Travis Easton

Had a fantastic weekend with my kids and bubble members down at Powlett River on the weekend. Got there Friday night in time to catch the last rays at the river mouth then went back in the morning again with Tony Middleton (photo’s to come). My kids absolutely loved it playing in the sand, water and rocks and it was great to finally put a face and voice with my much conversed with bubble mate Tony.

I caught up with a few other bubble members at the cafe in Killcunda and had probably what was the best hamburger of my life there before I had to take my kids home.

Unsurprisingly I was inspired and challenged by simply hanging out with Tone as we chatting about our journeys together. Foremost in his thoughts and passions was the plight of this gorgeous and often overlooked part of the coast. Visiting an area under threat certainly gives you a different perspective on the need to preserve it.

The Powlett River is the location of Melbournes planned desalination plant. Over the last 10 years Melbournes water catchment levels have been dropping and despite a 20% reduction in consumer water use it is continuing to fall. The government has come up with two proposals to combat this crisis. One is to pump water over the Great Dividing Range to supplement the city supply an act which has enraged the irrigation dependant farmers from that equally drought effected area. The other brilliant government idea (proposed by our former Premier who resigned weeks after announcing it probably because even he knew it was stupid idea) is to combat our global warming decreased water supply by building the southern hemispheres biggest desal plant which will pump 1.2 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year. The $3,200,000,000 plant will also pollute the local marine environment disgorging 7,000litres a second 600m from shore, which puts at risk the local Seal and Fairy Penguin (Parade) population which adds $75,000,000 a year to the economy. On top of that the site for the plant is an absolutely beautiful bit of coastline, turning it into an industrial pollution factory would be a tragedy of the highest magnitude.

All up the government has proposed to throw 5 billion plus at the problem why they arn’t proposing to channel this into water tanks for Melbourne residents I can’t figure. This would solve the issue without the negatives of the current proposals, it would be more sustainable in the long term and cheaper than the proposed 5 fold increase in water rates the commercial backers of the desal plant are mooting.

Other issues we chatted about were the increasing consumerism in our society and how the more competitive/ achievement oriented of us can so easily fall into the trap of devaluing bubble and our art into a numbers game of hits, favouritings and sales.

I regret not getting to chat with all the other bubble members while strolling along the beach but I certainly had a great night away with my kids and had a brilliant time chatting with my like minded bubble buddy Tony.

Cheers

Trav