My girlfriend and I have had our eyes on a house that’s been on the market for several months now, and a big drop in the asking price has finally inspired us to make an appointment to inspect.
The house ticks all of our boxes – great location, lots of bedrooms and living space, and big [...]

ACTEW would like you to water your garden less.
To help you to do that they’ve produced five top tips:
1. Build a 10 cm circular mound around the outside of the drip line of all trees in your garden and on your nature strip ensuring that it is not a trip hazard so that any rain that [...]

[First filed: September 12, 2008 @ 15:37]
The NCA are informing us that sewage has overflowed into the Queanbeyan River and from thence into our Lake Burley Griffin.
Bacterial sampling and testing is underway.
Lake user groups have been notified of the leak.
At this stage, there is no need to close Lake Burley Griffin. The NCA [...]

Allied Forces (ACT Parks people) were today seen mounting a counter attack to rid fair Ainslie of the Magpie menace that has terrorised local residents for the last four weeks. 
“He’s mad!” said one frightened resident, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. 
“The last month has been terrible. I can’t put on me lotto or have a cold one at [...]

We are investigating cooling options for our house at the moment. I am wondering what experience fellow rioters have with evaporative cooling, and whether it will keep the place cool enough on those really hot summer days and nights.
We are currently tossing up between evaporative cooling and air conditioning. I can’t seem to find [...]

There is a fascinating letter in the Canberra Times today that I thought should be reproduced here for the benefit of the masses and not just the paltry few who read the Crimes (heh heh).
The letter is quite lengthy so I have edited for length:
” …The ACT Greens now want to spend $8 million on [...]

I’m finding a bee every few minutes on the window of the RiotACT bunker, and am dispatching them to the hereafter. I thought this was just my cross to bear (more so for the bees to bear I suppose).
But now I hear a friend has suffered even worse bee-carnage yesterday.
Are the bees acting strangely [...]

[First filed: September 29, 2008 @ 10:27]

Yesterday morning marked the first ever Canberra Vintage and Classic Bicycle Ride, held by the shores of Lake Burley Griffin.
Mrs Brown and myself decided to pop down to the starting line to see if I could find anyone else with an interest in the wacky English Raleigh Chopper.
We found [...]

The Canberra Times reports that Defence is getting a wriggle on with cleaning up the old Belconnen Naval Transmission Station site now that the public has twigged to the piles of toxic chemicals and asbestos left lying all over the place.
They’re planning to ignore the ACT Government (not of itself a bad move) and rip [...]

This is not a whinge, but moreso a heads up for prospective punters.
On the weekend Ms Thumper and myself went out to Aussie Junk at Mitchell to look for some cheap second hand building material. Sadly we could not find what we wanted.
However, Ms Thumper found a nice piece of stained glass wedged behind some [...]

I’ve seen many bike riders using cable ties on their bike helmet as a deterrent to swooping magpies of late and wish to seek opinions as to their effectiveness.
I was swooped 3 times yesterday just walking near my place where we feed the buggers but haven’t been swooped on the bike this year. As my 2 yo [...]

It would seem that there are less and less flowers at Floriade each year, I can remember back in late eighties when the Netherlands Government gave the Flowers to the people of Australia as a bicentenary gift there where a considerably more flowers. Also the Floriade literature fails to mention the fact that the Netherlands [...]

The Canberra Times informs us that our dam levels are creeping up to 50% of capacity sometime this week.
As a result ACTEW boss Mark Sullivan doesn’t think we’ll need to have Stage 4 water restrictions this summer.
“Or certainly not until the election is over” the more cynical of you might think.

From the BOM site,
Warning Summary
Severe Weather Warning for Damaging Winds.
Small Boat Alert for Canberra Lakes.
Sheep Graziers Warning.
Current Weather Situation and Future Developments
An intense cold front will bring windy conditions today with some rain and a possible thunderstorm developing this afternoon. In the wake of the front a ridge of high pressure will bring a [...]

Over the years, I have read many articles in the local press about the need to get rid of plastic bags from society.
But, have you ever noticed that the local Chronicle, in all its editions, delivers 140,000 free copies per week all over the ACT,  each copy protected in a plastic bag?  Do the maths, [...]

Anyone know why for the past couple of days a mechanical chopper has been working its way through the first few rows of 3 or 4 year old pine trees near the arboretum (adjacent to the Parkway)?
They are being left in neat rows (not unlike the ones set up after the bushfires to get rid [...]

