Just to prove I went for my first early morning walk in....months

Back In The Days When The Mary River Was Going To Be Dammed.
 

I am glad something went right in 2009 and the Mary River Valley was saved.

But this is a hidden post about a gripe, the above is just the initial impression a casual reader may get.

For my true follower, I will let you in on a horrible tale, that once again shattered my faith in my children.

Another straw for the camels back came when I was given a bottle of Jacobs Creek Sauvignon Blanc for helping a neighbour in the street with formatting an email they had messed up. They were eternally grateful because they thought the letter would have to by typed again from scratch. Despite me being in fibro fog, it was not a particularly demanding task and the gift was not necessary. I took the bottle back home (exhausted from the walk over the road thanks to a bad fibro fortnight(so far))and put it in the fridge with instructions that it was to be saved for Christmas Dinner.

Nevertheless, he asked several times if we could open it after that point, each time me replying in the negative.

Last night, I was presented with a glass of wine at my computer desk. I went off my brain lecturing him and telling him how much he had spoilt things for me. Sour looks for the rest of the night and I cannot say I feel any love toward him today either.

Now all that is left is to find out how much back rent is owed to the department. The letter was posted on Friday. Not happy about all the people in the street that could have, but when it came to the crunch, it was my own son who dobbed me in.

I wish it could be but even if it was the thought behind the behavior, departmental housing cannot be passed on to your children.

Tree Removal

BEFORE and AFTER

A Breakthrough For Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia?

From the Bird Hide at Banksia Beach Wader Sanctuary.

He has done it again. He cancelled one place because he did not like the sound of it after making the enquiries and getting the go ahead to check out the share accomodation. Then after the rest of the day planning to head up to the other one at 5 o'clock which he decided to delay until 7pm so that they would not see his unwashed car in the dark, he just rang up and cancelled completely saying he wasn't interested, it being 6.30pm now. He denies being frightened, says I am an old crow and that he is not going to "put up with that shit" so that is why he cancelled. What shit? As far as I know nothing other than arranging a time suitable. Now he says he has got to get out of the Coast and it is Brisbane for the next target.

Stiched two photos together to show Noosa Hill
Made a mistake obviously. But it is not something that I cannot correct next time I put the effort into this sort of thing.

Actually I wanted to say that the person living with me has set ideals so high that he no longer can accept anything less than perfection from others. I think that is what he means. He will reject anything that will not fit his ideals and consequently he has quit job networks because they weren't good enough, quit work for the dole because he felt it was a backward step for him - their standards were not even in line with what he decided was an issue of workplace health and safety. He has rejected work ideas outright because they were beneath him, involved his father, reminded him of Brett or was out of town. He has not even contacted places that I have found for cheap share accomodation. He has knocked back one place he found himself because it was not suitable. He has been awarded places in courses and even rejected the idea of going along with it until he had his precious pieces of paper. But no, the standard was not high enough to call itself a Senior Certificate in First Aid. And the"protocal" of the place that ran the Fork Lift Truck Licence, was at fault. I have no idea what he means. He hates explaining to me. It tears me apart because I just see a person closing doors on himself.

He promises me that he is NOT mentally ill.

Magpie Mutation

Above is the adult. Below is the juvenile.

Here is a Heron I photographed.

If you look up
Tawny Frogmouth juveniles. My Mum says they hang around public toilet blocks because the all- night lights attract pleny of insects for them to eat. Yum, yum. Anyway I took that photo on Bribie Island - bit blurry but then again so were the babies - very fluffy.

I guess it is a pretty mature bearded dragon. He or she had a regrown join to a very crooked kink in his tail so I guess he or she has seen some action especially along the bike path!

All those photos I uploaded gone

I spent hours adding photos and video to my last blog and the last failure overrode all - bummer

Bribie Island Car Camping Escape

I have not been up to much as usual except for the dentist. I got my new crown but it seems to be a bit crooked, but better than no tooth at all in front. Been using the dentist days as an excuse for an outing at the North end of the Sunshine Coast, once a fortnight. One day I did a gallery and a bit of shop exploring in Eumundi and found out that my pierced ears can handle pure (not stirling) silver posts without getting sore. The lady from the Mango hut makes the earrings herself with the part that goes through the ear removable so you can put them on other earrings with a bit of fiddling. She was also telling me all about her parents who were the ones that lost their dream home to the house fire around Eumundi that was on the news. They had been renovating for some time and had not long moved up from down south permanently to finally move in for keeps. It was an old queenslander and only the brand new set of steps that were just completed by the workmen up to the front verandah were left standing.


