Newsletter No 90 December 2019

From the Editor’s ChairIt is hard to believe that already twenty

years have passed since the world faced withtrepidation the possible calamity of the Y2KBug as the calendar was turned to the year2000. (Many people celebrated the new mil-lennium even though they were a year tooearly).

On 31 December 1999, we dined on ourfront verandah (it was a hot night naturally).One of our guests was very senior in the ITworld and he was on standby in case of amelt-down. But of course nothing happened.It could have been because of the very expen-sive precautions taken by the world …...Once again there are those who would haveus believe that we are faced with imminentextinction ...

Until next time, au reservoir.Ian Pullar, Editor

Ongoing activitiesThere is much to report on in this edition in

relation to activities of the Association with all theactivities organised for our members, partners andfriends.

The mid-year lunch is normally held in thefirst half of the year and so, in other circumstanc-es, would normally have been reported in an earli-er Newsletter. But this year, the mid-year lunchwas in July so a report was not possible until thisissue.

In August, the Annual Golf Day was held witha report by President Pete on the members whoplayed a-round (see page 2).

Mike McKenna’s Annual CQ Reunion washeld in Yeppoon on 30 October (see page 4).

In October we were privileged to hear a fasci-nating address from Claude Tranchant on herwalks on the Camino (see page 2).

And in November, we fronted up again to CO-TAH for the usual Christmas luncheon (page 3).

What a busy time for retirees!

Mid-year LuncheonAs noted opposite, the mid-year luncheon segued to

July, more specifically to Tuesday 9 July when 35 of usmet once again at COTAH to enjoy an excellent mealand, of course, outstanding company.

Once again we were required to answer Terry’sTrivia, though the questions were mercifully a trifleeasier than on previous occasions and the competitionwas fierce with most tables getting high scores.

Unfortunately, neither of our patrons was availableto join us, but they were ably represented: DNRME byDavid Wiskar, Executive Director Water Policy, andSunWater by Katrina Beikoff, Corporate Communica-tion Advisor.

David (with two of his eminent predecessors ChrisRobson and Greg Claydon in the audience) spoke on therecent amendments to the Water Act introduced via theNatural Resources and Other Legislation AmendmentBill 2019 (NROLA) and the Minerals Water and otherLegislation Amendment Bill 2018 (MWOLA). He fore-shadowed that the continuing drought was expected totrigger a decision on future options for urban water sup-ply in south-east Queensland within 6 to 12 months (seereport on page 3 from 4 months later).

Katrina informed us of a project for which she wasresponsible relating to the history of SunWater and itspredecessors in terms of the benefits that their activitieshad brought to Queensland. She expressed the hope thatretirees would be able to assist by providing informationand anecdotes. We await more information on what wecan do to assist.

Future EventsThe annual get-together will be held in February at

the Victory Hotel. The Committee is following up anumber of possible speakers at this event. And theAGM in April (also at the Victory Hotel), will provideanother opportunity for us all to get together.

Stop PressWRRA will be looking to appoint a new patron.

Nicole Hollows has resigned as CEO of SunWater.

Best wishes for the FestiveSeason from WRRA

Watery Sauces No 89 Page 2

2019 WRRA Annual Golf DayA most pleasant day was had by all at this year’s

WRRA Annual golf day held at the Keppera Golf andCountry Club on Thursday 8 August.

A total of 11 members and friends competed thisyear. The competition was won by a ring in, BarrySimic, who took away a nice bottle of Pinot Noir witha very creditable score of 20 Stableford points withTrevor Sleep the next best with 17 points.

Barry was in the Ken Watson group which alsoincluded Graham Young and another guest, Larry Mu-jac. Ken took out the nearest to pin from Trevor Sleepon the par 3, 8th hole and Graham had a really goodround with a score of 15 points.

Newcomers Greg Claydon and Doug Flandersplayed with Geoff Eades and me, and despite havingnot played for a while showed enough to be a threat inyears to come with a bit of practice and in Doug’s casemaybe a bit of an upgrade of his vintage clubs!

The final group comprised our photographer TerryLoos, Trevor Sleep and Peter Allan who was backingup from last year and again had a creditable round.

Unfortunately, Bill Meredith was unable to defendhis title because of a prior commitment but I’m surehe’ll be back next year.

Apologies also included Past President Mike Mer-rin who is away house minding at Atherton. Hopefullynext year we will again be able to attract some newplayers to test their skill against the challenging Kep-pera course.

Thanks again to Geoff for helping to arrange agreat day and to the Club for putting on a great day’sgolf and excellent lunch.

I hope to see you all again next year.President Pete

Victory GatheringOn 24 October a number of interested members

gathered once again at the Victory Hotel to listen to avery interesting talk delivered by a very vivacious andpersonable lady. Claude Tranchant was born in Francebut came to Australia at a young age (but old enoughto retain her charming French accent. And in that shetold us her tale. In 2010, at the age of 64 she covered,on foot, alone, approximately, 2,500 kilometres, with a13-14 kg backpack through France and Spain, alongthe St James’ Way commonly known in Spain as theCamino. She started her journey from Vezelay - Bur-gundy region - Northern Central - France and finishedit at Muxia - North-West of Galicia. She was knownalong ‘The Way’ as Claude the Australian.

In 2018, at the age of 72, she again walked theCamino Frances in Spain from Saint-Jean-Pied-de Portto Santiago de Compostela, with group for the docu-mentary Camino Skies. Then from Finisterre shewalked, alone, to Muxia and returned on foot to Santi-ago de Compostela before walking on the PortugueseWay and covering close to 1100 km.

Although she walked alone, she was one of manythousands who make the journey. According to herfigures, in 2018 some 12000 people walked theCamino (the Spanish section); far fewer the Chemin inFrance. While many are Christian pilgrims travellingas others have done over the centuries to Santiago deCampostela, there are people from many nations andmany cultural backgrounds.. The talk was interestingand we could not but admire Claude’s resoluteness anddetermination.

The talk was followed by the customary conviviali-ty over lunch.“The good news is,

they do play golf inheaven. The bad newsis you’re due to tee offnext Thursday.”

