Hello, hello! Well, last week I made a comment that interest in Team Australia seems to be directly correlated to steem prices, and I think I might have been right. Membership has picked up this week, although we aren't back to the old highs just yet.

Feature photo

This gorgeous photo was taken by @onethousandpics, who is also one of my favourite bloggers @onethousandwords (no, she isn't double dipping on Team Aus/centerlink benefits). She took this photo during a storm at Kiama, New South Wales. If you like it—which I know you do—please upvote it here.

Meet-ups

Adelaide

End of month drinks will be on again at the Jade next Thursday, 26 April from 6pm. Rock up or DM @mattclarke on discord if you have questions. 

Melbourne

Several Melbournians got together last Saturday to meet @rustle, the beer stealing steemit mascot. Looks like a fun time was had by those who went along. You can check out @mazzle's run down with a bonus beer review here.

Credit: @mazzle

ANZAC Day

I feel like I've been talking about ANZAC Day for ages, and thankfully it's nearly here so I can soon stop. However, there's still time to get involved in @ravenruis' Unsung Heroes writing challenge. After my Caroline Chisholm post a few weeks ago, I've kinda gotten into doing a bit more in-depth research again, even though my last post was the total opposite. I think a few of the Aussies and Kiwis are taking @ravenruis up on her challenge so I look forward to reading the posts when they come out. If you are writing something, please post it on ANZAC Day.

The usual community notices

You should follow @mrsquiggle, who is doing a great job recognising Aussie creativity by curating quality content.

Check out the awesome Minnow Support Project (MSP). Details on how to join are here. Come say hi in the #teamaustralia chat room in PAL-Discord. It's fun and you will make new friends. 

You should consider voting for the MSP witnesses, particularly @ausbitbank and @aggroed, who've a done a great job in getting the MSP project off the ground. 

Lastly, if you're feeling generous, you can delegate SP to the Team Australia upvote bots @centerlink and/or @mrsquiggle (or any other bot you like) using Vessel. You can delegate to any of the MSP bots using this link.    

Candidate 1

Name and bio

@beggars is from Brisbane. He's a front-end engineer specialising in Javascript, HTML and CSS. He also thinks that Team Australia is heavily weighted towards Melbournians and that we need to tip the scales back towards the other states. (Hmm, I'm not sure this is true. I think they are just more active than everyone else. Well, except Adelaide.)

Intro post here.

Fun fact

"I love alfalfa sprouts and after a dare a few years ago, I discovered I can fit an entire punnet of sprouts into my mouth, chew and swallow them. I've done it a few sporadic times since."

Lol! That is so weird.

Candidate 2

Name and bio

@urbangladiator is from Melbourne. (Sorry @beggars, we don't have a quota on Victorians. Yet.😁) He runs an IT consulting company and used to run a photography studio. He likes motorbikes, comics and AFL.

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"Despite being in a suit every day as a corporate consultant, my side hustle has been to dance on podiums at 60s themed corporate gigs dressed as Austin Powers. No one has ever recognised me through the wig, glasses and fake teeth."

Hmm, if they are reading this, they might.

Candidate 3

Name and bio

@scrawly is an aspiring artist from Melbourne. She likes movies, books, manga, food, travelling, and dogs. (Ok, I have to ask, are you, @goodnode and @veryspider real life friends? I feel like you are even though I have nothing to back this up with.)

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I live in Doge Palace."

As in the house that dogecoin built?

Candidate 4

Name and bio

@mfxae86 is from Sydney. He is into performance cars, gaming, music, and psychology. (Cope, why do I only ever see you in audience chat during @aggroed's Minnow Mayor's Town Hall. Where do you go the rest of the week?) 

Intro post here. 

Fun fact

"I used to like playing the guitar and singing some tunes, but after a workplace accident, I stopped doing that. I'm now trying to get back into my music via steemit and the open mic contest."

Hmm, I'm not sure this qualifies as a fun fact. It sounds more like a painful fact that involved workers' comp and rehabilitation to me.

Candidate 5

Name and bio

@trentjm27 is from Adelaide and @lovelivinglife's son. He's a writer and YouTuber. He also likes music, wrestling, anime, manga, light novels, and gaming.

Intro post here.

Fun fact

"I love writing! From poetry to novels to short stories, I really enjoy writing and hope to get self-published within the next few months!

Awesome. Have you joined the Writer's Block and Isle of Write? You should. Good people run both. Gotta find your tribe on steemit!

Candidate 6

Name and bio

@chels is an Australian-Indonesian from Sydney (@thekitchenfairy, I found you a new friend! 😁). She is also a marketing and economics uni student who loves Instagram.  

Fun fact

"My name Chelsey is an anagram for lychees."

Ooh, a smart fun fact. I like this.

Congratulations everyone, you're now part of Team Australia.

The rules for joining Team Australia

If you’re not yet a member and want to be, this is what you need to do:

1. Vote here for our resident steemit witness and our Minister for Welfare @ausbitbank.
2. Send me your introduction post so I can find out a bit about you. If you’re new to steemit you'll have to write one so use the introduceyourself and teamaustralia tags to help boost your following. Use this handy guide by @teamsteem if you don't know what to write.
3. If it’s not mentioned in your introductory post, tell me which city and country you’re in, cos let's face it, a lot of us live in Australia's fourth largest city—London. You need to have a connection to Australia to join.
4. Tell me a fun fact about yourself. This can be anything. For example, maybe you have eight kids and three dogs, or you rode your bike across America, or you won the blue ribbon for javelin throwing at sports day back in high school, or Toadie came into the pub you work at one day and you served him a beer, or, maybe you can fit 55 maltesers in your mouth like Ed Sheeran can. It doesn’t matter what it is, I want a fun fact about you! The more fun, the better.
5. Regularly check the Team Australia and Australia tags and upvote/follow the content you like. You can show your support by following the centerlink curation trail in steemauto. Instructions are here.
6. Comment below or DM me in PAL-Discord that you want to join.

Once I receive this information I will try my best to write a good introductory paragraph about you for the official Team Australia membership updates. So the better your information is, the better I can make you sound. Where relevant, please use the teamaustralia and australia tags to promote your work. I will try and post weekly updates. 

Gif by @justcallmemyth

Team Australia footer by @bearone

Page divider by @kristyglas