Living on Waranga Basin: Blog

Video from Silverlight Streaming

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 05:55:36 GMT

The Silverlight Streaming service by Windows Live (currently in trial) provides 10 gigabytes of online video storage for free.

See the website at silveright.live.com.

To get you started with your own streaming video, see Add Video Bling to your Web with Silverlight Streaming.

Waranga Basin panorama photo

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 09:49:14 GMT

You'll find some photos quickly taken across the Waranga Basin and from which a panorama was created using Windows Live Photo Gallery in the Waranga Basin Sep 8 photo album (the name is close...).

To see how to start using the Windows Live Photo Gallery (you can download it from here, along with other Windows Live programs such as Live Messenger, Mail, Writer and Toolbar), see Live Photo Gallery - getting started - from camera to panorama on webDotWiz Online Has a Space.

Here's a preview of the panorama:

Posted with Windows Live Writer.

Technorati tags: Waranga Basin, Windows Live Photo Gallery, photos

Cloud roll 02-May-2007 photo album

Fri, 04 May 2007 10:08:16 GMT

On Thursday morning, at about 0800, a cloud roll went over and photos I snapped are in an album.

The cloud was moving very quickly in a south-easterly direction (i.e., moving eastward and sliding south-easterly) so by the time I'd walked down the road with dog on his morning walk, snapped most of the photos, and returned to thespot at which I took the first photo, the roll had gone over.

And did it pour rain? No, not a drop.

Rushworth Bird Festival, Easter 2007

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 10:25:54 GMT

The Rushworth Bird Festival is part of Rushworth's Easter Saturday community festival.

See rushworthbirdfestival.spaces.live.com for more details of what's on and when on Saturday April 7.

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Rushworth Bird Festival, Easter 2007

Rushworth trees under stress

Sun, 11 Feb 2007 09:08:30 GMT

The median strip on High Street in Rushworth (said to be the site for shops in the really early days) is grassed and has some old deciduous trees.

But the long drought is having a sad effect on these trees, one in particular, which has been losing its leaves over the past couple of weeks. The photo below was taken last week on Tue or Wed, Feb 6 or 7, 2007):

Technorati tags: Drought, Rushworth

Bushfire photos

Sun, 11 Feb 2007 08:54:33 GMT

There's an album of a few photos taken by one of the volunteer firefighters who was attending to bushfires down in Gippsland around Howitville near Dargo.

Here's one:

Technorati tags: Victorian bushfires 2006-7, Gippsland, Victoria

Victorian bushfires (demo of embedding a video)

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 23:34:37 GMT

Windows Live Spaces has had an update so we can embed videos in a post.

So here's a YouTube video of the Victorian bushfires taken in December. The fires are still going but have quietened down due to a bit of rain.

Over a million hectares have burnt and on the eastern side fires are uncontrolled. Fortunately we haven't had really hot weather with strong northerlies. About 8 inches (200 mm) of rain are needed to make sure the fires are put out.

Rain - promised, hoped for, what we've got

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 22:23:25 GMT

While the townies (ie., those living in Rushworth) have enjoyed some good falls (i.e., the rain can be measured in millimetres, not drips or drops), out here we've been missed and bypassed in comparison.

Yesterday afternoon, however, we got the edge of a rain event (the new lingo from the weather people) that passed to the northeast. It was probably just as well we only felt the edge - there was a lot of huff and puff (strong, gusty winds).

This morning the radar is/was looking very favourable but we're yet to experience what it's promising (light to moderate rain falls). Here's the radar from a few minutes ago (The Waranga Basin is between Tatura and Bendigo but closer to Tatura).

Rain - it didn't here this morning but this evening it might

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 08:46:30 GMT

There were about 4 buckets of rain this morning out here while in Rushworth, they had about 8 mm. What are we doing wrong out this part of the world?

Anyway, here's what the radar is showing at the moment (it's moving our way) so we might get some tonight.