New MembersWRRA welcomes new members Ged Brennan,

Phil Byrnes and Ian Fox.We do encourage our existing members to use

their good offices to recruit new members.

Claude and some of her listeners

Watery Sauces No 90 Page 3

Christmas LuncheonThis year’s Christmas Luncheon was held on 21

November when 41 of us attended CTAH for the fullChristmas menu – seafood cocktail, roast turkey andtrimmings and plum pudding. Our guests were DavidWiskar, Executive Director Water Policy DNRME,and Lisa Welsh, General Manager, Customer Strategy,Sunwater.

As well as the usual conviviality and Terry Loos’subiquitous trivia, we were entertained by the addressesof our guests, as follow:.David Wiskar

This week (17 Nov), the combined SEQ water stor-age volume fell below 60%. This is the trigger to com-mence implementation of the SEQ water security plan Step 1: the Gold Coast desalination plant has been

put into full operation. Step 2: TV messaging on water consumption has

commenced. Before the Millennium drought theaverage water consumption in Brisbane was around300 L/p/d. Since then it has fallen to around 180-190 L/p/d. So, we are starting from a better base.However, the aim of the water security plan is toget this down to 150L/p/d.

Step 3: SEQWater has started the early moves toactivate the Western Corridor PRW scheme. Noth-ing significant on this will commence until aroundFebruary after we see what the ‘wet’ season brings.SeqWater has surveyed the acceptability of usingPRW into Wivenhoe Dam. In general terms about50% are accepting; 30% are sitting on the fenceand 20% are vehemently opposed. As the droughtgets worse more of the fence-sitters tend to moveinto the ‘accepting’ category. It seems that thework done last time on promoting the acceptabilityof PRW-to-Wivenhoe is paying off now.

Wyaralong Dam has yet to be connected to the SE-QWater supply system because of water quality issues(Fe; Mn). A Business Case is being prepared abouthow best to utilise the water. So, Wyaralong may notbe part of the current drought response plan.

The biggest news story in the MDB involves the100 GL/a Adelaide desal plant (2011) which has beenoperating at its minimum level of 8 GL/a with Ade-laide mostly drawing water from local reservoirs andthe River Murray. A deal negotiated between the Fed-eral and SA governments will see the desalinationplant increase production to provide 40 GL of water

this financial year for Adelaide's drinking water sup-ply, and, all going well, a further 60 GL in 2020-21.The intent is that an equivalent volume of water can bereturned to the Murray River and used for upstreamdrought relief. The federal government expects thewater to be used to grow an extra 120,000 tonnes offodder for livestock. The water will be sold to farmersat a discount rate of A$100/ML.

Lisa Welsh A key goal for Sunwater is to have ‘commercially

focused projects’. The Mining downturn has put the‘kybosh’ on several proposed projects e.g ConnorsRiver Dam.

Sunwater is working to improve water delivery effi-ciency. For the Burdekin it has increased this from78% to 85%, resulting in significant water savings

Now customers are asking for energy use efficiencyas well. Solar energy is being investigated.

The QCA is doing an analysis of including a compo-nent of the cost of providing dam safety in the priceof water supplied to customers. At present the cus-tomer component for dam safety is zero.

The three main Sunwater scheme improvement pro-jects at present are: Fairbairn; Burdekin Falls andParadise. (A drought is the best time to undertakedam repairs).

At St George the outlet to the Thuraggi Channel isunder repair. Specific releases were made fromBeardmore to facilitate this. Irrigators were fore-warned to fill their storages as much as possible.

The Stanthorpe water supply is being augmentedfrom the Warwick water supply at present. The lattersupply is OK to about next October.

As of 22 November the dams in NQ have greaterreserves: Burdekin Falls is at 77%; Tinaroo at 73%;Julius at 78%; but Fairbairn is at 12%; Bjelke Pe-tersen at 4%; Beardmore at 4.5%; Leslie at 5%;

Only about 15% of the yield of Paradise Dam hasbeen taken up. The decision to operate the dam at alower level has been based on expert advice. All thewater being released is from Sunwater’s 85%. All ofthe allocation sold will be guaranteed. Downstreamfarmers are being offered the released water at nocost.

Water trading is occurring in the Fairbairn system –

at around $600-700/ML.

Many thanks to both speakers for their informativetalks. And thanks to Terry Loos who provided thesenotes. - Ed.

President Pete and secretary Rolf with Lisa and David

Ross Car-ruthers,Greg Clay-don, JonHenry andKev Devlin

Watery Sauces No 90 Page 4

Around the World in 104 DaysPart 9

Bruce PearceDay 80In the early hours of the morning, Dawn Princess

left the Gulf of Oman and entered the Persian Gulf onapproach to Dubai. This largest natural harbour alongthe Emirates’ coast has blossomed into one of the mostmodern cities on earth. As it now stands, it’s the per-fect place to get a deeper peek into Arabian culture ina friendly and secure environment. Dubai is one ofseven autonomous emirates which formed the UAEfederation in 1971. Like some of its gulf neighbours,Dubai enjoys significant revenue from oil and naturalgas, but trade continues to be the primary focus oflocal economic planners. Our tour for the day allowedus to see the major sights both old and new on a pano-ramic tour. We visited the Dubai Museum located onthe banks of Dubai Creek. These graceful buildingswere superb examples of traditional wind towers, de-signed for comfortable living in the days before air-conditioning. This was followed by a visit to the GoldSouq. The souq glitters with all things gold, from goldbars and bangles to rings and necklaces and is one ofthe world’s major gold markets. Finally we visited oneof Dubai’s beaches to view the Burg Al Arab Hotelbuilt in the shape of a towering sail.

During the afternoon we visited one of the shoppingmalls in modern Dubai which was incredible. It fea-tured a full ski slope indoors with the temperature out-doors approaching 40 degrees. Our visit to this incredi-ble city was undoubtedly a highlight of the whole trip.

En route to our next destination in Mumbai, wehad an immigration check. An Orion aircraft buzzedthe ship early in the afternoon. Rumour had it that theAustralian warship that followed us through the RedSea had bailed up some pirates near Somalia who hadlots of machine guns etc. The “fishing boats” we saw acouple of days previously may have been them.

