Mood:  sharp

Glynn Davis, the political operative and academic who hails originally from Rudd's Queensland,  as 2020 Summit organiser has the nerve to tell the serious media that effective action on climate change must emerge from this summit:

Even with his own show with no David Mills, or Dr Zhengrong Shi, world leading experts from Australia who have deserted our shores. Mills in particular applied and was not accepted to the summit or so it has been reported.

Picture: Facilitator of the Health Group selling used car?

The packaging on this summit is marvellous PR. But the truth is far more worrying. Ecological sustainability has no chance of ever being progressed here. Fact is Rudd has nothing to offer on forest destruction ongoing, and record levels of coal exports.

As we dipped in this morning to the government funded abc reportage on this haystack of chatter with endless ideas people and over achievers one could not help but note the same ALP machine profile build co-opting the event as a stage prop. Bob Carr ex ALP premier on 702 abc early morning with Simon Marnie. Geof Gallup ex ALP premier on abc AM. PM Rudd at the opening. Julie Gillard's drone online at the productivity group around 10.30am.

"I ask you to faithfully and objectively report this event in a positive and constructive way to assist the nation's understanding of the issues before it"

What impertinent special pleading and attempt at pre-emptive censorship. This was the Rudd ALP machine up the back of the current Governor General. The media should report the event according to the principles of free speech in a robust democracy. Nothing more or less. It is not any part of a citizen's patriotic duty to sanitise any of the federal govt postures.

By 11.30 am we noticed that 133 comments were on the ABC's Sustainability Group web string , a mere 12 on productivity, 36 on government, 88 on Indigenous, 65 on economy. We take this to mean a level of frustration in the public.

Truth is the 5th estate and some in the 4th have done alot of work in the last several weeks exposing the selective and loaded selections process. In the sustainability area there is not only a deficit of our world class renewable energy experts, but there is most likely not one of the 100 brave scientists who signed a letter to protect our forests in Tasmania prior to the 2004 election.

We understand a full page advert was to appear in the Canberra Times about this issue today. Did it run? .

We could have watched a narrow selection of tedious conference speeches online via this web page, albeit as sincere as a boy scout camp, but decided to turn on Robyn Williams the brilliant veteran abc Science Show broadcaster when the thought struck: He should have been at the Summit. What is more the shows on Radio National as evidenced by their phenomenal podcast ratings are actually the real thing, a rolling 2020 Summit of the best minds in the nation, only they don't get an ALP brand on their forehead. And long may it be so.

You can be sure Robyn Williams won't try and sell you a used car, or a brown vision of the future for that matter.

Posted by editor at 3:54 PM NZT

Updated: Saturday, 19 April 2008 5:15 PM NZT

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Mood:  sharp

NSW Planning Minister Sartor is alleged to have acted partially in favour of a developer Stockland in relation to sale price of crucial public land from the owner Wollongong Council.

At issue is the integrity of a valuation of public land. But there is a trick in such questions.

The guiding rule from our time as a local councillor at Waverley in Sydney 1995 to 1999, as ex officio co director on the Board of the Waverley Woollahra Process Plant (which was earmarked for multi million dollar asset disposal), as a former corporate lawyer, and still a solicitor today:

the value of market sensitive land is by definition what the market will pay, not simply theoretical guidelines. The market is set by the buyers and sellers in this case only two entities - Wollongong Council and Stockland.

Theoretical valuations based on theoretical buyers and sellers don't count for a hill of beans compared with an actual buyer and seller in real negotiation. These two constitute the market. It all depends what it's worth to those two parties in all the myriad of factors from how much do they need the money to how much do they need the land, what they can afford, how patient, how the rest of the world influences their view etc etc etc.

To tediously repeat the point, as director of Waverley Council's building and development department Paul Anderson was fond of telling we councillors in 1995-9 the real market value of any land is WHAT THE MARKET WILL ACTUALLY PAY. No more or less. Theoretical valuations are just that.

In this case we have Wollongong Council as custodian of a public land asset at Sandon Point, and an actual buyer Stockland developer. The value of the land is based on each party's bargaining power: Land that was compulsory to the success of the whole development commencing so naturally this makes the land value much higher to that particular buyer. That's what a market system is. It's not an objective value for anyone else, or an average of anything. 

