Morning Aussies! Regular hello everyone else. Well, it's been two weeks—again—since my last update. Sorry about that. A couple of reasons: 

1. I only had one person to introduce in the first week, which didn't really seem worthy of a post.
2. I just wasn't feeling the steemit blogging mojo last weekend, which is when I'd planned to write this. 

I think my lack of posting from this account is because I'm writing the traveldigest posts a couple of times a week now—so go follow and upvote it if you want to support my work. Curating for that project does take up a fair chunk of my time each day as well. On top of that, I have something else steemit-related on the go that I've been spending a lot of time on. However, it's not official yet so I'm not going to talk about that any further right now. 

So, moving on.

I'm assuming that most of you would have missed the Steem Growth Forum that Hive account@aggroed hosted last Saturday cos it was the middle of the night for you guys. I'm pretty sure the only Aussies that were listening were Hive account@ausbitbank (who was also a speaker), Hive account@krystle, Hive account@trafalgar and myself. But it was afternoon for me so that was easy. I can safely say that I would have been asleep if I was in Australia. Anyway, some good stuff was discussed. Basically Hive account@aggroed got a bunch of the top witnesses and influential steemit people together to discuss how to grow the platform. If you're interested in knowing what they said, you can listen to the recording here.

Community notices

You should follow @mrsquiggle, who is doing a great job recognising and rewarding creativity within Team Australia by curating quality content. 

You can support Team Australia members by following the centerlink curation trail in Streemian. Instructions on how to do that are here. Don't forget that @centerlink is busy putting Aussie-battler tax dollars to work in the form of dole payments for posts.

Steemit's only Aussie witness and our Minister for Welfare @ausbitbank has created the @discordia bot, which you can use to increase your upvote moolah. Some of the proceeds will support @centerlink so give it a try.

Of course, also check out the awesome Minnow Support Project (MSP). Details on how to join are are here and here. Come say hi in the Team Australia chat room in PAL-Discord. It's fun and you will make new friends. You should also consider voting for the other MSP witnesses, including @aggroed who has a done a great job in getting this project off the ground.

And 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

Hive account@plushzilla is a digital nomad who roams the east coast of Australia but is from Brisbane. Since finding steemit, he has been helping out with utopian.io (as a UX designer) on the busy.org platform. He also enjoys creating steemit infographics.

When he's not being all techie, Hive account@plushzilla makes origami cranes from flower petals in an attempt to become more mindful and observant of the world around him.

Fun fact

"I tried to go for the Guinness Book of Records for the smallest origami crane made by hand but they rejected the application on the basis that it can't be done according to their rules and guidelines. For the record, I am at 4 mm x 4mm."

Wow, what a skill. It's hurting my eyes just thinking about it.

Candidate 2

Name and bio

Hive account@phamished is from Sydney. She's into travel and trying different foods from different cultures. She really likes avocado toast breakfasts (seriously spread a layer of vegemite on it first and take it to the next level!) and is a firm believer in quality produce and ingredients. When she's not eating, she can be found watching Supercross and Motocross. In fact, she recently attended the RD4 and RD5 of the Australian Supercross Championship AUS-X Open. While she was there, she got to meet Motocross champion Ricky Carmichael, which was a dream come true for her.

Fun fact

"I used to work at a plant/flower shop and I once served Jimmy Barnes."

See, this is an awesome fact fun. And it's why I keep asking people for them because sometimes you find out really cool stuff like someone meeting Barnes-y!

Candidate 3

Name and bio

Hive account@betterthanhome are a couple from Germany. In 2013 they quit their jobs, left their flat, packed their bags, and booked one-way flights to Bali. (Hmm, this story sounds familiar if you substitute Panama for Bali!) Since then they've mostly been in Asia, but recently arrived back in their second home, Australia. They are currently housesitting and taking care of a cat on the Sunshine Coast, while making day trips around South East Queensland and blogging about it in English and German. Hive account@betterthanhome are into camping and are already familiar with the awesomeness of Gumtree for picking up cheap second-hand camping supplies. 

