We’re having a heat wave

The B.O.M. 7-day forecast for Bright - bloody hot.

It was only 2 or 3 weeks ago that we were still having cold wintery conditions, snowfalls on the mountains and temperatures in the low to mid-teens. That’s all changed quite rapidly and now I’m even having to water the lawn (we’re lucky we still can – we have no restrictions yet). There’s no sign of it breaking and it’s going to be a long hot summer, so I wonder how the Alpine council is progressing with the fire protection plan for Bright? Haven’t got one yet? Oh, there’s a meeting on 1 December? Good, that should sort it all out ????

Opposition to Gondola starts

Another cause for Wally?

The Alpine council looks like it’s in for a drawn out battle over its support for a proposed $20 – $30 million gondola going up Mt Buffalo as a major national tourist attraction. According to this report in the Border Mail, the proposal has already attracted opposition from the Victorian National Parks Association spokesman Philip Ingamells, who says it would “threaten to transform the iconic reserve into a theme park.”

“We’re not really keen about that sort of thing,” he said of the Alpine Valleys Tourism Board suggestion. “We think these things can destroy the ambience of natural places — we don’t want to change them into theme parks. We would much rather the money be spent on maintaining the natural values of the parks.”

I’m not sure who or what the Victorian National Parks Association is, and exactly what authority or expertise they have in these matters, but judging from the 8 reader-comments posted to the article, opinions are clearly polarised amongst the community. Some of these comments actually look familiar – I’ve added my opinions to each one:

It’s the Zuvele v Sophie Show #2

The battle for Indi resumes

Mirabella challenged on climate change

Former Alpine councillor Zuvele Leschen, who once again will run as the ALP candidate for Indi at the next Federal election, wants her opponent Sophie Mirabella to “come clean” and outline her views on climate change following last night’s ABC’s ‘Four Corners’ show that revealed senior coalition figures as non-believers & sceptics on the worldwide issue of reducing carbon emissions.

According to her press release issued this morning, Zuvele is claiming that Sophie dodged this question during the last election campaign but can no longer escape this pressing issue:

Wally’s hopes dashed (again)

In case you’re wondering why there has been no work on the Bright Woolworths building site since last Thursday, it’s my understanding that workers have had to move out of the adjoining Acacia Motel to accommodate bookings for the current Hot Rod weekend, which were booked 12 months ago. The workers had been staying at Acacia for some months and will return on Tuesday when work on the building site will resume.

So, despite what Lee ‘Wally’ Rosser is claiming elsewhere, the stop-work had nothing whatsoever to do with his beat-up about the wall heights - the supermarket is proceeding as per its plans. Bad luck (again) Wally.

The Simplicity Simpleton’s Bike

It’s a Unicycle …. for those who can’t ride unicycles!

From The Coolist website  comes the latest in minimalist bicycle design, Joey Ruiter’s Simplicity Bike.

Bright Rod Run 2009

It’s perfect weather in Bright this weekend for the Northern Suburbs Street Rod Club’s 19th annual Bright Rod Run. Let’s just hope that ‘the barriers’ put in their way this year do not see us lose this event. The cars, the huge crowds and the noise actually creates a great atmosphere despite what a few stick-in-the-muds might say. There are heaps of photos over the fold – make sure you CLICK ON EACH PHOTO TO ENLARGE. Enjoy. Oh, also make sure you see the last photo, there’s a message there for the anti-Rod lot. Cheers:

I picked this as the hottest looking car, and not just because the driver & passengers were all females.

Vic Roads welcomes the Hot Rods to Bright …

It’s Thursday before the big Hot Rod event, the biggest of its kind in Southern Hemisphere, with over 1,000 highly decorated and expensive Street Rods about to roll into Bright – and they start arriving today. So what is this on my nature strip by the Great Alpine Road so bright & early? What’s going on with THE ONLY road into town?

Wally just won’t go away

The strumming serial pest is at it again.

“….. they should be stopping work before it goes much further.” ~ Lee ‘Wally’ Rosser articulating his opposition to the progress of the new Woolies supermarket in Bright.