Another day I sat on the Noosa spit with a brush turkey poking around and had a swim in the Noosa River because I could not get a park close to the ocean side and it was even worse in the Noosa National Park which I drove around 3 times trying to find a place to pull up. I had my thermos and a bite to eat in the shaded foreshore car park pull-in on the Spit and envied the happy hippie combie van obviously travelling around with its occupants who were hanging out their washing between sign posts.


It seems my new car (a gift from my sis earlier this year) is not that great for car camping after all. It is big enough to lay across the back seat curled up but oouch, I wake up hurting on and off all night. I found that out last weekend when I took off impromptu to Bribie Island quite late in the evening on Friday, had Macca's at Caboolture turnoff and pulled into this car park with toilet called Turner's Camp (historical site of the Turner family) a few k before the Bribie Island bridge. There were a couple of mobile homes there already doing the free camping thing and they were already asleep so I drove in and switched off the lights at 9pm and sat and soaked in the peace and nicotine for a while until I decided I had better hop in the back seat for a sleep. Actually I have been so tired lately that one of the reasons I took off was thinking that i would get more rest away from the house where Scott (who is still jobless and living here) had his son for the weekend. I have no patience for kid whinges and demands these days and seem to be so sensitive to noise that I have been way too cranky - yep, old and cranky I have become and I want my house back to myself rather than computers and TVs making competing noises. I don't think coming off anti-depressants has helped.

Getting back to the car camping - it was a hot night so I had the windows down some in the car and was getting a lovely breeze off the water but I was too exited or scared or hyped up to get to sleep for ages. But I did fall asleep (and wake up and fall asleep again etc) until about 3.30am when I had the urge to go to the toilet which meant getting out of the car ofcourse. As it turned out that was a problem. This car has the immobiliser alarm thingy on the key ring and I unlocked the thing by pushing the button but when I tried the door handle nothing happened! I pushed the button again - nothing happened and again, and again. Well maybe the button near the gear stick that said lock and unlock would work something - so I moved the switch and bingo......the bloody car alarm went off and the lights were flashing and I was panicking about "the neighbours". I was already "hanging" over the seat into the front with a sore body and then had to come back to the back window ledge to find the keys to press the button once again to turn off the alarm. A few seconds that seemed like an eternity. The alarm had stopped but I was still stuck in the back seat not particularly confident of NOT setting the alarm off again. A couple of deep breaths. Only one thing to do. Move all the stuff that I had piled in the front so that I could sleep in the back, and then climb over the seat and into the front drivers side - since I knew I could get out of that door. I do it every day nearly. Puff, puff, pant, pant. Done and out! Phew! So, am I going to have to climb over the seats every time I want to have a sleep and get out again? I still am not game to find out for sure and I was so embarrassed at being seen the next morning and to tell you the truth I could already see light on the horizon so I hopped back in the car and drove out of Turner's camp and headed over the bridge to Bribie Island looking for a toilet I badly needed by now. I found one, had another sit and hit of nicotine and went to find a place where I could cook my bacon and eggs for a very early breakfast. A nice little park with BBQ's with a view of the passage and also the Glasshouse mountains in the distance, the birds chirping and only the odd person around as the sun made its appearance in the sky. I was tired but I had had some sleep and I thought I would get a sleep in a shady park somewhere during the day. Breakfast was yum, the coffee sachets were yum, the thermos was still hot and the local ibis liked the scraps. But I had little energy to rush and everything took ages including washing up the dishes. I had not put anything in for that and bacon and eggs make a mess. There was a water tap and some paper bark off the paper bark trees that did the job for now.


Then out came the camera/video and I spent some time taking photos. People were doing their early morning constitutional walks by now and I packed up the chair and book that I did not get to read and moved on to the next place. Another toilet block. Bloody lack of sleep, bacon and eggs and the earlier panic had triggered off my irritable bowel and I only just made it in time to a toilet block in Banksia Beach (still on Bribie Island). That was a relief and I smiled once again. I went to check out the Southern end of Banksia Beach that promptly ended at Dux creek come canal development and I parked on the last remaining big dollar block of land for sale with views to the water on 2 sides and thought to myself that "i have been here" before even the new owners that will block off the entire area for the public once their house is built. Ofcourse people can walk up the path to the spot. This was an ideal fishing spot but also as it turned out, the end of a shore bird sanctuary which I went to explore next after some more photos.

