A post about a storm

Damn! I'm such a lazy blogger! I really can't be fagged writing anything but I know I'll be interested to look back and remember the day we took a direct hit from a Cat 2 cyclone...

So here it is.

BOM weather radar

On Friday 16th March I saw somewhere online that the low pressure system that was somewhere east of Darwin was developing into a cyclone. 

Sometime through the day I heard it could be headed toward Darwin... Could become a cat 2.

Pretty much paid no attention. The sky was clear there was barely any wind. Big deal! 

By Saturday night we were on a Warning that a cat 2 cyclone was headed for us, to tell the truth that didn't sound too scary and it would likely just pass by like all the others, with a bit of rain some wind gusts and a lot of BS headlines in the paper the next day.

It was scheduled to hit at dawn on Saturday at 5 am everything seemed quiet.

By six there was some rain and wind...

Then the rain and wind increased.... Sam suggested I bring the budgies inside. I, in my wisdom decided to turn their cage around so the tarp that hangs down one side of the cage was facing the windward side so they wouldn't get wet, and I left them outside...

By 9 am I decided that I should probably have listened to my wife, who is quite a novice meteorologist...

At 10 am we were watching the PawPaw trees snapping like twigs and the neighbor's trampoline smashing against our fence... Then I decided I should go outside and tie ours down just in case this storm got serious...

Sometime after that I was becoming worried that the neighbors dogs, chairs and unrestrained children might come flying through the windows!

As the core passed over our home, my cynicism about the impact of this cyclone was well and truly stowed away not to be revisited! This was heavy!

Once the storm had passed I went out to survey the damage. Wow! Was there some damage! Our neighborhood is built around a network of parkland. About 40 years ago the council planted 1,000s of African Mahogany trees. These trees are huge and provide great shade... unfortunately they are also prone to falling over in high winds!

Our neighborhood looked like a nuclear bomb had hit it. In some places there was not a tree left standing. These are trees with trunks and some limbs the diameter of an average car! 

It is impossible to describe the scene and photos don't really do it justice. Amazingly no one was killed or even hurt, from what I've heard. At home we never lost power or water but friends in other areas have gone four days without electricity, some are still waiting for it to be re-connected.

Soon after the cyclone had passed we cleaned up the mess of our yard and went back to our lives. As I looked at the destroyed pawpaw trees and was slightly sad about the loss of my fruit trees and the crop I would miss out on I was prompted to think of those people who live in less developed countries where they are reliant on their food crops for survival. How devastating even a small cyclone like this could be for them, how many times we've heard of far larger cyclones or hurricanes hitting communities in the Pacific Islands, the Philippines, the West Indies, India and Sri Lanka. How the people of those countries must be affected.

We will miss our tall trees but for most of us this storm was little more than an exciting diversion from our mundane lives, a glimpse at the power that nature has to disrupt our plans for BBQs and skittles.

Stringy Barks and carparks (Yellow taxi dreaming)

A tree is a tree... and land must be put to use, They say!
I have danced cloaked in the leaves of the stringy bark
It touched my skin, entered my nostrils.
I have been amongst those trees, breathed their breath, warm sun through curved leaves,
The smell of a coarse bark after rain, crackle dry leaves on forest floor
Warmth, fire, shelter green.
The honey bees gather in stringy bark hollows,
people and animals can may rest wherever the stringy bark stands.
Cycad and spear grass take root in the spaces in between, turkey bush not far away...
Do you know the Stringy bark?
No?
Ask the black cockatoo, he loves this tree too well.
It was a sacred song where we met, and now I know when you are near and I feel when you are cut too deep.
The cry of the birds when you are lost and yes too many have been lost!
At Lyons I saw the curlews huddled together in a patch of only a few meters, until that too was taken... where are they now?
Then at Muirhead where my good friend took council in the private sanctuary of your shade, the savage destruction rolled on!
I heard the cockatoo flock come to roost in their favorite spot,
I was on the phone my friend in tears, birds circling, crying, calling.
A haunting sound.
Tears flowed so long that only the poppy could stem his grief...
As the forest fell the dust rose...
Do we really need more dust and bitumen?



Is it over? NO! The forest I ride through on my way to work is the latest patch of life to be dozed into the dust! And the 'Long Grass People' who took shelter, sitting, singing, talking, sharing fire, food, smoke, and yeh grog...?  How far do they now have to walk to take shade or shelter from the expanding apatite of this Booming northern town?

Bushland between McMillans Road and Osgood Drive (April 2014)

Stringy bark stumps and dust on block between McMillans Rd and Osgood Drive (August 2014)

What's wrong with Rapid Creek?

