Hervey Bay Gossip

This year’s Fraser Coast Ute Show was held at the Torbanlea Race Track on Saturday. There was a good turnout of utes and spectators and if you missed it you missed some seriously impressive machinery.

Here are just a two examples:

and this beautifully restored 1938 Austin

It was interesting to see how many people were walking around the displays taking photos with their phone cameras but you have to wonder how many of those people actually DO anything with the pictures they take.

At 5am this morning Tropical Cyclone Wati was located 900 km east of Hervey Bay. It was travelling south-east at approximately 30 km/h on a course that would take it between Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island on Sunday morning.

So for Hervey Bay and south-east Queensland the threat may be over but we can still expect high seas along our beaches for the next few days.

The TimesOnline is reporting by 2100 sea levels could have risen by as much as 6 metres. The basis of the story is the release of the findings from a study that was the first to combine computer models of rising temperatures wtih records of ancient climate changes.

If the findings of the study turn out to be correct major cities around the world - including London and New York could be flooded within the next 90 years.

The full story is here

At 5pm today the Weather Bureau reported that Severe Tropical Cyclone Wati was moving south-south-east at 46km/h and was currently east-north-east of Sandy Cape and 980km north of Lord Howe Island.

Residents of Lord Howe Island are warned that gales may develop during Saturday evening and the centre of the cylone is expected to pass to the east of the island on Sunday morning.

Damaging surf conditions with waves exceeding 5 metres are likely to affect beaches between Tweed Heads and Wooli tonight.

Surf Life Saving Australia recommends that you stay out of the water and well away from surf-exposed areas.

At 4am this morning the Weather Beureau reported that Tropical Cyclone Wati was moving south-south-east at approximately 14km/h.

Large waves from the northeast and east will begin to impact on offshore islands and Fraser Island today.

These were the state of the waves in Hervey Bay at 8am this morning.

Ok, so the Poms didn’t like out latest tourism advertisement and the Canadians had a problem with an ad that showed unbranded beer but Amercians have just taken the criticism of our latest ad to a whole new level. And sadly it shows just how narrow their view of the world really is.

The American Family Association (who look like a bunch of intolerant religious nut cases with too much time on their hands) feel that, according to their director of special projects:

“I just feel pretty sure the typical American family who is watching TV with their children and they’re exposed to this ad are going to be upset”

It’s a shocking phrase because we’re not familiar with it.

“I guess they use it all the time in Australia, but it’s a foreign language here so I think it’ll have a negative impact rather than positive.”

And for that reason they want to boycott our country.

Who would want intolerant and bigotted people like that here anyway?

You will find the full story in The Courier-Mail here

Harvey Norman in Hervey Bay has donated a digital camera to the Hervey Bay Historical Village and Museum. The new acquisition will help the museum as it catalogues its collection.

At 11am the Weather Bureau advised that Severe Tropical Cyclone Wati has begun to move in a south-easterly direction at a speed of 12km/h. The Category 3 cyclone is expected to maintain a south to south-easterly track.

It’s hard to believe that, at a time when Innisfail is suffering from severe flooding and it’s even raining in south east Queensland, we arebe facing a severe water shortage and the prospect of ongoing regular droughts due to climate change. Yet that is exactly the grim picture for our future.

It comes as a nasty shock to a large proportion of the population who has never faced those problems before. Even in the worst droughts in the interior we, on the coast, have had plentiful supplies and have rarely had to deal with water restrictions.

But now we have to learn to conserve our water and use it wisely and that is having an unwelcome impact on some of the things we hold dear. We like attractive gardens and we want our lawns to be green and lush and to achieve that we use a lot of what is now a very finite resource to maintain those lawns and gardens.

We waste a lot of water on just making things look pretty and the day is coming when wasting water will no longer be an option. If we still want to have our lawns and gardens we’re going to have to learn to recycle something that we have never before even considered to be recyclable. We are going to have to learn how to treat and use grey water.

Grey water is already being used by some people in Australia for gardens and crops and Toowoomba is even looking at recycling grey water to the point where it will be fit for human consumption. But the majority of us have little understanding of what is involved in the use of grey water.

To introduce you to grey water The Hervey Bay Gossip offers you this overview of grey water in Australia by Russell Egan.

At 4am today Tropical Cyclone Wati was near stationary approximately 500 km north-west of Mackay and was rated as a Category 3.

Over the previous 24 hours the cyclone had turned to the south and when it does begin to move again it is expected to continue south on a track that will roughly parallel the Queensland coast.

A large high in the Tasman Sea is expected to influence the path of the cyclone and together they are expected to produce heavy seas and gales off the central and southern Queensland coast.