The hunt for a perfect hamburger is taken seriously in Grafton NSW

M. Allison writing a letter to The Daily Examiner editor defines the perfect hamburger on 23 April 2009.

Then on 25 April, according to Clarrie Rivers who sent on these images, the burghers of Grafton bit back.

Click images to enlarge

The Iced Vo-Vo War and how to survive it

ABC News gave us the good oil on that Iced Vo-Vo war between Arnott's Biscuits and Krispy Creme.
It's a case of duelling lawyers at dawn.
But before anyone starts to beat the patriotic drum and talk about Aussie icons - both these companies are U.S. clones.
Arnott's is owned by the multinational Campbell Soup Company and Krispy Creme is an international franchise.
The Iced Vo-Vo is now about as Australian as the doughnut and quality was substituted after 1997.
So go for each other's throats fellas, because in all this a dinkum Aussie has the neutrality of the Swiss (and those of us who remember when a local biscuit really was a cut above the Yanks best will look on with amusment as you fling money at law firms during this global recession).

Put the kettle on will ya, Darl and bring in a few of those bickies from the CWA.....

Pic from Nice cup of tea and a sit down

Is Clarence Valley Council being honest with NSW Planning Minister Keneally over proposed West Yamba development?

In February this year Clarence Valley Council resolved to accept the Maclean Local Environmental Plan 2001 (West Yamba Amendment) and sent this planning instrument down to the NSW Minister for Planning Kristina Keneally for her consent.

But was Clarence Valley Council completely honest with the Minister?

Nowhere in the West Yamba Amendment and accompanying documents does Council point out that most of the land directly below Sullivan's Lane in West Yamba is now privately owned land and has been since the late 1990s.

Clarence Valley Council is always at pains to refer to this land as "Other land, owned by Birrigan Gargle Local Aboriginal Land Council and land subject to a Land Claim, south of Sullivan's Road is not included in the Draft LEP" and words to that effect in other parts of the documents.

However, these documents also show that Council expects to funnel natural drainage/storm water/flood waters, displaced by West Yamba development landfill, onto this privately-owned environmentally sensitive land "south of Sullivan's Road" via a designated unfilled floodway/drainage corridor with a relatively narrow end point.
Thereby potentially increasing the amount of such water flowing across this land and possibly causing more damage than might naturally occur.

Section of the Draft West Yamba LEP Map showing the floodway/drainage corridor

The Clarence Valley Council map shown here clearly shows the floodway/drainage corridor (used to mitigate required landfill in the proposed large-scale development) is intended to deposit water onto Lot 201 DP729134, a 229.6ha lot owned outright by Birrigan Gargle Local Aboriginal Land Council.

Indeed if Council's own documents are to be believed, the development of West Yamba could not go ahead unless Yaegl land is used as a dumping ground for drainage and flooding problems associated with this proposed development.

The last time I noticed, Australian law still allowed a property owner to sue state and/or local government for that kind of arbitrary action.

Which may explain why Clarence Valley Council appears to be attempting to massage the facts in order to obscure ownership details in documents before the Minister.

Sometimes being that cute can backfire - especially when the ghost of Rylands v Fletcher still roams court corridors in Australia.

And now there are eight........

According to Computer World there is another ISP signing on for the Rudd-Conroy mandatory national ISP-level Internet filtering scheme 'live' trial:

Optus joins seven other ISPs in participating in the filtering - Primus Telecommunications, Highway 1, Nelson Bay Online, Netforce, OMNIconnect, TECH 2U and Webshield.

Well that makes eight ISPs that I'll be buying goods and services from when Hades freezes over.

Farming in a Changing Climate workshops at Casino and Grafton 5th & 12th May 2009

The NSW Dept of Primary Industires is running a three day workshop spread over 6 weeks to assist landholders prepare and adapt their property for climate risk, in Casino starting 5 May and in Grafton starting 12 May 2009.

This course is registered under the Commonwealth Government's FarmReady program.
Eligible primary producers can be reimbursed for the cost of this course.
See the FarmReady website for more details.

The course aims to:

• Encourage appropriate responses to climate change such as high flow pumping and appropriate on farm water storage.
• Provide training in strategies to improve rainfall utilisation which do not significantly impact catchment flows.
• Provide training tailored to landscapes and soils that will allow landowners to improve the resilience of their properties to climatic impacts.
• Promote measures that contribute to carbon sequestration and soil health.
• Integrate training with the Community Support Officers and available incentive funding to promote the maximal conversion of plans into on ground works.

Pre-registration is required. Contact Greg Reid on (02) 6626.1213 or greg.reid@dpi.nsw.gov.au

She who shall remain nameless baked some hash cookies.....

Shades of the 1960s and children of the revolution........

It was reported this week that a woman was arrested for selling cannabis cookies and chocs (as well as funny cigarettes) when police did a foot patrol of the Nimbin Museum on the NSW North Coast late last year.

This week the Lismore magistrate was obviously in a realistic mood.
He sentenced, then suspend this and put in place a short good behaviour bond for the hapless chef.

I hadn't realised that anyone still made hash cookies.
Well, live and learn.

What were those naughty little Nimbinites thinking?

Picture from Google Images