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FUNDS APPROVED

This’ll pull in the tourists:

Kevin Rudd has approved funds for a $2.6 million shrine to the Australian Labor Party as he prepares to announce savage spending cuts in the May budget …

The proposed Tree of Knowledge “Memorial Site’’, in outback Queensland’s Barcaldine, would pay homage to the formation of the ALP in the 1891 Great Shearer’s Strike.

Tree of knowledge? So yesterday. The current generation wants to see something celebrating the Table of Knowledge.

Posted by Tim B. on 03/02/2008 at 01:31 PM
  1. You could get tourists with a snake of nakedness.

    Posted by rhhardin on 2008 03 02 at 01:41 PM • permalink

  2. And now, on the correct post:

    If either major political party in the US tried a stunt like that, they’d be laughed out of office. And rightly so.

    Wow.

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2008 03 02 at 01:53 PM • permalink

  3. tree of knowledge

    Lautreamont suggests other tourist attractions :

    the crab of debauch, the octopus of weakness of character, the shark of individual abasement, the boa of absent morals, and the monstrous snail of idiocy

    Posted by rhhardin on 2008 03 02 at 02:01 PM • permalink

  4. Monstrous snail of idiocy.

    That just might work.

    Posted by Spiny Norman on 2008 03 02 at 02:11 PM • permalink

  5. Spiny Norman, didn’t Hillary support a museum in Woodstock to “commemorate” a million filthy hippies fucking in the mud?

    Posted by ushie on 2008 03 02 at 02:15 PM • permalink

  6. ...a million filthy hippies fucking in the mud…


    Sounds like the swine flu epidemic.

    Posted by ErnieG on 2008 03 02 at 02:26 PM • permalink

  7. ‘Murcans prefer their tourist attractions to have rides and live entertainment. Perhaps the “shrine” will also feature pony rides for the kiddies, or will there only be a carbon permit for just the one source of horseshit?

    Posted by SwampWoman on 2008 03 02 at 04:01 PM • permalink

  8. Where is the Tree of Life gpong to be?

    Posted by AlburyShifton on 2008 03 02 at 04:03 PM • permalink

  9. Make that “going to be”

    Posted by AlburyShifton on 2008 03 02 at 04:04 PM • permalink

  10. CONOR DUFFY: And the tree is important not only to the Australian Labor Party, but also to the people of Barcaldine, who rely on it for tourism. Are people still coming to see the tree?

    PAT OGDEN: Yeah, you’d be surprised the amount of people that were… tourists that seemed to be taking more photos of it in its dying stage than they did when it was alive properly, you know.

    It’s… yeah, mate, it was a big significance of the town in the sense that everyone was there, all the tourists headed towards it - where’s the Tree of Knowledge? - some of them went up town years ago and didn’t know where it was, they were taking photos of fig trees and all that sort of thing, you know.

    Sounds about right for the ALP. Go looking for a Eucalyptus, find a Lemon tree.

    Posted by CB on 2008 03 02 at 04:12 PM • permalink

  11. The Tree of Knowledge - strangled by the Lantana of Corruption.

    Posted by mr creosote on 2008 03 02 at 04:14 PM • permalink

  12. In NSW, Morris Iemma is going to erect a statue of Labour looking toward the Light on the Hill, with the hand in the till.

    Posted by Big Arnie on 2008 03 02 at 04:16 PM • permalink

  13. $2.6 million? Just plant another fucking tree.

    Posted by Dminor on 2008 03 02 at 04:19 PM • permalink

  14. Genesis 3:22 gives the source of the Garden of Eden tree’s name as ‘The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil’. Mankind was banned from the ‘Tree of Life’ thereafter.
    Is the ALP now so ignorant of its Christian origins that it would name its own memorial as the most notorious artifact in all Western civilisation
    Bizarre.

    Posted by Barrie on 2008 03 02 at 04:43 PM • permalink

  15. Why not combine it with the Whitlam Dinosaur Museum another of Comrade Kev’s gifts to the Party faithful.

    Posted by watty on 2008 03 02 at 05:33 PM • permalink

  16. Millions of dollars of public money spent on the glorification of the party. Can think of a few other countries where that has happened.

    Posted by Contrail on 2008 03 02 at 05:41 PM • permalink

  17. Maybe they’ll take a page from Walt Disney’s book and put cool animals all over their tree.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2008 03 02 at 06:11 PM • permalink

  18. #16. Contrail.
    The giant poster pics erected in all public areas, with a smiling Lu Kewen, left arm pointing on high in defiance, the smiling masses at his feet, everybody happy in Kruddtopia. Ah yes, I can see it now. Oh the inspiration. Perhaps in Canberra, a bronze monument of a car with a sleeping bag inside would be mounted for all to see and worship.

    Posted by BJM on 2008 03 02 at 06:50 PM • permalink

  19. ushie? “a million filthy hippies fucking in the mud?”

    Certainly not more than 499,998 “filthy hippies” as I and the friend who conned me into going to Woodstock (along with what were apparently around half-a-million very close friends) were neither filthy nor hippies.

    I do have to admit to seeing some sights I wouldn’t have believed in someone else told the story.  Viz., people swimming in a filthy pond that I wouldn’t have let our farm pigs near, and bands playing in the rain on a platform that looked like a lightning magnet.

    However, I also saw absolutely *no* fights, which is interesting given the 250,000 young males there with drugs, women, and alcohol.

    It wasn’t as much fun as most seem to remember (since I didn’t use drugs maybe I remember it better than most).  You couldn’t really hear the music, for instance.

    OTOH, there really was an incredible amount of anonymous (well, given that quite possible a few hundred strangers were watching, if not actually participating—usually) sex.  Drugs were ubiquitous.  The alcohol ran out early (you can only carry so much when the roads are plugged and you have to walk a few miles from your car to the music).

    Unusual, to say the least, though.  Not unusual enough, I think, to deserve a taxpayer money funded memorial.

    Posted by JorgXMcKie on 2008 03 02 at 07:05 PM • permalink

  20. I’m reminded of an hilarious doco on SBS many years ago (Czech I believe) which spent an inordinate amount of time on the many shrines to Kim Il Sung throughout the DPRK.
    The dedications seemed to have a boiler-plate template celebrating the occasion where the Great Leader provided valuable insight into the various endeavours, not only of the workers of NK, but also how the most mundane moments of his life helped formulate the Juche philosophy.
    Hopefully the grateful people of Eumundi will be provided with funds to erect a monument marking the place where The Great Helmsman was forced to sleep in a car by an evil landlord and how this experience was the beginning of his unending struggle for working families.

    Posted by lotocoti on 2008 03 02 at 07:15 PM • permalink

  21. Maybe they’ll take a page from Walt Disney’s book and put cool animals all over their tree.

    Leftists would never be so gauche as to copy Disney.

    Posted by Rob Crawford on 2008 03 02 at 07:39 PM • permalink

  22. The true believers will have a new icon to adore.
    Keating kissed the Track and praised the Block.
    The Non-Franklin Dam was Hawkeyes.
    Whitlam memorialised himself.
    Chifley’s Snowy was started but not finished.
    The Brisbane Line was Curtin’s in the election of 1943.
    And since 1939 Menzies has been Pig-iron Bob.

    Posted by stackja1945 on 2008 03 02 at 08:23 PM • permalink

  23. I can’t bear to imagine the din from the chattering folks if Howard had thrown that much money at some early Liberal monument and declared it of historical significance.

    Yet some tree that was the local pissing post for decades is to be honoured because some mungo unionists discussed their inferiority complexes in its shade.

    Posted by mehaul on 2008 03 02 at 09:04 PM • permalink

  24. Who needs a tree? They ought to do a real history lesson out there.

    “Alright lad, put the hind legs inside yer boots. Get her right up against the ledge there so she’ll push back at ya. Ever since the invention of velcro gloves, lads have had it easy, but we do it the old fashioned way here.”

    And no, that ain’t how you shear a sheep, but it is the reason why the Old Testament suggested that shepherds go in groups.

