LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Cool weather

FOR all the refugees from the Northern Hemisphere, you may be confused about Australia’s weather.

In Toowoomba the cool weather generally begins on May 28.

Just remember that hardly anyone hires in the winter anywhere, so you need to be prepared for this. It does get pretty tough if you have no money saved up. The coldest day is July 31 so you’ll need to rug up for this.

The warm weather will return around August 22 and so will the work.

Lots of older people tend to succumb to Toowoomba’s winter and/or will not open their doors.

Dave Fredericks, Toowoomba

Road conditions

IN response to Ray Hatch regarding road toll are you for real or do you not drive outside Toowoomba?

The roads are atrocious. We have better machinery and technology than ever but significantly substandard roads.

Most new roads develop potholes before even being finished.

That being said as a truck driver I have had people overtake me on blind corners and double lines and through intersections.

Obviously these actions have nothing to do with the condition of the roads but the attitude of the driver.

Ian Christensen Toowoomba

Inventions

THE other day I got to wondering who made the first fridge.

So a bit of research came up with some surprises.

The first refrigerator was made in Geelong in 1854.

The famous Hills hoist was invented here in 1911 and 1952 saw the first Victa lawnmower invented by Mervyn Richardsen.

Of all things Google, Maps was an Aussie first by Lars and Jens Rasmussen in 2003.

Our Staysharp knives were invented by Dennis Jackson.

The first powered flight was by Lawrence Hargrave in 1894.

Of all things the torpedo was invented here by a watchmaker, Louis Brennan.

In 1911 the armoured tank was invented by Lancelot Eldin De Mole.

The black box flight recorder was invented by David Warren and the electronic pacemaker by Edgar Booth in 1926.

The world’s first polymer bank notes by our CSIRO in 1988 as was Permanent press clothes.

The cochlear bionic ear implant allowing the deaf to hear was by Graeme Clark in 1978.

Wine casks and Vegemite also both originated in Australia.

Two of the greatest local inventions here were the Stump Jump plough in 1876 allowing farmers to cultivate over rocks and old tree stumps whereas before the fixed ploughs weren’t suitable for the job.

Wolsleys mechanical sheep shears by a Clarence Smith which replaced the old laborious hand shears.

That's some of our local inventions. We’ll look at a few more another time. Ray Harch, Toowoomba