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The assessment of a dredging projects soil conditions are the most important factor to determine dredgeability, the choice of suitable equipment, production rates and ultimately the associated investment for the works.

A prudent tenderer when analysing the site data needs to be assured that the data has been collected and prepared by a competent soil investigation company in accordance with relevant international standards such as BS, ASTM or others.

Rather than rely on the basic adverse physical conditions clause in the case of significant capital works involving excavation of varying subsoil, weathered or solid rock it is suggested to apply reference conditions in the Contract based on the actual information from the soil survey transposed into production rates which can be easily measured and reviewed, beyond which the Contractor is entitled to claim for additional compensation.
Of the contracts available for use on dredging contracts only the FIDIC 1999 Red Book and the UK’s NEC 3 Engineering and Construction Contract deal with the broad concept of reference conditions.

The concept of how adverse physical conditions are dealt with verges on the holy grail of marine infrastructure projects. On the one side they are part of a Marine Contractors ‘must have’ clauses whilst it is often viewed by Clients as the equivalent of a ‘get out of jail free’ card. The balance of risk has been hotly debated and fought over the years with the results little published or revealed due to disputes being resolved in arbitration or adjudication.

Added to this mix are the notion of unforeseeability and what an experienced contractor can expect its no wonder that the vast majority of marine infrastructure claims revolve around the issue of sub-surface conditions.

Even a full-scale and technically perfect soil investigation can only test a fraction of the volume that is to be dredged by the Contractor. Combined with the fact that natural conditions like rock strength, grain size, permeability, plasticity, presence of rock outcrops or boulders (to name a few) vary enormously, it is no wonder disputes on dredging contracts often focus on soil conditions that are claimed to be different from what “an experienced Contractor could reasonably have foreseen” .

The basic principle of adverse physical conditions this that a contract clause will give the Contractor the “right to claim for additional time and money in case unforeseeable physical conditions which may occur, which were not reasonably foreseeable by an experienced contractor”. This simple principle is present in one way or the other in virtually every dredging contract.

A dual purpose lies hidden behind this contract principle, namely to :

• Compensate the Contractor for encountering conditions more severe than could be derived from investigations available at the time of preparing his offer. Employers must not and should not expect the Contractor to gamble: Taking a risk provision covering for every imaginable situation would make an offer non-competitive, whereas the absence of a risk provision is a denial of the fact that dredging has significant uncertainties by its very nature. Employers tend to be overly biased towards achieving the lowest contract price for their work by passing all conceivable risk to the Contractor whether he is in a position to dealt with it or not.
• Protect the Employer from Contractors who may try to claim additional compensation for interpretation or calculation errors mistakes made by the Contractor and resulting in a loss on the project. A loss in itself is no justification for additional compensation, and furthermore the Employer has very limited possibilities to assess the factual cause of the loss.

In between the relative simplicity of the two extremes lies a gray area, and it is here that disputes are generally fought out. The author supports the view that a sufficiently high threshold for additional compensation should be present, balancing the interest of the Employer (by not having to battle over every minor issue) and of the Contractor (by having capped his risk and defined additional compensation above threshold). It is further suggested that a risk matrix framework could be established to assess the magnitude of the additional compensation before award of the contract.

For more info on dredging contracts, and maritime contracts, please visit Kinlan Consulting, an expert FIDIC Contract Consultant.

A mountain of Christmas gifts and goods make their way from outlets and into homes each Christmas season. It is a sad fact that, not long after the festivities subside, most of those well-meaning gifts move on to mounds of landfill.

Slowing the migration is as easy as setting your family the Green Christmas Challenge to send as little as possible to landfill this Christmas. Inspired by the target of a approximately empty wheelie bin, you will all make decisions that generate less waste.

Many actions give to celebrating a green Christmas, like selecting locally-grown foods to reduce food miles, switching to LED eco Christmas lights and donating gifts to charities. The massive amount of food, plastic and non-recyclable waste is the main environmental problem, but it is a simple one for households to take on.

Sit the team down before Christmas and talk about ways to reuse, reduce and recycle. Here’s some ideas you started…

Eco friendly plastic-free picnics
Disposable plastic plates and cups are comprised of petrochemicals, so pollution is made in their manufacture and when thrown-away they sit in landfill forever. Choose reusable plates that you wash up or use palm leaf plates, a stylish plant alternative. They add a chic eco friendly style to your festive table and can be put onto your garden as mulch, rather than in the bin.

Trim a living tree
When Santa arrives in his carbon-neutral sleigh, surprise him with a live Australian Wollemi pine tree. This recently discovered tree is now obtainable in nurseries. A potted Wollemi can grow with your family to be trimmed year after year. Or, why not make it a tradition to find a lovely Eucalyptus branch that can be composted when the Christmas festivities are over.

Wrap it again
A great stretch the budget and save piles of waste is to wrap presents in newspaper, magazines and even junk mail. For kids use the comics, for car lovers use the motoring pages. Instead of wrapping, place gifts inside reusable shopping bags, or sew cloth bags from festive Christmas material that your family can re-tie with ribbon each year. For an extra special Green Christmas touch, Earth Greetings make gorgeous post consumer waste wrapping paper with Australian Christmas designs printed with vegetable inks.

