"She was surprised, as she walked along, to see how pretty the country was about her. There were neat fences at the sides of the road, painted a dainty blue colour, and beyond them were fields of grain and vegetables in abundance. Evidently the Munchkins were good farmers and able to raise large crops. Once in a while she would pass a house, and the people came out to look at her and bow low as she went by; for everyone knew she had been the means of destroying the Wicked Witch and setting them free from bondage. The houses of the Munchkins were odd-looking dwellings, for each was round, with a big dome for a roof. All were painted blue, for in this country of the East blue was the favourite colour."

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

The Munchkins' houses were painted:

India can be found on the continent of Asia and shares land borders with seven countries - Bhutan, Bangladesh, China, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. Most of the country forms a peninsula, which is an area of land surrounded on three sides by water. The southwest borders the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal borders its southeast. Directly south of India is the Laccadive Sea, part of the Indian Ocean, and the small island of Sri Lanka. It is the second most populated country in the world with more than 1.35 billion people (2018), second only to China (1.42 billion).

Which of these countries does not share a land border with India?

A standoff between authorities and hundreds of protestors trying to protect sacred trees in western Victoria could come to a head soon as a police evacuation deadline looms.

More than 260 Djap Wurrung trees that are 800 years old are due to be bulldozed to make way for a 12km duplication of the Western Highway between Buangor and Ararat.

The highway is the main road link between Melbourne and Adelaide and authorities argue the upgrade is vital for safety after 11 road deaths since the beginning of 2013.

The sacred Djap Wurrung trees are:

Sydney’s dam storage levels have dropped below 50% for the first time in more than a decade.

Storages dropped to 49.7% on Thursday, a 0.4% decline on the previous week.

It is the first time since 2004 that dam storage levels in Sydney have fallen below 50%.

Sydney has been on stage one water restrictions since May, along with the Blue Mountains and the Illawarra region.

Those restrictions target outdoor water use and include limiting the watering of lawns and gardens to early morning and late afternoon.

Stage one water restrictions:

Gilbert reached across the aisle, picked up the end of Anne’s long red braid, held it out at arm’s length and said in a piercing whisper:

“Carrots! Carrots!”

Then Anne looked at him with a vengeance!

She did more than look. She sprang to her feet, her bright fancies fallen into cureless ruin. She flashed one indignant glance at Gilbert from eyes whose angry sparkle was swiftly quenched in equally angry tears.

“You mean, hateful boy!” she exclaimed passionately. “How dare you!”

And then—thwack! Anne had brought her slate down on Gilbert’s head and cracked it—slate not head—clear across.

Avonlea school always enjoyed a scene. This was an especially enjoyable one. Everybody said “Oh” in horrified delight. Diana gasped. Ruby Gillis, who was inclined to be hysterical, began to cry. Tommy Sloane let his team of crickets escape him altogether while he stared open-mouthed at the tableau.

Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery

Who was described as "inclined to be hysterical"?

At tea–time, when the dog, Jip, came in, the parrot said to the Doctor, "See, HE'S talking to you."

"Looks to me as though he were scratching his ear," said the Doctor.

"But animals don't always speak with their mouths," said the parrot in a high voice, raising her eyebrows. "They talk with their ears, with their feet, with their tails—with everything. Sometimes they don't WANT to make a noise. Do you see now the way he's twitching up one side of his nose?"

"What's that mean?" asked the Doctor.

"That means, 'Can't you see that it has stopped raining?'" Polynesia answered. "He is asking you a question. Dogs nearly always use their noses for asking questions."

The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting

What is the parrot's name?

