Tag: Australia

Farmers in Australia are facing several problems due to a severe mice plague in the country. They allegedly have to put the legs of their beds in buckets of water to stop the mice from biting them while they are asleep.

Millions of mice are running riot in the eastern part of the country and are causing a serious destruction to farms by eating crops and attacking grain silos.

As per reports, livestock farmers have to scoop hundreds of dead mice they have managed to either drown in buckets or poison.

Kodi Brady, a farm owner said, “It does play massive impacts on your mental health. I don’t sleep because I’m paranoid, you know, you can hear them in your walls and your roof.”

Read More – Indian woman takes lover on tour to Australia on husband’s passport

Brady has been laying bait for mice for the last six months and despite efforts to seal his house, the rodents remain in large number.

“Your social and emotional wellbeing is shot and you are absolutely buggered,” he said.

The region has been fighting a mice plague for numerous months after heavy rains in recent years relieved the country’s worst drought in 50 years. The wet weather not only helped produce the country’s largest ever grain crop but also provided plenty food to mice.

Mice – believed to have arrived in Australia along with the first European settlers – are well suited to the country’s often harsh climate.

They can survive long periods of dry weather and when the weather turns, they thrive and rapidly reproduce as food and water gets available.

BBC News interviewed three farmers who spoke about living through the worst mouse plague in memory.

Warning: This video contains graphic content.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by BBC News (@bbcnews)

A man’s desire to own a dream home has turned into a nightmare after the finished building was just half a house due to a ‘mix up’ with the builder. 

As per details, Bishnu Aryal who hails from Nepal had saved up enough money for his dream house in Sydney. He had shifted to Australia for a new life and spent years in saving cautiously.

He signed an agreement for the building with Zac Homes for $322,400 (Rs49 million)land purchased land for $398,950 (Rs70 million) in the suburb of Edmondson Park in Sydney’s southwest.

The man claims that miscommunication with the builder, Zac Homes, resulted his dream to turn into a tragedy.

The father of two now only has ‘half the property’ he had been hoping for.

Talking to the local media, Aryal said: “I called the supervisor and asked him what’s going on, why is the house like this? And he said, ‘It’s a duplex, semi duplex’, and I nearly fainted that day.”

“Where’s my house? I want the rest of my house. It’s not a free-standing house, it’s not a duplex, it’s half a house. And it looks embarrassing,” he added.

According to reports, the agreement was for a free-standing home but, three years later, Aryal was shocked when he checked the progress and realised that the contractors had built a duplex on half the block, with a huge windowless grey wall made down the middle.

Aryal admitted that his English isn’t perfect, but asserted that he did not sign up for half a house

A 21-year-old man found himself in a strange situation when he woke up from a seven-month coma, he found homicide detectives around him when he opened his eyes. The detectives were reportedly there to charge him with the murder of his girlfriend.

As per details, Weijie went into a coma with critical head injuries last June after falling from the fourth floor balcony of his apartment in Wolli Creek, in south Sydney, Australia.

The next-day when the police visited his house for investigation, they discovered the dead body of his 19-year old girlfriend there.

It is not yet clear whether he intentionally fell from the apartment but Detective Inspector Robert Alison said “witnesses told us he fell from the fourth floor of a common area, so it was either misadventure or a suicide attempt”.

“He is very, very lucky to be alive,” added Detective Inspector Alison. “Most people would have not survived.”

The alleged killer was in a coma for almost seven months.

He and his girlfriend, hailing from China, had been together for two years and were studying in Australia on student visas. Detective Inspector Alison acknowledged how difficult the incident was for Pan’s family, who were unable to attend her funeral due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

“It is horrific. I really do feel for the family,” Alison said. “The distance being so far away makes it even more difficult for them. But we are working closely with them.”

He has been refused bail and is due to face court via video link on Wednesday.

A 120-year-old box of chocolate has been found from the personal collection of the late poet and journalist A.B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson by the staff at the National Library of Australia (NLA).

Conservators at the NLA unearthed the sweet treats in a souvenir chocolate tin that was given to soldiers by Queen Victoria during the Boer War.

The discovery was made by the library staff while unpacking the contents of the poet who wrote Waltzing Matilda and The Man from Snowy River. The purpose of unpacking the box that has the poet’s papers was to digitize the contents and make them available online.

According to the National Library of Australia (NLA), the souvenir tin was commissioned by Queen Victoria and sent to South Africa during the Boer War as a gift to troops serving on the front.

It is believed that the poet had brought the chocolates from a soldier while serving as a war correspondent in South Africa for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age for nearly a year starting in October 1899 before returning to Australia.

The NLA conservator told that there was quite an interesting smell when they were unpacked.

Paterson’s papers were passed on by his family after his death in 1941. However, the poet never referenced the chocolate bar in his writing.