Category Archives: Australia

Congratulations, Kaitlyn!

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This just in …

“Orange athlete Kaitlyn Hinrichsen has won 12 gold medals across two sports in two weekends. The 13-year old Orange High School student won nine gold medals at the Mountains and Plains Summer Swimming Championships at Grenfell earlier this month. It followed her winning three gold medals and a bronze at the regional Little Athletics championships in Dubbo.

“Her father Grant said Kaitlyn won her swimming gold medals in all strokes [freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly] in both the 50 metre and 100 metre events and also won gold in the 200 metre individual medley. At the athletics she dominated the distance events. He said she won gold in the 800, 1500 and 3000 metre events and took bronze in the 400 metre final.

“Kaitlyn’s next event is the NSW Country Swimming Championships in Sydney this weekend. He said she would be contesting seven individual events. Her next stop in athletics is the Little Athletics State Championships in late March.”

The Hinrichsens moved to Orange (NSW) in January 2017, and by all accounts the entire family is thriving.

Read more of Kaitlyn’s story here, but like, wow. How proud are we!

Australia’s New High Commissioner to Canada

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We are delighted to welcome Australia’s new High Commissioner to Canada, Her Excellency Natasha Smith. High Commissioner Smith is a senior career officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and was most recently First Assistant Secretary, Multilateral Development and Finance Division. She has previously served in Jakarta and at Australia’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. High Commissioner Smith looks forward to furthering the #AusCan relationship, and we look forward to more formally welcoming her in Winnipeg when her schedule allows.

Although we didn’t get the opportunity to personally meet the outgoing High Commissioner Tony Negus, we did meet with others during his time in the big chair and appreciate the efforts made to extend the HC’s reach all the way to Manitoba.

Burrumbuttock Hay Run

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This post was originally published in the February 2018 issue of the monthly newsletter of The Down Under Club of Winnipeg, The Southern Yarn – http://downunderclub.mb.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Yarn2018_02-Feb.pdf

On January 26, 2018, the 13th Burrumbuttock Hay Run headed west to provide essential resources to drought-stricken farmers across regional New South Wales and Queensland. What exactly is the hay run and how did it get started?

Photo: http://hayrunners.com/index.php/photo-gallery/

The Burrumbuttock Hay Run (BHR) was founded by Brendan Farrell in 2014. When he heard about a farmer in Bourke, NSW, struggling in the drought, Brendan offered to take him a truck load of hay to help him out.

There have now been 13 successful hay runs delivering donated hay to drought-affected farmers all over NSW and Queensland.

BHR is about mates helping mates in times of need. Farmers impacted by drought often struggle to ask for help, and many also battle mental health issues because of the financial strain of trying to keep the farm afloat.

Although the hay delivered only provides temporary relief, it’s about showing fellow Australians that someone cares about them. Awareness and education are also important for Brendan and the team because they believe “Aussie farmers are critical to our future in Australia”. Continue reading →

Top two ‘most positive’ countries

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A very interesting article from Global Citizen listing the results of a survey on perceptions of the five most peaceful countries in the world.

Earlier this summer, research firm Ipsos released their findings from a poll asking this question to over 18,000 people across 25 countries. They asked participants whether a handful of countries and supra-national governmental agencies (like the European Union) were “having an overall positive or a negative influence on world affairs.”

Their results might surprise you.

One of the entities is not even a country, and based on the fact you’re reading this post on this website, you’ll likely be pleased at #1 and #2.

http://glblctzn.me/2hw43n5