ABC Listen.
Hello there.
My name's Emily and you're listening to News Time.
Hi, Emily.
Hi.
And hello to News Time listener legend, Maggie.
Hi, my name is Maggie and I live in Newtown, Geelong.
I am seven years old.
Hello from the land of the Wadawurrung people.
Buongiorno, come stai?
That means hello.
How are you?
In Italian.
I am learning Italian in grade one.
Buongiorno to you too, Maggie.
This episode of News Time is a pretty wholesome one, if I might say.
We'll hear about a generous donation from a stranger then travel to a small town footy field for a community-wide kick around.
We'll take it slow for a surprising hobby that's making a comeback and for our wow of the week.
We'll cherish a furry friendship that's lasted much longer than we realised.
Are you ready?
I'm ready.
Andiamo.
Story number five.
The town of Maree in South Australia received a lot of rain in the month of March, which led to flooding.
The roads were covered with water and the town was cut off from the rest of the state.
Really really, really hungry, because you could not drive, because I bet that some houses could get flooded.
But you would need food and water.
Well, they could actually just drive off the road in a jeep.
Well, then they keep driving. all the way to the end of the flood and then turn.
Hmm, that's a nice idea, but they couldn't really drive anywhere.
The townspeople of Maree were cut off for about four weeks and their supplies began to run out.
I wouldn't say a very fun time.
Thankfully, one day a local farmer received a phone call.
It was an anonymous donor.
A donut?
No, not a donut.
A donor.
Someone who donates money.
They give away money for a good cause.
Well, this anonymous donor called up because they wanted to donate about $5.
$1,000 worth of food and supplies to the town.
Hundreds of kilograms of supplies, including milk bread, meat and fresh veggies, were handed out to locals around the town to keep them stocked up until the roads could reopen.
Maybe there was a donut or two thrown into the delivery.
Good because I like donuts.
Even though the flood made things difficult and stressful, some of the local farmers say the rain was welcome.
It means their cattle will have enough to drink over the next year and it means the local lakes will be nice and full, which should make tourists want to visit.
As for the anonymous donor, well, no-one's sure who they are.
We just know that they're a really generous person.
A mystery.
Maybe, like, Noah can say thank you to them and, like, they want him to be nice.
And he didn't want to become famous.
Thanks, Murray's mystery donor.
Thargaminda is an outback town that sits in the bottom left corner of Queensland.
A man named Dylan moved there and was disappointed to discover the local footy team had stopped playing about 20 years ago.
Dylan thought that was a shame.
A community football team is a great thing to be part of.
Maybe making more friendship?
You have more fun doing it by yourself because it's easier with other people, not only you.
Dylan sprang into action.
He spoke to a couple of his mates and got the Thargaminda Rugby League team back up and running again.
Dylan went around town with a sign-up sheet trying to get enough players together to fill a side.
He ended up with 30 people, some of them tradies, some of them who used to play on the old team, and even an old professional NRL player.
Because the plumbers might plumb the ball into the goal.
Maybe having fun and like play as a team.
And just like that, the Thargo Bulls are back up and running and the whole community is getting involved.
Their coach is 63-year-old Liam.
He only moved to Thargaminda last year after the town flooded and Liam visited to help them clean up.
He ended up staying in Thargaminda and now he's coaching a footy team.
The Thargaminda Bulls' first game of the season was a big community event.
About half the town turned up to cheer their neighbours on.
Maybe because it was so important, because It was the first one for years and years and years, and lots of people were starting to play.
To see how good they are and see what the plumbers would do.
The Bulls didn't bring home the win in their first round, but the season's only just started.
Good luck, team.
We're rooting for you.
Dame Sarah Mullally has been named as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury.
What does that mean?
Good question.
Well, let me explain a couple of things first.
There are different types of Christianity called denominations.
There are Christians that are Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox and Presbyterian, just to name a few.
The head of a local church is a priest or a pastor, but there are people who lead denominations as a whole, like the Big Boss.
And the leader of the Anglican Church gets the title the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Cool, huh?
Wow.
A British woman named Dame Sarah Mullally has been enthroned as the Church of England's first female Archbishop of Canterbury, which makes her the spiritual leader of all the 85 million people around the world who are Anglican, including about two million people in Australia.
What is that woman wearing?
Like this huge hat, it looks like a squid.
I think it's very traditional what she's wearing.
Yeah, as part of the ceremony for Dame Sarah to become leader, she had to wear big, ornate gold robes and a tall pointy gold hat.