(Written in November but left on the shelf for about six weeks I thought I'd post this just to clear the blog)

Recently local residents and others who value Darwin's Rapid Creek gathered to challenge the  potential threat to clear mature trees and riparian vegetation by the Department of Planning and Infrastructure along the banks of Rapid Creek.

At the time people noticed that trees had been marked with pink spray paint, commonly used to indicate trees for removal.

A public meeting was held at the footbridge across rapid creek, which was attended by local residents, members of the landcare group and various other stakeholders.

See Rapid Creek Landcare website: HERE

(29.12.13 There is now a Save Rapid Creek facebook group)

https://www.facebook.com/saverapidcreek 

Many issues were raised, including zero consultation with the community, zero coordination with Landcare group, lack of scientific foundation to support removal of riparian vegetation etc...

Members of Parliament were contacted and invited to take part in the discussion but they declined. Three members of the department of Lands Planning and Infrastructure turned up to answer our questions. We were told that the markings were only part of preliminary work on the creek, that it didn't mean any trees were going to be cut down and that it's all part of a flood mitigation program. (Some of the trees were even marked PRUNE)

It is obvious that Rapid Creek is under a lot of environmental pressure. There are now massive alterations to tributary water courses and man made drainage lines. Creation of a large paved carpark at the Airport has effectively means that the land it is on is no longer able absorb water and recharge groundwater. The excess water is directed into wide open channels which feed directly into the creek an obvious contributor to increased velocity of flow. I found their answers to be contradictory and somewhat dishonest. It was obvious to everyone who was there that it was the departments full intention to cut those trees.

The conversation followed about flooding of McMillans Rd and the potential threat to property when the creek floods.

It concerns me that the Department has employed 'Engineers' to manage this delicate ecological zone, with the single objective of flood mitigation. Their linear approach to the management of a waterway borders on criminal and from an environmental perspective is insane! There are multiple contributors to flooding in Rapid Creek. The presence of trees in or around the creek is hardly one of them! Natural vegetation is fundamental to reducing erosion in waterways and reduces destructive velocity of fast flowing water. Most of the elaborate water calming devices that engineers introduce into their man made water course are poor attempts to immitate natural obstructions to water velocity such as trees and vegetation offer naturally.

During the meeting people had to explain to the Department representatives other contributing factors to flooding that absolutely dwarf any impact few trees might have on causing water to back up.

Potential contributors to flooding in Rapid Creek:

Storm surge: If there is excessive rain during a high tide it is extremely likely that fresh water will back up along the rapid creek catchment. What is the elevation of the creek? How many metres above sea level?

Siltation: The removal of vegetation along the catchment has lead to increased erosion which in turn has caused culverts to become blocked, water takes longer to flow through the culverts and so backs up in the creek and man made open drains that contribute to Rapid Creek.

Erosion at McMillans Rd drainage 5/11/13

Increased flow: Land clearing and hardening of surfaces to make carparks and increase infrastructure at the Airport causes larger amounts of water to be shed from the catchment soon after rain. This is likely to have two long term affects. One, I suspect that the incidence of flooding will increase since there will be higher quantities of water entering the creek whenever it rains. The second negative side effect of creating hardened surfaces is that it will reduce the long term flow of the creek and reduce groundwater recharge. Instead of water slowly filtering through the landscape and eventually running into the creek it is shed immediately after rain.

Mc Millans road drainage 5/11/13

Cutting trees will not address any of these issues and in the case of the second and third points is a major contributor to flooding!

At the moment what concerns me most is the excavation work taking place on the Airport side of Mc Millans Rd. A huge amount of earth has already been washed into the open drains. The immediate results of this are obvious and plain to see. Large scale siltatation of the drainage channels, blocked culverts, increased water flow. Longer term the consequences are predictable increased turbidity of the creek, siltation of the creek, blocking of culverts, potential flooding etc...

I believe that due to the storm surge factor there may be no way of mitigating against flooding... although this may not stop the departments engineers from trying to enclose the whole creek in a concrete drain. (Actually confirmed by a current Department of Infrastructure and Planning report 29/12/13)

As far as the health of the creek is concerned I believe that the irresponsible upstream developments within the catchment are the major cause for concern and will likely contribute heavily to future risk of flooding. Yet the department appear to have chosen not to address negligence of developers, instead their engineers have turned their eye to elimination of the creek's remaining natural defense against extreme hydrological conditions downstream. Our creek is already stressed and threatened by irresponsible upstream development, by removing the riparian vegetation that holds the creek bank together the Department would be responsible for delivering the death blow to our creek!

