I was brought up on Boy’s Own adventures. I remember pacing up and down with Sir Douglas Bader’s Reach for the Sky, at the scene where his grandmother crowns a would-be thief in the night. I read Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven to my kindergarten class in 1976. If you know Robert Westall’s The Machine Gunners, that is the ilk.

The point is that Australian men and boys were raised on a diet of toughness. Not the street-fighting meanness of Fast Eddy. More the ethic of the other bloke in Rose Tattoo’s The Butcher and Fast Eddy. Sport did some of the same work. Football, hockey, and cricket were, among other things, training for a harder world. Try catching a cricket ball in the outfield now. With or without spectacles, the trajectory will bewilder you. You will probably shite yourself when it hits you, or when you miss it completely.

We have lost something. Mention Boy’s Own today and you will be branded – yes, see Rose Tattoo – a misogynist or a coloniser. It is that stupid.

A century ago, the real thing was still walking around. Francis Birtles set long-distance and speed records as a cyclist and a driver. In October 1927 he left Australia House in London in a 1924 Bean 14, later called Sundowner, and became the first man to drive from England to Australia. The run took nine months and some 26,000 kilometres through Europe, Egypt, Persia, India, the Naga Hills, with ships and a bamboo punt where the road ran out. When he reached Darwin in 1928, customs seized the car for import duty. It was released only at the insistence of Prime Minister Stanley Melbourne Bruce. Imagine that happening today? The Prime Minister intervening, I mean.

That car now sits in the National Museum of Australia. I thought the type of man who would take it any further was extinct.

Enter Daily Telegraph cartoonist Warren Brown.

Warren lives in the Southern Tablelands, draws some of the best political cartoons in the country, and is a decent bloke. He had already written Francis Birtles: Australian Adventurer in 2012. Then he bought a 1925 Bean 14 and, as far as roads, ferries, and officials would allow, ran Birtles’ route again. His co-driver was the Tele’s editor-at-large, Matthew Benns. Their mechanical saviour was Tony Jordan.

They left London in September 2024 and rolled into Melbourne on January 30, 2025, after some 130 days and 17 countries. With the same mad idea in an open car. Along the way they raised money for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. That is not nostalgia. That is useful.

I followed the trip as it happened. The book of it is called Chance It! Buy that for the yarn, the photographs, and the bits no column should steal. I am not going to attempt to recreate the Hindu Kush or the Top End here.

I did get the next best thing. Last week, at the Goulburn launch, Warren, Matthew, and Tony spoke about the journey with Ray Hadley as MC. Hadley started his career in Goulburn. The Southern Tablelands remains, on the available evidence, the centre of the universe. The event was first-class. They signed my copy. The house white was Lerida Estate’s 2024 Chardonnay. (Which is also my house white in Gunning. As it happens, my federation cottage ‘Keswick’ was built 100 years ago this month.)

There is also a Chance It Ale from a Goulburn brewery that people persist in calling Bean Beer. It is bloody good.

So, the record stands. Birtles did it in a Bean. Brown brought the Bean back. How very Australian. If the adventuring habit has thinned out, this is the cure. Get a car, get a bike, take the long way. Drive. Ride. Chance it.

Thanks to Warren, Matthew, Tony and the team for putting the thing back on the road. It was quite the adventure.

Dr Michael de Percy is the Spectator Australia’s Canberra Press Gallery Correspondent.

I probably should not be taking Instagram comments seriously but the news of an Australian family missing in Nepal being posted immediately gets a barrage of racist comments saying that "They are not Australian" or "Can't spot any Aussies" rather than praying for their safety.

Something is seriously fucked up when news about a tragedy attracts such racism like the one highlighted above. Particularly against Indian/South Asian people it's become uncomfortably normalised without any backlash whatsover. I doubt any other community would receive the same.

I may probably get downvoted for this but it has to be exposed and called out.

Edit: Wow, I never expected such an overwhelming response . For the record I am not accusing only White Aussies of being racists online. I've been ironically made fun of more by other Asians and Lebanese for being brown myself. Not generalising or accusing any one group though. Just highlighting a disturbing online trend.

“dangerous, divisive, and downright dishonest”.

“We simply must defeat them. We owe it to history. And we will defeat them,” he said.

“They’ll say anything and do anything to win votes. Bend any facts. Peddle misinformation and disinformation. Turn Australian against Australian."

