Here are two pictures taken by a local resident and member of the group ‘Friends of Willunga Basin’ who keeps an eye on environmental issues at Maslin Beach.
 
The first picture was taken shortly after an 800m fence was installed at considerable expense by a State environmental agency along the storm-damaged face of the old quarry rehabilitation site at Maslin Beach – ostensibly to protect the overburden from further erosion.
 
The second picture was taken after the very next storm event on 15 September, shortly after the fence was installed.
 
It’s hard to know whether to laugh or weep. Residents walking along the beach have been shaking their heads in disbelief. One would be forgiven for thinking that our State Government environmental planners get their qualifications out of Weeties packets. Perhaps the planner involved here qualified at the King Canute School of tidal management!
 
Sadly, however, this is our taxes at work:

Congratulations to Aarod O’Donnell Vawser on winning the inaugural Literary Prize sponsored by STARS (Southern Theatre and Arts Supporters) with his entry “The Forest”.

Richard Clampett

As a young 13 year old, environmentalist David Suzuki’s daughter Severn gave one of the most remarkable, hard-hitting and eloquent speeches at the UN Earth Summit in Rio in 1992.

It is still a remarkable speech, but somehow poignant in light of how little the world’s leaders are doing - including our own Australian leaders who seem to have made little if any progress in nearly 17 years.

It’s time to listen to this speech again - and this time really listen! Find the video at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g8cmWZOX8Q OR
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=11118465

Some interesting thoughts on rainwater harvesting from Greg Cameron writing in the Indaily, the online News Service of Adelaide’s The Independent Weekly:

“Rainfall will be nationalised this week when the Water Amendment Bill 2008 returns to the House of Representatives from the Senate. Labor has adopted the previous Liberal Government's flawed policy that the right to use rain that falls on a person's roof is vested in state Governments by state legislation. The Bill refers states' constitutional powers in relation to water to the Federal Government. Under the policy, "entitlement regimes" will be imposed in order to regulate a person's use of a rainwater tank. An entitlement regime of 50%, for example, would double the cost of rainwater.” See the article ATTACHED
Nationalising our rainfall