Traditional owners and environmental groups in Queensland's Channel Country are imploring the State Government to pause consideration of applications for petroleum leases in the region until independent scientific assessments and stakeholder consultation are conducted.

 

Key points:

• The State Government in considering 11 applications for petroleum leases in Origin Energy's name
• The leases cover more than 250,000 hectares of environmentally sensitive land in Queensland's Channel Country
• Traditional owners and environmental groups want a moratorium on considering the application until stakeholder consultation is done

 

Eleven applications for petroleum leases across more than 250,000 hectares of land in the Channel Country bioregion of the Lake Eyre Basin are before the Government for approval.

The applications were made in July by gas company Blue Energy but listed Origin Energy as the authorised holder.

If granted, it could see unconventional gas extraction — fracking — occur in the region for the first time.

The Lake Eyre Basin Traditional Owners Alliance and environmental group, Western Rivers Alliance, are calling for a moratorium on considering the applications until promised stakeholder consultation has taken place.

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-06/channel-country-fracking-plans-origin-energy/13057536

 

 

This region is one of the rare one in the word where rivers run inland and vanish — or end up in a massive salt lake, Kati Thanda. It's unique. Any drillings and fiddlings with it will end up washing all sorts of crap down this pristine system — EVEN WITH THE MOST STRINGENT ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROLS...

 

Here is a list of some of the products used for fracking (even "exploration"):

 

A few of those products are not benign, even if we use them daily to wipe our kitchen bench tops with... I don't. I hate the smell and I DON'T WANT TO KILL 99.9 per cent of germs — as often we kill "good" germs and the nasty ones become super resistant by overdoing it.... A bit of water and it's clean as new... Here we go:

Acids, presented to us as "swimming pool cleaners"... We know what happened to an octopus being "pool cleaned", don't we? And there is a big range of "acids"... from diluted acetic acid in vinegar to fluoridric acid that is used to etch glass... So, which acid(s) is it?...

Table salt? I live on the stuff... The sea is full of it... but we know what happens when too much of it gets into the soils, don't we? It's not called the white death for nothing...

Polyacrylamide? Polyacrylamide, though I would not drink it, is apparently "not toxic", except it can contain residues that are strong neurotoxins. It's a bit like a flocculent or in some jargon it's like dishwashing liquid or surfactant, but it's not...

Ethylene Glycol is an alcohol that is dangerous to drink or even to breathe fumes of. It's basically a poison to life forms. It is used for anti-freeze in cars — not that we need any at the moment. 

Borate salts are a bit like phosphate... Too much of it and natural balance gets upset... Same again we're looking at washing powders that are often blamed for surge of algal blooms from effluents in rivers.

Sodium/potassium carbonate  is used as an anti-caking agent or as a replacement for bicarb of soda and acts as a dehumidifier...

Glutaraldehyde is a powerful "disinfectant" (life-killer) used in hospitals and serious protection needs to be used to avoid skin contact... To have this product running wild from runoffs and seepage in the environment ain't going to do any good...

Guar Gum is basically a form of sugar from the sap of a tree, a substance that is used in food IN SMALL QUANTITIES and as an E number...

Isopropanol is a solvent. It is what's in your Spray and Wipe bottle... It's a nasty little alcohol as well except when used as "rubbing" alcohol... The salt will help the separation of it away from water when mixed... Thus all these chemicals would be used at different times for different purposes in the fracturing of rocks and coal seams...

And this is only a small fraction of the fracking list...

See also:

https://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/25853

 

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My second nightmare was a bit strange. It was a lovely dream, a couple of months ago...

 

I had gone to a “non-masked” Covid-free dinner party and the conversation — around the lovely exquisite table setting with candles in golden candelabras, silver service and solid gold “bibelots” in the shape of mercurial statues worth a million bux each (or fifteen bitcoins a piece) decorating the table, and in between the caviar and the chicken Napoleonic Marengo cooked to perfection by a specially flown-in French chef who had witnessed the battle (Marengo) — was about generation Xers, about to join the baby-boomers “grey nomads” on the motorhome circuit. 

