Whinge of the day thread...

[EVIE/BEE]

It's only 10:18 over here. Time for morning tea.

The now wife, the real EVIE said it's just the male brain.

 

[user 4386]

Yep, along with numerous other rail links throughout the goldfields.
We were at Cashmans years ago and a pastoralist took me to the remains of the Peak Hill railroad, very little remains.
Don’t know much of its history.
My whinge was once we had a railroad 80% of the way to Newman and now when you travel that road it is nothing to have to pulll offf the road a dozen times in order to clear over width loads.
The whole highway is a disgrace due to excessive trucking..

I found the over-width loads misery last time I drove it.

 

[Davent]

Education is almost certainly the answer - it does not occur "in the communities in which they grqduate", it usually occurs in cities and they mostly don't go back because as you say, there are no jobs, so they stay in big places, buy houses, cars and educate their own kids. As a result, many remote communities have populations that are not increasing at the same rate as the NT overall. In small communities the kids mostly leave after primary school to attend hugh school. The kids who are causing the problem mostly got limited or no education. With a 25% indigenous population, NT has suffered from lack of education, not an excess.

Much building etc is done not by self-trained locals but normally apprentice -trained indigenous tradespeople (based only on what I have seen myself).

If there was much potential for self-sustaining community industries, non-indigenous people would have been out there 100 years ago doing it. The land is little use except for cattle grazing on native grasses. Where water is available (eg around Wiluna), vegetables are grown.

Mining is one of the few industries (as Marcia Langton has emphasized and got flack for doing so), but is often unpopular with indigenous people and unpopular in general with non-indigenous Australians as well (despite bringing in 60% of Australia's export income, and far more than agricultural exports). It has provided employment, and Forrest (Fortescue) have done a good job with this. We even have organizations like Indigenous Women in Mining. However distance is a factor. There was uranium mining east of Darwin (which Australians in general tried to prevent) but that has mostly gone - still good potential, but why should miners bother given attitudes (I worked there and got fed up)? Otherwise there is some minor gold mining around Tennant Creek and very trivial things around Alice Springs (gas, salt - some of which the Australian public also tries to prevent). It has worked better in WA where the population is not so anti-mining as the Australian public, and where mines are large (eg iron ore). So geography prevents it helping much around Alice Springs.

Cultural Heritage will do little to sustain these communities beyond some minor art-related and tourism industries. It is not so much a case of making positive efforts but trying to regenerate a traditional lifestyle in land with little or nothing to offer in terms of water, fertility or minerals. Yet non-indigenous Australians seem to think traditional ways are colorful and desirable (a Western lifestyle does not have to mean abandonment of all culture - but the spatial attachment of indigenous people to specific land is a major issue.

And although these comments have some relevance to the area around Alice Springs, they have little relevance to indigenous people in general, more than 90% of whom DO NOT live in remote or very remote areas (unlike the image our media portrays).

While I agree about education, its not working!
The way education and programs are being run in my work place is showing to be not much other than being seen to attempt to change behaviour.
The change has to come from the communities.
I could write pages of things I have seen here in the Top end, but most wouldn't believe it.
16 years in the job I am doing, and 22 years in remote communities and in Darwin so far.....

 

[Mackka]

Dave, maybe you should write it up and put it a commission. However, I can fully understand why it would not be a good idea seeing as how Whistleblowers are treated. Mackka

 

[Davent]

Dave, maybe you should write it up and put it a commission. However, I can fully understand why it would not be a good idea seeing as how Whistleblowers are treated. Mackka

It wouldn't be whistleblowing at all. Its not a corruption thing, its a problem that some people have some good ideas on how to make it better, but better wouldn't be good enough, and the barriers to cross to make it happen would be almost impossible. Then there would be those who would jump on a bandwagon with a catalogue of reasons it wont work, and how discrimitory it is, basically the will is not there, but the outrage is.

 

[EVIE/BEE]

I found the over-width loads misery last time I drove it.

Stop whinging. It's not a city road.

oops.

 

[Dave's Office]

I think you probably were bulk billed mate and that is the gap. I get charged 83.00 and get about $50 back, but I have been seeing him for 22 years and no complaints so happy to pay . Mackka

You might be right Mackka, I'll find out from the girls at the counter when I go and pay it, I'm not against paying my way, especially when it comes to my health, maybe it's a sign of the times.

 

[Grey Panner]

When I said that education is not the answer I should have said that education alone is not the answer. Education with a practical purpose is always a good thing.
The problem is developing the enterprise that requires education for its fulfilment.

 

[user 4386]

Stop whinging. It's not a city road.

oops.

35 km per hour on a rural highway for many tens of km gets just mildly boring, but one gets time to enjoy the saltbush.....

 

[sand surfer]

I think you probably were bulk billed mate and that is the gap. I get charged 83.00 and get about $50 back, but I have been seeing him for 22 years and no complaints so happy to pay . Mackka

22 years mackka ,s^%$#%t we can't even get a doctor to stay her for 22 months
the gap now is 9 months since i had a doctor( saw a locum to get repeat scrips)
last doctor i had was for 14 months best doctor i ever have had really p%%sed that he had to leave(sick of the inhouse fighting in the surgery)
previous 4mths,9mths,3 mths ,5mths longest time without a gp 23mths ,wash rinse repeat see a locum from the local hospital that was stationed at the surgery and get scrip repeats only
no new patients at other surgeries for the same reason no gp
the surgery i have been going to, about 15 years ago there was 12 gp now they have one female gp left which she started while my last doctor was here
and the main reason for the gp shortage is the further from brisbane you get the less money they get per patient, that's one way to keep the doctors where the votes are

and now i think it is the sunshine coast hospital that has been moved (by the books) to the rural hospitals group now i am not suspicious but it has boosted the head count for the rural doctors

 

[user 4386]

When I said that education is not the answer I should have said that education alone is not the answer. Education with a practical purpose is always a good thing.
The problem is developing the enterprise that requires education for its fulfilment.

There is another education issue and that may be the main one with the louts in places like Alice Springs - attending school at all.

"In 2013 the state-wide attendance rate for Aboriginal students was 76.9 per cent compared with 92.3 per cent for non-Aboriginal students. The primary attendance rate for Aboriginal students was 80.7 per cent compared to 93.7 per cent for non-Aboriginal students, while the Aboriginal attendance rate in secondary years was 67.2 per cent compared to 89.1 per cent for non-Aboriginal students".

The problem being parents who do not insist on their children attending - in one state they paid parents for each day a child turned up at school.

 

[EVIE/BEE]

When I said that education is not the answer I should have said that education alone is not the answer. Education with a practical purpose is always a good thing.
The problem is developing the enterprise that requires education for its fulfilment.

I was invited out with a bunch of black fellas on a goanna hunt a while back.
These people are still living a semi hunter gatherer lifestyle and having fun doing it.
Why on earth would they want to work 8 to 10 hrs a day and go home to live in a box like the rest of us? They're living their dream. Yes there is an alcohol problem but white fellas beat up their wives too.

Society gives us welfare, they're living their dream.

 

[Mackka]

22 years mackka ,s^%$#%t we can't even get a doctor to stay her for 22 months
the gap now is 9 months since i had a doctor( saw a locum to get repeat scrips)
last doctor i had was for 14 months best doctor i ever have had really p%%sed that he had to leave(sick of the inhouse fighting in the surgery)
previous 4mths,9mths,3 mths ,5mths longest time without a gp 23mths ,wash rinse repeat see a locum from the local hospital that was stationed at the surgery and get scrip repeats only
no new patients at other surgeries for the same reason no gp
the surgery i have been going to, about 15 years ago there was 12 gp now they have one female gp left which she started while my last doctor was here
and the main reason for the gp shortage is the further from brisbane you get the less money they get per patient, that's one way to keep the doctors where the votes are

and now i think it is the sunshine coast hospital that has been moved (by the books) to the rural hospitals group now i am not suspicious but it has boosted the head count for the rural doctors

Sorry to hear that SS. My Dr. set up his practice with two other young Dr.’s , mates from Uni and that was 25 years ago in the same spot and now they have 9 Dr.’s and visiting Specialists. Takes about 5 days for an appointment for him but if your not fussy, sit the surgery and wait. It is a Private Practise. I really feel for the expectant mothers around Gladstone but hopefully it will improve as it can’t get any worse. Cheers

 

[Moneybox]

I believe in buying local where possible however the suppliers are not keeping up their end of the bargain.

I tried to buy a good sized order from Supercheap. They state free shipping for orders over $100 so that suits me fine. I select a Perth store and enter the order online. All goes well until I get to the checkout and find a $25 shipping charge. I need my items quickly so process the order and pay. Then I send an email asking for the $25 credit due to the order total in excess of $180 but I'm told there are some conditions, like oversize, that may have caused the freight charge to be applied. No checking on my order just a possible reason for the outcome. I couldn't afford the time to follow it so I just accepted the charge.

Next thing I get a message from Australia Post to say that my package is a due some weeks away. What happened to shopping local?



So then I gave Statewide Bearings in Wangara. I needed the bearings right away but was told they couldn't ship them if I didn't have an account. I don't want 30-day accounts, if I can't pay I can't buy because I don't have the energy to follow these things up.

The answer was easy, I went online and ordered the bearings from Germany, they'll arrive on DHL before I get my Supercheap order from Perth.

 

[EVIE/BEE]

There's a bearing warehouse in Northam if that helps.

 

[Mackka]

Two weeks in a row we have bought soft wholemeal bread with a reasonable ubd Only to find a day or in one case three days before ubd and it is mouldy. Keep n a braed bin with silicone gel moisture absorbers, yep it’s Qld, not happy Jan!

 

[Ned]

We buy bread and keep in the freezer section of the fridge. Both sandwich or toast bread. Even bread rolls. Pull out what you need at a time. Always as fresh as the day purchased. Toast goes in the toaster frozen comes out perfect. sandwich bread is buttered frozen and by the time you add the filling is fresh as. Bread Rolls can be put in Microwave for 10 second and the ready to use. Don't use bread bin at our house.
regards Ned

 

[EVIE/BEE]

Two weeks in a row we have bought soft wholemeal bread with a reasonable ubd Only to find a day or in one case three days before ubd and it is mouldy. Keep n a braed bin with silicone gel moisture absorbers, yep it’s Qld, not happy Jan!

Apart from time it's basically oxidization that sends bread mouldy.
If you suck all the air out of the plastic bag and reseal it the bread will last a lot longer. Thats if you leave the bread in the bag.

 

[Moneybox]

There's a bearing warehouse in Northam if that helps.

View attachment 7532

Freight from there might be difficult. I've reopened an old account with Statewide Bearings. It only took a phone call, I didn't even have to fill out paperwork because the old account was only on hold from sitting idle.

 

[Bora68]

It is not always true that Aboriginese are deeply attached to the areas in which they were raised,
In Hall's Creek, in the East Kimberly, it was ruled that full-strength beer could not be consumed in public, but only on licenced premises. Immediately, there was a mass exodus to Broome, Derby and Kununurra where full-strength beer was believed to be freely available. The immigrants lived in the parks and under the trees it being the dry season.

In Hall's Creek, ten businesses closed for lack of custom. Two super markets closed. A fully operational post office became a sub-agency operating for restricted hours on another business premises.
It seemed that access to full-strength beer was more important than loyalty to traditional areas, although it is possible that the exodus was also due to defiance to paternalistic control.
The situation is complex. In and around Hall's Creek there are many Aborigines who work, or have worked as station hands, station managers, caravan park managers, musicians, helicopter pilots, grader drivers, shop assistants and council workers. Some own their own businesses. These ,however, have tended to be individual efforts.There appears to be a general resistance to "alien" culture forced upon them from outside. In some instances, Aboriginese who make the change are ostracised by other community members and referred to as "Uncle Toms".
One thing is certain. Change forced on a community from above doesn't work. Change must be conceived and developed at grass roots level by the people themselves.
To get back to gold mining, elders of an Aboriginal community to the south of Hall's Creek were asked why they did not exploit the alluvial gold that proliferated in their area. They replied that it was not necessary for them to do because sooner or later some white man would pay big money to mine the area and the community would benefit without having to lift a finger.
A couple of years later the Ducan Highway was busy, with road trains carrying transportable accommodation, machinery and stores heralding a massive operation in the Ringer's Soak area. Undoubtedly the community will benefit but with a little bit of enterprise
they could have transformed their community into a thriving entity with numerous educational and employment opportunities.
While ever they get help for doing nothing therre will be no incentive for change.

Really interesting and valuable perspective there. Obviously gained from long experience and observation. You could probably provide some good insight to the people wrestling with the massive problems in Alice Springs.