During the depression, money was hard to come by, and most people had to barter (trade) what goods and services they might have to get food and survive. Building materials back then were commonly Wood products, as metals were expensive, and later used in WW-II.

This was a typical shed/building that was built and used in the 40's-50's to store farm tractors and implements to keep them out of the weather and provide a comfortable place to work and do repairs.

Many of these old building have been left to the elements and have or are falling down. This one is still in fairly good condition, and was found along side the highway ;-}}

 

©2011 Ray Hanson All Rights Reserved.

Copying, Printing, Downloading, or otherwise using this image without my expressed written permission is a violation of US and International Copyright Laws. If you would like to use/purchase this image please contact me via Flickr Mail.

 

Light & Life Christian Traveller Festival Oakham Half Visitors Had Departed By Lunch Time Leicestershire Police assisting traffic, Church Stewards and Volunteer Travellers implementing waste management litter picking, in and outside, the county showground, martinbrookes.blogspot.com/2021/06/life-and-light-mission...

All in the name of "development".

I attended the "Antique Flywheel Engine & Tractor Show" sponsored by the "Florida Flywheeler's Antique Engine Club" located at 7000 Avon Park Cutoff Road, Fort Mead, FL 33841 on Friday February 21, 2020.

 

This Photograph shows some sort of (I would Guess a Plow) where the (attachment(s) are Missing), which is on Display at the Antique Flywheel and Tractor Show, Fort Meade, Florida.

 

IF ANYONE CAN Confirm the Identity of this Farming Implement, I would greatly appreciate any help I can get. This would allow me to update my narrative and I'd certainly add a CREDIT Line to Identify that person in my Narrative !

 

Several other shows/exhibitions were as follows: Functioning Sawmill Demonstrations, Running 1914 400 HP Snow Making Machine Demonstration, Antique Construction Equipment Demonstrations, Model-T Put-Together Demonstration, Daily Antique Tractor Pulls, Kids Pedal Tractor Pulls on Friday & Saturday, Daily Antique Car Parade, Daily Antique Tractor Parade, Florida Flywheeler Antique Engine Club Gift Shop Opened, Huge Flea Market & the Antique Village (was opened) to Wander Through.

 

This Place is HUGE ! - - One of the attendants told me it is approx 480 ACRES !

The construction of a new fire station to replace Gipton and Stanks fire stations and removal of 24 fulltime posts from the establishment by way of planned retirements.

Key Points:

 Gipton is classed as a very high risk area and Stanks as medium risk area.

 Stanks fire station is poorly located at the outer edge of the local community and access/egress from the site is problematic.

 In the 5 year period between 2004/5 and 2009/10 operational demand in these areas reduced by 28% (there has been a reduction of 61% of serious fires) . 2

 WYFRS has piloted a new type of vehicle (Fire Response Unit) to deal with smaller fires and incidents to free up fire appliances to respond to more serious emergencies.

 The pilot has been successful and it is believed that a District based Fire Response Unit will handle in the region of 3,000 calls per year.

 The new fire station would have lower running costs.

 The two Killingbeck fire appliances would be supplemented by a Resilience Pump for use during spate conditions.

 Targeted community safety and risk reduction work would continue.

  

1. Foreword

 

1.1 This proposal forms one of a number of similar initiatives developed by West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (WYFRS) as part of its plans for the future provision of a highly effective and professional Fire and Rescue Service.

1.2 Each proposal is based on sound and comprehensive research, using real data from past performance and predictions of future demand and risk. Multiple sources of analysis have been used, allied to professional judgment and experience, to form the basis of robust business cases for change. The proposals are also reflective of the significant improvements in fire and community safety achieved over the past 10 years and represents a return on the investment made by the Authority on behalf of the public of West Yorkshire.

1.3 The proposals also incorporate a number of new and innovative approaches to addressing the challenge of maintaining high standards of performance for an emergency response service, within ever tightening financial constraints. The proposals have been developed as a package of inter related initiatives, representing major capital investment in local communities, whilst at the same time delivering annual recurring savings.

 

2. Introduction

 

2.1. Gipton fire station was constructed in 1937; it provides the initial emergency response cover for the residential and commercial areas of Gipton, Harehills, Burmantofts, Killingbeck, Halton Moor and Oakwood.

 The fire station area covers approximately 8.45 square miles.

 There is a population of 75,316.

 There are approximately 2015 commercial properties within the area.

2.2. Stanks fire station was constructed 1973; it provides the initial emergency response cover for the mainly residential locations of Whinmoor, Swarcliffe, Whitkirk, Colton, Halton, Crossgates, Scarcroft, North Seacroft, Wellington Hill, Manston, Barwick-in-Elmet, Scholes and Thorner.

 The station area covers approximately 14.39 square miles

 There is a population of 42,452

 There are approximately 663 commercial properties within the area.

2.3. Gipton has been classified as a very high risk area using the WYFRS Risk Matrix methodology. During 2009/10 there were 2196 operational incidents within this area including 86 dwelling fires and 33 Road Traffic Collisions. Stanks fire station area has been classified as medium risk and during the same period there were 688 operational incidents in the area including 34 dwelling fires and 12 Road Traffic Collisions. 1

2.4. Three fire appliances currently provide the initial fire and rescue coverage for Gipton and Stanks and are constantly crewed by 60 whole-time firefighters. The operational demand in these areas has reduced by 28% between 2004/5 and 2009/10 (there has been a reduction of 61% of serious fires) yet the provision of operational resources has remained the same over this period of time. 24

 

3. Community Impact Assessment

 

3.1. The following statement is taken from the 2011-2015 Community Risk Management Strategy and emphasises our commitment to deliver an efficient economic and effective range of services, “Every area within WYFRS will be considered in order to provide a better service at reduced cost”.

3.2. To enable WYFRS to deliver against this commitment a wide range of analysis and modelling tools have been used to determine the current and predicted levels of service delivery, together with their associated costs. These tools have also been used to undertake four separate impact assessments in regard to WYFRS proposals which will seek to:

 Identify options which minimise reductions in service delivery standards and where there is scope for service delivery improvement.

 Develop measures that will mitigate any negative impact upon service delivery and where possible maximise opportunities to achieve improvements.

3.3. WYFRS has developed a risk matrix which allocates a separate score/rating for hazards within communities. It is possible to use this risk rating in conjunction with the costs for providing services to each fire station to compare the cost of fire and rescue cover for each area. Gipton is one of the more cost effective stations in West Yorkshire but Stanks is almost 50% more expensive proportionate to the risk. 6

3.4. For most parts of the day the operational demand on resources based at the new station will be comparable to those of equally resourced fire stations. Figure 1 compares the predicted average operational activity levels for the new station with those of two other fire stations provided with two appliances. It indicates that although operational activity levels are generally comparable they are slightly higher during the evening hours due to the occurrence of smaller nuisance fires. 7

3.5. A Fire Response Unit has been piloted in Leeds District; this unit will attend small fires, car fires and certain fire alarms. These types of incident occur frequently in the East Leeds area. Figure 2 shows the level of activity in the new fire station area with the incidents the Fire response Unit attends taken out of the activity levels. The benefit of the Fire Response Unit can clearly be seen. The activity levels for the new station have been reduced considerably compared to other stations; it also shows that the new station will be less operationally active during the evening than the other local stations.

3.6. The new station in East Leeds will have a comparable level of activity to other fire stations provided with two appliances. 7

Figure 2 - Activity Timeline of Incidents Excluding Secondary Fires and Some False Alarms

Site Locations

3.7. An extensive review of emergency response cover has recently been completed and this has included the use of evaluation tools alongside local knowledge and professional judgment to identify optimum locations to build new WYFRS fire stations.

3.8. A site search mapping system has identified a number of appropriate areas across the County to build new fire stations and a number of sites have been identified within these areas which would provide the best solutions. A new fire station site must first be available for purchase and also provide access to road networks, it must not be located within flood plains and it must meet local planning permission requirements.

3.9. Analysis has been undertaken using the Fire Service Emergency Cover (FSEC – see also para 3.15) toolkit, together with the Phoenix/Active resource modelling toolkit.

3.10. The optimum area for a fire station between Gipton and Stanks has been identified as being situated on the A64 in the vicinity of Killingbeck police station. This proposed site is approximately 1.6 miles from Gipton Approach and 2.2 miles from Sherburn Road. The presence of a large site owned by West Yorkshire Police at this location may also present some potential to co-locate resources.

Determining where resources should be located

3.11. Independent research has assisted WYFRS to determine the potential impact that the implementation of each proposal would have on fire appliance attendance times to operational incidents. A simulation model has been used to identify the performance impact of moving resources to the new fire station. This modelling measures how the location of a new fire station would have performed if it had been in existence and responded to the actual incidents that did occurred in this area between 2007/8 and 2009/10. 4

3.12. Models have been run for locating a two fire appliances at Gipton and closing Stanks, and then run again for locating a two fire appliances at Stanks and closing Gipton, both these options provide a significantly lower level of response performance than would be achieved by locating

 

3.13. The proposals has a small reduction in performance in fire appliance attendance times against the Risk based Planning Assumptions for all incidents across the whole of West Yorkshire of approximately 0.3% for first appliance and 0.1% for the second appliance. 4

3.14. Local Impact – Figure 3 identifies that:

 There is a reduction in response performance against the Risk Based Planning Assumptions in the Gipton station area. The main reason for this is simultaneous activity. This change will be greatly mitigated by the Fire Response Unit. The predicted response times still represent good performance and are appropriate for the. Further impact will be achieved by targeted risk reduction activities.

Fire Service Emergency Cover (FSEC) toolkit

3.15 The FSEC software toolkit has been developed by Central Government (Department for Communities and Local Government) for use by Fire and Rescue Authorities in determining appropriate fire and emergency cover. It enables the relationship between dwelling fire casualties and the social demographics of small areas in the county (super output areas) and the location of response resources (fire stations) to be determined. Four demographic benchmarks are used to demonstrate this relationship and to represent predicted risk associated with a range of appliance response times.

3.16 Analysis of the FSEC outputs (which is a cost benefit analysis in regard to property and life risk) predicts that the relocating the fire station to Killingbeck will:

 Reduce the risk to the community.

 Result in significant efficiencies. 9

3.17 The FSEC modelling suggests that the impact of the Killingbeck proposal would be less than other relocation options

3.18 The Phoenix/Active software tool is another analysis tool used to identify the impact of any changes of the Risk Based Planning Assumptions referred to above. It predicts that locally there is likely to be a small adverse impact on the performance against Risk Based Planning Assumptions. Across the Brigade the impact is negligible. 10

Predicted Risk Level

3.19. A new fire station located, within the Killingbeck area would attract the same risk classification as the Gipton fire station area therefore the new fire station would be classified as very high risk. Targeted risk reduction activity will help to reduce the risk, with the aim of reducing it sufficiently enough to re-categorise the area as high risk in the future. 1

3.20. Isochrones (travel distance) can be drawn around the proposed location of the new fire station (Section 8). These indicate the distance the appliance would be able to travel within the Risk Based Planning Assumption time of 7 minutes.

3.21. Section 8 also illustrates that for this area of West Yorkshire a single fire station in the new location provides fire appliance coverage which is more proportionate to risk than the current arrangements.

Risk Reduction

3.20 During 2010 a comprehensive and integrated framework for service delivery was developed, this is outlined in the Community Risk Management Strategy 2011-15. This was implemented in 2011 and is proving a very effective means for targeting resources and reducing risk and is an essential method for reducing any negative impact of change in fire cover. Fundamental to this approach is the introduction of District Risk Reduction Teams and Local Area Risk Reductions Teams.

3.21 The location of a fire station in the Killingbeck area will enable targeted community safety activities such as Home Fire Safety Checks to continue.

 

4 Firefighter Safety Impact Assessment

 

Risk and firefighters gathering risk information about premises.

4.1 One of WYFRS’s risk indicators is dedicated solely to “Firefighter safety” and has taken cognisance of the following statement within the 2009 WYFRS Firefighter Safety Strategy; “Effective gathering and analysis of information prior to operational incident attendance is of critical importance”.

4.2 The firefighter safety indicator captures the following information to reflect this statement:

 The predominance of specified commercial properties within each fire station area.

 The availability of associated risk information held for commercial properties.

 The predominance of high-rise properties within each fire station area.

4.3 The swift arrival of supporting resources can have a beneficial impact upon the safe management of operational incidents and this is the rationale for this information being captured by the indicator.

4.4 Following the 2009/10 evaluation process the firefighter safety risk bandings for Gipton and Stanks have been determined as high and very low respectively. 1

8

4.5 The targets for operational risk information for the 2012/13 IRMP Action Plan will be set in a proportionate manner, with areas of higher risk levels receiving a greater number of operational risk information inspections. More inspections will take place in areas such as Gipton to increase the availability of risk information available to firefighters via the Mobile Data Terminals (MDT’s) and as more information is made available the corresponding risk level will be reduced.

4.6 The Premises Data-base currently indicates that there are a total of 1650 commercial properties within the Gipton and Stanks area that have not been made subject to an operational information inspection. A high priority has been placed on firefighters in Gipton visiting the premises where incidents could potentially occur. 11

4.7 It is therefore anticipated that the availability of risk information via the Mobile Data Terminals (MDT’s) for properties within all areas will be considerably improved by 2015, by which time the corresponding firefighter safety risk banding will have been reduced to Medium

The arrival times of the 2nd fire appliance

4.9. During 2009/10 there were a total of 333 operational incidents within the areas of Gipton and Stanks which required the attendance of more than one pumping appliance (one every 1.1 days). 12

4.10. Currently the North and East Leeds area has two fire appliances based at Gipton, Moortown and Leeds with one at Rothwell, Garforth, Stanks and Wetherby.

4.11. Increased second pump arrival times require the first attending crew to manage the initial stages of certain incidents in isolation; there is some potential for fires to become more developed in these initial stages.

4.12. The proposal improves the second appliance attendance times into Garforth station areas and there is little impact for the others local station areas.

 

5. Equality Impact Assessment

 

5.1 The new Public Sector Equality Duty places a requirement on the organisation to ensure where changes affect service delivery to the community or employees WYFRS assess those changes for any possible negative impact on equality. In this context equality refers to the protected characteristics in the Equality Act 2010, race, gender, disability, religion and belief, sexual orientation, age, gender-reassignment, maternity and pregnancy and marriage and civil partnerships.

5.2 This Equality Impact Assessment has been completed by using information drawn from the Office for National Statistics in regard to this area and has been used to determine whether the removal of a fire appliance from the area will lead to an adverse or disproportionate impact upon any sections of the population. 13

5.3 A 2008 report provided by the Communities and Local Government (CLG) department analysed the correlation between dwelling fires and socio demographics. This report has been used to provide an indication of whether any particular groups within the population are at heightened risk from fire. The report indicates that sick/disabled persons, lone pensioners and Black Caribbean/African groups were associated with a greater incidence of dwelling fires.

5.4 The Gipton and Harehills population was estimated as being 24,904 during 2001 with a fairly equal gender distribution. The predominant ethnic group within the population is White British with Asian/Asian British representing the next major group, followed by Pakistani, Black British/Caribbean and Asian/British Bangladeshi.

9

5.5 Approximately 49% of the resident Gipton and Harehills population are Christians, 23% are of Muslim faith and 25% declared no religious preference. In 2001 16% of the population was aged over 60 and 20% of the population had a limiting long-term illness.

5.6 The WYFRS Prevention strategy contained within the 2011-2015 Community Risk Management Strategy emphasises that risk reduction activities will be focussed toward areas of the county identified as being at higher risk from dwelling fires, deliberate fire setting and road traffic collisions and that an appropriate and proportionate allocation of resources will be made available for District Risk Reduction Teams (DRRT) to achieve this.

5.7 Although the Ward statistics indicate that the communities of Gipton and Harehills are very diverse the findings of the Equality Impact Assessment are that this proposal will not lead to any negative changes in the delivery of Prevention, Protection and Response services and consequently there will be no anticipated impact upon any under-represented groups. The Equality Impact Assessment also confirms that there is no negative impact on any employee group.

 

6. Organisational Impact Assessment

 

Efficiencies

 

6.1 This proposal will enable WYFRS to manage some of the financial deficit caused by reduced government funding.

6.2. The proposal has considered the less than optimal positioning of existing fire stations and appliances together with the reduced operational demand placed and associated costs. The most cost effective solution to these issues is to provide a new fire station and ensure that two fire appliances will be crewed by nine firefighters who will respond to emergencies in less than two minutes from being mobilised.

6.3. This can be achieved by reducing the staffing at Gipton and Stanks by 24 posts; this will be done by way of planned retirements. The staffing and duty system at the new fire station will remain the same.

6.4. The removal of posts that coincide with forecasted retirements will achieve significant revenue savings.

6.5. Although capital investment will be required to construct a new fire station, part of these costs will potentially be off-set by the sale of the two existing fire station sites.

6.6. There will be other associated savings delivered by this proposal, including:

 Reduction of Personal Protective Equipment.

 Reduction in consumables and station maintenance costs.

 The new station will be more environmentally friendly and have energy efficiency technology.

6.7. The analysis undertaken for Gipton and Stanks has identified that there is considerable overlap in the existing Risk Based Planning Assumption isochrones (footprints) for these areas. This overlap represents a duplication of resource coverage and therefore one of the objectives for providing a more efficient service within these areas is to reduce this overlap. 14

10

Impact across West Yorkshire and Resilience

6.8 The reduction in pumping appliances in this area does have a small impact upon attendance times against the Risk Based Planning Assumptions across West Yorkshire for all incidents; performance is reduced by 0.3% for first appliances and 0.1% for second appliances. 4

6.9 In order to maintain WYFRS’s operational resilience, the fire appliance currently sited at Stanks will be relocated at the new fire station. This fire appliance will not be continually staff but will be activated during periods of anticipated or unanticipated high levels of operational activity and in response to significant events which could affect emergency response; such as wide area flooding, bonfire night, periods of bad weather or when attending very large incidents.

6.10 The use of Resilience Pumps supports WYFRS strategy of staffing the appropriate number of fire appliances for normal levels of activity and having the mechanisms to add further fire appliance when required. This strategy is important in maintaining an excellent fire and rescue service whilst meeting the efficiencies required by the reduction in public service budgets.

 

7. Conclusions

 

7.1 The existing fire stations at Gipton and Stanks are 3.7 miles apart and consolidating resources at a new fire station at a central location is an economic, effective and efficient way of providing fire and rescue services for these areas.

7.2 The provision of two front-line fire appliances constantly crewed by whole-time firefighters is still deemed appropriate for this area despite the success of previous year’s risk reduction activities.

7.3 Targeted risk reduction initiatives co-ordinated by the Leeds Outer North East, Inner North East and Outer East Local Area Risk Reduction Teams will be undertaken.

7.4 It is expected that the targets established for gathering safety critical risk information, will mitigate the impact upon the safety of WYFRS firefighters resulting from the removal of a pumping appliance from this area.

7.5 The introduction of a Resilience Pump will maintain three appliances in the area and support WYFRSs resilience arrangements

7.6 The consolidation of Gipton and Stanks resources at one central location together with the addition of a Resilience Pump will deliver significant efficiency savings whilst maintaining a high level of service delivery and providing employees with vastly improved accommodation facilities.

 

Aboriginal Occupation:

 

Prior to European settlement the Blue Mountains was the home of many autonomous Aboriginal groups who lived and moved around the region. There are six distinct tribal groups who have traditional rights and custodial responsibilities for the indigenous heritage of the region that are: the Darug, the Gandangurra, the Wanaruah, the Wiradjuri, the Darkinjung and the Tharawal.

 

Evidence of Aboriginal occupation and custodianship of the country within Blue Mountains National Park dates back to possibly 22,000 years B.P. The Blue Mountains contain a large number of significant sites which capture the relationship that Aboriginal people have had with country for thousands of generations.

 

The rich and varied evidence of traditional occupation of the reserves include archaeological deposits in open sites and rock shelters, stone implements, factory sites for tool production, axe grinding grooves and extensive art-work, including drawn, painted and stencilled images. Tracks and figurative motifs dominate the art sites. Motifs include anthropomorphic figures, animals, hand stencils and tracks of birds and kangaroos.

 

European Settlement:

 

Katoomba initially developed in a fashion quite distinct from the other Blue Mountains townships along the 1860s railway line. From 1874 onwards trains halted at The Crushers, in the vicinity of the later station, not for passengers but for stone quarried near the later court-house.

 

The first settlement in the area was two kilometres to the south-west of the railway, near Katoomba Falls, where John Britty North opened a coal-mine complex in the Jamison Valley in 1878.

 

There was a village near the top of Katoomba Falls and another village grew up deep down in the valley itself close to the base of the Falls, just below where the Scenic Railway ends today.

 

North built a private tramway from the top of the incline near Katoomba Falls to join the main western railway line at what is now known as Shell Corner, a kilometre west of the present station.

 

All this diverted attention away from the current core area of the urban development, the area on either side of Katoomba Street, that essential north-south connecting link between the railway and Echo Point.

 

This area around Katoomba Street was within the large land-holding of James Henry Neale, a master butcher and Sydney politician, who had been a member of the Legislative Assembly from 1864 until 1874. In 1877 Neale built a country retreat called Froma on what is now the new Cultural Centre site on the east side of Parke Street.

 

In 1881 Neale sold his interest in central Katoomba, including the house, to Frederick Clissold. Clissold, a wool-merchant resident in the Sydney suburb of Ashfield, immediately sub-divided the land, creating and naming the modern street system.

 

Parke, Katoomba and Lurline Streets were created, running north-south, while Waratah Street ran east-west and defined the southern edge of the initial commercial centre of the new town. The Great Western Highway and the railway defined the northern limit.

 

Katoomba changed rapidly; it started as only two industrial halts on the railway, with stone for railway works at one and at the other a private tramway leading down to a coal-mine and two mining villages.

 

Then it became a characteristic Mountains town relating to a proper railway station, as the 78 allotments created in 1881 were, over two decades, purchased and developed.

 

During this period from the 1880s up to the First World War, the whole area below the Carrington, quite close to the railway station, along Katoomba, Parke and Lurline Streets, became a busy commercial precinct, dominated by shops, services and a cluster of guesthouses, tempered by a remarkable number of churches (Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic and Congregationalist) along with their halls and manses.

 

The influx of seasonal tourists and the increasing number of permanent residents who serviced the tourists created a need for local services, so the area between the station and Waratah Street gradually filled up with shops, restaurants, cafes, two theatres and public utilities, such as the post office and the public school.

 

There was still a lot of free space in 1906, captured in a marvellous photograph showing south Katoomba from the most spectacular of the early consolidations, the Great Western Hotel of 1882, better known as the Carrington, on its spacious hill-top site. Froma was still there in 1906, just below the Carrington although it was demolished six years later.

 

Between Froma and Katoomba Street, the site of the later Paragon was a large, empty space, which remained undeveloped until 1909, when William Newlind built four shops on the vacant Katoomba Street block.

 

Newlind had built the four shops as a speculation and three of them were soon bought as an investment by the Anglican rector of St Hilda's, just across the street. These were all retail shops until 1916 when one was converted into refreshment rooms, called The Paragon.

 

This was just at the beginning of a new phenomenon in Australian country towns, the Greek cafe. From the early 1910s onwards a number of emigres from Greece, often with experience of the United States, created a new cafe experience in cities and towns throughout Australia.

 

The Greek cafe was 'essentially an evolutionary amalgam' of the Greek coffee-house and the American-oyster saloon and soda parlour with the familiar fare of the existing British-Australian steak-houses. The names of the cafes, Californian, Golden Gate, Niagara on the one hand and Acropolis, Parthenon, Paragon on the other, reflected the shared inheritance.

 

In Katoomba a drapery store built at 92 Bathurst Road near the station about 1905 was converted in 1917 to a Greek cafe called the Acropolis and soon rechristened the Niagara to emphasise its trendy American drinks.

 

This is the Australian environment which a fifteen-year-old Greek boy called Zacharias Theodore 'Jack' Simos found when he migrated from Greece in 1912. He found work in Greek cafes in Sydney, Windsor and in Tenterfield.

 

By 1916 he was in Katoomba, where in a brief partnership with Demetruos Sophios he became a fruiterer and a confectioner, opening his own premises in Katoomba called the Paragon Cafe and Oyster Palace.

 

The Paragon and adjoining shopfronts (63-69) Katoomba Street) is located on Lot 21 of land in Katoomba owned by James Neale and subdivided in the 1880s. The lot was purchased by William Newlind in 1886. Four shops, nos. 63 to 69, were built on Newlind's land in 1909. The three to the north, nos 63 to 67, including the future Paragon, were all owned in 1911 by the Rev. John Russell, who was the Anglican rector of St Hilda's across the street from 1902 until 1913. Since Russell did not own the fourth shop, it is likely that he was not responsible for building on the site but merely bought existing new shops as an investment. He retained ownership of the properties until 1924. From this date Russell maintained only one investment property in Katoomba: No.100-102 Katoomba Street. It is believed the income from the shops was an important part of Russell's income, particularly after Russell went to Sydney as senior curate to the rector of St James.

 

Russell leased the shops as three separate entities. By 1914 No. 63 was leased by a jeweller, L.P. Goldstein. He bought the freehold from Russell in 1924. The shop was later occupied by another jeweller, H. Lloyd. Jewellers have continued to occupy the shop for most of its history. No. 65 was leased by Russell to a series of shopkeepers - Sullivan in 1914-6 and Dagon from 1917 to 1919. By 1923 he had leased it to Zacharias Simos as refreshment rooms called The Paragon, and in 1924 Zacharias Simos purchased both nos. 65 and 67 from Russell.

