*Pic: Seaport flooding (Image: Rob Burnett ) — at Seaport Launceston.
• Examiner: Tasmania’s big wet … rolling coverage
• Go to the epicentre: SES website HERE
• City of Launceston Official in Comments HERE: … Due to rising waters in the South Esk River, there now exists a potential risk to residents and businesses in the Invermay and Inveresk areas. …
• ABC: The Sword of Damocles over Launceston …
• Copping Tip: Carlton River Floods Again; 3rd 1-in-100-year event in 3 years
From Rob Burnett – the Tamar in flood, Pic taken Tuesday June 7
Looking towards Aurora Stadium, Monday June 6 …
… helicopter view of Launceston at 4.30pm, Monday June 6 .
… helicopter view of Launceston at 4.30pm, Monday June 6.
… helicopter view of Launceston at 4.30pm, Monday June 6.
… helicopter view of Launceston at 4.30pm, Monday June 6.
*Pic: Senate candidate Scruffy looks back as a ‘stream’ thunders past …
*Pic: Water runs through John Hawkins’ garage …
• Meanwhile … The Way We Were …
How times have changed! Photographs of the ‘Taroona’ at Kings Wharf, central Launceston in 1935, from the Courier Newspaper.
As I sit here and my creek rises to a dangerous level after 4 inches of rain with the worst to come … I wonder what Climate-Change-is-Crap Abbott and his acolytes Abetz, Nikolic, Hall and Shelton will have to say when Launceston floods.
These ideologically-driven people have allowed the headwaters of our rivers to be insanely overcut, woodchipped and burnt … exposing the topsoil to siltation in our rivers during heavy rain.
As a result of their hatred of the Greens these Liberals have failed the people of Tasmania.
The resultant mud and sludge has blocked the Tamar and turned it into a silt-filled stinking ditch.
If Launceston floods – and it is not far off – the people of Tasmania should hold them personally responsible.
Logging the headwaters of our rivers is a crime and the resulting punishment may well be upon us.
If not it will be a very close run thing.
• Lionel Morrell in Comments: A letter sent to a ratepayer/resident of Invermay, who is anxiously waiting to hear if she is to evacuate – when the bell tolls? … Ironically, UTAS has demanded it be gifted land at Inveresk and on the city side of the North Esk River at Willis St for it to relocate its Newnham Campus, and tonight there is a community-forced PUBLIC MEETING called by Launceston City Council at the Albert Hall opposing the gifting of land to UTAS… but the Hall is occupied as the EMERGENCY EVACUATION CENTRE. I guess it won’t be difficult to draw a crowd in the present circumstances?
• Mark Temby in Comments: Governments around the world know the future remediation costs of damage due to climate change will be impossible to meet. While the Australian major parties dither and kowtow to their common donors the events are becoming more intense and costly. Put simply, our economy cannot afford this future expenditure without planning and saving. Even then the expenditure will need to be minimal. It will be fascinating to watch the naysayers squeal like stuck pigs when a new tax or levy is introduced to pay for their denial.
• Leonard Colquhoun in Comments: Whatever else happens after these ‘rain events’ in Launceston, one effect should be the washing away of that dodgy UTAS / Inveresk / LCC deal. What say the UTAS Big Wigs down in Hobart are forcibly made to wade through our flooded areas here, in their best bespoke suits and hand-tooled footwear, of course. But, to balance this brickbat, a bouquet: (as far as one can tell) the university’s takeover of the Australian Maritime College has – so far – not gutted that highly successful institute of learning, teaching, and training (and, yes, eggheads, that’s as in T-R-A-I-N-I-N-G).
• Lyndall Rowley in Comments: … I’m not familiar with the details on streamside protection in Tasmanian planning schemes. But when I took a look at a draft earlier this year, I was appalled to see the cursory and pathetic treatment of environmental issues such as native vegetation, threatened species and habitat. (Come to think of it, I don’t recall any emphasis on climate change either). So I have doubts that retention & protection of vegetated streamside buffers – even if only for flood and erosion management – have been addressed with ‘best practice’. Hopefully my doubts are unfounded.