    Posted by brett_l on 2008 03 02 at 09:25 PM • permalink

  25. You know, the tree of knowledge would provide plenty of lumber for a lovely set of porch furniture of knowledge.  Fire up the bandsaw, boys…

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2008 03 02 at 10:27 PM • permalink

  26. JorgXMcKie—they got over it by Woodstock 96.  More r*a*p*e*s than a Japanese anime of the type we’re not supposed to mention on account of the site filters.

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2008 03 02 at 10:29 PM • permalink

  27. What of this famous tree? What’s been spent to commemorate/preserve this important icon of early Australian exploration?

    Now I read that it may not be the explorers’ tree. And I learnt this at school. Can anyone enlighten me?

    More info on Blaxland, Lawson & Wentworth here. Crossing the Blue Mountains was a first and was an important step to reach the farming plains west of The Great Divide and explore what lay beyond.

    Posted by kae on 2008 03 02 at 11:08 PM • permalink

  28. Before you rush off on a 13-hour, 1100 km drive from Brisbane to worship at the $2.6m ALP shrine, you should know that this is what you will see at Barcaldine.
    ALP tourists might find more to interest them at Margaret’s Bidet in another famous Labor Party town.

    Posted by Skeeter on 2008 03 02 at 11:11 PM • permalink

  29. When the newly constituted RWDB party siezes power in a bloody coup notable for its excessive zeal in the purging of enemies of civilisation is duly elected by a clear mandate, we’ll spend about three mil on converting this site into the Barbeque of Bolshie Barbarism, BYO nuttin’.

    Posted by Habib on 2008 03 02 at 11:51 PM • permalink

  30. # 14 Is the ALP now so ignorant of its Christian origins that it would name its own memorial as the most notorious artifact in all Western civilisation? 
    Bizarre.

    Given what their policies (and the odd prominent figure) have done and will continue to do to Aboriginal kids, perhaps its appropriate.

    Posted by rob w on 2008 03 03 at 12:42 AM • permalink

  31. The Barcaldine Tree of Knowledge will be supported by the Wollongong Root of Development.

    Posted by Henry boy on 2008 03 03 at 12:51 AM • permalink

  32. What about the Combi of Suffering?

    Posted by rob w on 2008 03 03 at 12:53 AM • permalink

  33. Shouldn’t that be the Tree of Carnal Knowledge?

    Posted by Harry Bergeron on 2008 03 03 at 03:36 AM • permalink

  34. If you look closely, the Orchid of Apathy is flourishing nicely in it’s withered grasp.

    Posted by CB on 2008 03 03 at 04:03 AM • permalink

  35. And all those small vines seemingly growing up from the floor and latching onto the grand tree. What are they called?

    Parasites, leaches, suckers. They eventually kill the tree right? And all the associated infrastructures that rely on the tree.

    Just like Unions.

    Posted by mehaul on 2008 03 03 at 05:12 AM • permalink

  36. Is Australia becoming a one party state, with all which that portends? The unhealthy alignment of ALP/Media/Arts/Unions may make it so.

    Posted by blogstrop on 2008 03 03 at 07:11 AM • permalink

  37. LOL, Swimmer #31.

    I love grubby political jokes, particularly when they are about the ALP.
    I am still sniggering about Habib’s ”. . . . smarmy little waxgobbler”

    Shamelessly stolen and added to my vocabulary.

    O/T why don’t I get invited to trendy inner city dinner parties anymore?
    Could it be my choice of aftershave?

    Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2008 03 03 at 07:59 AM • permalink

  38. Re #19, good story, Jorge, but it did little to erase the notion that the original Woodstock consisted primarily of (half a) million filthy hippies fucking in the mud.

    Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2008 03 03 at 10:58 AM • permalink

  39. From what I heard, the tree died simply through a combination of old age, disease and an oversupply of produce from the discerning patrons of the 2 pubs opposite.

    Posted by Srekwah on 2008 03 03 at 01:25 PM • permalink

  40. What about the “Shrub of Guesswork”?

    Posted by mojo on 2008 03 03 at 01:31 PM • permalink

  41. As part of the education revolution, will the “tree of knowledge” have it’s own PC by the year 2010?

    Posted by rightsaid on 2008 03 03 at 11:51 PM • permalink

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