For years tourists have ridden boats through this sacred Australian natural wonder. A new ban will stop them in their tracks
The Horizontal Falls are one of Australia’s strangest natural attractions, a unique blend of coastal geography and powerful tidal forces that visitors pay big money to see up close.
But all that is about to change.
Located at Talbot Bay, a remote spot on the country’s northwestern coastline, the falls are created when surges of seawater pour between two narrow cliff gaps, creating a swell of up to four meters that resembles a waterfall.
For decades, tours have pierced these gaps on powerful boats, much to the dismay of the area’s Indigenous Traditional Owners, who say the site is sacred.
It’s not the only reason the boat tours are controversial. In May 2022 one boat hit the rocks resulting in passenger injuries and triggering a major rescue operation. The incident led to calls to halt the tours for safety reasons.
Although the boat trips have continued, the concerns of the Indigenous Traditional Owners have now been heeded, with Western Australia, the state in which the falls are situated, saying they will be banned in 2028 out of respect.
Nike inflicts huge home defeat on Adidas by nabbing German soccer team kit deal
Things have gone from bad to worse for Adidas. After a costly break-up with US rapper Ye that helped push the German sportswear giant into a rare loss last year, it’s now suffered a bruising defeat on home turf.
The German Football Association (DFB) announced Thursday that the company’s arch rival Nike (NKE) will be the official kit supplier for national soccer teams from 2027 until 2?034. The decision brings to an abrupt end more than seven decades of the sport’s partnership with Adidas that spanned four World Cup wins for the men’s team.
In a statement, DFB President Bernd Neuendorf said German football owed “a great deal” to the partnership with Adidas and that the association was “fully committed” to achieving further joint success through the end of 2026, when their contract expires. The DFB said Nike had made “by far the best financial offer” and impressed with its vision for developing women’s football, and amateur and grassroots sport in Germany. It did not say how much the new deal was worth.
An Adidas spokesperson said in a statement that “we were informed by the DFB yesterday that the federation will have a new supplier from 2027 onwards.”
Germany will be the host for the Euro 2024 men’s championship, taking place this June and July. Adidas will supply the kits for seven national teams, including the German, Italian and Spanish teams.
In just under three years’ time, however, fans will see Nike’s trademark ticks, not the three stripes of Adidas, on the shirts of Germany’s national teams. German economy minister Robert Habeck reportedly told local news agency DPA Friday that he could “hardly imagine” the prospect.
The partnership between Adidas and German football was a “piece of German identity,” he was reported as saying. “I would have liked a bit more local patriotism.”
Adidas was founded in 1949 in Herzogenaurach, a small town outside Nuremberg in south-east Germany, the same year it registered its now-iconic three-stripe logo.
DFB’s announcement comes at a bad time for Adidas, which last week posted a net loss of €58 million ($63 million) in its core business for 2023, citing a slowdown in sales of its Yeezy-branded clothing and sneakers, and a large tax burden.
