At home at RIVERBEND on the beautiful Clyde: Ninety years old and still going strong!

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

Ninety years old and still going strong!

My friend in Cooktown, Hubert Hofer, who is an old acquaintance from my days on Thursday Island, sent me the link to this video. He gets a mention at 54:42

When I want to find friends' birthdays, I go to naa.gov.au, click 'RecordSearch' and 'Passenger arrivals', and type in their names to find their airport arrival cards, provided they'd travelled overseas (they all have) and they are old enough to have done so before 1972 (they all are).

I must've forgotten about Ben Cropp, Australia's famous documentary filmmaker, now living in Port Douglas, because a friend in Cooktown just sent me the link to the above YouTube clip in celebration of his 90th birthday. A quick check with naa.gov.au where I found this airport arrival card from 1969, and, yes, Ben had turned 90 on the 19th of January!

I have all the DVDs of his underwater exploits, but you may not. Luckily, Ben has very generously shared many of them on YouTube, and you can watch them here. Wish him "Happy Birthday, Ben!" in the Comments.

Googlemap Riverbend

In eigener Sache!

For an earlier photo, click on image

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.

For a translation, click here.

Notice to North American readers:

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.