That's why the Dept of Planning director general Sam Haddad has correctly written in a briefing note, as reported,  that the State Govt ought not get involved in the price being negotiated for the public land between the buyer and seller. The allegation, and its a heavy one, is that Sartor did get involved as a facilitator, or in his own words do "mediation", rather than arms length consent authority.

Apparently the council was demanding a high price and Stockland wanted Sartor to intervene on the price. The allegation is that Sartor intervened to reduce the sale price below the price being bargained for between the public owner and private company buyer. If so that would be partial as in corrupt conduct.

One speculates that Stateline have documentation leaked to them from someone aggrieved by the State govt (including Sartor) sacking the political leadership of Wollongong Council?

We heard on the Stateline show tonight widely divergent numbers like $4M or $8M and $700K for parkland 'needed' for an access road and it all sounded quite strange to us. Talk of land swaps as well. The compere Dempster said he has submitted the information with the NSW Independent Commision Against Corruption.

Stateline ran extensive footage of a journalist, without doubt the brave Andrew Clennell of Sydney Morning Herald at a press conference about a week ago, challenging Premier Morris Iemma on perceptions of corruption. Clennell also challenged on the NSW Govt's 'totalitarian' tendencies  

It was a brutal and savage exchange barely covered by strained scoffing laughter by the politicians. That called up the sinister systemic "joke" of corruption inquiries. In one segment Sartor even called up Dempster's role in the Fitzgerald Inquiry into the corrupt Bjelke-Petersen. This is particularly ironic as Part 3A of the Planning Act that Sartor uses to  railroad approval of development is based on a 1970 Act of the Bjelke Petersen era (according to Jeff Smith, principal solicitor of the Environmental Defender's Office).

Sadly we saw Indigenous MP Linda Burney running interference for the Premier in the press conference which shows what a tough operator she is and also how implicated in sanitising this allegedly corrupt government.

Burney's seat of Canterbury is adjacent to Iemma's seat of Lakemba, with both underpinned in part by Canterbury Council as best we can tell. Iemma's people control Canterbury Council (according to recent research for an environmental team leader job interview this writer actually participated in about 3 weeks ago at those council chambers). 

Conclusion: Burney will be dependent on Iemma's goodwill for her pre-selection.

Posted by editor at 9:47 PM NZT

Updated: Saturday, 19 April 2008 3:53 PM NZT

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Mood:  d'oh

The timing of Nick D'Arcy fate today is highly related to the front pagers even earlier today, as well as tv news coverage the night before about a completely unrelated criminal matter in NSW. Cie la vie. It might have been the same result for alleged 'bad boy' D'Arcy anyway, just not today?:

The Olympic Inc big business/politics media management strategy is well understood as per the "taking out the trash" episode on West Wing tv series also discussed here:

"The West Wing" Take Out the Trash Day (2000)

 Usually on a Friday in that fiction, but also for real today as above.

Posted by editor at 12:41 PM NZT

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Mood:  blue

 We first became aware of this issue via a mpeg radio broadcast on www.SydneyIndyMedia.org.au [to be advised soon] 

  March 20 2008 Assault on Washpool with John and Binna mp3 

[our comment at the time follows]

This is hot On March 20th, 2008 ecology action ... says:

Well done Kaput radio, very important story. 

Timbarra country is indeed spectacular perched wetland, almost like misty rainforests of PNG with rocky outcrops. So if its like that it's great, and I recall seeing some top images of the place too: Lifted this of NRMA website

 

 and Glen Innes Information Centre

 

I recognise Johnny Chai's voice in the interview with all that experience over the successful struggle to protect Timbarra, which I donated to about 8 years back.

Very revealing of the cyanide mining agenda. Price of gold has skyrocketed lately too.

Washpool is one of the areas protected at least in part in the 1990ies under the Wilderness Act 1987 (NSW).

 Here's a bit of the conservation history here to 1999,  which is then superceded by the NSW Govt forest decision for the Upper North East RFA/CRA govt strategy. So whether these miners are exploring in conservation tenure or otherwise is a mystery to me.

One thing I do recall is that the Dept of Mineral Resources tend to drive a truck through most conservation legislation except for national park itself.

