Category Archives: Rural reporting

City claims success with targeted burns 7/04/2016

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TEXT AND PICTURE BY GEOFF VIVIAN

Having just been through the disatrous bushfires at Yarloop and Wooroona and the catastrophic Esperance fire, many Western Australians are demanding to know what is being done.

Click on this image to read the story.

Click on this image to read the story.

I would not usually go into such detail about fire control in a local paper but my editor agreed that people were in the mood to read this right now.

All through winter a prescribed burning program is reducing fuel loads in areas of bush, while giving wildlife a reasonable chance to escape to nearby intact habitat.

This is an account of a well-planned burn, how it worked and why.

I was really pleased with the pic too – nothing flash but I trust it conveyed the idea of “business as usual” burning rather than firefighting.

Great Southern Weekender April 7, 2016 p5.

New resignation changes balance 11/2/2016

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Another Denmark councillor resigned this month, changing the notional balance of power.

Click on this image to read the story.

Click on this image to read the story.

Cr Dawn Pedro had been a long-standing councillor with a commitment to environmental management.

A group of councillors who campaigned with sacked shire engineer Rob Whooley are now in the majority.

However a day after Ms Pedro resigned, Cr Whooley found every other councillor voting against him on a motion.

From The Great Southern Weekender.

State soils library catalogues samples for future science 5/2/2016

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ac37d23a1bfab39ff0118c3645959b54_LA library of soil samples is being established at Muresk, the old agricultural college near Northam in WA’s wheatbelt.

It will mostly consist of specimens collected during studies for the grain industry, but others will be welcome.

This will be an exciting resource for researchers.

Science Network WA [read this story]

Curtain drawn on ‘average’ harvest 14/01/2016

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High soil moisture levels had farmers in the Great Southern excited about a bumper harvest last spring.

Click on this image to read the story.

Click on this image to read the story.

The reality turned out to be different for some, with destructive hail storms and catastrophic fires bringing down Western Australia’s overall yeild.

Still, many grain growers reported a good year if they were lucky enough to avoid these events, and smart enough to put their crops in at the right time.

From the Great Southern Weekender, January 14, 2016

Lessons learned from fire 14/01/2016

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ALBANY’S chief fire control officer offers a different slant on the events of the past few weeks.

Click on this image to read the story.

Click on this image to read the story.

Residents of the South West town of Yarloop have criticised authorities for not warning them of the catastropic blaze that destroyed their town until it was almost upon them.

He contrasted this with the actions of a few young campers at Two Peoples Bay, near Albany, who alerted authorities within 15 minutes of a similar fire starting, allowing firefighters to start arriving within another 20.

From The Great Southern Weekender, January 14, 2016.

Juvenile toad snacks save local goannas 9/01/2016

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Rangers Herbert and Wesley Alberts with Georgia Ward-Fear. Photo courtesy Georgia Ward-Fear

Almost every conceivable measure to stop cane toads advancing into the Kimberley has been tried and failed.

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Click on this image to read the story.

Collecting cane toads and killing them has failed.

Constructing barriers to keep them out of waterholes has failed.

Experiments with lungworm showed the worms were even more harmful to native frogs.

Meanwhile, other researchers have been training larger predators to avoid eating the toxic amphibians.

And strange as it may seem, a future program could involve releasing more toads into the environment, ahead of the invading wave.

Science Network WA [read this story]

This story has been republished in The West Australian, Friday, January 15, 2016.

Recognition for deal ‘architect’ 11/6/2015

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Here is a nice local angle on a national story I missed posting last year.

Click on this image to read the story.

Click on this image to read the story.

Albany man Glen Colbung was acknowledged as the architect of a $1.3 billion native title settlement between the Noongar people and the WA Government.

Former South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council CEO Glen Kelly paid tribute to Mr Colbung at the signing of the deal in Perth last June.

Under the arrangement, the state is to pay $50 million into a Noongar futures fund every year for 12 years.

Six Noongar corporations will then be able to draw on the interest for social and economic programs.

Pressure on City over Rex hangar deal 3/12/2015

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ALBANY’s Mayor said the City had fewer than three months to build a large aircraft hangar if Regional Express Airlines (Rex) was to start operating early morning flights in late February.

Click on this image to read the story.

Click on this image to read the story.

In late November, Albany Mayor Dennis
Wellington and Member for
Albany Peter Watson said the
airline, which was the State Government’s
preferred tenderer for
the Perth to Albany route, was yet
to speak to anyone from Albany.

“I would have thought it would
have been a really good idea to
come and talk to us before we get
too excited about anything,” Mr
Wellington said.

There are various ways of reporting a local government story.

Some like to concentrate on personalities.

I prefer to show how a given issue will affect everyday people’s lives.

The Mayor’s disappointment at the City not being consulted is worth noting, but not the story’s main angle from my point of view.

The Great Southern Weekender, December 3, 2015.

 

 

Drier areas a refuge from cane toad 26/9/2015

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The pindan scrub, which is a type of arid heathland, is not a place toxic cane toads care to tarry.

Click on this image to read the story as printed in Kimberley Echo, Kununurra WA, 26 Nov 2015.

Click on this image to read the story as printed in Kimberley Echo, Kununurra WA, 26 Nov 2015.

As a result, the large reptiles that tend to eat them have had a better survival rate in this drier environment.

This is an interesting, opportunistic study by government scientists working out of Kununurra in the East Kimberley.

It has now been republished in The Kimberley Echo. 

Science Network [read this story]

 

 

26 Nov 2015
Kimberley Echo, Kununurra WA