Have a read of this press statement put out by the Alpine council late today, Monday 2 November, following a meeting with ‘ex’ Save Bright spokesperson Lee ‘Wally’ Rosser and his ‘ex’ Save Bright stuff-ups, and see what you make of it. 

I think it’s just ‘Wally’ trying to disrupt progress again - which is no surprise, as the bloke is a complete hillbilly & retrograde - but make up your own mind.

My further comments are below:

A gondola for Mt Buffalo?

The Gorge @ Mt Buffalo could become one of Australia's most iconic attractions. (Photo courtesy JR Digital Art)

Mount Buffalo Skyways Project to be investigated

The Alpine Council is set to investigate a potential iconic tourism project – a gondola up to Mount Buffalo aimed at elevating this region’s status on the national and international tourism map.

New dispute over special rate

UPDATE Sunday 1 November: Rob de Sauty from Bright IGA has stated that they are NOT the appellant in this case (see comments). I wonder who is. Does anyone know?

IGA taking on the Alpine council?

The Alpine council’s controversial special rate – a surcharge of 50% that it imposes on commercial properties like mine - is once again under challenge. An objection has been lodged with VCAT and the hearing has been scheduled for 17 December 2009.

Honest John

John Amenta

“Did you kill your 70-year-old mother, put her in a barrel and throw her into a creek?”

“Of course not.”

“I love my mum.”

“I’d do anything for my mum,” he said …. 

…. adding (that) police believed he had used his mum’s money after she disappeared to buy a $300,000 Ferrari.

Well, I believe him.

Source: HeraldSun

And he also hates the Hot Rods

"We will decide who comes to this town ..."

This post expressing hatred for the forthcoming Bright Rod Run event, is from an anonymously authored anti-Ray Dixon website that I stumbled across recently.

I know who runs this piece of garbage because some time ago he expressed almost identical sentiments about the hot rod event in a private email that he sent me under his own name (for a change). Obviously he’s forgotten about that but I still have the email and it is surely written by the same person. I only publish this in the hope that he deletes his hateful blog – I’d rather not name him because he tends to throw a hissy fit when exposed.

I won’t give the web address of this fairly new hate site, as I don’t want to send it any traffic, but just be aware that we have in this town an anonymous nutjob who sees nothing wrong with slandering those he does not like by using the anonymity of the internet to stalk and harass them. His hatred knows no boundaries. My response to his crap about the hot rods follows the quoted pieces:

Melbourne Cup Sweep

UPDATE: I have now registered at http://mycupsweep.com.au, which is run by the TAB, but no details are available yet ~ maybe that’s a way it can be done.

Back the horse and get drunk too.

Sorry, I no can do

With apologies to Stuart, Rox, Baldrick et al, I have made a decision that it is just not practical for A.O. to conduct a sweepstakes on the Melbourne Cup, to be run next Tuesday. The reasons are: (a) How do I collect the $10 or $20 ticket fees? (b) How do I conduct an online draw that is not only fair & above-board , but also seen to be that way? And (c) how do I distribute the winnings?

Sorry folks, but instead of giving your $20 to me, put it on THE WINNER,  which I still say will be ALCOPOP. Tally ho.

Stop work now, says Wal

"Hey! Woolies! Leave my town alone" ~ Lee's memo.

Exclusive:

Wally’s memo (in song) to the Alpine councillors

For the second week in a row the so-called controversy surrounding the wall height of the Woolworths supermarket presently under construction in Bright dominates the front page of the Bright Observer. And once again the only concerned resident appears to be local musician & ‘former’ Save Bright spokesperson Lee ‘Wally’ Rosser. Yeah, right. Anyway, according to the report, Lee and his fellow former Save Brighters have even sent a memo to the Alpine councillors calling for construction to cease. Wal even claims that Woolworths misrepresented its plans:

Bright Rod Run barriers

The Alpine Council has been good enough to drop off a map of the:

 New ‘road management plan’ for the Bright Hot Rod Event from 6 – 8 Nov.

Contrary to the way the original notice read, the rods will not be banned from the CBD, however, access will be severely limited and they will no longer be able to go around the clock tower. The following map shows where the barricades will be placed and how the traffic will flow. I’m not sure if this will work:

It’s going up

Pretty, ain't it? Click on photo to enlarge (and I do mean "large"!)