Detour past the bin
, is this Christmas gift likely to wind up in the bin within a few weeks? If yes, select something else. The old saying quality not quantity is a great friend of the planet. Even the cheapest items use the planet’s limited resources, energy and water to manufacture. Rather than buy a risky gift, think about a gift voucher or make a donation to a charity on behalf of the individual. Should you receive an unsuitable gift, pass it straight on to a charity such as the Salvos.

A green Christmas gift for your garden
Food scraps make up a large portion of rubbish and once in landfill they generate methane, a concentrated greenhouse gas. Compost at home instead and turn leftovers into fertiliser for your garden. The Bokashi composting bin is a popular system that sits conveniently in your kitchen.

Packaging-free paradise
Picture a paradise where Christmas morning is free from mounds of discarded plastic packaging. It just requires a little extra thought and effort. Locally made and hand-made Christmas gifts are less likely to be over-packaged. A trip to the local Farmer’s Markets you stock up on fresh festive food with minimal packaging.

Rather than talking rubbish; this Christmas, your family will soon be asking is this for landfill, recycling or composting? And the joy of reaching your challenge will bring good tidings to all.

Biome Eco Stores is a chic retail outlet with a conscience. Firmly committed to eco friendly principles, Biome offers a unique and meaningful green Christmas collection for gifts and decoration.

New Guinea is the world’s second largest island, and is was well one of the world’s last, vast and remote wildernesses. With a complex political history, this great island is divided. The western half, is now known as Papua, a region of Indonesia, while the eastern half, Papua New Guinea or PNG, has been some an independent country since 1975.

New Guinea is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, and endures sporadic volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and occasional tsunamis. A mountain range rises across the length of New Guinea and deep rainforest is all enveloping.

The island contains an astonishing wealth of natural features, some protected by National Parks and UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserves, but huge swathes of it are unmapped and virtually unreachable. The primary cities of both countries are, naturally, on the coast, but there’s little in the way of roads or infrastructure. Travel is mainly by boat. Rivers criss-cross the whole region or you can travel on foot, or by plane

New Guinea is inhabited by about 1,000 different tribes, speaking a corresponding number of languages. Tourists are few, mainly visiting the extraordinary Dani culture, in Papua’s stunning Baliem Valley. Despite being nominally Christians, the Dani live traditionally.

Men wear penis sheaths, females wear short skirts, made of orchid fibres, worn beneath the buttocks. This high valley, surrounded by mountain peaks, is a vision of incredibly fertile cultivated fields. The Baliem River provides fish, and pigs are essential, being consumed at every ceremony.

In PNG the major attraction is the tribal hunter-gatherers who live along the banks of the island’s longest river, the Sepik. This culture is intrinsically entwined with crocodiles, and the men’s huge scarification reflects the animal’s scales.

Living in communal longhouses, Sepik River people are famous for their wood-carvings. Varying in style from village to village, nearly all of these find their way into the truly great museums around the world.

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After the declaration of war in September 1939 house construction went through a period of decreasing activity. But it did not drop to its minimal level until February 1942 when National Security Regulations posed severe restrictions.

Private building ceased in many areas and was limited in others. However, under the War Housing Program, state and commonwealth authorities did continue with essential housing, such as that needed for munitions workers and their families.

Clear indication of the degree of change is seen in the official statistics. More than 40000 new homes were built throughout Australia in the financial year 1938-39, but in 1942-1943 there were fewer than 4000.’

In the editorial of the Australian Home Beautiful for January 1942, we read of conditions up to that time. Building restrictions, at the moment of writing, limit expenditure on new domestic buildings to £3000 and on renovations to £250; but conditions grow harder week by week. In spite of this, a great deal of new and interesting building is being carried on over a widespread area and this will continue as long as materials are available.

War in Europe and North Africa was distant enough for Australia to seem relatively secure. With the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, and their inexorable advance in our direction, any remaining complacency evaporated.

A. V. Jennings, the well-known construction company founded in 1932, continued building houses on its construction within 25 miles (40 km) of the Melbourne GPO as well as restrictions on the transfer of land brought development of the estate to a halt.

As early as May 1941 wartime conditions had begun to cause shortages of building materials and dwindling sales. In that month A.V. Jennings advertised seventeen villa sites and seven business sites, all lots to include, electricity, gas, sewerage, roads, paths and crossings.’

Of the 121 residential blocks, fifty-nine houses had been completed by the beginning of 1942. They were typical of the well-built, double-brick houses constructed by Jennings over the previous decade. Beauview Estate was in a very attractive elevated area with panoramic views and a mere six-and-a-half miles (10.50 km) from the city.

In 1942, with home building now at a standstill, A.V. Jennings averted complete disaster with the sale of all unsold blocks on the estate to the large Melbourne estate agency T.M. Burke. As a company Jennings actually gathered strength through the challenges offered by wartime government construction contracts, so that when it returned to housing on a large scale in the mid-1950s it was able to regain and extend its early reputation in the domestic field.

