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I had to add this little preamble because something has gone wrong with the software. For some reason the side panel does not display unless I add this fixed "Welcome" post to the top. The mysteries of computers and computer software. Perhaps I should stick to playing my accordion. Last night a neighbour hammered on the door. It was already past midnight! Luckily, I was still awake and playing my accordion — I'm only joking; we live on seven acres and our only neighbour is the river.
The BHP share price ended last week at $58.41, up by 28% from last year's closing price. It's now at the highest price the miner has ever traded at in its 140-year history as a listed company. In short, BHP shares are on fire — and there's another 20% to come, according to one analyst.
On Wednesday, Jason Fairclough of Bank of America put a 12-month price target of $68 on BHP shares. What's most exciting about this analyst's tip is that the guy has form. Last month, Fairclough was the first expert to suggest the shares could go into the high $50s in 2026.
Fairclough put out a note in mid-January tipping that BHP shares could rise to $56 within a year. His previous target had been $49. At the time, five other analysts had also recently updated their price targets.
All of them, except Barclays, were tipping the late $40s range for the BHP share price. Barclays' price target was $50.12. Over ensuing weeks, Goldman Sachs raised its price target on BHP shares to $57.70, while Morgan Stanley increased it to $56.50. And Fairclough went to $57.
BHP shares cracked the $50 mark for the first time in two years on 27 January. Then the mining share hovered between $49 and $52 for a couple of weeks. Then came BHP's 1H FY26 report and a $4.3 billion silver streaming deal, both announced on 17 February, which added serious fuel to the mining stock's fire.
The iron ore and copper mining giant reported a 28% profit increase to US$5.64 billion for 1H FY26. The news made the brokers go back to their models to update their price targets. Fairclough lifted his target to $60. Then, on Wednesday, he lifted his 12-month target to $68.
Most of my blog posts are about me, myself, and I, so this one about Fredy Kocher should come as a welcome surprise to you. At twenty years of age, Fredy Kocher and his friend Gerry boarded the maiden voyage of SS CANBERRA on June 2, 1961, bound for Australia and in search of adventure.
Leaving behind the mountains of Grenchen, Switzerland, Fredy had longed to travel the world and Australia offered the perfect doorway to explore life in an entirely new land.
He had a loving family, a good job, many friends and skied every winter, but the call of travel saw him set forth and embark on this next exploration.
Upon arrival to Station Pier in Melbourne in the darkness of night on June 27, the pair spoke little English between them but were met by immigration officials and directed to board a train to an unfamiliar destination.
When daylight finally broke, the surroundings of Bonegilla felt otherworldly: the eucalyptus trees were foreign and the orderly line of P-style army huts and large buildings of the Migrant Reception and Training Centre resembled a strange new village.
Fredy's registration card at Bonegilla
Fredy soon acquainted himself with the familiarity of other Swiss, German or French migrants. They gathered to amuse themselves with playing guitar, singing, exploring the surroundings and sharing their hopes and dreams.
Time passed quickly through card games and hut decorating as a new life began to take shape for the young man.
Every new beginning comes with adaptation, and for Fredy one notable adjustment was the food at Bonegilla.
Coming from the superb home-cooking of his mother, he was a little shocked to find salads with no dressing and there was always the persistent craving for fish and chips or a hamburger. This led to the occasional hitchhike to a nearby service station that was equipped with a café to satisfy these small cravings.
In his earlier youth, Fredy had been gifted a movie camera which ignited a life-long passion for filmmaking. While still at school, he worked as a projectionist at the local cinema in Grenchen, so it was no surprise that his camera joined him on his travels to Australia.
Fredy’s camera captured the daily life at Bonegilla’s centre in 1961– filled with moments of guitar playing, polishing footwear, laughing with new friends and the companionship that would endure for a lifetime. Notably many years later, Fredy went on to become the best man to one such friend he met at Bonegilla.
With a job as a fitter and turner on the horizon in Sydney, Fredy departed Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre on July 12, 1961, after almost two weeks of immersing himself in life at the centre.
What was supposed to be a two year stay in Australia blossomed into a lifelong love affair with the country – with Fredy becoming an Australian citizen in April of 1967.
Fredy and his future wife Mim
Life took him to many parts of Australia, from Sydney to Griffith and Melbourne, where he fell in love with his wife, Mim. Together, they had two sons, Nicholas and Alexander, and celebrated 59 years of marriage. Their family increased to include two daughter’s in-law and five grandchildren.
“Fredy had many fond memories of his time at Bonegilla – it made a huge impression on him,” Fredy’s wife, Mim, shared.
“It was a time of hope and excitement for the start of his Australian adventure.”
As his Australian story continued to flourish, Fredy became known for his creative spirit and culinary talents, winemaking expertise and skills as an air-conditioning engineer. He continued to make films and often travelled back to Switzerland to share stories of his new life with his homeland family.
Fredy passed away in 2025 after almost 85 years full of adventure, joy and enduring love for his family.
Fredy passd away without reclaiming his immigration papers from the National Archives. Perhaps his family will.
Bonegilla was Fredy’s beginning. It sparked a deep affection for Australia and a lifetime of discovery, friendship and belonging. For Fredy, and for thousands of migrants like him, Bonegilla was not just a temporary stop, but a starting point where a foreign land grew to feel like home.
These memories became the foundation for a life defined by curiosity, connection and gratitude for the journey that began at Bonegilla.
Fredy returned to Bonegilla in 2021 to reconnect with his past. The footage he captured during his time at the centre in 1961 still lives on today.
