Housing 

....seems to be a constant issue, in our neck of the woods. But it is not just the 'Ville struggling to keep a roof over everyone's heads. How do we find solutions, permanently? How do we address once and for all, the social issues faced by tropical areas - often prone to cyclones and heavy winds? 

We innovate. We use Bio Mimicry. Bio mimicry - put simply, is the use of nature's ways, to our advantage. If we work with nature, we have a much better chance at creating lasting living spaces, and global longevity. I must ask the question: If we destroy this planet, where are we going to live? 

As the warm weather edges towards summer, lets talk about SOLUTIONS, and focus less on problems. 

The Townsville Bulletin and Magnetic Island. Again!

I hate to harp on about this, but this morning's Townville Bulletin has done it again. 

Their 32-page "Wrath of a monster" pictorial supplement (not available online) includes some 118 great pics and not a single one of them relate to Magnetic Island!!.

If you are interested in the Island (or not) DON'T visit The Bully's online galleries as it only encourages them - rather, check out these great island pics in The Magnetic Times or even those in my earlier Yasi posts here and here

Finally, some great coverage about Cyclone Yasi's impact on Magnetic Island

At last, someone has filled the gaping hole in the mainstream media's coverage of the impact of Cyclone Yasi in this region and on Maggie Island in partcular.

The Magnetic Times has again delivered what The Bulletin and many others have failed to even acknowledge.  It's a great read with some fantastic pics including the one below.  Read it here

The Painic Bay Jetty walkway
Source:  The Magnetic Times.  Photo:  George Hirst

Yasi repair priorities

The Erosion Patrol article in today's Townsville Bulletin about repairing the city's beaches says heaps about both the Bulletin's ability to critically appraise the spin that comes out of Council and Council's priority setting for its Yasi clean-up efforts.

From the article we learn that:

• Rich idiots built/brought a house on a foreshore sanddune in the city's northern beaches
• The sea persistantly tries to reclaim it's dune
• Nobody is responsible for approving the developments or choosing to live in them
• All taxpayers are responsible for restoring these front yards (and property values)

You'd also assume that, after the Strand, these were the only beaches damaged by Yasi's storm surge.  Mayor Tyrell (or should that be Mayor-in-wanting, the very quiet Dale Last) and the Bulletin would be much better informed if they actually visited that other suburb, Magnetic Island.  If they did they'd see damage like this on the Nelly Bay foreshore:

By my reckoning, this part of Nelly Bay has lost about 15 metres of beachfront!
 
I would have thought that Tyrell or Last would have worked out by now that:

1. Magnetic Island is Townsville's prime tourism asset and as such produce an economic benefit for the whole city,
2. Part of the Island's sales pitch is it's 23 beaches,
3. Beachfront mansions in Bushland Beach are of no productive benefit to the city or its economy

Naive me! 

I also learn in the Bully's hardcopy that Mayor Les has actually flown over the Island in a helicopter.  I wish I'd known - I'd have given him the finger back

Footnote:  I should also point out that, while the damage in the pics was caused by Yasi's storm surge, the reason for the damage is the reshaping of the Bay when the western end was blow-up, bulldozed and filled-in to make the Nelly Bay Harbour which you can just see the beginning of in the bottom two pics.

What I learnt from Cyclone Yasi

While Yasi's winds here were equivalent to a severe Category 2 or weak Cat. 3 cyclone there are some useful things I learnt (or were reminded of) for next time:

1. The wind follows the land - the gullies and valleys - just as fires and flash floods do


2. Get a manual coffee grinder


3. Solar houses don't have to wait for the power to come on


4. Get an alternative mobile phone charger - car, solar, wind-up, whatever


5. A surprising number of people build stupid houses in stupid places


6. Building on or immediately behind the foreshore dune is dumb - it's a sand dune for god's sake! It has a purpose - to move, to replenish the beach! 


7. The ONLY media that works/adds value in a crisis is local ABC radio and a battery powered receiver - it must be defended at all costs


8. There is no such thing as too much duct tape


9. Don't assume that because there's a cyclone, it's gonna rain - fill the bath all the way.


10. Emergency alert text messages are great - if you have a mobile


11. Charge the camera beforehand - taking pics on the mobile chews up battery time


12. Tell everyone beforehand to only text you and not to ring


13. Get more ice beforehand, fill the fridge up with it (unless you have a solar house of course)


14. The Internet is invaluable until you lose power - but only because in enables you to track the cyclone closely. 


15. News sites are hopeless and facebook is downright dangerous in the hands of a teenager who cant discern rumour from fact or possibility from probability.


