Strewth: 25th anniversary of the Franklin Dam High Court decision

TODAY is the 25th anniversary of the Franklin Dam High Court decision, and Bob Hawke, Bob Brown, David Bellamy and 930 others will gather in Hobart tonight to celebrate their win for the wilderness.

TODAY is the 25th anniversary of the Franklin Dam High Court decision, and Bob Hawke, Bob Brown, David Bellamy and 930 others will gather in Hobart tonight to celebrate their win for the wilderness.

Yesterday Brown recalled that when he first rafted in the Franklin River in 1976, he had just seen the movie Deliverance, about armed hillbillies attacking a canoeing trip. "We floated around the first bend and there were men sitting on the rocks," he says. "One had a shotgun, one a hat over his eyes and the third a fishing line in the water." The encounter preyed on Brown's mind and he thought his worst fears had been realised during his first night camped on the riverbank when he was woken by an explosion like a shotgun going off. "We felt totally helpless. We got out of the tent and discovered a rock cooling from our fire on a very cool night had exploded." Only platypuses and sea eagles were sighted on the rest of the 11-day trip.

Never say never again

WHEN Colleen McCullough's most recent yarn about the goings-on in ancient Rome, Antony and Cleopatra, was published by HarperCollins late last year, the National Living Treasure said it was probably her last serious book. She celebrated her 71st birthday a month ago and suffers from failing health and eyesight, so McCullough's legion of fans could have been forgiven for thinking they had heard the last of her. But clearly you can't keep down someone as full of life as McCullough. In October, about 31 years after The Thorn Birds was first published in the US, HarperCollins is to publish her latest epic, The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet. There is no hint yet as to what it is about but it's a good bet it will be on the bestseller lists at Christmas.

Sunny business

KEVIN Rudd will come under pressure from his colleagues to hold more community meetings in north Queensland after cabinet members enjoyed the warmth of Mackay for two days. Canberra yesterday morning was a crisp 2C, Mackay was an extraordinarily pleasant 23C. The weather was so balmy it led Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin to climb into her cossie for an early morning dip at the Mackay marina. Strewth's waterfront operative was hoping that Treasurer Wayne Maxwell Swan would follow her. Yesterday, appropriately the last day of the financial year, was Swan's 54th birthday, so a swim in his birthday suit would have driven photographers wild.

Athletic centenarian

BRISBANE granny Ruth Frith, who will celebrate her 100th birthday next year, has become the first centenarian to sign up for the Sydney 2009 World Masters Games. Frith, who will receive her telegram from the Queen seven weeks before the event starts next October, has signed up for the discus throw, hammer throw, shot put, weight pentathlon and weight throw. "I couldn't wait to sign up," Frith says. "I've been competing in masters athletics for 25 years and I've made some wonderful friends." Frith holds five world records in the women's 95-99 age category and trains under her daughter, 68-year-old Helen Searle, who won a bronze medal in the high jump at the 1958 Cardiff Commonwealth Games and silver medals in the high jump and long jump at the 1962 Perth Commonwealth Games.

Waiting for a mighty wind

SHOULD the forecast fresh to strong westerly winds arrive on the waters of Botany Bay this morning, Sydney sailors Sean Langman and Martin Thompson might set a new world speed sailing record in their odd-looking 9m yacht WotRocket. The duo have been waiting for winter westerlies to have a crack at topping sailing's seemingly unattainable 50-knot mark. The record of 49.09 knots (90.9km/h) was set in March by French sailboarder Antoine Albeau. At Marseille in France, Alain Thebault and his crew on the trimaran l'Hydroptere are waiting for the first Mistral wind of the season to have a go at the same record.

Easily offended

CHRIS Graham, editor of the National Indigenous Times, must be a delicate flower. It seems that normal, everyday, knockabout Aussie language has him ducking under his Canberra desk for refuge. In yesterday's edition of what is widely known as the Impotent Times, he had columnist Brian Johnstone launch an attack on The Australian's Tony Koch over a yarn that appeared in our Media section last Thursday on the level of the paper's Aboriginal ownership. Graham didn't like what Koch wrote about his paper and used Johnstone to flog the Queensland-based reporter with a literary wet lettuce. His main complaint seems to be that when Koch rang him, he used some robust bush language. Gee, do people in Queensland swear? Graham should get out more.

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