Silt buildup at McMillans Rd drainage 5/11/13

If the creek were a living organism it's riparian vegetation would be like it's immune system. It Absorbs the shock of extreme weather event's such as flooding, holds moisture in times of drought, prevents erosion, provides habitat and creates a micro climate which facilitates the existence of many species of plants and animals  etc... Vegetation helps the creek maintain it's form, filters water entering the system and so on. Removing riparian vegetation would be something like introducing a virus to the organism that has the capacity to destroy the creeks entire life cycle. 

To any ecologist or anyone schooled in land management this seems like madness. But I guess not so to an engineer. There are many reasons why we need the help of engineers to develop and manage our environment... However they should never have full power of decision making when it comes to natural systems!    

Clogged culvert, what happens when you let engineers design watercourses.

I just need a little shade!

A funny thing happened to me on the way to work this morning.... I didn't GO!
Nothing much has changed over the past few weeks... The work load at my job has finally reduced but I am realizing that the combination of unmanageable responsibilities and expectations over the past weeks.. (possibly months actually) has caused me to blow a gasket! I'm shot! Little things are too hard!


One more person knocking on my door
...hide behind the desk but I hear them call
There is no room in here at all
The window's too far for me to crawl...
I don't care now if I fall.
Careful they might hear me!
I gasp for breath above the paper bills
electronic debt kills
The stressed office boy puts down his quil
and the finance guy pops another pill
This sure aint what I thought it would be!
Greedy eyes and needy faces...
they stand in packs... jostling for places
Spouting blessings but stealing graces.
In this world, there's no empty spaces!
Needing wanting demanding, appearing..
They rise like hills and block like mountains!
The numbers rise as virtue dies
I tremble and shudder when I realize
to continue will be my demise
It's too late to halt the red mist
It clouds my eyes and screws my mind!

Cargo cult conspirators
Grab for more but choke on Coco-Cola dreams!
The heat is rising in this place.
God give me shade!



 (We sit in the shade thankful for the trees at Sunset Park)

Today I didn't go to work. Instead I went for a ride with Sam and the kids. We rode down to sunset park and found some lovely shade! Proper natural shade from a tree! In the dry season you can sit in the shade of a tree and feel much cooler than in the sun. A cool off shore breeze blew across the grass, damp from recent watering and we lay on our rug as the kids played on the swing.
Whhhhheeewwwwwhhhh.... a long breath out. The phone hasn't rung for over an hour... I'm starting to relax and realize how worn out I really am! Sam is too. But I think I broke something this time. I know Ive gotta find some more shade... Big One Shade! Not that crap that filters through that synthetic shade cloth with a price attached to it! Not some 15 minute intermission! Real Shade... Tree Shade... Soul Shade!

Smell the forest

Back to the forest....


Forest


Creek


Waterfall


Mountain Ash



The forest is sweet...

This song is hardcore and beautiful! 

The song titled 'It's alright Ma (I'm only bleeding)' by Bob Dylan is really really cool and if you'd seen the original B&W Youtube video of Bob performing it I am sure you'd feel compelled to go out and buy a copy... No fear of that now. Copyright police have removed it. 

Paths and predicaments

Last September while riding out to the Elizabeth River bridge I noticed that the bicycle path had been extended beyond the bend which used to mark the end of the Darwin - Palmerston bike path. I returned a few days later excited to see how far the extension went and discovered that an excellent bike path had been created along the old Darwin Rail line, all the way to Howard Springs!

Palmerston - Howard Springs bicycle path (crossing rail bridge)



Palmerston - Howard Springs bicycle path (rail cutting)

According to the NT Transport Group the 5.4 kilometre path was officially opened on the 11th September 2011, just a few days after I rode it. It's an awesome path and quite easy to ride. Unfortunately I have two major complaints about the path. I can't stand those stupid bent poles which force people riding in opposite directions into each others way to avoid hitting the poles (These things are really dangerous in town where kids ride, they are just the right height to hit a child in the head!) The other thing that I can't figure out is the crossing at Howard Springs Rd which instructs cyclists to Dismount prior to crossing the road! WTF for? I presume it's purpose is designed for the safety of cyclists. However I just can't see how getting off one's bike and pushing it across a road is going to improve safety for anyone. If it's based on road accident stats I think they'll find that Pedestrians are much more likely to be hit than cyclists (OK Stats can be extremely subjective but for goodness sake!). If I'm riding my bike the safest way for me to avoid being hit by a car is to spend as little time crossing the road as I can. My bike provides me with the means of doing this, why would I want to 'Dismount'?

 What's this chicanery?

Dubious safety research!