The wader sanctuary had a bird hide and information displays and most of the land and foreshore was not accessible to the public because it was for the birds since they had destroyed most of their roosting habitat during the building of the canal estate. I saw a few sandpipers, a family of pied oyster catchers and some stilts which were also found elsewhere on the island anyway. The camera again. Then I want for a wander down the foreshore path in the other direction very slowly because I was not really that well and sat on a park bench for a while and then discovered a big bearded dragon lizard camouflaged well on the trunk of the tree. I watched him or her eat insects and eventually wander off after I got some more photos ofcourse and I think it was coming up to about 9am and I was ready to sleep again...but where? It was getting hot, too hot for sleeping in the car even if I didn't lock the doors so the search for the perfect spot began.

At the other end of Banksia Beach there was a great spot but you had to leave the car out on the road in the hot sun and I had a lot of gear in the car. It had a replica of the glass house mountains done in rocks, a toilet block, a picnic table and the best of all a tree with 2 fluffy juvenile tawny frogmouths (owls) and mother owl in it too - well known to the locals who were still doing the morning walk thing. But next thing a bunch of over 60's pulled up to sit out the day in the shade and I did not feel like laying down on a mat in front of them anyway so I headed for the trees I knew were in "White Patch" after a quick shop for cold drink and milk for cereal which was going to be my lunch. Yes I had an esky.

I had checked out the mudflat type beaches enough at this end of the island and the trees were preventing the cooling wind from entering so there was only one choice left to keep cool. Head to where the wind was coming from, it was gusty but cool. So I drove to the other side of Bribie Island, the surf side but once again I missed out on the only park that had a tree for shade. I put on my bathers and headed to the beach only to find the beach gone! It was eroded away into the sand dunes and the steps down to the beach ended in mid-air. So I did what everyone else was doing and walked in the sand dunes until I found a bit of shade under a spindly she oak. The shade got better as the sun moved around and I was cool here but the surf looked so dangerous that I could only stand on the edge and get wet and yet still get knocked off balance by the waves. This was also an unpatrolled area. Anyway, I could not sleep on such a dune angle - I have to lay down flat if I am ever going to sleep. I spent a couple of hours or more there knowing that no-where else would be any cooler but I imagined putting up my tent somewhere and having a sleep constantly. I never did find a place I could get away with doing that but I did not want to go home to a noisy house either - but by the time 4 o'clock that evening came, I gave in after checking out Turner's Camp once more in daylight hours. I drove home because I could not face another night sleeping in the car. Instead, to get away from the boys, I put my stretcher in the garage and with the door up and the gale blowing in, I went to sleep early and stayed there nearly all night! In fact I have been sleeping a lot ever since including today and I feel so blah that I cancelled my dentist appointment - but I got some good photos.

Well, I skipped the bit about skirmish point and the white mottled magpie that was obviously a mutation but this is the biggest blog that I have written for ages. I hope it entertains you for a while.

Peter Garret said "No" to the Traveston Dam. Yah!

I went swimming in Noosa today, in between two trips to the dentist.

 

Got to get away from that person who is living with me and won't leave so I end up taking and making movies and sleeping in the car.

 

Brett made a mess of the streets yesterday.

I got a phonecall, please come and get me and Cohen and Lauren. I have totalled my car. I was thinking of going camping and had a car full of gear but Brett could sit on the seat with no leg room since Scott refused to let me drive his car. Scott has been like that a lot lately...refusing outright to help out when I request something. But I will get back to that. For the moment, Brett had my attention but he being deliberately hard to get along with towards me, I don't think I got the full story. He didn't want to talk about it.

It seems Brett was approaching the lights entering the main street of downtown Caloundra when the lights went green and he ran into the towbar of a ladies car because she did not go when the lights went green and he turned his head for a split second. He managed to scratch her car a bit but even though it was amazingly slow speed, his Commadore caved in and totalled the car. It was the bumper bar that dropped to the ground a couple of weeks ago. A shop car park prang by another tow bar. But this time, apparently there was tranmission fluid everywhere and the front was smashed in way past the bumper bar and into the motor area and that is why the clean up crew were there on the road. By the time I got there the tow truck and already taken Brett's car away to the impound wreckers. I saw an ambulance too but obviusly my family were fine. They were all waiting under the shelter of Computer Corner because it had been a very hot day.

 

Picasa Web Albums - zzirf - Eumundi: "http://www.youtube.com/v/kc23UAe11Os"

I don't see much of Brenda these days. Been a long time since we regularly kept contact. I was the one who initiated the phone conversations for the most part, and now I rarely ring her because I am no longer an Avon Lady and that was our main point of contact in the last two years. Once in a while I will call in going past her house but more often than not, she is out anyway. Her lovely house and plants are still an attraction. Brenda seems to have lots of other friends, her customers and her spiritual interests of sorts and when Sharon and John broke up she also got her daughter back for a while at least. I think Sharon has moved on now though with new people in her life.

