Who is Online

We have 201 guests and no members online

The Conflict Islands

The Conflict Islands are small archipelago, privately owned by Ian Gowrie-Smith who, according to a 'puff piece' online: 'made his multibillion-dollar fortune developing pharmaceutical and mining companies'.

'Conflict' comes from the name of the ship that first mapped them in 1886 - not from a war. There are 17 islands in the group - most very small. Thus they were uninhabited when Ian acquired them.  But they were regularly visited by native peoples hunting turtles some of whom may have camped there. The ship called at Panasesa Island the third largest in the group, that has the advantage of being flat and low, enabling the construction of an airstrip.

Ian Gowrie-Smith and his partner were onboard with us and he gave several talks about his efforts to save the green turtles, that are threatened by excessive human predation due to population increase in the region.

There is an Adopt a Turtle programme to raise money and young people can volunteer to provide local labour. Ian has set up Panasesa as an 'eco-resort' with about 30 full time staff and volunteers living here. He says although he bought the islands on a whim he visits for several months a year. Yet notably he and his partner stayed on board the Queen Elizabeth and sailed with us, at least to Cairns, where they were trapped on the Skyrail with us.

Ian later explained that the dancers and singers who greeted us are not local - they are hired entertainers shipped in to amuse cruise ship passengers. "Did we like them?" he asked as if checking to see if they were value for money.  I was the wrong person to ask.  By now I was 'over' apparently extemporaneous performances to amuse us tourists.

 

See album See album
See album See album
See album See album

Panasesa Island

 

The small village boasts all mod cons. Running water, thanks to desalination and rain, electricity thanks to solar panels and two large diesels plus a smaller one, servicing the bar at the southern tip. The electricity enables air conditioning; a very big cold room/ refrigerator; and Internet.

The Internet enables the resort to be largely cashless, except to local coupons, and this discourages pirates.

There is also a sewerage system but I didn't discover the details - presumably a large septic tank. The only vehicle I saw was a good sized tractor/front-end-loader but they do have tree felling and sawing equipment considerably larger than a chainsaw.

Ian told us that the tall trees are being grown with the intent of extending the sea-wall, as the highest point on the island is only 18 metres above sea level and cyclones are not uncommon.

 

See album See album
See album See album

Off-grid living

 

Also to amuse tourists there is a glass-bottom-boat to look at the coral. It seemed to be packed to the gunnels and some who went on it later expressed disappointment.

Instead Wendy and I went snorkelling, off a pontoon on the outer reef, where the coral is alive and vibrant, with reds and blues, and the fish, some quite large, others colourful, are abundant. No doubt these help to feed the permanent inhabitants.

It's close to what an imagined island paradise might resemble.

Yet considering their isolated situation it brought to mind the late 1960's TV series: 'The Prisoner' in which Patrick McGoohan plays a secret agent, John Drake - Number Six, who is abducted and taken to what seems to be an idyllic village, filmed at Portmeirion in Wales. In the series the town is actually a prison, from which Number Six continuously but unsuccessfully attempts to escape - presaging 'The Truman Show'. 

I decided the permanent residents probably need the turtle work and the visiting ships to remain sane and conflict free - and maybe to escape?

After a pleasant day we returned to the ship.

 

No comments

Travel

Southern England

 

 

 

In mid July 2016 Wendy and I took flight again to Europe.  Those who follow these travel diaries will note that part of out trip last year was cut when Wendy's mum took ill.  In particular we missed out on a planned trip to Romania and eastern Germany.  This time our British sojourn would be interrupted for a few days by a side-trip to Copenhagen and Roskilde in Denmark.

Read more: Southern England

Fiction, Recollections & News

Wedding

 

 

Jordan Baker and Jeff Purser were married on Saturday 3rd of December 2011. The ceremony took place on the cliff top at Clovelly.

Read more: Wedding

Opinions and Philosophy

Climate Emergency

 

 

 

emergency
/uh'merrjuhnsee, ee-/.
noun, plural emergencies.
1. an unforeseen occurrence; a sudden and urgent occasion for action.

 

 

Recent calls for action on climate change have taken to declaring that we are facing a 'Climate Emergency'.

This concerns me on a couple of levels.

The first seems obvious. There's nothing unforseen or sudden about our present predicament. 

My second concern is that 'emergency' implies something short lived.  It gives the impression that by 'fire fighting against carbon dioxide' or revolutionary action against governments, or commuters, activists can resolve the climate crisis and go back to 'normal' - whatever that is. Would it not be better to press for considered, incremental changes that might avoid the catastrophic collapse of civilisation and our collective 'human project' or at least give it a few more years sometime in the future?

Back in 1990, concluding my paper: Issues Arising from the Greenhouse Hypothesis I wrote:

We need to focus on the possible.

An appropriate response is to ensure that resource and transport efficiency is optimised and energy waste is reduced. Another is to explore less polluting energy sources. This needs to be explored more critically. Each so-called green power option should be carefully analysed for whole of life energy and greenhouse gas production, against the benchmark of present technology, before going beyond the demonstration or experimental stage.

Much more important are the cultural and technological changes needed to minimise World overpopulation. We desperately need to remove the socio-economic drivers to larger families, young motherhood and excessive personal consumption (from resource inefficiencies to long journeys to work).

Climate change may be inevitable. We should be working to climate “harden” the production of food, ensure that public infrastructure (roads, bridges, dams, hospitals, utilities and so) on are designed to accommodate change and that the places people live are not excessively vulnerable to drought, flood or storm. [I didn't mention fire]

Only by solving these problems will we have any hope of finding solutions to the other pressures human expansion is imposing on the planet. It is time to start looking for creative answers for NSW and Australia  now.

 

Read more: Climate Emergency

Terms of Use

Terms of Use                                                                    Copyright