Creating a Sustainable Sunshine Coast - Nambour to Mooloolah

OK. First of all, I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land upon which I write, the Kaurareg nation.

Second of all, I support the truckies. Would you continue on in work when you are actually losing money by leaving your house? I wouldn't. I don't think you would either. The truckies could go bankrupt one at a time, slowly bleeding the economy dry. Or, they can make a stand against their situation whilst they still can. It's time for us, the public, to wake up and smell the diesel. Australia's economic lifeblood is in transportation. In our current economy, no trucks, weak-weak-weak economy. That needs to change, but in the meantime, we've got some serious headscratching ahead of us.

It's been a while since I've been on here, as I've been doing a few things to get myself, and community ready for things, whatever those things may be...can't say that a truckers' strike would have been the first 'thing' on my list, but there you go. Getting ready hasn't been a massive success, but the community garden has 3 members, er, neighbours, seedlings are coming up (and being given to others), and I participated in a community forum about infrastructure needs of the future in this area. The compost bin is brimming and the paw-paws are ripening at 1 or 2 a week. The price of oil got discussed at a staff meeting, and I changed the minds of some about the finite nature of oil. Small but forward steps, all.

This truckers' proposed action is giving me pause to reflect on things. I live in the Torres Strait, a long long way away from a lot of places. We get a lot of stuff shipped in from other places a long long way away. Via Cairns. This includes petrol for dinghies, gas for cookers, diesel for the electricity grid, and food for the belly.

A lot of stuff gets to Cairns, and everywhere else in Australia, by truck.

Need I say more.

Yes.

Ideal scenario: The truckies strike, the public takes notice and discusses things openly, pressures the government to help out the truckies over the short term and really hammer the government on ramping up the railway infrastructure. A few people get caught short on food and petrol, this causes inconvenience for a few days, and international shipping continues to arrive at the major ports. Two weeks pass by and the backlog is cleared at the ports. It scares some people in the right places in government. Victory gardens return, railways get approval for a major upgrade, truckies go back to work, and everyone pays their fair share of the rise in petrol prices. That means you, food retailers. Here in the Torres Strait we go without milk and eggs for a few days, and begin a focus on energy conservation in all aspects of daily life. Fishers still fish.

Worst scenario: the strike gets ugly and is extended past two weeks. Up here, people's larders go empty, outboard engines don't get filled, no internet, no blogging, no refrigeration, no conventional cooking, no airplanes to Cairns. A day or two of that...a scare. A week or two of that...I go fishing.

The reality as I see it is that the trucks can't be on the roads for more than 30 years from now, at best. We absolutely, positively, have got to get our national electric rail system ramped up ASAP. Electric road vehicles are not going to solve long-haul freight carriage. I don't know what the transportation solution is going to be for the Torres Strait.

I am going to keep you updated on the goings on up here to the best of my capability. Hopefully it'll be pretty low-key.

Peace.