Victorian | Jotup

Seals, swimmers, bat carers – exploring the world of the pale brown, oft-maligned Yarra River

Retrieved on:

Monday, September 25, 2023

Author Harry Saddler’s book on Melbourne’s Yarra River is an engaging account of his years exploring its native species and human communities.

Key Points:

Author Harry Saddler’s book on Melbourne’s Yarra River is an engaging account of his years exploring its native species and human communities.
Review: A Clear Flowing Yarra – Harry Saddler (Affirm Press) The book’s major focus is on Saddler’s obvious fascination with native animals.
He delights in telling us about his adventures finding them on, in, and near to the Yarra.
It sometimes reads like a police drama as be describes “staking out” the habitat of an elusive species.
Read more:
A tale of 2 rivers: is it safer to swim in the Yarra in Victoria, or the Nepean in NSW?

Contrasting layers

This book is written in contrasting layers.
Chapters alternate between exploring different native species found in the Yarra, and exploring how people interact with the river.
The Flying Fox chapter reveals a Yarra species, also commonly called fruit bats, that seems to attract very strong emotions.
We are introduced to people caring for their welfare, such as Megan from “Friends of Bats and Bushcare”.
The book mentions an unnamed former politician who tried to have a colony of bats in his electorate removed.
Even in highly modified urban settings we might be able to observe native species mostly hidden from the public gaze.

Queensland is not only trampling the rights of children, it is setting a concerning legal precedent

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, August 29, 2023

This was not the first time it had taken such a step.

Key Points:

This was not the first time it had taken such a step.
These moves have attracted a significant amount of criticism because they come so soon after the state’s Human Rights Act was adopted.
In addition, overriding the Human Rights Act twice could create a pattern we should be extremely concerned about.

International human rights protections

International conventions broadly obligate parties to make the best interests of children a primary consideration in all actions concerning them.
These conventions and applicable international standards also assert that the incarceration of children should be a last resort and juveniles should be treated in an age-appropriate way in criminal justice proceedings.
The Queensland government relied on these specific international human rights protections when it drafted its Human Rights Act, which I have extensively reviewed in my new book (written with Peter Billings).

Youth offenders and detention

But consequences for youth offenders must take into account their age, intellectual and physical development and disabilities, and potential for rehabilitation.
In other words, youth offenders should not be held in detention facilities with adults.
However, there is overwhelming evidence that youth detention does not necessarily make communities safer or deter or rehabilitate young offenders.

Concerning trend of legislative overrides

In 2015, a review of the charter recommended the repeal of the override power, calling it unnecessary and unhelpful.
Surprisingly, no such overrides were declared either in Victoria or Queensland – the two states that have human rights laws with this provision – during the COVID-19 public health emergency.
The Human Rights Act itself is an ordinary law, which means future governments could dilute, amend or even repeal it.
The Act can also be weakened if the parliament overrides its protections too many times.

Triple Flag Announces Record Q2 2023 Results and Dividend Increase

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Dividend: Triple Flag’s Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of US$0.0525 per common share that will be paid on September 15, 2023, to the shareholders of record at the close of business on August 31, 2023.

Key Points:

Dividend: Triple Flag’s Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of US$0.0525 per common share that will be paid on September 15, 2023, to the shareholders of record at the close of business on August 31, 2023.
This increases the annualized dividend by 5% from US$0.20 per common share to US$0.21 per share and is Triple Flag’s second consecutive annual increase of the dividend since its May 2021 initial public offering.
Team: Subsequent to quarter end, David Lee joined Triple Flag as Vice President, Investor Relations.
Fosterville (2.0% net smelter return (“NSR”) gold royalty): Royalties from Fosterville in Q2 2023 equated to 1,697 GEOs.

Ned Kelly's descendants claim cultural heritage rights over the site of his last stand. The Supreme Court disagrees

Retrieved on:

Monday, July 31, 2023

The Victorian Supreme Court has determined the descendants of Ned Kelly’s family are not a distinctive cultural group with the right to protections of their “intangible cultural heritage”.