There were lots of other traditions at the ceremony.
Dame Sarah knocked on the cathedral's west door exactly three times before entering and she wore a ring given to one of the previous archbishops as a symbol of peace.
Excited, nervous.
Very, very, very proud.
Nervous and proud.
Big deal that Dame Sarah is the first woman to be chosen as the Archbishop of Canterbury.
For hundreds of years, it's only been men in the top job.
And not everyone is happy that Dame Sarah is having a turn.
But Dame Sarah says she wants everyone to live peacefully and happily.
Before she was a bishop, she was a nurse, and Dame Sarah says that her job as a nurse gave her the skills to be a good and caring bishop.
Amazing that a woman is taking over because women can do anything.
Congratulations, Dame Sarah.
Story number two.
Have you ever looked at a wooden spoon and wondered how it's made?
Back in the olden days, they were hand-carved out of wood.
Using tools to craft something out of wood is called whittling, and the hobby is starting to become popular again.
It must be very fun to have something to do which you can actually like focus on, and it will take more than an hour.
Because it takes you off roadblocks.
That's exactly it.
More young people have started whittling again, using special tools to carve shapes out of wood.
It's part of a trend of young people starting to learn traditional skills as a way of balancing how much technology is in their lives.
Ash Credlin is a keen carver.
He has ADHD and says that wood carving is amazing at helping him focus his attention.
I think it's fun because you get to design your own spoon.
Satisfying.
Whittling isn't the only slow hobby that's gaining new fans.
Professor Owen Kalaki from the University of Melbourne says that since the social media ban, young people are taking up heaps of skills and hobbies seen as old-fashioned, like whittling, sewing and making bread.
These hobbies let people take their time with things and slow down.
Some people love these hobbies because they can be done solo and you get to focus on one thing for a long time.
But some people love the community it brings.
There are people meeting up to whittle together, sharing tips and tricks.
I would probably make maybe a book holder.
I'll try to whittle a hat.
A whittled wooden hat, how about that?
Just remember, you do need to be taught properly to do any whittling and it's done with special curved tools.
You shouldn't carve anything with anything sharp at your place.
Ouch!
And now it's time for... Wow of the Week.
This story made me go wow because...
Dogs were around long before we started growing crops and they're just amazing.
Pups doggos pooches canines hounds, whatever you call them.
There's no denying that humans and dogs have a special bond.
I'm getting a dog this year because I've wanted one ever since I was two.
My auntie has a dog and its name is called Charlie and it's a boy and it's really of energy sometimes.
I have a dog and his name is Lala and she bites me a lot.
Dogs like humans and sort of like they become best friends.
Humans have kept dogs around as pets and companions for thousands of years, but new research shows that this bond has existed for longer than we thought.
It turns out, humans have been feeding dogs, keeping them around and giving them respectful burials for more than 15000 years.
That's longer than any other animal or plant.
It's cool.
It's amazing doggies.
There aren't any photos or videos from around 15,000 years ago, of course.
So scientists had to look at different pieces of evidence to figure out their ideas.
Scientists found the jawbone of a dog buried with human bones in an old grave in the country Turkey.
Being buried together was probably a sign of care and respect.
Maybe because it was their pet, and when the owners passed away the dog didn't have anyone, so maybe it couldn't survive, and then they buried the dog in the same grave.
Maybe because they're very gentle and they're friendly.
The scientists also figured out that the dogs ate a diet with lots of fish, similar to what the humans ate.
From this we can guess that the humans were sharing their food with the dogs, welcoming them as part of the group.
You would always have a four-legged friend with you.
So next time you're curled up with a sleeping pup, know that you're following a long tradition that goes back 15000 years.
Are you ready for today's quiz?
Here we go.
Question one.
Who donated all the food to the flooded town?
We don't know.
They chose to stay anonymous.
Question two.
What sort of football do the Thargaminder Bulls play?
Rugby league.
Question three.
What was Dame Sarah's job before she became the Archbishop of Canterbury?
She was a nurse.
Question four.
So, how'd you go?
If you'd like to be a Newstime listener legend, Ask your grown-ups to head to the Newstime page on the ABC Kids Listen website.
Bye, Emily.
Thanks, Emily.
You're very welcome.
Well, I'm off to visit my local dog park.
I'm in the mood to just sit and watch the pups play.
Catch you next time.
For other awesome podcasts to play, music to move to and stories and soundtracks for sleep.
Head to the Kids tab on the ABC Listen app.
It's free from your app store.