 

Simos was a Greek migrant who had arrived in Sydney early in the century. He migrated to Sydney in 1912 and like many of his countrymen worked in Greek cafes and other food related businesses in NSW. His arrival in Sydney predated the post world war one arrival of many young men from countries such as Greece and Italy after the United States began limiting the numbers of southern Europeans it allowed into the country. Many of the young men paid their way to Australia and found work in the food industry.

 

Zacharias Simos worked in Sydney and Tenterfield for the first four years before setting up a business at Windsor where he sold ham and eggs next door to a skating rink and sold vegetables door to door. During this time he saved his money and learned English sufficiently well to establish himself as a confectioner in Katoomba. During this time he worked as a caterer. Zacharias Simos was naturalised in 1921 and bought a commercial property at 110-114 Katoomba Street owned by Miss Kelly and previously run by a Mrs Banning. Three years later he purchased the refreshment rooms at 65 and 67 Katoomba Street.

 

In 1925 Zacharias Simos employed H. & E. Sidgreaves, the shop-fitting firm responsible for the design of Washington H. Soul's Sydney pharmacies, to convert the interior of the cafe premises on classical (Art Deco) lines. A soda fountain, of the finest Moruya marble, and booths of Queensland maple were installed as were the timber-panelled walls decorated with alabaster friezes depicting classical Greek figures. The fine and intact leadlight shopfronts which characterise the building were probably included in this work and have become an important part of the architectural character of Katoomba Street. The street contains many other fine examples of glazed shopfronts from the 1920s and it has been suggested that together they may be the largest extant collection of 1920s leadlight shopfronts in NSW and comparable to Canowindra in the central west of NSW.

 

Upstairs in 1925 was the industrial side of the enterprise, not open to the public. There was a bakehouse, a large refrigeration plant for the ice-cream made on the premises and a new 'sweet factory', with a gas boiler and a forced-air draught for cooling the chocolate.

 

The technology of the chocolaterie is well documented, although the equipment was dismantled a decade ago. The chocolate-making equipment is still stored upstairs and on April 10, 2013 members of the Australian Society for the History of Engineering & Technology (ASHET) committee inspected and photographed the various items.

 

This industrial dimension to the Paragon is of exceptional importance. Chocolate-making at the Paragon had been of a high order ever since Zacharias Simos had been joined by his two brothers: George was a master confectioner and they were trading as Simos Brothers by 1926.

 

Originally, Zacharias Simos lived above the shop, in that part of the upstairs rabbit-warren overlooking Katoomba Street which was not used for making chocolates or for baking cakes.

 

The bakery and the chocolaterie which gave The Paragon so much of its distinction were located upstairs from the mid-1920s, so the products which gave the place such well-deserved fame were made on site.

 

The earlier chocolate-making machinery and some of the baking equipment was dismantled and stored in a short corridor upstairs about ten years ago, but a historic photograph at the Paragon today shows every item in use forty years ago.

 

The equipment has been assessed by members of Australian Society for the History of Engineering and Technology. It is striking how international it all is. The Simos brothers took some trouble to acquire the best available machinery. Small and Shattell Pty Ltd, Melbourne-based engineers who specialised in baking equipment, along with Star Machinery of Alexandria, are among the few Australian firms patronised.

 

A major French firm, Kstner frres of Lyon, had been making bakery equipment for the world for fifty years. There is also another piece of equipment from the firm when it was located not in Lyons but in Paris and Aubervilliers. America, with which the Simos had strong connections, was not overlooked. Metal piping was made by Walworth of Boston.

 

The confectionery equipment was made by the prestigious firm BCH. What became the major modern firm called BCH had originated in the mid-nineteenth century in the separate works of William Brierley, Luke Collier and Thomas Hartley. Luke Collier was a specialist confectioner from 1835; Brierley was a brass-founder, specialising in confectionery work from 1844 onwards; and Hartley was also an independent specialist in chocolate-making. The Brierley and Collier firms amalgamated in 1913 and this firm joined forces with the Hartley family in 1924. Operating out of Rochdale in England the Brierley-Collier-Hartley firm went from strength to strength and finally became BCH. Simos seems to have ordered this equipment from BCH in the decade after the final amalgamation of 1924.

 

In 1929 Zacharias returned to Kythera and spent a year in Europe observing trends in confectionery manufacture and cafe culture. He also arranged to import new ingredients and learned about presentation and packaging. On Kythera he met and courted Mary (Maria) Panaretos (1912-2001). She had been born on 20 June 1912 at Elkton, Maryland, United States of America, where her parents were cafe proprietors who regularly spent the summer months on Kythera. Mary and Zacharias married there on 30 January 1930 and reached Katoomba later that year.

 

Zacharias Simos and his wife set about turning the Paragon into a high class refreshment room. The popular Katoomba landmark Orphan Rock became his trademark, an image of the 'stand-alone' excellence to which he aspired. Mary became an identifiable figure at the Paragon. She was generous and cultured, and always on hand to welcome visitors and press chocolates into the hands of children.

 

Zacharias also began planning two large extensions at the rear of his cafe: the banquet hall (1934), influenced by pre-Columbian decoration, and the blue room (1936), in 'ocean liner' style, with mirrored walls and sprung dance floor. The design of the 1925 and 1930s interiors has generally been attributed to Henry Eli White who was also responsible for buildings such as the Vanderbilt Flats in Elizabeth Bay and a variety of theatres throughout Australia. However, there has been some suggestion that some of the work at The Paragon may be attributed to George Newton Kenworthy. Some archived drawings show them as being produced in Kenworthy's office. This is supported by the fact that Kenworthy worked in White's office in the second half of the 1920s and opened his own office in the early 1930s. Henry White closed his practice in the early years of the 1930s and did not continue to practice architecture.

 

In the late 1930s Zacharias and Mary bought vacant land on what is now Cliff Drive down at Echo Point and in 1940 they commissioned G.N. Kenworthy, the architect of the State Ballroom in Sydney, who had also worked on the State Theatre, to design a Functionalist house, which they called Olympus. Despite some additions to the upper frontage in the 1980s, the house and its important outbuildings, (garage, pergola, summer-house, fuel store), have retained a great deal of integrity. This is the necessary corollary to the Paragon, blending perfectly with the developed facade of the famous cafe.

 

In the early post war years a decorative relief sculpture by Otto Steen depicting various characters from Greek mythology was installed in the Dining Room. He was a student of Raynor Hoff who created the sculptures for the ANZAC War Memorial in the Sydney. Steen worked with Hoff at the memorial. Steen's other decorative works include those in two major Sydney buildings in the 1930s - the Trocadero in George Street and the AWA Building in York Street. He was also responsible for the relief sculptures at Everglades, Leura. Steen is now considered one of the twentieth century's accomplished sculptors who made a significant contribution to NSW's interwar and post war heritage.

 

The Paragon gained a wide reputation. Its ice creams were originally hand churned and frozen with American ammonia freezing machines and sundaes blended with syrups and fruit ingredients, often specially imported. The art deco ambience attracted devoted customers. With the help of his brothers Peter and George, bread, cakes and pastries were manufactured on the premises, as well as chocolates and other confectioneries sold in exquisitely designed and coloured boxes. In this period the Blue Mountains was among NSW's most important holiday and recreation centres and Katoomba was a focal point of this activity. The Paragon also catered to more adult tastes and would later be described as one of the smartest cocktail bars in the art deco style in Australia.

 

The shop at number 69 was bought in the 1930s by Mary Simos so that the three shops, nos. 65, 67, and 69, were all in the Simos family control (Rate Books). The shop at no.69 had a different owner when constructed in 1909, Reuben S. Hofman. Hofman appears to have used it as his own draper's shop. After his retirement, Hofman leased no.69 initially to E. Luce, also a draper, in the early 1920s, but it became a confectioner's in the mid-1920s, competing with the Paragon.

 

The Simos' primary residence was Olympus; they also maintained a home in Sydney at Centennial Park. Zacharias devoted many hours to his garden - meaning the Paragon always had fresh flowers - loved music, played the violin and was a keen fisherman and backgammon player. Enjoying travel, he visited Europe, the U.S.A. and Kythera several times. He was a foundation member of Katoomba Rotary Club, which for many years held its meetings in the Paragon.

 

Zacharias died on 15 November 1976 in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, and was buried in Randwick cemetery following a funeral at St George's Greek Orthodox Church, Rose Bay. His wife, carried on as manager of The Paragon until 1987. The cafe was sold in 2000. Mary Simos died on 15 May 2001 at Rose Bay and was buried beside her husband.

 

The tea-room has remained as a remarkably intact example of Interwar Art Deco.

 

Robyn Parker has been the proprietor of the Paragon since May 2011 and is working to regain its original splendour. She played an important role in having the site listed on the NSW State Heritage Register.

 

H. & E. SIDGREAVES

 

Harry and Ernest Sidgreaves established a modest retail shopfitting workshop in Sydney's Surry Hills in 1917 and were later joined by their father John and youngest brother Harold. They moved their factory to Redfern in the early 1920's where the company carried on business until 1984 when it relocated to Silverwater. Sidgreaves undertook much shopfront construction during the interwar period in Sydney and surrounds. This included one of their most celebrated early works, a streamlined shopfront for G. A. Zink and Son in Oxford Street, East Sydney, 1938.

 

In 2005, the Company relocated to larger and more contemporary offices in Annandale where it remains today. Throughout the 90+ year history of the Company, Sidgreaves has specialised in all areas of interior refurbishment from major department stores, specialty retailers, financial institutions and commercial offices through to hotels, clubs and pharmacies. In the 21st century Sidgreaves ranks many national and international companies amongst its clients in Australia including Burberry, Versace, Jimmy Choo, Saba and Sheridan.

 

OTTO STEEN

 

Otto Seen studied at the Royal Academy, Copenhagen under Utzon Frank 1923-1925. He studied under Raynor Hoff at East Sydney Technical College from 1928-1930 and worked as Hoff's assistant on the ANZAC memorial. As Hoff's student, Steen was part of perhaps the only instance of coherent (European) group production of sculpture in Australia. The unity of style and subject matter of the sculptures created by Hoff and his students was so great that the works have been designated as part of 'the Hoff School". The theme of Greek mythology in Steen's work at The Paragon reflected the influence of his work as a member of the Hoff School with its classicist tendencies. It was a local decision made on behalf of the local community with input from appropriate experts. Steen completed reliefs at King George V Hospital in Sydney (1941) as well as those at the Trocadero, Sydney, 1936 (frieze), the AWA building, Sydney, 1939 (mosaic, relief), Everglades and The Paragon.

 

HENRY WHITE

 

Henry White was born in New Zealand. He established himself as a theatre architect in Christchurch from 1905. By 1915 he was building theatres in Australia, placing himself in an ideal position for the theatre boom of the 1920s. He adapted American architects John Eberson's 'atmospheric' style which was supposed to evoke an exotic garden or courtyard and used Spanish, Moorish, Venetian and Indian Motifs. His Sydney theatres included the Capital, the State Theatre, the St James (for the Fullers) and the Majestic (Elizabethan) at Newtown. He also designed the Bunnerong Power Station and the Civic Theatre and City Hall at Newcastle. The Depression marked the end of White's architectural career. He won a competition to design a college in Auckland but plans were shelved. He closed his office in favour of farming in New Zealand. The venture failed and he returned to Sydney in 1937. A number of commissions at this time failed to go ahead.

 

GEORGE NEWTON KENWORTHY

 

Like Henry White, Kenworthy was well known for his theatre architecture. Kenworthy's works include the Cremorne Orpheum and the Royal Hotel, Orange. He spent a period of time working in the offices of Henry White before branching out on his own.

 

Source: New South Wales Heritage Register.

Found at the end of a farm driveway in Oak Harbor, WA

Springerle molds and the edge cutter we use to cut out the cookies.

Leica M6 || 35mm f/1.2 || Ektachrome 200

This is a close up of an Ostrich Feather from my duster on a stick.

Transantiago, 9 años después

Nueve años atrás comenzaba este proyecto de transporte. Inicialmente implementado por mini etapas (aunque estrictamente no como plan en sí mismo), el Transantiago daba sus primeros pasos con la puesta en servicio de las primeras unidades Volvo (en chasis B7R y B9SALF) de las empresas Alsacia, Express de Santiago y Subus Chile.

 

Qué tiempos aquellos, porque había esperado por mucho tiempo la entrada de esas nuevos buses luego de tener que aguantar el irregular servicio prestado por las empresas amarillas. Honestamente fueron muchas expectativas puestas en el proyecto, pero que sinceramente –la implementación- era un paso necesario para haber dado el cambio necesario en materia de transporte público.

 

Y de esos nueve años, harto ha pasado por el río, pero más allá de escarbar un poco en el pasado, hagamos memoria de qué es lo que viene en el actual –y remendado- sistema de transportes. Destacaré tres hechos esenciales del que ya todos debemos estar al tanto.

