In respect of the Worst Victorian (Australia) Bushfires [Call 1800 811 700 to Donate]

[Syntax error]

That's where we are headed if we don't get more rain.

You Aussie's should look into desalination if you haven't already... You guys are SURROUNDED by salt water... take advantage of it.

We've already got one under costruction in Sydney article here but it takes time to build infrastructure like this.

It has been a big topic for the last 2-3 years now as to how best manage the water in Australia.

 

[Casio]

The main problem I think is that desalination costs a lot to produce, and causes a lot of pollution.

 

[Open Addict]

....And because of the water restrictions in Victoria, people are not allowed to water their garden, or anything outside, so everyone has a yard like this.

Your water restrictions are at a huge level (level 5 I think). I hear many people showing with buckets in the shower so they can catch water to throw on there gardens.

We are a little luckier in Sth Aus. (currently level 3 and a half) However there are quite a few people who use their washing machine water to run on to the garden. The only thing that gets on my nerves is the fact that water restrictions have been in force for some years. Yet people are STILL allowed to install new swimming pools in their back yard.

South Australian Government is building a desal plant at Port Stanvac. And are trying to get it operational by december 2010. So I guess the effect on the environment is not that bad or they don't care.

 

[Turbo Lag]

You know what the problem is? Old people. There's heaps of them in my area, almost daily they hold a hose to their front yards. Seriously, wtf.

 

[Mad94d]

It's great to see so much money being donated. Our school had a mufti day(any clothes you want) today to fundraise for the fire victims. We raised $4,795.05 today!

I also noticed that the donation's are up over $40,000,000! Well done everyone.

 

[Open Addict]

You know what the problem is? Old people. There's heaps of them in my area, almost daily they hold a hose to their front yards. Seriously, wtf.

Report the old codger's. Just because they may not be around in 10-15 years does not give them the right to use whatever they want.

It's great to see so much money being donated. Our school had a mufti day(any clothes you want) today to fundraise for the fire victims. We raised $4,795.05 today!

I also noticed that the donation's are up over $40,000,000! Well done everyone.

Super effort that, lets hope it get a lot higher as-well. Make sure you shop at Coles tommorrow.

 

[Mad94d]

Yeah, 'Coles' is doing a really good thing by donating all the money they make tomorrow from every store to the fire victims. I also noticed that V8 Supercars Australia donated $100,000.

 

[Jay]

Yeah, that is pretty crazy stuff. But still, it's got me skeptical. Don't take this the wrong way, but fatalities from fires over in California are pretty rare. The fire crews are constantly updating their predictions and evacuating people from a huge radius, sometimes entire towns that might be 15 miles away. Obviously the fires in Victoria are moving crazy fast (that is pretty wicked fast) but still, it seems like people would know how fast they were moving because they would get told on the news, or by fire crews, or something. Why aren't they evacuating people from the entire area? These people should have moved away a week ago when this stuff started, but they're still in their homes thinking they've got plenty of time. Is there no communication in these areas? It's sounds pretty ridiculous.

But it is too bad people got caught up in the stuff. Hopefully the ones that are still raging get put under control very soon.

In Australia we get the choice, stay and protect your home or evacuate. Many stay, many die.

As was mentioned on our news Country fire service always briefed country houses to stay inside the house and the grass fires usually blow over quickly then you can exit it put any fires starting on your quickly. It seem this time though the fires just destroyed everything.


A few times in this thread it has been mentioned California is used to it, well.... so is Australia, fires happen every year but this year it was something we have never seen before due to the conditions prior to the fire.







As for de-sal plants Adelaide South Australia is also in the process of building one.

 

[GT Pro]

And because of the water restrictions in Victoria, people are not allowed to water their garden, or anything outside, so everyone has a yard like this.

You're still allowed to water your garden in some areas with street water, and every area allows you to water it as long as it is your own water (e.g., grey/ground water; bore water). Heck, I know we still water our acre-or-so of garden every day.

The main problem I think is that desalination costs a lot to produce, and causes a lot of pollution.

Close. Basically it is the Government v. the Greenies at this point. The governments of Australia have been, and probably always will be, too mentally inept in the past to act ahead and build dams to supply this much-expected water crisis, so they are currently all eagerly for the building of these desalination plants. However, the only roadblock that stands in their way is the Greenie squad of Australia's public who argue that it will pollute the world, specifically the water around the plant, to death. Problem is for the Greenies is that many will die anyway if it is not built.

