Hervey Bay Gossip

Today’s Courier Mail is carrying a rather disturbing story on the time it takes for police to respond to emergency calls. You can read it here.

From our own experience I would suggest that Hervey Bay is probably better served than some areas in the south east. We have called the police on two occasions and each time the response was everything you could hope for.

On the first occasion on a busy Friday afternoon we had spotted a boat in trouble off Shelly Beach. When we called we found that the police were already looking for the boat but had not been given enough information to locate the vessel. They were quickly on the scene once they knew where the boat was situated.

On the second occasion we called on Saturday night when we thought there were intruders trying to break into the house next door. The police arrived within 10 minutes of our call.

There seems to have been a fire burning on Fraser Island for most of the day yesterday. By last night the smoke cloud had billowed high into the air and after night fell a wind change brought a lot of smoke and ash into Hervey Bay

As long ago as last year experts were beginning to see a disturbing trend in cyber crime. In 2004 income from cyber crime exceed the estimated income from global drug trafficking.

Cyber crime is defined as child pornography, corporate espionage, stock manipulation, email scams, piracy and even extortion. Unfortunately while cyber crime is on the increase around the world there is no law enforcement agency that is able to keep up with this surge in crime.

Each week as part of the Hervey Bay Gossip we bring you a motoring review and that has led to a new project that you can see developing over at Aussie Motoring. As part of that project we’re constantly looking at the motoring industry around the world and that has proved to be very interesting.

One of the factors that make it so interesting is the way motoring writers from different countries see the same vehicle. It becomes quite obvious that national influences can creep into a review and have quite an impact on how a writer sees a vehicle.

The Kia Rio is one car that seems to be influenced by nationality of the reviewer.

Here in Australia small cars have been been part of the industry forever. Many of us oldies cut our driving teeth on Leyland Minis so to us small cars are quite acceptable and when a motoring writer here in Australia reviews a small car he or she take it as it comes. Two Australian reviews of the Kia Rio that we saw were quite positive.

But in America, home of the big car, things can be quite different. A motoring writer in the US who wrote a review on the Kia Rio spent time complaining that the base model did not come equipped with power windows.

Instead of power windows, it had the hand-crank style. Who knew they still made those?

He also did not like the fact that the base model lacked central locking, power operated mirrors and power steering and even went so far as to question the marketing wisdom of the manufacturer.

Well all I can say is that he was testing the base model and Kia is making money selling their cars while American manufacturers are busy closing plants because their cars are not selling.

Personally, after having a power operated window fail and gracefully slide down into the door some distance from home and with storms loomimg (and pay $250 for the repair) I’ll happily settle for a hand cranked window any day - that’s an absolute luxury compared to the sliding windows that came with the first Mini.

And if you do want to read the review on the Kia Rio perhaps you should start here.

It’s also very small, quite natural and makes a very big mess.

It’s Hincksia sordida a naturally occurring alga inhabits the sea and is in bloom at this time of year. Individually it is quite small but unfortunately it comes in very large groups and at the moment several tonnes of it is sitting just over the horizon of Noosa.

Last year when it was washed ashore on Main beach it cleared the beach and all the restaurants along the beach right at the peak of the holiday season. One Noosa resort suggested that its takings for January were down by $100,000 because of the problem and other businesses reported losses of up to 30 percent.

While you may think that our little friend Hincksia sordida is someone else’s problem it isn’t. Over the last couple of weeks there have been reports of the algae appearing on the beaches on the seaward side of Fraser Island as well as down at Rainbow Beach.

For Noosa the problem will get worse if there are strong breezes from the north before the bloom breaks up.

The latest hurrican to hit Floriday resulted in power outages for some areas that lasted for days and weeks. Yet a number of families in the affected communities were able to survive with all their appliances running.

While those around them suffered the families that were untouched by the lack of power were those who had invested in alternative energy sources. With power outages expected to affect south east Queensland jsut about any time a storm sweeps through the region it’s surprising that not more home owners here are looking for ways to cut the dependence on a creaking electricity grid.

In Sydney there are some who even turn their excess power back into the grid and so earn credits but here in sunny Hervey Bay it seems that no one is interested.

The Nissan Navara D40 has been released this week. It seems strange to report that this Japanese vehicle is built in Spain but such is the nature of the international economy these days that Japanese vehicles are built in Spain and some of Ford Australia’s vehicles are built in South Africa.

For a quick look at the new Navara check out Aussie Motoring.

Fortunately Hervey Bay managed to escape the wild weather that struck other parts of south-east Queensland although things did not look so promising yesterday morning.

Even last night the weather radar showed a number of storm cells moving in but somehow they all managed to slip away to the south. The light show that was displayed in the sky was well worth watching if you had a sheltered spot.

Holden and the Queensland Police Service have joined forces in an effort to reduce the road toll and increase road safety leading up to the holiday season.

No fewer than 10 headturning Holden Monaro coupes have joined the Queensland police fleet to provide maximum visibility on roads during peak periods.

The Monaros will be used as a tool that will be a constant reminder for motorists to follow the road rules.

Queensland Police Minister Judy Spence and Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson unveiled the fleet at an event in King George Square in Brisbane.

The vehicles will be distributed to each police region where they can be used to promote road safety messages through high profile traffic patrols.

Each region and district can use the vehicles to employ local strategies based on road crash data and their individual needs.

The Monaros will be equipped with highly reflective markings and road safety messages displayed on the panels.

Each Monaro is fitted with mobile data devices which allow police to access information including driver license details and persons of interest data.

They also feature a range of modern technology to accommodate secure digital radios and mobile radar equipment.

Holden announced earlier this year that it would end production of the current generation Monaro in late 2005 .

The coupe has been Australia’s top selling sports car each year since its release in late 2001 and has been sold under various brands in the United States , United Kingdom , Middle East and New Zealand.

This is not the first time a car company has teamed up with state police to provide something different in the way of highway patrol cars over the Christmas period. Several years ago BMW supplied several high speed sports saloons to the Tasmanian police for patrol work during Christmas.

If you thought yesterday was a bit warm and sticky then spare a thought for the people in the United Kingdom. In Cormwall a major winter storm caused over 1000 motorists to become stranded and the Army had to be called in to rescue them

Here the worst we had to experience yesterday was a little fog