Key Points:

The Victorian Supreme Court has determined the descendants of Ned Kelly’s family are not a distinctive cultural group with the right to protections of their “intangible cultural heritage”.
The new centre will look at the story of the Kelly gang in the context of Glenrowan’s broader history.
Kelly’s grand-niece, Joanne Griffiths, argues the new structure and landscaping will “disrespect” her family’s “human rights” as cultural “custodians”.

What is White cultural history?

But by invoking their cultural heritage they tasked themselves with the same burden of proof required of First Nations people in fighting for land rights.
Luke Stegemann’s Amnesia Road investigates the entanglement of Stegemann’s life and work in the colonial histories of Queensland and Andalusia.
Tell me what it means to be a white person […] beyond a notion of racial superiority.
White cultural heritage in Australia is made of many memories and histories that intersect with one another, with settlers of colour and with First Nations people.

How we commemorate colonial history

If the Kelly family took a more nuanced position, they could have opened a public conversation about how we commemorate colonial history, the nuances of historical Irish-Blak solidarities, and a deeper sense of White allyship to First Nations people’s human rights.
In Australia, the development of monuments to colonial history continues to be a work in progress.
The proposed development is a chance for a more complex presentation of colonial heritage.

Queer disobedience and uncomfortable truths: your guide to the 2023 Miles Franklin shortlist

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

This year’s Miles Franklin shortlist takes us from Sydney’s criminal underclass in the 1930s and the quiet waters of rural Tasmania in the 1940s to shopping for design objects in contemporary Japan. Its styles range from the sparse, economical prose of the experimental novella to an intricately plotted page-turner. And the six shortlisted writers include a debut novelist and a Miles Franklin veteran; just one is male-identifying.Iris by Fiona Kelly McGregorMcGregor is the most experienced writer on the shortlist: Iris is her eighth book and her accolades include a Steele Rudd Award and an Age Book of the Year (Indelible Ink).

Key Points:

This year’s Miles Franklin shortlist takes us from Sydney’s criminal underclass in the 1930s and the quiet waters of rural Tasmania in the 1940s to shopping for design objects in contemporary Japan. Its styles range from the sparse, economical prose of the experimental novella to an intricately plotted page-turner. And the six shortlisted writers include a debut novelist and a Miles Franklin veteran; just one is male-identifying.

Iris by Fiona Kelly McGregor

McGregor is the most experienced writer on the shortlist: Iris is her eighth book and her accolades include a Steele Rudd Award and an Age Book of the Year (Indelible Ink).
McGregor knows Sydney well – especially its convoluted history of colonialism, repression and disobedience.
Her inspired decision to fictionalise the real-life Iris Webber (1906-1953) was no doubt influenced by the extraordinary archives of the Sydney Police photographs (1912-1948).
Read more:
In Iris, Fiona Kelly McGregor recreates the criminal underworld of Depression-era Sydney

Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au

Jessica Au’s novel was much anticipated: its manuscript won the inaugural international $US10,000 The Novel Prize, trumping 1500 entries.
It’s a credit to Au that she lets the reader sit with this at the conclusion: nothing feels artificially resolved.
Read more:
The responsibilities of being: Jessica Au's precise, poetic meditation on mothers and daughters

Limberlost by Robbie Arnott

Robbie Arnott is the only one of these authors to have been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin before – for his second novel, The Rain Heron (2020), which won The Age Book of the Year award.
Arnott is also the only male-identifying author on this shortlist and masculinity is a central theme.
Read more:
Robbie Arnott's eco-fiction uses myth and metaphor to depict a wounded world

Hopeless Kingdom by Kgshak Akec

Kgshak Akec, a creative writing student at Deakin University, is the youngest writer on this shortlist, at 26.
Akec’s debut is inspired by her family’s migration from South Sudan to Australia via Egypt, during the early 2000s.
The book brims with authentic, memorable characters and relationships between family and friends that are complex and subtly complicated.

The Lovers by Yumna Kassab

This novella’s limited dramatic narrative scale permits the author a sophisticated attention to the poetics of representation: perhaps the book’s key achievement.
Amir and Jamila, the lovers of the title, unite almost exclusively at nighttime.
She artfully employs stories within stories: tiny parables that frame or commentate on the larger story of the lovers and their fate.
Read more:
Colonial and nationalist myths are recast in Yumna Kassab's Australiana

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens is mostly set in a Western Sydney nursing home, run by and for a Sri Lankan Tamil community.
Shankari Chandran says the novel was inspired and informed by regular visits to her grandmother.
“As she was walking, she’d be talking, and telling us stories about her life, of her childhood, of her marriage, her migration.” Chandran is a mid-career author whose achievements are gradually accumulating.
Her debut novel, Song of the Sun God, was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award and shortlisted for Sri Lanka’s Fairway National Literary Award.

