2022 Federal Election Swing Map

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2022 Federal Election Swing Map

2022 Federal Election Swing Map

Category:Election Profiles,MAY 21 ELECTION COMMENTS

The big winners and losers in the 2022 Election can be seen in our online interactive ADS 2022 Election Map.

The five big players in 2022 were the traditional majors: the ALP and the Coalition, but also the minor parties, like the Greens, the Teals and the Others (including One Nation and the UAP).

The influence of the minor parties in 2022 was wielded not so much through their preferences, but through the sheer size of their primary votes, as the support base for the major parties shrunk, with the ALP going backwards in some of its once-safest seats in Victoria to One Nation, the UAP and the Teals and the Liberal Party copping an absolute hiding in its wealthiest seats to Independents and in its former stronghold of Western Australia.  

Teal campaigns run by the Climate 200 group wiped out the Green primary vote when they both ran in safe Liberal like Kooyong, but where there was no Teal candidate, as we saw in three Brisbane River seats won by the Greens, the Liberal primary vote losses switched directly to the Greens.

The primary vote for the Others group exceeded 20 percent after ten percent plus swings to the minor parties in normally-solid Labor seats across Victoria, NSW and Tasmania.

While the Liberal Party has a problem in its safest seats with the higher-income Teals, the ALP has a problem in its safest, lower-income seats, with right wing minor parties.

The interactive Esri map also shows an innovative cube layer for two of the key demographic drivers for the Teal vote: Female Professionals and Top Quartile income earners, so you can see how these two variables interact.

See story in  The Australian Financial Review 

Click to view interactive ADS 2022 Election Map

2022 Federal Election Swing Map


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2022 Federal Election Top Income Quartile Map

2022 Federal Election Top Income Quartile Map

Category:Election Profiles,MAY 21 ELECTION COMMENTSTags : 

If you want to know which federal seats are most likely to swing strongly to the Teal candidates at the Federal election on May 21, check out the 🔗Map below.

2022 Federal Election Top Income Quartile Map

The map shows  the percentage of top income quartile persons in 2022 Federal seats in darker shades of teal and is modelled by ADS from the latest available Australian Tax Office data.

Demographic break downs of national Newspoll summaries published in The Australian between early 2020 and the start of the 2022 election campaign, indicate that about one in eight voters in this top income quartile had swung their previously strong support in primary vote terms from the Coalition, directly across to Voices or “Teal” candidates, where a Teal candidate was available.

To put this in perspective, in early 2020, nearly half of all voters in this income group cast their vote for Coalition candidates and in the first quarter of 2022, this figure was down to one in three.

While this may well be the national sentiment among top income earners, where no Teal candidate is available at this election, there is still likely to be a smaller Two Party Preferred swing from the Coalition to Labor from about one in 12 voters among this group.  This disaffection from top income workers represents serious hurt for Liberal MPs in what have been their traditional strongholds.

We’ve been looking at the demographic breakdowns by income in individual seat polls and nothing we’ve seen so far contradicts the above trend up to the second week of the campaign.

Nonetheless, we will be watching future Newspoll summaries, presuming another one is available before the election.


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Australia votes on Saturday 21, 2022 and commented by John Black, former Labor Senator and Chief Executive of Australian Development Strategies

Federal Election Profiles 2022

Category:Election Profiles,National 2022Tags : 

Monday 20th June, 2022
Party Machines Conking Out
by John Black – AFR – Editorial and Opinion

Party Machines Conking Out

 To Read click link
🔗 Financial Review, Monday, June 20, 2022, pages from 36 to 37 -1.pdf

2022 Federal Election Swing Map

The big winners and losers in the 2022 Election can be seen in our online interactive ADS 2022 Election Map.

The five big players in 2022 were the traditional majors: the ALP and the Coalition, but also the minor parties, like the Greens, the Teals and the Others (including One Nation and the UAP).

