Port Arthur Massacre 1996

Today marks 25 years since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre.
At the time, the attack was considered the world’s worst mass shooting, with 35 people killed and 23 injured at the historic convict ruins tourist site on the Tasman Peninsula in Tasmania.
It remains Australia’s most deadly massacre.
It was this massacre that prompted an overhaul of Australia’s attitude towards gun control under the prime minister of the day, John Howard.
Laws, the National Firearms Agreement or NFA, were brought in banning rapid-fire guns from civilian ownership, tightening requirements for firearms licensing, registration and safe storage, and establishing a government buyback of semi-automatic and pump-action rifles and shotguns.
More than 650,000 weapons were destroyed, potentially almost halving the number of gun-owning households.

In the 22 years after Port Arthur, there were no mass shootings (defined as shootings in which five or more people – not including the perpetrator – are killed), compared to 11 in the 20 years before Port Arthur. Average annual firearm-related deaths dropped from 3.6 per 100,000 population in the 17 years before Port Arthur to 1.2 per 100,000 in the 17 years after.

Yet this is not a total success story.
More than two-thirds of firearm deaths in Australia are suicides.
The other area of firearm violence that has received little attention is domestic and family violence.

While the proportion of Australians owning guns has dropped by about half between 1997 and 2020, the number of registered firearms in Australia now exceeds 3.5 million.
International studies show domestic partner homicides are up to 12 times higher when firearms are accessible while suicide rates are up to 19 times higher.
The National Firearms Agreement that contributed to reductions in firearm violence was however never fully implemented and has been chipped away at in various parts of Australia over the past 20 years.
Public complacency has been exploited by powerful pro gun lobby groups which undermines Australia’s successes in gun control.

COVID-19 / Collateral Damage

I have been with the same bank for decades, since my first housing loan way back in 1973.

But when internet banking became the norm, I hardly ever visited a branch except maybe to pick up some foreign currency for an overseas trip every two years or so.

And I can’t remember the last time I wrote or received a cheque.

Nevertheless, it came as a surprise that the bank is closing down its branch in our town.

Apparently the pandemic and its social distancing ramifications convinced people who were holding out that on line banking was not so bad after all.

Face to face banking fell to an all time low which had initiated the company’s decision.

There is a good chance our bank won’t even have an ATM in town.

Ours is not the only branch or indeed other banking companies’ branches suffering the same fate across the country.

Our area has a population of approximately 17,000 and is serviced by quite a few banks and building societies, all with charge free ATMs so I guess ours won’t be missed too much.

Our nearest branches will now be 30 minutes south and 60 minutes north away. 

I am sure this won’t be the only changes in our future daily lives caused by Covid.

ANZAC Day 2021

 

They shall grow not old,

as we that are left grow old;

Age shall not weary them,

nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun

and in the morning

We will remember them.

Magpie Crimes

We are in the middle of a mini mouse plague here. 

Only one in the house so far (caught in a trap) but we see them outside regularly and can hear scurrying in the roof at times. 

Our friends in the area are experiencing the same.

What with the mouse plague out west and now a problem here, mouse/rat bait is at a premium. There are no supplies anywhere around. We have been forced to order it on the internet and you have to be quick there too. Limited supplies run out quickly.

We use the wax blocks. They are moisture resistant and therefore good for outside and are easy to throw into the roof cavity from the manhole.

We went through one bucket (55 blocks) in just over a week!

I couldn’t believe each day so many blocks had completely gone. Mice couldn’t carry them and rats would  also have difficulty. 

Maybe possums? But no dead ones around. 

Maybe our resident bower bird, who loves blue things, was using them to decorate his bower. But no, nothing in there either apart from some of our blue clothes pegs and blue milk bottle tops.

Then the other day I spied the culprit.

One of our resident magpies had a block in his beak and the co driver caught one of them stealing a block off our front veranda.

They were hopefully using them to decorate their nests, not eating them.

I didn’t know they liked blue things. A quick check of Google came up with nothing apart from an article in a northern NSW paper about a magpie nest decorated with blue baling twine.

So now we are laying out the exterior baits after sunset and collecting them early morning.

Obviously this is a bit of a pain but with the bait shortage and resultant inflated price, not to mention possibly saving magpie lives, it’s something we have to do.

