Victorian Road Deaths last year totalled 304 people, often in horrific circumstances. Australia was 1463 deaths. Pretty truamatic for the families of those killed, just like the bushfire families.
Don't see any Red Cross appeal for those road toll victims and their families. No massive media fundraising frenzy. I guess because the deaths happened over a whole year (and certainly will again this year), it gets a bit boring for the media. And nowhere near as "photographable" as the fires.
And almost all the homes destroyed in the fires would have had house and contents insurance, the cars destroyed also insured, and many of the fire victims would have had life insurance.
Interesting to see where all the money raised (including my substantial doanation), actually goes.
Badger
Don't see any Red Cross appeal for those road toll victims and their families. No massive media fundraising frenzy. I guess because the deaths happened over a whole year (and certainly will again this year), it gets a bit boring for the media. And nowhere near as "photographable" as the fires.
And almost all the homes destroyed in the fires would have had house and contents insurance, the cars destroyed also insured, and many of the fire victims would have had life insurance.
Interesting to see where all the money raised (including my substantial doanation), actually goes.
Badger
prawn_86
Mod: Call me Dendrobranchiata
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Add to that Badger that thousands of young people each year commit suicide, but you never here of that, not even on the news like car crashes.
No-one ever said things were evenly distributed in this society though.
No-one ever said things were evenly distributed in this society though.
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They'll be running for cover now, hiding behind reports and committee findings.
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It was found after the Canberra bushfires in 2003 that a surprising number of the victims had no household insurance coverage. Because it was declared a National Disaster area they were compensated by the taxpayer. I imagine the same deal will apply in Victoria.
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Wonder how they'll getting insurance this time round.
Mr Burns, that happens up here all the time. Because of tropical conditios when our dam gets too low it is advisable to boil drinking water to prevent gastro infectional diseases. especially for babies and young children
So as Calliope says, the whole pipeline idea would have to start with bigger and more dams. If water was viewed as a national asset and not a regional or state asset then the management of that may mean that we would all have water shortages from time to time but that would be equitable. But Calliope is right...a pipedream.
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There seems to be a bit of confusion about water infrastructure... 
Catchment means an area of land onto which water falls and then runs off into a creek, river etc.
Whilst it also includes water falling directly into a reservoir, in most cases the reservoir will cover (with water) only a few % of the catchment area. The rest will be bush, farms, roads, towns or any other land use.
Reservoir, Storage or Impoundment means a lake, lagoon or other body of water used for the storage of water. This may be either natural or man-made and may be either on stream or off stream.
The term "impoundment" is a derogatory term primarily used by environmentalists.
On stream storage means a storage (lake etc) that has a river flowing directly into it.
Off stream storage means a storage that does not have a river flowing directly into it. The water is put in from some other source usually by pipes, canals etc. This often involves mechanical pumping of the water.
Dam means a physical structure built at a low point (typically a river valley or some other valley) so as to create, in combination with the natural topography of the land, a storage.
Diversions are achieved by construction of storages, canals, pipelines etc and serve to divert water from one catchment into another.
So, Catchments capture the water that falls on the surface of the earth and concentrate it at a single point (a river). Diversions move water from one catchment to another, often via a storage. Storages hold the water. Dams are built in order to create storages.
So in general you don't "build" a catchment because it's already there. You might divert it to where the water is wanted (perhaps into a storage) but catchments per se are natural.
An example of how all this comes together can be seen in the link. The vast majority of the catchment is not under water or in any other way affected by development. Some is farm land, some is bush, some is a National Park. Only a small area is actually under water, and even there some of that is natural.
By the way, the scheme in the link has enough water to supply all Australian capital cities combined. Hobart uses about 1% of it with the rest going to waste. In terms of physical area, it would take a day to drive around and look at it all. In operation it was built for baseload power generation (not peak loads). It never stops gnerating power and discharging water (24/7) although the flows within the scheme (as distinct from downstream of it) will vary hugely according to conditions.
http://www.hydro.com.au/home/Tourism+and+Recreation/Derwent+Catchment
Catchment means an area of land onto which water falls and then runs off into a creek, river etc.