 

1

La “quiebra” de Alsacia

Durante la semana pasada, el Grupo GPS, que es la dueña de Alsacia/Express de Santiago, presentó una solicitud para acogerse a lo que el capítulo 11 de la ley de quiebras del Estado de Nueva York (Estados Unidos) denomina como proceso de reestructuración. GPS mantiene una deuda por bonos emitidos de alrededor de USD$350 millones (existe un porcentaje de esta deuda ya pagado), y el 82% de los bonistas aprobó la reestructuración. Esto no será fácil, ya que GPS cuenta con varios inconvenientes como contar con una de las flotas de mayor antigüedad del Transantiago, alto nivel de conflictividad laboral y bajos índices de cumplimiento, asuntos en los que el Gobierno ha metido un ojo mediante su monitoreo.

 

2

Nuevos corredores del Transantiago

Luego de la sequía de nuevos corredores construidos en el Gobierno de Piñera, el actual Gobierno de Bachelet ha decidido reimpulsar la construcción de estas obras, partiendo por el corredor Vicuña Mackenna norte (entre Avenida Matta y Vicente Valdés). Para el próximo sábado 25 se cerrará parcialmente el tramo entre Vicente Valdés y Mirador Azul, mientras que para inicios del 2015 comenzará la construcción del tramo Matta – Rodrigo de Araya (el restante entre Rodrigo de Araya y Mirador Azul estará construyéndose desde medidados del 2015). Otros corredores que iniciarán pronto sus trabajos (a inicios de 2015) serán el tramo restante de Santa Rosa Sur (desde Eyzaguirre) y Dorsal. En Santa Rosa Sur –entre Vespucio y Eyzaguirre- comenzarán obras de mantención por CLP$3.500 millones.

 

3

Nueva flota

Para 2015 viene una nueva flota de buses, que según estimaciones del ministerio de transportes y telecomunicaciones de alrededor de 1.500 nuevos buses (probablemente con la salida de una cantidad no confirmada de buses articulados). Lo que está claro es que Redbus –unidad 6- comenzará a reemplazar sus unidades Mega de Neobus por nuevos buses con puerta a la izquierda (probablemente con Neobus Mega BRS adaptados). Otros rumores no confirmados indican que Subus Chile habría recibido algunas unidades de CAIO Millenium con puertas a la izquierda.

 

Muchas son las novedades del sistema, y con esto quisiera dar por abierta la nueva etapa de este Flickr, porque hay mucho material interesante por cubrir.

 

Saludos a todos

 

Servicio: I01

Hitos que cubre: René Olivares - Hospital San Borja Arriarán

Operado por: Buses Vule S.A.

Unidad de Negocio: 3

Modelo de bus: CAIO Mondego H

Modelo de Chasis: Mercedes Benz O500U

País de fabricación: Brasil

Foto tomada en: Corredor de transporte público Esquina Blanca, Maipú

This is one of the characters you will meet in Willhaven--a quest mod for Fallout New Vegas. The model was made by Alexscorpion and the porting, rigging, and implementation was done by Dragbody

Mid-State Implement and Truck Sales on Route 66 in Auburn, Illinois. This old industrial looking tanker was sitting outside the fenced in area of the establishment and was visible from Route 66. It apparently was acquired from the Carrollton Mo. Fire Department and appeared to be in pretty good shape. I have no idea how old it is.

 

Pierce Manufacturing is an Appleton, Wisconsin based manufacturer of custom fire and rescue apparatus and a wholly owned subsidiary of Oshkosh Corporation. Pierce began in 1913 and was acquired by Oshkosh in 1996.

 

HTT

Farm implement near McBaine, Missouri. Photography by Notley Hawkins. Taken with a Canon EOS R5 camera with a Canon RF15-35mm F2.8 L IS USM lens at ƒ/4.0 with a 239-second exposure at ISO 50, processed with Adobe Lightroom CC.

 

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www.notleyhawkins.com/

 

©Notley Hawkins. All rights reserved.

For many years I have tried to photograph this laneway but with little success mainly because of limited space and poor lighting.

 

On Monday I purchased a Voigtlander 15mm which is an ultra-wide-angle lens so I decided to give it a try within the alleyway and here is one of the images. The lens is fully manual so it it is not easy to use without introducing high levels of distortion. White balance was another major problem.

 

Walking down Essex Street East it’s easy to miss the entrance to this hidden laneway, but for those in the know it is a handy shortcut between Temple Bar and Dame Street.

 

If you look down the dark laneway beside the Dublin Theatre Festival Office and you will see original artwork by Dublin street artist Maser ‘I’d Rather Trust a Dealer on a Badly Lit Street Corner, than a Criminal in a Three Piece Suit’.

 

If you are brave enough to walk down the lane you will see various items of street art and you will be surprised when this narrow lane opens out onto a small square, framed by the Olympia Theatre. Continue along the laneway by the side of the Olympia Theatre

and pass under the sign for Brogan’s Bar, before Crampton Court opens out onto Dame Street.

 

Anna Doran, a Dublin Street Artist, tried to re-invent one end of the lane as ‘Love Lane’. I have been a fan of Anna for a number of years ... ever since I saw her painted traffic control cabinet on Bolton Street. You can also some of her work on the walls of the "Hungry Mexican" restaurant in Bodkin's on Bolton Street.

 

Be aware that this laneway attracts some anti-social behaviour particularly in the lane on the Temple Bar side.

 

Love the Lanes is a joint initiative between Dublin City Council and the Temple Bar Company to pilot solutions and interventions to address issues in the laneways of Temple Bar. Over the years these lanes have fallen into disuse and have become magnets for anti-social behaviour. The stated goal is to reactivate these lanes for people to use and enjoy through creative intervention.

The project was launched on 21st March 2014 with an open call for new ideas. The response from the public was remarkable and shows that there is a real desire by the public to bring life back into the laneways in this historic part of the city. The main focus for the project was Adair and Bedford Lanes, Copper Alley and Crampton Court. 10 proposals were shortlisted and are being developed for implementation on the Laneways of Temple Bar with the support of residents and businesses.

 

A number of ideas were trialled in 2015 while others require financial investment and a longer timeline.

On display at a recreation of an 1860's farm at King's Landing in New Brunswick. King's Landing recreates village and rural life of that time in the province and is similar to Old Sturbridge Village in Central Massachusetts.

Mamiya RZ67 ProⅡ / MAMIYA-SEKOR Z 110mm f2.8 / Kodak Portra 160

I'm heading on toward the city dump.

 

11/28/2024

Essentials all three! I was slow to recognize the significance of this group out at McIntosh Heritage Center. Now, these would surely have been heavily used by a dairying operation. These may rise to the highest importance implements on a farm. Barnyard cleanup. These are designed for simple hand use to assisted horse or tractor use for 'mucking." No wonder why manure spreaders were prevalent around the farm. Animal husbandry aside, Far too little attention is paid to soil husbandry. That is really the basis.

 

I was at McIntosh Ag Museum again for my windmill agriculture shot and saw this but the title for this image only came after I opened the file and figured what it was. This machinery is for the ages, the Iron or Dark ages! I should be able to spot some rust on it. I really need to get really close in on this and do a texture detail of the rust. I have a lot of close up gear I seldom use. It had to be iron heavy in order to be able to "bite" into the soil. It looked like a single row plow. Single row implements took some serious time to work a field, one row at a time. Manual labor for sure.

 

Highway #66 was already overloaded with spring travelers to the hills, hoping for heat relief in the Rockies. Some of us are slower to take the hint. Only the cow trail of snow remains up on Mount Meeker.

  

Farm implement near McBaine, Missouri. Photography by Notley Hawkins. Taken with a Canon EOS R5 camera with a Canon RF15-35mm F2.8 L IS USM lens at ƒ/4.0 with a 243-second exposure at ISO 50, processed with Adobe Lightroom CC.

 

Follow me on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram

 

www.notleyhawkins.com/

 

©Notley Hawkins. All rights reserved.

The main environmental issues associated with the implementation of the 5G network come with the manufacturing of the many component parts of the 5G infrastructure. In addition, the proliferation of new devices that will use the 5G network that is tied to the acceleration of demand from consumers for new 5G-dependent devices will have serious environmental consequences. The 5G network will inevitably cause a large increase in energy usage among consumers, which is already one of the main contributors to climate change. Additionally, the manufacturing and maintenance of the new technologies associated with 5G creates waste and uses important resources that have detrimental consequences for the environment. 5G networks use technology that has harmful effects on birds, which in turn has cascading effects through entire ecosystems. And, while 5G developers are seeking to create a network that has fewer environmental impacts than past networks, there is still room for improvement and the consequences of 5G should be considered before it is widely rolled out. 5G stands for the fifth generation of wireless technology. It is the wave of wireless technology surpassing the 4G network that is used now. Previous generations brought the first cell phones (1G), text messaging (2G), online capabilities (3G), and faster speed (4G). The fifth generation aims to increase the speed of data movement, be more responsive, and allow for greater connectivity of devices simultaneously.[2] This means that 5G will allow for nearly instantaneous downloading of data that, with the current network, would take hours. For example, downloading a movie using 5G would take mere seconds. These new improvements will allow for self-driving cars, massive expansion of Internet of Things (IoT) device use, and acceleration of new technological advancements used in everyday activities by a much wider range of people. While 5G is not fully developed, it is expected to consist of at least five new technologies that allow it to perform much more complicated tasks at faster speeds. The new technologies 5G will use are hardware that works with much higher frequencies (millimeter wavelengths), small cells, massive MIMO (multiple input multiple output), beamforming, and full duplex.[3] Working together, these new technologies will expand the potential of many of the devices used today and devices being developed for the future. Millimeter waves are a higher frequency wavelength than the radio wavelength generally used in wireless transmission today.[4] The use of this portion of the spectrum corresponds to higher frequency and shorter wavelengths, in this case in the millimeter range (vs the lower radio frequencies where the wavelengths can be in the meters to hundreds of kilometers). Higher frequency waves allow for more devices to be connected to the same network at the same time, because there is more space available compared to the radio waves that are used today. The use of this portion of the spectrum has much longer wavelengths than of that anticipated for a portion of the 5G implementation. The waves in use now can measure up to tens of centimeters, while the new 5G waves would be no greater than ten millimeters.[5] The millimeter waves will create more transmission space for the ever-expanding number of people and devices crowding the current networks. The millimeter waves will create more space for devices to be used by consumers, which will increase energy usage, subsequently leading to increased global warming. Millimeter waves are very weak in their ability to connect two devices, which is why 5G needs something called “small cells” to give full, uninterrupted coverage. Small cells are essentially miniature cell towers that would be placed 250 meters apart throughout cities and other areas needing coverage.[6] The small cells are necessary as emissions [or signals] at this higher frequency/shorter wavelength have more difficulty passing through solid objects and are even easily intercepted by rain.[7] The small cells could be placed on anything from trees to street lights to the sides of businesses and homes to maximize connection and limit “dead zones” (areas where connections are lost). The next new piece of technology necessary for 5G is massive MIMO, which stands for multiple input multiple output. The MIMO describes the capacity of 5G’s base stations, because those base stations would be able to handle a much higher amount of data at any one moment of time. Currently, 4G base stations have around eight transmitters and four receivers which direct the flow of data between devices.[9] 5G will exceed this capacity with the use of massive MIMO that can handle 22 times more ports. Figure 1 shows how a massive MIMO tower would be able to direct a higher number of connections at once. However, massive MIMO causes signals to be crossed more easily. Crossed signals cause an interruption in the transmission of data from one device to the next due to a clashing of the wavelengths as they travel to their respective destinations. To overcome the cross signals problem, beamforming is needed. To maximize the efficiency of sending data another new technology called beamforming will be used in 5G. For data to be sent to the correct user, a way of directing the wavelengths without interference is necessary. This is done through a technique called beamforming. Beamforming directs where exactly data are being sent by using a variety of antennas to organize signals based on certain characteristics, such as the magnitude of the signal. By directly sending signals to where they need to go, beamforming decreases the chances that a signal is dropped due to the interference of a physical object.