The influence of the minor parties in 2022 was wielded not so much through their preferences, but through the sheer size of their primary votes, as the support base for the major parties shrunk, with the ALP going backwards in some of its once-safest seats in Victoria to One Nation, the UAP and the Teals and the Liberal Party copping an absolute hiding in its wealthiest seats to Independents and in its former stronghold of Western Australia.  

Teal campaigns run by the Climate 200 group wiped out the Green primary vote when they both ran in safe Liberal like Kooyong, but where there was no Teal candidate, as we saw in three Brisbane River seats won by the Greens, the Liberal primary vote losses switched directly to the Greens.

The primary vote for the Others group exceeded 20 percent after ten percent plus swings to the minor parties in normally-solid Labor seats across Victoria, NSW and Tasmania.

While the Liberal Party has a problem in its safest seats with the higher-income Teals, the ALP has a problem in its safest, lower-income seats, with right wing minor parties.

The interactive Esri map also shows an innovative cube layer for two of the key demographic drivers for the Teal vote: Female Professionals and Top Quartile income earners, so you can see how these two variables interact.

See story in  The Australian Financial Review 

Click to view interactive ADS 2022 Election Map

2022 Federal Election Swing Map


2022 Election Results – Summary for EGS Clients
Friday 27th May, 2022
by  EGS Founder John Black

Did a short presentation with Saul Eslake today on the 2022 election results and the implications for Education Geographics Client Schools, with particular relevance to the election of new Teal MPs. It makes interesting reading.

🔗 https://www.educationgeographics.net.au/pdf/Presentation 27 May 2022.pdf

2022 Election Results - Summary for EGS Clients from EGS Founder John Black

Election Profiles 2022

Monday 23rd May, 2022
🎙
John Black: Election earthquake signals death of major parties
episode from ABC “RN Breakfast” with Patricia Karvelas

To Listen click link
🔗https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/election-earthquake-signals-death-of-major-parties/13893828

Guest: John Black, former Labor Senator and Chief Executive of Australian Development Strategies

Image: ABC  RN : https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/


Election Profiles 2022

Monday 23rd May, 2022
Women’s teal wave could keep breaking in 2025
by John Black – AFR – Editorial and Opinion

Womens Teal Vote Could Keep Breaking in 2025

 To Read click link
🔗 Financial Review, Monday, May 23, 2022, pages from 13 to 13.pdf

Image: AFR : https://www.afr.com


1 Day to Go – Election Profiles 2022

Friday 20th May,2022
Coalition Closing Gap On Labor
by John Black – AFR – Editorial and Opinion

Coalition closing gap on Labor by John Black

 To Read click link
🔗 Financial Review, Friday, May 20, 2022, pages from 39 to 39.pdf

Image: AFR : https://www.afr.com


2 Days to Go – Election Profiles 2022

Due to popular demand (my wife Jeanine thought it was a good idea), I’m re-posting the PDF I prepared a few months ago for my Australian Financial Review article of February 15 on the rise of the Teal vote and the associated decline of the primary vote for the major parties. It may help you on election night to understand why the major party primary votes have fallen, and also to  follow the larger swings to Labor in seats where popular Coalition members have retired, such as Bennelong or Casey.

Monday14th February, 2022
Political Voices: Past, Present & Future

 To Read click link
🔗 https://www.educationgeographics.net.au/political-voices-past-present-and-future/

 


3 days to Go – Election Profiles 2022

Wednesday 18th May,2022
How House Prices Reflect The Way You Vote
by John Black – AFR – Editorial and Opinion

How house prices reflect the way you vote by John Black

 To Read click link
🔗 Financial Review, Wednesday, May 18, 2022, pages from 14 to 14.pdf

Image: AFR : https://www.afr.com

 


5 Days to Go – Election Profiles 2022

Monday 16th May, 2022
🎙
John Black: Election Campaign Enters Final Sprint
episode from ABC “RN Breakfast” with Patricia Karvelas

To Listen click link
🔗https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/election-campaign-enters-final-sprint/13883250

Guest: John Black, former Labor Senator and Chief Executive of Australian Development Strategies

Image: ABC  RN : https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/


1 Week to Go – Election Profiles 2022

Friday 13th, May 2022
As tradies deserted ALP, so career women turn Liberal seats teal
by John Black – AFR – Editorial and Opinion

As tradies deserted ALP, so career women turn Liberal seats teal. Female professionals lead the demographic desertion in what use to be the safest Coalition electorates.