Brick houses of the type built by A.V Jennings between 1932 and 1942 were basically conservative in their design when compared with the few examples of International Modern built at the same time. Some of the forms or details suggested the continuing popularity of `Spanish Mission’ or `Old English’, but generally, there was a tendency toward a common sense functionalism with easily maintained surfaces, modern kitchens, hot-water services reticulated to five or six points, internal toilets and many other features taken for granted by generations.

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Stick a pin in a globe through the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and it emerges almost exactly through the Cocos in Costa Rica.

Discovered in 1609, these islands were settled and owned by a single family from 1827 until the Australian Government forcibly acquired them in 1978 for a payment of over $6 million.

Lying 2,770 km (1,732 ml) northwest of Perth, the 27 coral islands are formed into two large, heavily vegetated atolls. Not only are they the only atolls that Darwin ever visited, but the coral ecosystem remains intact and you can still see in their pristine condition exactly why they played such an important part in his theory of evolution.

North Keeling, set apart from the other islands, isn’t even inhabited; but you can see extreme rarities like the Cocos buff-banded rail, robber land crabs, and both green and hawksbill turtles among other wonders, under its protection as Pulu Keeling National Park, covering both North Keeling and its surrounding waters.

The 600 or so Cocos (Keeling) islanders live on Home and West Islands, both given over to copra and coconut plantations that only add to their tropical glamour. There is no tourist industry at all. Instead, there are facilities for visitors, sponsored by islanders who take an almost personal interest in everyone who comes.

If you happen to be there, you’re genuinely welcome to participate in the school fete, sports day, or concert night; and you’d be unwise not to join in quiz night at the Cocos Club, or not to watch the annual Ardmona Cup Aussie Rules football match. The tradition of hospitality is both Australian and Malay, representing the origins of the tight-knit community.

The islanders, as much as the islands themselves, have retained a form of unpolluted innocence, and share a mutual respect that visitors immediately respond to. These islands are a dreamscape worthy of Gauguin.

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In the Indian Ocean off the Horn of Africa lies a small archipelago of four islands and islets. Although closer to Africa, the islands are part of the Republic of Yemen. The archipelago consists of the main island of Socotra and three smaller islands known collectively as The Brothers Abd al Kuri, Samhah and Darsa.

The islands were separated from the mainland so long ago that much of their flora and fauna has evolved here, making the islands of great ecological importance. Due to their geographical isolation, the islanders have also had little outside influence, and arriving on Socotra is like stepping back in time.

The culture on Socotra is very different from the ways of the modern world. Until the airport was built in 1999, the only way to get here was by boat, and during the monsoon season the strong winds and high seas made the island inaccessible.

Most Socotris still live without electricity, running water or a paved road. Until 1990 the island still had a barter economy, and even today most people in the mountainous areas still live in caves. The main island is a little over 130 km (80 mi) long and around 35 km (21 mi) wide.

Socotra is a place of contrasting landscapes, with the turquoise lagoon at Qalansiya and the white sand dunes at Ras Moroi, the flower-filled alpine meadows of the Haghier Mountains and the desolate cave-riddled plateau of the interior. Rising to over 1,500 m (4,921 ft), the Haghier Mountains loom over Hadibo, the island’s capital, and dominate the skyline.

The red granite peaks are peppered with silver lichens which grow thickly on the bare rocks above the tree line. Streams bubble down from the misty heights, teeming with lively fish and freshwater crabs. Limestone plateau spread east and west, providing alkaline soils for the iconic Dragon’s Blood Tree for which the islands are famous. The locals collect the blood-red resin, known as cinnabar, from the tree by making incisions in the bark.

In the ancient world, it was used to enhance the colour of precious stones and glass, and as a pigment in paints, and had various medicinal qualities. The long isolation of the Socotra archipelago and its fierce heat and drought have combined to create a unique endemic flora and fauna.

There are no fewer than 300 plant species, 113 insect species, 24 reptile species and six bird species that can be found nowhere else in the world. Botanists rank the flora of Socotra among the ten most endangered island flora in the world, and steps are being taken by the government to protect this unique and spectacular habitat.

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The Pearl of the Indian Ocean lies only 31 km (19 ml) off India’s south coast. Its modern name is taken from the Sanskrit ancient Indian epics Mahabharata and the Ramayana, and means resplendent land.

Sri Lanka’s chief characteristic is intensity …of colour, of beauty, of religious belief, of sectarian commitment, and of affection it inspires in everyone who goes there. The first to stay became the stuff of legend: the 2,500 year-old Mahawamsa chronicle describes the arrival of the ‘Sinhala’ (lion race), and the island’s history since has been a series of shifting kingdoms, each leaving a treasury of ruins and literature, and a tangle of relationships that are still being decoded in its modern political life.

