Ambassador Morozov, please free 30 activists held by Russian authorities

Open letter to Russian Ambassador to Australia, Morozov
[link]

On the morning of Wednesday 18 September two activists from Greenpeace International were arrested as they took peaceful action towards Gazprom’s off-shore oil platform Prirazlomnaya, to stop the company conducting oil drilling operations in the Arctic waters of the Pechora Sea. The following day, September 19, the Russian Coast Guard illegally boarded the Greenpeace International ship Arctic Sunrise while in international waters and arrested 30 activists on board at gunpoint. We are demanding the immediate release of all the activists detained and an end to the Coast Guard’s unwarranted aggression against our ship and peaceful protest.

Greenpeace International is in the Russian Arctic to bear witness and express non-violent opposition towards oil companies’ destructive and reckless oil drilling plans. Our peaceful protest was met with extreme and disproportionate force from the Russian Coast Guard, who fired 11 warning shots at our ship, the MY Arctic Sunrise, and threatened our activists with knives and guns. Now 30 of our activists are being held by the Russian Coast Guard against their will and without legal representation.

Today we are conducting a peaceful solidarity protest outside this embassy in support of our activists to demand that they are freed by the Russian authorities. We urge you to transfer our requests to the Russian government without delay.

We ask that you:

- Free the 30 activists who have been detained on board the Arctic Sunrise, and order the Russian Coast Guard to holster their guns and withdraw immediately from our ship.

- Prioritise investigation into the destructive activities of oil companies in the Arctic, and not aggressive intimidation of peaceful protesters.

- Ban offshore oil drilling in the Arctic for good.

The real threat to the Arctic comes not from Greenpeace International but from oil companies like Gazprom. In contempt of the urgent need to protect the Arctic for all life on earth, Gazprom is determined to drill in its remote, frozen seas for more fossil fuels that are warming our planet and melting the ice. In the Arctic an oil spill would be irrecoverable. Such an event would devastate the local environment.

We urge you to transfer these requests to the Russian government in Moscow immediately to assist us in the swift release of our activists from the custody of the Russian authorities, and put a end to the unwarranted aggression and repression of our peaceful protest against Arctic oil drilling.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Campbell

Bookies give election to Abbott

I just has a look at an online betting site (no free ads on my blog!).  Based on their odds Coalition 1.3 Labor 11.50, they seem certain that Tony Abbott will win the election.

Some other seats of interest in Victoria are:

Melbourne Ports: Labor 1.08 Coalition 6.50
Charles Danby retains the seat but the Coalition odds are lowish.

Melbourne: Labor 1.22 Green 3.75
The Greens incumbent Adam Bandt loses to Labor's Cath Bowtell

McEwen: Labor 1.53 Coalition 2.40

Indi: Coalition 1.25 Any other 3.50
Sophie Mirabella is being challenged by independent Cathy McGowan

Deakin: Coalition 1.05 Labor 8.00
A key marginal seat currently held by Labor

Corangamite: Coalition 1.05 Labor 8.00
A key marginal seat currently held by Labor

Batman: Labor 1.001 Any other 11.00
The Greens Alex Bhathal is running in this safe Labor seat.

Time will tell.

Open letter to Melbourne City Councillors on the proposed East West link toll-road tunnel

Melbourne City Councillors,

I understand that you are considering whether to support the Napthine Government's proposed "East West Link Tunnel" at a Council meeting tonight (Agenda Item 6.7 East West Link and Royal Park).

I strongly believe this proposal should not proceed for the following reasons:

• The main premise for the project - that it will solve traffic congestion problems on Hoddle St, Punt Rd and the Eastern Freeway - is not correct.  There is no evidence that it will have any effect on reducing traffic congestion.
• The tunnel construction will destroy large sections of public land, including Royal Park
• The tunnel will encouraged increased motor vehicle traffic through the city with attendant increase in health risks due to pollution and traffic
• The $8b required to build the tunnel will prevent investment in transport solutions such as the Doncaster rail line.  One railway line carries the same amount of people as 20 lanes of toll roads.
• The clear majority of traffic coming along the Eastern Freeway does so to access Melbourne's CBD rather than connecting through to City Link and the Tullamarine toll road.  The proposed EW tunnel will not service the vast majority of these commuters.
• The EW tunnel will seriously disrupt and impede cycling transport and access to the CBD.

I strongly urge you to support Doncaster Rail and oppose the East West toll tunnel.

Regards, Peter Campbell

Post script:  

At the Council meeting on Tuesday 27 August, the following Melbourne City Councillors supported the East West tunnel: Robert Doyle, Susan Riley, Kevin Louey, Ken Ong, Beverley Pinder-Mortimer.