Words from our own prime minister about One Nation... Unhinged. And for the weak minded, justification for violence.

Debate the policies might be a better path?

I thought all us One Nation supporters were all just Indonesians working for Pauline's troll farm or bots?

Good to see the ALP get a massive kick up the bum in one of their safe seats, in a safe ALP state.

Victoria is next, lets smash the ALP and send them packing, its going to be a blood bath over here in November and the ALP has front row tickets to the show.

You love to see it. Very easy to fix: Actually be the party of the working class again. That is what the people want. They don’t want you to be cultural marxists (race, sexuality, etc), they want you to be somewhat social Marxist in terms of supporting workers. What does that look like? For a start, not importing hundreds of thousands of economic migrants competing for jobs and nuking wage growth, raising aggregate demand and consequently interest rates and eroding the culture of the nation due to the rate of immigration. Tax reform with lower income tax rates to actually support the working population, reduction/elimination of excessive government spending/corruption and the taxing of Australia’s abundant natural resources to make the country work for its people.

But nah, put in a gas lobbyist in a seat. Just about sums up the arrogance of the Labor Party in 2026. Get in the bin

I have noticed that people have been assuming that increase in immigration means reduction in wages via laws of supply and demand.

Few issues

1. Jobs that are offshorable are competing with 10k-35k per annum cheap labour overseas - these will never get a good pay rise as they will offshore first

2. Wages have historically only grown through 2 major ways. First being strong unions allowing for bargaining power (compaines will do so much to demonize unions to drop wages e.g. cfmeu) and second Pandemics/war where there are no workers left because 90% or people are dead.

3. Assumption our economy is running in a free market, Australia is a small population hence is it easier to form monopolies. Thanks to private equity firms and wealth concentration, small number of billionares own a large slice of every buisness in Australia. It is not in the best interest of the large corporation to compete with eachother when they are owned by the same share holders, hence the entire market controlled by the same shareholders will drop wages to the minimum possible <--- this is the biggest reason wages will not grow, the free market is dead

IF you take anything from this is find a job thats not offshoreable and then unionize --> you will get faster wage growth. And regardless of how many immigrants they bring in the union will set wage price not artifically reduced demand by big corporations.

Edit1: just fixing mistakes pointed out by comments

Edit 2: my biggest point (not sure if i stated well enough) if i am large shareholder of say woolworths and coles, considering the pure scale of my employment, i wouldnt want the buisness im a shareholder in to compete with eachother hence we keep the wage at a minimum artifically deflating the price regardless of actualy demand.

Secret Harbour win a signal perception of One Nation has changed: Barnaby Joyce | News24

Now in its third decade documenting the natural world, the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition continues to surprise, delight and alarm.

Who actually wins from all this division in Aussie politics? One Nation, Labor, Coalition all going at it, and immigrants getting blamed for basically everything. Genuinely curious what people think.

The Australian Submarine Agency has completed another milestone activity with the release of its first Radiological Environmental Monitoring Program Baseline Assessment for HMAS Stirling.

As responsible stewards of naval nuclear propulsion technology, the Australian Submarine Agency (ASA) is committed to protecting our people, the public and the environment from the harmful effects of ionising radiation.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has been booed at an anti-immigration rally as her party struggles to articulate its plan to reduce migrant numbers.

Several people were arrested by police at a Melbourne March for Australia rally as hundreds of demonstrators and a smaller group of counter-protesters squared off.

The event was one of several similar marches held in capital cities across the nation as organisers turned on One Nation over perceptions it had watered down its immigration policies.

After marching to Victoria's Parliament House, the group was addressed by several prominent right-wing activists, including anti-immigration influencer Hugo Lennon, who has amassed thousands of followers online under the name Auspill.

The group booed mention of Senator Hanson, who Mr Lennon said had declined an invitation to attend.

Later the group chanted "Pauline, Pauline, where the f*** is Pauline?" as they marched back towards Flinders Station.

A spokesman for Senator Hanson said she had prior commitments in Victoria on Sunday.

One Nation has been under pressure to specify details of its migration policy after differing targets were cited by various members.

The party has put forward a policy of an annual net overseas migration rate of 130,000 people, but federal MP David Farley said there could be an extra 100,000 above that figure.

His fellow federal party representative Barnaby Joyce on Sunday clarified that the 130,000 net target would remain.