One way that 5G will follow through on its promise of faster data transmission is through sending and receiving data simultaneously. The method that allows for simultaneous input and output of data is called full duplexing. While full duplex capabilities allow for faster transmission of data, there is an issue of signal interference, because of echoes. Full duplexing will cut transmission times in half, because it allows for a response to occur as soon as an input is delivered, eliminating the turnaround time that is seen in transmission today. Because these technologies are new and untested, it is hard to say how they will impact our environment. This raises another issue: there are impacts that can be anticipated and predicted, but there are also unanticipated impacts because much of the new technologies are untested. Nevertheless, it is possible to anticipate some of detrimental environmental consequences of the new technologies and the 5G network, because we know these technologies will increase exposure to harmful radiation, increase mining of rare minerals, increase waste, and increase energy usage. The main 5G environmental concerns have to do with two of the five new components: the millimeter waves and the small cells. The whole aim of the new 5G network is to allow for more devices to be used by the consumer at faster rates than ever before, because of this goal there will certainly be an increase in energy usage globally. Energy usage is one of the main contributors to climate change today and an increase in energy usage would cause climate change to increase drastically as well. 5G will operate on a higher frequency portion of the spectrum to open new space for more devices. The smaller size of the millimeter waves compared to radio frequency waves allows for more data to be shared more quickly and creates a wide bandwidth that can support much larger tasks.[15] While the idea of more space for devices to be used is great for consumers, this will lead to a spike in energy usage for two reasons – the technology itself is energy demanding and will increase demand for more electronic devices. The ability for more devices to be used on the same network creates more incentive for consumers to buy electronics and use them more often. This will have a harmful impact on the environment through increased energy use. Climate change has several underlying contributors; however, energy usage is gaining attention in its severity with regards to perpetuating climate change. Before 5G has even been released, about 2% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to the ICT industry.[16] While 2% may not seem like a very large portion, it translates to around 860 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.[17] Greenhouse gas emissions are the main contributors to natural disasters, such as flooding and drought, which are increasing severity and occurrence every year. Currently, roughly 85% of the energy used in the United States can be attributed to fossil fuel consumption.[18] The dwindling availability of fossil fuels and the environmental burden of releasing these fossil fuels into our atmosphere signal an immediate need to shift to other energy sources. Without a shift to other forms of energy production and the addition of technology allowed by the implementation of 5G, the strain on our environment will rise and the damage may never be repaired. With an increase in energy usage through technology and the implementation of 5G, it can be expected that the climate change issues faced today will only increase. The overall contribution of carbon dioxide emissions from the ICT industry has a huge impact on climate change and will continue to have even larger impacts without proper actions. In a European Union report, researchers estimated that in order to keep the increase in global temperature below 2° Celsius a decrease in carbon emissions of around 15-30% is necessary by 2020. Engineers claim that the small cells used to provide the 5G connection will be energy efficient and powered in a sustainable way; however the maintenance and production of these cells is more of an issue. Supporters of the 5G network advocate that the small cells will use solar or wind energy to stay sustainable and green.[20] These devices, labeled “fuel-cell energy servers” will work as clean energy-based generators for the small cells.[21] While implementing base stations that use sustainable energy to function would be a step in the right direction in environmental conservation, it is not the solution to the main issue caused by 5G, which is the impact that the massive amount of new devices in the hands of consumers will have on the amount of energy required to power these devices. The wasteful nature of manufacturing and maintenance of both individual devices and the devices used to deliver 5G connection could become a major contributor of climate change. The promise of 5G technology is to expand the number of devices functioning might be the most troubling aspect of the new technology. Cell phones, computers, and other everyday devices are manufactured in a way that puts stress on the environment. A report by the EPA estimated that in 2010, 25% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions comes from electricity and heat production making it the largest single source of emissions.[22] The main gas emitted by this sector is carbon dioxide, due to the burning of natural gas, such as coal, to fuel electricity sources.[23] Carbon dioxide is one of the most common greenhouse gases seen in our atmosphere, it traps heat in earth’s atmosphere trying to escape into space, which causes the atmosphere to warm generating climate change. Increased consumption of devices is taking a toll on the environment. As consumers gain access to more technologies the cycle of consumption only expands. As new devices are developed, the older devices are thrown out even if they are still functional. Often, big companies will purposefully change their products in ways that make certain partner devices (such as chargers or earphones) unusable–creating demand for new products. Economic incentives mean that companies will continue these practices in spite of the environmental impacts. One of the main issues with the 5G network and the resulting increase in consumption of technological devices is that the production required for these devices is not sustainable. In the case of making new devices, whether they be new smart-phones or the small cells needed for 5G, the use of nonrenewable metals is required. It is extremely difficult to use metals for manufacturing sustainably, because metals are not a renewable resource. Metals used in the manufacturing of the smart devices frequently used today often cannot be recycled in the same way many household items can be recycled. Because these technologies cannot be recycled, they create tons of waste when they are created and tons of waste when they are thrown away. There are around six billion mobile devices in use today, with this number expected to increase drastically as the global population increases and new devices enter the market. One estimate of the life-time carbon emissions of a single device–not including related accessories and network connection–is that a device produces a total of 45kg of carbon dioxide at a medium level of usage over three years. This amount of emission is comparable to that of driving the average European car for 300km. But, the most environmentally taxing stage of a mobile device life cycle is during the production stage, where around 68% of total carbon emissions is produced, equating to 30kg of carbon dioxide. To put this into perspective, an iPhone X weighs approximately 0.174kg, so in order to produce the actual device, 172 iPhone X’s worth of carbon dioxide is also created. These emissions vary from person to person and between different devices, but it’s possible to estimate the impact one device has on the environment. 5G grants the capacity for more devices to be used, significantly increase the existing carbon footprint of smart devices today. Energy usage for the ever-growing number of devices on the market and in homes is another environmental threat that would be greatly increased by the new capabilities brought by the 5G network. Often, energy forecasts overlook the amount of energy that will be consumed by new technologies, which leads to a skewed understanding of the actual amount of energy expected to be used.[30] One example of this is with IoT devices.[31] IoT is one of the main aspects of 5G people in the technology field are most excited about. 5G will allow for a larger expansion of IoT into the everyday household.[32] While some IoT devices promise lower energy usage abilities, the 50 billion new IoT devices expected to be produced and used by consumers will surpass the energy used by today’s electronics.

The small cells required for the 5G network to properly function causes another issue of waste with the new network. Because of the weak nature of the millimeter waves used in the 5G technology, small cells will need to be placed around 250 meters apart to insure continuous connection. The main issue with these small cells is that the manufacturing and maintenance of these cells will create a lot of waste. The manufacturing of technology takes a large toll on the environment, due to the consumption of non-renewable resources to produce devices, and technology ending up in landfills. Implementing these small cells into large cities where they must be placed at such a high density will have a drastic impact on technology waste. Technology is constantly changing and improving, which is one of the huge reasons it has such high economic value. But, when a technological advancement in small cells happens, the current small cells would have to be replaced. The short lifespan of devices created today makes waste predictable and inevitable. In New York City, where there would have to be at least 3,135,200 small cells, the waste created in just one city when a new advancement in small cells is implemented would have overwhelming consequences on the environment. 5G is just one of many examples of how important it is to look at the consequences of new advancements before their implementation. While it is exciting to see new technology that promises to improve everyday life, the consequences of additional waste and energy usage must be considered to preserve a sustainable environment in the future. There is some evidence that the new devices and technologies associated with 5G will be harmful to delicate ecosystems. The main component of the 5G network that will affect the earth’s ecosystems is the millimeter waves. The millimeter waves that are being used in developing the 5G network have never been used at such scale before. This makes it especially difficult to know how they will impact the environment and certain ecosystems. However, studies have found that there are some harms caused by these new technologies. The millimeter waves, specifically, have been linked to many disturbances in the ecosystems of birds. In a study by the Centre for Environment and Vocational Studies of Punjab University, researchers observed that after exposure to radiation from a cell tower for just 5-30 minutes, the eggs of sparrows were disfigured.[34] The disfiguration of birds exposed for such a short amount of time to these frequencies is significant considering that the new 5G network will have a much higher density of base stations (small cells) throughout areas needing connection. The potential dangers of having so many small cells all over areas where birds live could cause whole populations of birds to have mutations that threaten their population’s survival. Additionally, a study done in Spain showed breeding, nesting, and roosting was negatively affected by microwave radiation emitted by a cell tower. Again, the issue of the increase in the amount of connection conductors in the form of small cells to provide connection with the 5G network is seen to be harmful to species that live around humans. Additionally, Warnke found that cellular devices had a detrimental impact on bees.[36] In this study, beehives exposed for just ten minutes to 900MHz waves fell victim to colony collapse disorder.Colony collapse disorder is when many of the bees living in the hive abandon the hive leaving the queen, the eggs, and a few worker bees. The worker bees exposed to this radiation also had worsened navigational skills, causing them to stop returning to their original hive after about ten days. Bees are an incredibly important part of the earth’s ecosystem. Around one-third of the food produced today is dependent on bees for pollination, making bees are a vital part of the agricultural system. Bees not only provide pollination for the plant-based food we eat, but they are also important to maintaining the food livestock eats. Without bees, a vast majority of the food eaten today would be lost or at the very least highly limited. Climate change has already caused a large decline in the world’s bee population. The impact that the cell towers have on birds and bees is important to understand, because all ecosystems of the earth are interconnected. If one component of an ecosystem is disrupted the whole system will be affected. The disturbances of birds with the cell towers of today would only increase, because with 5G a larger number of small cell radio-tower-like devices would be necessary to ensure high quality connection for users. Having a larger number of high concentrations of these millimeter waves in the form of small cells would cause a wider exposure to bees and birds, and possibly other species that are equally important to our environment.As innovation continues, it is important that big mobile companies around the world consider the impact 5G will have on the environment before pushing to have it widely implemented. The companies pushing for the expansion of 5G may stand to make short term economic gains. While the new network will undoubtedly benefit consumers greatly, looking at 5G’s long-term environmental impacts is also very important so that the risks are clearly understood and articulated. The technology needed to power the new 5G network will inevitably change how mobile devices are used as well as their capabilities. This technological advancement will also change the way technology and the environment interact. The change from using radio waves to using millimeter waves and the new use of small cells in 5G will allow more devices to be used and manufactured, more energy to be used, and have detrimental consequences for important ecosystems. While it is unrealistic to call for 5G to not become the new network norm, companies, governments, and consumers should be proactive and understand the impact that this new technology will have on the environment. 5G developers should carry out Environmental Impact Assessments that fully estimate the impact that the new technology will have on the environment before rushing to widely implement it. Environmental Impact Assessments are intended to assess the impact new technologies have on the environment, while also maximizing potential benefits to the environment. This process mitigates, prevents, and identifies environmental harm, which is imperative to ensuring that the environment is sustainable and sound in the future. Additionally, the method of Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) of devices would also be extremely beneficial for understanding the impact that 5G will inevitably have on the environment. An LCA can be used to assess the impact that devices have on carbon emissions throughout their life span, from the manufacturing of the device to the energy required to power the device and ultimately the waste created when the device is discarded into a landfill or other disposal system. By having full awareness of the impact new technology will have on the environment ways to combat the negative impacts can be developed and implemented effectively.

 

jsis.washington.edu/news/what-will-5g-mean-for-the-enviro...

  

An excellent view of Space Shuttle mockup "Inspiration" - along with Apollo 14 Command Module "Kitty Hawk" - on display in the Design Engineering Implementation (DEI) room of Rockwell International's Downey plant.

 

An excellent observation of this particular mockup design, per the "JACQMANS SPACEFLIGHT HISTORY" website:

 

"As you can see...the mockup still has the original design concept for the OMS engines, i.e. a fairing for the OMS pods extended onto the aft payload bay doors. This design was abandoned very early in the development phase and the pods were designed to be fully self contained and located aft of the payload bay doors. And also the forward RSC thrusters are protected by doors."

 

Additionally, note the mural behind, and to either side of the orbiter, by Rockwell International’s eminently talented artist, Ted Brown. The work is a larger variant of his masterpiece, “Space Products”, which at one time (but no longer?), was prominently displayed in the Launch Control Center (LCC), Kennedy Space Center (KSC).

 

Check out all of the other wonderful photos of this particular display configuration:

 

www.disneylicenseplates.com/RSDSC/RSDSC_DEI_Inspiration.html

Credit: Disney License Plate/Rockwell Space Division Stamp Club website

 

An excellent reference to the mockup and - to an extent - its history, specifically, page 6:

 

static1.squarespace.com/static/56c78acd0442626b2590f5ea/t...

Credit: Aerospace Legacy Foundation

 

See also:

 

members.tripod.com/airfields_freeman/CA/Downey_CA_undated...

Credit: Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: California: Central Los Angeles Area/Paul Freeman

 

Along with:

 

www.angelfire.com/fl/Jacqmans/downey.html

Credit: JACQMANS SPACEFLIGHT HISTORY website

 

Finally, as is all too often the case, beseeching in order to try to preserve history:

 

www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/theres-one-more-shuttle-...

Credit: Smithsonian Air & Space website

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Inspiration

Credit: Wikipedia

Vintage blacksmith shop

Brief History of Mt Gambier – the second city of SA after Adelaide (region population nearly 35,000, urban 28,000).

