European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 9, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Sunday March 9, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 17 on an upside Down november summer Day and the likelihood of meeting another car on the Road sketched in the Sandy Orange Earth is slim. William s. Ellis went inward from the Scenic Queensland coast and reports on his visit in National geographic. This big shoulder of land on Australia s East he found is not about to be overrun by fury civilization. In Queensland nature has no alternative it is too much with this  the two overwhelming aspects of Queensland Are its size and its emptiness. Queensland is so big its Borders will hold four japans with room to spare and so empty in the Middle that to venture there is to evoke the pioneering spirit Ellis writes. It contains about 22 percent of Australia s landmass most of it without human presence. The state s 1,727,000 Square Kilometres 667,000 Square Miles support a population of 2.5 million people including the 750,000 who live in Brisbane its capital. What it lacks in people it makes up in cattle there Are 9 million of them Down from 11 million a decade ago before drought and economic slumps led to using ranch land for other purposes such As the growing of wheat. Still plenty of cattle remain enough to constitute nearly half the nation s total enough to enable queenslander to Export 300,000 tons of meat annually to overseas markets principally the United states and Japan. But the size of Queensland and Many of its cattle stations forces cowboys to resort to techniques never dreamed of by Hollywood scriptwriters. On those Large stations the helicopter is used to Muster cattle. It beats Low Over the scrub setting hooves to stamping stirring the bile in a rank Bull Ellis reports. Sometimes the Pilot will put a Load in the hide of an animal to get it moving there has been at least one complaint of Metal found in beef processed in Queensland and if in the end the beast stands his ground he is killed with a shot from a powerful .44  among Queensland s human population Are More than 50,000 aboriginals the largest population of indigenous Peoples of any state in Australia. Militancy among them is on the Rise Ellis says and the National government has adopted a policy of returning traditional aboriginal lands to the people. But Queensland s powerful state government opposes this preferring to keep aboriginals on state reserves. Just As the aboriginals Are Queensland s oldest residents its newest residents Are australians from other states moving in at the rate of 1,000 a month. They come says Ellis for the Sun warmth the sea and Low taxes. Yet a cultural Gap remains. It remains Good sport in Sydney and Melbourne to depict the state As a barnyard its inhabitants As yokels he writes. Queensland and queenslander Are different,1 it is often said usually with some  no such attitude affects the Way australians think of the great Barrier reef a 1,250-mile-Long Chain of reefs and Coral islands off Queensland s East coast. Since 1983, nearly All of the reef has. Been part of a National Marine Park covering almost 135,000 Square Miles protected from commercial development of the vast Mineral wealth on the Ocean floor around it. This living thing has continued to grow for thousands of years Ellis says of the reef and to see it to touch it to be in Awe of its Beauty and in fear of its perils is an uncommon  so it is with much of Queensland. Though the human population keeps growing there is still abundant Elbow room and there Are still enough kangaroos to permit a Harvest of a million each year. Perhaps nowhere is the conjunction Between Man and nature represented by these distinctive australian creatures More pronounced than on the fourth Green at the Yeepoon Golf club on Queensland s East coast. There golfers must contend with the possibility that their Chip shots will take an unscheduled Bounce off a Kangaroo instead of reaching the Green. Club rules provide for this possibility a Ball hitting a Kangaroo play As  the Good Bloke and . Buddy Down under Boyjan Perlez new York times o n a popular satirical television shown Sydney that lampoons everyone fro the Pope to politicians a character resembling president Reagan was asked recently about the australian prime minister. A fumbling silence was followed by a Flicker of recognition then the Blessing a your prime minister or.  this portrait of Bob Hawke As a compliant american ally brings chuckles but also some approval where his popularity is based in Large measure on australians regarding him As a Good  in Sharp contrast to the fraternal administration across the Tasman sea in new zealand the three year old labor government in Australia openly boasts of its stable relationship with the United states. Visits by nuclear armed american ships Are welcomed and there is Little hint of protest about the presence of United states intelligence installations in the country s vast Interior. Some members of Hawke s government privately Admire