www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
Rural communities generally come together to face common threats, whether bushfires or developments that they see as threatening their livelihoods. This article (source of the photo) puts it in context. It seems to have united the community in Blampied.

To be utterly cynical about it, the move frees up a lot of classroom teaching time. All that time we used to spend fostering "creative and critical thinking" across the curriculum can be put to other purposes...

The "Piss off Ausnet" sign on a hill by the main highway into Ballarat through the spud growing area is pretty blunt.

share.google/nQ5lKBiAtoWK...
It's a real objection from (especially) potato farmers on spray irrigated properties north of #Ballarat. Our son was formerly a security officer & was sent out to protect #Ausnet staff who were out surveying the proposed transmission lines.
(We have rooftop+battery btw)

The big concern here in Ballarat, Victoria, is that new transmission lines to connect (mostly rural) wind & solar farms to (mostly urban) consumers is compromising rural land use. Politicians at federal & state level are happy to exploit it. Are there models for localised grids - urban & rural?

2. This was the article re #Microsoft head of AI that I saw today. Tried to reply to the poster with my contribution, but couldn't.

That's what Wikipedia tells me when they ask me to carry on supporting.

This resonated. I was teaching at a #Ballarat secondary school in 1999, when the people of #Timor-Leste voted for independence, then were invaded by thugs hosted by Indonesia. I told one class that, given events in Timor, teaching would be hard.
Silence. They had not a clue what I was referring to.

My ute radio is permanently set to #ABC #Classic. So fortunate to do most travel in the mornings, and thus get to hear Russell Torrance presenting. His approach is superb, and I love his music selection. Learn so much from his commentary.

A main #pardalote food source is #lerps formed by psyllid insects growing on eucalypts. This #LandforWildlife article delves into lerps' ecological role. It explains why pardalotes mostly stay high up trees. 🪶🧪
Lerps - One of nature's sweet offerings - Land for Wildlife share.google/jqcWujKlPy1x...

And the #pardalotes did return to nest in our clothesline assembly. This last week I saw a fledgling in the elm tree nearby, & the parents are still feeding that one, or another, in the nest. For #birds that normally nest in holes dug in soil banks, they've taken to human infrastructure so well. 🪶

Teaching at a #Ballarat secondary school, our brief dalliance with #geology in Yr 8 was an eye-opener for students. Then students on a Yr 11 Enviro Wimmera field trip quickly learnt to spot changes in rock type by observing how forest changed. Geoscience is much more than mining! Sad move, #FedUni.

This morning's cache. Driver has to surely slow down in order to throw their bottles of tawny port from #Aldi into the bushes. This in a local authority where we've been provided with bins for glass collection. A deposit scheme might not mitigate this, but would reward those who clean up Australia.

A singularly depressing account of vultures preparing to descend on what's left of #Gaza, just as they did on Baghdad after an earlier US-funded war.
The priority is surely to get aid & education to the children of Gaza, especially those who've been incapacitated by mines or bombing. @unicef.org

It's where I went wrong in the last Federal election here in Australia too. In our preferential voting system, I voted 1 for @greens.org.au and 2 for @australianlabor.bsky.social, on the basis that the #Labor Party here were a better bet, environmentally as well as socially, than the Liberals. Pfft.

weeds.brisbane.qld.gov.au/weeds/mock-o...
Murraya paniculata is a wide-ranging species from the family Rutaceae (thus related to Citrus, but not as closely as several native Australian genera). While a variety occurs in Australia, it appears that the widely planted one in Qld is not that variety. 🌱

2. Always curious about the connection between the common names. I assume that Thomas Kirk, NZ botanist who assigned the botanical name for bidibidi in 1871, also recorded the Māori name, which was subsequently rendered in pidgin as "bidgee-widgee". Happy to be corrected! #botany 🌱