At the start of WWII, Australia was unprepared for a prolonged conflict, processing just enough petrol reserves for three months and limited storage capacity.
Though fuel rationing wasn’t immediately imposed, the government urged citizens to conserve petrol, hoping to avoid drastic measures.
While the motor industry strongly petitioned against any fuel rationing, by 1 October 1940, however, fuel rationing became a necessity.
While researching for my three-part series on the truth behind the rainforest wars in New South Wales (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), there was a constant theme in the historical account of utilising one species of rainforest timber. While the cutting of hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii) was undoubtedly very extensive in New South Wales, the scale of utilisation in Queensland was even more significant, and one of its primary uses was for butter boxes.
As settlers moved into the rich, fertile areas of the Mary Valley in the 1860s, they wanted a railway to connect them more readily to the outside world and markets for their produce.
The government ignored their early calls, but all that changed when prospectors discovered gold at nearby Gympie in 1867.
“Sadly, our climate and energy policy remains in the grip of an intelligentsia that lacks the wisdom to recognise the boundaries of its own ignorance”. Nick Cater
“…destroying the landscape with inferior technologies that cost more and do not achieve the desired policy aim of Net Zero is insane”.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made us drastically change our travel plans. After only six weeks, we made it to the NSW-Vic border but returned to Queensland to sit out the nationwide lockdowns. Given some states maintained their border closures at the drop of a hat, we decided to remain in Queensland until things settled down and everyday life returned.… Read more
