Great Eastern Highway road fatality and delays today,Sunday 7th September 2025

 This afternoon, miles of road freight trains and fuel trucks were brought to a crippling standstill between Clackline and Northam. Ambulances from Wundowie, traffic control vehicles, police crews, and one of Perth's yellow RAC emergency choppers attended a fatal smash on the Great Eastern Highway. Many small vehicles turned back to Perth before diversion measures were put into place at Clackline so cars could detour and continue passage.Trucks were unable to move into Northam and the Wheatbelt for many hours after the accident. The RAC helicopter was able to lift off the accident site on Great Eastern Highway after 2:30 p.m. after blinding rain cleared slightly for a few minutes. I was confined between two trucks and a good Samaritan said,"Follow me" and showed me a back road out after a long wait close to the road closure. Deborah Quirke.

Design: A Shadow on a Glass Door.

photograph by D.Quirke 2023

Design features within nature have never been matched by humans. It is so humbling...

how delicate is this tiny shadow.

 

Our Queen, my Queen...

At 3:45 this morning (West Australian time) I woke to the sad news that HRH Elizabeth II, our Queen, had passed away at Balmoral in Scottland.

 I remember seeing her in New Zealand in New Plymouth as a child and again in Australia, in Perth while Phillip was still alive. The words of Sir Robert Menzies came to mind when I realised how much her life had touched ours..."I did but see her passing by, and yet I'll love her til I die".

The Commonwealth now has a new King, King Charles the III. God save the King.

                                                               

Cleo has been found.

 Police have rescued missing child Cleo in the early hours of this morning in Canarvon, Western Australia.3rd November 2021.

A Week of Unrest - Riots and Looting in Durban, South Africa.

Photo by GUILLEM SARTORIO/AFP via Getty Images

 

The charred remains of two vehicles are seen in Phoenix Township, North Durban, on July 15, 2021 after days of violence in the community. - Armed community members and vigilante groups have stepped in to tackle unrest in South Africa, taking matters into their own hands and sometimes stoking violence as security forces struggle to restore order. Understaffed and heavily reliant on private security companies, the police was rapidly overwhelmed when riots and looting first flared last week in the southeastern province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), sparked by the jailing of graft-accused former president Jacob Zuma. 

Durban, South Africa- looting in West street after Zuma's arrest. Arson attacks in residential and manufacturing areas of Durban.

Photo by Darren Stewart/Gallo Images via Getty Images

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA - JULY 12: Burnt out trucks on the road in Sea Cow Lake area on July 12, 2021 in Durban, South Africa. It is reported that a considerable number of shops and businesses were looted over the weekend following a wave of violent protests after the incarceration of former South African President Jacob Zuma. 

Due to damage affecting infrastructure, very little news has come from Durban until yesterday, after civil unrest. I used to live very close to the Durban city centre, on the Esplanade. I started off at John Ross House (Roma Revolving Restaurant was on the 31st floor) near the harbour but moved to the Gables. I trained at Entabeni but later worked at Parklands hospital in Overport, near Berea. Since I left Durban, the main street (West street) has been renamed as 'Dr Pixley Ka Sele' street while Smith street has been renamed as Anton Lemde street. Both run parallel to each other and connect the CBD to the beachfront district. The beautiful City Hall with the Queen Victoria structure and the fountain are artifacts of history. Every year on Anzac day a few wreaths were lain at the base of the angel-like figure on the war memorial, sometimes at the base of one of the other historically protected monuments, and I always wondered who honored the Anzacs. I think the area in front of the hall is called the Francis Farewell gardens. From photographs I have seen today, a considerable amount of damage was done in the city centre.  The Oriental Restaurant at the Workshop was set alight during the unrest. This is very close to the Town Hall which has been fondly described as architecture built in the "Neo-Baroque"style . The Town Hall is a majestic building which once hosted free laser shows in the eighties while the city orchestra played beneath, in the days of Jan Michelle Jarre. Looting also affected places such as Pinetown and Umbilo . I don't know the Sea Cow Lake area but there were a number of arson attacks on factory and business premises. Shopping precincts in some suburbs were completely vandalised and stripped of almost every item in the complexes. Items stolen by looters include warehouse goods, electrical and luxury items, furniture, and sugar. Umhlanga has suffered a devastating chemical spill and wildlife has been affected and this is thought to be directly linked to damage caused to a warehouse. Reports state that all Durban beaches North of Umgeni estuary are closed.