Happy New Year

Sun, 31 Dec 2006 22:40:37 GMT

Here comes 2007.

Best wishes for 2007 to one and all.

What will be the biggest event for excitement in 2007? How about it rains for a complete day instead of just a few minutes... and once it starts for a day, steady rain for a few weeks to catch up.

Smoke on the water - more

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 08:39:22 GMT

This morning the smoke was back - not as bad as it was a week or two ago, but it was here.

Over the past five or six days, winds have been from the sou'-west and swinging to the south so we've been smoke-free.

However, overnight the high pressure system moved further eastwards, bringing winds around to the sou'-east and thus moving smoke over here.

Although the fires have subdued somewhat due to a few millimtres of rain and cooler weather, they're still burning.

The weather forecast for the next week or so has more hot weather arriving (in the mid thirties) so that will mean the fires becoming stronger again.

Technorati tags: Victorian bushfires

Season greetings

Tue, 26 Dec 2006 05:45:17 GMT

A Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2007.

Victorian bushfires - a collection of main towns

Sun, 24 Dec 2006 09:34:20 GMT

The link below takes you to a map showing the main towns and landmarks on the edge of the fire area.

As of 24-Dec-2006, approximately 800 000 hectares had been burnt. The current weather forecast is not predicting sufficient rain to extinguish these fires so they will burn for some time to come... and there are two more months of summer, so it could be April before all fires are completely extinguished. Of course, there will be lots of wind changes and hot days before then and towns and property will be threatened time and again.

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My Live Search Maps collection

Mansfield, Victoria, Australia

Merijig

Mount Buller
Ski resort. Been under threat at different times.

Tolmie

Whitfield

Cheshunt

Paradise Falls

Dandongadale
Control centre of the Great Divide Complex North which contains 50 fires which have burnt 344,000 hectares (to 24-Dec-2006).

Bright
Fires burnt out around this area in January 2003.

Mount Buffalo Chalet
Been under threat at different times. The Chalet is a heritage building.

Mount Beauty

Gaffneys Creek

Jamieson

Kevington
Site of the famous Kevington Hilton Hotel (also known as the Poplar Arms). Mt. Terrible is close and fires have been burning there for the past 3 weeks (as of 24-Dec-2006).

Woods Point
Been under threat several times.

Howqua
Been under threat several times, especially in the past week.

Eurobin

Licola
Has been under threat of the fires for the duration, thus far.

Valencia Creek
Been under threat several times.

Dargo, Gippsland

Your scratch pad has been truncated.

Smoke on the Basin - More Today

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 08:54:35 GMT

The fires over at Mansfield, Whitfield, Jamieson, and surrounding areas, produced smoke on the ~~water~~ Basin all day today (Wed 13-Dec-2006), as well around Rushworth and other towns. There was just enough strength in the easterlies to bring plenty over. The forecast is that the winds will go around to the north - and that means higher temperatures .

Here's the sun trying to poke through this morning at about 0800:

Technorati tags: Victorian bushfires 13 December 2006

Smoke on the Basin

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 08:27:27 GMT

Smoke from the bushfires to the east of Waranga Basin arrived overnight as a light wind went around to the south-east and east.

At about 6.30 am, the sun was blocked out and until 8.30 am when I left to travel the 10 km into Rushworth, the other side of the Basin could be seen. However, during the morning the smoke thickened in Rushworth itself as the wind dropped and on returning home at about 2 pm, the smoke had completely blocked out the other side of the Basin.

The photo below was taken at about 5.30 pm from the edge of the Basin about five minutes walk from my block. Visibility at that time was about 500 m at the most.

At the time of writing - 1915 - there's just the slightest breath of wind and the smoke haze is still thick.

Tomorrow the expected temperature is 40 degree C as the wind swings around to the north. Sunday's weather is prediced to be similar.

With no rain in the near future to slow down the fires, authorities expect some of the fires to join and create a firefront of 100 km.

