John Curtin

John Curtin was a Prime Minister. He was the Prime Minister of Australia during World War II. I'm pretty sure he was part of the Labor Party. That's about all I know. Well, I also know that he vetoed the idea of Jewish refugees coming to settle in the Kimberley. But I don't know much about his decision. I'm eager to learn more.

Lord Wiki says that baby John was born 8 January 1885 in Creswick Victoria. Creswick is the hometown of Norman Lindsay and family. Sadly, I didn't remember that. I had to be reminded. The town is about twenty-five minutes north of Ballarat.

Curtin was born into a Catholic family. His dad was an Irish policeman. I wonder if his mom was Irish too.

Curtin dropped out of school at the age of fourteen. He started working for a newspaper. He also joined the Labor Party, AND the Victorian Socialist Party. The latter group was actually Marxist. It seems Curtin was a bit of a radical. He wrote for radical newspapers, using the name Jack Curtin.

During World War I, Curtin was militantly anti-conscription. I imagine he might have butt heads with Billy Hughes. At one time he refused to attend a required military medical examination. Due to this, he was briefly imprisoned. Wow. It seems he did it for principle only. His eye sight was pretty awful, and he would have failed the test anyway.

So far, I'm liking Curtin. It's probably because he's left and radical. I'm left and fairly radical too.

All this was a hard time for Curtin. Lord Wiki said he took up heavy drinking. Yikes.

He also got married.

In 1917, Curtin went to live in a town near Perth....Cottesloe. I'm assuming he took his wife with him.....

Anyway, Lord Wiki says he liked living there.

From what I see on Google Maps, Cottesloe looks more like a suburb of Perth than a town near Perth.

In Cottesloe, Curtin became the editor of the Westralian Worker. He joined the Australian Journalists Association and became the president of their Western Australian Division. It seems he was proud of this. Lord Wiki says he wore the badge's organization the whole time he was Prime Minister.

Politically speaking, Lord Wiki says Curtin gradually became a bit more moderate. I'm not sure about the specifics here. Maybe I'll learn more later.

In 1928, Curtin joined Parliament. He got in via the seat of Freemantle. He would have been about forty-three then. Lord Wiki says this wasn't the first time he tried getting in. It seems he had a few prior failed attempts. Well, I'm glad he eventually made it in.

There was hope, he'd get bumped up into a ministry position when James Scullin became Prime Minister. But Curtin's drinking prevented that from happening. He was stuck in the backbench. Then in 1931 he lost his seat. But don't be too sad. He got it back again in 1934. The guy who stole Curtin's seat from 1931 to 1934 was William Watson. It's kind of funny. Watson was originally from Victoria as well. The current person in he seat is Melissa Parke. She wasn't born in Victoria. She's originally from Western Australia.

In 1935, Curtin had some luck. Scullin resigned as Labor Leader. Curtin got the job by one vote. The Trade Union Group supported Curtin, but they insisted that he give up drinking. He did! That's cool. During this time, Curtin wasn't Prime Minister. Joseph Lyons from the United Australia Party had the big job. When World War II first began, Robert Menzies was Prime Minister. That was in 1939.

In 1941, Menzies went to the UK to discuss Australia's role in the war. Lord Wiki says at this time Menzies lost support....even from his own party. I guess that set the stage for Curtin becoming Prime Minister. That happened in October 1941. A few months after that, Curtin called out to the United States and the UK for help. Then I guess he more directed his pleas towards the United States. Lord Wiki says this was significant in history. I guess it somewhat represented a break in the relationship between Australia and Great Britain? And Curtin tried to bond with the United States. I'm getting the idea that this was was the point in history where Australia and the United States loved each other the most. Curtin even allowed an American General (Douglas MacArthur)to become the boss of the Australian troops. Yeah. That's some major Australian-America bonding there.

Curtin during this time was working very long hours, smoking a lot, and not feeling healthy. He sadly died in office in 1945.

Curtin has three schools named after him. Wow! That's impressive for a guy who dropped out of the education world when he was fourteen. And from what I've read, it doesn't seem like he ever attended university.

There's the Curtin University of Technology which has campuses all over Western Australia, plus one in Sydney, and some in Asia.

There's a high school in Freemantle named after Curtin....John Curtin College of the Arts.

Then there's the John Curtin School of Medical Research in Canberra. That one's part of the Australian National University.

Now I'm going to say good-bye to Lord Wiki, and go to the biography dictionary site. What lovely insights will they have there?

Both Mommy and Daddy Curtin were Irish. They had four kids. John was the eldest. Daddy Curtin had other jobs besides the policeman one. At one time, he was a gaol warden. Then he also worked in hotels. At times, the family was stricken by poverty.

It seems the family moved around Victoria a lot.

John Curtin had various jobs in his youth. By 1903, he worked as an estimates Clerk for Titan Manufacturing Company. This John Curtin website has a photo of him at work. The photo is from 1916. I guess he ended up working for that company for a long time. I definitely need to return to that website. I'll get back there soon.

When not working, Curtin continued his education by reading books at the library. He also played cricket and football.

At some point, Curtin lost his Catholic faith. I wonder how that happened, and how his parents felt about it.

In 1914, Curtin became president of the timberworker's union. One of the things he worked on was getting the Tasmanian Branch re-established. I guess something had happened to it? Anyway, while he was there, he became friends with a man named Abraham. Abraham ended up being the father of Curtin's future wife.

Curtin proposed to his future wife at St. Kilda Beach. She accepted. How romantic.

The website stresses the fact that Curtin was a well-learned man. He was an intellectual. But all that was a bit overshadowed by his heavy-drinking.

Ah! It says when Curtin moved to Western Australia, he stayed dry for over ten years. I'm guessing that means he eventually returned to drinking.

The website says that Curtin suffered from an ailment called Neurasthenia. Lord Wiki says this is a term used in the late 19th century for people who were nervous, depressed, etc. The brilliant Freud listed farting as one of its symptoms. And one of the primary causes? Excessive masturbation. Goodness.

Curtin and his wife ended up with a son and daughter. They moved into a red brick home in Cottesloe. I love details like that.

The website says that family life brought some happiness and stability to Curtin's life. He liked being a husband and dad. He surfed with his family. He took walks on the beach. He walked the family dog. He did household chores.

He was a well-liked man in the community. The website says he was tolerant and kind. His speech was gentle. He used very little profanity.

It sounds like though, that by 1927, things became rough again. He spent a lot of time away from home working. He returned to drinking.

He was not happy when he wasn't accepted into Scullin's Ministry. These years were rough for Scullin.

It sounds like Curtin chose to return to concentrating on the home life. And then he gave up drinking for good. It sounds to me like this was the right choice. I understand drinking is fun for some people. It makes them happy. It makes them relax. But I think for many other people, it just brings unhappiness and disaster.

I'm just kind of quietly reading right now....a bit too overwhelmed to report much.

But here's something interesting to me. He didn't care for his Irish heritage. I can relate to that a bit. I don't care much about my Jewish heritage. But I do respect people who have strong love and attachment to their heritage. I think it's fine as long as it doesn't become divisive.

Curtin didn't like flying....airplane flying, that is.

In his later years, Curtin had a difficult time. The biographical website says he was more irritable and resented criticism. He tried not to dwell in self-pity, but it seemed he ended up doing so anyway. Despite feeling unwell physically and emotionally, he tried to persevere. Wow, this all really reminds me of me this past week. Reading this....I'm feeling TOTALLY bonded to John Curtin right now.

Curtin also dealt with some religious stuff. He had been a tolerant rationalist earlier. What's that? Well, I can't find an answer. My guess is it's someone who is somewhat Atheist, but tolerant of religion. I could be totally wrong. Anyway, towards the end of his life, he gained some love and interest in God. He started believing in an afterlife.

