Hervey Bay Gossip

A special aviation safety workshop for local pilots is being held tomorrow in Maryborough.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority and the Maryborough Aero Club are staging the free workshop as part of a national air safety campaign.

Aviation experts will conduct the workshop at the Maryborough Aero Club on Wednesday 18 October.

The workshop will look at key air safety issues including flying in bad weather and fuel management.

Experts from CASA will make presentations on these topics, as well as leading discussions about local safety issues.

CASA’s Peter Gibson says the workshop will make a real difference to air safety in the Fraser Coast and Wide Bay regions.

“Education and training are keys to better air safety,” Mr Gibson says.

“This workshop will help to improve air safety in the Fraser Coast and Wide Bay regions.   That’s good news for pilots and passengers.

“The Fraser Coast and Wide Bay regions have a good air safety record but we must continue to work to prevent accidents.”

The workshop is being held at the Maryborough Aero Club, starting at 6pm, on Wednesday 18 October 2006.

All local pilots are urged to attend.CASA is hosting a free BBQ on the night for everyone who takes part in the workshop.

Would you believe it’s almost here?

It might look a little clunky and it’s definitely not a fashion statement but it is a computer you wear on your wrist and it comes with nifty little barcode scanner and voice recognition too.

Follow the link to read more about it.

And we could soon be importing grain

As the drought in the southern states worsens Australia could be about to become an importer of wheat for the very first time. Even the Federal Minister for Agriculture is warning that Australia faces “unprecedented times”.

We can expect to see the price of basic food items, such as eggs, milk, meet and even bread begin to rise as the drought impacts on our primary producers. Estimates that the Australian wheat harvest could be down by as much as 60 percent will impact a wide range of industries that rely on grain as feedstock.

For example, eggs are tipped to rise by between 20 cents and 30 cents a dozen as egg producers are forced to compete for limited grain supplies with millers and other grain users.

Australian farmers are no strangers to drought but this time ordinary consumers are going to find that droughts can be a problem for city dwellers too and we will even feel the effects here in Hervey Bay

The humble Midge is beginning to drive people out of their homes in Hervey Bay

It’s hard to believe that in this day and age something as insignificant as a tiny Midge could be having such an impact right here in Hervey Bay but it certainly is … and the impact is being felt in more places than just Hervey Bay.

Last week The Courier Mail reported that some areas of Brisbane that were once Midge free are now becoming infested with the insect and people really are beginning to suffer.

One family, who arrived here from England several months ago and took up residence in a new part of Urangan, are moving out on their doctor’s advice after their four year old became a target for the pest.

It seems that the house they moved into had been vacant and on the market for six months before they arrived. In that time it had failed to attract a buyer because of the Midge problem in the area.

Just as the Midge is beginning to encroach on Brisbane suburbia we can expect it to move further into Hervey Bay too. This year’s Midge season looks like being a rather nasty one.

Last week the Gossip reported on an attack on Australian Soldiers in Southern Iraq and you can read the story by following the link.

Today The Sunday Mail publishes a further report on that engagement that shows clearly that our troops are well trained to handle the battlefield environment. It also shows that we should be proud of our soldiers as they seek to protect the lives of innocent civilians who may be caught up in any action.

You can read the full story from The Sunday Mail here and you should read it because it’s interesting to see how disciplined and professional our soldiers are under fire but here are several telling quotes from the report.

“The Australians fought with a standard suite of weapons, including the Steyr rifle, light weapons and machine guns. But they held off using heavy weapons or the rockets of the F-16s.

“They withdrew in a very disciplined way. They put themselves at risk to ensure the safety of civilians. The courage they displayed was quite significant,” Lt-Col. Mahy said.

“It was an urban environment, in town, with the potential to cause injury to civilians. The soldiers were very, very careful with their fire.”

“Even though they were co-ordinated and they were able to deliver a lot of firepower, I haven’t had to put a single Band-Aid on any of the people involved in the action …

“It was certainly co-ordinated – but co-ordinated in a particularly Arab way.”

 

The story of the Fraser Island Croc does not seem to want to go away. Yesterday The Australian ran the story - most of which was a copy of the story that appeared in The Age the day before but with two additions.

The Australian mentioned a local resident, who passed the croc on the beach while she was trying to get home before the tide came in, and who had the impression that she had passed the genuine item.

The Australian also quoted one of the tourists who photographed the croc. She claimed that she had seen it move its head from left to right.

This story will probably just fade away like the other reports of crocs this far south but it does make you wonder.

A 2 metre croc on Fraser Island - it’s time for shock and horror!

And so the Chronicle ran with it but was it really a croc or was it just an inflatable toy? Or maybe it was made of foam; the story seems to vary depending on which expert is making a comment.

Whatever it was it seems that other papers around Australia are taking some delight in reporting that it was all just a hoax.

Now if that name is niggling at the edges of your memory but you can’t quite place it then let me tell you that Mrs Meredith was the writer who produced every single one of the 5,500 episodes of the radio play Blue Hills.

I can remember listening to that for years with my parents and then, as a grown man with a young family of my own, I still listened to it. In fact I can still remember desperately trying to find a spot on the Putty Road where the radio reception was good enough so that my wife and I could listen to the final episode of that epic.

Mrs Meredith passed away at her Bowral home yesterday after a short illness. She was 98.

Acting Premier Anna Bligh this morning visited the Traveston Crossing Dam site near Gympie.

Ms Bligh inspected the dam site and also met with affected land owner Rick Elliot.

“I was really keen to get a first-hand look at the site and to also gain an insight into the issues of landowners affected by the dam,” she said.

Ms Bligh was accompanied by Graeme Newton, head of the Queensland Water Infrastructure Company which is responsible for delivering the dam, Major-General Peter Arnison, head of the Community Futures Taskforce which is helping communities affected by the dam, and Coordinator-General Ross Rolfe.

“Visiting the site was one of my first priorities as the Minister for Infrastructure and Minister responsible for delivering the South-East Queensland water grid.

“The dam is an important part of shoring up the south-east’s water supplies in the face of the worst drought on record.

“I know it’s not a popular decision but it’s a necessary one to ensure we have water flowing through our taps into the future.

“My visit to the dam site today gave me a personal opportunity to get a handle on the size and scope of one of the state’s largest water infrastructure projects.”