Fun fact

"The was the first car we ever owned was a 1993 Ford Econovan. It was on our trip through Australia back in 2013. We bought it from an old Australian guy who just set it up as a camper. It always reminds us of a fantastic time."

My first car was a 1981 Honda Civic. It died right after handing in my Honours dissertation at uni, and then blocked traffic heading onto the freeway until some guys pushed it out the way while I waited for a tow truck.

Candidate 4

Name and bio

Hive account@nikonmarshall is a South Aussie who recently moved east to experience big city life in Sydney. He's a keen photographer and an adventurer at heart, who enjoys travelling around Australia in his trusty Huey—a 1989 ex-military Land Rover Defender. 

Hive account@nikonmarshall also went to uni in Gothenburg, Sweden for six months, where he studied Scandinavian economic history and economic integration of the European Union. While he was there, he picked up some Swedish given its linguistic ties to Bahasa Indonesia, which he'd studied previously.

Fun fact

"I'm currently working for an accounting firm in Sydney whose aim is to help startups grow. We work with quite a few interesting groups in the crypto community, so I will be sure to keep you guys all up to date on their work!"

Please do. We love cryptos here at steemit and in Team Australia. 

Candidate 5

Name and bio

Hive account@thekitchenfairy was born in Indonesia to Australian parents and now lives in Canada. She thinks in English, counts in Indonesian, sings in French, reads in Hungarian, and can surprise people with her Aussie accent. She is a cake decorator with a licensed home business, and loves creating 3D cakes. She is also saving to open a vegan bakery! 

Hive account@thekitchenfairy is a worthy ambassador given her Aussie heritage. Plus she has two sisters in the Royal Australian Navy, she likes vegemite, and she also likes licorice. (Really? Is that an Aussie thing? I didn't know that.)

Fun fact 

"Sometimes I appear thin but most of the time I am chubby. In short, am a yo-yo dieter. I'm a sugar girl who would avoid the stairs much. Not good, hey?"

Fairy, please don't stop your sugar addiction. I've been admiring your baking skills for months now. Seriously, I am going to rock up at your door one day and make you feed me all the vegan cakes until I end up in a hypoglycemic coma and you have to drive me to the hospital.

Candidate 6

Name and bio

Hive account@afifa is a wife and mother of two from George Town, Malaysia. She previously studied Agribusiness at the University of Muhammadiyah Malang and loves learning new things. She's into nature, and is a gardener who loves growing flowers. She also likes swimming, being Muslim and wearing a niqab all the time. 

Hive account@afifa wants to join Team Australia to promote steemit in her home country and add value to the community at large.

Fun fact

"I love playing games basically because I'm always at home."

Ah gaming. It reminds me of cricket. You think "I'll just watch this one over" and then suddenly four hours has passed and you realise your 'things to do today' list has gone out the window. Gaming seems pretty much the same.

Candidate 7

Name and bio

Hive account@onethousandwords is from Sydney. In early 2016 her family suffered a tragic loss when her sister unexpectedly passed away. This resulted in the rapid downward spiral of Hive account@onethousandwords's mental health, which lasted the rest of the year. After hitting rock bottom, she found herself on the road to central Australia where she discovered that being surrounded by nature, and taking up photography and writing could begin to heal her broken soul. 

Fun fact

"I drove through Outback Australia by myself living out of my tiny Honda hatchback for five weeks in 1.5 square metres."

I am amazed and impressed at your brother-in-law's car Tetris skills. Getting all this stuff in the back of a Jazz is quite an achievement. Well done.

Congratulations everyone. You've been added to @teamaustralia

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 @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. 
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 Streemian. Instructions are here.
6. Comment below or DM me on steemit chat or 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 unless there is a lot of interest, in which case I will try and post sooner.

First image source

Gif by @justcallmemyth

Team Australia banner by @bearone

Page dividers by @kristyglas