A New Water Storage Tank

Back in July 2025, I posted about a severe weather event that destroyed one of our (very old) water storage tanks.
After a little procrastination I decided that we needed to replace it.

We did have 30,000L of water storage without the missing tank but with the predictions of increased drought conditions and higher temperatures due to climate change there was a bit of an incentive to increase storage by another 10,000L.
A very dry and warm autumn and winter here plus the situation in the northern hemisphere over their summer so far was further proof that things could get tough.

I decided that we needed a squat tank so that the overflow of our current house tank would run into it.

They have changed the design of the tall tank that we already have so the inlet of similar one next to it would be too high.
Unfortunately the War in Iran had the effect of increasing plastic prices considerably so our original tank budget needed a rethink. Linear Medium Density Polyethylene (LMDPE) is the common material used.

It is food grade quality suitable for safe drinking water storage and is all imported.

But we bit the bullet in June when Bushmans had an end of financial year sale where we could save a few dollars.

Delivery time was 6-8 weeks as each tank is made to order.

This is our fifth tank from this company. One was a replacement for that destroyed by the 2019/20 bushfires.
The tank turned up a few days ago and three of us, the driver, a neighbour and I rolled it off the truck, across the front lawn and onto the old cement pad.

Once the inlet was lined up with the outlet of the old tank, the overflow and outlet valve were fitted.

All took around 45 minutes.
I then started to fill the new tank with enough water, around 1000L, so it would not blow away.
We had been experiencing some pretty windy days leading up to delivery.
The old and new tanks were connected by some simple plumbing 

We just need some substantial rain to fill it. 

The 23rd Commonweath Games

The 23rd Commonwealth Games took place in Glasgow between 23rd July and 2nd August. 

There were 74 Commonwealth Games Associations eligible to compete, all of whom sent athletes to the championships.

There are 56 Commonwealth countries but sovereign states, home nations, and overseas territories compete separately eg. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each send a team. They don’t compete as the United Kingdom.
The state of Victoria, in Australia, originally won the bid to host the 2026 Games across regional hubs like Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat, and Gippsland.

The state government cancelled the event after estimates ballooned to over A$6 billion, deeming it financially unsustainable for taxpayers.
The city of Glasgow offered to takeover hosting the games albeit with fewer sports and using established venues and no dedicated accommodations.

Victoria paid $589 million in compensation and termination costs, which included helping fund Glasgow's scaled-down replacement
Medals were available in 215 events, spread across 10 sports.
Six of them included Para sport competition: 3x3 basketball, athletics, bowls, cycling, swimming and weightlifting.

The other four sports were artistic gymnastics, boxing, judo and netball.

Finnie, the game’s mascot 

The streamlined 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow dropped several main disciplines:

- Whole SportsTeam and Ball Sports: Hockey, cricket, rugby sevens, squash, badminton, table tennis, and beach volleyball.
- Combat and Other Sports: Wrestling and triathlon.
- Aquatics and Shooting: Diving (leaving only swimming/para-swimming) and shooting.
- Specific Sub-Disciplines: Road cycling and mountain biking were excluded with cycling restricted only to track cycling.
- Gymnastics: Rhythmic gymnastics were not featured, with gymnastics limited solely to artistic events.
- Athletics Events: Road events like the marathon were missing from the track and field program.

Australia did well, as usual, particularly in the swimming finishing with 37 gold, 16 silver, and 23 bronze medals in that discipline.

Total medal count below.

The 2030 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXIV Commonwealth Games and commonly called Amdavad 2030, is scheduled to take place in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, in October 2030.