Queer disobedience, cultural erasure and uncomfortable truths: your guide to the 2023 Miles Franklin shortlist

Retrieved on:

Monday, July 24, 2023

This year’s Miles Franklin shortlist takes us from Sydney’s criminal underclass in the 1930s and the quiet waters of rural Tasmania in the 1940s to shopping for design objects in contemporary Japan. Its styles range from the sparse, economical prose of the experimental novella to an intricately plotted page-turner. And the six shortlisted writers include a debut novelist and a Miles Franklin veteran; just one is male-identifying.Iris by Fiona Kelly McGregorMcGregor is the most experienced writer on the shortlist: Iris is her eighth book and her accolades include a Steele Rudd Award and an Age Book of the Year (Indelible Ink).

Key Points:

Iris by Fiona Kelly McGregor

McGregor is the most experienced writer on the shortlist: Iris is her eighth book and her accolades include a Steele Rudd Award and an Age Book of the Year (Indelible Ink).
McGregor knows Sydney well – especially its convoluted history of colonialism, repression and disobedience.
Her inspired decision to fictionalise the real-life Iris Webber (1906-1953) was no doubt influenced by the extraordinary archives of the Sydney Police photographs (1912-1948).
Read more:
In Iris, Fiona Kelly McGregor recreates the criminal underworld of Depression-era Sydney

Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au

Jessica Au’s debut was much anticipated: its manuscript won the inaugural international $US100,000 The Novel Prize, trumping 1500 entries.
It’s a credit to Au that she lets the reader sit with this at the conclusion: nothing feels artificially resolved.
Read more:
The responsibilities of being: Jessica Au's precise, poetic meditation on mothers and daughters

Limberlost by Robbie Arnott

Robbie Arnott is the only one of these authors to have been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin before – for his second novel, The Rain Heron (2020), which won The Age Book of the Year award.
Arnott is also the only male-identifying author on this shortlist and masculinity is a central theme.
Read more:
Robbie Arnott's eco-fiction uses myth and metaphor to depict a wounded world

Hopeless Kingdom by Kgshak Akec

Kgshak Akec, a creative writing student at Deakin University, is the youngest writer on this shortlist, at 26.
Akec’s debut is inspired by her family’s migration from South Sudan to Australia via Egypt, during the early 2000s.
The book brims with authentic, memorable characters and relationships between family and friends that are complex and subtly complicated.

The Lovers by Yumna Kassab

This novella’s limited dramatic narrative scale permits the author a sophisticated attention to the poetics of representation: perhaps the book’s key achievement.
Amir and Jamila, the lovers of the title, unite almost exclusively at nighttime.
She artfully employs stories within stories: tiny parables that frame or commentate on the larger story of the lovers and their fate.
Read more:
Colonial and nationalist myths are recast in Yumna Kassab's Australiana

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens by Shankari Chandran

Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens is mostly set in a Western Sydney nursing home, run by and for a Sri Lankan Tamil community.
Shankari Chandran says the novel was inspired and informed by regular visits to her grandmother.
“As she was walking, she’d be talking, and telling us stories about her life, of her childhood, of her marriage, her migration.” Chandran is a mid-career author whose achievements are gradually accumulating.

Treated wastewater in Victoria is still contaminated, study finds. So are we and the environment safe?

Retrieved on:

Monday, June 5, 2023

At home, wastewater is the used water that disappears when you flush the toilet, empty the sink or drain the washing machine.

Key Points:

At home, wastewater is the used water that disappears when you flush the toilet, empty the sink or drain the washing machine.
Around the world, 359 billion cubic metres of wastewater is produced each year – equal to 144 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Read more:
We now treat half the world's wastewater – and we can make inroads into the other half

Making the most of our water

There is no such things as “new” water.
Our planet’s water dates back 4.5 billion years and is constantly recycled by Earth’s systems.
As Earth’s population grows and the climate dries, we need all the water we can get.