Lieutenant James Grant aboard the Lady Nelson sighted and named Mt Gambier in 1800 after a Lord of the Admiralty. The first white man to traverse the area was Stephen Henty of Portland in 1839 when he sighted the Blue Lake. He returned with cattle and stockmen in 1841. He later claimed that had he known the lake and volcano he had discovered in 1839 was in SA he would have immediately applied for an 1839 Special Survey. But Henty thought he was squatting on land in NSW and he was not an official SA settler so the government ordered him off the land in 1844. Thus the first official white settler of the South East and the Mt Gambier district became Evelyn Sturt, brother to Captain Charles Sturt, who took up an occupational license in March 1844 and a property he named Compton just north of the present city. In April 1844 Governor Grey and a party of assistants including the Assistant Surveyor General Thomas Burr and artist George French Angas explored the South East naming Robe and doing the first surveys. Evelyn Sturt became the first to have an occupational license to squat and the first purchase freehold land near Mt Gambier which he did in 1847- a section of 77 acres when 80 acres was the norm. He left the district in 1854 selling his freehold land to Hastings Cunningham who in 1855 subdivided some of this land thus creating the town of Gambierton. The town lands were adjacent to the site of the first police station selected near what is now Cave Gardens by the government in 1845. A small bush inn also operated at this spot. The first streets were named after early locals such as Evelyn Sturt, Compton, Ferrers and Crouch (built the first general store before the town was created) etc. The town grew quickly because of the mild climate, fertile soils, plentiful water and the influx of settlers from across the border in what was to become the colony of Victoria. Cunningham himself was a great benefactor and donated land for the first school in 1856. In 1861 the town name was changed by act of parliament to Mt Gambier. The Hundred of Mt Gambier (along with three other hundreds) was declared in 1858 and began the closer settlement of the South East.

 

Unlike other areas of SA the South East was seen as paradise for pastoralists and the optimistic pastoralists flocked to the area with their flocks in 1845. The large runs locked up the land and prevented farmers from settling in the region except for the fertile lands around Mount Gambier. Here small scale farmers had small properties and grew potatoes, hops, and later had dairy cows as well as growing wheat and oats. Land acts in the early 1870s designed to break up the big runs only partially succeeded in the South East where most station owners bought up their lands freehold. It was after 1905 before the big pastoral estates were really broken up for farmers and closer settlement, except for near Mt Gambier. Apart from Evelyn Sturt the other early white settlers of the South East in 1845 were Alexander Cameron at Penola, John Robertson at Struan, William Macintosh and George Ormerod at Naracoorte, the Austin brothers at Yallum Park (later John Riddoch), the Arthur brothers (nephews of Governor Arthur of Van Diemen’s Land) at Mt Schanck( now Mt Schank) and the Leake brothers at Glencoe. In fact in 1845 nineteen leasehold runs were taken up in the South East with a further thirty runs in 1846 and most had several 80 acres sections of freehold land near the main homestead. Most had got to the South East from Casterton and Portland in Victoria as the swamps near the coast were too difficult to traverse except for the country near Robe. Many of the estates were huge. Evelyn Sturt on the Compton/Mt Gambier run had 85 square miles as well as his freehold land; Robertson had 135 square miles at Struan; George Glen (and William Vansittart) of Mayurra had 110 square miles; the SA Company had 159 square miles on the Benara run; the Leake brothers had 194 square miles on Glencoe; Hunter had 56 square miles on Kalangadoo; Neil Black of Noorat Victoria had 45 square miles on Kongorong run and 101 square miles at Port MacDonnell and the Arthur brothers had a huge run at Mt Schanck. By 1851 almost 5,000 square miles of the South East was occupied by Occupational License and most licenses were converted to 14 year leases in that year. A third of all leasehold land in SA was taken up in the South East because of its higher rainfall and suitability for pastoralism and a third of all sheep in the colony were in the South East. When Hundreds were declared in the South East in the late 1850s and early 1860s pastoralists bought up the land. In one case John Riddoch of Yallum Park owned the entire Hundred of Monbulla. Another pastoralist W. Clarke who had purchased Mt Schancke station from the Arthur brothers in 1861 owned SA land valued at £1.25 million when he died in 1874 and he had 120,000 acres freehold in Victoria, 75,000 acres freehold in SA( Mt Schank) and 50,000 acres freehold in each of NSW and Tasmania! Mt Schanck was changed in Schank in 1917 when German place names in SA were changed as Schank without the second “c” is an old English name!

 

In the 1850s Mt Gambier was a shanty village as the South East was a region of large pastoral estates and little agricultural farming and very low population numbers. It was far from Adelaide and remote and it was only after the Princeland episode in 1862 with the threat of possible secession to a new state that the Adelaide government began to invest in the South East and really encourage settlement there. The Border Watch newspaper was established in 1861, the Mt Gambier Hotel opened in 1862 and the Mt Gambier Council was formed in 1863.By the early 1860s Mt Gambier had almost 1,000 residents making it one of the largest towns in SA after the copper mining centres of Burra, Kadina and Moonta. By the 1881 SA census Mt Gambier had 2,500 residents making it the biggest town outside of Adelaide. In 1865 four iconic historic buildings were erected-the Courthouse, the Gaol, Christ Church Anglican and the Post Office and Telegraph Station. The flourmill which later became the Oat Mill opened in 1867 as wheat farmers had now taken up lands around the Mount. Mt Gambier was growing into a fine prosperous looking town with churches, stores, banks, hotels and fine residences. In the 1870s the rural population increased dramatically with tenant potato farmers on Browne’s Moorak estate and intensive hop growing in several localities such as Yahl and OB Flat and Glenburnie etc. Also in 1876 the first commercial forestry was started at the behest of George Goyder. A tree nursery was established on the edge of Leg of Mutton Lake in 1876 on a site selected by George Goyder himself. A stone cottage for the first nurseryman Charles Beale was constructed and it survived until demolished in 1969 but the nursery closed in 1929. The nursery propagated eucalypts, Oak, Elm, Ash, Sycamore, and North American pines. Pinus radiata was first grown at Leg of Mutton Lake and was being dispersed to other areas by 1878. Pinus canariensis was also grown in the 1880s. Pinus radiata is now the most commonly grown commercial forest tree in SA and Australia. Also in the 1870s the first hospital was erected and Dr Wehl, the town’s doctor for many years was in residence.

 

In the mid 1880s the first rail line was laid as the railway lines pushed out from Mt Gambier to Naracoorte. The service to Naracoorte began in 1887 and connected on with the line to Bordertown and Adelaide. By 1897 a railway connected Mt Gambier to Millicent and the port at Beachport. The railway line across the border to Heywood and Melbourne was not completed until 1917 as the SA government resisted a line that would take goods and passengers from Mt Gambier to Port Melbourne rather than to Port Adelaide. Mt Gambier railway station used to be a hive of activity with daily trains to Adelaide and an overnight sleeper services several times a week. Passenger trains to Mt Gambier from Adelaide stopped in 1990 after Australian National took over the SA railway network. Freight services stopped in 1995 and the railway line and station was formally closed. The railyards and other buildings were cleared in 2013.

 

The Buandik Aboriginal People.

The Buandik people are commemorated in a city street but by little else. Yet they were resilient and determined fighters opposed to the white settlement of the South East. Their occupation of the Mt Gambier district stretches back to around 20,000+ years but their dated occupation from archaeological sites goes back to about 11,000 years with their myths and legends including stories about volcanic activity at Mt Gambier. The last volcanic explosions were about 4,000 years ago. Both Mt Schank and Mt Gambier were important places to the Buandik for ceremonies, hunting, access to water and stone implement making. A government report in 1867 noted that the Buandik people in government care were few in number mainly sickly and elderly. The younger people had presumably moved out into the white community. But back in the 1840s the Buandik were a force to be reckoned with. There are no common stories of Aboriginal massacres but white pastoralists certainly retaliated when sheep were stolen. On Mt Schank station the Buandik were so troublesome that shepherds would not venture out to care for sheep alone and the Arthur brothers gave this trouble as their reason for them selling the run in 1845. In 1845 the government established a police station at Mt Gambier, which the Protector of Aboriginals visited, to ensure that pastoralists did not massacre the Buandik.

 

William Vansittart and Vansittart Park.

Vansittart Park has been a focal point of Mt Gambier since 1884 for activities such as family picnics, political rallies and speeches, bike racing, band rotunda concerts, bowling greens, sport oval, grandstand (1927) and Anzac memorial services. But who was William Vansittart? He was an Anglican reverend from England (Vansittart is a noble and political Anglo-Irish family in the UK) who arrived in SA in 1847 as a young bachelor. He was never licensed as a minister in SA but he developed his passions for making money and horse racing here. He mixed with the elite of Adelaide like Sir Samuel Davenport, the Governor and was a friend of Hurtle Fisher and he was Master of the Hounds. In 1850 he purchased 35 acres at Beaumont where he built Tower House and 80 acres at Mt Gambier. He imported a thoroughbred horse from Hobart called Lucifer. Ironic that a minister of religion would have a horse called Lucifer! His horses raced in Adelaide, Salisbury, Gawler, Brighton and Clare as well as in Mt Gambier and Penola. In 1851 he also took over the 110 square mile 14 year lease of Mayurra run with George Glen of Millicent. In 1852 he returned to England for a short time and on his return he purchased more freehold land bringing his estate to around 800 acres. Not long after in 1854 his horse shied, he was thrown against a tree and died of head injuries but he died intestate with an estate worth over £10,000. Glen bought out his share of Mayurra; the Beaumont house and property was sold in 1867 as were his race horses and his brother Captain Spencer Vansittart eventually inherited the Mt Gambier property. In accordance with William’s wishes 115 acres were set aside to provide income for a scholarship for boarders at St Peters Boys College which happened from 1859. Later in 1883 Spencer Vansittart offered 20 acres to the Mt Gambier Council for a memorial park at the “nominal” sum of £400 which hardly seems “nominal”. The Council raised a loan and purchased the land and the park is still enjoyed by the city’s residents and visitors. Captain Spencer’s widow sold the last package of 300 acres of land in 1912 thus ending the Vansittart links with Mt Gambier. The Vansittart scholarship is still available for boarders from the South East and is operated by a group of College trustees.

 

Some Historic Buildings in Mt Gambier and a town walk.

Your town walk is basically straight ahead along Penola Road towards the Mount itself which becomes Bay Road( the bay is at Port MacDonnell) once you cross Commercial Street which is the Main Street. There are just a few diversions to the left as you face the Mount. The coach will collect you at the Mount end of the walk near the Old Courthouse.

 

If you a good walker check out the fine houses in Jardine Street at numbers 1, 7, 9, 11, 12, 17 and 22. They range from cottages to Gothic and turreted mansions including the home of Jens the hotelier. This detour will add another 10 minutes to the walk if you elect to do it.

 

1.Catholic Covent. Sisters of Mercy setup a convent school in 1880. This wonderful convent was not built until 1908 in local dolomite stone & limestone quoins. Note the fine stone gables with small niches for statuary, the well proportioned arched colonnades and upstairs oriel windows – the projecting bay windows with stone supports. This is one of the finest buildings in Mt Gambier. The convent closed in 1986. Now Auspine.

 

2.Wesleyan Methodist Church Hall/Sunday School. Across the street is pink dolomite neo-classical style Wesleyan Methodist Sunday School Hall. Hundreds of children attended Sunday School in those days. It opened in 1904. It is now commercial offices. (If you want to walk up Wyatt Street beside the Sunday School and turn right at second street which is at Gray you will see the old two storey Methodist Manse at 101 Gray St. It was built in 1868 and sold 1941. As you turn into Gray Street the Salvation Army Hall is on your left. Allow 10 minutes for this detour before returning to Penola Road).

 

3.Methodist Church now Liberty Church. A Gothic large church built in 1862 by the Wesleyans. Opened by minister from Portland. Additions made 1877 with new entrance. The old lecture hall and Sunday School was beneath the church. Note the buttress on corners and sides. Became Uniting Church 1977 and closed 1994 when services moved to St Andrews Presbyterian Church. Behind the church (walk through the car park) in Colhurst Place is LLandovery two storey mansion now a B&B. Built 1878 for a flour and oat miller who had his mill in Percy Street.

 

4.St Paul’s Catholic Church. This impressive Gothic church with huge tower with crenulations was opened in 1884 and will be open today. There are 1966 extensions to the rear of it. The Presbytery is behind the church facing Alexander St. it was built in 1901 when the church was free of building debt. The first thatched bush church was built in another location in 1855. From 1857 the priest was Father Julian Tenison Woods, explorer, academic, horseman etc. A second church opened in 1861 in Sturt St and is now demolished. It closed in 1885 as this church opened. The bells came from Dublin. The church fence and gates built 1936.

 

5.The Mount Gambier Club. Across the street is the Club. It was built in 1904 for a local distiller as chambers for lease. The wealthy pastoralists of the South East formed an exclusive men only club in 1913 and it has used the upper floor of Engelbrecht’s chambers ever since. They purchased the whole building in 1920. The Club is a beautifully proportioned classical style building with pediments, balustrades, window entablature, and perfect symmetry. Look down the sides and you can see it is made of Mt Gambier limestone blocks.

 

6.Mt Gambier Caledonian Hall. Next door is the Scots Club. Its prominence signifies the Scottish links of many Gambier residents. The hall was opened in 1914 and opened by the former Prime Minister Sir George Reid, another Scot. It has classical features but is rather ugly and neglected these days. It is now a night club.

 

7.The Trustees Building. Next to the Caledonian is the Trustee Building erected in 1958. Its blue and bone tiled façade is typical of 1950s architecture yet the rectangular appearance has a slight classical look about it. It is on the SA Heritage Register. Accountants now occupy it.

