It was pretty busy up there, plenty of 4wds out and about heading to Mt Coree and up Mt Franklin road to either Bulls Head or where the road was closed at the Snow Gum gate. Luckily not at a traffic jam sort of level though - the dirt roads tend to dissuade a lot of people.

I can imagine Corin road would indeed have been a mess today, it can be bad enough on a regular weekend let alone a snow day where you have considerably more traffic and even more chance of people driving super slowly or trying to pull over for photos.

In the areas of the Brindies you can drive to in winter the normal snow you get is basically in the looking nice category - a few cm deep if that and melts within the next day or so. It does indeed look nice though and makes the bush appear distinctly different.

Up in the highest points of the Brindies (e.g. up near Mt Ginini/Gingera/Bimberi heights) this sort of forecast is likely to make enough snow to do actual snow sports like skiiing for a short period (depending on the weather possibly a week if not topped up). There’s no ski lifts up there or winter car access though so skiing in the Brindies would be more of the hike up and then cross country ski sort of thing. Historically there was a short ski run at Mt Franklin but it’s now overgrown and the DIY style rope lift is long gone.

If you head down to the Snowies though the ski resorts will be very happy to get a decent amount of natural snow for their snow sports, it’ll definitely help them since we haven’t had much in the way of snow weather this year.

That is a good point, I do think a lot of ‘speeding’ issues come down to limits that are set too low for what people consider a natural speed for a section of road. I definitely agree that if you want people to drive slowly the road should encourage that speed - narrower lanes, curves, tree plantings etc help. Instead you get situations like how the ACT gov dropped a good section of wide three lane arterial road from 60km/h to 40km/h, changed nothing but the signs, and then acted shocked that the vast majority of people were now speeding…

That does seem a general trend, and applies to my personal opinion too - I would definitely be more sympathetic to a person with a low range speeding ticket than to someone with a mobile phone usage ticket.

I think much of that is due to the increasing disconnect between speeding in the form of exceeding speed limits and speeding in the form of exceeding the limits of safe driving (given good conditions). Personally I do find it annoying how much focus is put on reducing and enforcing speed limits instead of actually teaching people driving skills, so I guess I would fit into the pro speeding category as long as it’s not dangerously so.

Same with ACT and NSW for mobile speed cameras. The mobile phone cameras are unmanned however, must think they’re less of a target (and admittedly I haven’t heard of many being damaged).

If you don’t want your cameras set on fire don’t put them where they can be set on fire, right? Works just as well as not speeding works at avoiding fines…

Really though if they want mobile cameras they should make them manned cameras - a lot less likely to be vandalised and at least that way someone gets a job out of it.

It’s definitely a lot lower than I would want if someone decided they could walk in when I was asleep.

Another thing to try for windows is to make a second layer for the window frame out of flyscreen moulding and some clear plastic. It’s a more expensive method than bubble wrap but looks better and has the benefit of being able to see through it easily. I haven’t really quantified how much of an effect this makes but with the windows I did this for there was a noticeable decrease in condensation on the glass so there is definitely some reduction in thermal transfer.

You can buy the aluminium profile, corner joiners, and matching rubber stripping used for making flyscreens in a hardware shop, as well as clear plastic in rolls (or lengths thereof). With this you make a frame that snugly fits into the window surround - ideally placing the plastic within a cm or so of the glass. You’ll need a hacksaw or something else to cut the aluminium, ideally a combination square to help with marking 45 degree angles, and I did find the little roller tool sold to help insert the stripping was useful.

Must have been pretty chilly - I’m out of town at the moment but I was looking at the forecast the other day and thinking it was looking like good weather for snow in the Brindies.

I don’t really care about the cafe, shop, or cultural displays but it’d be good to have the observation deck again (ideally free this time, but I don’t like my chances).

Yes, it’s amusing to think of him going to what have been a fair effort to catch a lyrebird all to find it probably went straight back down the hole after it’d been lugged up to the top.

It is indeed a surprisingly big hole, worth the short walk if you’re in the area with some time for sightseeing.

I’d be thinking something like 30mm hardwood tri quad to create a sloping transition (ideally something reasonably close in colour to the floor). Leaving a vertical edge on the inside seems too likely to end up with stubbed toes at some point.

It’s one of these things that logically you know must happen occasionally (and I’ve even seen pictures of it) but still doesn’t seem right.

I am impressed the shark got it out again and didn’t end up with a permanent internal echidna spine collection.

The American inspired variety of sovereign citizen is enough, I don’t think we really need our own special version of the idea.

It is a bit of an odd name really. I suspect it’s due to a combination of their size, many having some orange colouring, and their habit of making off with your fruit come night time.

To be fair, Canberra didn’t score that highly on anything else so the overall score was considerably lower.

It does seem to get consistent usage - I think it’d make a lot of sense for the commute if you lived along the route and worked normal hours in the city. The increase in development was also noticeable - Flemington Rd has a lot of housing built along it now which would have been at least helped along by the presence of the light rail (I expect a lot would have been built regardless, but maybe not as quickly).

You’re right that I wouldn’t recognise an unknown word/phrase, but since train announcements are operating in a limited context and I’d be seeing people respond by getting off the train at multiple stops you’d hope I’d figure it out before too long.

This is of course assuming I know some of the language and can recognise basic words such as their equivalent of passengers, going in completely blind would be a real mission (just as it would be coming here with absolutely no English).