the bushfires - Letter from Melbourne

LETTER FROM MELBOURNE
Adieu
Melbourne Grammar Principal Paul Sheahan steps
down on April 3, after fourteen years at one of
Melbourne’s good schools.
Fascinating
The Victorian Auditor-General’s report into Literacy
and Numeracy Achievement was released in
February and provides an assessment of the
trajectory of education in the state.
Fascinating too
The Victorian Parliament’s Public Accounts and
Estimates Committee is conducting a review of
findings and recommendations of a number of
reports by the Victorian Auditor-General in 2007,
including Improving our Schools: Monitoring and
Support; and Funding and Delivery of Two Freeway
Upgrade Projects. The closing date for submissions
is Friday, 24 April, paec@parliament.vic.gov.au.
People director
RMIT University seeks an Executive Director-
People, execsearch@jofisher.com.au.
Swinburne University of Technology seeks a
Director Alumni & Development, cv@sildak.com.
Environment
Conservation
Pass the parcel
Laws governing the clearing of native vegetation are
under review as part of the Government’s response
to the bushfire crisis, The Age reported. Ideas have
included transferring responsibility for managing
native vegetation in areas zoned for housing from
the Department of Sustainability and Environment
to the Department of Planning and Community
Development. The Urban Development Institute of
Australia’s Victorian executive director, Tony de
Domenico, said changes to native vegetation laws
must be considered in conjunction with new building
rules for houses in bushfire prone areas.
Doing nothing, do something
Victoria’s climate policies will make no difference to
achieving Australia’s greenhouse emissions targets
and will simply subsidise big industrial polluters,
according to a State Government assessment. A
high-level ministerial brief advises the Brumby
Government to rethink policies and programs,
including subsidies for solar farms and panels and a
shift to a hybrid car fleet, arguing that they will not
contribute to any additional greenhouse gas cuts
under Kevin Rudd’s proposed Carbon Pollution
Reduction Scheme, The Age reported.
Prominent
Fires in the Wilson’s Promontory National Park have
burnt about 25 per cent of the 50,000 hectare park,
with the park closed until late March for safety
reasons, disrupting people’s camping and holiday
plans.
More fires
Two fire fighters were injured and a house was
destroyed in the blaze that threatened communities
on Melbourne’s eastern fringe and continued to
burn on 24 February. On the same day another large
fire was threatening communities on the outskirts
of the resort town of Daylesford in central Victoria,
The Age reported.
Uplifting
Parks Victoria could soon start looking for a new
company to run the Arthur Seat chair left in an
effort to end the stalemate over safety issues
with its operator. If the lease is terminated, Parks
Victoria can seek expressions of interest from other
operators, The Age reported. Good luck to the next
guy.
Dropping like bats
The Melbourne Times reported that Friends of Bats
Victoria spokeswoman Megan Davidson said more
than 3,500 bats had perished, at least 20 per cent
of the grey headed flying fox colony in Melbourne,
in the heat wave in early February. Wildlife workers
in the Department of sustainability and environment
are planning a summit to discuss how further losses
can be mitigated, www.wildlifevictoria.org.au.
Interesting report
The Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability’s
(Ian McPhail’s) State of the Environment Summary
Victoria 2008, has a 52-page colour summary
publication covering all aspects of the Victorian
environment including rainfall, marine life, pests,
climate change, biodiversity, land use and even the
atmosphere above us. The much longer report was
launched in November: this is a reminder note.
Tender is the environment
Sustainability Victoria is seeking responses from
service providers for the purpose of engaging
with high consuming households who are willing
and capable of acting on climate change. A pilot
greenhouse program aims to reduce household
consumption of energy, water and the production of
waste, and respondents will be required to outline
how they intend recruiting households, and how
they will deliver a large number of tailored home
sustainability assessments, www.tenders.vic.gov.
au.
Partly successful
Earth Hour, an event which encourages people
to turn off electrical appliances and lights for
60 minutes, occurred on March 28 at 8:30pm\,
coinciding with busy Grand Prix people here in
Melbourne and their restaurants.
Good job
The Country Fire Authority seeks a chief
executive officer, www.kathleentownsend.com.
au.
Energy
Riding the wave
The Victorian Government is in talks with Western
Australia’s Carnegie Corporation, to develop a
$300m wave energy plant. The company wants
to build a 50-mega watt demonstration plant—
enough to power about 30,000 homes and looking
at seabed sites near the power grid off western
Victoria and also off Gippsland.
Water
Some good rain
Before Saturday, 14 March, less than 23 millimetres
had been recorded in Melbourne’s rain gauge this
year, but heavy rains in much of southern Victoria
on that day delivered another 20 millimetres (most
of an inch) followed by light showers on Sunday, The
Age reported.
Revised water
A revised water plan is being devised by Victoria’s
senior water officials. Existing plans for the city
to be off water restrictions by mid-2012 following
the introduction of desalinated water are said to be
shelved under the new timetable, which is due for
public release in April. The revised five-year plan
has been devised because of poor spring rainfall
and the Government’s desire to extend the target
155 campaign, which urges each Melburnian to use
less than 155 litres of water a day.
Where fire and water interface
Melbourne’s diminishing water supplies could suffer
from fires as new, thirsty forests will grow in place
of the older burnt out ones, with the young trees
sucking up more water and reducing the run-off into
reservoirs, possibly by up to half by the time trees
are 20-30 years old. This scenario is such a serious
threat to water supplies that the State Government
and Melbourne water have a special fire strategy
to try to protect the catchments including extra
firefighters, air support and hundreds of kilometres
of fire breaks.
Three of Melbourne’s four most important
reservoirs had fires in their catchments, with two
of the catchments suffering significant damage.
Melbourne water officials have warned that water
collection in dams affected by the bushfires could
fall by 30 per cent in the decades ahead, The Age
reported.
Money drought
The Age reported that banking sources say the
Wonthaggi desalination project faces a funding gap
of between $1b and $2b. Some in the infrastructure
industries say there is $300m to $500m available
from banks for all major projects across the
country. The shortfalls confront the Brumby and
Rudd Governments with either finding money to
bail out the controversial plan, along with many
other projects across the country, or shelving
it. Sourcing finance for big-ticket infrastructure
projects is now a major dilemma arising from the
9