 

8.Turn left into Percy Street and go along here beyond KFC for one town block to the next corner for the Oatmills (now a coffee shop and cinemas). Milling and brewing were two of Mt Gambier’s prime 19th century industries. The 4 storey complex here was started in 1867 for Welsh Thomas Williams who eventually had five flour mills. His mill was called Commercial Flourmills. A new owner converted the mill from wheat milling to oat milling. A new oatmill was built in 1901 and operated until 1975 producing Scottish porridge oats. The mill has now been restored with café, shops and cinemas. Return to Penola Rd.

 

9. Mt Gambier Hotel. No hotel could have a more remarkable origin than the Mt Gambier. An African American John Byng built a weatherboard hotel near here in 1847. The third licensee Alexander Mitchell, another Scot, took it over and moved the hotel to this corner site in 1862 as an impressive two storey hotel which was unusual at that time. The western wing was added in 1883 and balconies affixed in 1902.

 

10.Cross towards the Mount with the traffic lights then turn left into Commercial Street East.

 

11.Mt Gambier Town Hall. Marked as the Riddoch Gallery this fine Venetian Gothic style building is impressive with its coloured stone work contrasting well with cement rendered horizontal lines and vertical panels around windows and doors. The upper windows are mullioned with stone divisions between the glass. It was built in 1882 with the clock tower added in 1883 after a donation. The first Council meeting was in 1863 with Dr Wehl as chairman held in a hotel. Later the Council hired a room at the Foresters Hall and then they purchased this site in 1868 with a weatherboard room. This was used until 1882.

 

12.Mt Gambier old Institute. The Literary Institute was formed in 1862 and a foundation stone laid for a reading room/hall in 1868 by John Riddoch. The single storey institute opened in 1869. The upper floor was added in 1887, so that it would match the new Town Hall. It is built in a similar style- Venetian Romanesque as the windows and rounded and not arched as with a gothic structure.

 

13.Captain Gardiner Memorial Fountain 1884. The fountain was presented by Captain Robert Gardiner the grandfather of Sir Robert Helpman (his name was originally Helpmann). The fountain was made in Melbourne .Gardiner was also a benefactor of St Andrew’s Presbyterian -he donated the pipe organ in 1885.

 

14.Jens Hotel. After demolishing an earlier hotel (the 1847 hotel of John Byng) Johannes Jens had the first section of his Jens Hotel built on this corner in 1884. An almost identical eastern wing was erected in 1904 and the Spanish Art Deco section in 1927. Turn right here and go behind the Town hall to the Cave Gardens.

 

15.Cave Gardens. This spot was an early water supply. A garden was created in 1893 and then improved and reconstructed in 1925. This sink hole has recently been upgraded again and it is lit at night.

 

16.Post Office. This important communications centre was erected in 1865 as a telegraph office/post office. This is till one of the finest buildings in Mt Gambier and a rare example of the Georgian style for the city. . The single storey side wings were added in 1906 in a sympathetic style. It is still the main city Post Office.

 

17.Norris Agency Building. This superb Italianate building was completed in 1900 as chambers for businessmen. Owner was Alexander Norris who died in 1917. The façade is pink dolomite with cement quoins and unusual lined decoration work above the windows and door each contained within a triangular classical pediment.

 

18.Farmers Union Building. Another classical style building built when this style was out of fashion in 1914.Erected for Farmers Union as a large two storey building. It has none of the grace of the Norris building next door. FU was formed in 1888 in Jamestown by Thomas Mitchell, a Scot and others to provide cheap rates for grains, seeds and superphosphate but in the early 1900s they branched into products for dairy farmers and the marketing of milk products. The Mt Gambier district had plenty of dairy farmers. It is now owned by a Japanese company Kirin but it still markets its chocolate milk drinks as Farmers Union. Upper floor has double pilasters (flattened pillars) with top volutes but little other decoration.

 

19.Savings Bank Building on the corner. The former Savings Bank in Gothic style is unusual for commercial premises in Mt Gambier. It is constructed of weathered local limestone and was built in 1906. Note the different cut stone for the foundations, simulated turrets on the corners and by the door to break the façade appearance and the stone line above the lower window which then divides the façade into equal thirds.

 

20.Macs Hotel. This hotel was built in 1864 and is largely unchanged except that the upper floor was added in 1881. The first licensee was a Scot named John MacDonald. The double veranda supports are very elegant.

 

21.Roller flourmill now a painted hardware store. Built 1885 as a steam flourmill in pink dolomite. Note the small 12 paned windows set in much larger indented niches in the walls on the northern wall. (Sturt St.)

 

22.Christ Church Anglican Church and hall. Dr Browne of Moorak donated half the money for the construction of Christ Church in pink dolomite and with an unusual gabled tower. Church and tower completed in 1866. Adjacent is the Jubilee Hall built in 1915, destroyed by fire in 1951, and rebuilt exactly the same in weathered local limestone blocks with the original foundation stone still in place. It has the single Gothic window in the street facing gable and a crenulated square tower. Adjoining it is the 1869 Sunday School with the narrow double pointed Gothic windows. It was extended in 1892. The lychgate is more recent as a memorial to a regular church goer, Margaret French who died in 1927.

 

23.The old railway station just visible along the rail lines to your right. The first rail line was to Beachport in 1879 and the second to Naracoorte (and so to Adelaide) in 1887. Portland and Melbourne line opened 1917. A spur line to Glencoe was completed in 1904. First station was erected in 1879. It was demolished for the erection of the current station in 1918 which is similar in design to those in Tailem Bend, Bordertown, Moonta etc. Bluebird rail cars started on the Mt Gambier run in 1953 when the old 3’6” gauge line to Wolseley was converted to 5’3”. The last passenger service to Adelaide finished in 1990 and the station closed for freight in 1995. The railyards were cleared in 2013 and the future of the station is bleak. The rail lines to Beachport and Glencoe closed in 1956/57.

 

24.The Old Courthouse, 42 Bay Rd. It has a great low wall suitable for sitting on. This well designed Georgian style Courthouse opened in 1865 and the similarly styled side wings were added in 1877. The front veranda, which is not Georgian in style, was added in 1880. In 1975 the Courthouse was granted to the National Trust for a museum. The adjoining new Courthouse opened in 1975 at the same time. Note the “blind” windows to the façade but the same rounded Georgian shaped, 16 paned windows on the sides.

  

The Blue Lake, Mt Schank and Volcanoes.

The jewel in the crown of Mt Gambier is undoubtedly the volcanic cone, the crater lakes especially the Blue Lake and the surrounding Botanic Gardens and parklands. The Botanic Garden on the north side was approved in 1872 but nothing happened about plantings and care until 1882. The first pleasure road through the saddle between the Blue Lake and the Valley Lake was created in the 1861 as a more direct road to the then newly created international port named Port MacDonnell. That is why the road is called the Bay road. Surveyor General George Goyder explored the lake surrounds himself in 1876 when he selected the site for the government tree nursery. Later the government established the first sawmill on the edge of the crater reserve near Moorak homestead in the early 1920s. The Centenary Tower was initiated in 1900 to celebrate the centenary of Captain Grant sighting Mt Gambier. It took several years to complete and was opened by the Chief Justice of SA Sir Samuel Way in 1907 but it was completed in 1904. The whole complex is a maar geomorphological formation which originated during a volcanic era about 28,000 years ago but in a second phase of volcanic activity 4,000 to 6,000 years ago the cones and lakes of Mt Gambier were created along with the cones of Mt Schank and Mt Burr near Millicent. Mt Gambier was the most recent volcanic explosion in Australia. The crater lakes are: Blue Lake, Valley Lake, Leg of Mutton Lake and Browne’s Lake (dry). The Blue Lake is linked to the aquifers beneath the deep layers of limestone which underlay the entire South East. Blue Lake is about 72 metres deep and some of the water in it is estimated to be about 500 years old but it is mixed with rain runoff each year as well. The Lake provides the water supply for Mt Gambier. Deep in the lake are examples of the oldest living organisms on earth- stromatalites. The lake changes colour from grey to vivid blue each November and reverts in the following April. The change in colour is related to the position of the sun and reflected light from suspended particles in the lake which reflect blue green light rather than brown grey light. Secondly the suspended matter only occurs because the water near the surface rises in temperature in the spring and it is this which causes the particles to precipitate out of the water. The precipitated matter settles on the bottom of the lake ready for a new cycle the following spring. Like the Blue Lake various sink holes in the district have linkages to the underlying aquifer through the layers of limestone too and they include Cave Gardens, Umpherstone, Piccaninni Ponds, etc.

 

Moorak Station and Tenison Woods College.

Moorak station as originally known as Mount Gambier Station established by George Glen in the 1840s. The leasehold was later taken over by David Power who in turn sold it to Fisher and Rochford who in turn sold the estate as freehold to the Scottish Dr William Browne who had established Booborowie run with his brother in 1843 north of Burra. The Browne brothers dissolved their partnership around 1865 and John went to live at Buckland Park and William took up residence at Moorak. William had purchased Moorak Station in 1862 and built the grand Moorak homestead in impressive Georgian style onto a smaller house there. William died in 1894 and the Moorak Estate passed to his son Colonel Percival Browne who was to disappear on the ill-fated voyage of the new steamer the Waratah in 1909 which disappeared during a storm off Durban, South Africa. Also on that voyage was Mrs. Agnes Hay (nee Gosse) of Mt Breckan Victor Harbor and Linden Park Estate Adelaide and some 200 other poor souls. Around 1909 the Moorak Station was subdivided for closer settlement and in the 1920s the Marist Brothers purchased the homestead with a little land for their and monastery and opened the Marist Brothers Agricultural College for boys in 1931. That college in turn merged with the Mater Christi College in 1972 to become Tenison College. (Mater Christi College had been formed in 1952 by the merger of the St Josephs Convent School (1880) and St Peters Parish School but the primary section of St Peters broke away in 1969 from Mater Christi College and formed a separate St Peters Primary School. This primary school in turn merged with Tenison College in 2001 to form Tenison Woods College!) The College name commemorates the work of Father Julian Tenison Woods who arrived in Mt Gambier in 1857 to work in Penola and Mt Gambier. It was he who encouraged Mary MacKillop to take her vows and establish her Sisters of St Joseph.

 

Dr Browne’s manager of Moorak Estate in 1868 introduced hops as a viable crop in the South East and large quantities were grown for about 20 years. Other early experimental crops grown included tobacco, cotton and flax. Dr Browne and Moorak were also important in the potato industry. Dr Browne leased around 830 acres to 20 tenants for the express purpose of growing potatoes. He was keen to emulate the British aristocracy although he was a good Scot with being a manorial style landlord with tenant farmers. Potatoes were also grown from the early years at Yahl, OB Flat and Compton near Mt Gambier. The potatoes were carted down to Port MacDonnell and shipped to Adelaide for consumers. As one of the major wool producers of Australia William Browne contributed roughly half of the funds for the erection of Christ Church Anglican in Mt Gambier. The Moorak estate consisted of around 11,000 acres of the most fertile volcanic soil in SA with another 2,000 acres in a nearby property, German Creek near Carpenter’s Rocks. Dr Browne ran Silky Lincolns on Moorak for their wool as Merinos did not fare well on the damp South East pastures. About 2,000 acres was in wheat, about 2,500 acres was tenanted to other farmers and around 4,000 acres were in lucerne, clover, rye and other pasture grasses. William Browne returned to live in England in 1866 so his sons could attend Eton and military training colleges there. He made regular trips to SA about every second year to oversee his many pastoral properties here. When he died in 1894 he left 100,000 acres of freehold land in SA to his children who all resided here as well as leasehold land. He was an extremely wealthy man. Son Percival took control of Moorak. Before Percival’s death Moorak Estate was partly purchased by the SA government in 1904 for closer settlement when they acquired around 1,000 acres. After Percival’s death a further 6,300 acres was acquired for closer settlement and the remainder of the estate was sold to other farmers. The government paid between £10 and £31 per acre for the land. Percival Browne was highly respected in Mt Gambier and a reserve around the Blue Lake is named after him. The fourth of the crater lakes of Mt Gambier is also named Browne’s Lake after the family but it has been dry for decades. In 1900 Colonel Browne planted the ring of English Oaks around what was to become the oval of the Marist Brothers College.

 

Moorak.

There is a memorial by the station to William Browne as founder of the Coriadale Sheep Stud. The great Moorak woolshed was demolished in 1939. The Union church which opened in 1920 was used by the Methodists and the Anglicans. It is now a private residence. Moorak hall was opened in 1926. New classrooms were added to the Moorak School in 1928 and the first rooms opened in 1913. The cheese factory in Moorak opened in 1913 as a cooperative and was sold to Farmers Union in 1949. They closed the factory in 1979. Most of the cheese produced at Moorak went to the Melbourne market. The first cheese maker at Moorak was trained at Lauterbach’s cheese factory at Woodside. Moorak was one of a circle of settlements around Mt Gambier that had butter/cheese factories. These towns were: Kongorong; Glencoe East; Glencoe West; Suttontown; Glenburnie; Mil Lel; Yahl; OB Flat; Moorak; Mt Schank; and Eight Mile Creek.

