This morning I found a leaflet in my mailbox
Admirably clear, but an internet address that only a public servant could love! There is a QR code though.
So I went straight to the clumsily named Department of Climate Change and God Knows What Else — do something about that, Tanya — and found the appropriate section which is also quite easy to understand, once you get there. See Illawarra, NSW declared offshore wind area.
Here in The Gong there has been much weeping and gnashing of teeth about this, but also much support. I am for sure a supporter. For some tooth gnashing you can’t beat Sky Oz and Matt Canavan, who is about as far north of Illawarra as you can get. I wonder indeed if he has ever been here. But wind him up and you get this:
And on the other hand… The leaflet explains that the exclusion zone is just 50 metres around each turbine, but that otherwise neither shipping nor recreational fishing is prohibited. So stop scaring everyone, Matt!
Then of course there is the aesthetic objection! Our glorious views that people come from all over the world to experience will be vandalised, lost forever.
Here is what according to the Department the view from Mount Keira on a clear day will be like. Oh my, let’s all jump up and down, scream, panic and have conniptions at the vandalism Labor would inflict! Get out the binoculars and you just MIGHT see something 22km off shore!
Costs
See the detail on the CSIRO site.
Poet Adam Aitken commented on my post yesterday:
Hi Neil, I am writing from France, where the latest reactor to go on line later this year began construction in 2007, so it has taken 17 years to complete. Originally costed at 3.3 Billion euros, it has actually cost 13 billion ( over 20 billion Australian dollars) and it won’t produce power until 2025. I can also say as a user of French electricity that is no cheaper than Sydney prices, in fact it is more expensive here, and will continue to be expensive for years to come, as the price of upgrading old reactors and building new reactors will be exorbitant.
Of course the usual sectors, in this case the oddly named Centre for Independent Studies, weigh in predictably:
Let’s go to Germany….
But what about the whales?
What indeed? Here is a US marine biologist.
Now for other matters
This morning in The Gong
Yes, winter has come!
A quartet of lunches
I did not go down to the Club this past week, so I have been cooking up if not a storm at least some palatable and simple dishes, such as:
That one is cheating — just opened a can of Tom Piper Sausages and Vegetables, a childhood fave.
You may or may not be pleased to know that the Woolies truck pictured above renewed my supply of Kangaroo Burgers!
Footy tipping
Just one game so far and it was close but no cigar….
Neil's Commonplace Book 