Wave of cash and hope for flooded Northern Rivers homeowners
There will be opportunities to repair, retrofit, raise or have the Government buy your home if you were impacted by the devastating floods earlier this year under a massive new Australian and NSW Government program announced by Premier Dom Perrottet, PM Anthony Albanese, Clarence Nationals MP Chris Gulaptis and others in Lismore on Friday ... The Resilient Homes Program will offer voluntary buybacks to residents located in the Northern Rivers’ most vulnerable areas, where major flooding would pose a catastrophic risk to life.
Bridge built back better
An 83 year old bridge has been replaced by a new concrete bridge that will last 100 years. The $2.6 million Cedar Point Bridge on Edenville Rd, near Kyogle ... is a single span concrete structure, founded on steel driven piles with greater flood immunity than the previous bridge.
Funnel-web spider enjoying the wet
This Funnel-web was found in a Goomburra Valley garden - so a word to the wise - watch out while pulling weeds ... The jury is still out - is it a Monteith funnel-web, found near Killarney or a Toowoomba Funnel-web, the most common species in South-east Queensland?
Goomburra Town Hall happenings
October has been a busy month with a Disaster Big Map Exercise, CPR courses taking responsibility of a Deï¬brillator machine to completing our new roof ... Disaster preparedness is one of the GTH committee’s aims for the Goomburra Valley as there is only one road in and out.
Water management killing the Darling-Baaka
New research published by the University of NSW confirms that it is the over extraction and mismanagement of water that is causing most of the damage to the Darling-Baaka River, not climate change. NSW Nature Conservation Council calls for the Federal Water Minister to stand firm on the timelines for water recovery in the Basin Plan, and restore the voluntary, open tender water buy back process.
River levels at Wilcannia 2022 compared with 1990 – Water report
The river continues to rise at Wilcannia and is now running at just over 10 metres with a flow of 30,043 ML/day. Lake Woytchugga is continuing to fill and the Talyawalka is flowing at 6.7 metres. The river is running at 101,727 ML/day at Bourke and over 135,214 ML/day at Walgett, indicating that there is a lot more to come.
October weather
Hottest day was Tuesday 4th at 29.9C, cooler than the hottest ever day in October at 42.4C on the 25th in 2014. The coldest day was Saturday 8th at 18.6C, well above our coldest ever, 13.2C on the 11th in 2012 ... Mean daily temperature was 24.9C, below the long term mean of 27.5C. Rain for the month, recorded at the Airport, was 207.6 mm, setting a new record. The previous highest ever monthly rain for October was in 1894 when 126.4mm fell.
Tackling the growing food security issue: NSW Farmers
Food security is a growing problem for Australian families, according to a new state government report, with remote communities the worst affected. The Food production and supply in NSW report, from the NSW Legislative Assembly’s Committee on Environment and Planning, found food supply disruption was a driver of food insecurity, and that remote communities were unfairly burdened by the problem.
Hume Dam releases increased to manage airspace: MDBA
Releases from Hume Dam have today increased to 75 gigalitres (GL) per day, up from 50 GL per day yesterday in response to overnight inflows that peaked at 100 GL a day. Further increases are likely with a renewed inflow peak expected later today. Combined with inflows from the Kiewa River – downstream of Hume Dam – the Murray River is expected to approach or possibly exceed the major flood level at Albury in coming days.
Aboriginal working group for cultural fire management: Anderson, Cooke, Franklin
The NSW Government will support an Aboriginal-led working group to develop an Aboriginal cultural fire management strategy ... Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Ben Franklin said that cultural burning is an important practice to Aboriginal communities and wider communities across the State.
Philip Zylstra’s response #3 – self-thinning forest understoreys and wildfire risk debate
The mapped fire histories of the southwestern forests show that bushfires have been most frequent in forests with dense understoreys promoted by previous burns, and far less common in areas that have not been burned for several decades, allowing the understorey to naturally thin. Two new voices have entered the discussion on this here and made numerous claims, but their ill-informed comments have distracted from the point.