When you go to Sri Lanka’s cultural triangle of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Dambullal Sigiriya, you see the architectural glories of the past, but they are living history. They are active religious sites, not floodlit movie sets.

The island has the perfect set-up. At any time of year you can lounge on immaculate beaches, and cool off in the hills when you get hot. Colombo, the capital, is a chaotic modem city, and an appropriate synthesis both of Sri Lanka’s indigenous cultures and its Portuguese, Dutch and British influences.

Tropical beaches stretch north to the bustle of Negambo, a characteristic fishing community; and south in a chain of pink and white arcs, past turtle hatcheries (Indurwa), masked carvers (Ambalangoda), and the coral reefs of Hikkaduwa.

Go to Yala West National Park, a teeming rainforest of elephants, leopards, buffaloes, monkeys, crocodiles, deer, sloth bears and a galaxy of birds, on your way to the lush, lakeside hill resort of Kandy.

It’s Sri Lanka’s exotic spiritual centre, and its spectacular parades of frenetic dancers, firewalkers and pounding drummers are, in fact, often a signal to prayer.

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Digital Printing, as its name implies, is the process of producing digital images on physical surfaces (called substrates) using either toner or ink jets. These substrates can include film, common paper, plastic photographic paper, and even cloth.

Digital printing is by far the quickest and most affordable printing technique for a quantity of 500 prints or less. It is often used in preparing cards, multi-page documents, brochures, sell sheets, flyers, video boxes and CD packaging. Digital printing has several advantages over the traditional, and often more expensive, offset printing. Some of these advantages include:

Turnaround: If you need the work done fast, digital usually offers very fast delivery.

Cost-effective: In addition to being user-friendly, digital printing has low setup costs.

Proofing: Digital offers accurate proofs since you see an actual sample of the printed piece.

Customisation: Digital printing offers affordable and easy customisation of marketing materials, direct mail pieces, letters, etc.

For the domestic user: The ink and cartridges used for this kind of printing are widely available.

As you can see from the many advantages discussed above, it is little wonder why this form of printing is fast becoming the most popular method of printing.

To make the most of your digital printing, here are some helpful hints that will make the whole process of error and stress free:

- Wear cotton gloves and keep the printing media away from dust and grime.

- Give enough time for inkjet prints to dry.

- For preserving unused media, store in a plastic cover.

Digital printing has eliminated the long and laborious steps that are involved with traditional printing. It provides a much more affordable printing option for lower quantities. If you are after faster turnaround times with excellent print quality, then you should opt for digital printing.

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Often described in the post WWII years as `the housing shortage’, the Australian effort to address a very troubling problem has in time come to be called `the housing boom’. Undoubtedly it was a boom in demand and activity. There was also a notable increase in home ownership, achieved in many cases through dogged individual effort and years of sacrifice.

Changing social attitudes offered new opportunities, but also narrowed the options. Emphasis in government housing social engineering was at first on rental dwellings; later there was a swing toward the ownership of low-cost housing. At a time when various influencers had reduced the amount of rental accommodation, governments, banks, finance companies, building societies and housing co-operatives were offering a wider range of opportunities for home ownership. Ironically this was at a time of a rise in building costs.

Top on the list of factors linked to rising costs were the introduction in 1948 of the 40-hour working week, and marked increases in the cost of building materials. By 1948 an employer had to pay an unqualified building labourer a higher salary than a tradesperson had received in early 1946.

To keep both labourer and tradie productively employed the builder needed a continuous flow of materials which was a rare occurrence in those times. A shortage of skilled workers also meant poor quality work and a blow out in construction time.

Contract prices were loaded with an increasing profit margin as an insurance against unseen problems. Under commonwealth price control, builders were entitled to a 10 per cent `profit’ on the contract price. Above award payments were not recognised in price control and yet builders often found a need to pay above award salaries to ensure building completion.

Unexpected costs could arise when, for example, hardwood flooring was suddenly unprocurable, and a higher price would then have to be paid for imported timber for flooring.

With locally made cement taking forever to turn up, a delivery from across the border was sometimes contracted at nearly three times the price. When compared to 1939 prices timber flooring material had, by 1948, doubled in value. Cement had risen by almost 20 per cent and clay roofing tiles by more than 25 per cent. A gallon of first-grade paint costing around 30s ($3) in 1939 had risen at least 40 per cent by 1948.

When added to rising costs and shortages of materials the government restrictions, limiting the area of a new house to 12 squares (111.48 square metres) for a timber house and 1250 square feet (116.12 square metres) for one in brick, completed the recipe for an imposed cost-cutting.

The economical plan was necessary; cost-saving and limitations on area made large single-purpose rooms a luxury. Verandahs and generous porches were deleted, reducing the shelter at the front of the house to the absolute minimum. Ceiling heights had been gradually reduced from the turn of the century and were now typically nine feet (2745 mm). Until the government construction restrictions were lifted in 1952 the acceptance of no-nonsense functionalism was as much a mandated state as it was a fashionable philosophy. This was the era of the great Australian Dream.

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I just got an email promoting a product called PR Massacre. I guess that stands for Google PageRank Massacre.