West Australia - winter photo of Mukinbudinin July

photograph by D.Quirke, taken one week before the cold front.

 

A prayer for India....

 

India manufactures I.C.U. hospital beds, anaesthetic equipment such as ambu-bags and laryngeal masks used for resuscitation, as well as orthopedic instruments, pulse oximeters, incubators and infant warmers, syringes, disposable medical masks and vaccines.  A friend of mine once wrote to me and said, "I fell in love with India " after flying over to do sound recordings  for the Natural history department of a major English T.V station Only now can I admit how my heart sank as I read "I fell in love with..." and how my heart soared when I read "India" on the next page. I would like to offer endless thanks to the people of India and wish them strength, safety and peace wherever they sleep these nights so dark. 

Sincere thanks to Getty Images for this photograph by Xavier Galiana/AFP. This was taken in New Delhi last year in June.

"Tangled Butterflies": Cyclones Seroja and Odette hit the Wheatbelt in Western Australia on Sunday night.

just a quick photo from my phone dq

 Write this down...

solar heated shower

gas stove

matches

candles

small pot

bananas.

Two weeks ago, Mukinbudin had an explosion of butterflies...hundreds and hundreds of butterflies. On Sunday night, Tropical cyclones Odette and Seroja bound together and cut through Western Australia. Earlier, after a five hour drive I had found a voice message saying, "Stay at home-do not travel to the wheatbelt tonight. We will close the Nursing Post as we are expecting storms". It was too late.  I thought we were in for a bit of rain. I had seen large signs on the freeway saying "The Great Northern freeway will be closed from Muchea at 2:00 p.m." A group of bikers in customised motorbikes drove into Sawyers Valley as I fueled my little Nissan. One of them had three front lights in a horizontal row on his handle bars.  Earlier, I had driven in treacherous conditions at 35 km an hour on Tonkin Freeway but the rain stopped when I reached the Great Eastern highway. A few hours later, near Goomalling, a single sign said, "Great Eastern highway is  closing at 5:00pm". Doesn't sound good, I thought at the time. Feeling a bit uneasy, I went to bed with a long pair of trousers on and a black singlet, thinking that if I had to get up I could throw on a pair of boots in a hurry, unaware that there was a red alert and I had driven straight into the path of cyclones Odette and Seroja. They were  about to thrash through the state: at 01:45 I woke up and made a hot drink...there was no sound...I was standing in a shell of emptiness. Someone later suggested that it was a pressure drop. Then it rained. Rain is such a beautiful thing. It rained for an hour at a  45 degree angle and when it stopped, there was an impossible, super sonic pause  like a silent siren. Then the silence  became a hollow, breathing thing...a dull, booming  force like a line of trains in a tunnel of rock. It  was so deceptive that I nearly went back to sleep with my leg hanging out of the bed. Suddenly, I found myself standing up thinking "What the hell was that?!" when my neighbour's fence hit the wall behind my bed and bent itself around an old air conditioner. 

Mukinbudin, got off lightly. Trees were ripped out ... some just fell over. One of the small neighboring towns, Bencubbin, suffered more damage and some  homes were broken to bits- destroyed. Our power was off from 02:45 Monday morning  until 09:25 on Wednesday morning. No one was hurt but the same storm killed over 150 people in Indonesia and East Timor a few days before it smashed its way through our state. I found out (while discussing a little generator with hardly any fuel) that one of our doctors had become a member of parliament. He had been interviewed on television and had  a determined focus on espousing the benefits of legalising marijuana for aged care: not in awe but in amazement  I think I said something like "F*cking old sh*t balls". Wonderfully, some of the butterflies...elegant black and white spotted butterflies with distinctive black, white and orange markings... survived the twin cyclone weather event. Tangled in leaves and debris, and  smashed by a funnel of forces, these most delicate, sensitive and beautiful things survived. Excuse me but, "F*cking old sh*t balls!".