I have asked them why and am awaiting their response.

However, Melbourne City Council will oppose the east-west link in its current form after a narrow 6-5 vote by councillors. The resolution of the Council re the East West Link is Clause 1.6 which reads as follows:

[Melbourne City Council] "Resolves that, given the City of Melbourne does not yet have the data at hand to fully assess the East-West Link and given that the need for further dialogue with LMA (Linking Melbourne Authority) and the State Government. the City of Melbourne does not support the East-West Link project as announced."

Why Labor will lose the election

Watching the Labor party tear themselves to bits over the last 3 years has not been a pretty sight.  Alarm bells sounded for me when I listened to Kevn Rudd's election night speech in 2007 - I thought he talked too much, didn't thank enough people and was too focused on himself.

In government he did OK for a while.  The apology to stolen generations of indigenous Australians was a high point.

However the Australia 2020 Summit became just another talkfest with all the usual suspects invited.

The Rudd government's action on climate change was at first encouraging, but the climate change white paper and green paper signalled a direction towards emissions trading.

But the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, pushed hard by Penny Wong, was fatally flawed.  It included several policies that the Garnaut Report had specifically advised against, including gifting free emissions permits to polluting industries.

All this time, Kevin Rudd refused to talk to the Greens.  Instead, he stitched up a deal with Malcolm Turnbull (then leader of the opposition) to pass the CPRS.  However, when Turnbull was rolled by Abbott, this bipartisan support evaporated and it was game on.

Rudd lost his nerve though and shelved his CPRS, an action he himself had previously castigated Brendan Nelson for.  Rudd's public support dropped.  When he wobbled on the Mining Tax after a barrage from the mining industry, his support dropped further.

This wasn't why he was deposed by Labor as Prime Minister though.  He was voted out of the job by the Labor Caucus because it had become apparent he was very difficult to work with and not capable of delegating to or even trusting his ministers.  He was operating as a cell within the Labor Party, surrounded and informed by a close advisers, but disconnected from the rest of the Party and presumably a lot of the Executive arm of government too.  Rudd is now running the election campaign in a similar manner.

Julia Gillard replaced him as Prime Minister and immediately did what Rudd could not - she formed a minority government by negotiating with the 4 independents (Katter, Oakeshott, Windsor and Wilkie) and Adam Bandt from the Greens.

The Gillard government was one of the most successful in Australia's history in terms of passing legislation through Parliament and much of it was good.  Putting a price on pollution provided incentives for Australian industry to reduce carbon emissions (which happened!) and also provided funds to invest in clean renewable energy.

But Gillard sound dull and wooden to the electorate.  She made a few big mistakes too, like "ruling out a carbon tax" during the 2010 federal election, drastically reducing payments to single parents and significantly cutting funding to Universities - a measure that Gonski had not recommended and in fact opposed.

Tony Abbott relentlessly criticised and attacked Gillard and had considerable success tarnishing her government's reputation and her personal integrity.  Tony Abbott turned the Australian Parliament into the Punch and Judy show.

Gillard was also undermined by Rudd and his supporters for her entire term of office.  She may have lost the next election without this undermining, but it certainly did not help matters.   Much of this played out in public, with open shows of disloyalty by ministers like Joel Fitzgibbon and Kim Carr, who were then demoted and went to the back bench.

The Australia Democrats had a similar period of brawling in public and they were decimated in the next election.

In the end, Labor's poor polling and continued destabilisation by Rudd resulted in the Labor caucus vote him back in as Prime Minister, and Julia Gillard out.

But Rudd is not the messiah, he is just a naughty boy.

Rudd's acolytes came in from the cold and were rewarded with ministries (e.g. Kim Carr, Chris Bowen and Joel Fitzgibbon).  But many of quality people have stood down from leadership roles including Greg Combet and Craig Emerson.

Rudd has won the booby prize - an election that cannot be won - with his previous destabilisation and leaks a major contributing factor to their now inevitable loss.

Labor is now deeply divided and has lost of lot of good people.  It will be hard to see them bounce back after what is likely to be a large defeat.

Tony Abbot will repeal the carbon tax and slash funding for clean energy.  He will sack thousands of public servants so government services will suffer.  It is likely he will further reduce funding for government schools.  He will not "stop the boats", but he will continue to trash Australia's international reputation on human rights.

I think political parties have had their day.  No political party truly represents its own members, and their elected members don't even pretend to represent everyone in their electorate.  Democratic representation is a farce.  No independent candidate can match the resources or funding of party political candidates.

Things apparently have to get worse before they will get better.

Post script:
While the environment has not featured much in the election campaign so far, 61 per cent of Australians believe the Government should do more to tackle global warming.  Coalition Australians want more action on climate change, split along party lines 82% Greens, 71% Labor, 24% Coaltion.

Vote Compass: Australians want more action on climate change - ABC News

Kevin Rudd, please don't weaken Australia's policies for tackling climate change

Open letter to Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia
CC:  Mark Butler, Anthony Albanese, Penny Wong, Chris Bowen

Dear Prime Minister,

I support your government’s efforts to introduce a price on pollution and am working in my community for stronger action on climate change and a renewables-powered future.

I am concerned that your government might be about to weaken the carbon price package. The price on pollution is working, is lowering emissions, and along with other programs like the Renewable Energy Target is driving transformation of our power supply. If it ain’t broke why fix it?

If you do decide to change the scheme, please keep the following things in mind:

1. We need to increase ambition on climate change and adopt a higher pollution reduction target than our current 5% target;
2. Moving to a floating price early will have budgetary implications. I’d support cutting polluter handouts like the unnecessary billions going to brown coal generators or polluting diesel subsidies for miners. But cutting important programs like the Clean Energy Finance Corporation or the Biodiversity Fund would be inexcusable.
3. We’re still missing really important planks of climate change policy. We need a legislated National Energy Efficiency scheme, we need longer term and higher renewable energy targets; we need to reduce and ultimately phase out coal and gas exports; we need to remove fossil fuel subsidies and we need a plan for climate change adaptation. We’ve only just begun the critical journey of decarbonising our economy.
4. We need to protect Australia's remaining native forests for their natural values and to preserve the carbon they store.

I understand what’s at stake this Federal election and that there’s an important choice before Australians. That’s why I urge you to be the leader we need on climate change.

You are tasked as Members of Parliament with representing your local constituents and the Australian People.  I urge to to avoid doing deals with big business that will weaken Australia's policies on climate change and the reduction of carbon emissions.  The Carbon Price has proven to be effective.  Please do not weaken it.

External links

• Send a message to Kevin Rudd to keep moving forward on climate action, Environment Victoria

Sam Bear is closing, the end of an era

I called by Sam Bear, the great clothing and footwear shop located at 225 Russell Street near Latrobe Street in Melbourne.  The shop has been operated by Trevor Bear for many years, but the building - a rare single story in this part of town - is being renovated.

Trevor has been selling off his remaining stock as he prepares to move out.

He has been offered retail space when the building works are completed, but he is not sure he will return after several decades in retail.

The shop was established in 1972 and is a Melbourne icon.  I will be very sorry to see it go.

Trevor paid for some advertising in the 1981 edition of "Rocks in the Head", the Latrobe University Mountaineering Club journal that I edited while at Latrobe Uni.

Over the years, I have bought work cloths, boots, bags and camping equipment from the shop. I even bought a Drizabone coat for my dog Sam, which he still enjoys wearing in the winter.

Trevor told me that retail in Melbourne is getting harder as many online businesses are operated out of garages and don't pay expensive rent.

Trevor has employed a lot of people over the years in his shop.

Drop by to get a bargain.  You might never have another chance.

Make national parks and reserves a matter of national environmental significance

Open letter to Tony Burke MP, Minister for Environment

Dear Tony,

Please ensure our National Parks are protected from destructive practices such as mining, logging and grazing across Australia.  This is an issue of critical importance.

National parks are the cornerstone of our conservation effort. They protect not just native plants and animals, but whole ecosystems. They also provide clean water, air and opportunities for rest, recreation and respite for millions of Australians and visitors alike.

But despite their title, the national (Australian) government has very little to do with most national parks at present.

State governments across Australia are talking about offering up our national parks for logging, grazing, mining, large-scale tourism developments and other destructive practices for short-term political or commercial gain.

The damage this would cause would last for generations. The Federal Government needs to act now, in this session of Parliament, to protect our national parks and reserves system.

I ask that as a matter of urgency and in order to stop destructive logging, grazing and mining in national parks, that you please table the necessary legislation under the EPBC Act to make national parks and reserves a matter of national environmental significance.

This would be a truly great legacy for nature and national parks.

External links

• Make national parks and reserves a matter of national environmental significance, Victorian National Parks Association (you can send a similar letter from here)

Napthine Government plans $8b underground carpark

Denis Napthine, Michael O'Brien and the Liberal government have just made a disastrous and very expensive mistake.

They announced that their priority "transport" project for Melbourne was to spend $8b digging a tunnel to connect the Eastern Freeway with the Tullamarine Freeway.

After 80 years for constructing hundreds of kilometres of high volume roads (freeways and tollways) across Victoria and into Melbourne, we still have chronic congestion.