 To Read click link
🔗 Financial Review Friday May 13, 2022 Page 43 snip to PDF.pdf

Image: AFR : https://www.afr.com


3 Weeks to Go – Election Profiles 2022

Wednesday 4th May 2022
Inner Brissie could have gone teal
by John Black – AFR – Editorial and Opinion

Inner Brissie could have gone Teal

 To Read click link
🔗 Financial Review, Wednesday, May 4, 2022, pages from 46 to 46.pdf

Image: AFR : https://www.afr.com


 

3 Weeks to Go – Election Profiles 2022

Monday 2nd May, 2022
🎙
John Black: Labor on track for win
episode from ABC “RN Breakfast” with Patricia Karvelas

ABC RN To Listen click link
🔗https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/labor-on-track-for-election-win/13862818

Guest: John Black, former Labor Senator and Chief Executive of Australian Development Strategies

Image: ABC  RN : https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/

 

4 Weeks to Go – Election Profiles 2022

Thursday 21 April, 2022
Albo’s not kicking with the wind
by John Black – AFR – Editorial and Opinion

Albo's not kicking with the wind. Despite the self-inflicted wounds, Labour remains in front in a majority of seats. But the margins are getting tighter.

 To Read click link
🔗 Financial Review, Thursday, April 21, 2022, pages from 38 to 38.pdf

Image: AFR : https://www.afr.com

 

3 Weeks to Go to Pre-Poll Voting

Tuesday 19th April, 2022

Australia Votes May 21, 2022 comments by John Black former Labor Senator Starts May 9, 2022, 12 days before voting day on May 21, 2022.
🔗 https://www.ecq.qld.gov.au/how-to-vote/how-to-cast-your-vote

 


4 Weeks to Go – Election Profiles 2022

Tuesday 19th April, 2022
🎙
John Black: Election still Labor’s to lose
episode from ABC “RN Breakfast” with Patricia Karvelas

ABC RN To Listen click link
🔗https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/john-black:-the-election-is-still-labors-to-lose/13844148

Guest: John Black, former Labor Senator and Chief Executive of Australian Development Strategies

Image: ABC  RN : https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/


6 Weeks to Go – Election Profiles 2022

Tuesday 13th April, 2022
Too soon to call, but the demographics favour labor
by John Black – AFR – Editorial and Opinion

Too soon to call, but the demographics favour labor

 To Read click link
🔗 Financial Review, Wednesday, April 13, 2022, pages from 43 to 43.pdf

Image: AFR : https://www.afr.com


6 Weeks to Go – Election Profiles 2022

Monday 11th April, 2022
🎙 “Are the published opinion polls correct?”
episode from ABC “RN Breakfast” withPatricia Karvelas

To Listen click link
🔗 https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/are-the-published-opinion-polls-correct/13835438 

Guest: 
John Black, former Labor Senator and Chief Executive of Australian Development Strategies

Available now through the ABC listen App – bit.ly/ABCradioApp

Image: ABC  RN : https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/


11 Weeks to Go – Election Profiles 2022

Tuesday 29th March, 2022
Don’t order the sympathy cards for Morrison just yet
by John Black – AFR – Editorial and Opinion

Don't order the sympathy cards for Morrison just yet

 To Read click link
🔗 Financial Review, Tuesday, March 29, 2022, pages from 39 to 39.pdf

Image: AFR : https://www.afr.com


14 Weeks to Go – Election Profiles 2022

Tuesday 15th February, 2022
Women To Deliver Shock Election
by John Black – AFR – Editorial and Opinion

Women to deliver election shocks

 To Read click link
🔗 Financial Review, Tuesday, February 15, 2022, pages from 36 to 37.pdf

Image: AFR : https://www.afr.com


14 Weeks to Go – Election Profiles 2022

Monday14th February, 2022
Political Voices: Past, Present & Future

 To Read click link
🔗 https://www.educationgeographics.net.au/political-voices-past-present-and-future/

 


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Key Swing Indicator Map for 2022 Federal Election

Key Swing Indicator Map for 2022 Federal Election

Category:Election Profiles,National 2022Tags : 

If you want to know which federal seats were more likely to show swings to the Opposition at the start of this election campaign, then the Esri map in this link isn’t a bad place to start. 

