Hazard burning fizzles
The hazard reduction burning on Mount Porepunkah has fizzled. According to my contacts at the Department of Primary Industries, conditions were too cool and wet for the burns to succeed. That’s despite the fact they started several weeks earlier than usual.
I’ve previously stated my opposition to this practice and I won’t dwell on it here.
The point of this entry is to comment on the department’s claim that burns were scheduled to avoid local events and were planned in consultation with local communities. Rubbish!
The Mount Porepunkah burn started several days before the Easter holidays and is still continuing, albeit somewhat reduced through circumstances beyond the control of the Victorian Government.
Easter is just about the busiest time on the local tourism calendar, along with Christmas and the Autumn Festival. We’re fortunate that a fresh breeze and wet earth has meant there’s been more fizzle than sizzle.
Nigerian bank scams
I first encountered Nigerian bank scams when I was editor of the West Coast Sentinel at Ceduna, South Australia, in 1993. We didn’t have email in those days and the scam letters came via regular post. I reported one of the early ones to local police.
Email has opened up a new market for these tricksters and I’m sure they’ve pulled a few victims.
In the last few days I’ve had several emails to different addresses from different people saying the same thing …
“I am Barrister JOHN KUNLE (name changes with each email) a
legal Solicitor and I was the Personal Attorney and legal adviser to
Mr.Pitt Gorey , a national of your country, who used to work with Mobil
oil Company Nigeria Plc. On the 21st of April 2001, my client, his wife
and their three children were involved in a car accident along imo
Express Road. All occupants of the vehicle unfortunately lost their
lives. Since then I have made several enquiries to your embassy to
locate any of my clients extended relatives, this has also proved
unsuccessful. After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to
trace his relatives over the Internet, to locate any member of his
family but of no avail, hence I contacted you. I have contacted you to
assist in repatriating the money and property left behind by my client
before it gets impounded by the security company were my client
deposited this consignment(two trunk boxes). Particularly, the security
company where the deceased had a deposited this consignment valued at
about Thirteen Million United States Dollars ($U.S 13.000,000) has
issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or have the consignment
confiscated/impounded within the next ten official working days.”
Cleverly, the message doesn’t say which country Pitt Gorey was a national of. I assume that similar messages have gone to Gorey email addresses around the world.
It’s amazing how these people gain access to private addresses; scary also. They’re obviously very organised.
Back on the Saints bandwagon
For the first time in several years I’m looking forward to the start
of the football season. My feelings about the demise of Fitzroy have
been expressed elsewhere, and I’ve stated previously that I’m only
lukewarm as a Lions supporter.
I still believe Fitzroy should have been allowed to merge with North
Melbourne. If it wasn’t for the shortsighted selfishness of Richmond
and a couple of other clubs …
Anyway, that’s history and the new season is almost upon us.
My excitement has nothing to do with the Lions and their aspirations for 2005, but more with the Myrtleford Saints.
As a former board member I was excited to see the club reach the
Ovens and Murray League grand final three years ago. Like many of the
other directors, coaching staff and external recruits I was jaded by
the effort of getting there and couldn’t peak again for 2003. I
resigned from the board and only watched about three games in the last
two seasons. Myrtleford only won a handful of games in those two years.
This year, under playing coach Travis Hodgson and inspirational captain Brad Murray, the Saints show plenty of promise.
Perhaps I’m a fairweather supporter, but I expect my footy team to
be competitive. I easily could have switched allegiance to Bright in
the minor league, given my residence at Porepunkah, but I enjoy the
standard of footy in Ovens and Murray.
I’ve had the privilege of watching Guy Rigoni and Brett Kirk show
their skills before advancing to higher levels. Many players from the
Myrtleford team in 2001-02 had played at state league level in Western
Australia. The standard appears to be reaching towards that level again
in 2005.
I’m hopeful the Saints can this year make the finals, and who knows? Perhaps they can progress further?
Family portrait
We had family photos taken as part of a school fundraiser several weeks ago. The prints came back today, with a nice one of the four children shown above.
Hazard burning continues
Mount Porepunkah is ablaze with fuel reduction burning. I thought it strange when I was passed by three utes and a truck while cycling up One Mile Creek Road on Sunday; until later the same day we saw smoke from that area while dining at Eurobin.
Last night the hills were dotted with red firespots. I tried taking a photo, using a night landscape setting on my new camera, but the lack of natural star light and moon meant it didn’t turn out.
Two mornings ago, after cloud came in and the wind died, the smoke was oppressive. Fortunately, we’ve had a strong breeze the past two days.
Red Stag Deer Farm
The picture above shows the view that Juliet and I enjoyed today while having lunch at the Red Stag Deer and Emu Farm. It was the first time we had dined at this picturesque spot near Eurobin.
The twins saw ostriches and goats in addition to deer and emu.
For lunch I had fillets of ostrich and emu with venison sausages and stir-fry noodles and vegetables. Juliet had marinated emu kebabs with a green salad. Everything was delicious.
TV scheduling
Juliet made a good point tonight about those dreadful TV reality shows. We don’t watch any of them, but they intrude on our lives through their impact on TV programming.
Channels Ten and Nine are frequently behind schedule because of their various sops to so-called reality.
That means if you want to watch “Law and Order” for example, at 8.30pm, it actually starts at 8.45pm.
I’m surprised there haven’t been more complaints about this issue. And I don’t understand why the stations don’t remedy this through the TV guides.
I can only assume they’re happy to run late because that attracts extra viewers at the end of dud programs.
On the table
A few minutes of silence always means danger where the twins are concerned. This evening we found them on the dining room table spooning out tartare sauce from a jar.
It’s amazing how they collude in these acts of mischief, especially given that they can’t talk yet!
Fuel reduction hazard
There was a good letter in the local paper today about the fuel reduction burns that are currently contaminating our atmosphere.
The writer described how his house was nearly burnt in the massive bushfire of January 2003. That blaze cleaned out the undergrowth and much more, but the bush has recovered to be as thick now as it was then.
We were on standby to evacuate during that fire, which caused apprehension, uncertainty and fear.
The question to consider though, is weather artificial burning helps more than it harms?
It seems the State Government and insurance companies would rather we die of cancer or respiratory disease in 50 years than next year in a bushfire.
However, the chance of the former is much greater than the latter.
The 2003 fire was the biggest since 1939, but few buildings were destroyed and no lives were lost, except one tragedy caused by a freak flood in the clean-up.
When I was editor of the Myrtleford Times and Alpine Observer, I published the findings of an academic study that revealed how atmospheric pollution caused by fuel reduction burning was worse than anything ordinarily encountered in Melbourne or major industrial centres.
The Border Mail noted recently that pollution levels in Albury were above the recommended standards, and Albury is a long way from the contrived fires.
There’s no doubt in my mind that fuel reduction burning causes short-term respiratory discomfort and potentially is a long-term life-threatening hazard.
I’ve read foresters’ opinions that question the effectiveness of fuel reduction burning.
To my untrained mind it would appear more sensible to allow frequent logging operations in State Forests and salvage harvesting in National Parks.
The human activity would clear sections of bush and make it harder for bushfires to spread.
But I can’t imagine the Greenies would like that idea and it’s their agenda that counts with politicians.
It will take a class action from country residents who contracted lung cancer from state-imposed smoke to shift their opinions.
Meanwhile, we have to put up with glorious autumn days being filled with smoke haze.
And following criticism of the government for not meeting its past burning schedule, the activity has started earlier than usual and will probably last longer.
For what cost/benefit result when you count human health as part of the equation?
Front page news
Juliet and the twins appeared on the front page of today’s Border Mail. I helped organise a statewide launch yesterday for the Health Minister, Bronwyn Pike, who announced a new rural maternity initiative in Myrtleford.
Her office asked us to have some mums and bubs in attendance. Good idea, but Alpine Shire has a low birth rate (about 80 per year) across three communities and new mums aren’t always inclined to attend political events.
We tried quite a few, and one turned up with a cute 15-day-old girl. I called rent-a-baby (Juliet) for insurance, and despite some car trouble she arrived with the twins just in time.
The car had a flat battery and she tried calling the RACV for half an hour, without the phone being answered. I found out later that 320 RACV officials were in Bright yesterday for a conference, which probably explains it.
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