Citizen journalism: CI needs you!
Citizen journalism has arrived. At CI we’ve been covering the stories that matter locally and further afield, but our resources are limited and we can’t be at every meeting or cover every event – it’s not our aim anyway.
But we would be delighted if some of our readers could act as our eyes, ears – and scribes. Some of you have started doing that and we appreciate it. This is the democratisation of the media at work.
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Many readers were looking for, and have now found a new news voice. News, stories, change, community, world.
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Poker machine protest
By Tim Preston
At short notice this afternoon protesters gathered to object to the proposed poker machine venue in the historic rail shed next to Castlemaine’s train station.
The Maryborough Highland Society has plans for the Kennedy Street goods shed. They recently bought 55 poker machine licenses, and some or all of those will be a part of their proposal.
Listen to the interviews with Don Hester, the manager of the Highland society here.
Read recent comments about this project on the interview page above, or click the link below to have your say.
Continue Reading »
Hope
'We are well in the refuge, the 33'. Chile: Engineers estimate it could take up to four months to excavate a rescue tunnel wide enough to rescue 33 trapped miners from the dank and sweaty tunnel where they are trapped after a cave in. During that time, the men will receive water, food, medical care and communication through a tiny drill probe hole that located them last Sunday.
Labor’s war on locusts
‘The scourge I’m referring to will come in the form of DPI spray planes and helicopters, which are set to dump deadly pesticides over vast areas of our state, as part of Brumby’s $43.5 million “War On Locusts”.’
‘This terribly misguided campaign will pose a significant risk to human health, and will be devastating for the environment.’
Saturday poem 1: Why I Voted the Socialist Ticket
by Vachel Lindsay, from General William Booth Enters into Heaven, and Other Poems (1919)
I am unjust, but I can strive for justice.
My life’s unkind, but I can vote for kindness.
Intervention for Wycheproof
Wycheproof: pornography, drinking and child abuse 'rampant', but no worse than the rest of the country
On the eve of the Federal election, the Caretaker Government has announced that if re-elected, it will create an intervention in the Mallee town of Wycheproof.
It will be similar to the Intervention in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Ageing said pornography, drinking and child abuse were ‘rampant’ in the small Mallee town.
‘It’s not true that the Intervention has created chaos, increased poverty and racism in the Northern Territory,’ a spokesperson said.
It’s nice we can finally look back on that whole oil spill and laugh
By Carl-Henric Svanberg, Chairman, BP
Man, I must have looked like an absolute nut banging my desk and slamming the phone down after every call. I was so angry! And honestly, at what? So we dumped some oil in the ocean. Big deal. People screw up. That’s life.
For the full story click here.
Castlemaine Health and Wellbeing Expo turns ten
Australians are increasingly seeking healthier and more fulfilling lifestyles, and the Castlemaine Health and Wellbeing Expo promises to be offer plenty of options. Whether you are looking for information or inspiration, holistic health or inner peace, the Expo may well be the place to spend an informative and helpful weekend.
This is its tenth year, and it is run by a not-for-profit organisation. There are no paid workers, and the money raised is used to give people a hand up. Continue Reading »
Songwriters wanted
Go to CI’s Arts page - now filed in ‘Culture’ above – for more info on the Monster Meeting Song Award (scroll down from the top).
Where’s the renewable energy?
Members and supporters of Mount Alexander Sustainability Group (MASG) hit the streets in Castlemaine over the past few weeks to put renewable energy on the agenda.
Armed with a survey and clipboards, MASG volunteers asked over 200 residents what they’d like to see election candidates do about renewable energy. Continue Reading »
BP was planning pipeline to Australia
BP announced overnight that at the height of their Deepwater Horizon oil spill crisis they had planned a pipeline from their stricken oil well in the Gulf of Mexico to Australia.
‘Lots of things disappear in Australia,’ a spokesperson for the company said. Continue Reading »
6 August 1945: Japan drops atomic bomb on Las Vegas
President Truman was unavailable for comment
A Japanese aircraft has dropped the first atomic bomb on the US city of Las Vegas.
Emperor Hirohito, announcing the news from the cruiser, Kinugasa in the mid-Pacific, said the device was more than 2,000 times more powerful than the largest bomb used to date.
An accurate assessment of the damage caused has so far been impossible due to a huge cloud of impenetrable dust covering the target. The US gambling industry is devastated. Las Vegas had no value to the US war effort, but warmakers in Washington have no doubt paused for deliberation. A response from the US is believed to be imminent, especially as the Japanese say they have another weapon ready.
Continue Reading »
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Who voted which way?
By Andrea Ross
Here’s the rundown: Councillor Cropley started the ball rolling quick smart by supporting the closing and demolition of the Chewton Pool. I read somewhere she was quoted as saying that council officers are the ‘experts’ (I think in relation the Maldon bank fiasco) and that councillors need to be guided by their information. So she voted to demolish. Continue Reading »
Live from the oil spill
Green Cross CEO Mara Bun interviewed Beth Galante to discuss the prospects for a sustainable recovery in America’s climate change impact hot spot – find out more about why community grounded optimism persists through the nightmare of mega environmental disasters.
Read the full story here
Another deluge: Chinese apples are coming
Drosophila suzukii hard at work on soft fruit
Fruit growers in Harcourt are concerned about biosecurity threats to the local industry following the Federal Government’s recent approval for apples to be imported from China.
The green light was given following a recommendation by Biosecurity Australia, but growers remain concerned that the threat of infestation by the spotted-wing fruit fly, Drosophila suzukii, a pest present in China, was not included in the original risk analysis. Continue Reading »
