A sad reminder abominable acts happen here too, sometimes involving visitors, more often than not young women -

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/nat...17-p50ruz.html

Btw @ #21, that's not to say that tourists and other visitors have been targeted; a while ago that was the case with a small number of miscreants and slight, perhaps assumed to be more submissive, Asian women, but a couple of high profile cases involving Indian students were found, inconveniently for some Indian nationalist types and other troublemakers, to be exceptions to the violence which was being committed on Indians in Australia overwhelmingly by other Indian nationals. There have been huge increases in student visas and temporary worker numbers so perhaps it is not surprising that visitors appear to be increasingly represented in victim reports and presumably the stats.

Quite by coincidence, I just turned to the news for an update and found this story posted just over 20 minutes ago -

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-...-free/10723922

This latest atrocity involving a young visitor has affected a wide section of the community (as did the recent murder of a young British woman in NZ where such occurrences are much rarer) -

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/nat...18-p50s6u.html

and thankfully the alleged killer has been quickly apprehended.

It gets HOT in Australia in summer and it's getting HOTTER - which curtails outdoor activities, including sightseeing. Here in Canberra we've just had a record four consecutive days with a maximum over 40C, but thankfully today should only reach 33C - brrrrr!

Btw note that the man taken into custody in relation to the Melbourne murder of Arab-Israeli student Aiia Maasarwe has not been charged with any offence, and there continues to be a huge outpouring of revulsion and grief -

https://www.theage.com.au/national/v...18-p50sbo.html

Geez, farrermog - you're depressing the hell out of me. As if watching my local news and the non-stop national coverage of our orange turd in chief isn't bad enough.

Have an ice cream or two Mel, I find it works wonders in either the heat or cold -

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-...twave/10729008

Btw saw at one stage yesterday that the Melbourne story had temporarily knocked off Trumpski and his despicables from #1 on The Daily Beast site.

"Using someone else's air con" is exactly what we did in Perth a few times. We once spent a few hours in a medical office, long after our appointment, just sitting in the lobby reading, to avoid going out to our car and back to our hot house.

Sought refuge in a few libraries and shopping malls too, as well as the Perth Convention Center.

It's 14 F here this morning in Colorado. Time for some snow ice cream!

And here's an expat American making use of Canberra's museums for his two year old -

"I take the little guy to the museums a lot, they're free and all have aircon," Mr Thornton said.

"Originally from Boston in the United States, Mr Thornton said heat to this degree was a new experience but he said back in Boston children would get cabin fever stuck inside due to snow, much like the recent heat."

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/nat...19-p50seq.html

And as it happens we're about to go to the National Portrait Gallery cafe overlooking the lake for (a cool) brunch; prospective visitors should note that the Portrait Gallery will be undergoing extensive renovation works this year -

https://www.portrait.gov.au

We lived in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait (and Indonesia) and weirdly enough, we felt hotter in Indonesia and Perth than in Saudi and Kuwait.

Must have been that 'its not the heat, its the humidity' thing.

Last weekend in Sydney met an old friend who lives and works in Indonesia and who returns frequently (also for medical treatment btw): at least in Jakarta it's 32C whether it's wet or dry he said.

We lived on Sumatra. The humidity was oppressive. We had two seasons - wet and smoky.

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/im...e-over-sumatra

Again, not pleasant reading, but taking heed of the message from these tragedies cannot be stressed enough, both for visitors and locals alike -

"Underestimating the wrath of the Australian sun and heat can have devastating consequences, a truth laid bare by two recent tragic incidents."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-...tures/10714576

And don't let this put you off going -

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...on-toilet.html

"Everything is suffering through this drought, even the wildlife"

even the koalas are suffering from heat stress and looking for a top up drink -

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-...tress/10751338

@#34 - the comments are probably even crueler than the experience; but there is at least one small mercy - at least she doesn't have to front up in court on animal cruelty charges!

farrermog, you probably mean well but can't you find something positive to post? We have such a beautiful country, you are putting people off visiting!

Kay

I hear what you are saying Kay - that must be why I was not in the Australia Day (26 Jan for others here) Honours list, especially as our national government, for the time being at least, is headed by a former tourism chief! But as I tried to explain at #18 above, I actually do see it as (a very modest) public service and small offset to some of the outright and even dangerous tourism puff (not necessarily on this site of course). And I have encountered - OK, so not exactly statistically significant - what I nevertheless would regard as an influential subset of tourists - mainly young people and Swiss and Germans I have to say - who are actually attracted to the extremes and accounts (at least) of dangers they don't get in their homelands. Watch out for the pythons!

And please permit me to submit the following in mitigation -

the python in the toilet story was brought to my attention (the UK Daily Mail is not normally high on my reading list) by a brother who has lived in FNQ for over 25 years (so just wait until I regale the readership with the attractions of The Festival of the Knob! - Yorkeys Knob that is)

when I was a young bloke I had an NRMA road map of SE Australia on my wall, had coloured in most of the routes by around the age of 22, and lusted after a job on the counter at the NRMA touring section

I am probably one of the few who managed to travel (and at his own expense) to every Australian state and mainland territory (Heard Island was a bit too far, although I did have an uncle who wintered there twice in the early 50s) before venturing OS

I see what you mean Kay - and you probably mean well, too.

However, if Farremog saves one tourist or local from doing what common sense and a halfway working knowledge of water & land in our country would tell them to avoid, I’ll take the “negativity”, any day.

If some get spooked by the hyperbole of such as the “Daily Mail” - I think our tourism numbers can survive their absence.