So it could be unprotected legally identified but unprotected wilderness intended for protection under the 1987 Act process mentioned above. 

....................................

Greens MP Lee Rhiannon - Media Release  - 17 April 2008

Asbestos dust in Bayulgil area: Greens force investigation

NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon today welcomed a commitment from the NSW Minister for the Environment to seek urgent advice from NSW Health as to whether to investigate possible health risks from asbestos dust rising from roads in the Baryulgil area, following the Greens questions about the use of tailings from the James Hardie Asbestos mine in Baryulgil to build roads in the area.

"The Minister for the Environment Ms Verity Firth says she will also ask Clarence Valley Council  whether it's monitoring roads for potential asbestos contamination, 'and take appropriate action once the detailed advice has been obtained','" Greens roads spokesperson Ms Rhiannon said.

This commitment comes in response to questions from Lee Rhiannon to the Environment Minister: http://143.119.255.90/isysquery/ee685c6e-8ac0-41bc-bda8-d6f4b0df9cef/1/doc/

"The Greens share the concerns of locals about the plumes of dust that cover vehicles, residents and animals created by the consistent traffic from logging trucks and tourists visiting the Washpool World Heritage Park.

"It is high time the NSW government stopped ignoring concerns about this potential risk.

"Asbestos is a silent killer. On this issue there is no room for the complacency that for so long resulted in the refusal of governments and James Hardie to acknowledge the real dangers of asbestos.

"I trust that Ms Firth will ensure NSW Health and the local council treat this issue with the seriousness it deserves.

"The three decades during which the Baryulgil mine operated left lasting scars on the health of workers and residents, many of whom were Aboriginal. Many have since died or been seriously affected by asbestos related illnesses.

"It is very important that the NSW government and local councils actively manage the toxic remnants of the Baryulgil mine," Ms Rhiannon said.

For more information: 9230 3551, 0427 861 568

Posted by editor at 12:32 PM NZT

Updated: Friday, 18 April 2008 1:48 PM NZT

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Mood:  blue

Received in the snail mail 17th April 2008 below. How many other financial institutions are doing China/AOC/IOC Inc's propaganda work for them sanitising the systemic abuse of human rights in China? Any bank with Visa credit/bank card one presumes which we suspect is literally every financial institutin in the world.

One thing that you won't see pictured in these sanitised brochures from the multinational big business of sport are such as these from murdered democracy activists in Tibet in the last few weeks. Their lives are nothing apparently:

Evidence of dead bodies from Kirti Monastery

Press Release - 18th March 2008

The attached photos of dead Tibetans provide the most damning evidence seen so far that lethal force was used by Chinese security forces at protests staged by Tibetans in Aba town (Ngawa) in Sichuan province.

The photos, which clearly show gunshot wounds, were taken on Sunday night and Monday morning at Kirtii monastery. As Free Tibet Campaign reported on 16 March 2008 (release below) an eyewitness told Free Tibet Campaign's contact in Dharamsala that he had seen Chinese security forces fire into the crowd of Tibetan protesters and that he had seen 13 Tibetans killed as a result of the firing. Other eyewitnesses reported seeing 30 Tibetans shot dead.

These photos, together with the eyewitness statement, provide conclusive force that lethal force was used at Aba town by the Chinese security forces on 16 March 2008. The photos directly contradict recent denials to the press by Jampa Phuntsog (Chairman of the Tibetan Autonomous Region Govt) and China Premier Wen Jia Bao that Chinese security forces had not used lethal force.

The photos were taken long before the Chinese government's deadline of midnight Monday and prove that the use of lethal force has been in force long before the Chinese government's supposed deadline for protesters to turn themselves in before the use of force would be used.

Matt Whitticase of Free Tibet Campaign said: "These photos provide shocking proof of the brutality being exercised by Chinese forces in forcefully putting down Tibetan protests. It is not acceptable for national governments to call merely for restraint from the Chinese government. Government leaders must immediately condemn China's clear use of lethal force and demand that China's leaders stop their brutal crackdown on Tibetan protesters."