Click the map below to go to Windows Live Maps. There are some pushpins where home is (about 150 km away from the fires) and major fires are burning around Whitfield in the Ovens Valley, Mansfield and Jamieson.

Technorati tags: Victorian bushfires 8 December 2006

Waiting for some rain

Sat, 11 Nov 2006 10:33:05 GMT

The Weather Bureau have forecast some rain and some is showing on the radar but it's not getting to the ground here.

Try This - Live Search

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 07:03:24 GMT

Try this...

1. Go to http://www.google.com/ (just click the link to open a new browser windows)

2. Type in "search" (without the quotes)

3. Click the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button.

via Nigel Parker.

You'll see this posted soon on my other spaces.

Technorati tags: Google, search

Open Gardens Rushworth Sun Oct 29th - testing Event Plugin

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 10:07:23 GMT

We'll do two things at once - announce the Open Gardens event and use the Windows Live Writer Event Extension (we used to call these types of things plugins). Well, here goes...

What:	Rushworth Open Gardens Rushworth "Friends of the children" are having a walk through the gardens day on Sunday 29th October 10am-4pm. There will be 5 very interesting gardens to view on this day all different in their own right.... $10.00 gets you into all gardens cheap day out for all, kids are free so come along and have a great day.
When:	Sunday, October 29, 2006 (all day)
Where:	Five gardens around Rushworth Rushworth, Vic 3612 Australia

When I clicked on Insert Event... from the Insert pane on the right of Live Writer's screen, up popped a dialogue which I could have used to search for an event or, as in this case, I made a new entry for Rushworth Open Gardens, filling in details such as the name of the event, its date and location. I was also able to attach a photo and link to the site where the event is being promoted. All very easy and convenient .

Eildon Weir wall repairs 1929

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 06:08:43 GMT

Over the past few years of drought, the original wall of Eilden Weir (now called Eildon Dam) has been visible. As well, one tower of the original spillway has also appeared from the murky depths. This old wall is behind the new one built in the 1950's when Eildon was expanded in capacity (along with other dams such as the Hume Dam on the Murray River above Albury).

The photos below appeared on the front page of The Australasian Pictorial, July 27, 1929 (this newspaper, among others, was found in a box when cleaning up).

The writeup accompanying the photos was:

Costly Repairs to Eildon (V.) Weir

Two picture illustrating the work which is being done at the Eildon Weir to repair damage caused through susbsidence of the clay and rock fills on the upstream side of the dam. So far 1,500,000 pounds has been spent on the weir and the repair work is estimated to cost between 250,000 and 300,000 pounds.
At the top is a view of the dam with the tram tracks and general repair work.
Below is a more intimate view of the core wall, showing how the filling has subsided. The tram tracks carries truck loads of rock to build up the sunken filling. Because the core wall is 4 ft. 6in. out of line at the top it is feared that the wall may have been fractured horizontally between the bedrock and the top of the filling.

Interestingly, just a few years ago the Hume Dam had to be repaired to solve a similar problem (the Hume must have been enlarged by building up the old wall, whereas Eildon Dam had a completely new wall and spillway).

Inserting a map using Windows Live Writer (update)

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 00:37:10 GMT

Here we go. By the way, I've made my first entry to my webDotWiz Space using Live Writer and now have swtiched over to my Waranga Basin Space here with just one click - no need to sign out of Live Messenger, sign in with my other Live ID and then load this Space. Easy.

Waranga Basin, Rushworth, AU

On the left is a Local Live map of where I'm located on the Waranga Basin (better shown by the aerial photos in my album).

To insert this map, I used the Insert Map... wizard. When the Local Live map tool loaded, I entered my address to search for - I discovered that my town is Waranga, not Rushworth, in the data base! I stayed with Road view because of my slow ISDN internet connection.

In the same way as on Local Live, I added a pushpin and up popped the little info box so I entered a title a couple of lines of notes.