On day 84 we reached Mumbai. Bombay Harbouris seven miles wide at the base and tapers as it goesnorth. It is an impressive sight, studded with moun-tainous islands and with the imposing buildings of thecity on the one side and the palm-fringed mainland tothe east slowly rising to the peaks of the WesternGhats. The city of Mumbai is built on seven islandsjoined to the mainland by an artificial causeway. AnAct of Parliament officially changed the name of thecity from Bombay to Mumbai in 1997.

Following a travel advice issued by the Australiangovernment warning of possible terrorist activity inMumbai, we decided to stay on the ship for the day.Mumbai didn’t look very attractive from the wharf andpollution was terrible.

Tucked between the Western Ghats and the Ara-bian Sea, Goa is an extraordinary amalgam of Eastand West. For over four centuries, Goa was thepearl of Portugal’s Asian possessions. This enclaveon the Konkan Coast resembled not India but theIberian Peninsula with its imposing baroque church-es, tile-roofed villas, feast day carnivals and mantil-la-clad senhoras.

Continued next page ...

CQ ReunionThe 2019 Get Together of Water Resources Retirees

was held in Yeppoon on Wednesday 30 October. About35 turned up to enjoy a beautiful day on the waterfrontas well as ample quantities of amber fluid and fingerfood. The yarding was slightly down on last year withsickness intervening for some and the Melbourne Cupperhaps a little too close.

People’s home towns stretched from Mackay to Bris-bane and no doubt the stories told will be transferredwell beyond the participants of the day. It's interesting tonote the relationships which have been maintained re-gardless of the occupation or position of the individualsin the work scene, and how we keep finding the odd onewho hasn't been before and indicates an intention to keepcoming. The linkages also reflect the number of loca-tions in which people served across the State and howdifficult it is to tell a lie without being caught.

Our senior statesman Bob Gray was again presentand with four score and ten years just around the cornerwe wish him and wife Pam all the best.

There's ample support to continue next year so ifanyone is interested mark the second last week in Octo-ber on the calendar as a time for a bit of festivity.

Mike McKenna

Is This a Record?I recently received this missive from Greg Mur-phy - Ed

/ŵĐŽŶƚĂĐƟŶŐLJŽƵŝŶƌĞůĂƟŽŶƚŽƚŚĞǀ ĞƌLJƌĞĐĞŶƚƌĞƟƌĞŵĞŶƚŽĨŽůĚŵĂƚĞĂŶĚůŽŶŐ-ƟŵĞǁ ŽƌŬĂƐƐŽͲciate, Dave Schmiede.Ăǀ ĞũŽŝŶĞĚƚŚĞƚŚĞŶ/ƌƌŝŐĂƟŽŶĂŶĚt ĂƚĞƌ ƵƉƉůLJCommission in 1967 as far as I know within theĞĂƌůLJLJĞĂƌ;:ĂŶ &ĞďͿĂĚĞƚƐŚŝƉ;, LJĚƌŽůŽŐLJͿĚƌĂŌ /Ĩŝƚǁ ĂƐĂůĂƚĞƌĚƌĂŌŝŶϭϵϲϳ ƚŚĞƐĂŵĞŽƵƚĐŽŵĞĞdžŝƐƚƐŝŶƌĞƐƉĞĐƚŽĨŚŝƐƐƚĂƌƟŶŐLJĞĂƌ, ŝƐƌĞĐĞŶƚ ĞƉƚĞŵďĞƌƌĞƟƌĞŵĞŶƚĞƐƚĂďůŝƐŚĞƐĂĐŽŶƟŶƵŽƵƐƐĞƌǀ ŝĐĞƉĞƌŝŽĚŽĨĞŝƚŚĞƌϱϮŽƌϱϯyears depending on his actual date of appoint-ment i.e. he would likely have been in his 53rdLJĞĂƌŽĨĐŽŶƟŶƵŽƵƐƐĞƌǀ ŝĐĞǁ ŝƚŚĂƉƉŽŝŶƚŵĞŶƚŝŶsay January or February 1967./ƌƌĞƐƉĞĐƟǀ ĞƚŚĞƐĞƌǀ ŝĐĞƉĞƌŝŽĚŝŶǀ Žůǀ ĞĚŚĞƌĞŝƐvery significant.”

This is certainly a wonderful achievement. Isthere anyone out there who can think of someonewho served for a longer time?

Watery Sauces No 90 Page 5

Around the World in 104 Days continuedYet even the Inquisition failed to erase Goa’s Hin-

du roots. A distinct and cosmopolitan Goan cultureemerged. Here the traveller can view a Hindu templethat incorporates elements of Baroque design or tour achurch interior decorated with intricate woodcarvinginfluenced by Hindu art. That hybrid culture survivedreunification with India in 1961.

Our tour for the day included a visit to one of Goa’slargest spice plantations specialising in cloves, cinna-mon, pepper and medicinal herbs, along with fruits suchas papaya, guava, pineapple, limes and tangerines. Itwas very interesting to see the different spices growingon the trees. We had an Indian lunch at the plantation.

The area was a lot cleaner than in Mumbai but stilllooked so run down and old. There was a lot of ricebeing grown and iron ore was exported from the areadown the river by barge. In the afternoon we visitedOld Goa’s historic landmarks on a narrated city drive.

Next port was Cochin which is one of the threelargest ports on the west coast of India, handling over5 million tons of cargo a year. It is one of those placeswhere the 20th century and ancient civilisation existside by side with a past so rich that it has a valid claimas a museum city. Cochin is actually a handy name fora cluster of towns and islands all linked by ferries andridges. Vypeen island’s fishermen still use their Chi-nese cantilever contraptions which make the riverlandscape look rather weird.

As part of our tour for the day we visited a coir matfactory, a cotton weaving factory and a coconut oilextraction factory. We visited Viakom traditional vil-lage in the countryside where we were served tradi-tional Southern Indian food on a banana leaf, eaten inthe traditional Indian way using our fingers with noeating utensils. It was quite enjoyable and a lot differ-ent to the Indian food usually served in Australia. Fol-lowing lunch we went on a one hour canoe ride downa canal, passing Indian houses. This gave us an insightinto the way Indians live in this area. We were greetedby young children at several locations begging forpens and pencils rather than money. These apparentlywere very much prized at school where they were of-ten not available. We finished off the day with a Tuk-tuk ride back to the bus.