Release sent on 16 March:

3. Kirti Monastery, *Ngaba* County (Ch: Aba) Sichuan Province

Free Tibet Campaign's contact in Dharamsala has received by phone several eyewitness accounts to events in Ngaba County today.(Ch: Aba)

One eyewitness reported seeing Chinese security forces shooting dead thirteen Tibetans. One of the Tibetans was named as Lobsang Tashi. The eyewitness reported that the protest was started by three monks from Kirti monastery and was joined by hundreds of monks and lay people. The protest took place 2km from Kirti monastery in Ngawa County. The protestors called for the release of the Panchen Lama. Protestors demanded the release of two monks from Kirti monastery who got arrested yesterday. According to the eyewitness police shot tear gas into the crowd and beat many of the protestors. The police then shot live round of ammunition into the crowd. According to the eyewitness this led to the confirmed deaths of thirteen Tibetans. Many more Tibetans were injured. The eyewitness then reported that the protestors reacted angrily to the use of firearms and the deaths. The protestors burned down several police vehicles and the Public Security Bureau HQ.

Other eyewitnesses to the protest that have spoken by phone to our contact in Dharamsala are reporting that up to 30 Tibetans were killed when the armed police shot into the crowd.

Our contact in Dharamsala spoke to a monk who had returned to Kirti monastery after the protests to which he had been an eyewitness. In a telephone conversation at 3pm Beijing time the monk told our contact that he had seen 8 Tibetan bodies arrive at the monastery. Two were monks, one a lay female and five were lay people. The eyewitness told our contact that a further 2 bodies arrived at the monastery half an hour later. The bodies were thought to be those of students involved in the protest.

Click on the link below for pictures

Please note that these photographs are of a very graphic nature. Discretion is required.

Click for photos of the dead in Kirti (graphic)

Notes:

For background, please read our earlier press releases.

For further information please contact Matt Whitticase at matt@freetibet.org
Or call on +44 (0) 207 324 4605/+44 (0)7515 788456

Posted by editor at 10:31 AM NZT

Updated: Friday, 18 April 2008 12:08 PM NZT

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Mood:  a-ok

A fairly incredible white knuckle ride in the 'back story' to this report here:

Wednesday, 16 April 2008

Civil rights lawyer Evers gets the News Ltd blowtorch but is it a beat up?
Mood:  quizzical
Topic: legal

- all the tv nightly news ABC and commercials stood off the story. So did the current affairs and 7.30 Report;

- what was most profound was the lead ABC 7pm flagship tv news led with an incredible repudiation of the Daily Telegraph agenda by

(a) ignoring the story totally, and

(b) running as no. 1 lead a related story about lack of safety/resources at Newcastle Family Court precincts - which is NSW AG Hatzistergos's ministerial responsibility and VERY embarrassing.

The Telegraph runs a smallish story today Thursday 17 April 08 well into the paper, no picture, cleaning up loose ends,  as if by way of belated 'balance' sourcing the instructing solicitor. Only it's way not proportionate or contemporaneous with the damage of their front page story against the barrister the day before. This might only mitigate fertile defamation action for the day before.

Contraceptives allegedly implanted in Aboriginal girls

The World Today, ABC - Wednesday, 16 April , 2008  12:20:00 Reporter: Annie Guest

[with this concluding extract following]

ANNIE GUEST: But how do you decide whether they are making an informed decision about having sex given that they are needing to have this contraceptive implant? Perhaps it would indicate that they’re not making fully informed decisions?

MATTHEW BOWDEN: Because of guardianship laws. They would not be able to make that decision independently.

ANNIE GUEST: An anti-child abuse campaigner says she's shocked to hear young girls are being implanted with contraceptives, but the executive director of Bravehearts, Hetty Johnston, says she also gives the practice qualified support.

HETTY JOHNSTON: It has to have some sort of tattered support. It’s horrifying to think that those words are even coming out of my mouth but the last thing we want is 12-year-olds pregnant. But look, it could only be with education, it needs to get … we need to get some education into these communities.

LISA MILLAR: Hetty Johnston from Bravehearts ending that report from Annie Guest. 

Posted by editor at 2:33 PM NZT

Updated: Friday, 19 March 2010 10:40 PM NZT

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Mood:  not sure

59 year old Bob Irvine, a NSW public servant, family man, and dedicated professional in the natural resources management area has submitted this quite unique view of how money has changed in purpose over the centuries.