COVID-19 / Australia / Vaccine Rollout / Update 30th March & 12th April

There’s an Australian saying involving brothels that is related to someone or some organisation who is hopeless.
To clean that saying up, let’s just say the Australian government “couldn’t organise a beer in a brewery”  when it comes to Covid vaccine distribution.
About 4 million Australians were to be vaccinated by the end of March. By this Wednesday, about 312,502 doses had been administered.
The government has shifted from promising all Australians would be vaccinated by October, to saying everyone would receive their first dose by October.
There is no doubt that the vaccine rollout is one of the most complex, logistically challenging undertakings that has faced the Australian government.
And yes, it has been complicated further still by factors outside of the government’s control. International supply of the AstraZeneca vaccine has been restricted by the European Union, which has blocked hundreds of thousands of doses reaching Australia.
But GPs across the country, already fatigued from the strain placed on them during the pandemic, have seethed with frustration in the past two weeks, as the government moved to the second stage of its vaccine rollout, phase 1b.

That frustration began last Wednesday, when the government blindsided many GPs by publicly telling Australians to flock to a new government website, which checked their eligibility for the vaccine and then linked roughly 6 million eligible patients with about 1,000 GP clinics currently activated to distribute the vaccine.
Naturally, GPs were immediately inundated with calls.
But with no vaccine supply to speak of, most simply could not book patients in.
Shipments were promised last week, before the start of phase 1b on Monday,
Some simply didn’t show up.
In some cases, vaccines were showing up, but needles and disposal containers were not.
Granted there is less urgency in Australia than in other nations as we seemingly have the Covid situation under control.
Yet that is the very reason the government has repeatedly said that Australia has had time to plan its rollout, and conduct it carefully and with efficiency.
That time afforded to Australia allowed it to set targets that now seem laughable.
The nation is now dependent on local manufacturing of the AstraZeneca vaccine through CSL, which began releasing 830,000 doses for use last Tuesday.

Us phase 1b people live in hope.

Source:Guardian Australia 

Update: 30th March

My first shot is due next week!!

Update: 12th April

I had my first shot last week. No reaction apart from a sore arm.
In the broader picture, the brown stuff has hit the whirly thing with a case of blood clotting in a younger recipient of the AZ vaccine in Melbourne.
This reaction has been noted in a number of cases overseas and has proved fatal in a few.
Granted the figures are very very low but it has caused some re thinking here.
The government has decided that AZ should only be given to the +50 population although this is not mandatory. It comes down to personal choice.
Given there are virtually no replacement vaccines available, the rollout has been thrown into disarray.

Of course the government spin machine is working overtime.

The ‘everyone totally vaccinated by October’ boast was abandoned with the new message ‘all Australians will have a dose by the end of the year’ only to be quickly replaced by ‘we have not set, nor have any plans to set any new targets for completing first doses’.
Forty million doses of the Pfizer vaccine are supposedly in the pipeline. But who knows when/if they will arrive.
It seems it will be well into 2022 until the country is totally vaccinated.

No wonder plans for an early federal election have been put on the back burner.

People aren’t happy!

Easter 2021

With relaxing of the COVID restrictions Australia wide and the reopening of state borders, people are on the move again.

Our area has always been a major holiday destination, but this year with the Easter long weekend combined with school holidays, we have been inundated with ‘touros’.

Good for the local economy, not so much for the amenity of the area.

Traffic is on the highways has been relentless. Sadly, a single car accident just down the road from us took 3 lives very early on Saturday morning. Probably fatigue related.

As a result of the ‘invasion’, we stock up on food a few days before Good Friday, shut the gate, and lock ourselves away for 5 days or so. This also gives the cattle a chance to really eat down the grass around our house paddock uninterrupted. They have been doing a great job so far.

This year the co driver’s birthday fell on Easter.

We celebrated with fresh oysters and tiger prawns, prawn cutlets to fry, BBQ’d fresh salmon and a bottle of Italian Prosecco.

There were even some prawn leftovers to make up a big wok full of nasi goreng for the next night.

I consumed numerous hot cross buns on the Friday (as well as the days (weeks?) before) and then, as a substitute for chocolate eggs, Maltesers on Sunday. 

Weather has been of the perfect Autumn kind ie. cool mornings, warm sunny days, little wind but it seems we are in for more rain later on in the week.

That’ll top up the house tank again.