You know what the problem is? Old people. There's heaps of them in my area, almost daily they hold a hose to their front yards. Seriously, wtf.

It isn't old people, it is the excessive influx of immigrants we are experiencing at the minute due to Rudd's inability to understand the concept that 'with more people comes more demand'.

 

[waggles]

Our school has raised 27000 so far.

Melbourne is starting a desal plant, but the greenies are saying that they kill pigeons or something, so it's being delayed.

 

[Turbo Lag]

It isn't old people, it is the excessive influx of immigrants we are experiencing at the minute due to Rudd's inability to understand the concept that 'with more people comes more demand'.

That has absolutely nothing to do with it. You're just finding every chance to pick on Rudd,

 

[waggles]

He's not doing exactly what we expected him to.

 

[Casio]

What?

 

[Vasco]

It isn't old people, it is the excessive influx of immigrants we are experiencing at the minute due to Rudd's inability to understand the concept that 'with more people comes more demand'.

Dude what the ****? Excessive influx of immigrants? Where is this coming from, and I don't see how this is such a problem anyway when we are a hugely underpopulated nation.

My thoughts go out those who have been affected by these bushfires, we had some bad ones here a few years back but nothing close to this. I just had a question though, it seems that possibly some of the fatalities could be a direct result of Victoria's policy which allows home owners to stay and defend their property - is this a fair assumption?

 

[Jay]

it seems that possibly some of the fatalities could be a direct result of Victoria's policy which allows home owners to stay and defend their property - is this a fair assumption?

But really what are they going to do, Go house to house restraining people and dragging them out?

 

[Casio]

Dude what the ****? Excessive influx of immigrants? Where is this coming from, and I don't see how this is such a problem anyway when we are a hugely underpopulated nation.

My thoughts go out those who have been affected by these bushfires, we had some bad ones here a few years back but nothing close to this. I just had a question though, it seems that possibly some of the fatalities could be a direct result of Victoria's policy which allows home owners to stay and defend their property - is this a fair assumption?

None of these immigrants go out and live in the rural bush either. I'd like to see this logic.

I can't remember if it was the news or a current affair show, but they were showing someone who had cleared all the trees and plants a 25m radius around his house a year or so ago, to prepare himself for bushfires, and the council fined him $40,000, but today his house is still standing.

But too be perfectly honest, it was just a freak situation, we have wild fires every year and not many if any people die. The weather was just unreal.

 

[GT Pro]

That has absolutely nothing to do with it. You're just finding every chance to pick on Rudd,

Yes and no. His policies bear much relevance on your concerns of water usage.

Dude what the ****? Excessive influx of immigrants? Where is this coming from, and I don't see how this is such a problem anyway when we are a hugely underpopulated nation.

Wow. Atleast we can be glad you aren't running the country then.

None of these immigrants go out and live in the rural bush either. I'd like to see this logic.

Consider this: PM Rudd widened the gates of immigration last year to let in a tank-bursting record-high of 330,000 people. Each of these people will use, on average, 450l of water per day, or 164,250l per year - and that is just for one person. In order for Australia to support this rate of immigrant intake we will need to find an extra 54,202,500,000l each year (and that isn't including the demands of the offspring they will come to bear). At this rate of excessive growth (1.6% p/y) we're likely to have an additional half as many people in Australia by 2050 and one hell of a lot of demand for water that we fail miserably to retain even in the present day.

The bottom line is that we've added more than a million immigrants to our population since the building of Melbourne's last dam (a whole 20 years ago) with no sign of their intake dropping any time soon. But wait, we are struggling as it is here now with throat-ossifying stage 5 water restrictions abound and you're adamant these people aren't going to have any negative effect on our water supplies?

Now please, I am quite eager to hear about this logic of yours.

 

[Prosthetic]

The main problem I think is that desalination costs a lot to produce, and causes a lot of pollution.

It doesn't have a pollution problem...

My dad is working on the desalination project here in the Bay Area... Greenies are holding it back because they think its toxic even though its actually better then tap water. Funny eh. I've drank plenty of it and it tastes more pure then the water thats been sitting in pipes for awhile.

 

[mafia_boy]

Dude what the ****? Excessive influx of immigrants? Where is this coming from, and I don't see how this is such a problem anyway when we are a hugely underpopulated nation.