I'm really relating to Curtin here. Is that like delusions of grandeur to relate to a Prime Minister? But see, I'm not relating to the amazing powerful heroic stuff. I'm relating to the difficult stuff.

Curtin was shy and moody. I've been accused of that before.

He's described as being sad-looking. On several occasions, people have suggested I smile....or smile more.

He's awkward. That's TOTALLY me.

There's some other fun trivial stuff about the Curtin character.

He was friendly and had easygoing chats with various service professionals. That might sound like it contradicts with the shyness thing. But in my own personal experience, people can be very shy in some instances and very outgoing in other instances.

He liked vaudeville, musical comedy, and film.

He liked crossword puzzles.

He liked good manners. I like good manners too. I don't care about things like how people hold a fork, and whether they have their elbows on the table. But I do care about basic decency...saying please, thank you, sorry, not being too late too often, etc.

All right. Time for the next website. I'm still liking Curtin. He might be one of my favorite Prime Ministers so far.

Here's the government Prime Minister page. I'm looking at their main page first...trying to get some historical perspective. Curtin came between Arthur Fadden and Francis Forde. Although I think Forde was the guy who was in the office for an extremely short time.

For some reason, this website is easier for me to understand. I guess they speak more in my language. I find stuff here that I missed on the other sites.

Anyway, they say he relaxed a bit on his anti-conscription feelings from World War I. In World War II, he sent conscription troops overseas.

Here's their background page on Curtin.

Curtin's dad was not very healthy. He retired from the police work when young John was five. The family then moved to Melbourne where the parents worked in hotels. They lived in a suburb called Brunswick which had many other poverty-stricken Irish folk.

The reason Curtin left school was because he needed to support his family. Tough break. Although one doesn't always need wealth and a prestigious long education to do well in life.

Curtin worked, and he became active in politics.

Before World War I, Curtin concentrated his efforts in promoting Socialism. When war broke out, his goal leaned more towards ant-war stuff.

Ah. Here's some marriage stuff. Curtin couldn't afford to get married right away. So his object of affection went off to South Africa. The two lovebirds kept the romance going via a long distance correspondence.

From 1917 to 1918, Curtin was having a very rough time with the alcoholism and depression. His friends helped him to get a journalist job in Perth. And that turned his life around a bit. There was a concept like that in a book I read recently. Oh! I remember. It was the Stephen King book. The idea is if your life really is in the pits, sometimes a change in scene might help. I agree with that. I know of certain people who would strongly disagree with me. They believe the grass is NOT greener on the other side. If you can't make it here, you won't be able to make it there. But I think sometimes a change CAN do us good. Sometime we need a fresh start.

In Perth, Curtin finally married his girlfriend. The two had been an item for five years already. The newly formed family first lived at 3 Napier Street in Cottesloe. I'm looking at it on Google Maps. It looks VERY close to the water. I wonder if the water nearby was nice. Was there a harbour? A beach? I'd love to live that close to the water. Although I shouldn't say that. Global Warming is likely to be nasty to people living so close to the coast.

I'm looking at Street View now. It looks like 3 Napier Street now has some kind of apartment complex. It doesn't look like a singular home. I wonder if the people living there realize that John Curtin lived there at one time. I bet they do. I bet the area has a little plaque or something.

After the Curtin family lived there, they next moved to 24 Jarrad Street. I'm looking at it on Street View now. This is so fun.

The website says Curtin still struggled with depression and alcoholism. But he tried to be okay. Sometimes taking walks along beach sand dunes brought him some relief. Beach walking can be very therapeutic.

It looks like they had about an eight minute walk to the water. I wonder if they had a beach right there. That would have been nice!

The two kids in the family were named after their mother and father. I wonder if certain types of parents name their kids after themselves. In some ways, it seems a tiny bit egotistical. Although I think it's different if the name has been around in the family for a long time. Then it's kind of like passing on a heritage.

As I said before, Curtin became less radical in his time through Perth. Some even felt he supported the conservative government too much. He supported Menzies in the beginning of the war, although he said he wouldn't go as far as supporting conscription.

All right. Now I'm on the in-office page.

He became the fourteenth Prime Minister of Australia eight weeks prior to the attack on Pearl Harbour.

He rejected Britain's desire to deploy US troops. I don't know much about this. My guess (probably from stuff I absorbed in the past) is that the UK wanted Australia fighting for the UK. Curtin wanted Australian troops fighting for Australia.

The website says Curtin had doubts about leading a nation through a war. I don't know who wouldn't have doubts. I don't think I'd like a politician who had that much confidence. I think most people would be slightly terrified. And my feeling is it's not whether you're scared or not. It's whether you can work within the fear.

Australia was lacking in warfare tools. This was kind of a problem.

Before all that happened though, Curtin had TRIED to establish better diplomatic relations with Japan. He developed a friendly relationship with a Japanese ambassador named Tatsuo Kawai. Some folks weren't happy with that.

About two months after becoming Prime Minister, Curtin had to deal with a national tragedy. An Australian ship had sunk. This was the HMAS Sydney. It had been destroyed in a battle with a German ship.

Isn't this the ship that was recently found?

Yeah. Lord Wiki says it was found in March 2008. I remember that. The German ship was destroyed as well. Lots of lost lives. Wars aren't much fun.

Days after that incident, Pearl Harbor happened. This led to Japanese nationals being interned in Australia. One of these individuals was Curtin's friend Kawai. Wow....talk about having a strain in your relationship.

Australia was a bit nervous at this point. They worried about an invasion from Japan. They sought out help from the UK...figuring Australia had helped them with the first World War. Now the UK would help them. But Churchill really didn't do much. He wanted to concentrate more on the Middle East.

I had intensive email conversations with a friend yesterday about family members helping each other out. Should we be there for our family and friends--sacrifice our time, energy, money, etc. to helping them? And what do you do when the people you help don't later help you in return? I find it hard to be supportive of people when they're not supportive of me. I guess I'm not very self-sacrificing. That's not to say I DON'T help, but I do it very grudgingly. I end up bitching about it a lot.

In my case, it's not really about wars and stuff like that. It's more simple things like being there for someone. It's hard for me to act excited with someone's project, joy, accomplishment, etc. when they totally ignored mine. It's hard for me to offer sympathy to people who ignored or downplayed my problems in the past.

Around New Years...or maybe ON New Years, Curtin sent out a message to Australia. He said Australia looks to America, free of any pangs as to our traditional links or kinship with the United Kingdom.

Some Australians did NOT like this at all. And Churchill didn't like it either.

Poor Curtin was under a huge amount of stress. People convinced him to take a little break, and he did so.

You know if something like that happened today, I think people would accuse the leader of being weak. They'd call him a coward. And maybe there is something unfair about a politician taking a rest while soldiers soldier on. But I don't know. Sometimes, even the strongest people need a little respite.

In February, the attack on Darwin happened. Much of the town was destroyed.

Around this time, Curtin enlisted the help of America...specifically the MacArthur guy.

Curtin had a hard time with the whole conscription things. His change of heart on that matter caused a lot of controversy. In an emotional scene, a fellow labor Politician said to Curtin that he had led young men into the slaughterhouse, although thirty years ago he wouldn’t go into it himself. This made Curtin weep. Oh. That's very sad.

The Labor guy tried to make Curtin sound selfish and cowardly. But I don't think it was like that. I think sometimes situations make us change our viewpoints on things. I really don't believe Curtin was anti-conscription because he personally didn't want to get his hands dirty.

The website provides some fun facts.

Curtin was the only Prime Minister to have spent time in gaol. Speaking of that....had Obama ever been in jail? I can't remember. And excuse my change in spellings here. I'm culturally confused. Really.

Well, I can't find anything about Obama being in jail. Was George W. Bush? I know he had been arrested for drunk driving. But I can't remember if he went to jail or not.

Curtin never owned or drove a car. Now I feel TOTALLY bonded to the guy. I don't like driving.

Here's a whole website about Curtin. I feel I've read so much today. Do I really want to read more? I don't know. Although I like Curtin. I'm not sure I'm ready to say good-bye to him.

Oh! The website is from that University of Technology. Cool.

Well, this part is kind of fun. It's kind of like a pictorial history thing. I think I'll just read it for my own enjoyment. If anything jumps out at me, I'll share it.

His mother was strong and vocal. The website says it was she who encouraged Curtin to go into politics. I like hearing positive mom stories.

This page says, Despite being a hopeless handyman who couldn't knock in a straight nail, he spent endless hours pottering in the garden. That's cute. I find Curtin to be so endearing.

This page just talks about how Curtin was a nice man....well-liked by many people. He was courteous and caring. Of course this all comes from a school named after Curtin. It's unlikely they'd dwell on any of his negative traits.

I am overwhelmed. There's so much good stuff here. I'm going to have to stop sometime. But anyone interested can go to this page. It has a link to a lot of goodies.

I do want to know more about Curtin and the Jewish Kimberly thing. I'll google that.

Here's an article about that. The plan of the Kimberly Project was to resettle 75,000 Jews in the area. Well, it doesn't actually say much about the plan, or why Curtin rejected it. It more talks about how there's Jews today living in rural areas of Australia.

I'm giving up. I scrolled my eyes down a bit at further stuff on my Google search. I came up with a link to my own blog. I've written about The Kimberley thing before. Had I found anything back then? Well, not really. But in comments, Matt defended Curtin and had some interesting insights.

Anyway, I'd better stop now. It's getting late, and Jack wants us to play around with stop motion animation.

Wait. Before I go. See? I really AM having trouble saying good-bye. Here's a website where you can hear Curtin making a speech on Anzac Day.

Okay. I'm still here. Now I'm reading this website. It gives valuable insight into Australia's relationship with America during World War II. I think some Americans like to imagine that they were Australia's perfect knight in shining armor. But it wasn't as simple as that. First of all, Roosevelt was a bit nasty in response to Curtin's pleas for help. Instead of saying something like Sorry you're going through a rough time and Britain wasn't there for you. We'll be by your side, Roosevelt said something about Curtin sounding panicked and disloyal. I'm betting he said that to stay on Churchill's good side.

Still, they did come to Australia's help. Was it pure altruism? Of course!

No, not really. I think it was less about wanting to help Australia and more about wanting to defeat Japan. It's all a game of alliances.

A lot of American soldiers ended up in Australia. Some Australians resented their presence. Others ended up marrying them.

I like the conclusion on this page. It says,Curtin's actions did not mark a sharp break with Britain, nor a sudden and permanent shift of allegiance to the United States. Instead, they marked another step in Australia's continuing search for its place in the world.

That statement made me a little emotional. It was said very well. I'm going to end on that note. I may not be ready to move on, but I probably should.

Billy Hughes

Billy Hughes is a Prime Minister. At least I think he is. I don't know if he's Liberal or Labor. Maybe Liberal. Yeah. I'm leaning towards Liberal.

I THINK he may have been the head dude during the 1920's. My crystal ball is telling me that. No, I'm joking. I read a book about Australia during that time period. I don't remember much of the book, but I vaguely remember them mentioning Hughes.

Now I'm going to go start my research.

Well, Lord Wiki says I was right about the 1920's. Hughes served from 1915 until 1923. As for whether he's Liberal or Labor....that gets a bit confusing. It looks like he started out as Labor, but then drifted to the Liberal side. I'm sure we'll learn more about that later. Let's rewind to the beginning.

Baby William was born on 25 September 1862, in London to Welsh parents.

Daddy Hughes was Baptist. He was a carpenter at the House of Lords. For those of you as ignorant as me, House of Lords is part of the British Parliament.

Mommy Hughes was a farmer's daughter. She was thirty-seven when she married her son's father. I'm guessing that was pretty old for marriage in those days. Little William ended up being her only child.

When Hughes was seven, his mom died. He was sent to live with his paternal aunt in Wales, but also spent some time with his mother's relatives. This seems typical of those who lost their mother in bygone days. They don't seem to stay with their fathers much. They go off and live with other family.

At the age of about fourteen, Hughes returned to London. He worked as a student teacher. In his late teen years, he lived with his dad and aunt. I wonder if this is the same aunt who took care of him in Wales.

Hughes migrated to Australia in 1884. He would have been about twenty-two. Why did he do this? Was it a spur of the moment decision, or had he been planning it for awhile? Did he go alone, or was family with him?

Lord Wiki says that when Hughes got to Australia he worked as a labourer and bush worker. What's the difference between a labourer and worker?

Well, this dictionary says a labourer is a person engaged in physical work, esp of an unskilled kind.

Well, I guess maybe when he did his bush work, he used skill. Who knows....

In 1886, Hughes arrived in Sydney. Where had he been before that?

Anyway, he lived in a boarding house in Moore Park. There he ended up marrying his landlady's daughter....Elizabeth Cutts. The two lovebirds eventually moved to Balmain. Hughes opened up a shop. He did odd jobs, fixed umbrellas, and sold political pamphlets. The latter is pretty interesting. I've never heard of selling political pamphlets. I thought those were usually given away for free.

Hughes joined the Socialist League, and The Single Tax League. He became a street corner speaker for the latter. Wow. So when we see people shouting at us on the streets....who knows. Maybe one day they'll be the leader of the country. I wonder if Obama ever did street corner speaking.

Now I'm reading about this Single Tax League. Lord Wiki says it was an Aussie political party in the 1920's and 1930's. It was an anti-tax group. That's funny. How would that fit with the Socialist League. Aren't Socialists pro-taxes?

The Single Tax League didn't want to get rid of all taxes. They just wanted to reduce it all down to one tax. The party was most popular in South Australia.

Around this time, Hughes also did work with the Australian Workers Union, AND may have joined the Labor Party. Lord Wiki seems a bit unsure about the latter.

In the late 1800's, Hughes got into the New South Wales Parliament via the seat of Sydney-Lang. That seat is gone now....has been gone since 1904.

While part of Parliament, Hughes also became president of the Waterside Worker's Union. Their website says he remained president until 1916. Then he was thrown out because they didn't like his views on conscription. What were his views? Well, I guess I'll find that out later.

I guess having these two demanding roles wasn't enough for Hughes. During this time, he also got himself a law degree. By 1903, Hughes was a Barrister.

Lord Wiki says that unlike most Labor people, Hughes supported Federation. I didn't realize that Labor hadn't supported Federation. I guess I didn't read carefully enough when I studied the Federation stuff. Or maybe I had misunderstood something.

In 1901, he joined FEDERAL Parliament via the seat of West Sydney.

The last person to have this seat was Daniel Minogue. He left in 1969. Could he be related to Kylie and Dannii?

Well, Lord Wiki doesn't mention that, so I'm doubting it.

In Parliament, Hughes opposed Edmond Barton's desire to form a small professional army. Hughes wanted compulsory universal training. I guess this means he wanted military stuff to be required. So, I think that answers my question from before. I'd say that Hughes was PRO-conscription.

Hughes wife died in 1906. The couple had six children together. Hughes didn't send them off to live with an aunt. His eldest daughter took care of the younger ones.

About five years later, he found a new wife....Mary Campbell. I guess she'd eventually become wife of the Prime Minister.

Hughes became Minister of External Affairs in Chris Watson's Ministry. When Andrew Fisher was Prime Minister, Hughes became Attorney-General.

Lord Wiki says that Hughes was the real political brain of the governments. He had SOME of what it takes to be leader, and he probably wanted to be that. But he had a difficult temper...probably due to some digestive problems.

Yeah. It's hard to be a happy joy joy person when you're feeling like crap. I understand.

Now Watson and Fisher were both Labor Prime Ministers, so at this time Hughes was part of the Labor party. When will that change? Is it coming up?

Well, in 1914 Fisher began to be stressed out as Prime Minister. The war got to him, and all that.

Hughes became Labor Prime Minister in 1915. He supported Australia's involvement in World War I, and he believed in conscription. Many people weren't happy with this.

This gets complicated. I think there was some major conflict between the Irish and British at this time. The Irish-Australians were angry about something called the Easter Rising. They were unhappy with the idea of doing something supportive for the British.

I'm reading about the Easter Rising now. It happened in 1916. Basically, the Irish tried to find for freedom from Britain. They wanted to be a Republic.

On top of all this, there were rumors and accusations regarding WHY Hughes supported the British empire so much. Some folks thought he did it because the British kissed his ass. He liked the attention they gave him.

Is all this true? I don't know. But it's definitely interesting.

All this made the Labor Party lose love for Hughes. In September 1916, they expelled Hughes from the Labor Party. Bye bye.

Although it seems not everyone in the Labor Party abandoned Hughes. When he left, he said Let those who think like me follow me. Lord Wiki says that twenty-four people followed. That's impressive. I'm afraid if I said something like that, I'd be left utterly alone. Maybe Jack would follow.

Hughes and his buddies formed The National Labor Party. This is all sounding slightly familar to me. Maybe I've gone over it before. Or maybe something similar happened in later history. I think maybe I'm thinking of Arthur Calwell. Wasn't there some kind of split in the Labor Party during his time. And I think maybe that also involved conscription. I could be wrong.

Soon the National Labor Party became the Nationalist Party of Australia. If I'm reading this right, it was developed from a coalition of the National Labor Party and Liberal Party. The party was dominated by Liberal folks, but Hughes became the leader.

I'm trying to understand something here. I have to read it slow.

It seems Hughes made some kind of promise...ultimatum. If his government did not earn the power to do the conscription thing, he'd resign. Well, they didn't earn it. He resigned. But then they couldn't get someone to replace him, so he got back into office.

In 1919, Prime Minister Hughes traveled to Paris for the Versailles Peace Conference. Lord Wiki says he was there for sixteen months. Wow! Isn't that a long time for the Prime Minister to be absent?

Hughes did not get along with the US president of the time....Woodrow Wilson.

I'm not fully understanding why these two men didn't like each other. From what Lord Wiki is saying, it seems to have something to do with war reparations from Germany. Australia demanded reparations, and for some reason that caused conflict. Maybe I'll find more information on that later.

At the peace conference, there was some plan of a racial equality proposal? Some people wanted to include Japan in it. Some people did not. Hughes was one of the people who were anti-Japan. In a way, I can't blame him. Japan did end up doing some very nasty things in later years. But then again, maybe if they felt less excluded, they would have behaved better.

I don't know.

Lord Wiki says that Hughes started losing his political foothold around 1920.

By 1923 he was out of the office. He felt betrayed by his party and held onto anger over this.

It's a bunch of confusing stuff over here. I'll try to understand it. It's kind of like trying to watch a fast game of ping pong.

Okay. Let's see. Hughes supported price controls on produce. The farmer folks didn't like this. The Country Party was formed by rural folks who wanted something different from the Nationalist Party. The Country Party ended up with power. They could choose the next Prime Minister. They formed a coalition with the Nationalist Party, BUT they refused to have Hughes as leader. This kind of reminds me of what happened with William McMahon.

Hughes was pressured to resign. Poor guy.

He bitched about it all in Parliament....allowed it to be known he was unhappy. The Nationalist Party expelled him.

I'm feeling some sympathy for this guy. He's probably not perfect. But it's sad enough to be expelled from ONE political. Two though? That's so sad.

Hughes was a fighter though. He didn't give up and crawl under a rock. He formed a new political party. Australian Party. Later, he made peace with some people and joined the United Australia Party. From what I'm reading, this group eventually became the Liberal Party.

Hughes jumped back into the political limelight. In 1934, he became Minister for Health and Repatriation under Prime Minister Lyon. He did other Ministry stuff under Lyons, and under Menzies government as well.

In 1937, he ran into controversy again. He wrote a book that angered some people. In this book, he attacked British policies over some German issues. Because of this Hughes was forced to resign from government. But it wasn't over yet for the old guy. Menzies was soon forced to retire as well for some reason. Curtin came into power as Labor Prime Minister. Hughes became Leader of the United Australia Party. I guess that would make him Leader of the Opposition.

When the Liberal Party was formed, Hughes joined that. His last Parliament seat in his life was Bradfield. It's located in the upper North Shore of Sydney, and it's the seat that Brandon Nelson recently vacated (in October). Hughes had that seat until he died in 1952. Wow. He would have been about ninety when he did.

Lord Wiki says he had been a Member of Parliament for fifty-eight years. Apparently, this is some type of record in Australia. Hughes also has the honor of being the oldest Member of Parliament. Although I'm not sure if he has been the oldest ever, or the oldest at that time. Maybe someone later beat him?

He was also the last Prime Minister to be born in the UK.

Well, this Parliament website seems to say that no one yet has beat Hughes as being the oldest Member of Parliament.

In terms of his legacy, Hughes has an electoral district named after him, and a suburb in Canberra. The electoral district is in south-west Sydney.

At one time, Hughes and his wife went on a long drive. They crashed near Albury, and if I'm reading this right....that place was named after him. I'm a little lost.

Now I'm going to jump over to the Australian Dictionary of Biography. I'll see if they say anything that Lord Wiki missed. OR sometimes Lord Wiki says stuff that I don't understand. This website might explain things better.

Daddy Hughes was politically conservative. That might be important. Fathers do influence their kids sometimes. Although Hughes changed political parties so frequently, I'm not quite sure where he stood.

The website says they're not sure why Hughes ended up migrating. They suggest job dissatisfaction. Remember, he had done student teaching. The classes were overcrowded, and all that stuff. Hughes didn't have the best of health, and he was dealing with hearing issues. I guess that made teaching difficult for him. He rushed off to Queensland.

Hughes was an assisted Migrant on a ship called The Duke of Westminster.

His first years in Australia were pretty nomadic. He traveled around doing various jobs.

Hughes dealt with major poverty at times. Then at the Moore Park place, he got a more consistent job as an assistant to an oven-maker.

Hughes supported free trade. Because of this, he at first opposed Federation. But then later, he switched sides.

He supported immigration restriction. He worried that immigrants would undermine wages. He also worried that the cultural and political differences of immigrants might cause erosion. Yeah. People still worry about the same stuff today.

The website says Hughes had eloquence and argumentative ability. I'm sure those talents are useful to politicians.

I'm trying to understand this one. They say Hughes came to England in March 1916. Remember this was when he was Prime Minister of Australia. I guess he became popular over in England. The biographical dictionary says, Some even thought Hughes might be the leader the country needed to replace Asquith. What does that mean? They wanted Hughes to be leader of England? Was Asquith the leader of England?

Well, yeah. Lord Wiki says he was the Prime Minister of England at the time.

So, people in England wanted Hughes to stop being Prime Minister of Australia, and instead come back to his birth land and be Prime Minister there? Wow.