The leisure campaign of the present insipid government is to spend your cash on terrorism — sorry I mean tourism — in Australia, rather than wait for the borders to reopen in 2025 or 2027… or until you're vaccinated, or dead. Eager to spend a few bux, earned in edge funds and dark netted areas, the Xers were not talking of small caravan for debutante.

Here, we're talking of the biggest semi-trailer with accommodation that would make a US president travelling on Air-Force-One envious, with a car (an SUV petrol/diesel guzzler) plus a boat, on chrome-plated trailers behind each others, at the rear. Of course, in order to be up-to-date with environmental concerns, there was room for solar panels on the three level roof tops and a couple of bicycles (electric) in the garage below the dining-room. Swimming pool was optional.

From time to time, the 18 seater H175 Airbus helicopter (see also: https://www.acj.airbus.com), or the more modest twin-turbo Beechcraft King Air 250 would be flown in advance to the next aerodrome, desert dune or land clearing to bring supplies (caviar) and a few chosen guests…

I lost track of the conversation when it moved to the noise level of the exhaust pipes that were going to be pumped up via an eight channel loud speaker booster. The unwashed greys had to be advised you were arriving, in style… It was Mad Max-esque without the warring factions but an unequalled luxury.

I do not know how I got invited, but I guess I was mad enough to look like the token cool artist with the bon-mots de rigour. I only have a couple of tents myself, one we bought 40 years ago (how time flies) for a freezing field trip and another — a bigger one — I found in the street, last year…

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With overseas travel off the cards until 2021, Australians are turning to new ways to holiday and make the most of easing restrictions.

Key points:

• Caravan sales have spiked across Australia as Aussies are forced to holiday locally
• Some caravan dealerships have doubled their sales in recent weeks

• Up to a third are 'newcomers', mainly young couples and families

Caravan dealers are reporting record sales, while holidays parks are being "overwhelmed" with visitors.

The peak national body for caravanning said up to a third of the spike was newcomers, many young couples and families.

It hopes the surge in popularity for road holidays could act as a lifeline to the struggling tourism sector.

Road holidays make a comeback

The Caravan Industry Association of Australia said since the easing of restrictions in recent weeks, every state and territory had experienced a "boom" in caravan sales and enquiries, some by up to 30 per cent.

"Now that international trips and cruises are off the radar, the great old-fashioned Australian road trip is back in vogue," CEO Stuart Lamont said.

Read more: 
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-28/border-closures-see-caravan-sales-surge-across-australia/12400134

 

Read from top.

 

Young entrepreneurs are tapping into the growing campervan trend, making money by fitting out vintage vans or buying fleets of vans to rent out.

Even before the pandemic, social media had made #vanlife or #vanlifeaustralia cool, but the trend has been super-charged by COVID-19 driving a resurgence in domestic holidays.

Actor Zac Efron added a touch of Hollywood glamour to the trend when he recently posted photos on Instagram of himself with a van in South Australia, after filming Gold in Adelaide.

 

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/business/small-business/a-good-side-hustle-young-entrepreneurs-cashing-in-on-campervan-trend-20210206-p5705s.html

 

 

Read from top.

Every week, a huge cargo ship loaded with freshly purchased superyachts enters the Port of Newcastle.

Australia’s super rich, for whom Covid-19 flight restrictions have hampered their holidays abroad, are pouring their leisure dollars into superyachts instead, a sign of high confidence levels in the Australian economy.

 

But yachts aren’t the only asset class enjoying the post Covid-19 boost. Australia’s strong recovery, coupled with 12 months of pent-up demand, has seen an explosion in luxury transactions – from yachts, to cars, to diamonds.

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/may/11/rising-tide-of-luxury-spending-as-covid-grounds-australias-wealthy

 

Read from top.

 

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