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As you may know, Victoria has gone alone in establishing a treaty with the original inhabitants. Some parts of our administration are paralysed, particularly Parks Victoria which is progressively surrendering control. Here is my own story, not related to Parks Vic. My daughter was partly burnt out by the bushfires in January and has been waiting for her block to be cleared. On the road outside her property is a gum tree which has old steps cut into it. The neighbour told her he cut them himself about 40 years ago. However, the Dja Dja Wurrung have identified it as a sacred tree. Thus, the land around it for a 10m radius is protected. The 10m radius comes one metre into my daughter's block. Contractors cannot enter her property until the property has been "blessed" by the Dja Dja Wurrung. She contacted the council to find out about the delay. They told her that lots of people are suffering the delay because the Dja Dja Wurrung are not doing blessings at present. It is nearly four months since the fire.

Sometimes the anthropologists on projects can be a problem, more so the inexperienced young ones fresh out of uni and on their first job in the real world. I remember in 1983 when the pilot survey line for the Moonie/Jackson pipeline was going through and it got held up at Cunnamulla. The job ground to a halt for four days because the young anthropologists has found some axe cuts on some tree roots where the pipeline was to cross the Warrego River. They were metal axe cuts and generations of local whites had camped and fished there as well as the local aboriginals, so it was anyone's guess whether a white or black person had used the axe. The anthropologists thought they were doing the right thing by checking with their bosses in the city but it was in the days before mobile phones and email, and head office had closed up on Friday afternoon for the long weekend. Eventually when their office opened the following Tuesday and contact was made they approved the crossing. It cost some companies a lot of down time money, but the anthropologists thought they were doing the right thing. Their inexperience was a bit of a problem in that area. The issue with a metal axe is that any object made by non aboriginals that aboriginals use is deemed to be a post contact artifact. That's where the grey area comes in. A shard of a broken beer bottle that some ringers left on the ground can be taken to be a possible knife used by aboriginals. The archaeologists I've worked with have generally been a fair bit more sensible than some of the anthropologists, probably because their field is more defined and direct and less guesswork involved.

Baseload is a term that used to describe Coal Fired generation as it couldn't be turned off and had a very limited window of generation variation. The only people who use this now are those who are living in the past or conservative politicians who don't understand electrical generation, usage or demand. Terms like "we have to keep the lights on" and "what do we do when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine" just displays their ignorance. The generation industry, distributors and anyone with a smidgen of intelligence know the problem is "Peak Demand" so we need available energy to meet this. For many countries this occurs in the middle of Winter when heating demand stresses the electricity supply but in Australia it is in the Summer when heat waves stress the network due to massive use of Air conditioning systems. Rooftop solar has had a huge impact on reducing this during daylight hours and now with large multi megawatt batteries and home batteries set up as VPPs the problems are reduced. Add community batteries and pumped hydro and other storage to the mix and we go a long way to a fully sustainable renewable energy nation. Already rooftop solar produces more energy in Australia than all of the fossil fuel energy producers do combined during the middle of the day.

Iranians have More reason than ever to Hate Americans. Imagine you are Living there Now and being threatened with Obliteration by a Maniac, and His Weirdo hangers on, who have recklessly and Illegally smashed a lot of the essential Infrastructure and Killed innocents. Nev

They don't need to anymore. Trump is doing it all by himself.

This could be true, but it is many decades away. 1.6% of our cars are electric. The percentage of heavy vehicles is so small it is a rounding error. At the best historical rates of fleet replacement we have barely begun to change. And the replacements are still dominated by non electric vehicles and will be for the foreseeable future for a range of reasons. An economic recession is inevitable and no one will be rushing to replace their car. And anyway, oil is needed for many non fuel purposes.

I once found what appeared to me to be a stone axe in an area where the type of stone did not exist. However theat type of stone did exist within a few kms of where I found the axe. I wonder if I had reported my find I would have put a stop to the real estate development that occures a few years later.

