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Anyone worried about Aussies being anti-immigration?


Guest MontyClaude

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Yeah, I have heard plenty of mention of being a POM, which is not a nice word to use in the first place,

 

just remind them it was us who brought them cricket and rugby,

 

and anyway their ancestors are the POMs ( Prisoners of Her Majesty )

 

our ancestors are still in the U.K.

 

their ancestors are the ones who invaded the Country and bashed the indigenous population ( aboriginals )...!!!

 

and a British company built the Sydney Harbour bridge and the ozzies couldn't pay for it until 1983...!!!

 

but most here are perfectly nice too...!!!

 

the bridge was built by aussies designed by an oz,it was pre fabricated in England as oz at that time had no steel works

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the bridge was built by aussies designed by an oz,it was pre fabricated in England as oz at that time had no steel works

 

From wikipedia.

 

Under the directions of Dr J.J.C. Bradfield of the NSW Department of Public Works, the bridge was designed and built by English firm Dorman Long and Co Ltd of Middlesbrough, and opened in 1932

 

Architects for the contractors were from the British firm John Burnet & Partners of Glasgow, Scotland

wiki page endorsed by the company themselves.

 

Was constructed by Australian workers though.

 

 

 

On the subject of skills shortage, i was in a meeting today at work, where the company management said, and i quote, "we have scraped the bottom of the engineering barrel in Australia" they cannot get anyone suitable to fill the positions they have available, and cannot bid on and more contracts since they are short of engineering support! they are trying to got some of us to spend our quieter winter months going to Australia to help augment their manpower for their busy summer season. fine by me!

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From wikipedia.

 

Under the directions of Dr J.J.C. Bradfield of the NSW Department of Public Works, the bridge was designed and built by English firm Dorman Long and Co Ltd of Middlesbrough, and opened in 1932

 

Architects for the contractors were from the British firm John Burnet & Partners of Glasgow, Scotland

wiki page endorsed by the company themselves.

 

Was constructed by Australian workers though.

 

 

 

On the subject of skills shortage, i was in a meeting today at work, where the company management said, and i quote, "we have scraped the bottom of the engineering barrel in Australia" they cannot get anyone suitable to fill the positions they have available, and cannot bid on and more contracts since they are short of engineering support! they are trying to got some of us to spend our quieter winter months going to Australia to help augment their manpower for their busy summer season. fine by me!

 

I agree the bridge was built by Dorman Long. Even though they have formal claim on the design the actual origins of the design are a bit more complicated than the Dorman Long wiki page reveals.

 

"Bradfield’s long involvement with the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge began in 1903, when he was appointed Secretary to the Advisory Board set up to review the bridge tenders. Bradfield was steadily promoted within the Department of Public Works, and by 1912, he had responsibility for the bridge building branch and for the electrification of the suburban railway. Bradfield’s dual responsibilities within the department suggest that the bridge and Sydney’s public transport system were to be integrally linked.

 

Bradfield continuously reworked the design of the Sydney Harbour Bridge from 1912 to 1929, despite the disruptions of the First World War (1914–1918), which reduced the numbers of his staff. By 1922, he had eventually settled on a two-hinged steel arch design as the ideal bridge for the harbour, primarily because of its durability.

 

The Sydney Harbour Bridge Act was passed and assented on 24 November 1922. Under the act, tenders were called to construct a bridge between Dawes and Milsons Point. Tenders were closed on 16 January 1924. The winning tenderer was the British engineering firm of Dorman, Long and Co. The contract was signed on 24 March 1924. One of the conditions of the tender was that materials had to be sourced and manufactured in NSW where possible. Granite for the piers and pylons was quarried at Moruya on the NSW south coast, and just over twenty percent of the steel was produced in Australia. The remainder of the steel was manufactured in England.

 

There is some controversy about who designed the bridge, owing to the nature of the contract between the Dorman Long and the NSW Government. Obviously Bradfield had a long association with the design of the bridge, but Ralph Freeman, as the consulting engineer for Dorman Long, also had claim to be the bridge designer. Freeman was responsible for completing the final drawings under the terms of the contract. A bitter rivalry developed between the two men."

 

(Source: http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/aboutsydney/historyandarchives/sydneyhistory/historicbuildings/sydneyharbourbridge.asp)

 

This section could be seen as almost purposely misleading by the omission of facts:

 

"The most famous bridge ever constructed on Teesside was Dorman Long's Sydney Harbour Bridge of 1932. This was partly modelled on the 1928 Tyne Bridge,"

 

No mention that the harbour bridge started well before the Tyne bridge and that Bradman actually got the design of the sydney harbour bridge from a bridge in new york :(

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Guest littlesarah

Two points:

 

Firstly, 'dogging' is legitimate career choice in Australia! But it's not what you think - my husband works as a 'dogman', and I nearly cried with laughter when he got his 'dogging' licence!! The reality is far more mundane (a 'dogman' is responsible for attaching the load to a crane and directing the crane operator).

 

Secondly, there is significant doubt as to the origin of the work 'pom'. Acronyms didn't come into general use until the early 20th Century, so reference to prisoners is likely to a mis-attribution. There has been a suggestion that it is an abbreviation of the word 'pomegranate', after the appearance of newly-arrived migrants (who would likely get sunburnt during transit, and if not, would certainly burn for the first little while after arriving). There is reference to this in a quote by, I believe, Thomas Hardy (though I may have mis-remembered that).

 

I digress, though. I don't believe for one moment that 'pom' is used as a term of abuse; we are talking about a nation where people happily refer to themselves and others as 'wogs' and 'lebbos', not mention all sorts of phrases that would not be considered as anything other than offensive in Britain.

 

I've had a few patients ranting about 'immigrants', at which point I usually say something along the lines of: "they should just send them all home, every single one of them' we don't want immigrants here!". Then the penny drops as they realise that I'm referring to myself (and sometimes them)! But of course, I'm white and I work in health care, so they don't mean me, because they can see why I'm here (to work).

 

I feel for people who come to Australia seeking asylum, though. They are demonised by the press, and by the Australian authorities, especially those poor people who arrive by boat. However, again I'm digressing a bit (sorry).

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