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  • MOOREBANK PROPOSAL(LACK OF CONSULTATION)

    Consultation

    Most local residents bought into Wattle Grove, Casula and surrounding areas long before there was any industrial use of the land south of the M5.

    For local residents, consultation would involve:

    • Considering the needs of the community
    • Working out how to best utilise the unique features of the site:
      • The River
      • Casula Station
      • Heritage Buildings
    • Working out what kinds of development are incompatible with the site’s limitations:
      • Environmental constraints (Air and River)
      • Existing serious traffic congestion
      • Very close residential areas
    • Finally working out what kind of development is compatible with the site and will improve the local area

    Residents feel that consultation about this project is just lip service and a bit of an afterthought.

    “The proposal to build the 1m TEU intermodal facility has been around since 2005”
    http://www.railexpress.com.au/archive/2010/august/august-18-2010/other-top-stories/moorebank-rallies-against-freight-hub

    No-one asked residents what they wanted and it is pretty clear that the government wants to push ahead with the proposal.

    Anthony Albanese said:

    “we are pushing ahead with the development of an intermodal facility at Moorebank that will take a million trucks a year off the M5”
    Anthony Albanese http://southern-courier.whereilive.com.au/news/story/port-area-is-a-freight-headache/

    Residents feel that the project is being levered into the local area by degrees. A few years ago, unwelcome industrial development was added between Anzac Rd and the M5. That makes it seem reasonable to build the SIMTA project which makes it seem reasonable to build the government project. Piece by piece a quiet residential area is being converted to industrial wasteland.

    Once the terminal is built, the traffic will gradually increase:

    “Container trade through Port Botany has been growing over the last 40 years at just over an average 7% per year. This means that container traffic in and out of Sydney doubles every 10 years. This percentage increase itself has actually been growing over the last ten years (other than in 08/09 due to the GFC). It is not expected this percentage growth rate will reduce over the short to medium term.”
    http://tandlnews.com.au/article/The-numbers-behind-the-Moorebank-Intermodal-Terminal/MAMWRBXLZJ.html?page=-1

    “In the Next 20 years congestion and freight will both double in Sydney”
    Brendon Lyon, Infrastructure Australia Executive Director quoted in Liverpool Leader June 2 2010

    “Staged construction is due to begin in 2013, with the Federal Government expecting the terminal will eventually take over 1 million trucks a year off the M5.”
    Australian Transportation News, July 30 2010

    “The proposed Moorebank intermodal freight terminal will be the largest in the nation, an Infrastructure Australia senior staffer has confirmed. Michael Deegan, infrastructure co-ordinator for the national body, told a Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport luncheon on Monday that the complex would include at least two rail spurs which would connect to the Southern Sydney Freight Line by a new bridge over the Georges River”
    Liverpool City Champion, November 18 2009

    “Port Botany saw an 8% growth in total container trade through the port, reaching 1.928 million TEU (containers measured as twenty-foot equivalent units) for 2009/2010. This equals approximately $50 billion worth of trade. This is the 9th consecutive annual growth record. Full container imports reached 951,000 TEUs, up 8.6% from 2008-09”
    http://tandlnews.com.au/2010/08/17/article/Port-Botany-record-hits-nearly-2-million-TEU/QCUDALGQPU.html

     

    They are not being straight with us

    Residents feel that they are being railroaded. Its a pretty natural reaction when someone sets out to ruin your home and health with a large industrial complex. So, are we really being hoodwinked? The following collection of weasel words that provide some examples of how the local residents are being railroaded.