Whilst it also includes water falling directly into a reservoir, in most cases the reservoir will cover (with water) only a few % of the catchment area. The rest will be bush, farms, roads, towns or any other land use.
Reservoir, Storage or Impoundment means a lake, lagoon or other body of water used for the storage of water. This may be either natural or man-made and may be either on stream or off stream.
The term "impoundment" is a derogatory term primarily used by environmentalists.
On stream storage means a storage (lake etc) that has a river flowing directly into it.
Off stream storage means a storage that does not have a river flowing directly into it. The water is put in from some other source usually by pipes, canals etc. This often involves mechanical pumping of the water.
Dam means a physical structure built at a low point (typically a river valley or some other valley) so as to create, in combination with the natural topography of the land, a storage.
Diversions are achieved by construction of storages, canals, pipelines etc and serve to divert water from one catchment into another.
So, Catchments capture the water that falls on the surface of the earth and concentrate it at a single point (a river). Diversions move water from one catchment to another, often via a storage. Storages hold the water. Dams are built in order to create storages.
So in general you don't "build" a catchment because it's already there. You might divert it to where the water is wanted (perhaps into a storage) but catchments per se are natural.
An example of how all this comes together can be seen in the link. The vast majority of the catchment is not under water or in any other way affected by development. Some is farm land, some is bush, some is a National Park. Only a small area is actually under water, and even there some of that is natural.
By the way, the scheme in the link has enough water to supply all Australian capital cities combined. Hobart uses about 1% of it with the rest going to waste. In terms of physical area, it would take a day to drive around and look at it all. In operation it was built for baseload power generation (not peak loads). It never stops gnerating power and discharging water (24/7) although the flows within the scheme (as distinct from downstream of it) will vary hugely according to conditions.
http://www.hydro.com.au/home/Tourism+and+Recreation/Derwent+Catchment
Julia
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I completely agree. We all know what has happened. Such graphic detail is entirely gratuitous and just adds to the general level of distress. Helps no one.
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would the fact that a lot being blamed on arson change the insurance for them to have to payout?
or are we jumping to conclusions here re payouts?
Julia
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Valid point, Badger. I suppose the difference is that with the road accident victims we're inured to it because a road accident is on the news every day. Also road accidents don't usually involve annihilation of dwellings.
I'd also have assumed most properties were insured.
Just going back to the basic principle of staying to defend a house, I will just never get this. If bushfire was anywhere in my vicinity I'd be packed and off with the first warning. Let the house burn down. Insurance will rebuild it and provide replacement accommodation of similar standard in the meantime.
I can understand the terror of such a fire, but wonder how many could have avoided any personal exposure if they'd taken a less sentimental approach to a damn house.
Prawn, also a very valid point about suicide. But I guess the main difference here is that this is an autonomous and entirely personal decision. A choice if you like.
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my goodness,my heart goes out to everyone in victoria right now
i remember the day the fires began,we were scared sh..less a fire
may have broken out here in south oz,strong hot winds,scorching temps.
lightning and hot weather forecast for Victoria next week,:headshake
i remember the day the fires began,we were scared sh..less a fire
may have broken out here in south oz,strong hot winds,scorching temps.
lightning and hot weather forecast for Victoria next week,:headshake
So_Cynical
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This will sound super Cynical...fire disasters make good TV, suicides and road accidents
don't, fires have heroes and amazing tales of survival etc, also lots of emotion from
ordinary people..the pollies love it to, all that quality TV time and looks of concern.
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Yes. You need a combination of victims, heroes and someone to blame and the media and the pollies will flock there in droves. Remember Beaconsfield.
They all love a spectacular tragedy. The pollies are consummate actors and they can put on a brave attempt to hold back their emotions while hugging victims at the flash of a camera. And then they arrange "days of mourning" for encore performances.
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this has to be the biggest load of garbage written on this thread, it eclipses this clown that last night tried to start a thread which was so offensive it was immediately removed..
the thought that anyone in the media is loving this, or that the politicians are loving this is so incredibly insensitive to what is happening.. infact calliope, your a disgrace.. everything humanly possible is being done by every media representative, and by every politician to firstly assist those in harms way, and also to try and assist those that have lost friends family property.. this is a disaster never been seen before and no one is demonstrating anything like what you are saying calliope..
i ask you to present some hard facts mate,, if your going claim this then you better come through with the goods, you sure are not winning any respect from anyone with this type of tripe..
