travelling light: Looking down on dire predictions

I see the latest report on looming climate change has some pretty dire predictions – like a future of four times lengthier heatwaves, up to five times as many deaths due to extreme heat, a massive drag on productivity, 1.5 million Australians at risk of coastal flooding and a potential half trillion dollar hit to property values by 20250 – and that’s just the good news.

But wait, there’s more. Add to that bushfires becoming too uncontrollable to be fought and coastal areas abandoned and all those climate change sceptics are going to be looking pretty sheepish, if not soggy. It will be bad for those who live near a coast – any coast – or in a low-lying part of Australia.

Unfortunately those swamped by the rising waters, with their houses collapsing into the sea or rivers will include both those who heeded the climate message, but couldn’t afford to move and those who scoffed at it and decided it was all rubbish, and they were staying where they were with their expensive (increasingly close up) water views.

‘Unfortunately those swamped by the rising waters, with their houses collapsing into the sea or rivers will include both those who heeded the climate message, but couldn’t afford to move and those who scoffed at it and decided it was all rubbish.’

It will affect me, though luckily indirectly. I live four storeys up on a high hill inland, well away from seas or rivers that flood. I’ll watch as Canberra at some point in the distant future has ocean views (perhaps eventually). I’ll try not to think about the plummeting property values of those below me (it might well be the ultimate revenge of those young enough never to afford to buy a home).

They’ll be busy trying to persuade Governments that they are special and need to have flood barriers and levies built at tax-payers expense – it’s already been happening, so I expect more of the same. Despise Government until you need it seems to be the usual neo-liberal approach. It has been well described as privatising profits and socialising losses.

Your mother doesn’t work here
Where I now live I keep stumbling across items – boxes, bits of furniture – that some resident has left in the basement in the hope that someone else will clean up after them. When I used to work in the public service, the kitchen sink area was a constant mess. One of the older women working there posted a telling note above the sink ‘your mother doesn’t work here’. Perhaps I need to post a similar note.

Where are the dog nets?
I’ve always been amazed that so many things can kill you in Australia. Even the red back spider wasn’t poisonous when it first came to Australian shores – it obviously had to adapt fast. It’s a wonder any tourists visit at all. When I was in Tahiti many years ago the taxi driver mentioned that she would love to travel to Australia but fear of snakes prevented it.

That’s on top of travelling on Australian roads, where I simply assume that everyone is trying to kill me. I gather it’s even worse in America where if they don’t get you on the road with a giant pickup truck up your arse, they’ll blow you away with one of their collection of handguns and assault rifles.

‘We are rightly shocked when a couple of surfers get taken by sharks and start talking about shark nets again. What I want to ask is: where are the dog nets?’

I heard the other day that in Australia from 2001 to 2023, 2,061 persons were hospitalised each year for treatment for dog bite injuries and more recently the number has been increasing alarmingly. As a result, there is an increasing public sector burden of hospitalisations for injuries from dog bites in Australia. We are rightly shocked when a couple of surfers get taken by sharks and start talking about shark nets again. What I want to ask is: where are the dog nets?

Ganging up with books
Thinking about my recently revitalised reading habits, I remembered that when I was a mere lad growing up in Devonport in North-West Tasmania, the gang of youths I used to hang with considered a typical Friday night meant dropping into Birchalls Bookshop and scanning the latest Penguin paperbacks – wild times in a coastal town.

See also

Walking with ghosts
‘Increasingly people I have known for a long time seem to be dying. In fact my generation is steadily starting to disappear. Who is replacing them? We shuffle along in a world that is unravelling, a world – that for both good and bad – our generation gave birth to. We are teetering in a strange balance between building on the achievements of the past and desperately trying to dismantle them. In many countries, the current generation is poorer than the previous one, upending generations of dreams by working class parents and migrants for a better life for their children. In this time of upheaval – both welcome and unwelcome – creativity is needed like never before’, Walking with ghosts.

On the rails again – a trip about the past and the future
I'm on the road again – well, on the rails again. On Monday I caught the slow train from Canberra to Sydney, and today I’ve woken up to a third morning in Surry Hills. I’m enjoying the days in Sydney – after all, I did live here for twelve and a half years. I’m mainly here to see the Yolngu Power exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW, which finishes next week, but I’m also using the trip to see to other business’, On the rails again – a trip about the past and the future.