    Wikipedia defines Weasel Words as “words and phrases aimed at creating an impression that something specific and meaningful has been said, when in fact only a vague or ambiguous claim has been communicated“

    Weasel Words
    		 Weasel Speaker
    		 What’s Wrong With It
    		 Source
    “Once operational, the new facility will create hundreds of jobs across Western Sydney” Anthony Albanese Considering the site was earmarked for a commercial development with 15,000 jobs, the project is a job loser for South West Sydney http://www.financeminister.gov.au/media/2010/mr_202010_joint.html
    “the 2010-11 Budget allocates $70.7 million to complete the detailed planning on the Moorebank Intermodal Terminal Project in Sydney’s South West, with the staged redevelopment of the hub expected to start in 2013, subject to final approval” Anthony Albanese The statement sounds consultative saying “subject to final approval”, but half of the “detailed planning” involves emptying the site, moving the School of Military Engineering http://www.financeminister.gov.au/media/2010/mr_202010_joint.html
    “Improved air quality, decreased greenhouse gas emissions and motor vehicle accident rates” Department of Finance Improved air quality and reduced vehicle accident rates in Botany, not so good in Moorebank. Thousands of trucks each day will belch out life threatening pollution for local residents to breath. http://www.finance.gov.au/property/property/moorebank-intermodal-freight-terminal/index.html
    “There would be approximately one kilometre of land between the nearest resident and the proposed railway terminal.” SIMTA This might be true, but its deceptive. Its SIMTA talking, but they seem to be referring to the railway terminal on the Government site across Moorebank avenue. The statement is made in reference to noise, but they are trying to ignore everything that happens on their site. Some residents are as close as 230m, less than a quarter of the distance implied! http://www.simta.com.au/

  • Key offended by Aussie bludgers comment

    And so he should be offended by this ill-informed comment. Thousands of Oz and NZ troops died fighting for our freedom. This journalist should be sacked.

     

     

    Key offended by Aussie bludgers comment

    Updated: 15:44, Monday April 23, 2012

    Key offended by Aussie bludgers comment

    New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has spoken out against ‘offensive’ comments by a Kiwi journalist who labelled Australian World War I soldiers as bludgers and thieves.

    The comments, by journalist Jock Anderson, were made during a Radio New Zealand panel discussion about a new book by former Australian Army officer and Department of Veterans Affairs historian Graham Wilson.

    In Bully Beef and Balderdash, Wilson questions myths surrounding Australia’s all-volunteer forces who fought in World War I and World War II – including the legend of the Australian bushman who transformed into natural warrior on the battlefield.

    Anderson said that was absolutely a myth.

    ‘The Aussies have been reluctant soldiers at the best of times, and they’ve been essentially lazy bludgers, some of them – excellent black-marketeers, scavengers, poachers and thieves,’ he said.

    ‘Occasionally, they’ve actually been quite good soldiers, but there was no way that they can hold a candle, in my opinion, to the Kiwis.’

    Mr Key says Anderson’s comments are a black mark on the Anzac spirit, just days out from commemorations on Wednesday.

    ‘While I have enormous respect for the New Zealand forces and support one point that (Anderson) put forward, which is that our forces have and continue to be magnificent in the work that they carry out, denigrating the Australians as part of that analysis I don’t think is appropriate,’ Mr Key said.

    He had seen the Australian forces during visits to Afghanistan and Gallipoli, and believed they did a good job.

    ‘The spirit of the Anzac tradition is alive and well. That was a tradition forged on the battlegrounds in Gallipoli, and to take away from their efforts I personally find quite offensive,’ Mr Key says.

    Queensland Returned and Services League chief executive Chris McHugh, a former Royal Australian Air Force navigator, said he was offended by Anderson’s comments.

    However, ‘Australians have thick skins’ and he didn’t think anyone would be really hurt by the opinions of one man, Mr McHugh told Paul Henry on Network Ten’s Breakfast program on Monday.

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  • Freight terminal will cut thousands of truck trips

    Freight terminal will cut thousands of truck trips

    Peter Martin

    April 23, 2012

    .An artist’s impression of the proposed freight hub … trucks will unload cargo onto trains at Moorebank for transport to Port Botany.

    TODAY the federal government is to announce the go-ahead for a $1.6 billion freight terminal in south-west Sydney that is expected to take thousands of trucks a day off the city’s roads.
    Freight will be transferred from trucks onto trains at the terminal in Moorebank, from where it will be taken to Port Botany, reducing the number of truck trips by 3300 a day.
    The Infrastructure Minister, Anthony Albanese, and the Finance Minister, Penny Wong, will announce plans this morning to call for tenders for the project.

    Advertisement: Story continues below

    The 220-hectare site, on the western side of Moorebank Avenue, is occupied by the Defence Department’s School of Military Engineering. It is near the M5, the M7 and the southern Sydney freight line.
    An alternative proposal is being pushed by a private consortium led by Chris Corrigan’s Qube Logistics, which has secured land on the other side of Moorebank Avenue. A report by the advisory firm Greenhill Caliburn to the government finds that the Commonwealth site is the better option because it is bigger and is nearer the freight line.
    A spokesman for Senator Wong told the Herald that the government’s proposal would ensure that the terminal remains “open access”, meaning that freight firms would not have to apply to a potential competitor for access to the terminal.
    Cabinet approved the project last week. Construction will start in 2014 and be completed by 2017. More than 1600 workers will be employed on construction and 950 when the terminal is up and running, rising to 1700 jobs if it is expanded to handle interstate freight.
    “It will deliver significant dividends across the entire Australian economy: more jobs for south-western Sydney; savings for Australian businesses, and less congestion on Sydney’s roads,” Senator Wong’s spokesman said.
    “It will contribute significantly to Australia’s productivity. More than two-thirds of the freight that arrives in Port Botany does not stay in the Sydney region.”
    The freight hub could allow the state government to lift the cap on the number of containers that can pass through Port Botany, thereby improving its sale price when it is privatised in 2013.
    Federal government projections suggest that without a facility such as the Moorebank freight hub, truck traffic at Port Botany will rise fourfold in the next 20 years.
    A study prepared for the government finds that Sydney’s industrial materials exchange container market is almost entirely dependent on Port Botany. Freight volumes have risen by 7 per cent per annum in the past five years and are expected to grow by 6.7 per cent a year in the next 25 years.
    The freight hub would help to alleviate some of the negative environmental and social effects of road freight movements, including air pollution, traffic delays and traffic accidents.
    twitter Follow the National Times on Twitter: @NationalTimesAU

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/freight-terminal-will-cut-thousands-of-truck-trips-20120422-1xf57.html#ixzz1soefTtkX

  • Mexico’s Popocatepetl Volcano Erupts: Stunning Images [PHOTOS]

    News 10 new results for volcanoes


    Mexico’s Popocatepetl Volcano Erupts: Stunning Images [PHOTOS]
    IBTimes.co.uk
    By IBTimes Staff Reporter | Apr 22, 2012 08:14 AM EDT Mexico City is on high alert after the Popocatepetl volcano located near the city has started spewing a heavy plume of ash and glowing rocks into the sky. The volcano which is located about 34 miles …
    See all stories on this topic »
    IBTimes.co.uk


    Inquirer.net






  • Today’s Vineyards, Yesterday’s Tall Oaks

    The Bay Citizen

    Today’s Vineyards, Yesterday’s Tall Oaks

    California Historical Society

    Tidal marshlands (from Napa Valley Historical Ecology Atlas).

    By JEANNE CARSTENSEN

    Published: April 21, 2012

    On a recent sunny day in the Napa Valley, Robin Grossinger cupped his hands around his eyes and surveyed the landscape. He said the scene gave him “a feeling of grandeur.”

    The Bay Citizen

    A nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization providing local coverage of the San Francisco Bay Area for The New York Times. To join the conversation about this article, go to baycitizen.org.

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    He was not talking about the vistas of hillsides draped in vineyards, with their gnarled vines tinged green with new growth that by fall will be laden with the valley’s renowned cabernet sauvignon and other grapes. Mr. Grossinger, a scientist with the San Francisco Estuary Institute and author of the new Napa Valley Historical Ecology Atlas, had turned his gaze onto another charismatic species: a small line of valley oak trees.

    While today’s visitors — around five million annually — come to drink wine and soak up the beauty of Napa’s viticultural landscape, past visitors came to marvel at the majestic oaks.

    The area where Mr. Grossinger was standing, near Oak Knoll in the southern end of the valley, is where travelers entering from the south first took in the beauty of the oak savannas that defined the valley floor, bursting with wildflowers in the spring. The trees at Oak Knoll supported abundant wildlife and created shade in the heat, among other benefits, prompting the California State Senate in 1858 to declare them “at once an ornament and a blessing.”

    While almost all of the valley oaks are gone from Napa — the savannas were largely cleared to make way for intensive agriculture in the late 19th century — a few pockets remain. The oldest trees, dating back more than 300 years, were alive when the Caymus, Napa, Canijolmano and Mayacma tribes managed the valley to produce abundant acorns, deer, salmon and other staples.

    Unlocking the landscape in this way, so that the past is revealed in the present, is the almost magical outcome of Mr. Grossinger’s atlas (with design and cartography by Ruth Askevold), which was more than 10 years in the making. Working with a long list of collaborators, Mr. Grossinger unearthed maps, photos, surveys, old postcards and other information that added insight into how Napa has changed over time. “I spent more time in libraries than out in the field,” he said.

    His detective work is characteristic of historical ecology, an environmental practice championed by Mr. Grossinger and the San Francisco Estuary Institute, which is gaining in popularity.

    “It’s a little like solving a mystery,” said Shari Gardner, a researcher with Friends of the Napa River, who, as part of the project, scoured the area for valley oaks that had most likely been there at the time of European contact.

    The atlas combines field research, scientific data, maps, historical photos, writing and records, creating a picture of the Napa Valley’s natural environment and how it has been shaped by human activity over time.

    It covers the oak savannas, soil, creeks, wetlands, tidal marshlands and the Napa River, all features that make up the terroir, or unique characteristics of land and climate, that distinguish today’s best vintages. Wine is barely mentioned in the book, but one can practically taste it on every page.

    The atlas also includes three suggested valley tours, with stops that include former tule grass wetlands and a good spot to see steelhead trout spawning.

    Standing on a small bridge on the Napa River outside Yountville on a sunny day, an easy stone’s throw from some of the best wineries in the world, it was hard to perceive the environmental challenges facing the valley.

    “Napa Valley has always been beautiful,” Mr. Grossinger said. “And it’s still beautiful.”

    Then he explained how the Napa had changed over the years, from a meandering river with many side channels to the more controlled stream it is today, including problems with flooding, erosion and oversilting.

    While currently productive, Napa, like many agricultural regions, is also fragile, vulnerable to climate change and to problems caused by poor watershed management, overuse of pesticides and other issues. Understanding the choices that created today’s landscape will help this generation make choices that will keep the area resilient for the future, he said.

    Heading across the valley in midafternoon, Mr. Grossinger spotted a group of workers taking shade under one of the small fraction of remaining historical oaks. “Now that’s where you want to be,” he said.

    jcarstensen@baycitizen.org

    A version of this article appeared in print on April 22, 2012, on page A23A of the National edition with the headline: Today’s Vineyards, Yesterday’s Tall Oaks.

  • Greens urge Gunns to update market

    Greens urge Gunns to update market

    ABCApril 22, 2012, 12:25 pm
    The man was convicted of manslaughter and spent four years in prison

    ABC © Enlarge photo

    The Tasmanian Greens have called on the timber giant Gunns to inform the Australian Securities Exchange about developments in a court case it is fighting.

    Last week Gunns lost a bid to have the Tasmanian Conservation Trust pay a $400,000 bond to cover court costs if the TCT’s legal challenge to the Gunns Tamar Valley pulp mill failed.

    Justice Stephen Holt dismissed the bid on the basis the TCT’s legal challenge was not weak and did not lack merit.

    The Tasmanian Greens’ Kim Booth said the court decision was of such significance that Gunns needed to inform the stock market immediately.

    “They should be putting out an ASX statement detailing what’s happened in the courts because this was an application by Gunns to try and prevent the TCT arguing this case unless they stumped up $300 to $400,000 upfront,” Mr Booth said.

    “That’s been a successful strategy in the past but it’s failed because the courts have ruled against Gunns.”

    A spokeswoman for Gunns said the company does not comment on matters before the court.