Aldi comes to town .... at last!

We have a new player in the supermarket stakes! 

Aldi had long purchased a site next to the council chambers and just 100 metres down the road from Woolworths Supermarket, however, construction ground to a halt 'cos of "heritage concerns" for the site they wanted to occupy when the foundations of an original flour mill were excavated and because of concerns of damage to an existing historically significant (tho' long defunct) adjoining structure.

Didn't matter that immediately prior to their purchase of the site it had been used as a farm produce supply store and a bulk fuel supply depot. Suddenly there were objections from all quarters. It must have been very threatening to Woolworths almost complete monopoly of grocery supermarkets. in our town - there is an IGA/Franklins on the Northern side of town, several klms away.

Suddenly, this week, everything changed and on the concrete floor slab that had been previously poured some time ago the walls started to go up this week!

This is a view to the rear of the site that shows an historic flour mill storehouse site that had fallen into disuse and disrepair that suddenly become a point of interest for the historical society (wonder who was 'urging' them on?).

I had had the occassion to refute the viability for restoration of the old mill storehouse in the local press by pointing out that a survey I had made of the mill on behalf of the local council while I was employed by that council had revealed it was in an advanced state of disrepair and would cost a fortune to make it fit for any useable general purpose and a king's ransom to make it viable for human occupation - the historical society wanted it turned into a multi-story museum of local history - a use purpose which our council simply did not have the $1M (+) to put into restorative work when we already had more pressing civil works needing attention.

Nor was there any sign of a cashed-up benefactor on the horizon!

Apparently Aldi have now agreed to preserve within their floor area a view of the foundations of the very first commercial flour mill built in Yass that were uncovered during the original excavations of the floor area. This has appeased the objectors who were also under pressure from townspeople who wanted a second supermarket in the central area of town.

So it's a case of "Up!" "Up! and away!" for Aldi and we will have another supermarket operating by December, complete with its own 'off main-street' dedicated parking and drive-thru parcel pick up point at the rear!

More growing Up Days and some background

From my thread, “Growing up days” you may begin to suspect that I was a bit of a wild boy in my younger days. When my mates would tell their parents that they were going swimming, fishing, or camping the inevitable question from them was (nearly) always “Is John going as well?”

Trouble just seemed to find me! LOL!

I have no regrets, however, as I led a full life growing up and had some wonderful mates. The image below was taken at the wedding of my best mate and all the guys in it were all part of a very best friends group and we remain so today, even if geographically separated.

(That's me on the far left at my mate's wedding and those were the group that were known as the 'Four Horseman')













I was the one who would always be ready to lend a hand – like the time I called on Kevin with the intention of going out on the town. He was stuck concreting for his Dad (and making heavy weather of it too) so I just jumped in and gave him a hand. We soon had the job done and were able to head out.

(I'm on the Mixer, Kevin's Anglia is partly obscured and the cream car is my Vauxhall Velox)










Sometimes I would just take off for a month or so – go fishing – or borrow a shack near the water and do very little but lie in the sun. I was every mother’s worry as a bad example for her boys! Me? I was just finding my way in the world and along the way found some nice companions.

This is the guy who matured to become a top Mental Health Nurse and a specialist Occupational Health practitioner, pictured here in my capacity as Chairperson of the South Eastern Risk Management Committee for south east NSW councils and a leading Safety Officer in Local Government construction work – ensuring that roads, bridges, water treatment plants, water supply pipelines, etc were all built safely and with minimal harm to the workforce.

All my workers knew me as being tough but fair and if they did the right thing by me I did the right thing by them and there was no task that I asked them to undertake that I was not prepared to do myself – be it bridge repairs, repairing busted water mains, operating heavy machinery. My ID photo reveals a jutting chin an fixed determination and that tinge of Welsh red hair that matched my temperament.

Of course, it was not always smooth sailing and I rubbed many contractors and sub-contractors the wrong way who wanted to ‘cut safety corners’ and this often ended up with some undesired consequences – like the one who slashed my arm in a pub when I told him he was finished and not to come back to the job!

Hard man?  Narhhhh!  I was a big softie who just loved playing in the water at the beach with my grandsons.

Guess that’s why I worked until I was 68 – 51 years from the day I started – ‘cos I always loved what I was doing and every challenge was a new mountain to climb!

Water Tanker - v - Concrete Truck

Further to John Gill’s account of the water tanker driver and the fence - http://disasterfilm.blogspot.com/2010/06/trailer-trash-respect-red-face-farmer.html - I add an account of my own experience.


We have a new estate going in about 2klms up the hill and have put up with months of percussive rock hammering as they change the face of the slope.

A few weeks back a concrete agitator truck came down the hill and pulled up at a storm water inlet drain opposite our place where the driver proceeded to empty the agitator of its concrete sullage down the drain.

We walked over and I told him he was not allowed to do that as it was storm water pollution and that drain ran to the river where there was a large amount of local wild fowl and other wild life living down there that the town folk cared for. He told me in no uncertain terms that he WAS going to dump his sullage and was also going to wash out the agitator and empty that down the drain as well and that he did not give a 'flying F' about any wildlife.

I walked around to the cabin of his truck and, as luck would have it, there was a large bunch of keys in the ignition- far more than truck keys. I removed those and went back to where he was pumping out. I said to him:

"And, when you are finished, you might haveto go fishing for these!" Showed him his keys and threw them towards him but he missed catching them as they slipped down the 2 metre deep S/W inlet.

He went off his peanut and began calling the police while he tried to shut down the agitor and turn off his water pump. We merely walked back across the road to home.