Early this morning about a dozen large trucks rolled into Bright with the first tilt-up concrete walls for the new Woolworths supermarket building on the corner of Gavan Street (Great Alpine Road) & Star Road (a side street). By this afternoon the controversial Star Road delivery bay and storage area walls were up. Now we can finally see what the shopkeepers to the left here were complaining about. Yes, it blocks their view of the surrounding hills but …. so what? If you’re in a shopping centre and your outlook is of hills & trees, guess what that means? It means you’re not in a busy and viable town. Look, no shopkeeper has a right to a view. I should point out that this is not the main view of the development that our visitors will have – which will be an open and pleasant vista from the G.A.R. Also, the ‘Great Wall’ will have surface treatments, a pergola and screening plants to soften its impact.

New tourism brand launched

It's not even an inspiring logo.

It’s the Great Alpine Valleys Farce !

As expected, and as I predicted here more than three weeks ago, the Alpine council and its tourism committee, Alpine Region Tourism Board (ARTB), have officially launched the Great Alpine Valleys as the new tourism brand for the Alpine Shire region.

That’s the new logo design & colours to the left. Putting aside (for the moment) the inadequacies and generic nature of the new brand, the costs relating purely to the design of the logo were over $10,000, but I think just about anyone with a computer could have done it better than that. This design is rather uninspiring and as for the colours, well firstly, I had to add more colour saturation to bring them up from their dull & insipid looking state, but moreover it seems ARTB and the designer have never heard the saying, “Blue & green should not be seen without a colour in between”, because this requires a third colour in my opinion, something like red or orange to give it a lift. Anyway, here is the official press release, followed by my further comments:

The ‘Star’ attraction of Bright

Soon to be boxed in on two sides and dwarfed by the new Woolworths supermarket development, the hotel stands out like a sore thumb ~ click on photo to enlarge.

I realise this post might offend the hotelier, but I think this picture speaks for itself. Besides, I’m just echoing what a lot of other people in town are saying - which is that something really needs to be done with the facade of this building. But what should be done, and how do we get the owner and/or the leaseholder to fix it up?

What the English do for fun

You know there’s not a lot of news to comment on when this incident recorded in England is making headlines all over the world. PS: The driver is likely to be charged.

Talkback blogging #2

The lines are open !

As last Sunday’s open thread was such a raging success, I’ll do it again. Raise whatever issue you like.

What about Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens deliberately forecasting a series of interest rate rises this week? How economically responsible (or reckless) was that? And what was the real purpose of his statement, to drive the $AUS up even higher? Well that’s what it did. So whose interests is Stevens working for, the interests of the Australian general population or to line the pockets of those who play the international currency markets? I really don’t like that bloke. Over to you.

Lock up the owners …

If you own one of these, you are a moron.

… for attempted murder

Barely a week goes by without news of  another vicious dog attack, the latest being (surprise, surprise) by an American pit bull terrier roaming the streets of Melbourne.  I agree with RSPCA President Hugh Worth’s comments that this breed should never have been introduced on to Australian shores and should be “wiped out”, but what I don’t understand is why anyone would want to own one of these dogs in the first place – what does it say about the owners? 

Are we doomed?

The WordPress stats page displays the search terms people use to find this blog via search engines like Google. You get some real beauties, like today’s gem:

is the world going to end by a tsunami

Um, not around where I live, about 250 kms from the sea. Of course this raises the obvious questions:

1. Is the world going to end?

2. When?

3. How?

Springtime @ GG in Bright

Yes, this is part of the garden @ GG. So why are you still sitting at home?

Now that we’ve finally got some good weather the azaleas, dogwoods & rhododendrons can do their usual stunning stuff. They’re a bit later than normal this year, which means there’s still time to catch the blooms before they fade away later in the month. Of course the Melbourne Cup weekend from Oct 30 – Nov 3 is booked out but there are plenty of vacancies until then. Here’s an idea, why not come up this weekend? More photos available on the Grevillea Gardens website, click here.