[ 14 September, 2008; ] How much was your home heating bill this winter? Were you still rugged up at night and freezing when you got up in the morning despite the heater running flat out?

How would you feel about a home that you can get around in barefoot through winter, where you may only turn the heating on every [...]

[First filed: September 07, 2008 @ 11:15]

The Riot 501st were deployed to the streets of Belconnen to see what gems could be unearthed from Second Hand Sunday.
They returned bearing some rather spiffy decanters and pictures of the variable quality goods to be had on the side of Canberra roads today.
The next one is 16 November.
Slideshow [...]

I don’t know about the rest you little Rioters, but yesterday had a definite feel of spring.
I love spring, and canberra is one of the best places in the world to experience this season.
Feel free to add superlatives about spring in the capital.

The ABC reports that Liberal Generalissimo Zed Seselja debated Labor’s Planning Minister Andrew Barr for the Property Council.
It would seem Barr was asking questions Zed didn’t feel like answering.
But he did announce some new initiatives of his own, and (angels and ministers of grace preserve us) even published his thoughts online.
“To start with, we [...]

Yesterday the Chief Minister was joined by no less than the Prime Minister and the Ambassador of Turkey to plant ~$50 worth of lone pine seedlings in the so called “International Arboretum“.
The Liberal’s Vicki Dunne has taken this opportunity to ask about the water supply for the Stanhope memorial gardens.
“Mrs Dunne said that her [...]

The Canberra Liberals have been largely derelict in their duty to debate the government publicly outside of the Assembly since Zed took over. (Inside the Assembly might count if Assembly hansard saw the light of day within the lifetime of anyone interested, but sadly it does not).
But it’s good to see that after the Government [...]

Hoarders and bargain hunters rejoice.
John Hargreaves has announced that this Sunday a whole new world of junk will be out for your collection on the nature strips of the city.
“Second-hand Sunday is one of our most popular community activities,” said Mr Hargreaves.
“I am pleased to announce that the ACT Government has decided to have two [...]

[First filed: September 03, 2008 @ 08:26]

Just noticed this new addition to the CMD [Chief Minister's Department] website:  Solar Power Plant Pre-feasibility Study
Gas power station, data centre, now a field of solar rays – got to dump something on the north side of the city I suppose.  Maybe the old radar station site. 
Just when you thought the [...]

This may have been covered before, but what are the views out there on the ABC’s flower-guy weather man?
My 2c? – He should have his own comedic gardening show.
He reminds me of Edwin Maher, former ABC Melbourne weather guy. He was famous for having a different pointer each day. people used to send them in [...]

I have to vent my spleen about an issue that is driving me up the wall.
WHEN will someone do something about the stupid free newspaper being thrown around our suburbs?
It is covered in plastic and thrown on my lawn. I did not ask for it. Therefore it is litter.
By the looks of many other lawns, [...]

[ 3 September, 2008; 7:30 pm; ] Inner North SEE-Change presents a talk by Matthew Driver.

Matthew lives in Lyneham and over the past year has taken steps to retrofit his home to make it more sustainable, reducing carbon emissions by 80%.

He will talk about the products that work, the jobs you can do yourself and the pitfalls to watch out [...]

OK, so they aren’t actually rioting. More issuing stern denunciations.
The ABC reports that the Tobacco Control Amendment Bill is coming in for cursory debate this week. It will outlaw, eventually, counter displays of cigarettes.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH – oh my aching sides) chief executive Anne Jones is angry though; because retailers will now [...]

Just a quick reminder that once again Dr Phillip Spradbery who runs the European wasp and insect identification hotline is in need of a live European wasp nest to continue his vital experimentation to find a means of controlling their spread in Australia.
Anyone finding one (rare this time of year) is urged to contact him [...]

With the imminent disappearance of warm old-fashioned light bulbs upon us the ACT Government has noticed that there are health issues surrounding the universal adoption of compact fluorescent lights. Particularly relating to the poisonous mercury they can release when broken.
To that end John Hargreaves has announced that the Mugga Lane and Mitchell tips are going [...]

I cannot believe some people.
I have witnessed this on a number of occasions recently on the roads, but the trend of biffing your half smoked ticket to lung cancer ouf of the car window is definetly back in fashion.
Is it because people think that its too cold for a fire to catch ?
Are people just [...]

Building dams is usually a tricky thing. People get touchy about flooding a valley and wonder where all the cute little animals will go.
Detailed inspection finds all sorts of endangered species which would probably also be found in the next valleys over if anyone was building a dam in them.
So expanding the existing Cotter Dam [...]