New England Australia - end month review September 2015

As part of my end months review, I looked at the last eighteen posts to come to this blog.

One, a very small number, came as a direct hit. Three came from my other blogs. That left 14 from search engines. So what can we tell here?

The first search, on Google Australia whole web was on patrice newell. This brought the searcher in at 17 to In praise of Patrice Newell. I like this post, which was triggered by my reading of Patrice's book The River.

Patrice lives at Elmood at Gundy. Here there were two Google searches using identical search terms - elmswood gundy nsw. Both searches brought them at number 10 to Secrets of New England - along the Fossickers Way 2, another good post. Mind you, I need to continue this series since everyone has been stuck at Nundle for many months!

Then came a search on Google UK - judith wright aborigine. This brought the visitor in at 6 to The Poetry of Judith Wright - Bora Ring. Another searcher on Google Switzerland on bora ring rider's heart found the Bora Ring post at number one. Then there was a third search on Google Australia, this time on judith wright poetry. This found both the Bora Ring post, this time at 29 and then at 28 The Poetry of Judith Wright - South of My Days.

The Judith Wright posts are a major source of traffic on this blog. Just checking, three of the most recent ten searches were also on Judith Wright. I suspect the traffic will die down once the year 12 exams are over. In the meantime, it is nice to think that at least some of my writing is being read.

The next search was on blogscope -Armidale - and found at 3 Armidale 1945 VJ parade. This is a short photo post.

Then came a search on a search engine that I had never heard of, SweetIM. This search on landscape new england australia brought in at 3 The past is always present - the Country Party. I hope that the searcher was not too disappointed because this post deals with the political landscape!

Then came a search on Google Australa, whole web, death at copeton dam. This brought up the blog front page simply, I think, because I had a story on New England dam levels, although I have run a story on fishing at Copeton dam since. In similar vein, a Google Australia, whole web search on glenbawn dam history brought up the front page at number 12.

A Google Australia, whole web search on nsw new england railway brought up the Great Northern Railway - End of the Line Continued: Wallangarra Railway Station at number 3.

Then came a post on Google Australia, whole web, armidale white bull. This brought up at number 2, The End of Armidale's Club Hotel, a story of the rebuilding and renaming of the pub.

Finally, a search on Google - Golden Heart Contest Dallas Texas - brought up at 3, New England writer wins Golden Heart Award, the story of Bronwyn Clarke's victory.

In all, a mixed bag!

New England, Australia - end month review August 2015

Looking back over August, one feature was the arrival of visitor 8,000. A second feature was the resumption of more normal posting -12 posts - after a collapse in July to just 4 posts.

Traffic on this blog is not high and is also very sensitive to drops in posting. So traffic in July was well down. Traffic in August, while still not high, was up with 361 visitors excluding me viewing 483 pages.

I continued my series on why I remain a New England New Stater with three posts during the month. I do not want to overload the blog with this material. However, my hope remains that, with time, this will build to a worthwhile series. Entry post here.

Looking at the visitor stats, I found a clear interest in the poetry of Judith Wright, New England's best known writer. For that reason, I established an entry page to make access easier to posts about her across my various blogs. Again, I expect this to grow with time.

Thanks to Rob Busby from the TASOBU, I learned that Emma Buzo was launching a new theatre company to feature the plays of her father, Alex, another writer with strong New England connections. This led me to write a feature about Alex and the new company.

The email exchanges with Rob Busby led me to establish another entry page, this one drawing together some of my collected posts about TAS, The Armidale School. Again, I hope that with time this will become another useful resource.

One frustration during the month lay in my continuing inability to get decent material on developments in Newcastle, the place remains an information black hole. However, the search did have one useful side effect because it led me to to the latest Carrick citations where New England's three major universities all did well.

This search also led me to find out that Browyn Clarke had won a Golden Heart award.

During the month I also managed to do something that I had intended to do for some time, write a story on the Koori Mail, New England's only national newspaper and a major voice for Australia's indigenous people.

There were two other stories during the month, one on cotton (a major New England industry), the second looking at Sydney's sluggish population growth.

I have been meaning for a little while to discuss the latest census data for New England. However, I wanted to do a stocktake post first, pulling together previous posts on New England demography. This is taking time.

New England Australia - most popular posts 1

Looking at the last 100 visitors, the most popular posts on this blog have been:

• The Poetry of Judith Wright - South of My Days (by a large margin)
• Big Sky Country Events July-August 2015
• New England's Aboriginal Languages - a map
• Judith Wright's "For a Pastoral Family" - and "Skins"
• June 07 posts (archive) (fifth equal)
• Fossicking in New England (fifth equal)