'Do be quiet a minute, Toad,' said the girl. 'You talk too much, that's your chief fault, and I'm trying to think, and you hurt my head. As I said, I have an aunt who is a washerwoman; she does the washing for all the prisoners in this castle—we try to keep any paying business of that sort in the family, you understand. She takes out the washing on Monday morning, and brings it in on Friday evening. Today is Thursday. Now, this is what occurs to me: you're very rich—at least you're always telling me so—and she's very poor. A few pounds wouldn't make any difference to you, and it would mean a lot to her. Now, I think if she were properly approached—squared, I believe is the word you animals use—you could come to some arrangement by which she would let you have her dress and bonnet and so on, and you could escape from the castle as the official washerwoman. You're very alike in many respects—particularly about the figure.'

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

This conversation is taking place on a:

Fossil hunters have identified a new species of stegosaur.

The armoured dinosaur, with a formidable array of bony plates along its spine, roamed Earth 168 million years ago.

The new specimen is the oldest stegosaurus ever found and the first to be unearthed in North Africa. Its discovery, in the Middle Atlas Mountains in Morocco, promises to rewrite the history of one of the best-known dinosaur groups.

The fossil hunters were part of the British Natural History Museum’s biggest dinosaur hunt in decades.

The new species of stegosaurus was found in:

School kids will soon be able to use emojis to instantly tell their teachers how they’re feeling.

Vivi, a classroom technology system already used by about a quarter of independent schools and some government schools, has launched a new emoji feature encouraging kids to use the bright yellow faces most commonly recognised from mobile and social media messages.

The new feature lets kids instantly communicate a range of emojis — everything from happy, confident, overwhelmed, bored, and confused — to their teacher.

One school leader said with emojis an ever-growing part of how we communicate and an increased emphasis on student wellbeing and mental health, the new tool would help teachers better connect with the kids.

The new classroom technology is called:

By the early 1850s, news of a gold rush in Australia had reached southern China, sparking an influx in Chinese migration to Australia.

It is thought that approximately 7000 Chinese people came to work at the Araluen gold fields in southern NSW. The Chinese miners often worked in organised groups of 30 to 100 men under the direction of a leader, which resulted in their gold digging efforts being very successful.

Conflict between the Chinese and Europeans on the goldfields stemmed from the European miners’ resentment of these successes.

Gold miners from China were often:

The India-born community in Victoria increased significantly after the end of the White Australia Policy in 1973. By the late 1970s around 12,000 were India-born. In the early 1980s employment opportunities in Victoria saw increasing numbers of immigrants with technical and computer skills arriving. 169,804 India-born Victorians were recorded in 2016.

Today, the India-born community is culturally diverse. 36% is Christian; 63% is Hindu; while around 29% are Sikhs. A few are Muslim, Buddhist and Jewish. 36% speak English at home, whilst 20% speak Hindi and smaller numbers speak Tamil, Urdu and Bengali.

The most common language spoken at home by the Indian community in Victoria is:

At first Aboriginal people forced the "settlers" back. However, their fight for their Country could not be maintained.

Many people died in battle and more succumbed to the waves of diseases brought to Australia by the British. Aboriginal people had no resistance to diseases to which they had no previous exposure. It is estimated that some Aboriginal clans lost 80 per cent of their numbers to smallpox alone.

Young Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe

The percentage that some clans lost to smallpox is:

European settlers saw fire as a threat. Aboriginal people viewed it differently. Many early records describe Aboriginal groups lighting fires to burn areas of land. Most Europeans thought this behavior was strange or alarming. Some, however, realised that burning played an important role in managing the land.

Aboriginal people burnt specific areas of land every few years, rotating through different areas from year to year. They timed the burning around particular seasons and weather conditions. This approach controlled the intensity of fires and allowed animals and plants to survive in surrounding areas.

Young Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe

Aboriginal Australians timed the burning of the land:

"My parents escaped from Tibet in 1959 and I was born in India in 1962. During the journey, many people became sick and many also died from the heat, including my elder sister. When my parents reached Nepal, they stayed there for two years and then moved on to Shimla. In India they had a language problem, which made it difficult for them to work, and so they struggled to provide food for the family. My mother found work in the street, making roads, along with many other Tibetans who were also working on the roads."

The writer's mother found work making the roads in: