Art by the Sea

Platinum Capital AGM

Held at the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel on Thursday 29th October,with a room full of mature investors awaiting the words of our guru Kerr Nielson.They were not dissappointed with a sucessful year,the company made a statutory pre-tax operating profit of $63.5 million and a post-tax operating profit of $44.8 million.This represents a 35.71%increase in pretax operating profit and a 36.31% in post tax profit from the prior year. A fully franked dividend of 6cents will be paid for the year ended 30th June 2015 making 11 cents for the full year. Investors funds are now invested in Infrastructure 9%,Consumer 10% ,Health 10%,New commerce 22%,Cisco & China mobiles 10%,Classified verticals Google,tencent China 32%.All business items were passed.Staff and investors shared discussion over coffee and biscuits.You can be confident your money is working well un the care of Platinum (c)copyright T. Williams

SALIGNA   WOODLOT

She approached me along the forest trail dressed in her kaki drill uniform from Greening Australia .I had rung asking for advice in the preparation of planting 5 acers of Sydney blue gum .Her name was Annabel Kater and with her camera we surveyed the land that had been prepared for planting.

Bob Carr the then Premier who for political reasons had changed the State Forests regulations ,so former State Forests could be converted to National Parks ,a neat political trick to enhance his standing . Once done it achieved his kudos.

Carr’s next step was to call on the landholders of the region to start planting trees to create a resource for the local sawmill at Walcha.

I’m not sure if Annabel knew about all these political moves but she was certainly knowledgeable about species selection,Silva culture, weed control and the necessary methodology to accomplish all these practices. With camera she documented the slope in the land already conscious of the high rainfall on the tableland region and that Sydney Blue gum do well in this area.

A younger man may have involved her in a relationship because she was attractive very easy to talk to and certainly friendly,but being old I accepted that it was better to stick to business practices and obtain the information that would create a successful wood lot.

Sydney Blue gum is of particular good flooring quality,in its mature state it can grow to 30-55meters in height,with a diameter at brest height of 2 meters . Exceptional species may attain a height of 65 meters with a girth of 2.5 meters,resulting in an excellent sawlog that the most emasculated sawmiller would salivate over.

 It is common in an area from the South Coast of New South Wales to as far north as the Eungella area west of Mckay in Queensland,growing to as far west as Carnarvon Gorge.it can survive in altitudes up to 1100 meters.This climate area is mostly warm humid with mean temperatures of the hottest month in the range of 24-33 degrees and mean minimum of the coldest  round -2 to 8 degrees. The mean annual rainfall is around 900 – 1800 mm,with a summer maximum ,moderate in the south but strong in Queensland.

Best development of this species is on good quality alluvial sandy  loam,other soils podsols and volcanic loam.Soils are generally moist but well drained.

The species is characterized by its  rough brownish to grayish flakey bark,retained at the base for 1-4meters ,decorticating in long strips to leave smooth,blueishgrey to white surface above .The Eucalyptus species is the most important genus of Australia forest trees with about 500 species,many are site sensitive and have edaphic preferences

The only shelter on Lot 29 Bloomfield road is a rough hut 6 meters by 3 meters fashioned from species grown on the block,milled at Long Flat to provide steeps to the loft,where the occasional possum rests from storms.The roof is rusty recycled corrugated iron,and flooring  that can claim a 100 years of use.100 mm slabs decorate the exterior walls.

Annabel and I shared afternoon tea and cake after our trevail,on the meager slatted deck ,discussing other species such as  the wonderous cabinet timber  Acacia melanoxlyn,or blackwood as it is known in the trade.All this talk must have made an impression because there is now a experimental grove of Acacia melanoxlyn grown from seed collected from a tree growing at St Ives,growing on the blook,but theirs is a 40 year cycle so wont be harvested by yourstruly.

Annabel was not exposed to the wonderous sounds that are audible at Saligna at night,unidentified birds hoot,dingoes howl,possums fornicate in raptourous delight,the odd bull sends out a call for company,the place come alive all that is missing is David Attenborough’s commentary.

The final chapter to the saga is the sawmill closed down,so there is 5000 square meters of structural building timber,possably enough for two sustainable houses,left talking to nature,I hope they have the language right.

©copyright T. Williams

Life Memories

Chapter one

Mr Curley

 

Through the alleyway  very close to where I lived in Manchester  was  a little shop called the off licence  which sold liquor, cigarettes, groceries and many large jars of sweets  lined the shelves of every type and colour of the rainbow.  Mum used to send me up the entry on many occasions when money was low before pension day to put some bread or milk and sometimes a bottle of Guinness on the book, which meant we pay later!  This was the method preferred by most people in Chorlton Com Hardy the suburb I grew up in.

I became quite a regular at his little shop and loved going in there as he would sometimes give me a sherbert lemon or a free ice block, so you can imagine my happiness when he one day suggested I go in a couple of days after school to help him out, this was a dream come true for a 9 year old kid  as I knew as well as being close to the sweets I would get to watch his television, as he was the only person I knew who had one, and it was more appealing than standing outside the local radio rentals shop and watching the pictures, only imaging what the folk on this funny little box were saying!!

Mr Curly was a very kind and elderly gentleman who travelled with his wife every day many miles to his shop so he was happy to have me helping him and I was so excited to serve most of the people  as I knew them all and I felt so important weighing up the sweets putting in their little white paper bags for my friends, who winked at me hoping I would give them a bigger serve than I should have!

It was really cold in the winter and one of my jobs was to go in the cellar and fill the coal bucket up and keep his fire stoked, it was a place of such delight that cellar as its where we kept all the boxes of stock with mars bars, milky ways, Cadburys chocolate bars, bounty bars, crisps, and all the ginger beer bottles Oh I thought I was in heaven, as part of my job was to keep the shelves in the shop stocked up, and fill the sweet jars too

After a while in my job I decided I was in need of some sustenance to help me up those many cellar steps, so I devised a naughty plan, I went though the boxes of stock choosing my favourites like walnut whip, mars bars, cherry ripe taking little nibbles from one bar in a box then putting it to the bottom on the pack!  As time went on I took more and more nibbles, till Mr Curley decided there must be a mouse problem in the cellar, and set about setting up traps so I then had to move on to another plan.  So it was sweets out of the big jars that lined the shop that took my fancy, and I became very good at eating midget gems, sherbert lemons, bulls eyes, hambugs with very little mouth movement.!

Oh how I remember in between  customers coming in I sat and watched a tv show called coronation st, all the kids in the neighbour hood wanted to be my friend and let them in on what was happening in that street!  Summer was my favourite time as Mr whippy used to come around and Mrs Curly used to have our glass bowls ready to go out and get some of his delicious ice cream with chocolate sauce, on really lucky days it was topped with a chocolate flake.

One of the things I loved so much about Mr Curley was that he sold ham, and if it was the end of the piece he would give it to me, all sliced up and I would run it up to my nan and papa who lived quite close in a flat, and I have vivid memories of shouting up to the 3^rd floor Nan Nan Its sheila and I have Ham, I don’t know why but I felt so happy to give this to her as she really appreciated it.

Then I would run home to my house and 3 sisters Colleen, Rose Eileen and brother Eamon.  They never got to work in the shop, I was the lucky one.  I cant really remember how many years I was there but somehow I think mum and dad thought I had worked long enough and maybe I should be doing some school work!

I am telling this story as when Ava my 8 year old granddaughter stays with me, we lie in bed at night and she just loves the story about Mr Curley and it makes her laugh so much, so nanny she said next time you tell me off for eating too much chocolate I will wag my finger at you and say remember Mr Curley!!!!

By Sheila

 

Mount Pleasant, Old Hume Highway, Gunning

 

 

 

the Long Way to Healthy Welfare

The long road to healthy welfare

by Jennifer Hewett  

Financial Review Oct 13 2015

It's lucky Andrew Forrest is an optimist – and not just because of the uncertain outlook for iron ore prices. The Senate is due to finally vote on Wednesday on a modified version of Forrest's recommendation for a "healthy welfare card" to tackle the massive social problems in Indigenous communities. The future of the card is likely to have more personal meaning for Forrest than the Fortescue Metals share price. 

But the rest of Australia should be depressed. After the tens of billions of dollars spent annually on Indigenous services and communities, after so many decades of government programs and volunteer philanthropic effort, after so much evidence of social dysfunction and violence becoming worse rather that better, a 12-month trial of the cashless card in one Aboriginal community is still the most significant result from Forrest's lengthy and radical report into ending Aboriginal disadvantage.

The report, which was delivered to the Abbott government 14 months ago, is called Creating Parity and makes 27 integrated recommendations, from prenatal care to education to employment, to try to create "seismic" change. One recommendation is key to stopping what Forrest called the "cash barbecue" – in part by trying to ensure welfare benefits could not be used for alcohol or drugs or betting.

And because Forrest tries to approach old problems in a new way, he came up with a new technology solution. This was to channel government assistance through personal cashless debit cards. These cards were standard, except they could not be used to access cash or to buy alcohol or to gamble.

Central recommendation

Assistant Minister for Social Services Alan Tudge sees it as the central recommendation of the Forrest report.

"So much of the dysfunction in Indigenous communities is caused by alcohol, drug and gambling abuse paid for by the welfare dollar," he says.

Tony Abbott was always genuine in his desire to help Indigenous Australia in any way he could. But the politics were always going to prove too difficult for his government and probably for any Australian government, despite clear evidence the current approach is a spectacular and expensive failure.

Tudge ran straight into opposition from Labor and the Greens in the Senate and inevitable complaints about discrimination from many in the Aboriginal community and from welfare lobby groups. This was even though Forrest had tried to avoid any accusation of racial discrimination by advising the card could apply to anyone on welfare. It was also wrongly described as a system of compulsory "income management" rather than what it was – a card for spending on anything except for the sorts of personal addictions devastating Indigenous communities.  

So countless rounds of consultation and visits and negotiations later, Tudge came up with his alternate, more restricted proposal. Rather than 100 per cent of welfare benefits being included, the card would apply to only 80 per cent of government payments. This would mean leaving 20 per cent able to be converted to cash and used as recipients chose.

Only one of the many

Tudge is backing 12-month trials of the card in communities willing to agree. Even so, communities signed up so far add to a grand total of one – in Ceduna, South Australia. Yet this is only one of the many Indigenous communities around the country with shocking levels of violence, alcoholism, crime and sexual and drug abuse.

The card won't suddenly solve such misery inflicted but it might curb some of the harm being done and the availability of the cash welfare that helps sustain it. Representatives from the community met senators this week, including the crossbenchers, to argue the card would help improve the safety, health and general welfare of their people. The government also promised new investment in services for Ceduna to help reduce the dependence on alcohol and assist those affected cope with the change. That is in a community where the hospitalisation rate for assault is 68 times the national average.

Even so, the passage of the bill has not been assured, thanks to Labor's "concerns" – despite the lack of practical success of its efforts in government, after the soaring hopes unleashed by the Rudd apology to the stolen generations.

Tudge remains hopeful of winning approval for similar trials from other Aboriginal communities, including the social disaster zone of the East Kimberley.  But he will still have to overcome disagreements among Aboriginal leaders, as well as the usual complaints from white welfare groups concerned about "fairness" – an extremely elastic concept.

This is an agonisingly slow process. It's also a marker of how difficult it is to change entrenched attitudes and approaches to Indigenous issues no matter how obvious and urgent the need.

Meaningless dismay 

The Australian Council of Social Service, for example, said simply controlling cash would do nothing to help people address the broader issues facing them. Well, of course. It's always easier to describe underlying problems rather than come up with any potential practical improvements for those badly affected every day. Over countless years, this has also consistently led to little more than repeated expressions of meaningless dismay amid the destruction of lives and money.  

ACOSS also says the healthy welfare card could have significant detrimental effects on people in trial locations. As opposed to what, exactly? Their current state of social nirvana? Without any ability to suggest realistic alternatives, it might seem appropriate to temper such criticism of attempts to improve existing shocking conditions.

Unfortunately, resistance to change is the standard response in Indigenous affairs. Yet without significant change, much of the Forrest report will disappear from political consciousness, while those suffering on the front line continue to have their lives destroyed. Surely a 12-month trial of a healthy welfare card is worth backing as a worthwhile step on a long road . Even for pessimists.

© Copyright 2015 Fairfax Media Publications Pty Ltd