octave Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 Here is the afternoon sun plus Aussie smoke from Wellington NZ note this is not sunset. Apparently much worse on the south island. The last house I live and built (luckily sold it recently) was only just saved, the house before that 360km away is also threatened. My sister lives on a property near Quaama, the fire passed through this area and we cannot contact her. Phones are out my parents are frantic. Not a great start the year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turboplanner Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 Here is the afternoon sun plus Aussie smoke from Wellington NZ note this is not sunset. Apparently much worse on the south island. The last house I live and built (luckily sold it recently) was only just saved, the house before that 360km away is also threatened. My sister lives on a property near Quaama, the fire passed through this area and we cannot contact her. Phones are out my parents are frantic. Not a great start the year [ATTACH]42830[/ATTACH] I went through that on Ash Wednesday, but if it’s any consolation, it’s the phone lines that go first, and often from a fire front 20 km away, while the house is fine, But it’s no fun when those lines are silent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onetrack Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 Octave, SKY News has a news video on YouTube, showing the damage in Quaama townsite itself. It's not looking good in that area - but as with all fires, numerous homes manage to avoid being burnt, more by good luck than anything else, I think. The Quaama footage starts at 50 seconds into the video. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmccarthy Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 Here is the afternoon sun plus Aussie smoke from Wellington NZ note this is not sunset. Apparently much worse on the south island. The last house I live and built (luckily sold it recently) was only just saved, the house before that 360km away is also threatened. My sister lives on a property near Quaama, the fire passed through this area and we cannot contact her. Phones are out my parents are frantic. Not a great start the year [ATTACH]42830[/ATTACH] I am hoping everything works out well for your family. 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skippydiesel Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 For people who earlier were wondering how the ADF related to bushfires, this shows the sequence: 1. A request by a State Government 2. A response by the Commonwealth Government "Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds have agreed to deploy a fleet of aircraft and ships at the request of the Victorian Government. As part of the deal, the Australian Defence Force will send Black Hawks, Chinooks, fixed-wing aircraft and Navy vessels for firefighting support and evacuations." Source: The Age 1/1/20 Ye Gads! better late than never. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turboplanner Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 Ye Gads! better late than never. No, it's not Ye Gads! better than never; It's time some people went back to the school books and worked out the difference between State Governments and the limitations of the Commonwealth Government; the Commonwealth doesn't just sit on top of the State Governments like the head office sits on top of state branches inj a national company. Overnight the NSW Premier also called in the Commonwealth Government to provide support and the ADF will be doing mass evacuations and people movements. Already at Mallacoota Defence helicopters are doing crew changeovers for fire trucks cut off from the Princes Highway, and some generators are about to be brought in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skippydiesel Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 Turbo; Its great for our leadership to have such non critical support. For my part I dont give a monkeys what the historical (lack of) relationship is between the redundant States and the Fed. We are poorly led & way way over governed. It is just such situations as the fires /Murray Darling that show how poor our system is. Mired in vested interests and bloated glacial bureaucracy. Time for a big change in how we govern ourselves (not holding my breath on this) Blind Freddy has known this since we moved from communicating by horse delivered mail to the telegraph. 1 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgwilson Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 If there was true leadership at a Federal level, there would be no need for the State to have to ask for support in times of such dire emergency. The antipathy displayed by our politicians at both State and Federal level by just buggering off on holiday at such a time just because they planned it before the emergency is not only disrespectful to those who have suffered loss but indicates a "business as normal" approach when things are far from normal. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly_tornado Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 another bad day, I saw a video of David Littleproud saying that everything will be fine when it rains, which I suppose brought comfort to some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turboplanner Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 For my part I dont give a monkeys what the historical (lack of) relationship is between the redundant States and the Fed. Well you probably should if you want any credibility, because the States are not redundant, they are the primary form of Government in the six States. They build the roads, they build the power stations, they manage the water they do the planning of future towns and cities, and so on. The Federal government collects the taxes and distributes them in an orderly way, so that people who populate the smaller states can have about the same standard of living as those in the big states. It took people in the States from 1857 to 1901 - 44 years of debating before they agreed on a Constitution which would prevent a Commonwealth meddling in their internal afffairs. So far it has worked very well. It is just such situations as the fires /Murray Darling that show how poor our system is. Mired in vested interests and bloated glacial bureaucracy. The fires we just covered; fought by the States with assistance from the Comonwealth as requested. Murray Darling, at present the centre of social media dission since the current drought started, discussing low water levels due to eveything from Big Cotton (Cubby Station no rain since 2017, dams dry, not cotton planting - that killed that one), and various states stealing water depending on which state the Social Media stirrer is based. The four States, Qld, NSW, Vic, SA each have a percentage of water allocation, and the Commonwealth gets an "environmental" flow. The percentages were agreed to between the States and Commonwealth, and those percentages are staken from the available water, so in a drought, while you may have a licence for 1 ML/month, you may only be getting 0.1 ML/month. The MDBA allocates this water down the channels in accordance with this States agreement, and there is online live gauge reporting, updated daily which the general public can see if they want to click a few keys. About 90% of the social media suggestions show no understanding of what happens in a six metre flood. If you took a map which covered your desk and drew over the Murray Darling Basin lines with a felt pen and stepped back, the pen lines would show you the area of the 4000 kilometre (N-S) basin - the area pulling water from the basin for stock or irrigation, which is pretty much negligible compared to all the primary production going on on your map, where farmers drill for water - so pretty much a non-event except for the towns. The month by month stirring however has prompted the Victorian, NSW and SA Ministers to get very restless about what they percieve is threatening "their" farmers, so we are seeing a situation where the balance could easily be