All the usual Live Local nav arrows and zoom in/out features are available so I zoomed out a bit until Rushworth was located on the map.

Then I clicked Insert and you're looking at the result after a couple of other tweaks.

After clicking Insert, a task pane on the right gave me more options - I chose the place the map on the left with text wrap and I adjusted the right margin a few pixels. As well I gave the map a title, Waranga Basin, Rushworth, AU.

The longest part of the whole process? Jotting down how I did it.

Oops, when first published, I lost the text wrapping after publishing. I've resized the map a touch so we'll try again.

Reeltime to launch Australia's first broadband on-demand movie and video service

Sun, 06 Aug 2006 23:38:42 GMT

Came across this post on Cameons's Brain:

ReelTime Media Ltd ("ReelTime", www.reeltime.tv) is rolling out Australia's first national broadband TV (bTV) service to offer current release movies, TV episodes, favourite library titles, arthouse, foreign film and much more...all within the comfort of your home. Our content will be available for download to your PC in August.

My Sights around Sydney collection is on Passthepoi

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 06:34:33 GMT

Whoopee, my Sights around Sydney Windows Live Local collection is on the Pass the POI where there are collections submitted by people from all around the world, easily accessible from the Categories list on the right side of the page.

Sydney sights Live Local collection

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 07:17:07 GMT

A collection of various sights around Sydney with comments about what used to be.

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My Windows Live Local collection

Town Hall and Town Hall Station
Get a train to here to walk down to Darling Harbour. Go downhill to Sussex Street (turn right) then turn left to cross via the pedestrian bridge. This bridge used to be known as Pyrmont Bridge and brought traffic into the city via Market Street.

Queen Victoria Building
Lots of snazzy shops.

Pedestrian crossing to Darling Harbour
Used to be Pyrmont Bridge in the days cars and buses used it to get into the city.

Martin Place/Martin Plaza
Sydney GPO. Lunch-time activities are held in the plaza. Used to be a great street to avoid when traffic was allowed.

Wynard Station
Underground, on the City Loop, between Circular Quay and Town Hall stations.

What might be here...
Hint: it's got big sails.

Central Railway Station
All stations lead to Central.

The University of Sydney
I should know the name of this gate.

University of Sydney Physics Building
Many brain cells were used up in this spot.

University of Sydney Fisher Library
Much study was done - as well as a fair bit of ear-bashing.

University of Sydney Front"

Your scratch pad has been truncated.

Messenger is 7 years old on 22 July

Mon, 17 Jul 2006 00:20:34 GMT

Formerly known as MSN Messenger and now better known as Windows Live Messenger, is having its seventh birthday on 22 July. webDotWiz has been using Messenger for just about all that time and has seen it progress from a simple text chat program to a centre for keeping in contact with family and friends whether by text or audio/video, simple access to Live mail (formerly Hotmail), contact information and a calendar.

To celebrate the 7th birthday of Messenger, there are a number of free display pictures, emoticons, winks and backgrounds. webDotWiz has chosen the set from Quebles but there are others to choose from at Inside Live Messenger (the Messenger team's Space).

Still some rain

Sun, 16 Jul 2006 06:58:59 GMT

There's still some drizzly sort of rain coming down. This morning the dam had an extra foot or so of water so there's also been some good runoff after the ground initially soaked up the first lot of rain. It's not cold and the onion weed must be liking it as it's already putting on some growth so that will put some cover on the ground.

Rain, rain, rain - at last

Sat, 15 Jul 2006 00:59:01 GMT

Some nice gentle, soaking rain started falling overnight. And looking at the forecast (which doesn't necessarily mean it will apply here), rain should keep falling until Tuesday. Everybody is pleased to get rain that will soak in and give plants, trees and crops a chance.

Smoke on the water

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 09:21:36 GMT

It's that time of the year when many farmers take the easy way out and clear stubble from last year's cropy by burning. The pollution from smoke around a large area is unacceptable. As well, the fires also burn any chemicals the farmer has used to spray his crops and no one, AFAIK, has analysed the smoke to tell us what's in it.