Marching with the Nazis – as un-Australian as it gets

'I’m still shocked by the marches and rallies around the country opposing immigration. Everyone involved says mass immigration, but it’s clear in practice they mean most immigration – and definitely all immigration by people who aren’t white, or as I like to say, ‘pink’. Here I am travelling through my own homeland once again and, at times, it seems like a foreign country – not because of immigrants but because of those who have grown up here. Those taking part in these marches probably have genuine grievances, but they have picked the wrong target to blame and, in the process, have been steered into becoming in effect neo-Nazi fellow travellers. We are (almost) all immigrants here, only just starting to genuinely come to grips with this country', Marching with the Nazis – as un-Australian as it gets.

Self-imposed lockdown

'For all their faults and disadvantages there were some positive sides to the pandemic lockdowns. As I often say, ‘good times’ – maybe my memory isn’t what it was. I realise that I planned and prepared for so long to move to an apartment and now I am here I keep discovering more and more things I like about it. I could stay home and read and write and never leave it, just popping down to the shops when I need supplies – perhaps it’s a case of self-imposed lockdown', Self-imposed lockdown.

Essen, trinken, tanzen – aber nicht rauchen
‘From time to time my posts on ‘travelling light’ include references to restaurants we have eaten at or enjoyable places we have stayed. However, most of my regular writing about food, produce, restaurants and places we have stayed is on one of my blogs, tableland, which I describe as: ‘Food and cooking land to table – the daily routine of living in the high country, on the edge of the vast Pacific, just up from Sydney, just down from Mount Kosciuszko’, Essen, trinken, tanzen – aber nicht rauchen.

Cooking minestrone in an art gallery – pineapple fruit cake, hot soup and art on a cold day
‘In winter my mind turns to food, but since it is never turned away from art, cooking and looking manage to fill in the cooler months – or maybe that’s all months. I haven’t made hand-made pasta for a while but I have made sushi and sashimi – though only once in recent memory – as I resurrect all my food traditions. Cooking, eating and cruising around art exhibitions – that’s winter for me’, Cooking minestrone in an art gallery - pineapple fruit cake, hot soup and art on a cold day

Winter markets in a creative city

'The winter we had to have (and could have hoped for) finally arrived on the Southern Tablelands. We have gone back to going to the Farmers Market every week. To add to the winter sun good news arrived. For over ten years we worked to have Canberra listed as a UNESCO Creative City of Design, part of a global network of creative cities. Finally the ACT Government announced that it intended to take the bid forward – and that it had allocated funding for it, the true sign of a government being serious. It’s always a pleasure to help initiate a worthwhile endeavour, but even more of a pleasure to look back ten years later and see that it has been a roaring success in more ways than one', Winter markets in a creative city.

Speaking in tongues

‘Where I live a statue of French maritime hero, La Pérouse, looks out over the suburb as though to say: this, too, could have been France. For a period it seemed everyone who went to school in Australia studied French. Perhaps it was a belated attempt to acknowledge how much better everything would have been if the French had got here first. As I like to say whenever I’m in France, ‘j’ai étudié le Français pendant six ans à l’école’ and I would like to have had more opportunity to use that knowledge', Speaking in tongues.

Looking down on birds

'While the world unravels and some gleefully repeat the mistakes of the past, life goes on in gardens everywhere. I remember that in the Roman Empire, if a change of regime occurred, soldiers, recognising that they were also farmers, would often retire for a time to their farm - until circumstances and duty called them back. Some wit commented that what is happening now is like the fall of the Roman Empire, but with wi-fi', Looking down on birds.

Back in the days when we travelled

'Back in the days when we travelled, I used to post news of my trips to Facebook, so my friends could follow my exploits overseas. For a long time it has been apparent that Facebook has issues, so back in 2019 I set up this blog 'Travelling light' to replace my Facebook posts. However, in the end I decided to stay with Facebook, so this blog was never used', Back in the days when we travelled.

Travelling light by being still

'As I've said repeatedly, I don't have any problem with flying, it's landing and taking off I don't like – and all the logistics in-between. I have few problems with lounging around for hours and on a flight, you get to sit still while people bring you food and drink. How much better does it get?', Travelling light by being still.

Abandoning the world of work

'When I left full-time work over ten years ago, I was asked what I intended to do. Once I no longer had distractions, like work – fun though it was at the time – it was clear that I would definitely have some time on my hands. I replied that I planned to keep up with my friends and to travel – when I wasn't gardening, cooking, reading or writing. It sounded like a fine plan at the time and as things panned out, it WAS a fine plan', Abandoning the world of work.

September 24, 2025

Looking down on dire predictions