At the Paris conference, Hughes had to fight pretty hard for the right of Australia to be represented independently. I guess some people wanted the UK to speak for them?

At one time, Hughes was struck by an egg in Queensland. This was in 1917. I'm getting that it had something to do with constriction. And it was around the time he made that promise to resign, but then didn't end up resigning.

I'm going to go look at the government's Prime Minister website now. I figure after reading the same story three times, I'll understand it all better.

They say that Hughes still holds the record for being the longest in Parliament. If you discount, the days before Federal Parliament, he was an MP for fifty-one years and seven months.

This website mentions, in a fairly prominent way, Hughes getting the international recognition for Australia as an independent country. So I guess this was one of his most important/memorable contributions.

This background page, says that when the Hughes family lived in Balmain, they lived on Beattie Street. I'll have to find that on Google Maps.

Okay. I see it. Maybe I'll use Street View. I haven't played that game in a long time. Crap. I ended up on Mullens Street. I can never get these things right.

Now I'm on Pashley Street and giving up.

It's probably more important to know that Hughes and his family lived in working class cottages.

This website says Hughes had the gift of gab. He was persuasive. Yeah. Those people really do make good politicians. I'm the opposite. I have the failure of gab. I'm pretty horrible at talking. Although I lecture Jack all the time. Maybe this is good public speaking practice. Is it good parenting? Probably not. I don't think he really listens to me that much.

Here's something interesting. Hughes opposed woman's suffrage. His reasoning was that women were more conservative than men. What? I don't know what offends me more...the fact that he was sexist, or the fact that he didn't want to create voters that might disagree with his politics. I'm so used of sexism. It doesn't phase me that much. So maybe the latter disturbs me a bit more.

Hughes lost a son in infancy. That's very sad, but probably not too unusual in those days. Does that mean it was less sad? I don't know. From what I've read, it seems infant death was more accepted in those days. It seems less of a heartbreak than it does these days. Was that because it was more commonplace? Was it because people in the past were less sentimental towards their children. Or is it simply perception. Maybe it was horribly sad for parents, but in terms of biography....it gets put in as one simple line.

It could be that the tough times forced parents to be resilient. These days maybe parents have more time to wallow in their grief.

When Australia became a Federation, Hughes moved to Melbourne...probably because that's where the Parliament was in those days.

His family stayed in Sydney. His wife ran a bookstore and took care of the kids. Yikes. I wonder if they missed each other.

The wife died of heart disease. What's sad is Hughes stayed in Melbourne while his oldest daughter took care of the kids in Sydney. I hope he returned to his family every so often.

The website says Hughes had restless energy and an obsession with physical fitnesss. I've had periods in my life like that.

Ah, I just read down a bit. They say Hughes had very little contact with his family in Sydney. I think that's sad.

Hughes got married again. His Sydney kids did come to visit him and their new stepmom in London. I wonder if they got along with their stepmom. I wonder if they got along with their dad. Were they angry at him for abandoning them, or was this seem as normal in those days?

Now I'm to the page about his days in office.

One of Hughes nicknames was "Little Digger". This was because he was the Prime Minister during World War I. And the Australian soldiers were known as diggers. I forgot why they were called diggers. Did it have something to do with mining?

Lord Wiki says there are multiple theories about the origin of the word. He says originally it WAS used for miners. One story says that someone wrote in a letter during World War I, You have got through the difficult business, now you have only to dig, dig, dig, until you are safe. That might have led to the term, but Lord Wiki won't make any promises.

He says New Zealand called themselves diggers first, and then I guess Australia jumped onto the game.

I'm sure some of you will have your own theories you can share with me.

When Hughes spent all that time in England, he left George Pearce as acting Prime Minister. Okay. That makes me feel better. I had thought maybe he left the country high and dry.

Okay, this website gives me a clearer picture of what happened between Hughes and Woodrow Wilson. At the Treaty of Versailles, Hughes was pretty pissed off at Germany. One thing he wanted was control of New Guinea. I guess that had been in control of Germany? Maybe getting the country would be part of reparations for Australia?

Yeah. Wow. I didn't know that. Papa New Guinea was once called GERMAN New Guinea.

Woodrow Wilson fought Hughes on this issue.

Wilson asked if Hughes was willing to fight against the opinion of the whole civilized world. (that sounds like typical bullying to me). Hughes said yes. Wilson reminded him that he had only five million Australians behind him. I guess that was the population at the time? Wilson replied that he represented sixty thousand dead.


Well, I'm tired (still sick) so I'm going to stop here and get some rest.

I look forward to hearing your views on Hughes. Love him? Hate him? Neutral? Come on. Speak up.

Michael Jeffery

This post might end up being horrible because I feel like crap right now.

And yeah. This is where some of you think, Relax. ALL your posts are horrible. What will make this one any different?

Well, if I can get by without confusing Austria and Australia, I'll feel I did okay.

Michael Jeffery is a Governor-General. Well, he WAS Governor-General. He's not that anymore.

No, I didn't already know that. I had to go ask Lord Wiki.

I had excepted Michael Jeffery to be a sexy soap opera actor.

Jeffery was the Governor-General from 2003-2008.

You know what's scary and horribly disappointing? I can't remember who the current Governor-General is. I'm sure I knew this before. This virus (or whatever) is ruining my brain!

Okay, the current Governor-General is Quentin Bryce. I did remember it was a female. Did I write about her before? I don't think so. But what if I did, and then forgot?

All right. Let's just ignore my stupidity for the time being and move on. I'm getting a bit depressed here.

Baby Michael was born on 12 December 1937.

Wait. You know who I blame? Charles Firth. I watched all his stuff about ignorant Americans, and now I'm turning into one of them. It's a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Back to business.....

Jeffery was born in Wiluna, Western Australia. I'm looking at Google Maps. This town doesn't seem to be near anything I recognize. The closest thing familar to me would probably be Geraldton. Wiluna is ten hours east of that. I mean that's pretty far. It's actually closer to Kalgoorlie (which I've also heard of). It's about seven hours north of that.

I guess eventually the Jeffery family moved west. He went to a high school in Perth. Kent Street Senior High School.

When Jeffery was sixteen, he left Perth and went to a school in Canberra. This was at Royal Military College, Duntroon. If my memory is serving me right, a child of one of my friends had been thinking of going there.

I'm too sick and tired to read all about the school. I think basically it trains people for the military.

Jeffery graduated from the program in 1958. By 1962 he was sent off to Malaya. Lord Wiki says that's part of Malaysia. Yes, I had to look it up.

From 1966-1969, Jeffery was posted in Papa New Guinea. I didn't have to look that one up! Although I do alway have trouble spelling it.

Also during this time, Jeffery got married. He and his wife eventually ended up with three daughters, one son, and seven grandchildren.

Next on the Jeffery agenda: The Vietnam War. Jeffery supported the war, and it seems like he continued to do so in later years.

Around 1976, Jeffery became the first Director of the Army's Special Action Forces. That sounds exciting. Lord Wiki says he worked on anti-terrorist stuff. And he helped develop some surveillance thing in Northern Australia.

Through the next several years, he did more anti-terrorist stuff.

In 1993 he retired from the army. How old would he have been then?

About fifty-five probably.

Although he's retired, he still holds the title of honorary colonel. He participates in the ceremonies of inducting new soldiers into the regiment.

I'm still trying to find information about this surveillance thing. But each website I try to go to, leaves me with a message of Problem Loading Page. Maybe I'm just not meant to know about this.

Okay. This government website works. Although I'm not sure it's referring to the same thing. From what I read (skimmed actually). I think it's basically looking out for bad stuff happening. One of the things they work against is illegal fishing. They say there's been a 90% reduction in sightings of motorized fishing vessels in the area. Is that because there are less boats, or did the boats become invisible?