16. Print media is useless unless they can can get an edition out before the power comes on


17. The BOM site is fantastic but I suspect most people don't know how to read the forecast maps


18. Most people have no idea of the country on which they live or how it works


19. Most people (and journalists) have no appreciation of the geography of Queensland


20. Don't wait for the last minute to buy your beer supply and when you do don't forget to get extra for all of those chats with the neighbours after


21. Always be nice to the Ergon and CityWater guys - they are worth their weight in beer at the very least.  They do an amazing job in appalling conditions

And finally, when everyone is locked down and until the storm passes, you are starkly reminded that ultimately in this world, you are on your own baby.

What is it with The Townsville Bulletin and Magnetic Island?

The Bully (like much of Townsville) has a funny relationship with Magnetic Island, just 3km off the coast and closer to the CBD than most suburbs in the town. 

Their coverage of Cyclone Yasi's impact on the Island since their first edition on Friday has been woeful and amazingly, they haven't even bothered to send a photographer over to capture the impact on the region's major tourism asset.  Then of course, the probably haven't sent one over for the last 6 months either.

But they are determined to make good - in their own inimitable style of course.  They've put Mary Vernon's phone pics up in a gallery (including one of her street number for some reason?) and Maggie actually made front page today!  And a humdinger it is too!  "They've all gone batty" is the witty little editor's effort to headline a story about a guy drinking at the Picnic Bay pub who got bitten by a fruit bat - no doubt because he tried to handle it or was so p*ssed that he fell or walked into it.

Don't bother following the link to read the story as it only encourages them, but to summarise, the innuendo is that Islanders are about to get raped and pillaged by marauding bats whose roosts and food trees have been destroyed or stripped.

Of course, I suspect that the real reason they ran the story (other than a rabid bat scare always sells up here for some reason) was that they finally had a professional Maggie pic (slightly p*ssed man with bandage against a lovely blue backgound) without having to send the photographer to the Island.

As I will expand on in a separate post at some stage, in a natural disaster the print media are a waste of space (as is social media pretty much). 

It's just that, with the exception of their first post cyclone edition which consisted almost entirely of pictures, The Bully is a waste of space most of the other time as well.

Cyclone Yasi hits Magnetic Island - the pics

A week after Yasi started getting serious, the Island is slowly being cleaned up.  For those who have enquired, here are my phone pics of the aftermath. (Not to self: Next time don't use your precious mobile charge to take pics!)

Picnic Bay after Yasi - looking more like the after effects of a super-drought or bushfire

Yasi's cruelest damage.  Picnic Bay Jetty, so familiar to all of those generations who's ferry trip to the Island started and ended with a walk down the Jetty.  If we are lucky, Council and the Port Authority will leave us with maybe half.  If we are really lucky they will cut off it's 'head'.  Given neither authority wants the burden of maintaining it, there is a real danger of losing it altogether



Picnic Bay - one street back from the foreshore. One old paperbark down
and the rest stripped of leaves and bark. Their trunks appear bright orange/pink the morning after.



Yule St Picnic Bay



Trees stripped bare on the Picnic Bay Golf Course



Our Place - Before and after the initial clean-up



Our Nelly Bay house - on the way home from the beach
on the morning after



Bob's Nelly Bay BBQ - the site of many a Sunday lunch, kids birthday
 and meeting of the right wing of the Townsville ALP



Almost high tide on the morning after.
Storm surge damage on the road to X Base and Picnic Bay



After the storm surge and high tide. 50cm of sand on the road to Picnic Bay



Lost!  The morning after and this Black Cocky (Red Tail) let me get within a metre.
The island flock seem to have got separated during the storm and spend a couple
of days after looking for each other.  The 10-12 strong flock seems to be back together again.



Nelly Bay Harbour.  The little boxes of ticky tacky survived but not their sales pitch



Nelly Bay Harbour.  Hard to see, but some people don't know how to tie up their boat.

But Johnny Elliton does - his recently launched, home built trimaran didn't move an inch





Hoop Pine down on the Picnic-Arcadia hill





Geoffrey Bay foreshore



High Tide Horseshoe Bay the morning after



Horseshoe Bay looking West - The storm surge was hours earlier

Horseshoe Bay looking West a few days later



Horseshoe Bay looking East towards the shops



Horseshoe Bay after the road was opened



Rebuild 3: Qld Flood Benefit Concert

Live in Townsville or on Maggie Island and at a loose end tomorrow NEXT SUNDAY afternoon?  Why not take in a bit of local live music and help the flood appeal at the same time.  Full details here at The Magnetic Times

Source: Magnetic Times

PS: On ya Mal

X Base Backpackers - crapping in their own nest and everyone else's

Without actually reading the story, the Council battles to keep beaches beautiful headline in yesterday's Bully reminded me of these pics taken a few days ago on the beach in front of X Base on Magnetic Island:

A thong, beer bottle, glasses and can scattered below the high water mark



Garbage on the beachfront rocks

Building rubble on the beachfront

Not only are X Base desecrating a public beach by failing to do a simple task like a daily beach clean-up, and are abusing the only absolute beachfront commercial property on Magnetic Island, by publishing these pictures, hopefully their brand will be permanently damaged by their environmental ignorance and abuse.

