The News Review:
- Tassie’s tiger towns are worth a second look
- Synthetic dingo urine could save marsupials
- Budget short bites
Tassie’s tiger towns are worth a second look
The Australian – Jun 12, 2008
The fact that Tassie’s towns do not have the critical mass of mainland growth centres does not mean that there is nothing happening down there. In fact quite the reverse. Tasmania has 62 urban centres with 500 people or more including Hobart and Launceston. Some 49 of these towns are growing and 21 increased their population base by 10 per cent or more in the five years to 2006. However most (19) of Tasmania’s high-growth towns contain fewer than 3000 people so they do not register in any assessment of leading growth centres nationally. The town with the biggest percentage increase in population in Tasmania is Margate 20km south of Hobart where the population rose by 42 per cent over five years to reach 1366 at the 2006 Census. Margate is a lifestyle and commuter town servicing Hobart… Some 49 of these towns are growing and 21 increased their population base by 10 per cent or more in the five years to 2006. However most (19) of Tasmania’s high-growth towns contain fewer than 3000 people so they do not register in any assessment of leading growth centres nationally. The town with the biggest percentage increase in population in Tasmania is Margate 20km south of Hobart where the population rose by 42 per cent over five years to reach 1366 at the 2006 Census. Margate is a lifestyle and commuter town servicing Hobart. However outside Launceston and Hobart the urban centre that attracted most new residents between the 2001 and 2006 censuses was Kingston and Blackmans Bay. This "growth corridor" positioned between Hobart and Margate recorded 2465 new residents or 16 per cent growth in the five years to 2006. Further south of Margate is another of Tasmania’s fast-growing towns the irresistibly monikered Snug.
Synthetic dingo urine could save marsupials
Telegraph.co.uk – Jun 12, 2008
They hope to invent a synthetic equivalent which could then be produced on a commercial scale providing an effective but harmless alternative to poisons such as cyanide and the compound 1080. A team led by Dr Michael Parsons of Curtin University in Western Australia has found that dingo urine – made into a gel – repels all but the most determined animals from gardens and plantations. During trials conducted in Tasmania 80 per cent of possums and 78 per cent of wallabies steered clear of areas marked by the gel. Dingoes never reached Tasmania but it is thought the urine triggered a response similar to that which would have been produced by encountering a Tasmanian tiger prior to the species’ extinction in the 1930s. A “urine barrier” kept Forester kangaroos away from a garden full of rose beds for a month. Film footage of the kangaroos showed them freezing about five metres from the garden’s edge before turning tail and hopping away. The raw urine was collected from animals kept at the Australian Dingo Conservation Association in Canberra and flown fresh to Perth… A team led by Dr Michael Parsons of Curtin University in Western Australia has found that dingo urine – made into a gel – repels all but the most determined animals from gardens and plantations. During trials conducted in Tasmania 80 per cent of possums and 78 per cent of wallabies steered clear of areas marked by the gel. Dingoes never reached Tasmania but it is thought the urine triggered a response similar to that which would have been produced by encountering a Tasmanian tiger prior to the species’ extinction in the 1930s. A “urine barrier” kept Forester kangaroos away from a garden full of rose beds for a month. Film footage of the kangaroos showed them freezing about five metres from the garden’s edge before turning tail and hopping away. The raw urine was collected from animals kept at the Australian Dingo Conservation Association in Canberra and flown fresh to Perth. But its limited supply – there are only a few dingoes in captivity and pure-bred dingoes are a vanishing breed in the wild because of inter-breeding with feral dogs – means that the gel is expensive.
Budget short bites
abc.net.au – Jun 12, 2008
“What that debt does do of course is builds up asset and allows the org to operate eff and properly eth debt itself is put to work in terms of the organisations. They have got to invest in capital works and their own structures and not to do that would be remiss of those organisations not to invest properly in their businesses” he said. Wages billThe wages of state public servants are expected to cost Tasmania $1. 9 billion next financial year. This figure represents almost half of the Government’s predicted expenses and has risen due to the employment of additional nurses and new education programs. Mr Aird has defended the massive cost of the workforce saying agencies have budgets which they must work within. Carbon reductionsThere are significant outlays to reduce Tasmania’s carbon footprint.