http://youtu.be/g-xC7Wuggy4
Rare images captured of sand goannas locked in a violent scuffle over a female.


The adult goannas (also known as Gould's monitors or sand monitors) were spotted through the office window of an environmental consultancy just south of Alice Springs.

Photographer Chris Watson was working there at the time and raced outside with his camera.

"I was lucky enough to have the window desk...goannas used to go about their day to day business right in front of us really, but this was the first time I'd seen this," he said.

"These two males locked horns and were fighting over the local female monitor who'd dug her burrow there.

"They were fighting for about ten minutes, wrestling and throwing each other around."

http://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/stories/edwardian-summer-sydney-through-lens-arthur-wigram-allen

ARTHUR WIGRAM ALLENArthur Wigram Allen was born in 1862 into a large family of wealthy Sydney solicitors. One of 11 children and third in a line of six boys he attended Sydney Grammar School before moving to Melbourne in 1880 to study law at Trinity College at the University of Melbourne.  In 1885 after the sudden death of his two elder brothers Arthur assumed control of the familíes Sydney firm and many business interests.

Allen married Ethel Lamb in 1891 and they went on to have four children: Ethel Joyce, born in 1893, Arthur Denis Wigram in 1894, Ellice Margaret in 1896 and Marcia Maria in 1905.

Fascinated by the new inventions of the era, he became interested in photography, purchasing the latest cameras. He soon proved to be a talented amateur photographer, capturing images of his family and friends, the city and its surrounds.

Arthur died in 1941, aged 79; his photographs, taken from the 1890s through to 1934, provide a detailed photographic record of a changing society and the emergence of the great city of Sydney.

A man of extraordinary vitality, Allen was fascinated by the times in which he lived, and tried to photograph everything he saw: family and friends; visiting ships and theatrical celebrities; bush picnics; the first mixed bathing on Sydney beaches; dramatic shipwrecks; processions, pageants and mass celebrations; coal miners; domestic life and fashion; house interiors; and sporting events. These photographs, contained in 51 albums, are now held by the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, and provide a view of the dramatic changes that took place in Edwardian Sydney. 

Arthur Allenís photographs span 1890 to 1934, but the Edwardian Summer exhibition and book concentrate on those depicting the Edwardian years, a brief, often-overlooked but important period in Australia's history. The photographs, most of them never published before, form an unrivalled personal pictorial record of these rapidly changing times.

http://www.gq.com.au/girls/girl+of+the+week/galleries/jessica+hart+is+keeping+it+real+sexy+,29677

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-26/mawsons-men-100th-anniversary/5285488

It has been 100 years since the return of Douglas Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition. Sir Douglas led a group of men through Antarctica to extend the boundaries of human knowledge.

https://www.facebook.com/SeeAustralia

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-01-17/storify3a-australian-animals-escape-the-heat/5204678

It hasn't just been people who have been suffering in the heatwave - our feathered and furred friends have also been sweltering.

The RSPCA has urged Australians to keep an eye out for pets an wildlife as temperatures continue to soar.

From koalas to golden retrievers to magpies, animals all around the country have been trying to beat the heat - and people have been happy to lend a hand.

Here is a selection of pictures from social media showing how Australia's animals have been cooling down.