In 1993, Jeffery became the Governor of Western Australia. Don't confuse this with the Premier of Western Australia....well, because I just did. But my excuse is I'm American, AND I'm sick. What would be your excuse? Well, those of you reading this probably didn't make the same mistake.

While Governor, Jeffery made sure people knew he had conservative views. The Labor Party gave him grief over this, not just because they disagreed. But also because I think the governor is supposed to keep quiet about his views. I remember learning that somewhere before.

It seems he doesn't like the gay and lesbian Mardi Gras celebrations in Sydney. He bitched about that. And he also bitched about single parenting.

I feel I should say something brilliantly sarcastic here, but I can't think of anything. So....just imagine that I did.

In 2003, John Howard helped Jeffery to become Governor-General. Lord Wiki says he was the first soldier to get that job. Interesting.....

Before he became Governor-General, Jeffery seemed to think he WOULD be able to speak out on his views. He said, I think I will be able to talk on issues and principles and values and standards quite comfortably as Governor-General.

But once he actually became Governor-General, he slipped away from the spotlight. Some folks believe Howard pressured him to do so. In an informal type study, only 14% of people interviewed recognized a photo of Jeffery.

Jeffery was not just Governor-General, but also Chief Scout. I'm thinking this like our Boy Scouts in America. Our Boy Scouts are known for being gay unfriendly. Is it the same with Scouts Australia?

Here's an ABC program about the issue from 2000.

Oh! It says Australia Scouts are affiliated with the American ones. But while the American one refuses to allow homosexual men to act as leaders, the Australian one isn't following in their footsteps. Good!

They interview the director of the Scouting Association in Victoria....Dion Ellis. I'm really liking this guy. He's asked about whether a gay leader could be open about it, or would he need to hide it. Ellis basically says it's fine for them to be open about who they are. But it wouldn't be fine for them to be advertise their sexuality in a way that's inappropriate around children. He said the same goes for heterosexuals.

Yeah. It's fine to say to a bunch of kids, I love my wife. It's not okay to describe your favorite sexual positions.


I love what Ellis says here when asked how he feels about the American position on the issue. Well we have been puzzled. I have to say I think we've been puzzled that in a country as committed to human and individual rights as they are, we've been really puzzled at how the American Association has been able to maintain this policy for so long.

I really don't think America is that commited to human and individual rights. I think it's commited to the rights of certain types of people.

I wonder what Jeffery would say about what Ellis said. I have a feeling he'd prefer the American stance on the homosexual leaders issue.

I'm kind of lost regarding where to go next. I'll probably quit soon because I'm sick. Am I whining too much....or as you Australians say....whinging?

I'm not quitting yet. I'm looking and looking....coming up either empty or confused.

Okay. Here's an interview of Jeffery on the National Museum of Australia's website. He's being interviewed by students.

One students says that Jeffery had said that AIDS was one of the major issues he wanted to tackle. She reminds him he had said one of the answers to the problem was appropriate sex education. She asks if the use of condoms would be included in this.

He doesn't quite answer....at least not right away. And the website doesn't provide the rest of of the conversation. He does say something about it being a matter of education and values.

Oh, I wish I could hear the rest of this.

But I will go off on a limb here and make assumptions. I'm betting that for Jeffery, appropriate sex education would be more about promoting Christian values, and less about promoting condoms.

Here's an ABC interview with Jeffery. It was done in 2008, when his term was about to go bye bye. I'm going to read this, and then quit.

At one point, Jeffery says if we have a strong family structure in our society then we have a strong society.

I think he's right in some ways. Family is important. It's a great foundation. I just think we need to expand our definition of family. It doesn't have to be a man and woman with their biological offspring. It can be a single mother, a single father, a gay/straight couple with their adopted child, a bunch of friends living together, etc.

The person doing the interviewing doesn't avoid the issue. She directly says, Do you recognise the notion of what family is changing and changing quite dramatically? We now how have families where there are two mums or two dads, are they as valid?

Jeffery responds: Well I've always been pretty careful I think to say that, but if you get back to the real core of your society, I think the best chance for most kids, not all kids but most kids, and the desire of most kids is to have mum and dad. That's where they're most comfortable. Now that doesn't happen for many reasons all I'm saying is if you could reduce these situations with maybe relationship preparation of young boys; how to treat their sisters, how to treat their girlfriends, how to treat their wives how to treat their partners and vice versa. I don't think that's a bad thing.

Well, they're most comfortable because that's what's most socially acceptable. If there weren't stigmas and acts of discrimination associated with homosexual families, I bet children would be perfectly happy having a mother and a mother.

It kind of reminds me of homeschooling. Like private schooling and government schooling, there are challenges involved. But for me personally (and probably many other homeschooling families feel the same) the most difficult and annoying challenge is dealing with the criticism.

It's really hard to teach your child that it's cool and okay to homeschool, then hear one of their adult relatives shout out at the table If you love school, raise your hand! Why did they do this? I don't know. Did they simply forget Jack was homeschooled, and that might not be an inclusive loving thing to say around him. Maybe. If I was nice, I'd give them the benefit of the doubt.....

Anyway. It's hard to be gay because we MAKE it hard to be gay. It's simple as that. Fortunately, it IS becoming more and more acceptable. Hopefully, we'll continue up that path.

I really don't understand what Jeffery says later in that statement about treating your sisters okay. What does that have to do with the question? Is he just avoiding it, or is he saying there will be less kids with two mothers if we're nicer to our sisters? Am I reading too much into this? I probably am. But it KIND OF sounds like he's saying there would be less lesbians if men treated woman better.

Let me just go on the record here. There have been times in my life where I've felt pretty unloving towards male humans. There have been weeks and months where the only male I have not secretly been disgusted with is my son. I have at times WANTED to be a lesbian. I have WISHED to be a lesbian. I look at lesbian couples and I envy them in many ways (minus the discrimination shit they have to face).

But despite all this, I never became a lesbian. I have no sexual desires toward women. So having problematic issues with members of the opposite sex does not make one homosexual. Well, I can't speak for everyone. I'm only one person. Maybe some people do turn gay. But I would guess maybe they were bisexual or already homosexual. Then the anger pushed them out of the closet.

I guess though if gay people can force themselves into heterosexual situations, straight people can push themselves into gay ones.

But even if this is true in some cases, I don't think being brothers being nicer to their sisters would significantly reduce the amount of lesbians in the world.

Who knows. Maybe that's not even what Jeffery was talking about. Maybe he meant something else altogether.

I do like what he says about education and Indigenous Australians. But I think if we can perhaps look at the way we teach Australian History if we can teach it perhaps starting from 60 millennia back and go right through the indigenous cycle and then Portuguese, Dutch, British immigration and teach it in an honest way.

I'm all for that.

Jeffery talks about his Christianity in the interview. He said spirituality became more important to him during The Vietnam war. He says seeing people die made him think more about the hereafter.

That makes sense to me. He gives the whole cliche....no atheists in a foxhole. I wonder if that's true. When faced with death, are people more likely to become believers? Or is that just a myth? I wonder about that especially in terms of families of terminally ill children. It seems to me that often these families lean on their religious faith to get through it all. Would Atheists have an even harder time? Or in the end, would it not matter? Does faith help give us strength in morbid situations?

Also I've heard of people LOSING faith in times of war and death.

Well, I'm betting it's different for everyone. With some people, the death of a loved one might turn them into a believer. For other people, it might have the opposite effect.

Jeffery is asked about chaplains in public/government school. Not surprisingly, he supports the idea. He recognizes that not all Australians are Christian. But he reminds us that most of them are. He says, When you go to Malaysia you don't expect Malaysia to give up its Muslim teachings just because it's got 10 % Christians or what have you. It's a matter of accepting all the religious faiths.