Dawn Princess continued her course across theGulf of Mannar, past Sri Lanka on the port side, acrossthe Bay of Bengal, passing through the Nicobar Is-lands, before arriving in Phuket in Thailand.

Hailed as the “Pearl of the Andaman Sea” this is-land off Thailand’s long southern coast boasts a col-ourful history. A crossroads for trade, Phuket has beena melting pot of Thai, Malay, Chinese and Westerninfluences. Its importance over the past 500 yearsstemmed from the island’s natural resources, whichinclude tin, hardwoods and rubber. In the past half-century, Phuket has enjoyed wide popularity as one ofthe premier travel destinations in South-east Asia.Travellers are drawn to the island’s beaches, crystal-line waters and dramatic forested hills. Phuket isThailand’s largest, wealthiest, most populous islandand a province in itself. The jagged coastal terrain en-compasses broad sandy bays, rocky peninsulas, lime-stone cliffs and tropical vegetation. Phuket’s interiorsupports rice paddies, rubber, cashew-nut, cacao, pine-apple and coconut plantations.

Our tour for the day consisted of a narrated drivearound parts of the island including a visit to WatChalong, the largest and most venerated of the island’s29 Buddhist temples. We also stopped for photographsat Cape Promthep overlooking Phuket City and RangHill overlooking Rawai Beach and had a shoppingstop at a location selling Thai cotton, silk and semi-precious stones.

To be continued ...

Green pepper seeds at Goa spice plantation

Iron ore barges in river at Goa.

St Barnabas Bulletin Board

Ladies, don’t criticise your hus-bands. It may be these veryfaults that prevented them fromgetting better wives.

Watery Sauces No 90 Page 6

Three amigos have a puzzle to solveRoss CarruthersThree of the key players in the regulation of

Queensland’s burgeoning Coal Seam Gas (CSG) in-dustry have spent their lives piecing together an ex-tremely complex jigsaw puzzle called the Great Arte-sian Basin.

And now deep in the careers of chief hydro-geologist David Free, senior hydro-geologist GerryHarth and principal project officer Ross Carruthers,they have all been reunited in Toowoomba as part ofthe Coal Seam Gas Compliance Unit’s GroundwaterInvestigation and Assessment Team – a key plank ofthe Queensland’s Government’s action on communityconcerns about the impacts of CSG extraction ongroundwater resources.

David says, ”Between us we know a lot of the peo-ple in this industry and over a long period of time havedeveloped a degree of trust within the community.We’ve been working with some landholders since the1980s, helping them solve problems; when you can sitat a kitchen table and have an open discussion asfriends, you have the chance to make a difference. It’san advantage alright having been around as long as Ihave,” he adds. “You go out and explain the details ofhow the groundwater system works to a landholder. Inmany cases they are educated people, some have mul-tiple degrees and can understand the science if youput it before them.

“I had one case recently, a very smart person, aveterinarian. He had questioned why his bore was sud-denly not performing as well.

“It’s a typical story. He had noticed the perfor-mance issues and thought: ‘What had changed recent-ly? Coal seam gas? It must be that.’

“I went out, showed him the trend of the past 40years’ worth of data from the monitoring bores, andsuddenly he saw the answer ... it was a light-bulb mo-ment. We ran a workshop for him and his neighboursaddressing the issues on why their groundwater levelshad dropped that much over the past 40 years.

“In many cases landholders have always had apoor understanding of how groundwater works: it’sthere and they are happy, they never give it a secondthought until something goes wrong. That’s where wecome in. They are open-minded to us because theyhave been dealing with us for a long time on a person-al level. There is trust and that is invaluable in anylong-term relationship.”

Gerry Harth is the senior hydro-geologist. He hasworked extensively with mineral extraction andgroundwater issues in the Great Artesian Basin since1983 before shifting his focus slightly to CSG extrac-tion methods in the past two years.

“I have spent the last few years working primarilyon bore investigations and landholder complaints.Since I have come over to the CSG side of things Ihave found that most of the complaints we are gettingare based around landholders being misinformed ...they just don’t have enough information,” Gerry says.

“Lots of the bores are being impacted by old age. Itmay be a bore construction issue, rotting casing, orpoor quality groundwater having an impact.”

When the CSG industry first came to prominencein 2010 there was no one Queensland Governmentorganisation to deal with landholder or communityconcerns about CSG’s impact on groundwater.

“But that is changing, bringing us all together inone unit with one purpose is allowing us have more ofa customer focus,” Ross Carruthers says.

“It is all about engaging landholders and communi-ty groups, giving them some accurate information andshowing them how to monitor their own bores - thisgives them some tools to fend for themselves. Theyare then able to compare the government monitoring,the company’s monitoring and the results they havefrom their own monitoring.”

“It gives the landholders’ confidence that we arekeeping an eye on it and they can too,” David adds.

“Talking to the landholder is one part of the puz-zle. We have been working within this landscape for along time. We have records that go back decades insome cases; we understand the hydrology and the in-terconnectivity of the systems.

“You put all these pieces together when we aredoing an investigation and you find you have all theright pieces to complete that puzzle.”Thanks, Ross, for this contribution. Ed.

Jacques-Louis DavidThe Death of Marat

“I always feared tangling with CharlotteCorday could get me into hot water andeven be the death of me.”

Answers to Terry’s Trivia (page 11)1.(i) Turandot 2. (iii) Breed of horse3. (v) Rembrandt 4. September5. (iii) Dogs 6. (iii) 1975 7. (iii) Jerusalem8. (iii) Angela Merkel 9. (v) Tomatoes10. (iii) Nancy-Bird Walton 11. (i) Cheese12. (iv) England and India.