Fredy making his pilgrimage to Bonegilla
What a great story — and not a single me, myself, and I in it, except to say that I, too, came to Australia and passed through Bonegilla, but four years later and one year younger, and I didn't leave a loving family nor many friends behind. As for skiing every winter — I never stood on a pair of skies in my life! And I have yet to make my pilgrimage to Bonegilla.
Am 26.9.1964 füllte ich meinen Auswanderungsantrag nach Australien mit Fahrtunterstützung aus. Ich hatte keine Ahnung was mich in Australien erwarten würde, schrieb aber:
Ich habe den Wunsch zu Anfang für ein paar Jahre auf Farmen - wenn möglich bei deutschen Farmern - zu arbeiten um die englische Sprache perfekt zu lernen. Danach möchte ich gern wieder den kaufmännischen Beruf ergreifen.
Der Beamte in der australischen Botschaft bemerkte ...
Scheint guter Typ zu sein. Versteht seine Arbeitschancen. Sollte sich ohne Schwierigkeiten einsiedeln. Seine Fragen waren zur Sache. Gut angezogen.
... meinte aber daß ich einen guten Fabrikarbeiter machen würde:
Naja, erstens kommt es anders, zweitens als er dachte, oder vielleicht wusste er nicht daß er einen zukünftigen Vereidigten Wirtschaftsprüfer vor sich sitzen hatte. ☺
I love a good nap. Sometimes it's the only thing that gets me out of bed in the morning. This afternoon I fell asleep on the old sofa on the verandah with the radio still playing. Then I woke up again and heard four people discussing their messed-up family affairs.
A woman's voice said, "My parents came to visit. My partner told them that she ..." I didn't care about what she said; all I heard was the personal pronoun. Then a male voice chipped in, "It was the same with my partner. He said ..." Again, all I heard was the personal pronoun.
That was two out of four participants in a family discussion on ABC Radio National being queer! Surely, that is not representative of our nation, so why push it down our throats? They are, like Muslims, only a tiny percentage of our population, and yet, like with Muslims, we are expected to adjust our lives to their totally different way of life.
Homosexuality is not normal. A man kissing another man is not normal. A man wanting to be treated like a woman is not normal. And yet, now that they have received our acceptance, many of them also demand our full admiration. There are many homosexuals whom I admire for their intellect — Oscar Wilde, Robert Dessaix, and Stephen Fry immediately spring to my mind, not because they have pointed out their sexuality but others — and who don't demand from us that we admire them for their sexuality, unlike those who are prancing down Oxford Street.
Those who are prancing down Oxford Street advertise their behaviour as "normal" and demand that we accept it, all in the name of political correctness, a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and promoted by mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end.
So, to all those shining wits who wouldn't recognise a spoonerism if it hit them in the face, I say, "Get a life" or, better still, "Get a job". And to the ABC, I say, "Please be more representative of Australian society."
Ich wanderte im Jahre 1965 vom (k)alten Deutschland nach Australien aus. In Erinnerung an das alte Sprichwort "Gott hüte mich vor Sturm und Wind und Deutschen die im Ausland sind" wurde ich in 1971 im Dschungel von Neu-Guinea australischer Staatsbürger. Das kostete mich nur einen Umlaut und das zweite n im Nachnamen - von -mann auf -man.
Australien gab mir eine zweite Sprache und eine zweite Chance und es war auch der Anfang und das Ende: nach fünfzig Arbeiten in fünfzehn Ländern - "Die ganze Welt mein Arbeitsfeld" - lebe ich jetzt im Ruhestand in Australien an der schönen Südküste von Neusüdwales.
Ich verbringe meine Tage mit dem Lesen von Büchern, segle mein Boot den Fluss hinunter, beschäftige mich mit Holzarbeit, oder mache Pläne für eine neue Reise. Falls Du mir schreiben willst, sende mir eine Email an riverbendnelligen [AT] mail.com, und ich schreibe zurück.
Falls Du anrufen möchtest, meine Nummer ist XLIV LXXVIII X LXXXI.
This blog is written in the version of English that is standard here. So recognise is spelled recognise and not recognize etc. I recognise that some North American readers may find this upsetting, and while I sympathise with them, I sympathise even more with my countrymen who taught me how to spell. However, as an apology, here are a bunch of Zs for you to put where needed.
Zzzzzz
Disclaimer
This blog has no particular axe to grind, apart from that of having no particular axe to grind. It is written by a bloke who was born in Germany at the end of the war (that is, for younger readers, the Second World War, the one the Americans think they won single-handedly). He left for Australia when most Germans had not yet visited any foreign countries, except to invade them. He lived and worked all over the world, and even managed a couple of visits back to the (c)old country whose inhabitants he found very efficient, especially when it came to totting up what he had consumed from the hotels' minibars. In retirement, he lives (again) in Australia, but is yet to grow up anywhere.
He reserves the right to revise his views at any time. He might even indulge in the freedom of contradicting himself. He has done so in the past and will most certainly do so in the future. He is not persuading you or anyone else to believe anything that is reported on or linked to from this site, but encourages you to use all available resources to form your own opinions about important things that affect all our lives and to express them in accordance with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Everything on this website, including any material that third parties may consider to be their copyright, has been used on the basis of “fair dealing” for the purposes of research and study, and criticism and review. Any party who feels that their copyright has been infringed should contact me with details of the copyright material and proof of their ownership and I will remove it.
And finally, don't bother trying to read between the lines. There are no lines - only snapshots, most out of focus.
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