I think that's a good point, but people without religious faith need to be accepted as well. I think there's a way to provide for the religious folks without alienated those who are not religious. But it's probably a bit tricky and complicated. Oh who am I fooling? It's probably impossible. I was just trying to be optimistic for a change.

There's more exciting stuff in the interview, but I'm too tired to write about it. I'm going to quit and wallow in my self-pity.

Bridie Carter

It's another soap opera person.

I'm having fun with these, but will probably be ready to say good-bye in a few days. I have a mystery name tomorrow. Then after that is a Prime Minister.

Bridie Carter was on McLeod's Daughters. She played Tess McLeod. Tess was a city girl who returned to her father's farm after he died.

I remember reading that she was also on Dancing with the Stars. Or maybe it was So You Think You Can Dance. I don't know. How many dance shows are out there?

All right. I guess I shall begin my research.

Baby Bridie was born on 18 December 1970. Her thirty-ninth birthday is coming up. She's a little bit older than me. I like finding beautiful woman who are older than me. It makes me feel hopeful and inspired.

Carter did the National Institute of Dramatic Art. NIDA is the same place that pretty much every Australian actor under the sun went to: Simon Baker, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Emilie de Ravin, Hugo Weaving..... Okay, maybe I exaggerate a little. Still. Their alumni list is pretty impressive.

I'm going to use IMDb for the filmography stuff. But Lord Wiki does provide a few interesting extras.

When it was announced that McLeod's Daughters would be canceled, Carter did an interview. Now she herself was no longer part of the cast. But I guess she had stuff to say. I've actually read this before, and I think I mentioned it on the Nathan Foley post. Let's just say Carter kind of alludes to the fact that things might not have been all happy happy on the McLeod's Daughters set. Now the producer of that show was also the producer of Nathan Foley's Hi-5 show. Both Foley and Carter seem unhappy with their previous employers. It's not hard to make certain assumptions.

Carter has had a history of alcoholism, but it seems she's been sober for quite awhile. That's good.

She and her husband own a restaurant in Byron Bay. Cool. I wonder what kind of restaurant it is.

Okay. Now I'm on IMDb.

Before Carter graduated from NIDA (probably even before she went to NIDA period). she guest-starred on a TV show called G.P. Have I written about this show before? It sound familar.

Carter was on the show in 1989. She graduated from NIDA in 1994. I'm wondering how the acting bug bit her? Did she want to become an actress, and tried the guest-starring route? Or was getting the role a total fluke. Then she liked it, and decided to pursue acting?

In 1997, Carter played one of those not-even-worth-a-name characters in a miniseries called Simone de Beauvoir's Babies. She played the role of Dating Agent. Sonia Todd, her future McLeod's Daughters co-star was in the show as well.

Also in 1997, she was in that TV movie with featured Rebecca Gibney. Kangaroo Palace. This time, at least, Carter's character had a name. She played Dianne.

In the next few years, Carter did a few guest spots on TV shows. I'm going to skip over those.

In 1999, she did a movie called Fresh Air. Her name is high up in the credits, so maybe we can assume she had a fairly substantial role in this. I found a trailer for a movie with that name. But they have American accents, so I'm guessing it's not the right Fresh Air.

Also that year....She was in Envy with Abi Tucker. I wrote about that recently. Was it yesterday? I think so. My mind is muddled.

In 2000, Carter got herself a role on a TV show. This was Above the Law. She did thirty-five episodes. It was about people who live in an apartment building above a police station. Oh, cute little word play there.

In 2001, Carter got together again with Abi Tucker. This was for that TV movie My Husband My Killer.

2001 was also the year that Carter began working on McLeod's Daughters. She was on until 2006. She was nominated multiple times for a Silver Logie, but it looks like she never won.

I just remembered something. There was actually a McLeod's Daughters movie or miniseries before the TV show. We tried watching it, but it was too weird seeing other actors in the roles. Here is is. It came out in 1996.

Anyway, back to the show I know and love. Here's the first few minutes of the very first episode. Ah, it brings back memories. Carter appears at about 2:00.

We never got past the second season. What happened was we were getting the videos mailed to us from Blockbusters. Then the next season was being held prisoner by another Blockbuster user. We waited and waited. Jack then decided he didn't want to watch the next season. We all knew what happened to Claire and Brick. I think he decided that it was all too sad. I kind of agree with him.

I've seen bits and pieces of the later seasons on YouTube, so I pretty much know what happens to everyone. Although I actually can't remember what happened to Tess. Did she end up with Nick?

Anyway, the other reason we didn't continue watching is, it seemed to me, the show jumped the shark a bit. From what I could see, the first two seasons were the best. Some may argue with me on that.

Here's a very sad scene from McLeod's Daughters. I just watched five seconds of it, and I'm already crying.

Shit. I'm a snotty mess now.

Since I'm already crying, I might as well make things worse. This video features a song and scenes from one of the episodes that was the saddest for me. It was when Tess felt she was no longer needed and returned to Adelaide to work at a cafe. Meanwhile Claire's life was secretly falling apart. But she had too much pride to ask Tess to stay.

Actually, I'm not 100% sure the song was in that episode. I'm pretty sure it was though.

It wasn't all sad. Tess had some happy moments. One of my favorites is when she buys a dairy cow. I think she named her Madonna. She ended up with tons of milk, and then made this huge Indian dairy-oriented meal. It was cute.

In 2007, Carter did Dancing with the Stars. Here's a video from that.

I just thought of another person that Carter reminds me of. Jennifer from Days of our Lives. What's that actresses name?

Ah! Melissa Reeves.

I also remember seeing an interview with Naomi Watts, and she had reminded me of Carter as well.

Oh cool. The Dancing with the Stars thing has a Lost Boys song. It's the one with Jimmy Barnes and INXS.

I'm going to read the IMDb Trivia/bio page. Carter was born in Melbourne. She has two younger brothers.

One issue she's involved with is Asylum Seekers. She's a member of an organization called Actors for Refugees. Although I don't see her on their list of supporters. Perhaps she got involved after they updated their list. I don't know.

IMDb says she has been acting since the age of six. So I'm guessing it was something she wanted to do for a long time.

Carter has a son. He was born in 2005.

Here's a fansite about Carter. It says Carter is part of an organization called One Water. It's an organization that helps the many people people in the world who don't have access to clean water. I'm not having much luck finding a website for this organization, but they do have a Facebook page.

It looks like they make most of their money by selling bottled water. I don't know. They're doing a good and important thing for the world, but bottled water is so bad for the environment.

All right. I found their actual website, and I'll give them credit. They do talk about the bottled water issue. They seem to understand it's not great for the environment, and they do what they can to lesson the carbon footprint. They also say, We do not recommend people choose bottled water over tap water, where tap water is available as it has a lower carbon footprint. They say their bottled water is for people to use when safe tap water is not available. They're providing a more ethical alternative. I can give them credit for that. I mean we still sometimes use bottled water. We did so in Disney World. For the most part, I used my lovely reusable purple bottle. But we also had a small supply of water bottles that we used throughout the week.

Carter has a blog on some shopping website. Is she trying to sell something? Well, it would be past tense. In August, she wrote a good-bye post.

She says NYC is one of her favorite cities. It's one of my favorite cities too. I dreamed about it last night.

She's working on a new movie...a romantic comedy. This is I Love You Too.

It really sounds like she enjoyed blogging and talking with her fans. She seems very....uh, responsive? She reminds me of Allison Sweeney from Days of our Lives. Sweeney is pretty interactive with her fans.

