John Langley: an artisan fisherman of the Northern Rivers region

 

A large wild Australian bass, caught in the freshwater reaches of an East Coast river. Caught in late March (early autumn), on a lure with a barbless hook, this female fish was making her way down to the estuary for winter spawning. She was carefully released after the photo. [IMAGE: Codman at the English Wikipedia, 19 March 2007, retrieved 26.11.23]

ABC News, 26 November 2023:

John Langley still makes and sells hundreds of fishing lures each year.  (Hannah Ross)

Necessity is the mother of invention, and in 1949 John Langley was in dire need of some fishing lures.

Then aged 17, he was working for his grandfather feeding the pigs on the banks of the Richmond River, and the waterway was brimming with bass.

He had with him his father's oldest and best two lures.

"I didn't want to lose them because they were so old so I decided to try to make a lure," he said.

John Langley spends many happy hours in his workshop at Geneva, near Kyogle in northern NSW.(ABC North Coast: Hannah Ross)

Like a scene from Huckleberry Finn, the lad used his pocket knife to strip down some willow limbs and fashioned old jam tins into some bibs that seemed to do the job.

"I sort of went on from there," he said.

The precious lures that once belonged to John Langley's father inspired his own designs.(ABC North Coast: Hannah Ross)

All for the love of it

Now 91, Mr Langley continues to handcraft and sell his lures, reeling in customers to his stall at the monthly Kyogle Bazaar market.

He charges $10 for a lure, with an output of up to 50 lures a week.

"It's just a hobby, I don't intend to make a real roaring business out of it," he said.

"I know I'm selling them cheap but I don't care, I just like making them."

To perfect his lures, Mr Langley has spent a good part of his life trying to think like a fish.

Each lure is hand-painted and tested to ensure it's ready to fool even the most canny fish.(ABC North Coast: Hannah Ross)

He meticulously hand-paints each lure with automotive paint in colours that will appeal to each species, taking into account what time of day they are being used.

He said a male bass, for instance, would attack a lure painted in the same colours as itself, thinking it was warding off a rival for its territory

"You can go fishing with a lure in the morning and catch a heap of bass on it, then go for a cup of tea," he said.

"When you go back, you have to find another colour. They know.".....

Wherever he goes fishing, his lures attract attention and buyers contact him to send them more.

His creations are now being cast into rivers and seas across Australia, Europe, the United Kingdom and Japan....

Read the full article here.

CLIMATE CHANGE STATE OF PLAY 2023: the climate change microwave has been cooking Australia on "High"

 

It been easy in recent years to take our eyes off the ball when it came to the that important predictive climate change number, the Global Surface Temperature Anomaly which tracks the degree the Earth is warming over time. So many urgent distractions - global pandemic, wars and war crimes, the local effects of rolling unnatural disasters and rising cost of living.

This is where the world, Australia, Eastern Australia and New South Wales stand in 2023......

Commonwealth Science Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Climate Change In Australia, YEARS AT THE +1.5 °C GLOBAL WARMING LEVEL, retrieved 25 November 2023:

Climate variability is greater at the national and state level than in the global average, so some places have already experienced a year consistent with the what is expected to be the ‘new normal’ (the long-term average) at a +1.5 °C global warming level. Have we already seen any such years in Australia?

The answer is now yes.

The globe has warmed by around +1.1 °C, Australia by around +1.6 °C, a ratio of around x1.4. This suggests that when the world is at +1.5 °C, Australia will be at around +2.1 °C since 1850–1900. The average temperature of the record year 2019 was at around this temperature – so is expected to be typical of an average year in Australia in a +1.5 °C world. [my yellow highlighting]

ABC News, 24 November 2023:

Last week, global temperatures appeared to momentarily breach a threshold set by world governments to try and avoid widespread climate devastation.

On November 17 and 18, the world was, on average, 2 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels for the first time in modern recorded history.

The pre-industrial period was a time before widespread fossil fuel use....

Over the past 10 months, the average global temperature was more than 1.3C above pre-industrial levels.....

Current greenhouse gas levels and emissions puts the planet on a trajectory to exceed Paris Agreement targets....

BBC News, 7 October 2023:

...BBC analysis of data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service shows that, up to 2 October, around 86 days in 2023 have been over 1.5C warmer than the pre-industrial average. That beats the 2016 record well before the end of the year.

