summer was record-hot this year in Connecticut. For us to go above 90 degrees F. is fairly remarkable, but this year we had several days with temps around 95 degrees. And if the ground level ozone kicks in, it makes it even hotter.

I had a bad scare a few years ago at the dermatologist. I don’t lie in the sun, but I walk every day for about 2 hours. Sun hats + sunscreen every day since then between the spring & fall equinoxes.
Very smart of you. I think of the times in my past when I ventured out into the sun unprotected. You walk two hours a day? I walk 15 minutes..but briskly. Health experts say that is ample. Conneticut is in New England isnt it?



Wyndham, Western Australia's northernmost town has been annointed Australia's warmest town with temperatures regularly reaching a scorching 48C (118F) while the yearly average maximum temperature is a more pleasant 35.6C.

One resident says he once saw a road in the town get so hot the bitumen melted and trickled into the street gutter.

Remind me never to move to Wyndham.


Wyndham is surrounded by mudflats, rocky ranges and desert without an oasis in site.



I'm Anthony, a Frenchman in France.
Remind me never to move to Wyndham.

Do not move to that place.


It looks like Oz has got its own little part of hell.




What are your favorite places where to go skiing in Oz (and why)?



Here are some of our alpine resorts. Perisher (above) Thredbo (below) in my state.


Another in Victoria. Mt Buller


I am a poor skier. Could never stay uprite long enuff to enjoy myself. If I had have lived close to the Alpine region I probably would have taken lessons and become a ski instructor. I rate Perisher and Thredbo as our premier ski resorts. But then again I am biased.

Footnote: A catastrophic landslide occurred at the village and ski resort of Thredbo, NSW, Australia, on 30 July 1997. Two ski lodges were destroyed and a total of 18 died.
There was one survivor..ski instructor Stewart Diver. They made a mini series about his incredible survival. Below is a scene post landslide.




You walk two hours a day? I walk 15 minutes..but briskly. Health experts say that is ample. Conneticut is in New England isnt it?
For any kind of health benefit a minimum of 30 minutes is needed. Connecticut is in New England.

Wyndham, Western Australia's northernmost town has been annointed Australia's warmest town with temperatures regularly reaching a scorching 48C (118F) while the yearly average maximum temperature is a more pleasant 35.6C.
By my reckoning 48 C = 126 F.




The Murray River isn’t just an Australian icon, it’s also the third most navigable river in the world, placed behind only the Nile and the Amazon.



I miss your country so much it hurts. I spent 7 months there about 10 years ago and purely and simply didn't want to leave.

This is me holding a baby saltie in Airlie beach:



Me in Lake Mackenzie:



Me at Cradle Mountain, Tasmania



What a place. I'll never forget it and will 100% go back one day.




I miss your country so much it hurts. I spent 7 months there about 10 years ago and purely and simply didn't want to leave.

This is me holding a baby saltie in Airlie beach:



Me in Lake Mackenzie:



Me at Cradle Mountain, Tasmania



What a place. I'll never forget it and will 100% go back one day.

That is good to hear @ScarletLion. A working holiday. Honeymoon? What was you fave place?



That is good to hear @ScarletLion. A working holiday. Honeymoon? What was you fave place?
I took 14 months out of life to travel. It was great.

There was a moment in cradle mountain where we saw a platypus milling around in a little pool. That was pretty special.

Other than that I loved Queensland. Had some amazing times on Magnetic Island just waking up, going fishing, bbq, beers, sleep repeat. That was great.

Also had a great time in a place called '1770'. Great part of the world.



I had not heard of this place so googled it.
Sitting on the tip of a peninsula on Queensland’s coastline lies the strangely named town of Seventeen Seventy (1770).
A tiny town surrounded on three sides by the Coral Sea and Bustard Bay, it was the second landing site of explorer James Cook.



Looks idyllic @ScarletLion. Where are you from?





I had not heard of this place so googled it.
Sitting on the tip of a peninsula on Queensland’s coastline lies the strangely named town of Seventeen Seventy (1770).
A tiny town surrounded on three sides by the Coral Sea and Bustard Bay, it was the second landing site of explorer James Cook.



Looks idyllic @ScarletLion. Where are you from?


I'm from Wales. Old South Wales not New South Wales

What about you?



I went to South Wales in the 80s. Had been travelling all day visiting castles and the like.. found an isolated inn/hotel went in and ordered something to eat and a beer. The landlady/barwoman answered in Welsh. Set me back a touch as I had never heard the language before. I have to tell you it was like being in a European country or other. Long story short I stayed at this friendly inn for several days and got to know something of the Welsh people. A fond memory I have of my UK holiday.

Me? Sydney born and bred @ScarletLion.. Being Welsh surprised your username isnt Scarlet Dragon.