During this period:

• no new passenger railway lines have been constructed in Melbourne since the Glen Waverley line was built in 1930.  
• Melbourne has grown from a city of 1 million to nearly 5 million in 2013.

Denis Napthine (Premier), Michael O'Brien (Treasurer) and Terry Mulder (Transport Minister) don't seem to realise that cars and roads cannot provided a workable mass transport system.  A visit to Los Angeles proves this beyond doubt.  They are now building a metro rail network in that big city.

Simple mathematics eludes our politicians:

• One train of 8 carriages can carry 1000 people.  A train line can move 50,000 people an hour.
• One freeway/tollway lane can move 2,500 people an hour.
• Four freeway/tollway lanes can move 10,000 people an hour.
• One train line moves the same number of people as twenty freeway lanes

The RACV have gleefully announced that the Napthine Government is "investing in critical transport infrastructure".  It is clear that their lobbying has been very effective, as always.

Michael O'Brien said "this is nation-building infrastructure - just look at CityLink".  O'Brien obviously hasn't looked at the stationary cars and trucks on City Link trying to get through the Burnley Tunnel, or the traffic jams on every major "freeway/tollway" the commuters try to use to get to Melbourne.

Denis Napthine has challenged the Federal Labor government to provide funds for this project, even though there is no business case for it.  Tony Abbot has announced he will commit $1.5b to the project if he becomes prime minister.

Foolish politics politics is condemning Melbourne to ongoing chronic traffic congestion and providing people with no viable transport alternative.

These people also don't seem to understand that the destination of over 90% of the people driving on the Eastern Freeway is inner Melbourne so they won't benefit from a tunnel link to the Tullamarine Freeway/Tollway.

If this "East-West tunnel" is built it too will block up with cars and become the world's most expensive underground car park.

The Melbourne Metro Rail Tunnel is a rail project that formed out of recommendations in the Eddington Report.  The Napthine Government has only funded ongoing "planning" for this.  The Federal Labor Government has allocated $3 billion to this project, contingent on the Napthine Government also allocating $3 billion, which they have refused to do.  Tony Abbott has also ruled out providing funding for the rail project.

However, I am not convinced that the Melbourne Metro Rail Tunnel - that would provide an underground rail line from Foostcray to Caulfield - is the best rail option for Melbourne.  The authors of the Eddington Report, including Peter Newman, claim this project is "required to increase capacity in the existing rail network to allow new suburban rail lines to be built".  But they did not do an holistic study of Melbourne's rail network - their brief was only to assess "east west transport needs".

Personally, I think we need, in priority order the:

1. Rowville line, also connecting Monash University.  Shuttle service to the Dandenong line with a people interchange
2. Doncaster line, connecting near Clifton Hill
3. Melbourne Airport line, connecting Melbourne Airport to Southern Cross station
4. Melbourne outer loop underground - a circle line connecting South Melbourne, South Yarra, Richmond, Fitzroy, Carlton, Melbourne University, Docklands and Southern Cross.

Unfortunately, all we will get for the coming decades are more clogged roads that will become underground car parks.

Golding, The Age

Links

• Rail or road? Napthine takes us down the wrong route, The Age
• Tunnel won't fix traffic woes, The Age 

A lovely sunset in Surrey Hills

A lovely sunset in Surrey Hills on Anzac Day Thursday 25 March.

Boroondara Councillors oppose Darebin Bridge

I attended the Boroondara Urban Planning Special Committee meeting held on Monday 22 April.

I was keen to speak to the meeting about the need to extend the planning permit for construction of the Darebin Bridge.  Here is what I said at the meeting [link].

This bridge has been needed and requested for nearly two decades.  Two years ago all necessary approvals were provided by local councils and the Victorian State Government  but unfortunately the bridge was still not constructed.

Now the planning permit granted by VCAT for works to progress on the Boroondara side of the Yarra is about to lapse so the Urban Planning Special Committee was considering whether to extend the permit.

The meeting agenda and the Council Officers Report on this ("UPC4 27 Willow Grove, Kew East")  can be downloaded from here:

• Urban Planning Special Committee meeting - 22 April 2013

From the report:

Proposal 

The Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) in conjunction with VicRoads and the Department of Planning and Community Development (DPCD) have applied for an extension of time to the planning permit that allows the construction of a shared trail that connects the Darebin Creek Shared Trail with the Main Yarra Trail, via Willsmere Park. 

Issues

The following tests were identified by the Supreme Court and are the established principles in deciding whether to extend a permit: 

• Whether there has been a change in planning policy or zoning; 
• Whether the owner of the land is seeking to 'warehouse' the permit; 
• Any intervening circumstances; 
• The total elapse of time; 
• Whether the time limit originally imposed was adequate in all the circumstances; 
• The economic burden cast by a permit on the land owner; 
• The probability that a fresh application, if made, would be granted a permit. 

Officer's response

This request for an extension of time does not create an opportunity for parties to reopen the debate on issues such as consideration of alternative alignments of the shared trail. The tests established by the Supreme Court are all met. None of the changes made to the planning scheme since 2009 preclude or discourage the development. The State Government have affirmed their commitment to the project, allocating funding and announcing a new policy document, Cycling into the Future 2012-23, which lists this development as a priority project.

Here is my summary of the Councillor's statements about the extension and their vote.

Cr Phillip Healy (meeting chair)

• There is a better location for the bridge
• Willsmere Park must be protected so the bridge to it and bike path across it must not be built 
• Vote: against

Cr Jack Wegman

• No comments made
• Vote: against

Cr Jane Addis

• The election of a new council was a significant factor and there were concerns about the bridge.
• Vote: against

Cr Coral Ross

• The debate about the bridge alignment should not be reopened as per the Council Officers report.
• There are no grounds to oppose the extension of the permit
• Vote: for

Cr Phillip Mallis

• Supported the Council Officers report and recommendation
• Vote: for

Cr Judith Voce

• Declared a conflict of interest relating to her previous statements on the Darebin Bridge and was excused from the meeting.  Did not vote.

Cr Kevin Chow

• Supported the bridge and the extension, but noted that vote was going to go against the extension so he would change his vote to also oppose it.
• Vote: against

Cr Steve Hurd

• Had visited the park and appreciated hearing nature and some bird calls
• Mentioned that he cycles occasionally on the rear of a tandem.
• Stated that he thinks the Chandler Highway bridge crossing is safe and convenient for cyclists and there are no problems for cyclists using it
• Vote: against

Cr Heinz Kreutz

• The Darebin Bridge has been needed for some time and its construction is well overdue
• Commended the speakers from the community (17) who addressed the meeting and supported the extension of planning permit
• The procedural matter to be decided was the extension of the permit, other locations are not up for debate, despite some speakers opposing the extension raising other location options.
• Vote: for

Cr Jim Parke

• The Council and Planning Committee does have the power to vote on the matter
• The Council is not bound by decisions made by the previous Council
• Provided no reasons for opposing the extension
• Vote: against

So the proposal to extend the planning permit for the Darebin Bridge was defeated - 6 against, 3 for.  

This was not a good outcome, considering the very significant community need and support for the bridge, the State Government recently announced funding for it as a priority projects, VicRoads is doing detailed planning and construction of the bike path route connection has commenced on the north side of the Yarra.

Following the vote, the Cr Phillip Healey from the chair addressed those present and said:

"You environmentalists should be ashamed of yourselves. I am protecting the (Willsmere) park, you wish to destroy it"

This was an extraordinary outburst delivered in a very angry manner.  I thought it was quite inappropriate.

My concerns about the meeting are: 

• The Council Officers report was ignored by those who voted against the proposal
• None of the Councillors who voted against provided a valid reason for not extending the planning permit
• Some Councillors canvassed alternative locations for the bridge - which was not a matter for discussion or decision at the meeting
• Councillors should vote on the merits of a proposal - not change their vote to align themselves with a majority position.
• Input from 17 people from the community in support of the extensions was ignored by a majority of the Councillors at the meeting.
• The meeting chair did not stop objectors canvassing alternative locations for the bridge, despite this clearly not being relevant to the proposal.
• None of the opposing Councillors said they were representing the views of constituents from their respective wards.  They appeared to vote based on their personal opinions.
• The meeting chair had a clear and serious conflict of interest on the issue as he has made strident statements over a period of several years opposing the proposed location of the bridge.
• The meeting chair should not make comments that belittle or demean members of the community who choose to address Council meetings. This would appear to be in breach of the Council's Code of Conduct for Councillors.
• Council has a duty of care for Boroondara residents - forcing cyclists to use the Chandler Highway bridge and associated road crossings creates significant risk of collision with motor vehicles resulting in serious injuries or deaths.

It is not clear how the construction of the bridge will now proceed.  The State Government and or VAT apparently will need to make a ruling on the matter and override Boroondara Councillors refusal to extend the planning permit.  This will be a waste of taxpayers money and further delay construction of the bridge.

Here is a list of most of those who addressed the meeting to support the proposal and the Darebin Bridge:

• Graeme Martin, Co-ordinator Community Coalition for the Darebin-Yarra Link 
• Julia Blunden, Boroondara Bicycle User Group representative on the Community Coalition.
• David Farrow, Boroondara BUG member and retired traffic engineer 
• David Hall, Whitehorse Cyclist representative on the Community Coalition and retired engineer 
• Chris Ashe, Boroondara Bushwalker Representative on the Community 
• Robin Gallagher, Darebin BUG Representative on the Community Coalition 
• Jenny Henty, Member Lighter Footprints and Boroondara BUG
• Mike Taylor, former Whitehorse Cyclists president
• Glennys Jones, Boroondara BUG member and Bike Ed volunteer.
• Alan Ball, Manningham BUG 
• Dr Steve Rockman, parent with child/ren travelling across the river to Kew High School
• Maurie Abbott, Co-ordinator Banyule BUG 
• Roger Thornton, Secretary Boroondara Bushwalkers 
• John Parker, Boroondara BUG 
• Peter Campbell, Boroondara BUG 
• James Thyer, Community Coalition member
• Gary Brennan, Bicycle Network Victoria
• Michael Nolan, local resident

Crash statistics for the Chandler Highway

• Crashes involving bicycles on the Chandler Hwy include 2 serious injury and 5 other injury crashes.
• The route is a black length for cyclists which would qualify for road safety funding. 
• Most (4 or 5) of the accidents including the 2 serious accidents are on the Yarra side of the river. 
• These are very serious numbers noting that bicycle numbers are high.

See also

• Willsmere Park wetlands puts brakes on bike path plan, Boroondara Review Local, 23 Apr 2013
• Bike link plan for Yarra River bridge between Alphington and Kew hits speed hump, Northcote Leader, 25 Apr 2013
• $18m Kew bridge plan hits a pothole, Boroondara Review Local. 20 Dec 2012
• Newsmaker: Julia Blunden, Boroondara Review Local, 26 Apr 13 

We need the Darebin Bridge for cyclists and pedestrians

Presentation to Boroondara Council on the Darebin Bridge
Peter Campbell, Monday 22 April 2013

Thanks Mr Chairperson and Councillors.

I am a local resident in Boroondara, I live in Durham Road, Surrey Hills.  I am a member of the Boroondara Bicycle Users Group.

We regularly go on family bike rides to visit Melbourne's wonderful natural places such as our creeks, rivers and the bayside.

My daughter Chloe is now seven and is riding a bike but she is not confident on the roads, including bike lanes.  We go to Anniversary Trail, the Gardiners Creek Trail and other trails with other families so that all the children can learn to ride safely and appreciate our natural environment.

For example, on a recent outing of two families there were two adults and three children all on bikes. We drove to the Gardiners Creek Trail and cycled part of the way into the city. We stopped at a section of parkland for a rest and explore then returned.

As a family, we have also traveled across to the Darebin and Capital City Trails and have found the current bike route crossing at Chandler Highway to be both inconvenient and dangerous.

As our children get more confident on their bikes, we will extend our trips along available trails.  The Darebin Bridge will provide a valuable and safe link between the north and south of the Yarra, and will also greatly improve the access to Willsmere Park.

This improved access will benefit many others, including pedestrians and people with disabilities.  Combined with some environmental improvements such as removal of weed infestations, Willsmere Park will be enhanced as a location for local children to learn to ride their bikes, and for walks, picnics and enjoying nature.

I commend the Victorian State Government and the Boroondara, Yarra, Darebin and Banyule Councils for supporting this great improvement that has been planned for over 15 years.

I am sure that many residents in families in Boroondara and surrounding Council areas will greatly appreciate and enjoy the bridge when it is constructed.

I certainly hope we will see the bridge built within my daughters lifetime.

See also

• Boroondara Councillors oppose Darebin Bridge, Peter Campbell 

Please rule out retailing bioenergy derived from Australia’s native forests

Open letter.

Dear prospective retailer of bioenergy derived from Australia’s native forests,

As the world responds to climate change and seeks clean energy sources, proposals to use Australian native forest biomass to produce electricity or biofuels threaten our surviving forest heritage and actually exacerbate climate change.

Such proposals rely upon continuing industrial logging of our outstanding forests, which degrades their values by damaging biodiversity, terrestrial carbon stocks, clean air and water.

Logging to supply the export woodchip trade has attracted much controversy. Biomass for bioenergy will be the same. It will use exactly the same forest material as does native forest woodchipping, in massive volumes. The claim that this is ‘waste’ when in reality it constitutes 85% of wood coming out of the forests is nonsensical greenwash.

Using native forests for electricity or biofuels is not carbon neutral. A growing body of scientific evidence shows that it creates a large carbon debt, whereas ceasing to log reduces large emissions immediately.

Public native forests should be permanently protected for climate, water, wildlife, and the enjoyment of ordinary people.

Given the fraught and continually changing political environment surrounding both forest and climate policy in Australia, bioenergy is a risky investment and is heavily reliant on government grants, subsidies and tax breaks.

Genuinely clean, renewable energy sources may be displaced or undermined by native forest based bioenergy, but wind, solar and geothermal projects are the ones that we desire to be supported.

Please rule out retailing native forest derived bioenergy. Australians have already been indicating for years that they will not accept it. I will refuse to buy it because I want to buy real clean energy.

I look forward to your support for genuine clean and renewable energy sources.

For more information please visit www.biomassacre.com

Yours sincerely,

Peter Campbell

Online petition

• Tell electricity and fuel companies that you will refuse to buy native forest derived bioenergy! Say NO to a biomassacre

Nice cycle tour around Williamstown

Lena, Chloe and I had a really nice cycle tour down to and around Williamstown. We caught the train to Southern Cross then headed down to Fishermens Bends.  The route followed some roads with cars but the traffic was not heavy.

We stopped a the Pier 35 Marina for a look then continued along the concrete shared bike and pedestrian trail to the punt that carries bikes across the Yarra.  The punt arrived just as we got there so we headed across travelling under the Westgate Bridge.

On the other side the bike path follows the bank for the Yarra and goes past "The Warmies" where lots of people were fishing.  This is the location of the outlet from the gas fired power station.

There were lots of people promenading in Williamstown. We continued on to the foreshore on the Bay, stopping to watch a large flock of Pelicans, Terns and Seagulls feeding on schools of fish right next to the shore at Point Gellibrand.

The bike trail continues on to the quiet Williamstown Beach which is a lovely location for a rest and a swim.  The trail then follows the coast for some great views out across the Bay and to Altona.  It passes a quaint little boat mooring then meanders along past some wetlands and the new houses at the Rifle Range Estate.

It was getting late so we headed back to The Strand for some great fish and chips, then followed the bike path back through Footscray to Southern Cross.  Chloe likes the Bike Friday tandem and contributes well to the pedalling, but its tricky to fit it on a crowded train.

All in all, a great short cycle tour.

Next time, we will go on to Altona and beyond.

At Chatham Station

Pier 35 Marina

Pier 35 Marina

The bike punt under the Westgate Bridge

Waiting for the bike punt

The bike punt

On the bike punt

Fishermen at the Warmies

Williamstown swing moorings

Sea birds feeding of Battery Road

Battery Road, Point Gellibrand

Williamstown beach

Bayview Street Harbour

Minister Burke, we don't need another monster coal port on the Great Barrier Reef

An open letter to Tony Burke MP, Minister for the Environment.

Dear Tony Burke,

In February, you promised not to approve any more development for the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area that would have “unacceptable impacts.”

I am writing to tell you that the new coal terminal proposed for Abbot Point by Indian company Adani is totally unacceptable, and to urge you to keep your promise.

• The Adani coal terminal would be built just metres from a beach where Green and Flatback turtles lay their eggs. The light, noise and dust from the coal terminal will disorient both the mothers and the hatchlings. 
• Abbot Point provides habitat for threatened and migratory marine and terrestrial species and is part of a World Heritage Area. There is already too much development there – you must stand up for the outstanding universal value of the Great Barrier Reef.
• The new coal terminals proposed for the Great Barrier Reef are part of the expansion of Australia’s coal export industry that is helping to drive climate change. Any growth in our coal exports is unacceptable at this time. 

I like to visit the Great Barrier Reef on my holidays. I want more protection for it, not less.

I support Greenpeace in their efforts to stop the development of new coal terminals on the Great Barrier Reef coast.

Peter Campbell


You can send your own email about this here:  Emergency Submission | Greenpeace Australia Pacific :

Using a Macbook Pro

I have just bought a second hand Macbook Pro.  I need it to create an iPhone app as Apple's application development platform (XCode) only runs on Max OS-X.

Initial impressions are good.  It is fast to boot and runs applications fast too. It has a cCore i5 with 8GB ram.  I upgraded to OSX Lion from its boot recovery partition.  Then I bought the OS-X Mountain Lion upgrade from the Mac App Store.  They are very easy to install and require no options to be entered.

What I like so far:

• Nice hardware and design - really well thought out and executed - great quality
• Chrome runs well so I have a familiar browser experience with all the productivity extensions I now rely on greatly (Delicious, Handy Google Shortcuts, X-Marks, LastPass, Bit.ly, Copy URL)
• The two fingered swipe for scrolling up/down and right left is great

What is a bit weird - for a long term Windows user

• The Launchpad is actually just a window that displays available applications.
• You can use Command + Tab to display and switch to and active task.
• You need to select an option to the get the hard disk icon on the desktop (like My Computer)
• No right click on the touch pad - you use Ctrl + click to get this (or a normal mouse connected)
• The Command key - its hard to know when to use this (e.g. Command + T opens up new browser tabs).  It seems to largely substitute for the Ctrl key in Windows, yet there is a Ctrl key too. . . 
• No key for deleting the current character - the Delete key acts like the Backspace key in Windows. Fn + Delete does this, while Command + Delete deletes text from the cursor to the start of the line
• Ctrl + Z does not undo your last action - you use Command + Z instead
• Finding apps - there are Chrome apps (straightforward), iTunes apps (for iOS, iPhones, iPads etc), and Mac apps via the Mac OS store
• The app menu across the top looks like its for the OS, but its for the current app you have open
• The maximise button doesn't cause an app to fill the screen - it defaults to a size that Apple judges appropriate.  You can manually resize it by dragging the window size, which is then remembered.
• The mouse scroll wheel works in the opposite direction Windows, but this can be reversed [link]
• No page up/down buttons - Command + cursor buttons do this.
• Installing applications - you download them as what seems to be then mounted as a "disk" which you then run/open and move the icon into the apps folder.

What I don't like so far

• iMovie, Garage Band and iPhoto are all missing from applications. When I try to "upgrade them" I get a weird message telling me that I can't. It appears I would have to now buy these apps there were "free" from the app store to get them.  They were provided to the original owner, but not to me as a subsequent owner.
• The lock in between XCode, iPhone app development and OS-X.  This is symptomatic of Apple getting people to buy most things (or everything) from them and is a cornerstone of their business model.  

So far, I haven't done much with XCode.  There is a lot of help available, but it looks like a very complicated development environment to me.  Lots of coding knowledge required, and a new language  (Objective C)

Overall, kudos to Apple for creating a nice laptop with a functional desktop OS - which Linux distros have struggled with over the years and not come close to, yet. 

A fix for sluggish Windows 7 Explorer

My trusty Windows 7 desktop computer, which has zipped along at a pleasing speed until recently, suddenly got very slow when opening Windows Explorer.

On start up all was fine, but soon the speed of Windows Explorer degraded to the point it was unusable.  It would hang when I right clicked on a file, or just take forever to display the contents of a folder, then not display the files correctly.

I was not happy facing the prospect of reinstalling and reconfiguring Windows 7!

After some searching on the Internet I tried:

1. Using a tune up / registry cleaner - which did not fix it.

2. Setting up a new user account - which did not fix it.

3. Removing a bod context menu handler - which worked!

This post described the problem and the fix: Right click on file windows explorer freezes

I downloaded and ran ShellExView and disabled all the non-Microsoft Extensions - problem solved!  

Bushfires rage on mixed land tenures, not National Parks

Via Chris Taylor.

It did not take long, but the logging lobby is now blaming national parks and environmentalists for the recent fires. In the logging industry's newsletter, Timber and Forestry eNews, the lobby are parroting Miranda Devine's article 'Green arrogance burns fiercely'.

The obsession of the logging lobby's focus on just national parks as the driving force behind these fires is misleading at best and outright dangerous at worst, because multiple land tenures have carried these fires. These include state forest, pasture land for grazing, cropping land, conservation reserves and plantations.

In a fire management strategy, ALL land tenures must be considered for the risk of fire that they pose to life and property, not just one. An example of this is the current Aberfeldy-Donnely Creek fire in Gippsland. 

First, the fire is reported to have started in state forest around the Toombon Gold Mine Historic Area reserve, just south east of Aberfeldy. 

Second, it progressed through the state forest, much of it has been extensively roaded and parts logged over the years and it recently had an extensive network of 'fuel breaks' cut through it. Of significance, the entire area carrying the current fire was impacted by the 2007 Great Divide fires only 6 years ago. 

Third, the current fire has progressed out of the state forest into land tenure used for grazing, dryland cropping and possibly irrigated cropping. 

To date, no national park has carried this fire.

We desperately need to have an informed discussion concerning fire risk in our community and cease with the unjustified 'hate mongering' pushed by an extremist minority representing specific political and ideological interests.

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Disgusting propaganda and bile the "logging industry" and their PR hacks spout to justify their crimes against our biosphere. Logging increases fire risk, intact forests mitigage it (not cows).

The Kimberley is a wonderful and unique place

The Kimberley is a fantastic place. It must not be destroyed by industrial development.  I have visited there twice; once on a road trip then again in 1998 on an aerial safari.

John Taylor, a good friend, was our pilot.

The recent proposals to put a gas processing plant at James Price Point would destroy the natural quality of this section of the Kimberley coast.  It is unnecessary too.

Here our some photos of our trip

Slideshow