Water corporations achieve this by implementing stringent procedures and processes, and monitoring water quality.
Emerging contaminants include pharmaceuticals, pesticides, phthalates (used to make plastic more durable), industrial chemicals and chemicals in personal care products.
Study of 'forever chemicals' build-up in cattle points to ways to reduce risks

What did the study find?

As a science-based regulator, EPA undertakes problem-based research on pollution and waste to protect the health of Victoria’s community and environment.
We collected 230 samples of treated and untreated water at a range of wastewater treatment plants.

None of the contaminant levels in treated water exceeded human health guidelines for drinking water and water used for recreation.
As you might expect, concentrations of most emerging contaminants were lower in treated than untreated water.

But treatment that combines all the above processes is relatively rare. It’s used by only four out of 200 wastewater treatment plants in Victoria. These plants produce the highest grade of recycled water.

Read more:
The 'yuck factor' pushes a premier towards desalination yet again, but history suggests recycled water's time has come

What does this mean for the environment?

However, we should not forget the environment.
A recent study detected pharmaceuticals in 258 rivers in 104 countries across all continents.
According to the World Health Organization, trace quantities of pharmaceuticals in drinking water are very unlikely to pose risks to human health.

You can make a difference

Next steps

It aims to build our understanding of what, if and how emerging contaminants are present in soil and taken up by crops irrigated with recycled water.
Ultimately, the work will reduce the potential risks to people and the environment posed by wastewater, by ensuring official advice is current and evidence-based.

Victorian Liberals' bitter infighting seems more and more likely to end up in court. Can Dutton stop it?

Retrieved on:

Friday, May 5, 2023

The future of its moderate parliamentary leader, John Pesutto, who took over from the hapless Matthew Guy, now hangs in the balance.

Key Points:

The future of its moderate parliamentary leader, John Pesutto, who took over from the hapless Matthew Guy, now hangs in the balance.
Read more:
Victorian Liberals embarrassed by extremists within: how does this keep happening?
But Dutton’s comments represent a significant escalation in a crisis that seems increasingly likely to end up in the courts.
Pesutto’s removal is also now more likely given that several Liberals in his depleted caucus have backed rebel MP Moira Deeming.
Deeming is challenging her suspension from the party following her attendance at an anti-trans “Let Women Speak” rally in front of Parliament House.
The intervention itself would also be likely to end up in court, with opponents challenging its legality and the force of its decisions.

A View of the Rapidly Growing Australian BESS Market , Reports IDTechEx

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Initiative, Polarium, Electricity, NEM, BESS, NBI, C&I, National Electricity Market, Growth, FTM, BTM, Electric battery, Renewable energy, Rail transport, Victorian

This will promote domestic business opportunities for the supply of battery components, assist in the growing demand of Australian large-scale batteries, and complement residential battery demand.

Key Points:

This will promote domestic business opportunities for the supply of battery components, assist in the growing demand of Australian large-scale batteries, and complement residential battery demand.
IDTechEx expects these countries with battery storage targets to continue deploying large BESS at a growing rate.
With greater coal phase-out and improved market conditions, Australia's FTM market would flourish more so than in the current circumstances.
The report also includes regulatory landscapes, residential market analysis, business models and revenue streams, technologies in energy storage, and more.

A View of the Rapidly Growing Australian BESS Market , Reports IDTechEx

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Initiative, Polarium, Electricity, NEM, BESS, NBI, C&I, National Electricity Market, Growth, FTM, BTM, Electric battery, Renewable energy, Rail transport, Victorian

This will promote domestic business opportunities for the supply of battery components, assist in the growing demand of Australian large-scale batteries, and complement residential battery demand.

Key Points:

This will promote domestic business opportunities for the supply of battery components, assist in the growing demand of Australian large-scale batteries, and complement residential battery demand.
IDTechEx expects these countries with battery storage targets to continue deploying large BESS at a growing rate.
With greater coal phase-out and improved market conditions, Australia's FTM market would flourish more so than in the current circumstances.
The report also includes regulatory landscapes, residential market analysis, business models and revenue streams, technologies in energy storage, and more.