The first thing I did was go to Google and do a search on PR Massacre review. Not a lot there. I guess it is new and there’s not a lot of users yet.

I found a post on Warrior Forum warning people that although it may work, it will probably annoy a lot of webmasters.

Then I thought, well if PR Massacre is so good, then their home page should have a lot of backlinks and have at least a PR4. Not so.

Using this little backlink analysis tool I discovered that the PR Massacre home page had less than 100 links (97 – mainly from affiliates I suggest), and had a Google PR of 1.

PR 1 !“I spit in your general direction” as Monty Python would say. My grandmother can get a PR1.

I then checked their title tag. It seems these folk don’t know a lot about SEO. Their title tag is more about kness (sic) rather than link building or traffic generation. Maybe they mean knees ? Big market that.

My advice to potential purchasers of this software is to wait a while, then do another search on PR Massacre Review and see what other people are saying.

For the $67 they want for this PR Massacre software you could probably buy at least 10 quality PR3 blog comments through sites like Digitalpoint.

If you have any comments, both positive and negative, please leave them below.

Tobago is the beautiful, reserved, soul-sister of jump jiving Trinidad, its partner in the Republic. The contrast is awesome. Tobago is small and it has no major industry to impinge on its lush fertility. It has one main town, Scarborough, and dozens of hamlets and villages with names that reflect the Spanish, French, Dutch, and English colonial powers which coveted it for centuries.

Outside the small holdings of its sparse population, it is full of nature reserves harbouring wildlife otherwise found only on the South American mainland of which it was once part. At its highland heart, among the many waterfalls splashing down into idyllic bathing pools among the rocks and ferns, Tobago protects the oldest untouched tropical rainforest in the hemisphere.

The rainy season between June and December (short, sharp bursts, and a brilliant time to take a swim) freshens the landscape, which erupts into a natural carnival of colourful flowers. This is matched underwater, where the myriad flashing shoals play lethal hide-and-seek among the cup coral in the canyons and deep caves where barracuda, dolphin and manta rays cruise.

You can dig for chip-chip (a kind of shell fish), in the warm clear water of Manzanilla Bay, or hunt the big game fish like marlin, wahoo and yellow-fin tuna. You can have double fun in the knowledge that there’s nothing in Tobago, in the water or on land, to kill you. Unlike Australia there are no man-eating sharks, box jelly fish, lethal spiders, or poisonous snakes.

Undeveloped (no house, hotel or resort is allowed to build anything higher than a palm tree grows) and peaceful, Tobago does however know how to party.

Carnival here is homespun, but just as colourful, rum-fuelled and happily energetic as anywhere. What’s more, you can practice every week throughout the year at the open air dance they call Sunday School.

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South of Cuba in the heat of the western Caribbean, the three Cayman Islands are the visible summits of the Cayman Ridge, an underwater mountain range which drops suddenly into the 7,100 m (22,000 ft) Cayman Trench, separating them from Jamaica.

Grand Cayman is by far the largest. The Sister Islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman are mostly a wilderness of fruit trees, orchids and cacti where tranquility and an authentic West Indian culture are the main attractions. Just 145 km (90 ml) to the southwest, Grand Cayman at first resembles nothing so much as a transplanted American urban nightmare.

The capital, George Town, and Seven Mile Beach, its renowned local playground, are full of condos, resorts, satellite dishes and mini-malls. The streets teem with bankers and the faceless suits of the institutions that have made it the world’s fifth largest financial centre.

Five days a week, cruise liners decant up to 22,000 tourists, joining the millions each year whose holidays have given the Cayman Islands the eighth highest GDP per capita in the world.

George Town is so busy, loud, and determinedly up for it, you feel the privateers and pirates of former times have merely put on modern dress in their eagerness to empty your wallet.

In the small towns and villages outside George Town, the atmosphere changes immediately. Grand Cayman’s true self is African-European, deeply Christian, conservative and church-going (there are lots of churches).

The locals are openly friendly and well-mannered, laughing and hospitable. Isolated by the central mangrove wetlands -3,440 hectares (8,500 acres) of lush forests, emerald green parrots and bright orange frogfish, the mainspring of the complex ecology that maintains both the turtle grass and shrimp mounds of North Sound Marine Reserve, Rum Point typifies Grand Cayman at its best.

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So you want to work in a web design company in Brisbane? This article gives you useful hints and advice for all would-be web developers in Australia’s most livable city.

The web development job market is very crowded in Australia, as it is in most countries. Not only do you have fully qualified people looking for jobs, but you also have self taught enthusiasts and those who think being able to edit a Facebook page means they can be called web designers. Fortunately there is also a high demand for web development so new career opportunities are springing up all the time.

One of the big choices that you have to make when looking for a career in web design is do you want to work in a small or large firm. In Brisbane we have a good mixture of these two types, so there is plenty of scope.

Let’s look at the relative advantages and disadvantages of working for small or large firm.

