Leaderboard

It was a Last Minute decision to go to a very Important meeting . That's why the Airfares cost was HIGH. The sport attendance is less simple. Not sure Chalmers is that happy. The Lib/Nats were More practised at those sorts of things, SUSSan Ley fell foul of it. Not a Good look but getting a big rev up in the news as one would expect. Nev

Yeah that one doesn't pass the sniff test in a cost of living crisis. I think if Albo reads the room he should cut her loose and tell his ministers that just adherence to the letter of the rules is not enough.

Not Albo personally, but ALP minister Anika Wells. Thousands of taxpayer dollars for air fares to fly her husband and kids to three AFL grand finals and two interstate tests. And they claim it doesn't breach guidelines. Obviously the guidelines need an urgent overhaul. If any of us wanted to fly our partner around the country, we'd have to pay for it ourselves. And I bet she's earning a hell of a lot more than any of us. And before you go calling me out for ALP bashing, I would be just as disgusted if it was a LNP member.

Fires on farms are not unusual. The source could have been from farm equipment, natural sources, arson or from the solar farm. Let's say it was from the solar farm; this surely only means analysis and actions to make it less likely to happen in the future. Here is a question: Did the incident below make Skynews? No, it did not. This happened a few weeks ago, not far from where I live. There were numerous comments online from conservative folks suggesting that this is a normal process, and sometimes the stack does get smoky for a time. Whether it was normal or not, it did start a grass fire, which required the fire brigade to attend. A grass fire near an oil refinery ought to be big news. There seems to be a discount applied to existing technologies as opposed to newer ones. A petrol or diesel car catches fire, and it is not a big story. An EV catches fire, and it is huge news and has people suggesting that this technology should not exist.

Didn't Bronwyn Bishop's career end over a helicopter jolly?

Defo not a good look. What happens will depend on her influence in him retaining power

One of the better Trump cartoons I've seen Nicola Jennings on Putin’s dealings with Trump over Ukraine – cartoon https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/dec/07/nicola-jennings-putin-dealings-trump-ukraine-cartoon?CMP=share_btn_url

I was not necessarily suggesting the most likely scenario, only suggesting that in SkyNews' world, only one of these causes would whip them up into a frenzy. As for arson being unlikely, I am not sure about that. It is within the realms of possibility, especially with anti-renewable sentiment. It is quite likely that this fire may have been caused by the solar farm or associated equipment. Power lines, whether they are connected to solar or not, are a major cause of fire. Much of the technical equipment we use is capable of catching fire. When this does happen, we analyse and take measures to reduce the likelihood of it happening again.

True, but you can discount farm equipment as the site is not farmed. Arson is drawing a bit of a long bow. The point I wanted to make was that a possiblity could have been an electrical short . You could be correct in saying that skynews might have reported this with as much relish as it might report an EV fire.

Trusting SKY News ? You must be THE Supreme Optimist of ALL TIME. You CAN Guarantee it's BS . Nev.

Live stream

We in South Vic are having some near perfect days but don't tell anyone. The grass is growing like Mad. The dam is full. The Ducks are happy. Nev

to be or not to be. Nev

Gee, couldn't you imagine giving a public machinery demonstration of farm equipment today, standing unrestrained, on the drawbar of a moving disc plough! The Worksafe inspectors would have kittens, and you'd be fined thousands!! One slip off that drawbar, and you'd be mincemeat in seconds. The farmer I rented a farmhouse off when I first started in agricultural contracting in 1964, had 5 dogs of various mongrel history, and they were always fighting amongst themselves. One day he was out ploughing with his trusty old Inter tractor and disc plough, with the dogs all running around the tractor and plough, as they always did. A couple of dogs started fighting, and one fell under the plough, as he tried to get away from the other dog! He came out the back of the plough, sliced up like pieces of ham! The farmer was a little bit upset, but he seemed to think most dogs were disposable, anyway. He was possibly upset because it meant more work for him rounding up sheep, next time he did it.

Nev, the cooling system is in quite satisfactory condition, and yes - that area is one of the first things I look at, it can be a very expensive repair trying to fix major cooling system damage. Copper/soldered radiators are priced like gold plate today, and you're struggling to find anyone to repair them, the Workplace Health authorities have deemed soldering to be a major workplace health risk. Yes, Chamberlains started off with their own 2 cylinder horizontally-opposed kerosine engine, then they converted the design to diesel, and it wasn't reliable, due to regular engine failures. So Chamberlain then decided to employ outside engine manufacturers. They went over to GM 2 stroke diesels, which were a roaring success, but GM diesels became expensive to buy in AU dollars, so Chamberlain then went to Meadows, an English engine manufacturer. The Meadows engines were just O.K., but their performance was lacking, and the engines had various problems. So Chamberlain then went over to Perkins and never looked back. Perkins engines were so popular and reliable and produced in large numbers, so Caterpillar decided to buy the company, which they did in 1997, and it has been owned by Cat ever since, and Cat-Perkins engines power a lot of the smaller Caterpillar equipment.

I just bought another tractor to add to my collection of restoration projects. A Chamberlain C6100, complete with a Gason cab and front end loader - and all for $1100. I'm positive it will make my retirement even busier. Oh, it does have a buggered engine, the venerable old Perkins 6-354, so that's not such a positive thing. The previous idiot owner/s left it out in the weather for years, and rainwater rotted out the muffler, and water ran through it into the engine, and it's locked up. However, at $1100, one has to expect a few downsides. Another downside appears to be the number of empty Aerostart cans I found on the floor when I was cleaning out the 40 or 50 years of accumulated dirt, general trash, rags, dog bones, etc. I guess this is an indicator that the engine wasn't in too good a shape, prior to it being abandoned. Poor old girl, these were great tractors, but some people should never be allowed to own machinery.

I guess this was way too subtle for you blokes. The positive I celebrated was that my Mother reached the age of 100 years and is still mentally acute. I have been so lucky to have had the past three years since I came up here to reunite with her after sparse contact for forty or so years. She received greetings from everyone in government from King Charles to the local Shire mayor.