Watery Sauces No 90 Page 7

Asset Management UnitPeter GilbeyOur editor Ian Pullar has asked me to pen a few

words about an experience I had in the early 1990safter I was asked to assume responsibility for the de-livery of a recent initiative of the then Department ofPrimary Industries which came to be known as theAsset Management Unit (AMU) and which was basedmainly in Cairns and Thursday Island but with links toofficers in Brisbane, Rockhampton and Bundaberg.

The unit provided technical support to Aboriginaland Islander communities throughout the state, someof which were in very remote locations throughout theGulf and Cape York Peninsula, the Torres Strait Is-lands as well as in North, Central and SouthernQueensland.

The services ranged from assisting in the designand installation of new facilities to improving thequality and security of community water supply.Through the use of innovative systems such as linedand covered lagoons which were filled by rain collect-ing on the dam cover and lined catchment which waschannelled to an inlet – some of these covering severalhundred square metres – communities were able toaugment their household rain tanks.

One of the main challenges of the rain-fed storageswas to dissuade the prolific sea birds in the TorresStrait from roosting and pooping on the catchment tominimise contamination from the bird droppings –again innovative methods were adopted to minimisethe problem.

The photo below is the local water officer Justine,and Stuart Duncan from the AMU standing on one ofthe rain-fed storage lagoon floating covers, on DauanIsland in the Torres Strait.

Other initiatives included the setting up of trans-portable reverse osmosis plants which could be takento a community when the established water supplysystem failed (mainly due to lack of rainfall).

Training of the community water officers was amajor responsibility of the unit and was particularlyimportant where sophisticated equipment was em-ployed to augment the communities water supply.

Another aim of the unit was to encourage the com-munity to be aware of the need to ensure their house-

holds minimised the wastage of water through the im-plementation of a waterwise program similar to thatadopted in mainstream communities but tailored to suitthe traditional ways, for example by recognising thatcertain individuals in the community had a key role indeveloping the awareness as traditionally they werethe people who had a responsibility to provide water totheir community.

One of the most rewarding features of the workwith the unit was to see the participation of communitywater officers in the various training programs thatwere conducted each year either in Cairns or in theTorres Strait to upskill the officers. In fact, the devel-opment of the Certificate II Essential Services Officerqualification was a joint initiative between the AMUand the North Queensland College of TAFE, Cairns.

It must be said their enthusiasm may have beenenhanced by their access to KFC whenever they visit-ed Cairns.

At the higher level it was also pleasing to workwith the community leaders who were grateful for thepractical assistance provided by our technical officerswho worked with the communities to solve problemson the ground with minimal fuss or disruption.

The work of the AMU was also recognised at thehighest levels. The then Minister for Health, SenatorJohn Herron of Queensland, was particularly support-ive of the work done by the DPI in Queensland to im-prove health outcomes for Queensland’s remote com-munities through provision of safe, secure water ser-vices.

I would like to take the opportunity to thanks someof the AMU team members and the support staff whomade this initiative work so well during my time in theNorth, particularly Ian Ferrier, Russell Cassidy, GlenStarkey and more recently Stuart Duncan and theirstaff who did such a splendid job in improving thewater and health outcomes of those far flung commu-nities throughout Queensland.Many thanks to Peter and to Stuart for his input. Ed

Stuart Duncan addressing some of the Torres Strait IslandWater/Sewer operators who attended a training workshopon Thursday Island in 2007.

Watery Sauces No 90 Page 8

My Life of HydrographyRay Alford

Early days in the CommissionClement Wragge joined the Queensland Public

Service in January of 1887. He was appointed Govern-ment Meteorologist with the view of predicting cy-clones to help stem the shipping losses resulting fromthem. The government saw the merit in setting up itsown weather bureau as there was no federal equivalentat the time. Wragge had interests in all aspects of whatwe now call the hydrological cycle, including an inter-est in water resources. There is little doubt that hisdevotion to data collection helped persuade the gov-ernment to set up a stream gauging branch in 1909.Wragge and others had long argued that long termrecords of river flow were required in order to designand operate dams and irrigation projects. Queenslandhad suffered under floods and droughts since settle-ment in 1839. The state would need good managementof its water resources to reach its full potential.Wragge’s own son, Bert, was one of the first employ-ees of the fledgling stream gauging branch, formed toaccess the state’s water resources.

I had no knowledge of Wragge, his son, nor of theimportance of stream gauging as I prepared to join thepublic service 86 years after Clement. My thoughtswere more likely occupied by the plum job that I hadlanded and the not inconsiderable $45 per week thatthe government was willing to pay for my services.My intention had been to follow my father into thebuilding trade, but my mother’s aim was to see hersons with government jobs. She had endured the hard-ships of small business with its ups and downs andfavoured the stability of the public service above pri-vate enterprise.

My career in Hydrography came about in a curiousway. I had failed the physics and chemistry subjectswhen I completed grade 12. The only employmentoffered me was a teaching career which I didn’t carefor, so I opted to repeat grade 12 and try to temper myinterest in motorbikes, boats and beer in the interestsof better grades. Towards the end of that year, one ofmy previous year’s classmates told me of the job hehad taken with the Queensland Department of Irriga-tion and Water supply. He told me his job requiredhim to sometimes work away from the city and thatwhen he did, he got paid extra to stay in a pub. Thisaspect of his employment was especially appealing soI decided to apply. When I perused the list of jobs of-fered by the state government, I couldn’t exactly re-member what job he had. I thought he must have beena hydrographer, so I applied for that. It turns out hewas a farm advisor. He resigned to join the policeforce shortly after I was employed.

My first day of employment started with a traintrip from Ipswich in a brown wooden carriage pulledby a blue diesel-electric locomotive. The steam trainshad been replaced a few years earlier but were notforgotten as attested by the smoke grimed stations and

lumps of coal lying besides the tracks. I joined thethrongs of commuters jostling from Roma Street sta-tion and walking in waves down George Street to-wards the government precinct. My destination wasthe Executive Building, Joh Bjelke Peterson’s prideand joy and one of the tallest buildings in Brisbane. Ijoined our group of new employees and was given aquick tour of the building as part of the induction pro-cess. The top storey cafeteria was particularly appeal-ing and I thought that this would be a great place towork. The group was then broken up into our respec-tive departments and I was a little disappointed to findout that my work place was elsewhere. About a dozenof us were walked from the Executive building to theMargaret Street corner and into a ramshackle buildingthat I’m sure must have come from a Dickens’ novel.My admiration for old architecture was yet to developas we meandered through narrow corridors and up anddown rickety stairs, shedding fellow travellers as wepassed from section to section. There were four of usleft when we finally arrived at the Surface Water sec-tion and I was concerned that I might not be able tofind my way out of the building at the end of the day.