A technically legal predicament presents itself to cyclists most times we enter the road. Follow the ill conceived directives of road planners who appear to have given bugger all thought to the practicalities of their arbitrary designs, or follow ones own instinct for reading road conditions based on a keen sense of self preservation? Well in the case of this 'Dismount' sign I decided to follow the instruction purely out of curiosity and for the sake of experimentation. Result: I felt quite compromised standing in the middle of the road! Now I know for sure what to do next time!

Since it's construction I've ridden along the new stretch from Palmerston to Howard Springs about 6 times and have really enjoyed my experiences on the path; it's like a public esplanade in the middle of nowhere. There are always heaps of cyclists on the path and it passes through some really nice country, including a raised section where you can ride over the top of paperbark wetlands which will likely be in full flow by February.

Besides it's ride-ability there was another plus to the path which enticed me back a few times.
Last year when I first rode the path I really enjoyed riding past a well wooded mango orchard which wasn't fenced. Besides the potential to glean a few ripe mangoes the orchard created a wonderful atmosphere. It was densely wooded and had a full, lush canopy which created it's own micro climate. Riding past it was like riding through a shady grove, it was aesthetically beautiful.

I kept my eye on the orchard and wondered if it was being maintained. Some of the trees may have reached senility but most were in pretty good shape, non commercially speaking of course. There were dead branches and signs of parasites or disease among them but also thriving colonies of green ants. It appeared that the trees hadn't been tended to for quite a long time. 

As the season rolled on, the grass grew longer between the trees and I felt sure that no one cared for the crop. Eventually the fruit had grown to a size that could be picked. I decided to head out there and collect some that had fallen, after all no one seemed to care for it. I managed collect a few pieces of fruit which had fallen on the ground. By the time I visited again there were tons of mangoes on the trees and the grass was quite tall throughout the orchard. I decided to pick some fruit... and filled both slings on my Xtracycle. Technically not Gleaning but it seemed the fruit would only go to waste. After two trips I had far more fruit than I could eat in the two weeks it would take it all to ripen! I was ecstatic that I had come across such a perfect situation. Food falling from trees and all I have to do is go for a nice ride on my bike to collect it!

Well it was too good to be true! A couple of weeks ago I rode past the orchard and it had been razed to the ground! Nothing left of that little grove but a smouldering pile of smashed branches and roots, a few stumps sticking out of the ground and some mango seeds remaining from the fruit that rotted on the ground! So much for "The People's Orchard!" At first I thought it was an act of malice against the trees and those who enjoyed their bounty but most likely a simple pragmatic decision to reduce potential spread of disease or re-develop the land or something like that. Either way it pisses me off when things like that happen.


Mango tree stump (100s of trees destroyed)


Pile of burned roots and branches

It was such a beautiful orchard. I guess I was always preoccupied with its fruit to bother taking a photo before it was destroyed.

So much space so few places to sit!

Ephemoral Stream dreaming

A follow up on my last post which was a kind of screaming rant about the destruction of habitat loosely disguised as some kind of cryptic rant about academia...

Well they're still at it! Instead of improving road safety and building us shared bike path or cycle lane on Lee Point Road a certain Government department who for the sake of this post I am calling: The 'Suppression of Tranquility and Usurpers of Public Inclusion Department'. (STUPID) of the NT'. Have chosen to continue their assault on all living things the happen to find along the roadways.


Continuation of destruction from Yesterday.

Besides creating greater erosion and reducing habitat the removal of these trees has also removed a critical amount of shade... Of course this makes it less pleasant for humans to sit around, or ride through; but what it also does is leave the entire watercourse vulnerable to invasive weeds like Gamba and Mission Grass! These two species are highly invasive and highly flammable. Bad move STUPID! Both weeds are present in the area but had failed to colonize the shaded area in my previous post and you can now see in the image above.

There's something going on in this town and it Sucks! Like Billy Colony predicted... 'The Beige People want to taking over the world' (or something like that!)

I've ridden by that way so many times, delighting in the shade, the green the cool. A secret place functioning beautifully without interference, overlooked by the agents of the machine and loved... One more beautiful place defiled.
Without the cover of a row of trees so many Long Grass camps are exposed, vulnerable to the prying eyes of drivers and 9 to 5ers. Bush campers creeping a little further from the road trapped between the bitumen and a cyclone wire fence... Soon Old Darwin will be sterilized of all imperfections, sanitized of colour of every kind!

All around Darwin right now trees are being felled; cut down to the ground and their roots chewed out of the earth! The attack is not just on trees and greenery either... When I arrived in Darwin there were murals on all of the bus stops, Casuarina Library and a bunch of other places that may have already slipped by without being noticed. The murals are being painted over with some neutral uninspiring anti-colour!
WHAT ARE THEY DOING TO THIS TOWN?

So what's next?





Look what they're doing