{"id":9413,"date":"2025-12-01T07:09:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T21:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bardonnews.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/12\/01\/the-november-30-show\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T20:15:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T10:15:54","slug":"the-november-30-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bardonnews.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/12\/01\/the-november-30-show\/","title":{"rendered":"The November 30 Show"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Threads: This Week in the Australian Phone Box<\/h2>\n\n\n\n


Some Sundays arrive like a deep breath \u2014 not loud, not polished, just steady. A man pulls over on a long inland road because a stranger\u2019s dog has fallen out of a ute. A tug skipper in Port Hedland talks horsepower and tides like it\u2019s poetry. A daughter keeps watch over the last of the Bomber Command generation, while another quietly reminds us that planes didn\u2019t fly on bravery alone \u2014 they flew because people on the ground made sure they could. And threaded through it all are small acts that don\u2019t ask for applause, but somehow hold a country together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bruno, the Ute, and the Kindness You Don\u2019t Forget<\/h2>\n\n\n\n


Stibbsie from Charters Towers told the kind of outback story that starts as a favour and ends as a legend. Years ago, fuelling up at the Belyando Roadhouse, a bloke asked him to keep an eye out for his dog, Bruno \u2014 who\u2019d fallen out of a cage on the back of the ute. There was a crumpled phone number. A tenner pushed into a shirt pocket. And the sort of request you can\u2019t quite shake, even when you drive off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Days later, a surveyor mate rang: he\u2019d found a dog in the scrub \u2014 not looking flash \u2014 and could Stibbsie pick him up and get him to a vet? He drove out, taped Bruno\u2019s mouth just in case, and loaded him like dead weight into the tray. But a kilometre down the road, Stibbsie looked back: Bruno was standing up on the ute like he owned it \u2014 tongue out, wind in his face, thrilled to be moving again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the vet, Bruno jumped down, walked in like a regular, and was declared basically fine \u2014 maybe just hungry. Owner reunited. A $150 reward offered and accepted, then shared with the mate who\u2019d made the call. A happy ending \u2014 and a reminder that sometimes the biggest moments happen on the side of a highway, between people who\u2019ll never be famous, but do the right thing anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Port Hedland, Big Ships, and a Tug That Pushes the World Around<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Photo Credit: Vessel Finder<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

In Port Hedland, Macca spoke with Andrew Colliver \u2014 master of a harbour tug, the Boodarie \u2014 27 metres long, 5,000 horsepower, built for the slow, precise work of moving enormous ships in and out. Across the way were 300-metre bulk carriers, loading around 200,000 tonnes of iron ore at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew grew up in Shark Bay, started in dinghies, moved into fishing boats, then spent years on prawn trawlers before shifting into tug work and offshore oil-and-gas support on the North West Shelf. He spoke about tides like they were alive \u2014 because in a place like Port Hedland, they are. You don\u2019t move ships unless the water\u2019s there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turned a headline industry into something human: one bloke in a wheelhouse, quietly doing a job that keeps the nation\u2019s exports moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bomber Command Families, and the People Who Kept Them Flying<\/h2>\n\n\n\n


Annette Gutierrez called with a quiet mission: to help identify how many Australian Bomber Command veterans are still alive following the death of Joffre Bell in Queensland at the age of 105. Her understanding was that there may be as few as a dozen remaining, including centenarians who recently attended a Bomber Command luncheon in Sydney, and at least one widow aged 100. Records are incomplete, and many families don\u2019t note service details in death notices. Her hope was simply that their service be acknowledged while it still can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ian from Huntleys Cove then shared a fresh loss. His father-in-law, Philip Smith, had died in Burradoo just a month short of his 102nd birthday. Philip was a wireless operator on Lancaster bombers \u2014 modest, private, but willing to share his logbooks and memories so his granddaughter could complete her final-year history assignment. Not for recognition \u2014 just because the story mattered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lynne from Bowral widened the lens again. Her mother, Betty \u2014 now 102 and living independently in Logan Village \u2014 worked as an electrician during the war at RAAF Base Sale, maintaining aircraft. Lynne\u2019s point was simple and powerful: the planes didn\u2019t stay airborne on courage alone. They flew because people like Betty kept them airworthy \u2014 and when the war ended, many women were told there was no place for them in the trade. Betty retrained as a hairdresser. Life moved on. The contribution remained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Veggie Garden for Mum, and the Everyday Work of Love<\/h2>\n\n\n\n


Bill rang from near Ebor, on his way to Port Macquarie with tools in the car and a plan: to build a vegetable garden for his 93-year-old mum. Not as a grand gesture \u2014 but as a way to keep her interested, active and connected. Tomatoes. Beans. Rhubarb for a proper rhubarb-and-apple pie. Neighbours helping out. Home support keeping the rhythm of her days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He spoke about his mum still getting on her hands and knees to weed, moving through a three-storey home fitted with a lift, determined to keep living life on her own terms. It wasn\u2019t really about vegetables. It was about dignity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKerosene Blue\u201d Water in the Torres Strait
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Out on the water near Yam Island, Gossie called from the Cape Graft, now operating as a mothership for the start of the free-diving crayfish season. He borrowed a phrase from a local Islander to describe the conditions: \u201ckerosene blue\u201d \u2014 flat, calm, beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Free-diving would run through December and January, with hookah diving beginning later in the year. The catch would head south to market. It was work, yes \u2014 but the way he described it, it sounded like a place you could breathe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Electric Toothbrush and the Bee Problem
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Andy from Millongandy offered a bush solution to a worrying observation: fewer bees around the garden. His tip was practical and oddly ingenious \u2014 using an electric toothbrush (with the head removed) to gently vibrate tomato or capsicum flowers, mimicking the action of bees and helping pollination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was funny \u2014 but also quietly sobering. Because the trick only works if bees aren\u2019t there to do the job themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forty-Two Marathons for the Fallen<\/h2>\n\n\n\n


Susan Chuck shared the story of a Brisbane serviceman, Ben Sedonari, who ran a marathon every day for 42 consecutive days, finishing at the Afghanistan Memorial near Suncorp Stadium. The effort honoured those lost to conflict, injury, and suicide, raising close to $14,000 for veterans\u2019 support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It sounded impossible \u2014 until he simply did it. One day at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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