The Surface Water group were housed in a largeroom about the size of a small church. The seating wasalso church like with a raised section at the end seatingthe senior management who overlooked the more jun-ior staff sitting, face forward, in rows. At the back ofthe room, parallel to one side, sat a row of elderlymen, heads bent over huge books, engrossed in usingpencils and rulers and sheets of graph paper. I laterlearned that most of these people were refugees whohad fled western Europe after WW2 to seek a betterlife in Australia. They were also among the mostskilled hydrographers in Australia.

The supervising hydrographer was Len Ezzy, agrey-haired man who sat, headmaster style, facing thegroup. To the side sat two clerks. Jim, the elder of thetwo controlled the stationery and reluctantly handedover a biro, pen, rubber and ruler to each of the newstarters. We were informed sternly to make sure wekept the empty biro or pencil stub in order to prove aclaim when asking for a replacement. We were alsogiven a small towel embossed with the blue govern-ment logo as well as a glass ashtray. As was commonat the time, nearly everyone smoked and a feint bluesmoke pall hung daily over our heads, saturating ourclothes, but no one cared. The public service dressregulations required that the men wore ties. This led totwo distinct dress styles with the senior staff wearingplain, mostly white, shirts with thin dark ties, and theyounger staff favouring wide ties and colourful shirts.I did notice a couple of the staff members were notwearing ties and wondered how that could be. Therewere no women working in the room. It would bemany years until the first female hydrographer wasemployed. Thus, this was the environment where Ibegan my career as a cadet hydrographer with the Irri-gation and Water Supply Commission.

Watery Sauces No 90 Page 9

My Life of Hydrography continuedSurface water group was responsible for the opera-

tion and collection of data from over 600 locations(gauging stations) on rivers and streams acrossQueensland. Staff operated from Brisbane and fromfive regional offices, Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Mac-kay, Townsville and Mareeba. Head Office was re-sponsible for the sites in southern Queensland, manag-ing sites in a geographical area extending westwards tothe SA border. The stations within this boundary weregrouped into areas, each containing around 25 gaugingstations. Each area was named after the locality givingrise to names such as border rivers or far west to dis-tinguish individual clusters of stations. The responsi-bility for the operation of the stations within each areawas assigned to one hydrographer called a party leaderwho was assigned one cadet. My party leader wasGeoff Pocock who was responsible for the upperCondamine area.

Geoff was around three years older than me whichseemed pretty old to me at the time. We were both fromIpswich and both our families owned holiday houses onHope Island. I thought that this was a bit of a coinci-dence at the time and I only discovered thirty years laterthat we were distant cousins. My great great grandfatherand his great great grandmother were brother and sisterwho had immigrated to Queensland together aboard thesailing ship “Mary Pleasants” in 1853. I got on wellwith Geoff and the other party leaders despite the factthat cadets weren’t exactly treated well by some of thesenior members. As a junior member, the first task Iwas assigned was to make the tea for the rest of thegroup before each break. This didn’t worry me, as teamaking was always my job when I was helping myfather on building sites. At least I didn’t have to start afire before boiling the billy.

A condition of employment was the successfulcompletion of a hydrographic certificate course. Thiscourse was conducted via distance education from acollege in NSW and cadets were allowed four years tocomplete it. If the course wasn’t completed by then,there would be no promotion beyond assistant hydrog-rapher. Non-completion could also be used as groundsfor dismissal. To assist with their studies, cadets wereallowed to study at work on Friday afternoons. Thiswas very helpful as there was help available from oth-ers who had completed the course. If you were lucky,you were given some previously marked units. Thismade life easy as the unit questions barely changedeach year.

There was little training for the cadets apart fromon the job training by the party leaders. Not long afterwe started, the new cadets were all taken to the LoganRiver and shown how to do a wading measurement byGraham Gillies. A wading measurement calculated thevolume of water passing a point in a stream and as thename implied, was conducted by wading across thestream and taking a series of water velocity readingsusing a hand held current meter. This meter was simp-

ly a propeller, attached to a rod, which rotated as thewater flowed past. The faster the water flowed, the fast-er the propeller turned. The speed of the propeller wasdetermined using a buzzer and stopwatch. The buzzerwould sound for ten revolutions, and then be quiet forthe next ten. The buzzers were timed for a period ofgreater than thirty seconds giving a result like 60 revs in34.8 seconds. To perform the measurement, a taggedwire rope was first strung across the stream. The dis-tance across the stream was divided into intervals so thatthere were between ten and fifteen places that the watervelocity would be measured. If the stream was shallowat the interval marker, one velocity would be recorded atpoint 6 of the depth. If the water was deeper than 2 feet,then two velocities were recorded, one at point two andone at point eight of the depth, in order to obtain theaverage velocity at that interval. The rod that held thepropeller meter was marked to show the depth. The cal-culation for the meter setting involved a bit of mentalarithmetic. This took some practice but eventually be-came second nature.

The measurements were conducted by the cadet inthe water who relayed the results to the party leader onthe bank of the river who recorded the results with apencil on a waterproof gauging sheet. The final resultwas calculated back in the office. Calculating the resultin the field later became common practice after the ad-vent of portable calculators. This allowed the gaugingto be checked before the field party left the site.

The unit of flow measurement at the time was cu-secs, short for cubic feet of water per second. Thiswould later become cumecs (cubic metres/sec) aftermetrification, but for the first few years of my careerwe measured in cusecs. One game we played was toguess the flow in cusecs. Guesses were written on theback of the gauging sheet. Whoever came closest tothe calculated answer would win. Even many yearsafter going metric, I would still mentally estimate aflow in cusecs before converting to cumecs.