Small Firms

Small firms offer the advantage of a high level of variety in projects. One day you may be making simple edits to a web site the next you might be designing a site from scratch. Another advantage that you might find is that you are able to effect the strategy and direction of the design firm. If it’s a small team your views will be heard and your decisions will make a difference. Of course this can lead to higher levels of responsibility and therefore stress, but at least you’ll feel in control of your own destiny. You will have to be prepared to use a wide range of skills in a small firm, if you only know Dreamweaver then a small firm is probably not the place for you, but if you are happy to jump into Photoshop, think nothing of setting up an FTP connection and know your way around the most popular content management systems, you might feel right at home.

Disadvantages of working for a small firm include the amount of relatively menial tasks that may have to be performed. For example you might be hoping to test your design skills to the full and feel disappointed to be doing simple page updates or admin tasks. The lack of a structure at work may also be frustrating; an ‘all hands on deck’ approach is often used in small firms.

From a monetary point of view working in a small firm can be good and bad. Many small firms are cash poor and can’t match the salaries of the big firms, but they can experience far higher growth. Your input could result in a small firm’s output increasing substantial and potentially upping your salary. My advice would be to negotiate some kind of profit sharing or commission incentive; it’ll help you get more dollars in your wallet and keep you focused and on your toes.

Large Firms

It can often appear quite glamorous; flash offices, big clients, impressive colleagues. And it is true that you will probably be exposed to the higher end of the market, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be wining and dining clients and working on the big-budget projects all the time. Starting out in a large web design company often means starting at the bottom and working your way up, so be prepared to do the hard yards. The ability for you to make decisions and to affect the company’s direction will almost certainly be limited compared to working in a small firm.

The large firms can often afford to pay web designers very well and in the right place your skills and talents should be noticed and rewarded, but perhaps not as quickly as in a small firm. Larger firms can also allow for a greater degree of specialisation, you may have responsibility for just one particular element of web design. Whether this is seen as an advantage or not will be an indicator as to your suitability for life with the big boys.

Brisbane’s Choice

In Brisbane we have a wide range of web design companies that can be seen as potential employers. The larger companies tend to be in the CBD and you will have to make appointments either with the human resources department or via a recruitment agency. Sending a resume in will not do any harm especially if you include examples of your work.

I would recommend avoiding the very smallest of firms as these are often home office type setups and may not be run very professionally. The next step up are the small firms with offices or shops, of these I would chose the most visibly and active, after all you don’t want to work in dingy back office with no new clients.

Look in the areas of Brisbane known for creative industries; these include Woolloongabba, West End and the Valley. Have a walk around and get a feel for the how the firms look and how busy they seem. Don’t be afraid to pop in and have chat.

BA Creative is a small Brisbane web development firm with a lovely shop in Woolloongabba. Pop in to talk about great web design. Peter Accini is the Creative Director of BA Creative a boutique design firm (web, print, signage, anything) with offices in Brisbane and Melbourne. For web design Brisbane, contact BA Creative today.

It seems that every cosmetic company is leaping on the mineral makeup band wagon, but is mineral makeup really natural? The promise of being natural is what interests many users, but are we being “green-washed” into believing that just because it’s mineral it is good for us and the planet?

Biome eco store founder, Tracey Bailey said she believed that mineral makeup had fallen victim to the same trend as many successful eco friendly products. “Once the mainstream consumer product industry sees there is money to be made, the integrity of the product becomes lost for the sake of reducing manufacturing costs,” Tracey said.

“Genuine natural brands do exist, but consumers need to be aware of the ingredients because many contain un-natural or synthetic ingredients.”

The original mineral foundations were all natural with only four or five natural ingredients. This simplicity-along with beautiful results and skin health-won over users, turning mineral makeup into perhaps the biggest trend the cosmetics industry has seen.

As more cosmetic companies created their own brand of mineral foundation and fought for market share, they began substituting cheap fillers, chemicals and preservatives. Toxic ingredients like:

* Bismuth oxychloride – found in most of the mainstream mineral brands, it is by-product of lead and copper refining that rarely occurs in nature.
* Talc – a mineral, but a known carcinogen linked to uterine cancer, ovarian cancer and respiratory problems in infants.

“For a start, if the packaging does not provide a full list of the ingredients, then put it down again and choose one that allows you to make an informed choice,” Tracey said.

“The only ingredients you want to see are titanium dioxide, mica, iron oxides and zinc oxide.”

Tracey said there was a good reason to look very carefully at the labels of all skin care. “Our skin is the body’s largest organ and also the most telling when something is wrong. Skin absorbs about 60 per cent of what is put on it directly into the bloodstream,” she said.

Biome eco stores ensures all its mineral makeup, natural beauty and skin care selections list the full ingredients and are:

* made from plants, not petrochemicals
* free from all harmful toxins and preservatives
* free from palm oil, or in transition to palm-oil free
* cruelty free and most are vegan
* perfect remedies for those with dry skin and problematic skin.

Natural mineral makeup chosen by Biome eco stores

Biome chose the Australian-made Musq mineral makeup containing only 100 per cent safe natural ingredients.

