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The country town I lived in had a small hospital that was appropriately sized for the town's population. The library was not as big as a city library, but quite good for the small population. A police station with one police officer. The road we lived on was 8km of pretty rough gravel and was only graded once a year, but again, we didn't really expect that the rate payers would build and maintain a city-standard road for 30 people. The reality is that if the area you live in were to have all of the infrastructure of a capital city, then you can expect more and more people to move to the country, destroying the very things that make living in a remote area good. Anywhere you live is going to have pros and cons. When we lived on a bush block, we loved the solitude. The last thing we wanted was a highway going past our place, or a large hospital next door or a supermarket. Perhaps an international airport? Not having the facilities was the price paid for solitude; everything has a price. Now I live in the burbs, lots of infrastructure, but I have to share it with a bigger population. I was happy living in the country, and now I am happy living in the burbs. I am sure there are always cases where a small town needs better medical facilities or whatever. It will always be the case that providing infrastructure to remote areas will be more expensive.

It's madness to now the way they're still just hammering out new free ways and tunnels left and right in Melb to. All that's doing is just encouraging more and more and more cars and trucks. They should've been de'couraging all that the last 10yrs now and making the whole city more people, living, pt, and environment friendly.

Yeah you prob all know by now but that property was the only neighbour down the roads, brother. But he was over in Tassie 3 or 4 mths fishing so old Dezi must've stumbled over his place and moved on in. He must've still be very secretive though even though it looks like it's very away and isolated bc l dunno how far away his brothers place is but he knew nothing about Dezi being there so. But yeah speakin of empty properties, tbh for me l was more thinking hobby farmers and business men weekender properties. l kinda grew up around all that stuff because we were in Melbourne but dad had a few farms over the yrs too and we'd all go up to on wkends, holidays and stuff. But up where we had our place there were 100s of others scattered all through also owned by people from down the city and some would be empty all yr round. Some people hardly ever went up to the properties after awhile or maybe only once or twice a yr. l'd imagine all up through the mountainy areas where Dezi was there' be 100s of wkenders too , not being used or at least quite a few. So added to what onetrack was saying then yeah, you'd imagine someone hiding put could find something.

The news about the U.S. bases damage, is largely correct. The U.S. military themselves have admitted damage has been incurred at 13 U.S. bases in the Middle East, with DoW damage estimations of around US$800M. There are other reports saying the number of bases seriously damaged is actually 17, and the total repair bill for all the Iranian damage is likely to exceed US$3B - and more importantly, take years to rebuild, simply because of the complexity of the equipment in the bases, and the requirement for a lot of electronic replacements, that are still in short supply from COVID-era restrictions. Even many car manufacturers are taking shortcuts in vehicle manufacturing, and leaving out optional equipment that is electronics-heavy, due to the ongoing chip shortage. What our dopey Tangerine Toddler doesn't understand, is that Taiwan may now even make overtures to China to form an alliance, to prevent a Taiwan-China war. This is because Taiwan is starting to realise that their major ally is no longer a reliable ally - and is likely incapable of protecting/supporting Taiwan in the event of a Chinese aggressive military move on them. If that alliance happens, China will then control the majority of the worlds cutting-edge chip manufacturing, and give Trump and his sycophants another dose of heartburn, because America still hasn't got any local chip manufacturing sorted yet. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cddq7j48p35o https://defencesecurityasia.com/en/us-bases-uninhabitable-iran-missile-strikes-centcom-force-posture-2026-war/

London has a population of c. 9.5m; Melbourne has a population of c 5.56m. Yes, there is an urban sprawl as, including the morningiton peninsula now considered part of Melbourne, it is around 5 times bigger than London - according to Google. However, the suburban sprawl doe snot mean we should be solely reliable on the car. Rail loops are one thing. A decent hydrogen bus service is another. Trams also can be built (The line to Bundoora is Loooong, as is one to Burwood). Coming off ICE cars would have put Australians in a much better position -if only the government had foresight - oh, it did, it just chose to be beholden to the fossil fuel lobby groups. At least the government is trying something to reduce the cost. Hopefully, it will return to keeping the IEA's agreement of 90 days reserve. Maybe we shoudl tap our reserve in Dallas.. Oh wait, it was smokescreen thanks to Angus Taylor - the now leader of the oppo. Dog help us