He argues that the future lies back when money did not control land use governance as such. Bob has been polishing this conceptual analysis for years apparently so it's sincere and likely quite wise.

We suspect there is something very big buried in his well written fairly short paper. Too big perhaps this side of a very disruptive reform of modern society and governance to a more ecologically sustainable basis. Relevant all the same as mainstream institutions do indeed contemplate a post carbon emissions economy.

Thankyou for the paper Bob Irvine and we will read it with interest along with any readers of Sydney Alternative Media website.

Can New Money and Good Accounting Save the Planet from Human Induced Ecosystem

Service Degradation (Climate Change, etc.) and Bring Health, Wealth and Happiness to All?

In "The Climate Change Challenge and the Failure of Democracy", (Præger, 2007)[1] David

Shearman and Joseph Wayne Smith contend that our market economy and unfettered

corporate power is as instrumental as our excessive carbon effluent in the collapse of Earth's

ecosystem services. They argue that human induced ecosystem service degradation (Climate

Change, etc., etc.) and the rapid rise in wealth of the liberal democratic political economies

are closely related. Both are the result of the freedom granted to citizens and corporations to

plunder the Earth's social and natural resources without accounting for or paying for the cost.

Consequently they find that a different sort of political economy is essential to enable and

allow effective action by all humans to halt our destructive activities and to prevent and

remediate the degradation of the ecosystem services upon which all life on Earth depends,

particularly our excessive consumption, extinction of species and destruction of ecosystems.

These are challenging words, indeed.

We who look, read, and think with the leisure, education and science that our "free market"

economies have enabled, know that the Earth's ecosystem services are very badly damaged

(the evidence is incontrovertible), that the survival of our human species is threatened (the

threat is real), and that our "freedom to plunder" is the CAUSE of most of this damage.

Shearman and Smith find (p.71) that humanity has three options for sustainable economies:

* a "free market" liberal democracy with refinement (monetary valuation of

ecosystem services, commons trading, green accounting, etc., etc.). They find this

inadequate since "freedom to plunder" is the cause, and a refinement is not enough.

* an ecocentric liberal democracy (eg. the Australian Aboriginal economy) They agree

this would work, but would entail a revolution in knowledge, science and human value

systems and would be resisted by existing vested interests (power and capital), so that

no existing democracy would freely chose this option. They dismiss it as unrealistic.

* an authoritarian government with strict enforcement of ecological protection

(dictatorship of the wise) They conclude that "this may be the only solution for

humanity". They contend that the Earth's capacity to provide ecological services will

be extinguished without strict control of all human activity affecting the environment.

Shearman and Smith's classification of the options for a sustainable human political economy

is helpful for framing a proper consideration of just what a "sustainable political economy" is

and how one could deliver and sustain the revolution in human behaviour needed to stop

human induced ecosystem service degradation, promote useful activities and quickly direct

all humanity's creative and scientific energies to the task of regenerating ecosystem services.

These may be the only options to respond to the present threat, so clearly seen by Malthus at

the time the worst of this trouble began, but the question of the best mix is an interesting one.

Shearman and Smith's clear thinking; health and science knowledge; and, good scholarship

cut through the noise of the 'Climate Change' debate bringing clear focus to the main question

of our human future, allowing wise readers to understand and accept that in the getting of our

great wealth great harm has been done, and to realise it is our certain responsibility to fix it.

Read the full paper here

Posted by editor at 12:46 PM NZT

Updated: Thursday, 17 April 2008 2:27 PM NZT

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Mood:  quizzical

The Sydney Daily Telegraph are the right wing screamers usually when it comes to the administration of the law and beat up on the independence of both the judiciary and the profession.

The barrister in question today Evers gave pro bono advice to this writer as legal tutor for a disabled claimant under the Family Provision Act last year 2007. (The matter was referred on to a practitioner who is a councillor on the Law Society itself, because Evers was too busy with other case work.)

Evers was recommended to us by the principal lawyer of the Intellectual Disability Rights Centre as first choice for helping my friend of 10 years "Mary" (not her real name) with a chronic but harmless illness.

By the look of Evers office in Martin Place she has done pro bono and public interest work for the mentally disabled or afflicted her whole life. This has to count for something, maybe even alot.

