Construction Maison

INDIGENOUS Australians living in the beautiful stretch of NSW coastline we now know as Lake Macquarie called the lake for thousands of years by the name Awaba, which is said to translate to “a plain surface”. The lake is often just that, a plain blue surface of sparkling water surrounded by small and large communities and stretches of bush. The first European contact with the Lake Macquarie area was in 1800, when a man named Captain William Reid took a wrong turn on his way from Sydney to Newcastle and found himself in a lake rather than the river he had been expecting further north. It is said that the trip was to retrieve a load of coal. Instead his wrong turn gave the Lake Macquarie area a new name between 1800 and 1826, as Indigenous names in NSW were swept aside in the push for European settlement. The land of the Awabakal nation became known as Reid’s Mistake, until a colony that wanted to acknowledge Governor Macquarie named the area after him instead. For a long time L...

Foxtel's coverage of the AFL and NRL is first class, now we can watch international games live and in high definition. The thought of this, even 10-15 years ago, would have been unthinkable. And the commentary is, generally, of a high standard. That said, I really cannot see or understand the logic or rationale behind the recently adopted practice of interviewing players coming off the field during the half-time break. Surely it is unreasonable to expect players coming in at half-time to readily come up with any deep and meaningful analysis of his/her performance or that of the team when all the player wants to do is have a quiet drink and unwind. It would also be appropriate to remind players that officials are now "wired for sound" and of the need to moderate their language during the game and in after-match interviews. Some of the comments are colourful, to say the least. Andrew Rowe, Florey Centre design flawed A new National Convention Centre is wrongly proposed...