Soon after starting at Surface Water Branch all thenew cadets were taken to the IWS Depot to inspect theinstrumentation used to monitor river heights. KeithSmythe led the group. The depot was routinely calledjust “Rocklea” without a descriptor. The suburb namewas adequate enough for the department. “Rocklea”was the operational hub for all the major dam con-structions underway throughout Queensland, housingthe essential infrastructure and supportive engineeringnecessary to build dams.To be continued ...

“You know, youcan live to be ahundred if yougive up all thethings thatmade you wantto live to be ahundred.”

HEALTH and beauty

Exercise those Brain Cells

Watery Sauces No 90 Page 10

Answer to last Issue’s Teaser

““I’ve been living with this terrible head-ache for such a long time.”“You need to see a doctor.”“No. I need to see a divorce lawyer.”.”

Q. Of six consecutive even numbers, thehighest is divided by two and four is added.If this result is two more than the averageof the six numbers, what is the lowest ofthe consecutive numbers?

Run a Bath, Not a MarathonGetting into hot water, may be a good thing

(unlike the event on page 6). A long soak in thebath may not seem like the best way to get fit, butlying in a piping hot tub burns as many calories asa thirty minute walk. An hour in 40C water burnsoff 585 kilojoules and lowers blood sugar evenmore than exercise does.

Having a hot bath five or more times a weekcould help prevent a heart attack or stroke, by re-ducing the risk of hardened, blocked arteries.

Studies have been reported from both Kyotoand Loughborough Universities. Researchersfound that steaming in a bath may produce the“heat shock” proteins thought to remove sugarfrom the bloodstream and transport it to the mus-cle cells where it is burned as fuel.

Of course the Scandinavians have long es-poused the sauna.

HeartbeetsDrinking beetroot juice has been found to have

beneficial results in reducing the incidence ofheart failure. Doctors say nitrates found in highlevels in beetroot can reduce stress on the heart bywidening blood vessels and improving blood flow.

Around 100 heart failure patients have takenpart in a trial at Queen Mary University of Lon-don, drinking 70ml of juice every day for threemonths with positive results.

A You take two tokens, leaving nine. Youropponent then takes one, two or three and inresponse you take three, two or one. This willensure that there are five tokens left. Whatev-er your opponent then takes, you take what-ever is required to leave only one for him.

Darwin AwardsEach year these awards are made inhonour of Charles Darwin, the fatherof evolution. Darwin Awards com-memorate those who improve ourgene pool – by removing themselvesfrom it in the most spectacular way

possible. Among the “winners” are:(3 September 2018, New Zealand) Howard Miller,

39, professional welder spent his last moments help-ing a friend weld an exhaust pipe onto a classic Hold-en Kingswood sedan. He arrived at the garage shedwith an experimental welding kit: an LPG bottle, sim-ilar to a propane tank, in which he had mixed bothcomponents that make up oxy-acetylene welding gas:acetylene and oxygen. A tank of mixed acetylene/oxygen+ no flow regulator = an accident waiting tohappen.

Once Miller unveiled his jury-rigged device, hisfriend recognised this dangerous equation and repeat-edly warned that it was crazy! Finally he high-tailed itout of the shed while Miller, undeterred by a bit ofpanic, attached a torch head straight onto the bottleand lit the welding tip.

Sans regulator, the flame crept back into the bottleand the inevitable explosion flattened the shed, whichalso contained about twenty litres of paint thinner andgasoline. The force of the explosion was so intense itshattered the windows of neighbouring properties.

Needless to say, the friend is in need a new car –but Mr Miller won a Darwin Award.

(27 November, 2018) The Buckeye Police Depart-ment in Arizona reported that a man accidentally shothis own sausage while shopping in the meat aisle atWalmart. Arizona law does not require a permit (nor aholster for that matter) to carry a firearm, so our herofelt free to carry his piece “commando-style” (unholstered) beneath his waistband. When theunholstered gun drifted down into his jeans, hereached in and pulled the trigger while repositioninghis weapon. This loose cannon’s low hanging fruitdidn’t have a chance. Firearm supporters can add thisevent to the arsenal of ammunition against gun con-trol. Guns really do make a difference.

Because this shopper is still alive but unable toreproduce, he wins the uncommon Living DarwinAward:

Watery Sauces No 90 Page 11

A Sign of the Times

On a church in Ipswich

The first five days after a weekend arethe worst.

“ I reckon I’ve cracked the problem of never beingable to remember passwords. I’ve set them all to‘incorrect’ and that always agrees with the ma-chine.”

Terry’s Trivia - from the 2019 mid-year lunchAnswers on page 6.

1..Nessun Dorma features in which Puccini opera:(i) Turandot; (ii) Tosca; (iii) La Boheme; (iv)Madama Butterfly; (v) Le Villi.

2. Lippizzaner is a (i) German Fast Train; (ii) Typeof Austrian Hat; (iii) Breed of horse; (iv) Bel-gian chocolate; (v) Spanish vegetable dish (vi)Czech sea song.

3. The Night Watch is a painting by: (i) Van Gogh;(ii) Mozart; (iii) Turner; (iv) Cezanne; (v) Rem-brandt; (vi) Rubens.

4. In which month is the Birdsville races usuallyheld?

5. Malamute, Chow Chow, Basenji are: (i) Mon-keys; (ii) Cats; (iii) Dogs; (iv) Pigs.

6. When did Australia grant PNG independence:(i) 1969; (ii) 1982; (iii) 1975; (iv) 1956; (v)1972.

7. In which city would you walk the Via Dolorosaand the Stations of the Cross: (i) Venice; (ii)Rome; (iii) Jerusalem; (iv) St Petersburg; (v)Lourdes.

8. Black Russian, Grose Lisse and Beefsteak areall types of: (i) Cocktails; (ii) Mushrooms; (iii)Dogs; (iv) Apples; (v) Tomatoes.

9. Which leader has a doctorate in quantum chem-istry: (i) Scott Morrison; (ii) Emmanuel Mac-ron; (iii) Angels Merkel; (iv) Vladmir Putin; (v)Narendra Modi.