We make no comment on the facts of the story in the Telegraph as pictured above except to note the repudiation of the factual characterisation by Evers herself. We understand that the complaint to the Legal Services Commissioner may not be the DPP itself. If true it may be one error by the Daily Telegraph already.

Significantly the LSC is under the jurisdiction of the NSW Attorney General's office but independent of the Minister John Hatzistergos MP (ALP) who does not have "power of direction over them", according to Ms Kerry Henderson Acting Assistant Legal Servicers Commissioner.

We are advised that under Section 723 of the Legal Profession Act 2004 it can be an offence to publish the name of the identity of the complainant to the LSC except in certain limited circumstances (such as consent by the complainant? - we would have to check all of this in the section itself).

Apparently the story has run on 2GB and 2WS already in some form or other.

The complaint will take it's course as it should. Paramount is the welfare of the child and the search for justice.

Meanwhile we note:

1. the potential for Evers as cannon fodder between the power frictions and appeasement relations between DPP Cowdery and AG NSW Hatzistergos could well be in play

2. in the same edition of the Daily Telegraph that newspaper's grip on public morality is again on display - 3 and 1/4 pages of grog adverts. Which leads to any number of sexual assualts and criminal violence. That's sad.

3. We wonder what affect this front page blowtorch will have on a big murder trial Evers is defending in court today? Is it a strategic attack from an earlier case? Indeed is it an interference in the administration of justice by coincidence or intention in a defence lawyer doing their work?

There is alot more to come out on the factual matrix regarding this complaint apparently to the Legal Services Commissioner, not reflected in the Daily Telegraph story (how unsurprising is that), and we say that with a compelling source.

.............

Refer to a a more recent story next day here on SAM describing how peers in the Big Media dealt with the Sydney Daily Telegraph 'leadership' above. It's not very flattering.

Posted by editor at 10:36 AM NZT

Updated: Thursday, 17 April 2008 2:19 PM NZT

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Mood:  don't ask

--------------------------
ACT GREENS MLA DEB FOSKEY MEDIA RELEASE
---------------------------
15 April 08


Chinese security and human rights?
 
ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey today called on the ACT Government to explain
the rules of engagement for Chinese security officers who will accompany
the torch.
"Kevan Gosper for the IOC has announced that Chinese 'Torch Protectors'
will travel behind the torch when the relay is run in Canberra" Dr
Foskey said today.
"The questions I would like the ACT Chief Minister or the AFP
Commissioner to answer are:
* If the Chinese Security Officers will be carrying weapons
* If they will be required to comply with ACT Human Rights
framework
* On what occasions will they be asked to assist the police or
Australian security officers on duty and what are their rules of
engagement?"
"I had understood from the ACT Government that all necessary security
would be managed by the AFP."

"This appears to be a complete backflip."

"I know the Chief Minister has absolute confidence in the AFP.  How does
the use of a bus load of 'Torch Protectors' sit with that belief?" Dr
Foskey asked.

================================
Roland Manderson   Media Advisor
ACT   Greens    MLA  Deb  Foskey 
Legislative Assembly for the ACT
ph(02)62050551      m 0412241379

....................

The pro China rally here recently has been well analysed here via ClubTroppo blog ezine: Jeremy is bemused by pro-China protests.

Posted by editor at 3:40 PM NZT

Updated: Tuesday, 15 April 2008 3:51 PM NZT

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Mood:  a-ok

It was mostly about sustainability on the roads last Sunday.

Earlier that day at dawn a school of fish 10 metres wide was bubbling and flashing luminous silver just east of the Undercliffe Bridge on Cooks River. The mudcrabs - the non human kind - were still in their burrows:

This image at top above was taken heading into the Chinese dominated Paddy's vegetable markets in Chinatown.

But before bailing out of Steel Park where the Cooks River Festival was held (giving a lift to a hapless stall holder Les Saxby of Murrin Body Products and Ydaki Didge & Dance Australia) we took a bunch of photographs with people still hanging in there, and even enjoying themselves:

Here's a flavour of the stalls on departure:

Posted by editor at 12:23 PM NZT

Updated: Friday, 18 April 2008 9:54 AM NZT

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