onetrack

Yes, it used to be called Foundation Day, but PC demanded its name be changed to something more inclusive.

I thought Victorians left Victoria to go find some liveable weather?? Most of the Victorians that left, went to QLD because they wanted decent weather, not specifically because of their Labor Govt. Victoria has gained in population every year since the pandemic ended, so your numbers are BS, just like Hansons regular BS. If Labor f**** everything it touches (as you're claiming), how come W.A. is doing quite well under a State Labor Govt? The Liberals here on the Left Coast have disappeared up their own arse. They keep on producing leaders of the Party who are total dropkicks and unelectable. Now they have a former dropkick disc jockey/cum Lord Mayor (and he stuffed up Perth City Council, too), claiming he can lead the Liberals back into power. He's a legend in his own bathtime.

Willie, the storm had little effect on me. We ended up with a fair amount of vegetation trash, the big Jacaranda in our backyard lost a small branch, and the fruit trees took a pounding - but there wasn't a huge amount of rain in the storm, we ended up with a whisker over 33mm from Saturday evening to this (Monday) morning. It's a holiday here (W.A. Day) and many people are at home, having cancelled trips and events due to the storm warning, so everyone seems to be out and about now, picking up limbs and leaves and trash. The low-lying areas and the river estuarine areas are the ones that went under water. The River backed up due to the storm surge, coupled with a king tide, and it put a lot of areas under water that I haven't seen submerged for years. The buildings on the coast take the brunt of any stormy winds, the houses and apartments near the coast always seem to lose parts of roofs when a big storm comes through. I'm about 6.5kms inland from the coast, as the crow flies, so the winds are moderated by the time they get to my neck of the woods.

I've always believed that earthquakes are associated with strong storms with intense winds and heavy rain. The rainfall often lubricates fault lines, and if they're already under tectonic strain, the lubricating and weight effect of heavy rain will often trigger earthquakes. I'm convinced we're due for a decent earthquake again in Australia, they usually come about every 60 years.

Don't ever forget the old political adage - "A week is a long time in politics!" Next week, the polls could look entirely different.

Yes, a full moon does create higher than normal tides - but the tide height is also dependent on whether the Moon (or Sun) is at perigee or apogee, and whether the Sun and Moon and Earth are fully aligned. The Moon is currently close to perigee, so its gravitational pull is higher than it's been in recent years. Re the barometric pressure, Busselton Jetty weather recording instruments went off line in the storm, but Busselton Airport recorded 989.9hPa at 7:00 on 31/05, so a reasonably intense low. The centre of the low was well S of Albany, and it appeared to be around 987hPa at its centre. In Perth, we recorded 997.1hPa at 4:00AM on 31/05.

This is local news from this morning, the weather has taken a turn for the worse this afternoon. https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/wa-storm-leaves-thousands-without-power-across-the-state-20260531-p602e9.html https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-31/intense-storm-hits-wa-thousands-without-power/106741236 It's not being helped much by the current full moon causing high tides. So with the storm surge, a lot of places along the Swan River are under water.

No Willie, I've never been through it, although I've been through the Maritime Museum. I've been told numerous times it's quite interesting - to us, as blokes, anyway. SWMBO would never go through it, she is quite claustrophobic.

Gee, I never knew the Collins subs were so slow. By the time they got to the war zone, the war would be over. Small autonomous subs must be the future. Each one would be much lower cost, losing one of them would only be a fraction of the cost of losing an AUKUS sub - and sub crews are getting harder and harder to find. No-one wants to be crammed into a steel tube for weeks at a time, living in cramped conditions, and knowing that any genuine war fighting - or even a mistake or malfunction, could mean the end of their lives in a horrible manner.

I doubt very much whether ON has the leadership to run an effective, sizeable Opposition party. "Boof" Joyce is a dill, Pauline is just a stirrer with no concrete plans for Australia, worthy of consideration, and many of their choices for political representation largely end up being duds, often changing sides, turning out to have an unsavoury past, or just throwing in the towel.

The Canadians lost over $500M in the mid-1990's on a Defence acquisition plan for EH-101 helicopters, that was cancelled by an incoming new PM. But that amount pales into loose change when you consider we have signed up for a $368 BILLION deal for these subs. I don't know where that kind of money is going to come from - and if the deal is canned, we'll be paying multiple billions in penalties just to do that. We have already had the French subs fiasco, where we paid out $835M to the Naval Group in France for the French subs contract cancellation. I'm convinced some future Govt will can the AUKUS subs as unaffordable and technically obsolete.

We've certainly earned that moniker well and truly today. The wind is still screaming, and looks like keeping up for a while yet. They had a gust of 102kmh at Swanbourne, and gusts of 133kmh and 135kmh at the Capes this afternoon. Rottnest Island recorded a gust of 113kmh just before 3:00PM, but it looks like the wind knocked the recording station out, it's currently offline. This is the most intense low pressure system I've encountered for quite a while, so maybe the BOM was right about it being a 1-in-5 year storm. My SD is currently without power in Stoneville, up in the Hills.

Yes, electing Abbott as President of the Liberal Party is a guaranteed way to ensure the future Liberal Party will be able to hold an entire Party meeting, in a room the size of a disabled toilet.