The country is having a federal election on 24th November and the campaign is in full swing. Money is being thrown at the voters with gay abandon by both parties. After 11 years of conservative rule, the feeling is there might be a change. But Australian voters are notorious for succumbing to the "political" bribe and in the past have been willing to ignore many social aspects of the life we should be leading in this country in favour of a fatter wallet.
One interesting fact to come out of the information overload that is an election is the demographic of where we live on the south coast.
Our electorate, Gilmore, is described as covering 5,529 sq.km on the NSW south coast. Based in the agricultural Shoalhaven River Valley, its main population centres are Nowra-Bomaderry, Kiama, Milton-Ulladulla and Batemans Bay. The small coastal communities that dot the electorate are popular destinations for retirees, and holiday makers after a cheap secluded holiday.
And another fact that surprised me was that according to the 2006 census, 21.6% of the population of Gilmore is aged 65 and over, the highest proportion in the country, and the median age of 45 is also the highest in the country.
It certainly doesn't feel like "coffin dodger" territory to me.
Two good web sites to check out the South Coast are:
www.southcoast.net.au
www.southcoast.com.au
The South Coast Wine Show is coming up in January. I am on the organising committee which is a subsiduary of the Milton Rural Show. There is a bit of resistance to enter the electronic age in order to publicize the two events but we are slowly getting there. We will be registering domain names for future use as a start. In the meantime we have established a blog to give the wine show some image. Check it out.
www.southcoastwineshow.blogspot.com
We have had plenty of rain over the last week. The vines will appreciate this and the growth spurt is very noticable. Luckily I keep an eye on the long range weather forecast and was able to spray in time. The crop load at this early stage looks good. If we can get a good fruit set and keep the fungus out as well as get good ripening conditions in the new year it may be a bumper vintage. Not much to ask really.
Flushed with the success of my first DVD, I have begun another project. I will be documenting the entire growing season in the vineyard from budburst through harvest to wine in the bottle.
It has been fun so far.
Hopefully it will remain so.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
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