upset. Time for a big change in how we govern ourselves (not holding my breath on this) Blind Freddy has known this since we moved from communicating by horse delivered mail to the telegraph. Well we are a democracy; there's nothing to stop you and blind Freddie putting up a thesis "How Australia should be run" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turboplanner Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 If there was true leadership at a Federal level, there would be no need for the State to have to ask for support in times of such dire emergency. I explained the Sovereign State relationship to Skippy. Each State has been fighting its fires, and asking for help as needed from each other, from their overseas peers and from the Commonwealth, and in each case in each State, they have received the response. they asked for. What we do need is an education system which teaches students and migrants how our political system really works. The antipathy displayed by our politicians at both State and Federal level by just buggering off on holiday at such a time just because they planned it before the emergency is not only disrespectful to those who have suffered loss but indicates a "business as normal" approach when things are far from normal. Hyperbole is cheap and sells newspapers. I see this time you're at least aiming some of it at Premiers, where the buck stopped as far as the RFS, CFS and CFA are concerned; you need to absolve those premiers who were not on holidays from the cheap slurs. What really is disrespectful to those who have suffered losses are the cheap political slurs on the people who have done their best to save them from those lossed and that included the State and Federal Ministers who are working at it day by day right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kgwilson Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 How the political system works is completely irrelevant to people on the ground and those suffering. The image that is portrayed is that of politicians politicking and not being seen to do things. The fires have been burning since July and have been worsening week by week and they have only in the last week decided that volunteers (initially only Public Service employees) should get some compensation for the fact that they are not working at their normal employment. They were warned months ago that this was going to happen but did nothing. Morrison refused to even see the group of ex Fire Chiefs. I don't give a flying fig that they should have gone state by state according to the so called areas of responsibility. The ex Chiefs knew that but could see this emergency was likely to unfold and so endeavoured unsuccessfully to open the eyes of federal government, most members of which at the time were forging headlong with their fossil fuelled backers. Now we get knee jerk reactions to something that should have been foreseen. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skippydiesel Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Hi Turo - I am well aware of how our dysfunctional government is supposed to work. Thanks anyhow for the tutorial. I do not think that a relatively small (population) country like Au, needs or benefit from a three tier government system. The only people who benefit are the public servants & politicians who are employed under this make work system. Historically there was merit in the creation of the Crown Colonies but this was a response to the "tyranny" of distance & slow communication of the era - all changed with technology. The existing system is extraordinarily costly, sluggish & inefficient - there is no logical argument to support three levels of Gov. Potentially we, as a country, would be far better off (individually less tax) with a two tier system - expanded local, subject to & overseen by a national Gov. is a far more streamlined model able to rapidly respond to changing circumstances, without the cumbersome & parochial State system. Out with the States!!! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Methusala Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Anybody with the merest interest in political accountability could have predicted the slothful and disrespectful reaction to this national catastrophe from Scott from marketing. It may, just possibly, bring about an awakening of consciousness from the so obviously ignorant polity. I see that in every utterance, Scott (from marketing), injects his crass political jibes. He's still so far behind in providing empathy and understanding of the people's feelings of loss and despair. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turboplanner Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 I think people will see what the real situation is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmccarthy Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Scomo is highly articulate compared with his Labor counterpart. The poor guy will never become PM. Not that either would be my choice in a raffle. In my lifetime I think Menzies, Hawke, Keating and Howard stand out head and shoulders. We need one of them. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly_tornado Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 every day Morrison looks like he wishes he never left Hawaii, you can just tell he only wants to govern for winners not homeless losers of which there are now several thousand. He knows this is the disaster that ruins his legacy. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Methusala Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Albo was never my choice for loto. But he has been clear about the necessity for nations to stand on the side of positive action when disaster, as predicted 40 years ago, comes to the fore. This is truly the eve of destruction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turboplanner Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Current situation tonight: 17 missing. This area is thick bush with small clusters of houses, very few towns Princes Highway is the main common access, mostly rough bush tracks if that is cut. Phone lines are out, hence no one is sure if these people are OK. HMAS Choules has arrived Mallacoota today, 4000 people in the town and 800 being evacuated by barge to the ship, then 20 hours back to Melbourne. Choules has six containers with food for 3 weeks for the town. The problem with Mallacoota is its only exit is one bitumen road out to the Princes Highway and that is covered by fallen trees, may take a couple of weeks to clear. Chinooks flying in for other evacutations. The people had been told to evacuate last week from this general area extending to NSW. In southern NSW back burning is taking place along Princes Highway to provide a safe exit if the fores flare Saturday which is going to be hot and windy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacesailor Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 AT LAST ! The Army Navy are here to help. spacesailor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
octave Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 My sister lost her house at Quaama but at least wasnt hurt. 4 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turboplanner Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 My sister lost her house at Quaama but at least wasnt hurt. Sorry to hear that; when you lose your house you lose a lot of your life. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacesailor Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Hopefully Insured. spacesailor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
octave Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Sorry to hear that; when you lose your house you lose a lot of your life. Yes, at this stage she is happy to be unhurt but I suppose she will turn her mibd ti what happens next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
octave Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Hopefully Insured. spacesailor Yes insured 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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