Later the police arrived at home and asked me about throwing his keys down the drain. I denied any knowledge of them and suggested that he may have dropped them down the drain himself when washing out his sullage - after all, it is illegal isn't it officer to leave keys unattended in the ignition of a vehicle and no responsible commercial driver would do that, would they?

I asked the police what action they were going to take about his environmental vandalism. The police left.

The agitator truck remained there overnight until a spare set of keys for it could be fetched the following day from the depot in Goulburn, 84klms away.

They ARE amazing, tho’, aren’t they?

Good trades people worth every cent

While I remain hors de combat and unable to drive a manual vehicle, Rhonda took the truck to work a couple of times last week - it's a manually geared vehicle, so I am not allowed to drive it for another 4 weeks (at least). Its a 1.5 tonne Holden Rodeo LT, 5 speed manual gearbox and a 3.5 litre turbocharged Isuzu truck petrol engine - a real "beast"

I was surprised 'cos for the past four years we've had it she has never attempted to drive it as its size intimidates her - but she is a very capable driver. We usually use it for towing the small caravan or on our trips 'up-country' which are frequently on bush tracks.

This image was taken last year in June when we were fossicking in the Canowindra region where there are a lot of Devonian Period fossils. Unique to the Canowindra area is a massive 'fish kill' incident that occurred 350 million years ago and were covered by sediment until the chance discovery by roadworkers in 1955.

http://www.ageoffishes.org.au/index.html  - Age of Fishes Museum, Canowindra, NSW

Anyway - that's another story.

On the two times Rhonda took the truck to work we had severe fogs and she discovered the fog lights were not working. Fortunately she had her headlights and the clear driving lights mounted in the bullbar.  Anyhow, I arranged for it to go up to the auto electricians today to be remedied. Our local auto electrician does all the electrics on the truck from secondary battery system to run out fridge freezer when touring, to electric brakes for towing and the rear video cameras. He's very possessive of the truck, so much so that when we came to pick it up he said in a gruff voice - "Who's been doing work on the truck?"

When we told him no-one and that he was the only one that had worked on it and we were able to nominate the most recent time when he had fitted a new battery late last year. His demeanour changed immediately as he grinned and said:

"Well!  That's alright than!  I must be losing it! The wire connecting the foglights to the relay was disconnected at the battery.  I must've done that!"

Of course there was no charge! It's great to have trades people who are honest about their own work and who also value their customers!

Weather and immediate planning

Such a cold and dreary time of the year on the Highlands of NSW just below the snowline, -5C yesterday and -2C this morning - top around 10C for about an hour during the day.

We are currently into our shortest week of the year (shortest day last Saturday, I believe) and following this we have about a month of cold, damp, frosty grey days before the days start to lengthen out, 'tho some days the sun is out, the sky is so clear and azure blue that from inside it is deceptive and gives a false sense of warmness.

Yesterday I made my first distance drive - 120klm return trip to Belconnen in the ACT (a really unattractive area of Canberra imho) - but once we drove out of the fog it was so pleasant motoring along in a warm car with the sun shining brightly all around.

I think I'm on track for a return to Wyangala in about 2 weeks time when Rhonda has her RDO. It will be a quiet trip, no 'bush bashing' as we were given a small Rinnai gas heater so I want to 'tee up' the gasfitter to extend our gas heating inside the camp unit by running a bayonet connector of the main bottle line to the lounge area.

If the weather conditions and the light are right there are two derelict hardwood slab and iron homesteads that I want to photograph before they completely collapse.

Happy 21 ....

On the 27th of May, at my Pre-operation assessment, I weighed 120.9 kg!

Today, on the 27th June, I weighed (and re-weighed on separate scales) and I weighed 99.8 - a total loss of 21 kg! That is very close to 3.5 stone under the old weight system

I know a lot of this is due to appetite suppressant effect of the narcotic analgesics but it is making both my knees feel better and I feel good about it as well!

Julia Gillard 1st Australian female Prime Minister

It's taken 109 years since Australian Federation, however, today Australia's very first female Prime Minister was sworn in by (female) Australian Governor General, Quentin Bryce.

Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian politician who is currently the Prime Minister of Australia. She was sworn in as Australia's 27th, and very first female, Prime Minister on 24 June 2010 after a leadership ballot confirmed she had the support of the Australian Labor Party to ascend to the party leadership and become Prime Minister.


Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales in 1961. Her father was a coal miner in Wales, and she has a sister, Alison, who is three years older; Nye Bevan remains one of her political heroes.

After Julia suffered from bronchopneumonia as a child, her parents were advised it would aid her recovery to live in a warmer climate. The family chose to migrate to Australia in 1966, settling in Adelaide.

Her father trained as a psychiatric nurse, while her mother worked at the local Salvation Army Old People's Home.

Gillard and her sister attended Mitcham Demonstration School, and then graduated from Unley High School in 1978. She then attended the University of Adelaide, and on graduation moved to Melbourne to work with the Australian Union of Students (AUS). In 1987 she graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Laws degree and with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1990.

In 1987 she joined left-leaning law firm Slater & Gordon at Werribee, working in the area of industrial law. In 1990 at the age of 29, she was admitted as one of their first female partners.

In this writer's humble opinion, having a Welsh mother and a deep feelings for my ancestral roots, it is really great to not only finally have a female who deserves and has earnt the post of this nation's leader but to also know that she has a strong Welsh background herself!

Caiff yn ffaglu 'n goch gwallt a chwedleua cara bupur botio. Mai Celi llywia 'i balf!