Link 🔗  2022 FEDERAL ELECTION KEY INDICATORS (arcgis.com)

Key Swing Indicator Map for 2022 Federal Election

The online Esri map uses the latest Australian Electoral Commission data on age groups for men and women by current federal seats and draws on 50 years of election profiling of Federal and State elections.  

When you open the Esri map, click on the three dots at top right to see the legend and then on the bookmark icon to zip between capital cities and territories. The map works on mobile phones and PCs.

The dark maroon electorates are those containing a mix of age groups covering maturing traditional swinging voters and aspirational voters in the ages at which they traditionally begin to move their vote from Labor to the Coalition. 

We see strong clusters of these seats containing high proportions of persons aged 35 to 49 years in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. They cover a range of political allegiances, from traditionally safe Liberal to strong Labor.

With 2PP swings to the ALP of about five percent in the first week of the campaign, we would expect to see a range of swings of up to 25 percent, with plus five percent for Labor being the mid-point.

Of course, the figures will change during the campaign and other demographic indicators will emerge to pull some seats to swing to the Coalition. We will map these during the coming weeks.

This election I’m writing some research articles for the Australian Financial Review and doing Monday morning interviews with Radio National on election modelling for the May 21, 2022 election.

Catch you on the campaign trail, folks.  


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Political Voices: Past, Present and Future

Category:Election Profiles,National 2022Tags : 

Profiling of the Voices 2019 demographics by Australian Development Strategies shows that grassroots campaigns by Voices candidates against Liberals in 2022 – led by professional women – could be even more devastating for Labor MPs if turned against them in 2025.

This means that the Federal election of 2022 is not so much a contest between the Liberal Party and the Labor Party, but more a contest about what future Labor and Liberal Governments will look like.

In the mid-1980’s, male Tradespersons was the biggest single male or female occupation group in Australia and Tradies dominated the ALP voting profile, and Female Professionals played an equally important role for the Liberal voting profile.

But both major parties have been challenged in 2022 by the loss of their historical bases of primary vote support during the past 40 years, among Tradies and Miners for Labor, and among Professionals for the Liberals.

The problem for both major parties is that, by November 2021, Female Professionals was the biggest single male or female occupation group in Australia and there were twice as many Professional Persons as Tradespersons, Clerks or Service Workers. And their vote is up for grabs.

I chart the demographics underling the decline in the attached
🔗 PDF – Political Voices Past, Present and Future

Political Voices Past, Present and Future by John Black, Australian Development Strategies

Coalition candidates in 2022 are vulnerable to well-funded and more professionally-managed “Voices” campaigns run by local activists, particularly when factionalised party machines select a favourite candidate with a negative personal vote, as this gives a leg-up to a Voices campaign.

Australian Development Strategies Modelling of booth-level profiles in a selection of Urban and Rural 2019 seats won or strongly contested by Independent or Green candidates, shows Voices candidates attracted support from some fast-growing demographics, including Agnostics and better-educated, professional women.

Economic trends infer the current demographic base of Voices candidates is likely to grow over time and, with a Labor win likely in 2022, this base could prove a bigger threat to Labor in 2025 than it is to the Liberals in 2022

Our ADS Senior Mapper Dr Jeanine McMullan has a 🔗Map showing the potential impact of Voices candidates in 2022.

The computed predicted Voices 2CP votes for Sydney (left) and Melbourne (right

The computed predicted Voices 2CP votes for Sydney (left) and Melbourne (right)


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EGS Spatial Analyst and Senior Mapper Dr Jeanine McMullan has just recorded a new video

‘I really like our maps … they’re great fun!’

