nomadpete

Another vanity symbol kicked in the nutz!

Progress! Wish I lived closer so I could snoop around your project. All that history, all those different tradeskills, and design changes as the building evolved.

That was probably me. When I'm driving my wife's car.

Well at least one state has penalties for ignoring 'Road Closed' signs such as used to block traffic entering flooded roads. W.A. has increased its penalty for accessing closed roads and/or interfering with “road closed” signs to $10,000.

I used that term to indicate that fording water is not 'normal' use of a vehicle. Therefore it requires skill an judgement (risk management) that is not taught in the normal road training syllabus. Nothing magical or crazy if approached responsibly. Responsibly includes saying no when appropriate, which is frequently.

OME, is there presently a fine for disobeying a 'Road Closed' sign? Most roads that are known to be prone to flooding, at least those near highly populated places, are checked and closed when necessary.

All true, Will. Most drivers have no concept of 'expect the unexpected.' You raised a good one. I used to commute in Bris, and at one point, there was two lanes of peak hr traffic all turning left together. After a heavy overnight storm, but the sun was out and the water had gone. A manhole cover had popped off, and believe it or not, no car had dropped a wheel into the hole! (maybe later?) So hundreds of motorists had good reactions that day! Yes, it is true that few motorists can be trusted. But will new laws stop them doing thoughtless dangerous stuff?

Crikey I wish it was wet. Today was 30 degrees, under 30% humidity and 30kts wind. Spent the day on the fireground only 10k from home. Rough country. It was blowing hard and gusting, towards our place. There were 5 choppers running water bombing all day. We had 2 x D8 dozers cutting a firebreak but the fire jumped that about the same time as one dozer broke down. The terrain was too steep to get our appliances within striking distance of the fire front. Tonight the wind dropped, the fire slowed down. Hoping for drizzle tonight but rain would be real nice. I'm not going out tomorrow (too tired)but there will still be a dozen firetrucks out. So far about 70 hectares still smouldering.

Completely normal!

I consider driving through water ti be 'off road' driving. It requires an individual risk assessment before the attempt. It is unfair to compare it with running a red light which instantly places high risk of injury/ death to an unknown number of people who are likely to collide with the redlight runner. I wonder how many commentors have actually done much driving through water, and in what (of the many different types of) vehicles they have gaind this experience. I consider myself fairly experienced in water crossings, and I can see how easily the inexperienced/unwary driver can come to grief. But the same can be said of most motorists in otherwise normal driving. Like all things, you cannot legislate common sense. With common sense and some risk management, most drivers should be trained to make safe decisions and either safely cross water or sensible decide not to. Or maybe just ban motorcars because people can't be trusted to use them safely.

This one, yes the convicted killer was a ex Vietmanese migrant. Who was also a competing politician. A weak case to try to paint all migrants as criminals. We don't call all whities criminals just because most crimes are committed by that group. Co-incidence does not equal causation.

Wiki:- Donald Bruce Mackay (13 September 1933 – 15 July 1977) was an Australian businessman and anti-drug campaigner. He disappeared in 1977, but his body has never been found. In 1986, James Bazley was convicted for his murder. Where does Vietmaneses migrants come into this? I call BS on that

Sorry to hear of your bad experiences. Sometimes mother nature is a bitch. But when it comes to most of the resulting damage, blame your state governments.... all flavors if them. Tis a sign of poorly designed infrastructure. Design should allow for unusual but expected natural events.

Glad someone got some good out of it. One thing I miss from Qld, is the pleasure of watching a real thunderstorm come through. Darwin is also (or only) famous for beautiful towering cu-nim thunderstorms.