A rainbow over Waranga Basin

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 09:16:57 GMT

webDotWiz put his head out the front door a few afternoons ago and saw a rainbow - he hasn't seen one here for ages. And that's easily explained - there hasn't been much rain!

Look - no adverts! How did he do that?

Sat, 11 Mar 2006 03:46:27 GMT

Because I'm a Premium member, that is, I pay about $38 (Australian) per year for a Hotmail Plus account (I started just over 2 years ago), I can claim the priviledge of also not having advertising on my Space. Check out Hotmail Plus - there are plenty of advantages for a small annual cost.

Photos from the air

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 11:05:09 GMT

Have put up three new albums of photos taken from the air: Colbinabbin, Rushworth and several of Waranga Basin. Enjoy.

brrreeeport

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 06:44:04 GMT

brrreeeport

Taking part in Robert Scoble's The brrreeeport report to see what the search engines comes up with.

Talking about Talking about Accredited course Vocational Preparation

Thu, 19 Jan 2006 09:28:11 GMT

Those who participated in this course last year found it to be very valuable and took a lot from it. So it gets a special mention.

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Talking about Accredited course Vocational Preparation

Here's some more info about the course for Vocational Preparation. This course was very successful last year and those participating found it very valuable.
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Accredited course Vocational Preparation

Certificate 1 in Vocational preparation is based around the development of 'employability skills'. It's an accredited course which centres on the individual, providing learners with the confidence to return to the work force or further study The modules include such things as Orientation to work, Personal Effectiveness, Computers, First Aid, O&HS, and Orientation to learning . By integrating vocational learning it provides pathways such as Employment Certificate II in Vocational Studies (industry specific courses) Pre-apprenticeships Training courses. (See students comments this page)
This course is well timed with the Federal government’s commitment of encouraging people back to work and is suitable for those who have not been in the work force for some time or are considering returning to work or study.
INFORMATION SESSION
To learn more about this course come along to an information session at the Community House on Tuesday 14 February at 1.30 followed by afternoon tea.

Comment from a student who did the Personal Effectiveness module last year shows some of the benefits of the course.
" My kids have noticed the great change in myself with doing this course and they are much happier. My life is on a positive path and I have so much to look forward to in the future. Thank you very much."

Talking about Course program for Term 1 2006

Thu, 19 Jan 2006 09:24:29 GMT

For information for local Rushworth residents, Rushworth Community House have finalised their list of courses for Term 1 2006. Below is a summary.

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Course program for Term 1 2006

The course program for Term 1 2006 is now available. Local residents will receive a paper copy in their letterbox at about this time and those with post office boxes will it in a day or two.

Please note this first term is a short one due to the Commonwealth games in Melbourne in March. The term runs from January 31 to March 10.

Here's the term at a glance:

January

Mon 16 - Rushy Scrap Addicts at 7 pm

Mon 23 - Powerpals Rushworth and Powerpals Colbinabbin (both 9am)

Mon 30 - Patchworth & Quilting at 1 pm

Tue 31 - Pilates at 7 pm and webDotWizards at 7.30 pm

February

Thu 02 - Art at 9 am; webMasters at 9.30 pm; The Toolshed at 9.15 am

Fri 03 - webDotWizards at 10.30 am

Mon 06 - Rushy Scrap Addicts at 7 pm

Thu 09 - Computers for Beginners and Microsoft Word at 1 pm

Tue 14 - Information session on Vocational Preparation

Thu 16 - Funsters Carers Group meeting at 1.30 pm

Thu 23 - Diabetes Group meeting at 1.30 pm and First - CPR update at 6 pm

Tue 28 - Pancake Day for Uniting Care at 10.30 am

March

Mon 06 - Rushy Scrap Addicts

Tue 07 - Occupational Health and Safety at 9 am

Wed 08 - Asthma First Aid at 7 pm

Fri 10 - Term finishes

Talking about Farmers urged to act early and spray locusts. 04/11/2005. ABC News Online

Sun, 06 Nov 2005 00:07:47 GMT

Usually at about this time of year, I get the old tractor out and slash the grass around block. The grass is fairly well dried out and the slasher can cope. With lots of the so-called grass being onion weed, it's far too difficult to get a good cut when it's green (ask people who have ride-on mowers - blades wear out as if they're made of paper when cutting onion weed).

