No answer to cow gas
The Australian Government is currently considering its response to a report into the impact of climate change which recommends emissions trading.
It’s a very complex discussion, but as I understand it companies and organisations that produce “bad gas” will be taxed while the production of “good gas” will be rewarded.
We managed to localise the debate for tomorrow’s Border Watch by obtaining comments from a local manufacturer, farmers, councils and timber workers. Read more
Canunda Wind Farm
I snapped this picture today of these giant turbines at the Canunda Wind Farm between Mount Gambier and Caprneter Rocks near Tantanoola. Read more
Marsupial lion
Listening to ABC regional radio in the car today I heard about the discovery of marsupial lion bones near Burra in South Australia earlier this year.
The marsupial lion is regarded as part of Australia’s “megafauna” which became extinct about 45,000 years ago.
These were giant versions of wombats and kangaroos, and in this case a carnivorous predator.
The lion’s disappearance is unexplained, although it’s generally linked to climate change or the arrival of humans.
I reckon these beasts would have eaten any blackfellas who came after them, but one theory is the humans introduced fire which changed the lion’s habitat.
It’s a fascinating story and fun to ponder what happened.
E-waste disposal
We’ve made three trips to the rubbish tip today, getting rid of odds and ends we don’t want to take to Mount Gambier.
The biggest items were an old lawnmower that doesn’t work and two unwanted broken hard drives I couldn’t be bothered repairing.
Kalgoorlie-Boulder has possibly the only free landfill site in Australia; certainly it’s the first free tip I’ve encountered. Maybe it’s a Western Australian thing. Read more
Python eats family pet
Overseas readers will be interested to know the story reported in the Cairns Post of a monster python stalking and devouring a family’s pet dog.
Daniel Peric said he now would not leave his two children, aged five and seven, alone in any part of the house, after the “enormous” python ate his silky terrier-cross chihuahua.
Mr Peric said in the weeks before, the family had found their cat’s body, which looked like something had attempted to swallow it and on Sunday a smaller python had eaten their pet guinea pig.
Add cyclones to the location risk, cane toads and various marine nasties, and you have to wonder why anyone would live in the tropical north.
Australia doesn’t have lions or other large animals of prey, but we do have plenty of hairy eight-legged creatures and slippery ones with fangs.
In the water, watch out for sharks, jellyfish and stingrays.
And as Baino wrote in her blog earlier this year, beware the Drop Bear. This great scary kangaroo pic came from there too.
Plastic shopping bags
There is speculation the new Labor Government will ban plastic shopping bags to shore up its green credentials.
City dog owners are unhappy with the idea because they use plastic bags to hold the poop they scoop.
I’d prefer to see the government discourage plastic bags, rather than abolish them. They should implement a 10-cent levy on them, so people have a choice.
We generally take carry bags on big shopping trips, but there are times you drop into the supermarket for eight or 10 items and don’t have one of them in your car.
We also recycle the plastic bags to hold kitchen rubbish.
Kalgoorlie dawn
We’ve had some mild weather lately and I’ve taken to going for longer walks in the morning. I discovered a little-used track (pictured) at the back of Hannans Golf Course which I follow and then cut back through the fairways.
I’ve actually seen more wildlife on these walks than in the Karlkurla nature reserve.
There isn’t much grass on the golf course and the “greens” are sand. For those who don’t know, an 18-hole international-standard grass course was supposed to have been finished by now and it is supposedly still under development.
There is some grass on the Hannans course though and it greened up nicely after last week’s rain. In the dawn light it looks quite attractive and the kangaroos love it.
Kalgoorlie sunset
Kalgoorlie had a spectacular sunset on Thursday. Kalgoorlie Miner journalist Georgia Loney captured the scene.
Bee alert
A skeleton staff works on Sunday at the Kalgoorlie Miner. The sports reporters and photographers work most weekends. The sub-editors work about every second weekend, the editors every third weekend and reporters about one in six on rotation.
There were only six of us in the office on Sunday, three blokes and three women.
I was a little perturbed when a call of nature revealed the men’s toilet had been invaded by a swarm of bees. It’s somewhat difficult to concentrate on the task at hand, so to speak, when the threat of a sting is ever present.
There’s an open window to the upstairs facility and the bees were checking it out as a possible new home. I wasn’t planning to argue with them and made a hasty retreat.
On the way back to my desk I had the presence of mind to warn the sports reporter not to drop his guard. The sub-editor bloke wasn’t around and I forgot to tell him.
An hour or so later he came to report the bee invasion. Was I aware that bees had overtaken the lavatory? A casual affirmative from me, a shrug from him and an off-hand remark about it being “rather disconcerting”.
Australians are masters of understatement.
Kallakoopah Creek
There are some great pictures by Peter Eve on The Australian’s web site today. They show scenes from the Kallakoopah Creek: “the secret river in the nation’s heart”.
The watercourse is an offshoot of Cooper Creek in wilderness area on the edge of the Simpson Desert.
The Australian does a really good job of delivering stories and images from remote areas to the rest of the country. The story of the “secret river” is here.
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