The Bywong Soapbox

I wonder if anyone in the Bywong/Wamboin area has noticed the little yellow airplane that’s been buzzing around at low altitudes the last few weeks.

In the skies over Bywong

Well, it’s a geologic survey aircraft, VH-KPY, owned by Fugro Airborne Surveys that does magnetic geologic surveys for mining companies and whoever else has enough money to pay for their services.

VH-KPY A Geologic Survey Aircraft

“So what?”, you all say?  Well, this little gem has been sighted for the sixth time in a few weeks, flying low altitude patterns over Bywong, especially around William McEnally’s old mining area, ‘Macs Reef’.  One or two passes might be the norm for a simple survey, but they’re making these low passes a habit, so I’d assume they’ve found something interesting in their survey.

Keeping in mind that at today’s petrol prices and pilot fees, it costs a hell of a lot to spend a few weeks flying low altitude passes over Bywong. Must be something REALLY interesting in the ground around here.  Does everyone have their panning dishes handy?  In 1852 the NSW Government geological surveyor, Rev. W. B. Clarke, concluded that “gold in profitable quantities will hereafter be found in some part of the district of which Bywong Hill is the centre”.  Perhaps Fugro is about to make the same statement in 2010..  The price of gold in recent months HAS made the smaller deposits look profitable again.

“Big deal!”, you all say?  Well…  Eventually, their mining company client will apply to the NSW Department of Primary Industries for an exploration permit.  They’ll then rock up to your door and expect to drill some exploratory bores or dig a hole here and there.

How is this possible?  If you take a good look at your Land Title papers, you, like everyone else in this area, will find a little caveat that states the mineral rights belong to a mining outfit in West Australia, who just happens to hold the mineral lease on your property.

Yes folks, you only own what you can see.  What’s below the surface of your paddock, belongs to this outfit in WA, and there’s nothing you can do about it.  So, if you’ve been digging holes in your property, everything you take out, actually belongs to them.  So.. any nuggets you find…  you’ll have to turn in to the proper owners.  Right?

Go have a read of the Landholder Rights, pursuant to the the provisions of the Mining Act 1992.

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/minerals/titles/landholders-rights/mining_act_1992

Know what they can and cannot do. Know your rights and you can use the miners to your advantage.

How would Bywong look as a Strip Mine?

Now, I’m sure that if some large reserve of Gold, Silver or Uranium (Heh heh.. now wouldn’t THAT piss off Earth Mother Moore?), were found in Bywong, the Shire’s pillar of honour, Stainless Bascomb, would be soon filing writs of Compulsory Acquisition on everything the Shire could get it’s hands on.  And you could be sure that Bywong would become an open pit strip mine from the Lake George escarpment to Kowen Forest.

One good thing…. It would get rid of all the noxious weeds in the area..

How Greasy can you get?

I just saw an interesting ad on television tonight….  It was one of those ‘Political Statement’ type adverts, by none other than ‘Kingsley’s Chicken’.

Kingsley’s is accusing the Rudd government of holding back their chicken joint expansion in the Canberra area.

How, you ask?….  They blame the government of refusing to allow 457 Visa applications to be filled.  The 457 Visa is for overseas immigrants who want to work in Australia..  Now what does that suggest to you?

It suggests to me that the greed of Kingsley’s Chicken has gotten the better of them. It also suggests to me that this chicken outfit want to hire cheap, overseas labour, so they can expand their greasy chicken empire in the Canberra area and put a few more dollars in their pockets.

Get a grip Kingsley’s.. Hire local Australians to run your chicken outlets.  Too expensive, you say?  Tough shit… Plan on building fewer chicken outlets and pay a bit more for local labour.

What’s better for your image? Greed or Civic Duty?

The Federal Trade Commission will try to regulate blogging for the first time, requiring writers on the Web to clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products.

Take 'this' FTC

“Hello There!”  Would you like to try ‘this’?

Wonderful!  Try it today!

Try it tomorrow!

It’s BAD for you, but try it anyway!

These Federal guys are beginning to sound like Australian politicos, always trying to squeeze a few more dollars from our pockets.  What will they try to ‘regulate’ next?

Country Energy, the third world supplier of electricity to Southeast Regional Australia, has once again dropped the ball for its customer base around 5:42AM this morning.  Here is a power company who charges a premium rate and additional excise to supply customers of a ‘rural’ and ‘rural residential’ nature.  Oh yes, Victoria, it costs so much more to supply the farm folk with electricity… 

Perhaps you’d think it a plausible excuse to gouge customers, but the least they could do is supply a quality product for the exorbitant fees they charge.  The power garnered from the Country Energy grid has probably the most spikes, noise, glitches, over/under voltage swings and momentary outages than any other power company in Australia.  For this third world type service, ‘rural’ and ‘rural residential’ customers are tithed severely, with some of the highest penalty rates around.

Now, you note I have bracketed the words ‘rural’ and ‘rural residential’. The areas which are abused by

Standing around waiting for a smoko

Country Energy and their less than adequate consumer supply,  are within 30kms of the National Capital City, Canberra.  That’s right, most of this service area is within sight of Telstra Tower, which looms above Canberra.

I know many people in this service area who attempt to run small businesses from their ‘rural’ properties..  Most say they need to run a UPS backup and power filtering system, just to keep their electronic equipment from dying from the almost indigestible electricity provided.

I myself, have been moving more and more of my household off the electricity grid. It makes sense to invest my cash in solar panels & batteries, than to pay Country Energy a premium rate for third world service.  The power I generate is clean, smooth and dependable.  Oddly enough, the Sun is very happy to keep my 1650Ah battery pack charged and the wind is kind enough to top it all off when the wind happens to  blow. The end result is that, to date, I’ve reduced my quarterly power bill by 50%.  Which is just as well, for Country Energy keeps edging the rates higher for lesser quality service.  Remember Victoria, it costs SO much more to supply the poor farm folk.

Basic Thermosyphon

As an aside: My experiments with hot water Solar powered Thermosyphon concepts have proven very efficient and a large scale collector and storage tank  are being constructed as a phase two project.  I am surprised as the quantity of hot water that can be produced by a small solar collector.  I might finally get that spa I’ve always wanted.  Without the pain of paying for the electricity to heat it.

Perhaps the Solar Panel outfitters should target this area a bit better.   Discounted installations of household solar systems, which dump their excess energy onto the grid (for which you get credited), would surely return profit in sheer volume of sales.  Just as an observer, I’d say people in the area are tired of living with third world energy supply and I’ll bet they would jump at the chance to give Country Energy the bird.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Denouncing a “squandering of the people’s money,” lawmakers voted decisively Thursday to impose a 90 percent tax on millions of dollars in employee bonuses paid by troubled insurance giant AIG and other bailed-out companies. The House vote was 328-93. Similar legislation has been introduced in the Senate and President Barack Obama quickly signaled general support for the concept.

Link to full story

See how easy it is?  You think it’s unfair to pay these HUGE Golden Handshakes and unwarranted bonuses to executives, while you beat yourself to death each day, just trying to make the mortgage payment?

This law,  just passed in the  States, taxes bonuses of families making over $250,000 per year, at 90%.  That sounds pretty fair to me.  I can see the executives over at the Big Banks now… Squirming in their seats while they quaff their Grange… hoping the Australian Government doesn’t catch wind of how the U.S. Congress is dealing with corporate greed.

Gee… It’s retroactive to the 31st of December… We could recover the $20 mil they paid to old Sol, as he walked out the Telstra door.

Let’s see if the Australian Government has the balls to act for the people in a like manner.