Confusing times for B - Fun one day, drama and disaster the next

Wanting to be closer to his family and friends, he leaves his Dad's, plays in other relationships with the vengeance and jealousy game, lives here, Nick's and back at Honky's place in the garage, grieves, parties, gets drunk, get's drunk and get's drunk, watches Honky and Cohen with other men, get's drunk, hands all his money (credit card) over to Honky for Cohen, punishes himself, lives with no money for a month, then decides to go with all he has got (petrol and clothes) away in the car to never come back. Did I mention he was drunk?

He spends his last $ on pizza because S talked us into putting in for Pizza Capers

Then, the phone rings, he grabs his bag of stuff I insisted he take and he drives off into the night

Did I mention he was drunk? Did I mention that his Dad has been trying to get him back to work for him and B has refused?

Next thing I know, Honky is here with her articulate backup lady friend demanding B's plastic and because we (S and I) refuse to hand it over, the arguments begin. I tell them to leave and wonder what ever will become of B driving in such a state. She comments on how terrible a father Brett would be if he did not give her all his money for the fortnight and even worse that he did not take the photo of his own son, and then she pinches the photo back.

I found out what happened a day or so ago, when B came back here to live out his nights in the garage on my camp stretcher using my EEEPC on Facebook and last night entertaining Cohen too. The cot is still not put away which is typical.

That night of the drive away ended in Brisbane which was the halfway petrol point, either come home or keep going and stop where the petrol ran out and live out the next fortnight. It seems he came to his senses but still in a rage of grief and vengeance over the latest Honky boyfriend, he got the car up to 210 k/h in a half-hearted attempt to commit suicide. He backed off and was doing 160 when the speed camera went flash! I wonder how long it will take for that to catch up with him.

The drama continues via the constant mobile phone calls and text messages and motherly advice and unappreciative responses but perhaps something changed in him because as of yesterday, he is mobile servicing business under his own steam and not his Dad's - having been given the van to make a go of it. One day of work and now it is weekend party time again and you can bet that being Friday night, he is drunk again. And probably Lauren is still caught up in the triangle because she is pretty keen on Brett. I pity that girl.

Dam Land

Years later, the proposed Traveston Dam has not been approved right down the line, yet land in the area is now owned by the Government. There are stressed and displaced people as a result and some lucky ones who could not resist deals offered below but what is all the land for if the dam does not go ahead? How can peoples' lives be uprooted for something that is not viable? On Oct 6th the Co-ordinator General approved Stage 1 but subjected its approval to 1200 conditions which must be met to mitigate social and environmental concerns. Stage 2 has not been approved. 1200 conditions at what cost I ask? Can taxpayers afford to meet the conditions? How expensive will the water be as a result? Is it feasible to meet the conditions? Would another site have far fewer conditions?

As for the land that has already been bought, here are some of the statements made back in August 2009:

"SUGGESTIONS of secret land dealings underlying the Traveston Crossing dam proposal ...........And dam opponents yesterday reacted angrily to criminal damage to anti-dam signs, including several on private property. Vandalism concerns coincided with land grab suggestions from anti-dam activists, who questioned why the government would spend so much public money, buying so much land, for a project that has not been approved, even by the Queensland Government." Source http://www.gympietimes.com.au/story/2009/08/19/suspicion-on-signs/

"The paper (Courier Mail) broke the news that the government had paid $25.3 million for a 973ha Bollier Park cattle property, while leasing it back to its former owners for $20 a week. It is a deal typical of what has occurred throughout the dam area. CONCERNS by the Auditor General at low rentals on leaseback properties were a major part of the new information in yesterday's Brisbane front page. The article prompted renewed concern in other media, including the ABC, which has frequently been noted for its effective coverage locally and on Brisbane radio. Opposition Infrastructure spokesperson and Gympie MP David Gibson accused the government of wasting millions of taxpayers' dollars buying properties for a project which, as anti-dam activists have frequently said, has not yet been approved, even by the Queensland Co-ordinator General." Source: http://www.gympietimes.com.au/story/2009/08/20/finally-rent-set-by-government/ Aug 20th 2009

Dam activists upset over sign vandalism Gympie Environment Environmental News in Gympie Gympie Times

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SUGGESTIONS of secret land dealings underlying the Traveston Crossing dam proposal ......................

And dam opponents yesterday reacted angrily to criminal damage to anti-dam signs, including several on private property. Vandalism concerns coincided with land grab suggestions from anti-dam activists, who questioned why the government would spend so much public money, buying so much land, for a project that has not been approved, even by the Queensland Government.

Traveston Dam will Destroy the Mary River and the Mary Valley

While I was at Kadanga railway station, I visited the Save the Mary River Information Centre. Actually I visited a number of times. Since then Anna Bligh has once again announced that the Traveston Dam is going ahead but it is a totally unofficial statement made out to be official. Friends of the Mary River are still hoping that common sense will rule and they lay their hopes with Mr Garrett. How money can be spent on something in advance of any final ruling beats me but land purchases and road works have been underway for a couple of years. People have already lost their homes except for the ones who are prepared to fight to the bitter end. Others have been scared into submission. That land is now owned by the Government so I wonder what is really going on - not that I myself understand these things. Is there another reason that this land is being collected? And on a personal note, how would you like your relatives burial ground to be submerged under water? I also wonder what the original occupants of the land think. They were the Kabi people.

What I do know from the facts presented at the Information Centre is that the dam is not viable and the tax payers money would be better spent on our long awaited hospital because hospital services on the Sunshine Coast are overtaxed and are also causing needless heartache and inefficient responses to emergencies. Fatigued doctors are making mistakes in surgery and being a public patient is becoming a risk to one's health! I could also go on about the disincentive of the life-time health care loading to those who have had to forgo their private hospital insurance at some stage. There is no way we can get back into the scheme now. Anyway that is another story.

Getting back to the dam(n)ing of the Mary River,

I am not happy about the way that we have been led to believe that the Mary River Turtle, the Mary River Cod, and the Queensland Lungfish are to be sufficiently catered for. An untested turtle ramp and an already 'proven as inefficient' "fish ladder" (Paradise Dam has one but there is insufficient water to operate it at most times and the fish are not proving to be intelligent enough to use it when there has been sufficient water) do not convince me that these vulnerable species are not going to end up extinct. I cannot be placated by such psuedo efforts performed at the tax payers expense.

If North Pine Dam is any example, then any environmental disasters involving our native species are going to be played down anyway. How many people know of the mass fish kill of the Queensland Lungfish that took place not too long ago? The photos showing dead, dying and injured Lungfish at the Information Centre are heartbreaking. I urge you to visit the Information Centre and find out the facts rather than remain in the dark like I was before the visit and my subscription to the Dam Busters newsletter. All the work has been done for you, the information collected, the petitions and letters ready for your signature.

Kadanga is a lovely little town worth the visit and if you would like to see some more photos, click below on my album at picasa.

kadanga

This is Kadanga Railway Station on the weekend of August 15th 2009. I was taking a video with the DV cam I bought Scott for his birthday to come, leaning against a stable platform of the utility room building so that I could get a half decent movie of the Mary Valley Rattler pulling in. However, the train slowed down and because I was busy looking at the LCD screen, I did not notice the waving arm of the Engine Driver telling me to get out of the way. The train slowed right down a the second from the front rubbish bin and it was not until a voice behind me said "get out of the way lady, he won't come in until you move" that I was forced to ruin the rest of the movie and move the camera resulting in a topsy turvy shoot requiring editing and no steady movie of the train going past. I was hoping to upload the movie to a site where you get a dollar or two for movies purchased via that site.

I have not got much hope of holding a camera still enough for a professional looking clip with my hands alone so I will have to use a tripod from now on. The other videos I took show the necessity of that.

The big surprise that on this train, there were people I knew who I bumped into at the tiny market setup around the station. It was Connor, his other grandparents and his cousins (I assume). Nice surprise!

I then went on to meet up with Connor in particular at Imbil station about half an hour down the track. Jan was with me and it was great to see Connor waving out the window of the train in anticipation of seeing Nanoo once again. He ran to me but soon after was more interested in climbing this tree with all the other kids around.

Jan and I went back to Island Reach and our tents after our train chasing day together and Jan had a nice sleep and then proceeded to prepare for our camp fire which she lit on her own. I'd had enough of camp fires by then anyway. They just add to the amount of work a tired and sore body has to do. I was glad that R didn't come up for the weekend because I think I would have been really peeved if they had shared a tent and a bed together as they had done over a year ago on a similar camping weekend at this same location. It turns out I am not so good at sharing men. Actually it turns out that I do not need a man at all (except for spiritual reasons).

Anyway here is the link to the other train video I took. You will probably have to pause it while it downloads. And here is the link to the camp fire video.