 

Yahl.

In the 1860s this tiny settlement was a tobacco, hop and potato growing district and it persisted with potatoes up until recent times. Today Yahl is little more than a suburban village of Mt Gambier with a Primary school with approx 120 students. The old government school was erected in 1879. It had a Methodist church built in 1880 which operated as a church until 1977 and it had a large butter factory which had opened in 1888. The butter and cheese factory was taken over by the OB Flat cheese factory in 1939 and the two operated in conjunction with each other. The OB Flat cheese factory closed in 1950 and all production moved to Yahl. The factory finally closed in 1971. The township of Yahl also had a General Store and a Salvation Army Hall which was built in 1919.

 

Sink Holes: Umpherston Gardens and Cave Gardens.

James Umpherston purchased land near Mt Gambier in 1864 which included a large sink hole or collapsed cavern with a lake in the bottom. He was born in Scotland in 1812 and came to SA in the 1850s with his brother William. William purchased his first land at Yahl in 1859. James Umpherston was a civic minded chap being a local councilor, a parliamentarian in Adelaide for two years and President of the Mt Gambier Agricultural and Horticultural Society for 13 years. When he retired from civic life and farming in 1884 he decided to create a garden in his sinkhole. He beautified it and encouraged visitors and even provided a boat in the lake for boat rides. Access was gained by steps and a path carved into the sinkhole walls. However after he died in 1900 the garden was ignored, became overgrown and was largely forgotten in 1949 when the Woods and Forests Department obtained the land for a new sawmill at Mt Gambier. By then the lake had dried up as the water table had fallen over the decades. In 1976 staff, rather than the government, decided to restore the Umpherstone gardens. The cleared out the rubbish that had been dumped in the sinkhole, restored the path access, trimmed the ivy and replanted the hydrangeas and tree ferns. In 1994 the Woos and Forests Department handed over the land around the sinkhole to the City of Mt Gambier. It was added to the SA Heritage Register in 1995.

 

20 May 2019 - TALK TOGETHER

Session : The Male Disadvantage in Education

 

Speakers : Camilla Stoltenberg, Director-General, Norwegian Institute of Public Health; Head, Norwegian National Commission on Gender Equality in Education

With ** Francesca Borgonovi, Senior Analyst, Policy Advice and Implementation, Directorate for Education and Skills, OECD

 

OECD Headquarters, Paris.

 

www.oecd.org/forum

 

Photo : © Hervé Cortinat / OECD

Implementing a New Employee Time Management System…..Bye Bye Leave Request Forms

Ethiopia is one of the oldest Christian states in the world. The Entoto Maryam Church is probably the oldest building in use in the vicinity of Addis Ababa; it was full of active worshippers taking part in a wedding celebration when I visited.

 

For the story, please visit: www.ursulasweeklywanders.com/travel/addis-ababa-in-the-cr...

In 2013 I went on holiday to Helsinki but on one of the days we went to Tallinn, Estonia as it is only an hour or so across the water. When you enter the old part of the city (which is an UNESCO World Heritage Site) you can't help but see the imposing Alexander Nevsky Cathedral as it crowns the hill of Trompea. Which is one of several places where according to legend the Estonian folk hero Kalevipoeg's father Kalev is said to have been buried in the cathedral.

 

The cathedral was built in the late 19th century Russification and was so disliked by many Estonians as a symbol of oppression that the Estonian authorities scheduled the cathedral for demolition in 1924...but this decision was never implemented due to lack of funds. As the USSR was officially non-religious, many churches including this cathedral where left to decline.

 

Ironically the church has been meticulously restored since Estonia regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Pending full implementation of a fleet of electric buses, most Fastrack departures from Gravesend still use diesel buses. SEN65 is the former Sullivan Buses AE19, acuired by London General after Sullivan ceased operating. It is a 2016 Alexander Dennis E20D/Enviro 200 MMC, seen at Gravesend working route E on 12 June 2025.

Landis Arboretum, Esperance, New York.

 

Kitchen implements on display at the Allis-Bushnell House. The heavy mugs in foreground are actually measures; largest one is 2 quart.

See more tools, utensils and farm equipment at flic.kr/s/aHskTSBiQB.

(Photo credit Bob Gundersen www.flickr.com/photos/bobphoto51/albums).

Taken with a Praktina IIA camera in week 346 of my 52 film cameras in 52 weeks project:

52cameras.blogspot.com/

www.flickr.com/photos/tony_kemplen/collections/72157623113584240

Agfa Vista 200 film from Poundland, developed in the Rollei C41 kit.

Office building. Built just over a decade ago.

Lighted Farm Implement Parade, Sunnyside, Washington. I am pleasantly surprised how sharp these night photos are considering these shots are hand held and mostly shot at 1/30 and slower shutter speed. IMG_1053

www.youtube.com/watch?v=g74Q07Uu-lo

Kenny Burrell Trio - Jeannine (1990)

  

Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape

 

The first of the undecoded messages read: "Popeye sits

in thunder,

Unthought of. From that shoebox of an apartment,

From livid curtain's hue, a tangram emerges: a country."

Meanwhile the Sea Hag was relaxing on a green couch: "How

pleasant

To spend one's vacation en la casa de Popeye," she

scratched

Her cleft chin's solitary hair. She remembered spinach

 

And was going to ask Wimpy if he had bought any spinach.

"M'love," he intercepted, "the plains are decked out

in thunder

Today, and it shall be as you wish." He scratched

The part of his head under his hat. The apartment

Seemed to grow smaller. "But what if no pleasant

Inspiration plunge us now to the stars? For this is my

country."

 

Suddenly they remembered how it was cheaper in the country.

Wimpy was thoughtfully cutting open a number 2 can of spinach

When the door opened and Swee'pea crept in. "How pleasant!"

But Swee'pea looked morose. A note was pinned to his bib.

"Thunder

And tears are unavailing," it read. "Henceforth shall

Popeye's apartment

Be but remembered space, toxic or salubrious, whole or

scratched."

 

Olive came hurtling through the window; its geraniums scratched

Her long thigh. "I have news!" she gasped. "Popeye, forced as

you know to flee the country

One musty gusty evening, by the schemes of his wizened,

duplicate father, jealous of the apartment

And all that it contains, myself and spinach

In particular, heaves bolts of loving thunder

At his own astonished becoming, rupturing the pleasant

 

Arpeggio of our years. No more shall pleasant

Rays of the sun refresh your sense of growing old, nor the

scratched

Tree-trunks and mossy foliage, only immaculate darkness and

thunder."

She grabbed Swee'pea. "I'm taking the brat to the country."

"But you can't do that--he hasn't even finished his spinach,"

Urged the Sea Hag, looking fearfully around at the apartment.

 

But Olive was already out of earshot. Now the apartment

Succumbed to a strange new hush. "Actually it's quite pleasant

Here," thought the Sea Hag. "If this is all we need fear from

spinach

Then I don't mind so much. Perhaps we could invite Alice the Goon

over"--she scratched

One dug pensively--"but Wimpy is such a country

Bumpkin, always burping like that." Minute at first, the thunder

 

Soon filled the apartment. It was domestic thunder,

The color of spinach. Popeye chuckled and scratched

His balls: it sure was pleasant to spend a day in the country.

 

John Ashbery

Farm implement near Glasgow in rural Saline County Missouri by Notley Hawkins Photography. Taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV camera with a Canon EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens at ƒ/4.0 with a 148 second exposure at ISO 100. Processed with Adobe Lightroom CC.

 

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www.notleyhawkins.com/

 

©Notley Hawkins

PONY BROWN - My Little Friend, Korean Stationery

 

My lack of post is only the evidence of more amazing stationery adventures coming up, this time Korean stationery. Yes it was crazily busy to implement yet another successful year of Back To School promotion in city'super/LOG-ON, yes there is the preparation of Xmas 2010 and an upcoming new store in Langham Place in November, but all these melt when I was in Seoul last week looking at the innovations from some of the most creative souls in the world.

 

PONY BROWN is a new Korean stationery brand only started since 2008. The key character which has no name, gained popularity in our Hong Kong market. According to the creative pair Mrs. Lee the owner and Mr. Oh the designer, the name PONY BROWN is not the name of the character at all, it came from Mr. Oh's birth year zodiac as a horse thus PONY and his love of brown color.

 

I had a great time spent in PONY BROWN's house, a 2 stories tranquil cat heaven in the middle of Seoul. It has all the elements I love right there, great sunlight, woody, quiet and space to think and relax while connectivity is not a problem at all.

 

As for why the main character has no name, Mr. Oh told me that the idea is to have people loving the character fuse their life and spirit with the character's attitude, to be bright and positive with attitude. The super cute character has a nick name though, since the series is called "My Little Friend", in Korean language fusioning with English, the character is called "Mylipu" (My Little Pu, "Pu" means friend in Korean).

 

The most popular items we sell at city'super/LOGO-ON of PONY BROWN is their free diary. They have just released some new post-it and diary stickies which will be in Hong Kong market soon. Lastly, we have worked with PONY BROWN to prepare a super attractive Xmas gift set with very nice packaging for the season, stay tuned!

 

More on Scription blog: scription.typepad.com/blog/2010/09/pony-brown-my-little-f...

Stewart Farm pole barn

In Nepal, the Rural Women's Economic Empowerment Joint Programme, implemented by UN Women, Food and Agriculture Organization, International Fund for Agricultural Development and World Food Programme, and funded by a consortium of donors seeks to improve women farmers’ agricultural production and income, but also changed gender-discriminatory attitudes of their male counterparts.

 

Rural women form a large proportion of the agricultural labour force in Nepal and play a vital yet unrecognized role in agriculture that sustains nearly 80 percent of the population. Perceived mainly as care givers, their work in farming is largely undervalued. Women farmers are often paid less than men for the same work, and lack access to resources and markets due to discriminatory attitudes. However, since the launch of the Joint Programme, a new narrative is unfolding across the villages of Rauthat and Sindhuli districts.

 

As more Nepalese men migrate abroad to find work, an increasing number of rural women are taking up farming. By improving women’s agricultural production, access to markets and leadership skills, the programme has increased their income, food security and independence.

 

Pictured: Chandra Kala Thapa, one of many smallholder women farmers from Ranichuri village in Sindhuli district, was barely able to produce enough grains to feed her family. With support from the Joint Programme, she converted her field from grain production to high-value vegetables. “Now the prices are good and the money comes on time. This was not the case when I used to cultivate grains instead of high-value vegetables,” she says.

 

Photo: UN Women/Narendra Shrestha

 

Read More: www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2017/2/feature-women-farm...

A farm on the Missouri River bottoms near Huntsdale in Boone County Missouri Notley Hawkins Photography.

 

www.notleyhawkins.com

 

©Notley Hawkins

An abandoned farm implement near Overton in Cooper County Missouri by Notley Hawkins Photography. Taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark III camera with a EF16-35mm f/4L IS USM lens at f.4.0 with a .5 second exposure at ISO 800 along with three Quantum Qflash Trios with red, green and blue gels. Processed with Adobe Lightroom 6.4.

 

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www.notleyhawkins.com/

 

©Notley Hawkins

Rothenburg, Germany, 2014

Colombia, 2022.

 

The Peace Agreement in Colombia, signed in 2016 between the Government and the guerrilla group FARC-EP, put an end to the longest war in Latin America.

 

Six years later, more than 13,000 ex-combatants, a third of which are women, continue to face daily challenges resulting from their reintegration into civil life. The country's new government has generated momentum both domestically and internationally towards the reactivation of the women, peace and security agenda, emphasizing the importance of the reintegration process to achieve a stable peace.

 

Since its inception, the Peace Agreement has included a gender approach as an indispensable condition for its implementation. Women ex-combatants have enthusiastically embraced new roles as mothers, entrepreneurs, students, citizens and political leaders. However, their lives are still full of challenges related to their physical, legal and political security; educational and economic opportunities; and access to specialized health services, among others. These conditions are key for a successful reintegration.

 

UN Women, together with governmental and civil society actors, supports this process with actions that strengthen women's citizenship, political leadership and economic empowerment, as well as prevent gender violence and build new masculinities among male ex-combatants. Nearly 3,000 women in 11 regions of the country benefit from these programs, allowing them to strengthen their role as peacebuilders.

 

Pictured: Close to the border with Venezuela, the Territorial Space for Training and Reincorporation (ETCR) of Pondores is a settlement created by the Government of Colombia to facilitate the reincorporation of former FARC guerrilla members in the context of the 2016 Peace Agreement. Marinelly Hernandez, a leader in the community, lives there with her partner Javier.

 

Photo: UN Women/Pedro Pio

 

Read More: www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/video/2022/10/the-reinteg...