Government cracks down on firebugs: Maher, Szakacs
Tough new measures to allow authorities to better monitor the movements of convicted bushfire offenders during the fire danger season will be introduced to State Parliament this week. The Bill delivers on an election commitment to help keep the community safe from firebugs.
8,200ha near Charleville added to Queensland protected areas, great lifestyle: Scanlon
More than 8,200 hectares of former sheep station in Queensland’s south west will become a protected area, the Palaszczuk Government has announced. Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon said in an agreement struck between the Palaszczuk Government and Paniri Ventures, the addition of Ardgour Station Nature Refuge, 120km south of Charleville would protect important wetlands and ecosystems that form part of the Wyandra-Cunnamulla Claypans Aggregation.
Archer disaster
A major miscalculation has put the Archer River bridge project back a year and there are fears that Cape residents could face at least two more wet seasons without it. What’s worse, there is also some concern that unfinished civil works on the roads around the Archer River Roadhouse could cut off motorists for months when the rain arrives.
Residents relieved as Marton Swing Bridge re-opens ahead of schedule
Cook Shire Council is pleased to announce that with repairs to the approach ramps of the Marton Swing Bridge coming to completion, the bridge is scheduled to reopen in coming days – ahead of the approaching wet season.
Great Western Highway upgrade
The Hartley District Progress Association (HDPA) and the community of Hartley welcome the Federal Government’s decision to pause funding on the NSW State Government’s proposed Great Western Highway “upgrade” from Katoomba to Lithgow. Stopping the “upgrade” provides a critical opportunity to reconsider how best to improve travel times across the Blue Mountains and how best to direct infrastructure funding.
Flood damaged culvert replaced with concrete bridge
Lismore City Mayor Steve Krieg and Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Premier Gurmesh Singh have opened the new Keerrong Road Bridge ... specialist Bridge Crew replaced the damaged culvert with a new 16.1m x 7.2m single span concrete structure. This new structure founded on steel driven piles has been designed and constructed to achieve a 100-year design life while improving its flood immunity and safety for local farmers and truck drivers.
Sandsational project a first for the Sunshine Coast
A trial will soon begin to see if a technique never before seen on the Sunshine Coast could be used to help replenish Maroochydore Beach ... It involves importing sand from Moreton Bay and placing it in the water, about 300m off the beach. Waves, currents and tides will then deposit the sand onto our beaches providing an additional buffer against future storms and coastal erosion.
Mystery cuttlefish washes up
This month something particularly exciting washed up on Lagoon beach in the Lord Howe Island Marine Park (LHIMP) – a small cuttlefish which had died in recent storms. It was found by visiting researcher Sally Montgomery, and represents the first animal of a Lord Howe Island cuttlefish ever studied.
First ever native stubble quail count in Victoria finds only 101 birds: Regional Victorians Opposed to Duck Shooting
RVOTDS. Game Management Authority (GMA) (Vic) arranged a first-ever count of Stubble Quails in Victoria early this year, and the resultant report it assisted in drafting, has recently been published. The report’s authors have admitted only 101 birds were counted, yet the figure was extrapolated via complex methodologies up to an extraordinary estimate of 3.1 million.
Floods – The road to recovery
In our immediate area, we are lucky: the floods have been and gone while others across the State and beyond are still living with the uncertainty and dangers of rising river levels. For our region, it’s on to the recovery stage. The Times visited the Baringhup Caravan Park last weekend to view the damage following a massive release of water from Cairn Curran reservoir.
Protecting our natural heritage
Sometimes, the good things happening in our region have the smallest of beginnings. In this case, it was a letter that Maldon resident Lee Mead sent to her local State Member Maree Edwards. “It started during the first year of the pandemic when I did a lot more walking around the Maldon Historic Reserve,” Lee said.