But then aren't you part of the problem? You could take the ethical stand and disconnect your panels for the good of the grid. Here is the issue as I see it. Twenty years ago, we had an "old grid" which was well-suited to "old generation" methods. We now have "new generation' and an "old grid" I think you are saying we should match the generation method to the old grid. What I and pretty much every authoritative source are saying is to match the grid to the new, lower-cost sources. If we were to halt all new renewables and storage, what would we do? We could build new coal or nuclear. You must surely realise that this would be incredibly expensive, and if you think electricity is expensive now, you would not like what this would add to bills. I do actually have the predictions, and I am happy to post them. Another issue is this. What if we said no new renewables? People would still be installing solar and batteries. The technology is only getting cheaper day by day. An example I use is the system I designed and installed on my bush house in 1990. I still have the receipts for the panels. I installed 60watt panels at a cost of $595 per panel. That was a lot in 1990 dollars (adjusted for inflation, that would be $1515 today). For that price, you can now get a 700W panel. People will have an incentive to have their own residential power system to save the increased cost of building new coal or nuclear, and I suspect disconnecting from the grid might become more popular. Here, we do have some points of agreement. I believe we have to ensure some equity. As I posted earlier, balcony solar is coming. Buying into a shared panel installation is also a thing that is being done. When it comes to the new scheme to make electricity free for 3 hours a day, you will probably again say "it's not really free" I would suggest you knock on your neighbour's door and say, "if you were able to use electricity for 3 hours a day and not be charged " I suspect they would (will) love that. This scheme is taking electricity from solar panels that would ordinarily be "curtailed" and thus wasted. Surely this is a good thing. I can't think of many countries that are not adopting more and more renewables, and I don't believe this is purely for ideological reasons. Of course, there might be glitches along the way, as there have been with all developing technologies. Aviation is only safe and cheap now because in earlier times, people saw the potential and pushed on solving problems as they went. Going back to 20th-century technology is not the way to go. We can argue points back and forth here, but the point is renewables are growing, and will continue to grow.

The maximum I have seen on the wholesale market is 25 cent/kWh at between 6:30 & 7:00pm. There is no solar being produced then so it is only export from batteries that can get that much. For most of the day the wholesale export price is 5 cents maximum to negative 3 cents. The best retail solar export plans I have seen are 10 cent/kWh & that is only for the first 10kWh per day then it reduces by half but this is countered by their high kWh charges when importing.

So why do you have panels on your roof? If you are actually getting 50 cents a kWh, then your retailer is making a loss with every kWh you export. Who is paying for this?

Sorry, Siso, but that statement is a contradiction in terms. I cannot see any facts to support this. The generating market has always been volatile. Speaking in terms of prior to the new solar and wind contribution, It was mostly predictable on the demand side, but unpredictable on the generation side. With all the generators involved, every day there is a combination of planned outages and unplanned outages (breakdowns). The National Market regulator just deals with it. Sometimes i saw the wholesale price rocket from $30 to thousands of dollars whilst an extra power station got up to speed. All part of the way the grid works. Renewables are simply another source of electrons. Sure, there are more things to consider now. But the management is evolving to cope with each change. Renewables are not causing much trouble. Nor are they parasitic.

Siso, what language are you writing in? It certainly isn't English.

Trumps mental capacity is now openly being discussed at high levels after the profane midnight rant to open the Effin strait, to then declaring it closed, and having a go at the Pope. Albos meeting with the Malaysian PM to shore up fuel supply was notable for Anwars direct jab at Trumps sanity. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-18/fallout-iran-war-spreads-focus-donald-trump-mind/106576096 Meanwhile American Troops in the middle east are running out of food & morale has sunk to a major low point. Hegseth spent all of the food budget on lobsters and steak before the conflict began & now they are being served rubbish & not much of it either. This is simple logistics and supply that the incompetent US political system and military don't seem to be able to comprehend. https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360966583/trumps-troops-served-grey-meat-and-few-boiled-carrots-n

That's another evil Minion, Pete Hegseth

Maybe we need a "What has Vance done today" thread, but if we had one for each of Trump's evil sycophants we'd run out of space. Anyway I thought this was a brilliantly written piece on JD. ( I hate that he's known by those initials, because I quite like Jack Daniels). Is the pope Catholic? JD Vance thinks he has an answer | Marina Hyde https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/17/pope-leo-jd-vance-donald-trump-catholicism?CMP=share_btn_url

We coulld stop selling canola overseas and turn it into bio-diesel.