Anyway it looks like we could be in for a very big locust plague and that will save me having to cut any "grass" on the block. The story below centres on reports of hopper sitings (locusts that have just hatched - the story on ABC TV news last night clearly showed the big patches that indicate hoppers on the ground before they've matured into locusts and start flying).

To see where Mitiamo is in relation to Rushworth, have a look at this map.

Mitiamo is directly north of Bendigo and you can see that Rushworth is south-east of Mitiamo, just in the right type of direction so the norht-east winds, so prevalent at this time of year and blowing today, can carry the swarms directly to my back door.

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Farmers urged to act early and spray locusts. 04/11/2005. ABC News Online

Local Spaces

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 00:54:05 GMT

There's a large group of local people who have their own MSN Space, covering topics, ranging from showing off their own art work and mosaics to talking about local sporting and mining history.

For a full list, see my other space at webDotWiz Space and look down the right-hand side the list under the heading "Local spaces".

MSN Messenger 7.5 is here

Wed, 24 Aug 2005 05:09:13 GMT

MSN Messenger 7.5 is available for general download but only for Windows XP users. Users of earlier versions of Windows will have to stay with MSN Messenger version 7.0.

For a list of new features in Messenger 7.5, see I'm Just the Messenger.

Rushworth, Victoria, Australia

Sun, 21 Aug 2005 07:03:25 GMT

Waranga Basin is near Rushworth.

We'll have to wait until Virtual Earthi is internationalised and there are aerial photos but this is a start.

Once again, this blog and map came via MSRIndia's demo, Virtual Earth + Spaces sample site.

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Rushworth, Victoria, Australia
Check out this place on VirtualEarth:

LA International Airport

Sun, 21 Aug 2005 06:55:21 GMT

I got the map below by blogging LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) from the Virtual Earth + MSN Spaces locoation blog page (http://loblog.viavirtualearth.com/loblog/).

Go to Virtual Earth, locate LAX and zoom in to count how many planes are Qantas planes from Australia.

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LA International Airport
Check out this place on VirtualEarth:

Waranga Basin 2 Album

Sun, 24 Jul 2005 09:48:56 GMT

June 2003 was dry and June 2005 looked like it was going to be even drier. Then about half-way through the month, we were surprised with rain that continued for about three weeks.

The rain wasn't heavy but light and steady over a number of days - just the type of rain we needed so it would slowly soak in to a very hard ground.

The farmers were very happy, too, since many of them had sowed crops in the hope of rain - and it came!

We'll have to wait and see if winter brings more rain over the coming weeks.

So there's some green grass around the property, in stark contrast to the photos from May 2003.

Canberra fires 2003

Mon, 09 May 2005 10:13:32 GMT

The photos in the Canberra Fires 2003 album were taken in about May 2003.

By this time, debris of the houses burned in the Janurary fires had been removed and it was obvious which houses had been lost.

These photos were taken on the western edge of Duffy. The remains of the pine forest through which the fire came into Duffy are shown. The fire then tore down the slope into Duffy itself and continued on.

First post - first album

Fri, 08 Apr 2005 11:03:09 GMT

Today Living on Waranga Basin was opened.

The first Photo Album was put together, from photos taken a year or two ago when the Waranga Basin was at about 10% full, due to severe demands for irrigation water.

In the end, to supply promised water to irrigators, the authorities were forced to install pumps to get the last few percent of water flowing down the distribution channels.