Category:EducationTags : 

Our EGS Spatial Analyst and Senior Mapper Dr Jeanine McMullan has just recorded a new video.

In the video, headed The Power of the Esri Map Module, Jeanine conveys her sense of excitement at being able to explore innovative new map layers of small-scale data which she can superimpose on EGS catchment maps, so schools can improve how they spatially manage their school to the benefit of their students and their families.

On a practical level, Jeanine and I explain how the layers on an EGS school map can be used to design the most cost-effective school bus routes and stops, based on ease of access from existing students and also from potential additional students, whose families match your school profile.

This means your wrapped school bus can serve as a mobile marketing platform in the most prospective streets in your catchment, as it takes your current students to and from school.

The route design can be adapted annually to changing marketing and logistics strategies, with the new layout downloaded and sent to school drivers or bus companies, and posted on school websites.

Jeanine then shows her genuine enthusiasm for new advanced features in map design which, for example, can help a school begin to estimate the environmental cost in terms of carbon credits of various transport strategies, how to make of use of emergency map layers, showing, for example, flooding risks and fire updates, as well as longer term development plans from your local authorities.


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Covid Impacts For School Planners- Using available data from late 2021, the Education Geographics team calculated post-Covid spatial estimates from 2020 to 2031 on total population, pre-schoolers and school-aged children.

Covid Impacts For School Planners

Category:EducationTags : 

Using available data from late 2021, the Education Geographics team calculated post-Covid spatial estimates from 2020 to 2031 on total population, pre-schoolers and school-aged children.

Our preliminary EGS population modelling indicates that the big winners from Covid impacts on total Australian population growth have been the four SA4 ABS statistical regions making up the state of Tasmania, along with four regions within a two-hour commute of the Melbourne CBD: Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong and La Trobe-Gippsland. (See the purple SA4 regions in our attached map).

Click Map to Zoom

Covid Impacts For School Planners Using available data from late 2021, the Education Geographics team calculated post-covid spatial estimates from 2020 to 2031 on total population, pre-schoolers and school-aged children.

It seems that the big Covid lockdown of Tasmania worked a treat to boost Tasmania’s modest but stable, pre-Covid state annual growth rate, from about 0.5 percent up to 0.7 percent between 2020 and 2031, with most of the gains coming in Hobart.

And it seemed that some Melbourne residents wanting a relatively safe work-from-home retreat still wanted the option of a convenient weekly commute to meetings in the CBD. If this wasn’t needed, well, they just moved to South East Queensland.

And the big losers? Take your pick of pretty much any capital city CBD across the nation, with greater Sydney a very sad sea of red on our attached map of Covid population impacts. No wonder the NSW Government are lobbying to crank up migration numbers.

As far as the other capitals went, those most adversely impacted after Sydney were, In diminishing order, the ABS regions of Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and then Adelaide.

By way of benchmarks, we anticipate that the annual pre-Covid national growth rate of 1.6 percent will drop to an annual average of about 1.0 percent out to 2031.

In terms of total Australian population, this translates to a predicted post-Covid figure of 28.5 million, compared to a pre-Covid figure of 30.3 million, a drop of 1.8 million persons, due to Covid impacts.

When it comes to pre-schoolers aged 0-4 years, the national predicted pre-Covid figure of 1.9 million could drop by 340,000 to 1.56 million, with the biggest losses experienced in the suburbs of Melbourne and Sydney

For school children aged 5 to 17 years, the expected national pre-Covid population could drop by more than half a million students, from 4.8 million to 4.3 million. At 25 kids per class, that’s enough kids to fill more than 20,000 classrooms that we’d expected to see by 2031, but now we don’t.

Where these gaps in previous forecasts are likely to be concentrated is fundamental to planning decisions over the next decade.

All EGS client schools will have this pre-Covid and post-Covid information for total population, pre-schoolers and school children projected as a summary onto their major catchments.

In addition, on request, EGS qualified professionals will be able to access EGS fine-grained data for school planning projects, such as a new campus, or for commercial expansion plans for a pre-Covid growth area.