Biome mineral makeup manager, Hayley Preston said “we took at long look at many ranges before we decided on Musq. Not only did it need to be safe and environmentally responsible, we had to love using it”.

Hayley said she had tried just about every natural makeup on offer and thought Musq mineral makeup was fabulous.

“The foundations are comparable, if not better than, a lot of the conventional foundations that I have used because they are sheer with great coverage,” Hayley said. “The powder foundation, which I use over the crème or by itself is small but very concentrated, so you only need the tiniest amount each time.”

Hayley says Musq mineral makeup creme is weightless on the skin, giving a quick and perfect coverage. It contains anti-oxidants and organic ingredients that nourish while providing a natural dewy finish, like vitamin E and jojoba.

A pure mineral makeup should only have four or five ingredients

* Titanium dioxide – a natural mineral with particles that are not small enough to be absorbed by the skin.
* Mica – the shimmer from mica is used in makeup as it gives a translucent glow to the skin and helps to mask imperfections.
* Iron oxides – used to produce skin tone pigment. They are considered to be non-toxic, moisture resistant and non-bleeding.
* Zinc oxide – used today as a sunscreen, zinc oxide has been used as a treatment for skin conditions dates back to the early 10th Century. With it’s soothing properties it is ideal for the most irritated, sensitive skin types or those who suffer from acne or rosacea.

Ingredients to avoid in mineral makeup

* Bismuth oxychloride – many people are sensitive to this bulking and filler ingredient that is a by-product of lead and copper refining.
* Talc – a known carcinogen, which is very drying and irritating to skin, accentuates lines.
* Parabens and Alkyl hydroxyl benzoate preservatives – true mineral makeup is inert and needs no preservatives.
* Corn starch and rice powder – cheap fillers, not minerals.
* Dyes – often coal tar derivatives.

A world apart in every sense, Tasmania is Australia’s only island state, and the very isolation that once made it an ideal location for penal settlements now helps preserve its natural riches. Tasmania would seem to have it all, from history and wilderness to friendly people and great food and wines.

Tasmania certainly seems to move at a much slower pace than the mainland, affording visitors the time and space to relax. Over 360 km (224 mi) long and 306 km (190 mi) wide, it’s big enough to allow you to head for the hills on the back roads and escape everyday life. Along the way are magnificent peaks, old colonial settlements and empty beaches. It also purports to have some of the cleanest air in the world.

The first European to sight Tasmania was the Dutch navigator Abel Tasman in 1642, and from then on many explorers came this
way, including James Cook and William Bligh. But the arrival of these men was bad news for the Tasmanian Aborigines. They lost their traditional hunting grounds and sometimes their lives, and were resettled to Flinders Island to be “civilized”. Many Aboriginal sites are sacred, but on the cliffs around Woolnorth can be seen some of their unique art.

Corners of Tasmania are often likened to the green pastures of England, but here there are also vast wildernesses: the west is wild and untamed, inland are glacial mountains and roaring rivers.

For the less adventurous, there is the cosmopolitan capital Hobart, spread out over seven hills and with a waterfront location to match Sydney’s. In the heart of the countryside lies sleepy old Richmond with some of Australia’s finest and most pristine colonial architecture it’s now a Mecca for artists and artisans.

Tasmania is often overlooked by tourists to Australia. Yet this discreet island, roughly the size of Ireland, is both gentle and wild, charming and challenging.

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Phang-Nga Bay is one of Thailand’s most jaw-droppingly beautiful seascapes. Covering some 400 sq km (154 sq mi) tucked in between Phuket and Krabi, the bay, edged with mangrove forests, is home to hundreds of limestone formations. Some of these are tiny spires, some are large and bizarrely shaped, reaching up to 300 m (1,000 ft) in height, and all covered in tangled rain forest vegetation

Formed some 12,000 years ago when the sea rose dramatically flooding a limestone range that had already been eroded, some of the islands have been hollowed out by the forces of nature, leaving hidden lagoons known as hangs in their centres. Invisible from the outside, the hangs are accessible by sea canoe, but it’s only during certain tides that the channels beneath the seemingly impenetrable rock face are navigable.

These secret lagoons are tidal, supporting their own ecosystems, while the enclosing circle of cliff walls are covered with extraordinary vegetation, reminiscent of a prehistoric world.

The central area of the bay boasts fantastically sculpted karst islands, including the famous `James Bond’ island, where The Man with the Golden Gun was filmed. A stop here, of course, is part of every itinerary and the souvenir sellers are all there, waiting to pounce. Very few of these islands are inhabited, and even fewer have anywhere to stay.

Ko Panvi is an exception, a Muslim fishing village, mainly built on stilts, it teems with visitors during the daytime, but after they have gone it reverts to relative normality.

Here you can rent your own sea canoe, and explore the bay at your leisure. It really is quite something, the cliffs are coloured with red and orange sponges close to the water line, and the scenery is awe-inspiring. Apart from rock climbing, most people come here for water-based activities including sea kayaking, sailing and, above all, fishing.