"They all love a spectacular tragedy. The pollies are consummate actors and they can put on a brave attempt to hold back their emotions while hugging victims at the flash of a camera. And then they arrange "days of mourning" for encore performances."
right now the abc radio is working tirelessly warning people in the flare ups to evacuate, particularily around healesville where i have a lot of relatives right now either staring at the fires or about to have one come their way any minute.
the politicians are not weeping for the cameras.. there is no grandstanding, the objective of all is to see this disaster end as soon as it can, but its not over by any means, there are serious blazes right now threatening many more homes.. the emotions that they have shown are genuine, as has everyones emotions in this ongoing disaster..
calliiope, when you hear of the heartache, the jobs people have to endure, to have to pull burnt bodies of children from homes and cars, to secure crime scenes, the loss the agony the sheer gravity of the situation overwhelms you, it makes you weep, its not easy for those like the ones working at the morgue, working 12 hours shifts 7 days a week, this is not an opportunity to prosper or to grandstand, this is just a full scale effort to deal with a bushfire disaster never seen before.
"Yes. You need a combination of victims, heroes and someone to blame and the media and the pollies will flock there in droves. Remember Beaconsfield."
you are so far off the track here.. you are so wrong and so offensive..
imho your a disgrace..
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The media thrive on this stuff and to think otherwise would label you as well.........clueless
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I agree. And the politicians are certainly grandstanding. Would they do it in the absence of the media?:headshake:
When it comes to naive tripe you win hands down.
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Rudd is either not very good at .............oh forget it I don't like Rudd and I dont think I'll be changing my mind, the way he tried to link bushfire assistance to the stimulus package shows what sort of man he is, the package should be debated but he tried to push it through quickly on the back of a national tragedy. A sneaky, smarmy cold blooded action.
Prospector
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Surely Agentm you must consider that the actions of the media in the face of human tragedy cross the line on many occasions.
Like Mike Munro and his helicopter incident getting an interview with children who were being held as hostage? Too many times we see people being interviewed who are in total shock and distress. Just recently in SA we were shown pictures on TV and in the paper of a mother in total distress who had just witnessed her son being killed when a gate collapsed on him; she was sitting on the fence in total shock; the anguish of another mother who, whilst being filmed on camera, was told her 14 year old son had just been murdered in the CBD. She was filmed screaming as she ran across the road to get to his body. And the next day the front page was just her tormented face.
These people are not in a fit place to consent to being filmed. Or is the argument that Hey, they are in a public place, anything goes!
Like Mike Munro and his helicopter incident getting an interview with children who were being held as hostage? Too many times we see people being interviewed who are in total shock and distress. Just recently in SA we were shown pictures on TV and in the paper of a mother in total distress who had just witnessed her son being killed when a gate collapsed on him; she was sitting on the fence in total shock; the anguish of another mother who, whilst being filmed on camera, was told her 14 year old son had just been murdered in the CBD. She was filmed screaming as she ran across the road to get to his body. And the next day the front page was just her tormented face.
These people are not in a fit place to consent to being filmed. Or is the argument that Hey, they are in a public place, anything goes!
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I disagree with the grandstanding. I have been impressed by the bipartisan compassion shown by all MP's. Off course indifference to the plight of the victims would be political suicide at this time but that is a moot point. Also the double standard between the treatment of victims of a natural disaster like this and 'silent' killers like suicide/road accidents has been pointed out before.
As for the popular media - vultures and ghouls. Misery likes company and company sells copy. The worst I saw was when an unnamed television company flew a wife to be reunited with her husband. She literally had to hurdle over camera men to get to her husband. ABC have done a great job though so please do not include them in the analysis.
My fear is what happens to the victims of this bushfire in three-months time when the media have moved on to the next train wreck, the pollies are back haranguing each other over the stimulus package and the banks can get back to collecting mortgage and interest payments. Then, all of a sudden, a heck of a lot of extremely traumatised individuals will be facing emotional and financial hardship all alone. Up to the Aussie public to make sure we keep the pressure on to turn rhetoric into long-term support and meaningful policy change.
