The Bells Just Keep Tolling, But for Whom?

I saw this mermaid story at the ABC news WEBsite this morning -
Mermaiding surfaces as hot new hobby despite tail safety concerns
And noticed that one of the mermaids was named Jessica Bell, which made me think of the mermaid post I wrote titled -
For Whom the Kristen Bell Tolls?

I've been meaning to write a post about the Australia Day drownings and a few other water stories I've spotted in the news, so I may as well tag it on now while the bell is still ringing in the news media.

I remember seeing the above news story in a post at
'The Secret Sun' blog -
Mermaid Apocalypse: Social Engineering through Memetic Overkill
And so, I decided to keep an eye out for any strange swimming stories appearing in my local papers and news websites. 
It was the day before Australia Day when I saw this story about a transgender pool party causing "unintended ripples" that I started taking notice of any story that resonated with what Chris was writing over at 'The Secret Sun' blog with 'Song to the Siren' themes.

That story appeared in the same paper as the news of 'The Shape of Water' getting 13 Oscar nominations along with our Margot getting a nomination for 'Best Actress'.

And this story below was in the same paper, too.

Starting to get that sinking synching feeling yet?

The Australia Day edition of the newspaper had Olympic swimmer Susie O'Neil on the front page as one of the recipients of the Australia Day honours.

Then inside the same Australia Day edition was a young girl frolicking around in a lake on Queensland's Fraser Island.
As in Elizabeth Fraser the singer.
And the island is also named after an Eliza Fraser, a Scottish woman who was aboard a ship that was wrecked on the island off the coast of Queensland, Australia, on 22 May 1836, as well.
Australia Day is a day for all things Australian and there is plenty of 'Waltzing Matilda' going on.

"The Australian poet Banjo Paterson wrote the words to "Waltzing Matilda" in January 1895 while staying at Dagworth Station, a sheep and cattle station near Winton in Central West Queensland owned by the Macpherson family."

Up jumped the swagman and sprang into the billabong.
"You'll never catch me alive!" said he
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong:
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."

"Sirens of the Sea" World and Coasting with Archetypes?

Next day in the paper is the tragic story of two teenagers who both drowned in the same Queensland dam on Australia Day.

A dam is sort of like an artificial billabong.

"A billabong (/ˈbɪləbɒŋ/, BIL-ə-bong) is an Australian term for an oxbow lake, an isolated pond left behind after a river changes course.

Billabongs are usually formed when the path of a creek or river changes, leaving the former branch with a dead end."

Two people found dead in dam in tragic Australia Day drownings
In the same paper was an advert for Fraser Island.

And another drowning occurred on the Gold Coast, as well.

The next day three people fell off a boat off the coast of Western Australia and were lucky not to have drowned -

Three people saved after falling from boat in Swanbourne

And on the subject of billabongs there was this story a few days after about the CEO of Quicksilver missing off the coast of France.

Searches called off for Quiksilver boss missing at sea off France
"He managed the California-based company from Quiksilver's European headquarters in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, a seaside town not far from France's border with Spain.
Boardriders Inc announced on Jan. 5 it had agreed to buy Australia's Billabong International Ltd in a deal that valued the company at A$ 197.7 million ($159.92 million).
The deal came nearly two years after Boardriders emerged from a five-month stint in bankruptcy court triggered by competition and operational issues that plagued performance.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2015 and transferred control to U.S. private equity firm Oaktree Capital Management, its largest debtholder, as part of the restructuring process.
Oaktree holds a 19 percent stake in Billabong."

Then there was this WTF(?) news story above about a wallaby found drowning/swimming in Sydney Harbour.
Wallaby rescued from Sydney Harbour by Manly ferry workers

Everywhere you looked in the mainstream media there were drowning stories in late January, early February.

Life's a Beach

Then there was this "message in a bottle" story in February about a bottle being found on Fraser Island 60 years ago -
Message in a bottle mystery leads to hunt for author's family 80 years on

The January 31st, 2018 front page

And then the next day I see Laurie Lawrence on the front page ringing the alarm bells.

I like Laurie, he's a good bloke and his heart's in the right place when it comes to swimming, plus my kids went to his swim school when they were toddlers and were learning to swim.

And on page 24 of that paper was the story of the missing Quicksilver/Billabong boss, which I have already mentioned further up the post.

I think you've probably got my drift by now and because Chris Knowles over at 'The Secret Sun' blog has been putting the Las Vegas/Vega/Vegan meme under the magnifying glass lately -

Go Go Vegas Go!
I thought I would end the post (well I would have ended it here until Mick Fanning's story came up in the current news feed) with a news story about a former Olympic champion swimmer who has gone Vegan.

I'm eating a vegetarian diet myself with no dairy products on the menu and like Steph, if I go to a birthday party and the cake is made of dairy products, I'll eat the cake not to offend the person whose birthday cake it is ... unless it's pure beefcake that is:-)

Mick Fanning, three-time world champion surfer, announces retirement at 36

And Mick's retiring in the Year of the Dog, too?
And at Bell's Beach of all places.