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Kangaroo in both name and nature, this large island just 13 km (8 mi) off the South Australian mainland has remained relatively untouched for thousands of years; and as such is an unblemished microcosm of the vast red continent.

Towering cliffs protect the northern shores, giving way to more exposed sandy beaches in the south. Bushwalking is pretty compulsory, and trails meander across the national and conservation parks that cover a third of the island.

Wild koalas hug the trees and kangaroos hop down the streets. Isolated from the ravages of European diseases and introduced species that afflicted their near neighbours, the native animals and plants have flourished. Echidnas, platypuses, possums and penguins are all on the wildlife fanatic’s list.

In 1800, Captain Matthew Flinders was commissioned by the British Government to chart the southern coastline of Terra Australis in HMS Investigator. He first sighted this island in March 1802, came ashore and named it Kangaroo Island, after dining well on wild kangaroo meat.

Just weeks later he spotted a French ship on the horizon, under the command of Nicholas Baudin. Despite their two countries being at war, the two men were civil, exchanging ideas and even vital supplies. Baudin went on to map the south and west coastlines, leaving many French names in his wake: Ravine des Casoars, D’Estress Bay and Cape de Couedic, now home to a colony of New Zealand fur seals.

Experienced divers may discover one of the 50 or so wrecks that litter this rocky coastline. Following the earliest recorded shipwreck in 1847, the first lighthouse in South Australia was built at Cape Willoughby, and stands to this day 27 metres (89 ft) high and a healthy climb to the top.

Ferries landing at Penneshaw on the eastern tip make it a hotspot for tourists, but it is easy enough to get away into the wilds and delight in this well-preserved refuge.

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Kangaroo in both name and nature, this large island just 13 km (8 mi) off the South Australian mainland has remained relatively untouched for thousands of years; and as such is an unblemished microcosm of the vast red continent.

Towering cliffs protect the northern shores, giving way to more exposed sandy beaches in the south. Bushwalking is pretty compulsory, and trails meander across the national and conservation parks that cover a third of the island.

Wild koalas hug the trees and kangaroos hop down the streets. Isolated from the ravages of European diseases and introduced species that afflicted their near neighbours, the native animals and plants have flourished. Echidnas, platypuses, possums and penguins are all on the wildlife fanatic’s list.

In 1800, Captain Matthew Flinders was commissioned by the British Government to chart the southern coastline of Terra Australis in HMS Investigator. He first sighted this island in March 1802, came ashore and named it Kangaroo Island, after dining well on wild kangaroo meat.

Just weeks later he spotted a French ship on the horizon, under the command of Nicholas Baudin. Despite their two countries being at war, the two men were civil, exchanging ideas and even vital supplies. Baudin went on to map the south and west coastlines, leaving many French names in his wake: Ravine des Casoars, D’Estress Bay and Cape de Couedic, now home to a colony of New Zealand fur seals.

Experienced divers may discover one of the 50 or so wrecks that litter this rocky coastline. Following the earliest recorded shipwreck in 1847, the first lighthouse in South Australia was built at Cape Willoughby, and stands to this day 27 metres (89 ft) high and a healthy climb to the top.

Ferries landing at Penneshaw on the eastern tip make it a hotspot for tourists, but it is easy enough to get away into the wilds and delight in this well-preserved refuge.

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The most northerly and, with Greece’s highest rainfall, the greenest of the Ionian Islands. Corfu lies close to the mainland and the Albanian coast. Described by Homer as ‘beautiful and rich’, it is mountainous, lushly fertile and fringed by fine beaches with lovely aquamarine waters.

From the 8th century BC, Corfu was subject to a succession of powers, though it never became part of the Ottoman Empire.

Venice held it for 200 years, then Napoleon seized it, and for some years it was a British Protectorate. Long a favourite with travelers, its quiet, idiosyncratic life is lovingly recorded in the books of Lawrence and Gerald Durrell. Now despite some indiscriminate tourist development, it remains bewitching.

Corfu Town is a lovely place, a blend of splendid Italianate buildings; narrow alleyways and grand, French-influenced arcades. There are museums and fine churches, including the Church of Ayios Spyridhon, where the mummified body of the island’s patron saint lies in a glass-fronted coffin. (It is paraded through the town several times a year.) A popular excursion is to the photogenic islets of Vlaherna and Pondikonissi.

North from Corfu Town, brash or prestigious resorts are interspersed with fishing harbours and backed by magnificent scenery. Southwards lie the site of the ancient capital, Corcyra, and some large resorts.

Then a winding coastal road reaches some quieter beaches. The west coast boasts long stretches of glorious sand, a backdrop of green mountains – and some of the largest hotel conglomerations. Even here, more peaceful coves can be reached by boat, or a scramble on foot.

Inland, traditional villages offer shade and good food. Corfiot cuisine, unusually, has no Turkish influence, and often seems more Italian than Greek. A stroll and a climb in scented mountain air amid ancient olive trees rewards with views over ethereal greenness towards the heavenly blue sea.

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