Then of course, from a straight business perspective - how stupid is it to have your front door and single greatest commercial asset littered with crap?

You can prove how dumb they are and help ensure that brand X Base gets it's dues by sharing this post with as many people as possible and by emailing base Backpackers at info@stayatbase.com and letting them know how you feel.

I understand that, owners of the X Base and base Backpackers brands, the Recreational Tourism Group Pty Ltd, ) is in turn owned by (amongst others) Babcock & Brown and Accor Hotels.  Accor is of course one of the biggest hotels chains in the world and also owns the Four All Seasons on Magnetic Island (and a few in Townsville as well)  so maybe an email to them will be helpful too.  However, and interestingly, I couldn't find either a corporate or a complains email address for Accor Hotels or the Accor Group so I'll be leaving my comments on their Investor Relations contact form here.

Of dogs and defrauders and dams

Koala 049
Pic: George Hirst, Magnetic Times

Reading in the Magnetic Times of another koala killing by domestic dogs on the island is a stark and bloody reminder of our apparent inability as a species to live in some sort of harmony with our environment.

Other recent examples include:

• Big Agriculture's arguing that a once in 100 year flood event means that attempts to rescue the Murray should be put on hold - unbelievable!  Read Gary Sauer-Thompson's full post here at Public Opinion

• Tony Abbott and Barney Joyce's response to a whole heap of people who built/brought on a flood plain ending up wet (and to Julia wining the daily news cycle for the past week or more with pics of her hugging damp Queenslanders) - a committee of farmer-MPs (presemably expert in hydrometeorology, surface hydrology and hydrogeology), to compile a list of dam sites! He didn't actually commit to build them but imagine if he did - just before a 1 in 200 year flood event. See also Ruchira Talukdar's response here at The Punch

Sadly, all true stories I'm afraid

Magnetic Island's monumental marketing opportunity

As I've noted before, there is a bit of a buzz around about building a monument to Wikileaks founder and former island hippie Julian Assange. Magnetic Times editor, George Hirst has even offered a first design option although I must admit to being a bit taken by Rolf's suggestion of one of those "cutsie little boy peeing sculptures" (see comments).

Magnetic Times also has a poll at the bottom right of their front page asking Should Magnetic Island commission a sculpture to celebrate the achievements of Julian Assange? With 385 votes so far 98% responses have been positive.

And I see that The Magpie's Nest has seen some "ripper marketing opportunities" in Assange's association with Maggie island - including the tourism pitch: `Want a tan like Julian Assange's? Holiday on Magnetic Island - in the rainy season!' - an increasingly accurate xmas tag given the forecasts!

I reckon that both local scholars are on to something here.  If you consider the potential value in niche tourism Maggie Island could be sitting on a marketing goldmine (Checkout for example the 12-day Lord of the Rings tour of NZ).

But when you think of the types of people who might come to visit the childhood home of Assange, I think that any monument would need to be able to be visited in all anonymity and would need to include a free and highly encrypted wifi connection and highly secure server.  Sorry George and Rolf but I'm not sure that electricity and water are going to work!

PS: Don't forget to vote on the Magnetic Times poll.  You can also join this Facebook group if you're into that sort of thing.

Of Magnetic Island, Julian Assange and a Statue

Further to my earlier posts about Wikileaks, Magnetic Times has a great piece on Julian Assange's connection to the Island.  The comments that follow are worth a read too.

I wonder what would happen if someone set-up a facebook donations page for a statue of Julian Assange to be erected on Maggie Island ...? 

I'd probably contribute - after all, he's the only man who I can think of who has taken on the prevailing power-structures on a truly global scale - and won, I suspect!

Also worth a look - Planet Irf's regularly updated WikiLeaks hysteria ... post.

World heritage values or the value of the round ball?

I gather that The Bulletin isn’t too impressed with the cost to Council of bringing rubbish to the mainland from Magnetic Island once the current land-fill dump is closed (“Townsville City Council will have to fork out $900,000 a year to transport waste off World Heritage-listed Magnetic Island”)

I can’t help but wonder whether they will call for a study of the cost-benefit to the city of keeping our one major tourist attraction in good shape compared to similar expenditure on subsidising the big end of town's tax write-offs for marketing expenditure and trying to keep The Fury from moving to Cairns (let alone the added value to the views from, and property values of, Yarrawonga).

Well I never...

Using their bloody reader's survey again, The Bulletin today “reveals” the truth about Maggie Island – Townsville punters don’t go there. And why would they – who’d pay $29 each plus on-Island transport costs to go to the beach when The Strand is free?

The only useful thing in this article is the vox pop comment (not shown online) from Daryl Holmes of Kirwan “We only went once to see what it was like. For families is not affordable”.

With Sunferries' best family day package at $160, you can see what he means.