Job’s done
THE finishing touch has at last been completed on VicRoads’ McCallum Street, Swan Hill, upgrade with replacement of a medical emergency sign directing strangers to the area entering town from the west to the hospital emergency department.
The old sign, made obsolete when the Splatt Street intersection was closed to enlarge an existing median area carpark as part of the upgrade, has been removed and a new one relocated just short of the High Street roundabout, construction of which was one of the features of the upgrade.
The newcomer, solid white cross on blue background, advises “U turn 300m”. That takes the motorist to the Beveridge Street roundabout, returning west on McCallum to Splatt Street, where an existing sign indicates a left turn to the hospital.
This is a distance of about 600m.
An alternative “indirect most direct” route would have been to turn right on High Street, then left into McCrae and left again into Splatt – a distance of 500m. From what I have seen, ambulance vehicles opt for this choice. One hundred metres is not far, but it can be vital when a life is in the balance.
Yes, two more signs would have been required for the High Street alternative, but if this was considered a factor it may be a case of false economy.
On the subject of “tinkering”, one more thing could be done. There is an accident waiting to happen for west-bound traffic approaching the High Street roundabout: vehicles parked at the extreme western end of the median area, south side, totally obstruct the line of sight in the direction of oncoming traffic in the roundabout. This could be corrected by removing one or two parking bays.
Lawrie French,
Swan Hill
Editor note: This is a repeat of a contribution in last Friday’s issue which became a nonsense when part of the original copy was inadvertently omitted in transcription. We apologise to the writer for any distress caused. Issues could have been explained
AN independent assessment of social and economic conditions in the Murray-Darling Basin has just been completed.
This was achieved by a series of meetings across the Murray-Darling Basin, some were public meetings but a lot were invitation only.
The Swan Hill meeting was an invitation only meeting and had only eight people in attendance.
I attended the public meeting on this subject at Cohuna, the crowd was large, angry and united in their opinion that the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is a bureaucratic disaster which is devastating communities across the Murray-Darling Basin.
If there was a public meeting at Swan Hill, many of the issues could have been explained, such as;
1: The huge environment watering of many river forests and wetlands, two years after a natural flood.
2: Massive wastage of water at Hattah Lakes. Over topping 30 lakes with environment water, two years after a natural flood (six pumps running for four months at 1000LM a day).
3: The Nimmie-Caria System on the Lower Murrumbidgee is a another example of wasting environment water. The land where the water is going is treeless and water went up to 50km long, 2km wide in some parts. A reported $180 million dollars paid by taxpayers for this land, has left many people shaking their heads in disbelief.
4: Millions of native fish died in blackwater events from 2008 to 2010. Vast areas of some rivers in the Murray-Darling Basin have only a fraction of native fish left. Leading fishing writer Rod McKenzie, along with his son, filmed and put on social media one of worst hypoxic blackwater disasters in the history of the Murray-Darling Basin where millions of native fish died on Rufus River. Huge Murray cod of well over one-metre were lost in large numbers. Rod estimates that vast amounts of large Murray cod one-metre plus have died from hypoxic blackwater in the Murray River from Barham to the South Australian border. The present management of our river forests and wetlands is contributing to a much higher supercharged hypoxic blackwater events, resulting in native fish kills never witnessed before.
5: A reported $120 million to build structures on the Koondrook-Perricoota Forest is regarded by most local people as a white elephant.
In summary: selecting eight people from Swan Hill and calling it an independent assessment of social conditions in the Murray- Darling Basin Plan is gross incompetence and is systematic of the management of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.
Graeme Nalder,
Moulamein