Rain soaked mudflat between Dowerin and Meckering. Western Australia

 

 photo taken by Deborah Quirke

Swabbing for COVID-19 technique

I observed the collection of a nasal specimen for the Corona virus on television yesterday and was disturbed to see that the swab was inserted about 6 to 8 cm in the nose, causing pain. There are guidelines available on the internet that state that oro-pharyngeal specimen swabs need to be inserted approximately from the outside of the nostril to where the opening of the nose is. In this case, it would only be acceptable for a nasal swab (at this depth) on a cadava and when done by a coroner during an autopsy. Nasal swabs can be taken as a dry viral swab or with a swab which is broken off into a vial of transport medium (depending on what the laboratory requires). A nasal swab is taken by inserting it around 1.5 cm and 2.5 cm in a gentle sweeping action around the nare. The same swab can be used to repeat on the other nare, or separate swabs can be taken. The oro - pharyngeal swab is taken by gently rolling the swab down the back of the mouth (not the throat) adjacent to the molars/epiglottis and repeated on the other side. If three swabs are required, similar results can be acquired from  2 nasal and one oro-pharyngeal or one nasal and 2 oro-pharyngeal. The nasal swabs usually cause the patient to flinch because the mucous membranes are often inflamed and sensitive from the virus. It shouldn't be painful. The deep nasal swabbing technique shown on television disturbs me because it seems extreme and unnecessarily uncomfortable when patients may already be feeling ill. There is also no reason why the patient couldn't be given alcohol rub for their hands and insert the nasal swab themselves (with a glove if available). This is not the dark ages. A naso-pharyngeal swab would be performed with an endotracheal tube, and is usually collected from suctioned secretions.

Father Christmas made it to Australia: I finally have evidence.

Photograph taken by D. Quirke on Xmas morning,  December 2019

Bay of Islands, N.Z - volcanic explosion

Choppers and emergency crew have been sent from Whakatani to assist critically injured people on White Island, which has just had a violent volcanic explosion. White Island is off the coast of the Bay of Islands, site of the Treaty of Waitangi.

So You didn't want a light-Saber from Santa: Tech-Tinkering at Wellard

Sebastian Malcolm holds  'Tech-Tinkering' on the first Saturday of each month at the , for anyone who wants to see a 3 D printer in action, look at Enhanced Reality or tinker with a few bits and pieces. sorry I missed you, but I connected to wi-fi and held my first sabre at John Wellard Community Centre today. Dheborah.

photos taken by Dheborah Quirke

Official opening of the new Mukinbudin Nursing Post 1 November 2019

Mukinbudin Nursing Post-photographs taken by D.Quirke

The new Mukinbudin Nursing Post was officially opened by the Hon. Laurie William Graham M.L.C yesterday, on the 1st November 2019. Afternoon tea was provided by the Mukinbudin Boodie Rats. Guests included  Hon. Mia Jane Davies MLA, Gary Shadbolt (Shire Council President), Evelyn Comerford - Smith (retired Shire Council President), Romina Nicolletti, and Sandie Ventris (recent Deputy Shire President), Tayla Pillage, Jennifer Reid (WA Primary Health Alliance), Wendy Newman (Deputy chair of West Australian Health Services Board), Edward Nind, Ashley Walker, Callum Mc Glashum, Jo Randall (Health Service Manager of Kununoppin hospital),, Cath Kirby ( EWPH Community Health Nurse manager), Sue Copeland, (Community Health Nurse) Robbie Fagan (retired Mukinbudin Nursing Post RN), Jill Squire (past Mukinbudin Nursing Post RN), Jacinta Herbert (Manager Eastern Wheatbelt Primary Health), Dr Leena Bayly, and Christine Halston (Project Manager). While greater forces blasted the attendees with fierce winds, beneath a clouded sky, "Welcome to Country" was read by Jenny (female community leader) from Aboriginal Health in Merredin. Amongst the guests, power players from the Health Department, Jeffrey Moffet (Chief Executive WACHS) and Sean acted as trouble shooters. Almost nursing royalty, the doyennes of the wheatbelt nursing leadership included figures such as Suzanne Seeley (nurse lead  Southern Inland Health Initiative of Western Australia), who had also opened the upgraded Merredin hospital earlier in the day. 

 Deborah Lee Quirke (RN Mukinbudin Nursing Post).

(whose fondest memories include filling buckets of water for the school goat in swampy MereMere primary school during the school holidays).

Trying to slide....

(Coming from someone who fell in love a few times)
This short song clip by Cody Simpson may explain a million unanswered questions...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=166&v=EZJHJFaTumk

Guys...Barber shop on train stop, at Wellard.

The Village at Wellard has a tiny barber shop. get off at Wellard train station (orange space man running up escalator) and walk across to the barbers, grab something to take home and eat  and head home. Easy.

Dheborah's textile surfaces II

Working with Textiles : playing with dress surfaces (Dheborah Quirke).

(Photographs by D.Quirke)

Has anyone lost a skateboard?