More than a month's worth of rain as Wangaratta 'cops it’

More than a month's worth of rain has fallen in an hour just outside Wangaratta in the state's northeast on Saturday.

Wangaratta copped a month of rain in a day on Saturday. 

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of the state's northern country and northeast, with flash flood warnings in place for Euroa and Wangaratta. 

Senior forecaster Richard Carlyon said heavy rainfall hit Wangaratta Airport, about eight kilometres outside the city centre, from about 8pm.

"Wangaratta's copped the most rain," he said.

Read the story from the Melbourne Age - “More than a month's worth of rain as Wangaratta 'cops it’.”

(Sudden downpours such as that experienced at Wangaratta bringing rain at either near record or never before seen levels will become more common as climate change tightens its grip. Long dry periods followed by sudden and heavy downpours erode the dry earth, runs off dry ground quickly before soaking into the thirsty earth and so adds little to wetting of the soil - Robert McLean)

June discussion about the business benefits of climate change

The “Business Benefits of Climate Change” will be discussed at Wangaratta in June.

Professor Mark Howden from the Australian National University’s  (ANU) Climate Change Institute will set theme with a dinner lecture on the evening of Thursday, June 1.

That session, at Wangaratta’s Quality Hotel, starts at 6:30pm and continues until nine o’clock.

The following day, Friday, June 2, will begin at 8:30 am with a keynote address from the Australian Capital Territory’s Environment Commissioner, Dr Kate Auty.

That afternoon, continuing at the Wangaratta Performing Arts Centre, will be a consultation session conducted by the ANU.

The event is being staged by the Wangaratta Sustainability Network and tickets, which can be secured through EventBrite range from $50 for the Thursday evening session to free to the ANU session on Friday afternoon.

Victoria weather: Bright largely cut off by floodwaters as rivers continue to rise

A flooded caravan park in Wangaratta.

Wangaratta is on high alert, while Bright has been largely cut off by floodwaters as northern Victorian rivers continue to swell.

Major flooding is expected to occur along the Lower Ovens River near Wangaratta late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning.

Wangaratta is on high alert, while Bright has been largely cut off by floodwaters as northern Victorian rivers continue to swell.

Major flooding is expected to occur along the Lower Ovens River near Wangaratta late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning.

Read the Melbourne Age story - “Victoria weather: Bright largely cut off by floodwaters as rivers continue to rise.”

Motoring enthusiasts given a glimpse of the future at Shepparton

S

lap Tomorrow gave motoring enthusiasts a glimpse of the future at yesterday’s Rotary Motor Show and Market Day in Shepparton.

Just a part of the Slap Tomorrow
 alternatively fuelled vehicles stand at
 yesterday's Rotary Motor Show and 
 Market Day at Shepparton's Driver
 Education Centre (DECA).

The star of the group’s display was the brilliant white Tesla SS brought to Shepparton by the proud owner, Francis Reeves, of Wangaratta.

With him in her car was Frank’s wife Meg, who added a something extra with her Mitsubishi MEIV, another all-electric car.

Both Frank and Meg had their cars open to the public allowing people to look at, try the driving position and willingly and happily answered similar questions over and over again.

Taking the electric theme even further we two registration and license-free scooters from Puri, one of which was sold on the day, and an electric race car produced by students from the Swinburne Institute of Technology in extra-curricular activities.

The small race car that can reach 200km/h, but is governed to less than that, has many sponsors, among them Shepparton’s Betroli Farm Machinery and the insurance brokers, Griffiths Goodall.

 

Adding to the show was a near new Holden Volt, known for its remarkable range.

Also on show was a truck from the Shepparton-based Gouge Dry Cleaners that is powered by compressed natural gas, produced on its own site in Mooroopna.

The power of bio-diesel was also demonstrated with an illustration of how the process begins with the grinding of mustard seeds.

Concern about the use of valuable agricultural land for growing such things as mustard seed used only for bio-diesel were discounted as those areas used for regular cropping need a “break crop” to revitalise the soil, and mustard seed, and similar crops are ideal for that purpose.

The Tesla shown at yesterday’s Rotary event at DECA was most impressive – it looked wonderful and stylish, it had a boot where you normally find a motor, it had an even more commodious boot at the rear, a motor somewhere under your feet, a range of 500km, and acceleration that would have shaded all those other conventional cars on show, and there were some pretty impressive “muscle cars” among the exhibits.

Tesla is about to establish charging points between Melbourne and Brisbane and Frank said that after 500km and the time it takes to have a coffee, you can be back on the road full charged.

Appointment of 'adaptation mentors' suggests mitigation is officially forgotten

Victorians are being subtly introduced to a process that could eventually become serious geo-engineering.

It seems that officialdom has abandoned the idea of climate change mitigation and had embarked on adaptation.

That, at least, is one interpretation that could be put up the appointment of three “Local government adaptation mentors”.

Although they are not in the title, the missing words are “climate change”, indicating, mitigation is a lost opportunity and now we are looking at adapting to whatever comes.

Geo-engineering is a natural extension of adaptation processes and while embraced by many of the fossil-fuel enthusiasts, it takes little, or no account, of unintended consequences, the acidification of our oceans, the survival of other species upon which man depends or our intergenerational responsibilities, that is to people we haven’t met yet, because they are not yet born.

Just recently, three new Local government adaptation mentors were appointed in Victoria, one in Warrnambool, one in Melbourne and a third in Wangaratta.

Narelle Martin has been at work in Wangaratta for nearly four weeks and is responsible for local governments in whole northern section of Victoria.

Appointment of the three mentors is state-based pilot project. Narelle can be contacted at 0477 313 911.