Wed 18 - Thur March 19, 2009

Wed 18 - Public Meeting St Andrews

This was the latest of the Community Updates which are presented by Victoria Police, Dept of Health Services, Nillumbik Council, Grocon and various other agencies as the need has arisen.

Senior Sgt Wayne Spence gave his usual, thorough very succinct update on what had been happening and what was proposed over the next few weeks. The road to Kinglake will be open from Thurs 19 and it was anticipated that there would be significantly increased traffic from relatives, visitors and people who just wanted to have a look. He noted that it was likely that after two weeks the visitor and traffic volumes would significantly decrease. In the meantime, traffic patrols would be increased as would regular patrols of the less accessible areas. He strongly recommended that any untoward behaviour should be immediately reported to police via 000. In closing, he also pointed out that the traffic cameras which had largely been removed from the area so as not to create additional impact on people who had already been hit pretty hard by the bushfires, would soon be returning.

Wayne's going on leave for a couple of weeks, which in typical style he'd tried to postpone so that he'd be able to continue his role in supporting the community. He'd had to keep the committment but assured us that we'd be in good hands during his absence. A bloody good human being and I expect an excellent copper!

The Grocon rep Max, didn't actually have very much to say other than to show us a Process Chart of what the Govt Expected them to do.

Various Council Department reps presented an update on progress within their respective areas. The CEO was there too but I have absolutely no recollection of what he said. The Chief Building Surveyor talked about the new Building Standard AS3959 - 2009, that was implemented across Victoria on 11 March and said that people would have to get specialist advice on performing a Bushfire Activity Level (BAL) assessment.

As this was in direct contradiction of what Anne Pavey from the Building Commission had said on the previous evening, I took him to task but without any real success. I also tried to indicate that
the Standard was available on the Standards Australia Website at a cost of $80.00 and that the Building Commission was in the process of negotiating this down to $30.00 for bushfire rebuilders and were also attempting to get the BAL Assessment (short version) extracted, turned into a booklet and made freely available. Again, no-one seemed to be particularly interested.

I also suggested that under the new standard, a Planning Permit would not be required if the location was previously under a Wildfire MAnagement Overlay (WMO). This was not quite correct and the CEO was quick to get to his feet and point out my error, by saying that it also depended on whether any ESO's (Environmental Significance Overlay) or Zone restrictions apply.

It turns out that of course he's correct which makes me wonder the Building Commission bothered to highlight the WMO exemption in the first place. Particularly as I also subsequently find out, that every land parcel in Nillumbik is subject to an ESO of one form or another. I think I'll be pursuing this with the Planning Minister or the Building Commission or Ms Nixon and her team and anyone else who may be able to influence a rethink!


Thursday 19 - More Councilling

My 09:30 first plasma donation at the Blood Bank goes well although I don't get out until about 11:30. Son Ben has not remembered the charger for Cait's laptop which I inadvertantly gave him so she will not be happy.

Round the corner to the RACV shop to organise a hire car for Adelaide and a query on progress of our claim. The Hire car is easy, the query less so. Sue the very helpfull service rep gets a taste of the customer experience when after being connected internally to the Claims area is left with a long wait as the phone just keeps on ringing. Eventually we get the name of the Claims officer 'Chris" who is on the phone but will call me back.

I dash for the train and while waiting on the station call our Claims Assessor who when he rings me back is very surprised to hear that we haven't yet been paid. While I'm on the train, Chris from RACV Claims calls back and after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing in which he says hey haven't received a recommendation and I say the Assessor reckons he's provided one and I'm just the silly bastard in the middle, we start to get some sense. After a considerable pause and much re-reading of the report in front of him, he apologises and says while there are a couple of queries about the house, there is no problem with the contents, sheds, barn, fences tractor etc and I should expect to receive the full contents amount less about $800 in excess payments. I thank him, all the while wondering what the hell for. The claim and assessors report has been in for weeks!

Somebody from Council at Wednesday's Public Meeting had mentioned that Council may have house plans that would be available to ratepayers so off I went to see if they had any of ours. Also hoped to be able to find out what zone we're in and perhaps even where the official septic tank was located.

Brilliant - Planning can and will track down our original house plans from the off-site archives and have provided an A4 colour picture of the property. Somewhat cheekily I asked whether I could have an A3 copy and was told "we don't have access to an A3 printer". A bit surprising as I got one the previous week. Health have a plan with a copy for me of the septic tank location and finally, Planning were able to tell me that we are in zone RCZ5 . Three out of three!!!

Just got back to Cait's when the mobile chirped at me. It was a colleague from CFA who had lost his 22 year old son in the bushfire. Mum and dad were away at the coast and his younger sister had gone to work earlier in the afternoon. The fire took everything including Sam.

Dave told me that the Coroner had finally released Sam and invited me to his memorial service the following morning at Inglewood Chapel and afterwards at Diamond Creek. Dave and I are not close friends but we've often sat next to each other and chatted on the train and kept in touch over the years. Of course I accept.

It's after 12:15 by the time I've listened to a msg from Dave and made a call on his behalf. I can't begin to imagine how he and his wife and daughter must feel.

Running a bit late for a catchup with our DHS case manager - Kate. Call to say I'm on my way to Diamond Creek. The session is good - Kate agrees that I may be eligible for the loss of Tools of Trade allowance but when I look at the documentation it says I have to be an employee and sign in blood. Not happy to do that so Kate checks with "Legal". It appears that nobody has raised this issue before so they are going to have to think about it and get back to me.

In the meantime Kate realises that if I'm not an employee then I must be an employer and asks if I have an ABN. I do but have no idea what it is. A quick call to my accountant's office and 10mins later we're in business. I can claim as a small business owner. Documents are completed, witnessed and will be sent off to the relevant grants group. This system is beginning to work for me. Kate also promises to track down the Telstra agreement which gives me a $150 refund on purchase of a USB modem.

Things are going well.

I drive off to Stella & Allan's to borrow the 8 x 6 trailer so I can get the gateposts and gate from Frankenberg's as I promised Jamie I'd do the previous Monday. Alan drily, "Sure you can drag it away", and then grinning points out that the tyres have been burned off and it's resting on the wheel rims. His ute is full of crusher dust so it's time for a quick cooling light ale and then back to Jamie's.

There's an easy solution, Jamie says, " No drama, just take the ute". So we load it up and I head back up to Wildhaven where I'll leave the fencing materials until we come back from Adelaide. I arrive to discover that Stella's been stung on the mouth and lip by a wasp that had dropped into her wine for a quick swim and had been more than a little terse when the lights suddenly went out. Good thing she's not allergic to the bloody things.

Thursday evening is Back to NMIT for the last class before we start putting our exhibition together on the 30th. Macca was coming to pick me up and he's due in 5 minutes and I'm at least 30 mins away. Can't get him on the mobile so ring Ros and ask her to apologise for me. I'll go direct to tech after I've dropped the ute off.

It all goes pretty smoothly and we spend about half the time working out what resources we need for the exhibition and getting it typed up. Phil needs a "heritage" gate and I just happen to have one still attached to what's left of the back wall of the house. I'm planning to go up on Saturday afternoon so he'll meet me there. Lynn needs some chicken wire and I've got 1/2 a roll of that too so Phil can add that to his collection.