There is some uncertainty in the exact number of days that have breached the 1.5C threshold, because the numbers reflect a global average which can come with small data discrepancies. But the margin by which 2023 has already passed 2016 figures gives confidence the record has already been broken.

"The fact that we are reaching this 1.5C anomaly daily, and for a longer number of days, is concerning," said Dr Lazenby.

One important factor in driving up these temperature anomalies is the onset of El Niño conditions.

When it comes to tracking temperature anomalies across  relatively smaller areas over time, such as the eastern half of the Australian continent or the state of New South Wales, one has some indication as to why the CSIRO expects Australia to be so much hotter than the global temperature anomaly when 1.5°C is the 'normal' annual average. 

Monthly maximum temperature anomalies retrieved from Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) 25.11.23.

NOTE:

 Anomalies denote the departure of an element from its long-period average value for the location concerned. For example, if the maximum temperature for June in Melbourne was 1 degree Celsius higher than the long-term average for this month, the anomaly would be +1 degrees Celsius. The current international standard is to use the 30 year average from 1961 to 1990 as the long-term average. (BOM, Climate Glossary 2023]

With regard to tracking climate change global surface temperature anomalies the baseline is pre-industrial temperature levels which is widely interpreted as those occurring before 1850 perhaps as early as before 1800. The United Nations IPCC uses as its reference period the years 1850–1900 to represent pre-industrial temperature. 

Saturday November 25th, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

 

IMAGE: U.N. banner 2023

According to SIGI 2023 Global Report: Gender Equality in Times of Crisis, violence against women refers to a wide range of harmful acts that are rooted in unequal power relations between men and women and that result in – or are likely to result in – physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women.

Gender-based violence can also target female children between 0 & 18 years.

Violence against women remains a global pandemic underpinned by the level of misogyny and chauvinism hardwired into our institutions and laws. Such violence endures due to a general unspoken social acceptance that is difficult to overcome within communities, families and among individuals who believe that men have a right to be physically aggressive in domestic or other close relationships.

In 2023, nearly one in three women has experienced intimate-partner violence at least once in her lifetime; and one in ten has survived it over the last year. While fundamentally underpinned by harmful social norms “normalising” men’s use of violence, addressing violence against women requires establishing strong and comprehensive legal frameworks, as part of robust systems, that cover all its forms. [SIGI 2023 Global Report: Gender Equality in Times of Crisis, online]

The United Nations estimates that world-wide 736 million women have experienced domestic violence at least once in their lifetime.

It invites us to: Join our 16 days of activism

The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women will mark the launch of the UNiTE campaign (Nov 25- Dec 10) — an initiative of 16 days of activism concluding on the day that commemorates the International Human Rights Day (10 December).

This 2023 campaign Invest to Prevent Violence against Women & Girls will call on citizens to show how much they care about ending violence against women and girls and call on governments worldwide to share how they are investing in gender-based violence prevention. Join the global movement with the #NoExcuse slogan calling for urgent investments to prevent violence against women and girls. Digdeeper into the campaign’s proposals – data, prevention, investments– and join the global movement with the #NoExcuse slogan to eliminate violence against women and girls. 

For more information go to:

https://www.un.org/en/observances/ending-violence-against-women-day

Somewhere in Australia today there are women and girls experiencing violence at the hands of a partner, a family member or another person they know.

The NSW Police Force in April 2023 published a report stating that it responds to over 140,000 domestic and family violence calls for assistance every year. This equates to one call every four minutes and, that according to the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research statistics the number and volume of domestic and family violence crime types have increased from October 2016 to September 2021. [my yellow highlighting]

Tweet of the Week

When interest rates went up “not only do we pay more to the banks for our mortgages, but the Reserve Bank, that we own, also forks out an extra billion dollars to them as well”

I have not been able to stop thinking about this @AlanKohler piece. pic.twitter.com/L1tufWgusw

— Craig Reucassel (@craigreucassel) November 20, 2023

Multinational and interstate developers are devouring the Northern Rivers region one hectare at a time

 

Alan Edward Larkin
IMAGE: Linkedin

With 30 plus years experience in construction and property development, former managing director and principal of Aspect Property Group in Brisbane and current managing director of Digital Infratech Pty Ltd, Alan Edward Larkin of Coolangatta Qld, joins the conga line of multinational or interstate developers on the make in north-east New South Wales.