Carter says her own wedding was four weeks after Tess's wedding on McLeod's Daughters. That's pretty funny.

In this entry, she gives sweet and caring advice to one of her fans. Please try not to stress, Sandra - I hope things are not too difficult for you at the moment. I can get really stressed too - especially when I am so busy. Hot shower or a bath or some exercise or a good chat with a girlfriend can do wonders!

I'm finding myself liking this Bridie Carter. She actually reminds me a lot of Tess McLeod.

That entry gives the name of her restaurant in Byron Bay. It's called Bayside Dining Traditional Thai. This patron gives the website rave reviews.

This McLeod's Daughters fansite has a copy of a TV Week interview with Carter. This was done in 2007. It MIGHT be the one where she alludes to negativity within the show.

Carter says, And the show has gone a different way. It's very different from the kind of show when I started. From what she says there, it seems maybe things were okay in the beginning.

This is interesting. She talks about disagreeing with her character's actions. I guess the directors had different ideas than she did. It's regarding the so-called death of her boyfriend Nick. Carter says...I thought Tess's grief journey was slightly unbelievable. Then later she says, As an actor, if you don't believe it yourself, how does the audience believe it? Yeah, so that was a bit of a struggle for me, I have to say.

I think she has a good point there.

This wasn't the interview that Lord Wiki mentioned though. This website might have it. It has excerpts from a bunch of Carter interviews. No wait. They don't have the interview. They have a bunch of other goodies. I might look back at it in a minute.

Here's the article though about Carter dissing McLeod's Daughters. She says I don't want to mar McLeod's, but not everything was as it appears. I find it strange that not one of the original cast members is left. Perhaps they should have tried harder to keep people.

Wow. Drama behind the drama.

Certain people from the show weren't too happy to hear her say that. Someone responded with, Bridie is completely up herself and everyone was thrilled to see the back of her when she left the show. But I can't believe she's bagging the program that made her famous - there's no way she would have even been on Dancing without it. Good luck to her, she's an absolute nightmare.

Well, maybe Bridie Carter is one of the elements that helped make McLeod's Daughters so successful. Maybe they should be thankful to each other. I think it's kind of a circular thing.

There's two sides to every story. I'm sure, in this one, there's not one side that's all good or all bad. But I'm personally leaning more towards Carter's side.

Okay, back to the fansite with the interviews......

It doesn't have the whole interview, but little excerpts from them. I'll read and see if there's anything that pops out at me.

In a 2001 interview, Carter says, I’m so excited about shooting McLeod’s Daughters in South Australia during the hot, early months of the year. I love the heat and those long, hot days.

Wow. Really? I don't like hot days. Nor do I like cold days. I like perfect weather days. I'm picky.

She loves coffee.

One day she had bad dreams about her ex-boyfriend. Interesting......

She likes hanging out in bookstores, and she likes buying music.

In 2003 she said positive stuff about being on the show. I guess the bad stuff happened later? Or maybe it was already bad, but she still wanted to stay. Maybe she didn't want to speak up because she might get fired. Then once she left, she felt comfortable being honest.

Anyway, that's probably enough celebrity gossip for today. I'm going to go off and feel sorry for myself because I'm still a bit ill. Hopefully, by the time I post this I'll be feeling healthy again.

Abi Tucker

Abi Tucker is a singer and actress.

I know she was on McLeod's Daughters. But she wasn't on the episodes we saw.

I've seen a video of her on another soap opera type show. She's doing karaoke....singing Paul Kelly's "To Her Door." I don't think the video is available on YouTube anymore. I just looked. While I was there, I saw the TV show Tucker was on. It's Heartbreak High. Was she on anything else? A part of me thinks maybe she was on The Secret Life of Us. But I think I could be wrong about that.

Oh! Actually I'm right. Lord Wiki says she was on The Secret Life of Us. Cool. I like being right. I mean I don't need to be right ALL the time, but it's nice if it happens every so often.

Baby Abi was born 22 January 1973. She's a few days older than one of my brother-in-laws.

Her career began in the early 1990's. She was on a show called New Faces. It was one of those talent search type things.

In 1993, there was a movie called The Heartbreak Kid. There was also another Heartbreak Kid in 1972, and yet another in 2007. Are these all remakes of each other? Well, it looks like the 2007 one is a remake of the 1972 movie. But the 1993 one stands alone. It's also Australian while the other two are American.

Anyway, Tucker wasn't in any of The Heartbreak Kid movies. But she was in the TV show based on the movie. This was Heartbreak High.

I think I'm going to drop Lord Wiki and move over to IMDb. They seem to have more information. Lord Wiki doesn't have much to say about Tucker.

Tucker was on Heartbreak High from 1994 to 1995. She did sixty-four episodes.

Here's some scenes from the show featuring Tucker. I like her voice. I'm impressed with the rap stuff.

Here's the show's official site. I thought maybe since it has a site up, it was still on. But I guess they just have reruns available.

On this page, Tucker describes how she and her character are similar. So....Tucker is a romantic. She falls in love easily. She's somewhat of an introvert. She daydreams a lot. She loves music.

I daydream a lot too.

In 1999, Tucker was in a thriller called Envy. It was about a mother seeking revenge for her molested child. I don't think Tucker had a very big role in it. Bridie Carter from McLeod's Daughters was in it too. I don't think she had a big role either.

In 2000, Tucker was in a comedy called The Wog Boy. Here's the trailer. It's a bit short, and I don't think Tucker is in it (the trailer, not the movie).

Also that year, Tucker did another comedy called Angst. According to an IMDb user, she played a Goth person. Once again, Tucker starred with another McLeod's Daughters person. This time it was Jessica Napier.

In 2001, she began work on The Secret Life of Us. Tucker played Miranda Lang. There was four seasons of that. Tucker was in the first three. Here's her singing on the show.

Also in 2001, Tucker did a TV movie called My Husband My Killer. Although I don't think she was the one with the killer husband.

From 2007 to 2009, Tucker was in McLeod's Daughters. We didn't see that season, although I did watch clips from the show before we starting watching it from the beginning. I might have seen her. Tucker played Grace McLeod.

Really. Jack must have been a bigger fan than I had ever imagined. Just to test him, I asked who Abi Tucker had played on the show. He knew! He does have a phenomenal memory though.

Lord Wiki says Grace was the youngest daughter of Hugh. Who was Hugh? Would he be the uncle of Tess and Claire?

This video has an interview with Tucker regarding the show.

She said she auditioned for the role because she liked the character. I didn't know actors knew much about the characters before they auditioned.

Tucker is asked how she's similar to Grace. She says they're both impulsive.

Here's a fansite about Tucker. Maybe it will have something interesting and/or useful.

It says that, in October, Tucker was in Germany helping some other singer with her tour. Melanie Safka? I've never heard of her. Is she Australian too?

Nope. American.

This past winter Tucker was in a play called Poor Boy. It was at the Sydney Theater Company. It's about reincarnation, so it might be something I'd like. Maybe? Oh! Guy Pearce was in it too.

Well, I'm going to be bad. I'm not feeling so great right now, and kind of just want to rest and not think too much.

SO....I think I'm going to watch a few videos of Tucker singing and then I'm going to end this.

If anyone wants to help me along by providing brilliant info and insight into Tucker, please do so. I'd appreciate it.

Here's a song called Speak, My Angel. I didn't much like that song.

I like this one better....Hey You. The video has scenes of her on McLeod's Daughters.

Maybe I'm too tired to listen to music as well.

Sorry!



P.S- I'm a bit worried about all the Sydney people. Please drink a lot and try to stay cool!

I'm also worried about any of you that might be in fire-danger areas. Please stay safe! I hope the weather decides to become a bit more reasonable.