One of the reasons for granting bail was that it is going to takwe a very long time to bring these charges before a court. There is no likelihood that he will commit further offences whilst free on bail, so community safety is not endangered. The only condition that I see as not being useful is the reporting three times per week to police. That is supposed to restrict his movement from the local area of his residence. As one who was able to set bail conditions, I always felt that this was an onerous condition. Once a week is sufficient if the condition is required.

Had an interesting morning this morning. I was at a funeral recently and bumped into an old mate I hadn't seen for many years. In the time since I last saw him, he's retired and has been making acoustic guitars for a hobby. Today I went around and he showed me a few of the guitars and where he makes them in his shed. He's a carpenter/builder by trade so already had quite a lot of the tools and some of the required woodworking skills. They're nice guitars, mostly all dreadnaughts, and all Australian timbers. He uses a lot of silky oak on the bodies and grey gum for necks and other parts. I seem to remember the Australian brand Maton using Australian timbers.

I should have made the title Victoria's Secret, because not many people know how serious it is. In a way it will be a good thing, because the other states and the Feds will have a chance to see how a treaty really works. Unfortunately, in my opinion, some of the so-called leaders are just in it for what they can get for themselves and close family. Some have criminal records or are known drug dealers. Some, perhaps many, have a tenuous claim to aboriginality. At present there is a fight to see who comes out in control or with veto rights on public lands. At the same time, as in the greater society, probably 90% are good people wanting to get on with their lives, but they are not the high-profile activists. If you ask me for hard evidence I probably don't have any, just my own experiences and observations and those of people around me.

Not necessarily, I've seen in a news report, a judge sentence a muslim father to only a token 3 years jail for stabbing a bloke to death, and he said" "The Public won't understand this sentence". He imposed it for cultural reasons. In other words, in Islam, it's ok to kill someone who brings dishonor on the family. Actually it was the father's daughter's non-muslim boyfriend who was murdered, just south of Sydney.

https://au.yahoo.com/news/pauline-un-australian-comments-slammed-221751087.html This will draw the ire of everyone here, but I think to a degree, she is right. It is part of their religion to eliminate all infidels, ie, non Muslim. Their Imams preach it in their Mosques. There may be many Muslims who would not go that far, but how would you know. Any religion or nationality is welcome if they accept others on an equal basis, but if they want to change us to their way of thinking they should be removed. If they want that kind of existence, there are many other places in the world that provide that. If it is so good, why did they come here in the first place?

As long as she is not doing anything illegal, good on her still. Large companys always push the boundrys. Qantas selling seats on flights that don't exist, com bank, woolies, coles. Put some CEO's in jail will fix it.

I moved to the bush to get away from it all. I don't even vote anymore, it's not worth my time voting for idiot politicians who bring in murdering muslims and then blame everyone except themselves for the Bondi massacre. And now they're letting in more Islamic wives of ISIS terrorists just because they're Australian citizens. Would Mars bump into Planet Earth if their citizenship was revoked ... to the stupid far-left Labor party, it would.

