Animalia......(2)

From The Daily Examiner 7 November 2009 on the subject of Grafton Regional Art Gallery:

Good Food Magpies

The family of magpies who live around the Gallery has two young members who are just starting to get their adult feathers. All staff at the gallery cafe, Georgie's, and the gallery would like these youngsters to grow up in the civilised manner of all magpies. So we are asking all our patrons and visitors to not feed the birds but to simply enjoy watching them as they forage in the gallery gardens and courtyard and listening to their beautiful warbles.

The youngsters will soon enough be told to move out by their parents to find their own territory. They will need hunting skills beyond the ones required to gain delicious tidbits from Georgie's customers not to mention having the appropriate social skills.

EDO Northern Rivers: seminars and workshops in December 2009 [climate change, managed retreat, biodiversity, land clearing, power stations]

Seminar: Planned retreat, climate change and biodiversity - Byron
Bay, 3 December

In response to a rising wave of interest from all levels of government
in threats to coastal communities from climate change, the Environmental
Defender's Office Northern Rivers presents a free public seminar on
coastal management. It will focus on how liability issues, adaptation
strategies and biodiversity protection are dealt with in recent
initiatives including Byron Council's Draft Coastal Zone Management Plan
and the NSW Government's reforms to coastal erosion management.

Thursday 3 December
SCU Room, Byron Community Centre, Johnson St
5.45 for 6 pm sharp to 8 pm

Light meal provided. No booking necessary. For more information, please
call Mark Byrne, Education Officer, EDO Northern Rivers, on 66228470 or
1300 369 791 or email edonr@edo.org.au. Please note that current
litigation concerning protection works at Belongil Beach and the
question of whether or not Byron Council is partially responsible for
erosion there will NOT be addressed.

Workshop: Native vegetation and private native forestry - Coffs
Harbour, 5 December

This event is being organised with Coffs Harbour Council in response to
concerns about illegal land clearing. It will cover the approvals
process for private native forestry under the Native Vegetation Act and
other relevant instruments including Local Environmental Plans and Koala
Plans of Management.

Saturday 5 December
Cavanbah Hall, 191 Harbour Drive
10.30 am to 3 pm including a light lunch

To register to attend, please call Rachel Binskin at Coffs Harbour
Council on 66484662 or email rachel.binskin@coffsharbour.nsw.gov.au.

Meeting for groups: TransGrid and local energy - Lismore, 10
December

Does the North Coast need more coal-fired electricity at a cost of
$227M? TransGrid, NSW's electricity network builder and operator, plans
to build a 330 kV transmission line from west of Tenterfield down to
Lismore. The EDO Northern Rivers and Lismore Community Sustainability
Forum are organising a meeting on the evening of Thursday 10 December in
Lismore to discuss this project, join with other groups, examine
alternative power proposals and plan a strategy to stop this "19th
century" project. The proposal will be publicly exhibited under Part 3A
of the EPA Act, and the EDO will organise at least one public meeting at
that time. This initial meeting is for representatives of environment
and community groups. We are contacting groups by separate email. If
your group has not received an invitation and would like to be
represented, please reply to this email or call Mark Byrne on 66228470
or Simon Clough on 66242894 to let us know.

Art in Byron Bay

From the brush of the young and talented Jemma Bracken.

Involution and Evolution
and
Untitled

Ignorance ruled in Maclean on Wednesday as folk went rather batty

Yesterday parents and students at Maclean High School staged a demonstration concerning the ongoing and problematic existence of a flying fox colony on land adjoining school property.

Pre-warned about this batty event, the media was at hand to film one adult shouting about how someone or other would be sorry if a child contracted Hendra Virus.
Without a blush another stated for the camera that all that was needed now was "the zombies".

WTF! Zombies? Hendra Virus straight from bat to human? A fear straight from the depths of ignorance via unreliable folklore it seems.

The World Health Organisation is pretty clear that humans catch the viral infection in this manner:

• Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are the natural hosts of Hendra virus.


• Horses are the only species of domestic animal that can be naturally infected with Hendra virus.


• Hendra virus is transmitted to people through close contact with infected horses or their body fluids.


• To date, no human-to-human transmission of Hendra virus has been documented.

If a school student were to attempt to catch a bat and was scratched or bitten that student could just possibly get Lyssa Virus (although only two cases have ever been reported in Australia and a precautionary 3-dose vaccination is readily available), but as far as science and medicine is aware, Hendra Virus infection would not pass from that bat to the teenager.

Nipah Virus which is also naturally found in bats is not known to have caused human/animal infection in Australia to date.

As former Maclean Shire Mayor and wannabe Nationals politician Chris Gulaptis proved some years ago as he positioned himself to run for local government election - when it comes to protected flying foxes some hysterical Maclean residents will believe anything and follow any rabble rouser at the head of the herd.

Perhaps the next time anyone in Maclean starts yelling for benefit of the media they might at least get their facts right.
Otherwise they are just plain embarrassing.

Update:

This morning's The Daily Examiner contained an explanation as to why the nocturnal grey-headed flying foxes were so conveniently active for the media audience - an as yet unknown person has thrown at least one fire cracker into the breeding colony.

One cannot really blame the young students because they were so clearly led by a red-neck element within the Maclean High School P&C. However, the parents should be ashamed of the lesson in ignorant and wanton cruelty they are giving their children, as well as the total dishonesty they displayed by trying to set the stage with agitated bats in an effort manipulate the all too conveniently gullible complicit media.