DEAR News Of The Area, THE likely demise of the Tomago Aluminium facility without government subsidy is due to rising electricity costs with the increasing proportion of renewables (actually weather-dependent intermittents) in the electricity grid. The mantra: ‘renewables are the cheapest form of energy’ is a delusion of the energy-illiterates. Sunbeams and breezes are there […]
DEAR News Of The Area, LAST Wednesday, I attended the ‘drop-in’ community consultation at Hawks Nest Community Hall for the proposed Sanderling Avenue beachfront development, located between Hawks Nest Golf Club and Bennetts Beach (Lot 1, DP 1234229). This is the same development that was the subject of the 2021 Four Corners episode ‘Obeid Inc.’ […]
DEAR News Of The Area, THE incessant return of heavy rains may trigger fresh memories of the devastating floods experienced around the north of the MidCoast Local Government Area (LGA). It has come to my attention, however, that there are people who have been suffering in silence with their own flood-related issues right here in […]
DEAR News Of The Area, I DON’T think that the fish kills in the Myall Lakes are attributable to the partial blockage of one of the channels around Corrie Island. Major fish kills always follow major flooding. In 1948, scientists estimated that there were 50,000 boxes of dead fish around the lakes. Throughout the 1970s, […]
DEAR News Of The Area, DURING a recent meeting with Port Stephens Council, regarding our local dirt roads at Swan Bay, at which 18 residents attended, Council made it abundantly clear they are now only undertaking road repairs based on a quick temporary fix and not repairing them properly. They say it is done this […]
DEAR News Of The Area, LAST Monday night, I attended an industry seminar down in Martin Place in Sydney with the Australian Institute of Energy (AIE) and electrical industry professionals. I’m a member of the AIE Newcastle branch and this seminar was called “The Challenge of Social Licence in the Energy Transition” which was basically […]
DEAR News Of The Area, I write in response to Cherylle Stone’s letter ‘Nothing responsible about it’ in NOTA on 26 June 2025. She states that offshore wind development ”has the potential to seriously deplete and further distress the ocean, our main already overburdened heat and carbon sink”. Depleting the ocean implies diminishing its quantity, […]
DEAR News Of The Area, THE concurrent use of the terms “responsible” and “offshore wind farm development” in Australian waters is oxymoronic. There is nothing responsible in developing something offshore that costs twice as much as a similar development onshore, will take twice as long to get up and running and has the potential to […]
DEAR News Of The Area, MidCoast Council’s Community Conversations have been, understandably, affected by the recent devastating flooding, and the clean-up effort that ensues. Originally, the Tea Gardens Community Conversations were to be held back in late May, and have since been rescheduled for Tuesday 29 July. In the wake of a few erroneous postings, […]
DEAR News Of The Area, AUSTRALIA has long supplied energy and manufactured products to the world. We can protect this tradition by updating. Local companies have already moved into cleaner production and we already supply more than 40% of our National Electricity Market with clean energy. At independent industry think tank Beyond Zero Emissions, we […]
