The boxing kangaroo

It's got all the class of a can of VB.

Just take it down!

Much has been made of the oversized ‘Boxing Kangaroo’ flag that our o-so-classy Australian Winter Olympic team have seen fit to hang from their accommodation building in Vancouver. The IOC has ordered them to take it down, as the display of registered trademarks is prohibited by Olympic rules, but the Aussies are defiant and have even received support from Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard to ‘keep it flying’ (well, it’s actually hanging, not ‘flying’, Julia!), but what the hell this has got to do with her I’m not sure.

Anyway, I think it’s just a crass display of bad taste & arrogance. It’s nothing more than an in-your-face and  attention-seeking act by a team that, quite frankly, is not even third-rate. Stop embarrassing yourselves and the rest of this nation and take it down please. After all, it’s just Alan Bond’s arrogant symbol of a bygone era. Grow up!

What ‘fire season’?

 

Plenty of rain headed this way

It might be raining like all hell up north around the Gold Coast & northern NSW at the moment (with some areas receiving 400mm in just 24 hours) but, according to this prognostic chart from the weather bureau, Bright and most of north-east and eastern Victoria will be copping plenty by this Friday 12 February.

Maybe then we can stop saying we’re still in “the fire season”?

Gondola raises competition fears

Businesses worried about losing customers to “more sophisticated” operators

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Business operators in Bright have expressed concerns over the impacts that the proposed gondola at Mt Buffalo will have on their businesses.

Black Saturday overkill

Well, someone has to say it, so it might as well be me. This anniversary of the 7 February 2009 ‘Black Saturday’ bushfires is being done to death. I understand the need for those involved to stop, reflect & remember one year after those tragic events, but I think the newspapers, TV & radio stations are turning it into some kind of goulish sideshow . Enough is enough, why relive the hurt, pain & loss of something that was a freak event that wrecked lives, destroyed homes and killed innocent people? We need to look forward, not back.

If you don’t give …..

According to the Herald Sun, millionaire businessman Herman Rockefeller was killed in a fight that broke out when he turned up at a swingers’ party without a partner. The paper also claims that Rockefeller’s body was allegedly dismembered with a $99 chainsaw bought from a Bunnings store before being incinerated in a suburban backyard on Australia Day. I think there is a moral to this story!

What about us?

The good news is we got a bit of rain overnight (well under 10 mm in my estimation). The bad news is we seem to have missed the real ‘action’. From ABC Online:

There has been good overnight rain in parts of northern Victoria. There has been 97 millimetres of rain at Numurkah … Benalla recorded 94 millimetres, 48 millimetres fell at Shepparton and 43 at Yarrawonga. Gippsland is also getting good rain. More than 40 millimetres was recorded at Meeniyan, south east of Leongatha. Other areas have had between 10 and 35 millimetres.

Comment: It’s rather weird because Bright usually gets a lot more rainfall than other, nearby towns. But I’ve been looking at the weather bureau’s radar and, for some reason, it’s all been going around us. Bring it on.

Local ‘copycat’ blog suspended

Some days are better than others. Today I woke up to find that the highly derogatory, rude, insulting & defamatory blog  that has stalked, harassed and defamed me for the past few months, no longer exists. 

The blog, which was a very poor imitation and foul-mouthed send up of Alpine Opinion, operated mainly by copying my posts and altering them into defamatory insults directed at me. However, if you go there today the only thing you’ll find is this announcement from WordPress, the blog’s host:

Geelong ’stoked’ on coke

Just another drug punk.

Reigning AFL premiers Geelong are facing a real credibility crisis following the news  that player Mathew Stokes has been charged with serious drug offences including: 

Trafficking and possessing cocaine.

I wonder if he was selling it to his team-mates?

It doesn’t say much for the AFL’s drug testing policy .. and it says even less about the so-called best team of the past few years.

Bright ain’t Lorne …

… and it will never look like this, even if the Rosedale project goes ahead:

The scaremongers are saying that if the Rosedale project is built, Bright will end up like Lorne. How stupid is that?