new zealand for standing up to the americans by refusing entry to United states nuclear vessels. But they know that the australian Public still harbouring anxieties about the nation s geographic position As a White continent at the foot of a restless Asia would not stand for a rupture with the United states. There is a Strong feeling in Cabinet that they have to keep the american Alliance alive for political reasons said Alan Ramsey a former press Secretary to the foreign minister Bill Hayden and now a prominent political commentator. It is not Only in foreign policy that Hawke leading the longest run of australian labor government in 40 years has displayed conservatism particularly surprising in a party that has traditionally been dominated by its vocal and militant left Wing. Moreover As a powerful Union Leader in the 1970s, Hawke enraged the business Community with his persistent advocacy of higher wages. As prime minister he has changed. He has followed a fairly pragmatic right Wing economic policy said John Freebairn the research director of the australian business Council a lobbying group of the country s Large companies. Business finds its government liable because it believes the Road to heaven is by economic growth and the government knows that requires investment and investment requires profits Freebairn said. Hawke recently won enactment of a major tax overhaul that left both his old business foes and Union leaders uncomplaining. And he managed to sell the tax package at a Pace that would cause some envy at the White House less than a year after he first outlined his tax proposals the bulk of them had been approved by the parliament. Now for the first time Australia will have a capital gains tax applicable to All assets except primary residences. In one swoop tax deductions for business lunches company cars and trips abroad have been abolished. On the most popular Side of the equation the top income tax rate of 60 percent paid by those with incomes of Over $35,000, a hefty segment of the Middle class will be reduced to 49 percent. At the same time Hawke has cracked the monopoly of Australia s lending institutions by opening up the country whose 15 million people live in an area the size of the United states to foreign Banks. This was a policy specifically banned in the labor party s platform australian prime minister Bob Hawke. Up photo which not Long ago had advocated nationalizing the nation s Banks. Exercising his skills of salesmanship which some Here say touches the australian nerve in the same Way president Reagan appeals to an american ethos Hawke explained the initiative As a Way of making Banks competitive All for the Benefit of Consumers. Underlying the relative Contentment of the financial centers in Sydney and Melbourne the two largest cities with the Hawke Brand of labor government has been the almost unprecedented in Industrial peace in a nation where 60 percent of the labor Force is unionized. A wage Accord worked out by the government with the powerful australian Council of Trade unions which Hawke once headed Calls for automatic fixed wage raises each year instead of the previous annual scramble by unions to bargain and often strike to the Hilt. This new spirit Between labor and management was noticed last Christmas the second in a Row when neither the postal nor the Beer workers unions two Linchpin in this Distant country where mail and Beer occupy cherished status went on strike. But the Hawke government s standing in the cities where most people live despite Australia s image in the movies As one Large sheep ranch does not extend to the Rural areas. There where about 60 percent of the country s exports Are produced Farmers find themselves in predicaments similar to those of their american counterparts. Wheat growers who borrowed heavily a few years ago during expanding markets now face 20 percent interest rates and Are demanding government Relief. Last week militant Farmers threatened to March on the cities bragging they could bring Urban life to a halt. Within the circles of his government Hawke is seen not so much As the ideas Man but As the consensus maker deeply motivated unlike the Brief labor government of Gough Whitlam 10 years ago toward keeping his government in Powers. But it is his personal Demeanour the Way he projects himself As an Ordinary australian that contributes significantly to his 60 percent approval rating in current opinion polls. He has caught the egalitarian spirit of Australia Adrian Deamer a Sydney lawyer said. The prime minister went to Sydney s Bondi Beach for a surf carnival for example arriving in the front seat of his limousine. He waded into the throngs of skimp ily Clad bathers not flinching at the few topless women. After a ride in a surf boat he changed into the Ever popular australian shorts for a lifesaving ceremony and in his Broad australian accent greeted everyone with a Day the salutation of witty Paul Hogan the sunburned former Bridge Painter who Sells Australia to americans on to commercials for Down under tourism