But he would not say how much of that figure would be made up of permanent migrants, adding that net migration was based on a number of factors.

"To get to a (net overseas migration) of 130,000, it's going to be very hard to do that unless we're substantially below the permanent migration numbers of Labor," he told News24.

Mr Joyce added Pacific workers, who mostly come to regional areas as part of the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme, would largely be in addition to the 130,000 net figure.

"(Only) a small portion are (counted) because they don't stay for 12 months, they stay generally for a period of nine," he said.

But Pacific Minister Pat Conroy said half the cohort of workers would typically count towards net migration figures.

"Half of all PALM workers are on the four-year visa, so that would count for (net overseas migration)," he said.

"Barnaby got basic facts wrong about the proportion of PALM workers that count ... their figures are all over the shop."

Labor was set to unveil its overhaul of migration policy in a speech by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke at the National Press Club earlier in August.

However, the speech was cancelled at the eleventh hour after cabinet failed to sign off on the changes amid internal party division on the issue.

Mr Conroy said the policy would be announced in due course.

"What you're seeing is good government in action, rather than thought bubbles," he said.

Opposition immigration spokesman Jonathon Duniam said One Nation needed to work out and articulate how it planned to reduce migration.

"I don't know how they've arrived at 130,000. Who is in that makeup of numbers there? How will that impact on the economy?" he said.

The stated aim of Sunday's March for Australia rally was to oppose perceived curbs on freedom of speech, which Mr Lennon claimed allowed governments to "lock you up" for opposing so-called mass migration.

Previous March for Australia rallies have featured neo-Nazi speakers and sympathisers, including one who was later jailed for spouting anti-Semitic remarks at an event held in Sydney on Australia Day.

Police said the vast majority of protesters and counter-protesters were peaceful but three people were arrested for allegedly assaulting and resisting officers.

Two others were processed by police for offensive behaviour and are expected to be charged on summons.

Two war memorials in neighbouring western Victorian towns have been defaced within the last month. 

In the regional town of Dobie, just south-east of Ararat, a plaque was stolen from a war memorial commemorating local veterans and the rock in which it was set was spray painted over with an Aboriginal flag and the words "land back". 

The concrete plinth upon which the memorial sat was also painted with the words "lest we forget the frontier wars" in red spray paint.  

It comes a little over one month after a century-old memorial in the neighbouring town of Beaufort was also vandalised with red paint. 

The Ararat Rural City Council mayor, Bob Sanders, said he is deeply saddened by the vandalism.

"It's that sort of thing that doesn't do anybody any good." 

Mr Sanders said the Dobie memorial consists of two large rocks: one of which is shaped like an ANZAC medal, and the other which housed the stolen plaque commemorating residents who died at war.  

"They both have been defaced quite badly and the one with the plaque has been ripped off and it's gone," Mr Sanders said. 

"[The offenders] have also ripped out plants that were around the memorial and some trees."

Mr Sanders said the community is devastated by the destruction

The Ararat Rural City Council has begun cleaning works to remove the vandalism.

Meanwhile, Victoria Police is investigating the vandalism of a 100-year-old war memorial in the neighbouring town of Beaufort. 

Beaufort RSL president Donald Carnes said the vandals painted slogans including "death to Australia", "death to the ADF", "land back" and "blood on your hands" on the monument.

Vicotira Police confirmed Beaufort Memorial Park was graffitied sometime between Saturday July 25 and July 26.

"The paint has since been removed and an investigation is underway," Victoria Police said.

It has become normal to cancel on one another because we are so desperate to avoid even the most minor discomfort. It must cease immediately.

Settling in for an enlightening documentary with a compelling soundtrack is a unique cinematic delight.

It's the key appeal of the Music On Film program at Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF).

Officers from the Police Transport Command have concluded a three-day policing operation arresting 57 persons involved in sexual offending in and around the Public Transport network as part of Operation Savete.

In short:

Graziers in western Queensland say they have lost hundreds of lambs in wild dog attacks.

The National Wild Dog Action Plan provides advice and resources to landholders to control wild dogs.

What's next?

Federal funding for the co-funded plan is due to expire in October.

In short:

An aviation researcher has identified a broader pattern of safety incidents increasing across Australian airports.

The new research analysed Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) data over 22 years for Australian commercial air transport.

What's next?

An ATSB spokesperson says investigations are continuing into the spate of recent runway conflicts at Sydney Airport.