Planning before Covid

Before Covid hit our shores in late 2019, population forecasts for urban planners were pretty straightforward.

After the detailed data had been published from the 2016 Census, projections were prepared for the Australian Government Department of Health by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. These projections reflected assumptions made about future fertility, mortality and migration trends.

It was all very official and credible and was produced down to relatively fine grained SA2 levels of about 10,000 persons and extensively used by schools, developers, big business and urban planners at all levels of Government and across the private sector.

The Health Department data was considered so reliable, you could take it to the bank and many investors did just that.

And then along came Covid in late 2019 and made all prior population forecasts redundant.

National borders were closed, many foreign students already here departed our shores, potential students and skilled workers were locked out, businesses were shut down for months at a time, working from home became the norm, CBDs were deserted and families began to drift outwards from Melbourne and Sydney into the regions and then interstate.

The December 2021 data from the ABS for mid-2021 showed Victoria lost so many overseas migrants and interstate migrants that the state was de-populating over the previous year. For planners counting on future population growth to underpin investments, this is genuinely scary stuff. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/national-state-and-territory-population/jun-2021

Queensland was the biggest winner in terms of gaining these interstate migrants from both New South Wales and Victoria, with anecdotal evidence inferring most gains were in the outlying coastal regions of South East Queensland and possibly northern NSW.

In early January 2022, we were in fact about to fine tune our forecasts to take these latest ABS figures into account, but ballooning omicron numbers by then had pretty much spoiled that sense of post-vaccination optimism.

We will monitor developments over the next months for the expected peak and fade of omicron and the possible arrival of new Covid variants. When we have more substantial evidence of sustainable trends, we will re-visit our forecasts.

We have a way to go yet with this virus, unfortunately, and with the evolving impact it is having on our total population numbers and spatial growth patterns across the nation.


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School Leaders: No time for complacency

Category:Education

In late 2021, Australia appears headed for a strong economic recovery, but underlying structural problems mean this is no time for complacency among school leaders about future demand for Non-Government school places in 2022 and beyond.

As outlined in the Australian Financial Review today (December 2, 2021) Economics Editor John Kehoe warns the current publicly-funded economic boom is putting way too many layers of magenta-coloured lipstick on an economy hamstrung by an archaic tax system, mounting pressures on welfare and defence spending and a fossil fuel exporting economy in a world edging ever closer to a renewable-dependent energy mix.

At Education Geographics, we’ve been lucky to secure the mentorship of distinguished Australian Economist Saul Eslake during 2021, to present monthly webinars to our EGS school leaders on the impact of Covid on the repeated Covid cycles of lockdown, economic downturn and subsequent recovery.

We’ve also taken advantage of the outstanding job done by our Australian Bureau of Statistics on mass payroll data from taxpayers and our own team of statistical modelers, to inform EGS schools on how Covid has directly impacted jobs in their school catchments and show EGS school leaders which industry groups of parents have been impacted and how many of them enrol their children across their school’s top enrolment streets.

This short video with the EGS leadership team and Broadcaster Steve Austin explains some of the background issues for schools and illustrates how EGS has provided data on Covid impacts on jobs in their local suburbs.

John Black – Founder & Executive Chairman – Education Geographics

 


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Tales of flyfishing, foraging and fungi

Tales of Fly Fishing, Foraging and Fungi

Category:Recreational ResearchTags : 

On October 27, 2020, the Australian Government announced fully-vaccinated Australians could travel overseas without first having to seek permission from the Department of Home Affairs. The next practical hurdle for overseas travel will be reciprocal quarantine-free arrivals in other countries, via vaccinated-only travel lanes, with Singapore apparently now head of the queue for Australians.

Hopefully, the same quarantine-free travel will apply mid-way through next year for Australians heading to British Columbia, where our family Flyfishing and adventure holiday has been booked – and deferred –  for each of the past two years.