10. After which famous aviator will Sydney’s newairport be named?: (i) Kingsford Smith; (ii)Bert Hinkler; (iii) Nancy-Bird Walton; (iv)Douglas Bader; (v) Biggles; (vi) Gareth Evans(vii) John Gorton; (viii) John Flynn.

11. What type of food is chevre: (i) Cheese; (ii)Tomato; (iii) Meat; (iv) Herb.

12. Mulligatawny soup is from the cuisines of: (i)France and Vietnam; (ii) Portugal and SriLanka; (iii) Holland and Indonesia; (iv) Eng-land and India.

A Caution

Every little girl might like to be

like an angel on the Christmas tree,

sitting up high with a smile on her face –

but a twig in a most embarrassing place.Original author unknown.

Perpetuating ErrorsHow often do errors get perpetuated? All too fre-

quently, I fear. A classic (term used advisedly) exam-ple is in the well-known fairy tale of Cinderella.

Everyone knows that when Cinderella fled fromthe ball as midnight struck, she shed a glass slipper bywhich means the Prince was able to identify her andjoin her in living happily ever after. But glass slippersare plainly ridiculous. No one would wear suchthings on a cold night, let alone try to dance in them.

The very earliest French version of the story hasCinderella sensibly wearing slippers made of fur,which would have kept her feet very warm on a coldnight. In Cinderella’s case, they would have been ofermine, fit for a princess.

The French for fur is vair and for glass, verre.Spelled differently, the words are almost identical insound. Now it must be remembered that the old sto-ries were always handed down orally and not in writ-ten form. For once the perpetrator of the error can beidentified. When Charles Perrault, a French poet,wrote the tale down in 1697, selecting elements froma number of versions, he erroneously turned the furslippers into ones of glass. As all later editions andtranslations are based on his text, they copied his mis-take which has never been corrected!

No doubt readers will be aware of examples ofperpetuated errors. Here are some. Moreton Islandand Bay were named after the Earl of Morton, but thecadastral draftsman got it wrong.

In the Lockyer Valley the town of Forest Hill islocated on what could be the flattest part of the valley,while Plainlands is located on a hill. I have been told,but not verifiably, that the draftsman appended thewrong names to his map.

The town of Bundaberg is well known for beingflat, yet its name is clearly derived from the Germanfor mountain (berg) and not the name for town (burg).Is this another error? (The Bunda part of the namecomes from the local aboriginal tribe).

The railway station at Maryborough in Queens-land, constructed during the colonial era, is a simplebuilding, particularly by comparison with the magnifi-cent edifice at the small hamlet of Maryborough inVictoria. It is almost certain that the plans were sentfrom the British Colonial office to the respectivewrong address!

Watery Sauces No 90 Page 12

President Peter Gilbey 3408 8105 the_gilbeys3@bigpond.com

Past Pres Mike Merrin 0437 005 707 michaelmerrin8@bigpond.com

Vice Pres Daryl Brigden darylbrigden@bigpond.com

Secretary Rolf Rose 0428 202 164 rolf.rose@bigpond.com

Treasurer Gary Corbett 3398 8657 treasurer@waterysauces.org.au

Executive Bruce PearceRob Herd

3289 62970487757314

brucepearce@bigpond.comrobgherd@gmail.com

Auditor Vacant

Editor Ian Pullar 3281 4437 hpullar@bigpond.net.au

WebMaster Warren Shallcross webmaster@waterysauces.org.au

Office Bearers

Book ClubFrom Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage by Judith

Brett is an entertaining and illuminating account of the de-velopment of the unique Australian electoral system.

Australia is one of the very few nations in the worldwhich has compulsory, preferential voting. We also, unusu-ally, vote on Saturdays. Brett’s book describes the uniquecircumstances and the personalities responsible for theadoption of these characteristics.

The American colonies were established by settlers whowanted no truck with authority (Pilgrim Fathers etc) which ledto the strong belief in individual freedom and responsibility.Furthermore, the States broke away from England largely overthe issue of taxation. So when Australia was first settled by theBritish, to avoid a tax-fuelled rebellion, the government leviedno taxes, but provided all infrastructure and services. Australi-ans developed a majoritarian faith in democracy.

Brett traces the development of the franchise from thepublic nomination and voting in front of the pub (with suita-ble inducements) to the development of the secret ballot,universal suffrage (including in turn women and eventuallyaborigines), compulsory enrolment and compulsory votingthrough the disparate voices of the states before, during andafter federation, with policy being developed to try to ad-vantage particular interest groups. The Saturday poll is awonderful Australian custom with sausage sizzles and pro-duce for sale including Malcolm Turnovers, Bill Shortbreadsand Jacqui Lambingtons. The Democracy Sausage evenmade it to the Macquarie Dictionary as the ‘word of theyear’.

She concludes, “What the story of compulsory votingtells us is how very good we are at elections. We should cel-ebrate it.”

.”I asked the librarianwhere the self-help sectionwas. She replied that ifshe told me it would defeatthe purpose.”

“I neverrepeatgossip, soI’ll say thisonlyonce.”

My Friend the Enemy by Paul Briscoe is atrue story around World War II .

On a visit to Germany in 1934, English-woman Norah Briscoe became enamoured ofNational Socialism, so that two years later sheentrusted her six year old son Paul to the careof a German whom she had hoped to marry,and his family. Hindered by language, Paulstruggled to fit in and when war broke out, hewas stranded in an alien country. Meanwhilehis mother found a job in the Ministry of Sup-ply in London and tried to smuggle secret infor-mation to the Nazis. She was entrapped by MI5and arrested for treason.

As time went on, Paul came to see himselfas German and, because of his Aryan looks, hewas cast in a German propaganda film eulogis-ing the Fatherland. Shortly before his tenthbirthday, he proudly enrolled in the HitlerYouth. He longed to fight for the country anddie a glorious death for the Führer.

Repatriated to England after the war, he wasconfronted by a mother he did not recognise ina country whose language he could no longerspeak.

My Friend the Enemy brings vividly to lifean extraordinary story, conveying the pain, ex-hilaration and confusion of the son but also theambition, delusion and eventual shame of themother.

Ian Pullar