Opponents of the revised Rosedale building proposed for Gavan Street in the Bright CBD are up to their usual tricks of basing their objections on fears and propaganda. Believe it or not, this is what they’re saying:

If the Rosedale project is allowed to go ahead brace yourself for more Lorne style developments. These big and ugly developments will destroy all we love about our beautiful country town.

And to back this up they’re using the example of the Cumberland building in Lorne (pictured above).

But nothing could be further from the truth.

Great Alpine Smellies

Tourism Board’s TV ad misleads

“Stay two nights, get the third night free in luxury accommodation”

That is the unequivocal and unqualified offer made in the Alpine council’s Great Alpine Valley’s Tourism Board’s advertisement that has run on the regional Prime TV station throughout the Australian Open Tennis event. The ad promotes staying in the ‘Great Alpine Valleys’ and shows a series of footage covering most of the region while the names of the towns of Bright, Myrtleford & Mt Beauty flash on the screen. A voice-over makes the above offer, clearly inferring that viewers can arrange a three night stay in either Bright, Myrtleford or Mt Beauty for the cost of  just two nights … presumably at any and all accommodation places that GAVTB represents in those areas.

However, according to the GAV website, only one operator is offering such a deal, being the Bogong Village Resort (which is near Falls Creek).

Gondola gets a website …

Update: The website address that was advised to all businesses is incorrect. The correct address is: http://www.mtbuffaloskyways.com.au/,  however, that website only went online today and contains very little information. Hopefully it’ll be kept up to date and become interactive – but there doesn’t seem to be any provision for that.

 

… well, not quite.

The Alpine council’s ‘Task Force’ investigating the feasibility of a multi-million dollar gondola for Mt Buffalo have established a website that was supposed to be up and running by last Thursday 28 January.  This is the address: www.mountbuffaloskyways.com.au.

Hmm, there seems to be a glitch … like, is the domain even registered yet? Apparently the site was to allow for business and community comment, so here’s mine: Get your act together!

Ablett bails out

The news that AFL Brownlow Medal winner and Geelong superstar Gary Ablett (Junior) has split from his long-term partner, Lauren Phillips, after 7 years together raises a number of questions, the main one being does this sudden display of disloyalty also suggest he’s about to accept the big dollars on offer to leave Geelong and head north to the new Gold Coast team at the end of this year?

Bright ain’t gonna go like Beechworth

Some people (i.e. the usual ’suspects’) are objecting to this contemporary, architecturally designed 3-storey building proposed for Gavan Street, Bright, in the central business district. They claim it’s “too big” and that the height, scale and bulk will ruin the character and amenity of Bright.

Hmm, I wonder if these people have ever travelled as far afield as our neighbouring, rival tourist town of Beechworth, about 50 kms away? Beechworth sure has made a hash of things by letting all those tall and (now) heritage listed buildings be built over the past 150 years or so. Gee, they’ve destroyed the place. Have a look – we wouldn’t want Bright to go like this:

Be ‘Fire Ready’

Get dressed for action

Worried about bushfires? Not sure what to do on ‘Code Red’ days?

Well, stop worrying – this handy ‘Fire Kit’ (as advertised in this week’s Bright Observer) will get you through the most catastrophic conditions.

At just $240 this kit would make an ideal gift and perhaps should even be compulsory wearing on days of extreme and code red fire warnings.

You’ll be the envy of your neighbours as you patrol your yard looking out for any signs of an approaching fire. Just make sure you attach the chin strap so that your vented hard hat stays firmly on your coveralled head and that your fire goggles are tightened fast.

And I’m sure the 24″ bag will come in handy for something … like carrying your lunch?

We better not do this in Bright

The extremely popular tourist town of Daylesford seems to have lost none of its country charm & appeal by lining its main street with quite high buildings - for the past century or so !

Daylesford ruins its streetscape with tall buildings

The Rosedale project must be stopped …

I mean, we wouldn’t want Bright to become as successful as Daylesford, would we?