Travelling from North to South in New South Wales - on the inland side of the Great Dividing Range. All very dry - the vineyards are looking very sad The small towns have great character - and characters!! Most of them were established in the early to mid 1800's ( very old by Aussie standards LOL) The coal industry is a mixed blessing - dreadful damage to the ecosystems, enormous, long, uncovered, coal trains thought to cause lung damage - but they are the backbone of many of these towns.
Interesting collage. I'm with you re coal, we've just gotta find something else to help these towns survive. As for the Adani project, I'm 101% against it, even more after watching last night's 4 Corners. A must-see.
@golftragic Hi Marni - we're travelling (as you can tell) so we didn't see the 4 Corners program. But the whole Adani project seems to have many things wrong with it and unfortunately I wouldn't be surprised if they create a total environment nightmare and then walk away from it. I can't help feeling that they are taking us for a ride!!
@robz I strongly suggest you watch that episode of 4 Corners on catch-up. The whole thing's a giant con, and the environmental consequences will be disastrous. Lotta press today along those lines, much of it from Indian people who know lots about lots of stuff (with film).Definitely taking we colonials for a ride.
@stimuloog Hi Marloes - it's been an interesting couple of days driving. The country here was all very dry and brown - but today was all green and bright yellow (canola). Good for wine grapes I hope!! :)
@golftragic Will have to watch it - the Qld Gov seems hell bent on handing over huge amounts of money to them!! And with very few safeguards!! Many of our politicians seem too naive for our good - mention "jobs" and they'll let you do anything!
@taffy Hi Taffy - thanks for your comment- from what you have said it is probably a universal problem. Here it seems to be more and more that international companies are moving into regions and taking advantage of weak minded politicians - who have no long term vision. Aust has a long history of basically giving away its resources. I worry for the next generation - it's more personal now too - we have our first grandchild due in February. :)
@robz Please do watch it, I've been dead against the Adani project since Day 1, but what I learned from 4 Corners made me scared as well. I don't know what our pollies think they're doing, being played like fiddles. Anastasia P seems to be totally oblivious to the horrendous downside. Do let me know what you think after you've seen it - great coverage in recent media.
