Tag: australia

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climbing general

climbing in the rain at the arapiles

Ignoring the forecast of rain, I figured that it would probably be dry anyway. After all, it never rains at Arapiles. However, I had forgotten to take into account that with the change in government had come a change in weather patterns – since Kevin Rudd broke the drought, it just hasn’t been the same. The bare dirt has gone, to be replaced by actual green stuff growing from the ground – the paths to the climbs are festooned with daisies! And the cliffs themselves seem to be developing a healthy amount of foliage.

 

 

But anyway, it rained. There was a lot of this:

 

Megan (at the base of the cliff) shelters from the rain under a rope bag

 

And this:

 

Pete’s tongue shelters from the rain under a rope bag

 

And occasionally some of this:

 

“Wave your hands in the air like you just climbed Trapeze (11 ~ 5.7) in the rain!”

 

Categories
general

purple

 

 

 

Wisteria

 

 

 

 

Patterson’s Curse

 

Categories
general

australian birds: belligerent and numerous

In Australia now. There are many more gum trees than I remember, and birds! So many birds constantly singing and talking and arguing.

 

The birds were somewhere here

 

The houses are also much colder, the confectionery sections in supermarkets much larger, and there are less bears.

 

There were also birds in this tree (not pictured)

 

Categories
canada general travel

attempting to burn my own personal hole in the ozone layer

As if I haven’t done enough gadding about already this year, I have decided to travel across the Pacific Ocean and go to Australia. And then come back again 3 weeks later. Although I’m tempted by Anonymous Lefty’s noble and environmentally conscious scheme of going by ship, I shall probably just stick with an aeroplane. This is the route I shall direct the pilot to take:

 

Calgary – Melbourne

 

So in two days time I’ll probably be hanging out at an airfield of some sort, trying to hitch a ride on a plane. Or a zeppelin.

Categories
general

they’re selling my town!

Well, not exactly. But sort of.

 

 

Currently the government is buying back the water rights from irrigation farms in bits and pieces, and more and more people are selling up their permanent water rights and leaving. Selling water has become more lucrative than farming.

According to a statement, the Prime Minister also recently announced the Government’s intention to work with irrigation communities to buy out water entitlements from areas willing to move out of irrigation, facilitated by a price premium reflecting the value of water savings from closure of infrastructure such as supply channels.

The current chairman of the Irrigation Area has made the suggestion to the Australian Minster for Water that for a grand total of $3.5 billion the government could just buy back the whole town: all the water rights at once combined with compensation to allow everyone in town to take up and leave (now there’s no farming community to support them – which is what’s happening anyway). Part publicity stunt, to point out the affect that the continual loss of water and people is having on farming communities, but also a reasonable suggestion that the government may need to make some difficult decisions about what areas should continue irrigation, rather than allowing the de-irrigation to occur in a random patchwork fashion.

Water scientists, including the late Peter Cullen and Wayne Meyer, the professor of Natural Resource Science at the University of Adelaide, have criticised the piecemeal approach to the water buyback.

Professor Meyer said governments should take the hard decisions to take some areas out of irrigation “and concentrate on making the other areas work very, very productively”.

In the late 1990s, the majority of their income for most people in the area came from rice farming. With 100 percent water allocations that might still be the case. But years of drought have led to seven years of reduced water allocations, hovering around 13 percent now. Not enough to grow rice. Enough to struggle along growing bits and pieces, and spending a lot of time hoping for rain, and having bores drilled so you have enough water to keep your livestock alive.

In the newspapers:
Stock and Land
The Land
ABC
The Australian
The Australian (2)