GV Junior Motorcycle Club open day
The Goulburn Valley Junior Motorcycle Club had their first open day at their new track in Mooroopna, Victoria.
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Please note, a large number of images were taken on the Saturday of this event, so if you are looking for a particular rider please use the contact page and let me know the rider’s number and I will let you know if there are images available.
Football in the Rain
The children from Safe Haven Orphanage playing their regular game of football on a Sunday afternoon.
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Songkran – The Thai New Year
The Thai New Year is celebrated every year from April 13 to April 15. It coincides with the New Year of many calendars of South and Southeast Asia. Songkran falls in the hottest time of the year in Thailand, at the end of the dry season.
The most obvious celebration of Songkran is the throwing of water. People roam the streets with containers of water or water guns, or post themselves at the side of roads with a garden hose and drench each other and passersby – including photographers!
The throwing of water originated as a way to pay respect to people, by gently pouring a small amount of lustral water on other people’s hands or over a shoulder as a sign of respect. Nowadays, the emphasis is on fun and water-throwing rather than on the festival’s spiritual and religious aspects, which sometimes prompts complaints from traditionalists. In recent years there have been calls to moderate the festival to lessen the many alcohol-related road accidents as well as injuries attributed to extreme behavior such as water being thrown in the faces of traveling motorcyclists.
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Southern 80 Ski Race – 2009
The famous Southern 80 ski race was held on the mighty Murray River at Echuca / Moama for yet another year. The Southern 80 Ski Race has been going now for over 40 years. The race takes place on the Murray River between Torrumbarry and Echuca on the second Sunday in February each year.
The event is a two up water ski race, which covers the river from Torrumbarry to Echuca. There are over 120 bends in this part of the river.
The race attracts over 400 entries from all over Australia with international representation from New Zealand, Great Britain and the USA.
Due to the devastating bushfires currently in Victoria however, the last main race of the event had to be cancelled because all emergency personnel were called away to assist with the bushfire efforts.
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Central Vietnam – Quang Binh and Quang Tri provinces
I have recently returned from a trip to Vietnam where I accompanied Stephanie Guyer-Stevens from Outer Voices whose aim was to record a radio documentary on the so called “Asian food crisis”, which has been ripping through the continent recently. We were there with staff from a Vietnamese NGO, SPERI, Social Policy Ecological Research Institute.
To read more about this trip as reported by Stephanie Guyer-Stevens, you can visit the ‘Untold Stories’ section of the Pulizter Center on Crisis reporting.