(Okay, you’re right. This is a blatant ‘Advertorial’, but so what? It’s my blog)

Wal’s Wailing Wall

Hmm, it looks okay from this angle - i.e. the main view that most people will have of it from Gavan Street . It's certainly not "too high" and there are still plenty of hills & trees to see in the background. And it's a hell of a lot better vista than what we had before ~ just what the hell is 'Wal' talking about? (click on photo to enlarge)

The front page of today’s Bright Observer features what is arguably the biggest beat up and non-news-story of the year. Titled ‘Walls of Concern’, the article claims, “Controversy over the height of walls at the Woolworths construction site in Bright has led to calls for the builders to prove they are adhering to planning conditions.” The article claims that “residents” (i.e. more than one person) have raised concerns over a number of walls that “they” (i.e. more than one person) say are “some two metres higher than what was agreed”.

However, the only “resident” quoted in the article – and the one who seems to be doing all the bleating – is local musician Lee Rosser, who the paper describes as “Former Save Bright spokesman”. Former? Anyway, it’s worth having a look at exactly what Lee (aka “Sally B”, “Ruth K”, “Torressaxxon”, “Gaye Vixen”, “Wal” … and a host of other aliases he has used to post under here & elsewhere) has to say. My comments are in italics:

Infrastructure builds tourism

Believe it or not, the reinvigoration of Bright's CBD, and especially the clock tower area, would do more for tourism in the Alpine Shire than spending $millions on advertising would.

So why aren’t we improving Bright’s CBD?

This news story from ABC Online  highlights the very issue that I have been raising for many years. 

At long last someone else is making the right calls.

I have been saying for years that the best way for established tourist destinations in regional areas – like Bright - to attract more tourists is to enhance the appeal of the town itself, to make it more attractive, functional and tourist friendly.

We need to implement the improvements as per the long forgotten and much maligned Bright Future Project if we are to just maintain our tourist-based economy, let alone make it grow.

My further comments appear after the ABC news article:

Strange search terms

The world is full of weirdos … 

… who go searching @ Google looking for all manner of things. Somehow these search term enquiries have brought people to this blog over the past 7 days. My o-so-witty responses are in italics:

Rods banned from Bright CBD?

UPDATE Monday 26 October: I’ve spoken to Peter @ the council and it’s a partial blockade in that the rodders will not be able to do laps around the clock tower. I’m not sure if it’s going to work though. Peter is dropping off a map later today and I’ll put it up here.

Sure they block the CBD, but it's only for one weekend.

Huh? This doesn’t make any sense.

I’ll have to check this out further on Monday but this notice released by the Alpine Council  late on Friday afternoon seems to be saying:

The main Bright CBD area of Ireland & Anderson Streets (including the clock tower area) will be closed to all vehicles for most of the annual Bright Hot Rod event from 6-8 November.

Barricades are to be placed from 7am on the Friday until early Sunday morning meaning neither the rodders or locals will be able to take their cars into town. What is going on here?

I think I’ll give “Mr Anderson” a call on Monday but, in the meantime, if anyone knows more about this extraordinary development please say so in the comments or email me on ray@grevilleagardens.com. Here is the council press release in its entirety (it’s more than a bit contradictory):

Holding to say thank you …

What about GG, Tim?

… with a sausage sizzle !

I’ve just read in today’s Herald-Sun that State Minister for Water, Tourism and just about everything else, Tim Holding, is putting on a free barbecue in Bright today to say thank you to those involved in his rescue from the icy slopes of Mt Feathertop about two months ago.

Unfortunately we didn’t get an invite, even though Mr Holding’s family stayed here at GG during the ordeal and we helped shield them from the media. I’m not really upset though because, according to the report, the invitees* are the 100 volunteers who were directly involved in the search & rescue operation, and that’s fair enough. But who knows, maybe Tim will drop in with a free sausage? I’ll get the camera ready just in case.

(* Although I bet a few freeloaders from the Alpine Council turn up!)

Blogs are burning

Make yourself useful, Garrett.

Twitter sucks

So let’s take the Internet back!

It seems everyone is too busy on Twitter to write on their blogs these days.

Well I’ve had enough.

I’m calling on all bloggers to unite and rid us of the pest known as Twitter.

And what better way to get the message across than in song?

To the tune of Midnight Oil’s Beds are Burning.

I give you: