Time to choose

Time to choose between coal mines and renewables. Not so hard, you'd think, and most developed countries made a sensible choice a few years ago. Not so Australia, of course. We don't do sensible here.

On Saturday several thousand people turned out on the streets of Sydney to help the state government make that choice. It was exactly twelve months before the next state election.

























It's astonishing that this still needs to be done. But the coal industry has enormous financial clout still, the coffers of the major parties are full of dirty coal money, and the Murdoch press is full of dirty coal propaganda. The Sydney Daily Telegraph has published dozens of bizarre coal-lovers' letters recently. Yours truly was obliged to provide their letters column with a 'Reality Check on Energy' as they, to their credit, headed it:

It's almost touching to see the faith of some of your contributors in the coal-fired technology of previous centuries as a solution to the energy challenges of the future. Unfortunately that faith is misplaced.

* During recent hot spells the state's coal-fired power stations suffered a huge amount of downtime due to the heat itself.

* By and large they are unreliable old clunkers at the best of times.

* Building new ones would now be massively more expensive than renewables.

* So-called 'clean coal' was largely a distraction to buy time through false hope. It cannot be done at reasonable cost.

We have the world's best resource of clean, inexpensive, renewable energy, and the know-how to harvest it. With modern batteries and hydro storage schemes, plus some new inter-connectors, we could have the world's most reliable supply too. It's time to say goodbye to a misplaced nostalgia for the dirty old days.

Re the photo below, I asked the girl in front who 'The Drip' was, and why he needed saving. It seems it's a scenic spot near Mudgee, and it's threatened by a coal mine.

Waves, explosions, and a rock-star physicist

The other night I met Tara Murphy. She's an Associate Professor of physics at Sydney University, and she's an astrophysicist who knows all about neutron stars, gravitational waves, radio astronomy, and how to give a riveting public lecture. She was also the winner of the Young Tall Poppy of the Year award in 2012 after all!

She was describing the spectacular events of August last year, when she and her team were among the first in the world to observe radio and gravitational waves coming from the same event.

Two neutron stars were circling each other 130 million years ago, spiralling in faster and faster until they collided with an incredible output of energy. After all this time the radio waves arrived here about a second after the gravitational ones, for reasons I've forgotten. Here's the sound (sort of) of the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu8dcMoTl4U 

She tells the story far better than I can, so take a look at this Sydney Uni piece on her work. An explanatory comic-strip mural which was created is included, and may assist: Gravitational waves breakthrough

Harbourside sights #281: Stately queens, trusty ferries, & crazy jet boats

There's usually a cruise ship or two in port in Sydney Harbour. The other day the Queen Elizabeth was in town.





The good old harbour ferries beetled back and forth as usual.

But for a lot of tourists it's all about the jet boat.

Harbourside sights #280: Streeton's view and the Curlew Camp

In the 1890s several of the great artists spent time at the artists' camp at Little Sirius Cove - Curlew Camp. Arthur Streeton and Tom Roberts are probably the best known.

Harbourside sights #279: Sirius Cove & Mosman Bay

Harbourside sights #278: Georges Head's arty fortifications

Megalong Ledges

I'm often amazed at how many excellent classic walks there are in the Blue Mountains which were completely unknown to me beforehand, and not in the usual repertoire of my bushwalking club.  My more adventurous Thursday group have knowledge of many more places, and yesterday some of us checked out another one of these.

It's known as the 'Megalong Ledges', and you go from Medlow Bath to Katoomba along a series of ledges half way down the cliffs above the Megalong Valley. The ledges are mostly quite wide and safe, and there are usually trees around you, so it's not so scary.

Near the start is a fine little rock formation, called the 'Three Brothers', because of their uncanny resemblance to the larger Three Sisters at Katoomba. Here's 'Brother Harold', making it four.




A bit to the north and at the top, the historic Hydro Majestic Hotel.









The ledges proper now. Always scenic, often very colourful, and usually with excellent views of the valley below.

Needless to say, it's a rock-climbers' paradise around here. There are climbing bolts everywhere. Maybe in the next life I'll be able to get interested in that pursuit. Not now though. It's fun enough anyway around here even with your feet on (fairly) solid ground.

Brother Paul here isn't a rock climber either, but he's climbed more mountains than almost anyone else in the world. See his extremely informative blog here: http://mntviews.blogspot.com.au/

Hanging Rock: picnics, poseurs, and panic

My Thursday adventure bushwalking group has been talking about Hanging Rock for quite a while. It's a smallish bushwalk, but quite high in the adventure stakes. Some people just can't bring themselves to jump over THAT GAP. And as for that narrow little pointy platform at the end.......

We finally made it last week, and gee it was worth it. The views over the Grose Valley are magnificent, and the buzz you get from conquering the thing! Specially when half the party chicken out and stop well short.

Let's be honest, the jump across 'that gap' is pretty easy. Nobody falls down it. People have died though, doing slack rope walks and base jumps. It's really easy to spook yourself in these situations though. Best just to walk up to the gap and jump without looking down. You can do that afterwards.

There are lots of excellent videos of people's Hanging Rock exploits. Do a quick search of 'Hanging Rock Blue Mountains', and you'll see all the crazy scary stuff first. I like the slightly less scary ones myself, like the 'training videos' I forgot to show my fellow walkers before our expedition. Here's a nice one, almost designed to put you off:

Click here: Scaredy-cats video

There's also a very unbushwalkerly looking lady, Melinda, who's produced a whole stack of  'bushwalker training videos'. She's busy selling make-up and lipstick, I notice, but she's doing a great job promoting our sport too! 

Click here: Melinda's visit

Photo credits: Paul (4th photo), Fiona (5th photo)