If we were so underpopulated, why is there 6 million people in NSW but 5 million of us live in Sydney and we're having a water crisis and needing a desalination plant here?? Becuase all the emigrated people have stuck to the city and built their own secular communities all over town. THIS IS FACT FROM THE PAST 60 YEARS and it falls back to our multicultural policies that we adopted just after World War 2. You know, when we were underpopulated BY ABOUT 2 MILLION PEOPLE FOR THE ERA because our grandfathers were stopping the Germans and the Japanese and dying to protect the country that so many that arrive here take forgranted these days!!

Just look at the suburbs for each group of people at the moment around our city:
* Bankstown, Canterbury, Lakemba, Burwood, Auburn, Granville, Guildford = Middle Eastern & Turkish.
* Cabramatta, Liverpool, Strathfield, Ashfield, Flemington = Asian
* Harris Park, Pendle Hill = Indian
* Redfern, La Perouse/Malabar, Mt. Druitt = Aboriginal
* Cronulla, Maroubra, Palm Beach, Camden, Campbelltown = Australian.
* Bondi, Coogee = Jewish.
* Marrickville, Leichhardt, Stanmore = South European (Greek, Cypriate, Italian)

See where I'm going here??

Even historically (back in colonial times), suburbs like Blacktown were named for that reason, for the 'black' people (our aboriginals) to live there. Co-incidentally 220 years later, they are now stuffing Sudanese people into Blacktown by the truckload!!


ANYWAY, REMEMBER TO DO YOUR SHOPPING TODAY PEOPLE AT COLES!!

 

[Aldo]

these fires are unbelievable
when I first heard about them i was bricking it cause my mum lives quite close to where these fires are, but she called later that day to say she was ok thankfully
and you know the place called Marysville in Victoria thats just gone completely? i was there just at the end of december, it was a very nice wee town and it had an awesome sweet shop
i'm sooo glad i came back before these fires started, a lot of the places i went to visit on holiday are just gone
i really do feel for all the people over there that have been affected by the fires

 

[Open Addict]

In Australia we get the choice, stay and protect your home or evacuate. Many stay, many die.

As was mentioned on our news Country fire service always briefed country houses to stay inside the house and the grass fires usually blow over quickly then you can exit it put any fires starting on your quickly. It seem this time though the fires just destroyed everything.


A few times in this thread it has been mentioned California is used to it, well.... so is Australia, fires happen every year but this year it was something we have never seen before due to the conditions prior to the fire.

Quite a few people died because they chose to stay and defend, but then they paniced and then chose to leave. They then got caught out in the open.

....As for de-sal plants Adelaide South Australia is also in the process of building one.

...South Australian Government is building a desal plant at Port Stanvac. And are trying to get it operational by december 2010. So I guess the effect on the environment is not that bad or they don't care.

I did just say that.

ANYWAY, REMEMBER TO DO YOUR SHOPPING TODAY PEOPLE AT COLES!!

Ditto for that. (remember you can also get a fuel voucher for spending over $30)
I am going tonight to spend buckets full.

 

[Mad94d]

mafia_boy, that's so true. I live in the Camden, Campbelltown area, where the aussies live

EVERYONE SHOP AT COLES! Donations up to 62 million dollars!

 

[Syntax error]

In an attempt to drag this topic away from the contentious issue of immigration and back on topic which is the disaster at hand, here are a few photos (not taken by me) that have been circulating, to give you all an idea at exactly how terrible these fires are...

 

[Mad94d]

Wow. Those pics are devastating. That shows you how bad bush fires really are.

 

[Aldo]

fu.....
i've been on that road in the last photo at christmas

 

[Jay]

That Alfa Romeo 75 is probably what caused the fire in the first place..

 

[Open Addict]

There's a Satellite photo floating around which shows the smoke from the fires all the way over on-to New Zealand.

The photo's shown above really do show some devastation.

Over $77 million has now been raised from the appeal.



Breaking news. they have arrested a man, but not laid charges just yet.


Edit: Curious thing is happening in Adelaide, We are getting smoke from Victoria. Strange and eerie.

 

[mafia_boy]

That Alfa Romeo 75 is probably what caused the fire in the first place..

No need for police sketches people, just find the owner of the Alfa.

Did my Coles shopping, $400 worth of it.

 

[Mad94d]

Nice, you shopped at Coles. Well done!👍 $400! So you bought a lot then.

 

[Open Addict]

No need for police sketches people, just find the owner of the Alfa.

Did my Coles shopping, $400 worth of it.

Nice, you shopped at Coles. Well done!👍 $400! So you bought a lot then.

Coles will receive my $700 odd tonight when I do my monthly shop.

$400, I would say a fortnight shop for Mafs maybe?