Forest water yields

It’s time for us to become petrol spies. I do a bit of travelling around the country and one of the things I like best is my petrol spy phone app that gives me instant price checks on fuel in my area.

Prices can vary a lot and now I am in control over what price I pay.

You just select your fuel type and your area and it shows all nearby outlets and their prices.

I notice in our Warragul area in the last week some outlet prices have increased by 14 cents per litre.

This latest spike has urged me to put pen to paper in protest.

Let’s get active on fuel prices. Get the free phone app and vote against these price hikes with our feet, or in this case our wheels.

Patrick Johnson, Warragul

I am writing about timber versus water yield in the mountain ash first in the central highlands.

In a recent letter to the editor I wrote about the age of the ash rain forest and using the Kuczea curve.

If you know the age of the forest and the expected rainfall the amount of run-off in the mountain streams can be estimated.

An old growth forest around 100-years-old yields almost all the rainfall as run off.

A young forest between 20 and 40-years-old one hetre will use approximately five megalitres annually over the 20 year period of growth. One hetre uses 100 megalitres.

To check out what is really happening in our mountain ash rainforests I obtained the records dating back to 1926 taken at the river flow stream gauging station on the Latrobe River at Willow Grove.

The daily average stream flow of the Latrobe River at Willow Grove over the 10 years prior to the 1939 bushfires caused from the old growth ash rainforest was 726 million litres.

The same catchment a young Mountain Ash rainforest in its water using growth stage 3338 million litres over the period 2007 to 2017.

Note also figures recorded by Monash CRC in the late 1990s quoted 70 per cent of the run off from streams that started in the central highlands came from the mountain ash rainforest.

Eighty per cent of the timber harvested at that time was Mountain Ash species, two thirds of which would be pulp for Maryvale Paper Mill.

The trend in the water yield into the Latrobe River unregulated stream flows are vital for the fresh water fish and invertebrate to maintain that biodiversity and aiding the health of the Gippsland lakes system.

The question is which is the most important water or timber? Or can we have both?

Wally Brown, Noojee

I am sure the independent auditor didn’t raise any issues with the ability of a single unit truck/ bus 12.5 metre length or a 19-metre-long single articulated truck to negotiate this planned roundabout.

These sorts of specifications only increase any fear of danger to this family. The space left between the fence and roundabout, by the time the lamp post is installed to ensure safety of drivers negotiating the road will be less than the usual town footpath without the security of any verge.

If they try to do anything outside the front of their property including mowing what verge that is left, walking to friends and neighbours next door they will have to play a game of Russian roulette and hope all those big vehicles stay on the road.

I would like to alert anyone living close to new developments of the answer given to this family when they raised the issue of footpath access.

They were informed that the zoning on that side of road being agricultural, the shire weren’t required to allow for a footpath.

The new development across the road zoned residential, will include a wide verge between the road then a bike track, more verge and then the walking track, while easy access for all these residents will be by a neat roundabout offset into verge on opposite side of the road with no footpath.

The planned roundabout will not impact the family’s accessibility to their property, because they are breaking the normally solid white line in the island dividing the entry and exit to a roundabout, so they can negotiate a right hand turn across entry of roundabout into their driveway.

They will have to hold their breath as they put a right-hand blinker on as if going around the T intersection roundabout, then take the exit lane, then stop in front of others taking exit and wait till the entry into the roundabout is clear.

Backing out of the driveway will be onto the entry lane into the roundabout, and then negotiating the roundabout for whatever direction they are wanting to go.

This may not sound that bad to some people, now add extra traffic from the new large residential estate then add the extra traffic that will be generated when this roundabout becomes entry and exit to a planned school across the road, plus traffic exiting further up the road and making its way back into the roundabout.

As the parent of the owners and grandparent of the two little ones, plus an older very new driver I am fearful for their safety and possible abuse from other impatient drivers as they negotiate this turn into their driveway.

As a regular visitor to this property I’m dreading having to negotiate this right-hand turn and will most likely opt to driving through the roundabout and continuing up the road till I find a safe place to do a u turn. Exiting the property may have to wait till the school traffic dissipates, unfortunately the mum with school age children won’t have this option.

Pam Sharman, Warragul

Here’s a quote from probably the second wisest man who has ever lived on this earth: “When a nation sins, it will have one ruler after another. But with a man of wisdom and understanding, its stability will long continue.”

These thoughts are surely worth pondering in our current political climate.

Elizabeth Stephens, Neerim South

Thank you to the lady who found my purse in Warragul on Thursday afternoon and handed it in to the police station. You did not want you name passed on. I am very grateful for your kind act.

A big thank you to the kind people who helped me on Wednesday September 5 when I fell in Smith Street.

To the women, the man on crutches who offered them to me and the man in the wheelchair who found my glasses.

Also thanks to Lynne from the Health Food Shop who took me in for a rest. We are very lucky to live in a caring community

Bouquets to people who pick up their doggy doings however bricks to them when they drop them on vacant blocks for others to pick up.

Bricks to those in the community who would prefer to see the West Gippsland Hospital moved from Warragul to Drouin. Surely any competent architect could design an extension incorporating the existing buildings that could be built in stages causing as little interruption to the working of the hospital as possible.

A bouquet to the small girl who insisted her father pull over and inquire if I needed any help as I struggled along Albert Street with heavy parcels recently. Fortunately I didn’t, but the thought was much appreciated. There is great hope for mankind in the coming generation if we have enough people like this little girl.

A big pile of bricks to some of the Warragul Industrials Netball Club. I went to the Western Park netball courts Friday afternoon to see if the courts were open so my 13-year-old daughter could practice as she was in the grand final there the next day.

I received a very rude reply from a lady saying “No we are having a practice session, then they will be locked and there is no way you are allowed on the courts”.

I later found out others had tried to go there and had received the same response. I thought the courts were a public place and owned by the shire.

Many thanks to whoever planted the eye catching daffodils on the south side of Queen St. They certainly take one’s mind off the former Bonlac factory shambles.

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