Mr. Larkin appears to be part of an alleged consortium involving IRBS1 Pty Ltd formerly trading as Aspect Property Group, Digital Infratech Pty Ltd solely owned by IRBS Holdings Pty Ltd & with Larkin as only listed director and, ASX-listed specialist funds manager Centuria Capital Group (currently $21 billion in assets under management with a $1.7 billion healthcare platform).

According to the Federal MP for Richmond Justine Elliot in February 2022: At the time of the land purchase [in 2019], it was widely publicly reported that Aspect had donated numerous times to the Liberal National Party in Queensland. Searches reveal that Aspect had donated more than $28,000 to the LNP in Queensland, including the infamous LNP Forward Brisbane Leadership Fund.

One has to wonder if the consortium was expecting its largesse in Queensland to translate into favourable treatment by a then Coalition state government in New South Wales.

Echo, 23 November 2023:

The rezoning of the State Significant Farmland (SSF) to build the Tweed Valley Hospital on the Cudgen Plateau near Kingscliff split the community and ultimately came with an ‘iron clad’ promise from local Nationals MP Geoff Provest that no more SSF would be rezoned.

However, the land next to the hospital site was bought by Allan Larkin, Director of Digital Infratech [Managing Director at Digital Infratech Pty Ltd, Brisbane, Queensland], just days before the announcement that the SSF would be rezoned for the Tweed Valley Hospital site. Since then Mr Larkin has proposed a mixed-use site called Cudgen Connection. Initially, they proposed that the site to be part of the stage 2 hospital development but this was rejected. Now they are imminently submitting a development application (DA) that provides private hospital and medical suites, essential worker housing, koala research centre, an education and community housing precinct and more at the 5.7 hectare site.

An artists impression of the new Cudgen Connection

Tweed Councillors write to the government

At the recent Tweed Shire Council (TSC) meeting (16 November, 2023) Councillors voted to write to Premier of NSW, Chris Minns, NSW Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Paul Scully, NSW Leader of The Opposition, Mark Speakman, NSW Shadow Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Scott Farlow MLC, and Member for Tweed, Geoff Provest to request advice that ‘they will uphold the integrity of the Cudgen Plateau and support the existing retention of State Significant Farmland’.....

Full article can be read at:

https://www.echo.net.au/2023/11/call-to-protect-state-significant-farmland-next-to-tweed-valley-hospital-as-promised/

$52.7 million about to go up in smoke in Ellangowan

Google Images, 23.11.23

Now that's a lot of weed.....

NSW Police News reported that seven people faced court on Wednesday 22 November 2023, after police seized more than $52 million worth of cannabis south-west of Lismore on Tuesday 21 November.

"Following extensive inquiries by the State Crime Command's Drug and Firearms Squad and Richmond Police Detectives, assisted by the Aviation Command, Dog Unit and Northern Rivers Region Enforcement Squad, police attended an Ellangowan property, about 11.30am yesterday (Tuesday 21 November 2023).

Police will allege in court that the property was being used for the large-scale cultivation of cannabis.

At the property, police allegedly located and seized more than 15,000 cannabis plants, with an estimated street value of $52.7 million.

Six men aged between 41 and 61, and a 52-year-old woman, were arrested during the operation before being taken to Lismore Police Station.

All seven were charged with participate in criminal group contribute activity, and knowingly take part-cultivate large commercial quantity-cannabis.

They were refused bail to appear before Lismore Local Court...."

A name change for Hottentot Crescent, Mullumbimby?

 

IMAGE: Daily Telegraph, 22 September 2023

Echo, 21 November 2023:

Changing the name of a local street because it is derived from a racist slur might seem a simple decision at first glance.

But the reality has proven more complicated when it comes to Hottentot Crescent in Mullumbimby’s Tallowwood housing estate.

The street was given its name because of the hottentot fig trees that were planted there in 1993.

But the word ‘hottentot’ itself is a racial slur that has been directed toward members of the Khoisan tribe in South Africa for hundreds of years.

Earlier this year Byron Council was approached by a local resident who argued that the crescent should be renamed.

In response to the approach Council sent letters to the 23 houses on the street asking for their views.

It received a wide range of responses, from those who felt the strongly that name should be changed, through to those who strongly believed it has become part of the local identity that has nothing to do with its racist derivation.....

Byron Shire councillors will consider the issue as Item 13.23 Possible change of road name Hottentot Crescent, Mullumbimby at its ordinary monthly meeting on Thursday 23 November 2023.

Item 13.23 carries the staff recommendation:

That Council commences the name change process for Hottentot Crescent, Mullumbimby