As I type, my beloved is in her nearby home office now, filling out the passport renewal forms for our kids by hand, after the Australian Governments’ automated passport renewal form decided (part-way between the first and second child’s form) that it no longer recognised our address, where I’ve lived for 40 years. We just hope the Commonwealth Government does better with the software needed for quarantine-free travel than it has with its Covid-safe software to date. Enough said on that one.

Before you read the Flyfishing story below, can I just reinforce the warning in there about the potential danger of wild foraged mushrooms? Don’t eat them unless you’ve been trained to recognise the subtle difference between a tasty morsel and a deadly fungus. My Dad had a doctorate in plant physiology and he used to take us wild mushroom foraging as kids, across the old diary paddocks dotting the Dulong Hills on the Sunshine Coast hinterland. And it was all great fun, getting up really early with Dad and heading off for long walks with his big plastic bucket, which we’d all help Dad to fill before we headed home and grilled the mushrooms for breakfast.

Dad should perhaps have paid more attention to the mushrooms we dropped in the bucket.

I recall one morning at Nambour Primary School when the blackboard and teacher began swirling across the front of the front of the classroom in paisley shapes and assorted shades of orange and purple. It was a magic morning for this little guy. And then came the rushing paramedics, the ambulance ride, the old rubber hose and the stomach pump, before the entire Black family were finally whisked away to share a big ward at the old Nambour Hospital.

It took Dad a fair while to live that one down at the local Rotary Club dinners and it put me off eating mushrooms for decades.

So, back to our lovely little picture story from Sage, via the adventures of Bri Dostie, a Maine Flyfishing Guide. It’s a tale of backwoods flyfishing and foraging which was no doubt enjoyed by all participants, except the two stocked trout which ended up on the menu.

Our story starts with Bri as a little girl, flyfishing with her Mum and her Grandfather.
🔗 https://www.sageflyfish.com/experience/sage-blog/fish-and-forage

 

Tales of flyfishing, foraging and fungi

Tales of flyfishing, foraging and fungi


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Allan Shaw is a true School Whisperer, a man who, after more than 40 years as a Teacher, Principal and mentor to fellow Principals, believes that leading a school is the best job in the world.

Allan Shaw, School Whisperer – Farewell to the best job in the world

Category:Education

Leading a school is the best job in the world, bringing together professional staff and parents to build a community around children and young people.

But occasionally you have some of the worst days imaginable. It is difficult to be physically confronted by a student who you know has hurt one of their own parents recently or to gather a group of students to explain that one of their peers has taken their own life.

The challenges I have faced in schools have helped form who I am. The people I have met and worked with have enriched my life. In return, I have influenced the lives of thousands of children and young people (hopefully, positively) across a school leadership career of more than 20 years.

My career in school education started in 1979 with a posting to a secondary technical school in the far northern suburbs of Melbourne as an art teacher. I still have vivid recollections of my very first lesson.

More than four decades later, my career as a school principal has concluded. I worked as teacher and school leader across three states and territories and across all three sectors of school education: government, Catholic and independent schools. Each school has its own culture and context. Each has allowed, encouraged or insisted I learn and adapt.

Working in schools is intellectually, emotionally, and socially demanding. It is also incredibly rewarding to meet adults who I first knew as children or teenagers. Even the naughtiest have turned into decent people. Many have gone on to make significant contributions to their communities, in ways that I could not imagine at the time I knew them in school. In that sense, the rewards of teaching are palpable. I take no credit for the successes of these students but I have had the privilege of a small influence on their growth and development.

The needs of students have become much more complex over the last 15 years. As young people enter a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world, they need additional skills. The development of strong literacy and numeracy skills, and a solid knowledge base must be complemented by the development of creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and communication skills, an ethical character and the capacity to make positive contributions.

We must acknowledge the important role the adults in schools play in the development of the young. We must invest in developing the capacity of these people, to invest in our young people. The teacher in the room with your child is second only to you, their parents, in their influence on your children.

I wish I was 20 years younger and able to be more involved in these exciting challenges in schools. I am not, and thus I hand over to a new generation.

Allan Shaw is the recently retired principal of The Knox School.

Story printed in The Age – September 16, 2021