So since 9/11 47,000 terrorist attacks in 70 countries around the world ALL committed by islamists(i did not say all Muslims), Hindu religion 0, Buddhist religion 0, Taoist religion 0, and the woke brigade say that islam is a peaceful relgion, no i am not saying that all Muslim people are terrorist, most are peaceful and practice thier religion the way that they interpret it,the IRA did lots of terrorist attacks in the 60s,70,80s, and they have settled down to the political way to get thier greviances heard, not so the islamist, they do not want to be part of democracy, and generally hate all things western, they (some muslim refugees) want to bring thier problems and sharia to western counries around the world, they are not peaceful, and you can see this in the war in palistine, the Israelies will not allow them to massacre innocents, and before you say it ,the people who have died are the result of the WAR strted by hamas and its backers,the Israelies are way to smart and also have the backing of most of the western countries, during WW11 2 million Germans died as a result of bombing,60,000 during the blitz of London, all collateral damage yet we do no condemn the brits or Germans , islam cannot and will not ever coexist with western values. Its time we we had some pollies that have backbone (both sides of the political parties) that tell the islamists NO we dont want you in our country go back home and practice it amongst your own people .

All the Islamic teachings are that man-made laws can be ignored at all times, because only Allah can make laws for man. And despite all the Islamic claims about how law-abiding they are, their actions when they're faced with a man-made law that conflicts with the teachings of their Imam, means they will obey the Imam every time. This makes the Imam more powerful than any politician or law enforcement authority, and turns the Imam into the real controlling force of the culture. There's no getting away from this. And nothing can get around the fact that the Islamics have a major problem with the status of women. Repression of women is the hallmark of their culture, no matter what country they're in.

Our hidden enemy is Sharia Law. Muslims might obey Aust laws, but their inherent law is Sharia, it's not something they can discard.

If i went on about the catholic religion and what they have dne in the past no one would tell me to shut it down, if we cannot state the obvious then the woke brigade have won, my Father and the best of that era fought and died to uphold freedom , the islamists want us to shut down , if Ian thinks this will harm him , then get rid of it.

The savage terrorists of oct 7 wete not freedom fighters or soldiers just pure evil savages,burning babies in thier cots mutalating women and old folk and taking prisonets to use as bargaining and hostages is a crime against humanity shame on anyone who condones that , the Israelies should use any and all means to eradicate hamas they are a scourge of the palistinians and the world

I did say not all muslims are terrorists,we should hunt terrorists diwn and exterinate them the world is better off without them and as for you not serving that was to remind you that those of us who served in hostile enviroments have a better understanding tabout conflict we had 1 arm tied behind because of the craven cowards who sent us out (pollies) brits in my case the Israelies dont seem to suffer this problem unless its blatent illegal, so yes bad stuff by has happened historically but in these last years it is only the islamists who commit all the illegal acts

It's too late, the genie is already out of the bottle, we should never have imported the huge number of criminal Lebanese from Southern Lebanon that Malcolm Fraser allowed in to Australia with no background checks. The Immigration Dept blokes of the time were fuming over Frasers traitorous and illegal act - and he refused to acknowledge that he let them in, all the rest of his life. Since 1976-77, when these criminal Muslims arrived, Australia has experienced Muslim terrorism - SW Sydney, where all these people ended up, has turned into Crime Central, home to all the insurance fraud, drug-dealing, car theft and re-birthing, Centrelink scams, internet scams originating from these suburbs, and a massive proliferation of demands, that are all designed to pander to Islamic culture. They voted in an Islamic Mayor who turned out to be nothing more than a common criminal. They refuse to obey man-made laws, stating that only God makes the laws for them. They are trouble wherever they go, and I'm happy to see Israel attack the seats of Islamic terrorism in the shapes of Palestine, Southern Lebanon, and Iran. Lebanon was once a thriving country, now it's the basket case of the Middle East, with no functioning govt or law, intermittent energy supplies, and armed tribal gangs ruling their "territory". The place is starting to make Haiti look like a good place to live.

Aw, C'mon. Don't tell me I can't comment unless I've served. Thats a bit rough. YOU can't lump ALL Muslims together, either. Do some people's lives not count.? Women and children are the Majority of the casualties in GAZA. Lots of Journo's and medical people too. Russia and Trump are NOT Muslim, Neither is China OR North Korea . The massacre of Muslims in New Zealand was done by an Australian. Are you OK with That? Nev

I heard they have split up. Apparently he can't stand her either.