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Forum Index : Other Stuff : Earth tremor in Melbourne
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| Warpspeed Guru  Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406 |
We have just experienced a 5.4 level earth tremor here around 9:15 Cheers, Tony. |
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CaptainBoing Guru Joined: 07/09/2016 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1985 |
the collected rage of the union boys when they realised they had been sold out by their bosses. |
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| Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406 |
Its more than the construction guys, the truckers, and several other unions are getting ready to pull the plug at the end of the month. Probably a good time to stock up on baked beans and beer. Cheers, Tony. |
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| CaptainBoing Guru Joined: 07/09/2016 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1985 |
... and toilet rolls... for some bizarre reason... wth was that all about? |
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| Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406 |
Don't know for sure, but I have a personal theory...... For a long time, the wise people have been trying to encourage the great unwashed city masses to have at least a couple of weeks of necessities on hand, food, water, medical supplies, fuel, cash, etc.. Its almost a certainty we are going to have at some stage either a natural disaster or some form of social/political collapse. Maybe martial law, bank runs/closures, stock market collapse, riots, lawlessness, panic looting, and so on. And at least here, no shooting. Nobody believed any of this, even though it was already happening in several countries already. So the false rumor of the great toilet paper shortage was deliberately spread. An absolute insane frenzy of panic buying ensued, everyone was desperate to have a five year supply of toilet paper on hand, and the shelves emptied virtually in one day. Wise people understood and took heed. The fools are still probably sitting between mountains of toilet paper laughing and congratulating themselves on their cunning. Its only the very few that have now figured out what they need to last for a few weeks without having to leave home, and have planned accordingly. Edited 2021-09-22 18:01 by Warpspeed Cheers, Tony. |
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| Godoh Guru Joined: 26/09/2020 Location: AustraliaPosts: 378 |
Many years ago (1989)there was an earthquake in Newcastle NSW. It did a lot of damage, It was around 5.4 on the scale. The only difference I can see is that Newcastle has lots of underground coal mining, some reportedly under the city. Melbourne is apparently a little more fortunate. The level of mining under and around Newcastle was conveniently missed in reports at the time. Pete |
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9063 |
I was going to post something similar, but I thought I'd perhaps better not.  I've always been of the belief that the people - of ANY country - will only take so much of the lockdowns, before, basically, all faith in whatever the government is doing is totally lost. Everyone has their breaking point. I expect many people would still be on-board with the lockdowns to some extent, if they weren't seeing their own government officials BREAKING the rules they put in place every other day themselves and/or moving the goal-posts any time they are exposed. If they want people to follow the rules, they need to lead by example - and they don't most of the time. They want to keep THEIR freedoms while you lose all of yours. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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Revlac Guru Joined: 31/12/2016 Location: AustraliaPosts: 961 |
@Grogster Exactly how I would put it. I would would also have difficulty holding back the numerous 4 letter words and some bigger ones. The only time I felt the ground shake here is from the local mines blasting, usually the windows shake a little. Cheers Aaron Off The Grid |
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| Davo99 Guru Joined: 03/06/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1577 |
I totally agree with the sentiment. People are fat, lazy and ignorant. They think meat comes from the supermarket and are totally and utterly reliant on week to week if that far out, supply of their needs. So many now would be totally and utterly screwed if they lost their Phones! I don't think 90% of people realise how fragile the supply chain of EVERYTHING is including food and essential supplies. It's all modelled on the " Just in time" scenario and if something goes wrong, look out! I was raised by my grandparents that lived through shortages during the war. They always had plenty of supplies of everything. That was rubbed off on me. My wifes parents also had a position of having plenty of food at all times and my wife keeps our walk in pantry over stocked if anything. I think we could go a month before we really started getting short. Main thing we might miss is Milk but there is a Dairy up the road and if things got bad they may not be able to send the milk out anyway. By the same token, Mrs keeps at least half a dozen long life Milk in the pantry. I always keep Plenty of fuel on hand, Min 200L of petrol, 100L of Diesel and 600L+ Of veg oil at any time which I rotate. Works well because when it's cheap I stock up and when it's exy I use what I bought Cheap. I remember when I was young Fuel strikes and what happened then. Always had fuel on hand since I was about 20. When we did the Kitchen Reno couple of years back, I set up a temp Kitchen in the Laundry. Bought a little $20 Camping stove and the thing was brilliant. Mrs enjoyed cooking on it and was a bit dis heartened the new flash one in the kitchen couldn't be gas. I have about 18 Canisters of gas in the Cupboard up the back. We were so impressed we bought another of those stoves in case they became unavailable and put it away and a Box of the Cylinders. They were lasting us about a week cooking 4-5 Nights a week plus the odd breakfast and lunch. I also have a 2 Burner picnic stove up the back, a BBQ and 2 Full 9 Kg bottles and one in use at any time. I think that's become more likely than ever with the way things have been going recently. I am amazed at the stories I hear every year from the states. They have a Cyclone or fire and things go to Kaos in some areas. No power , water, food, fuel and it lasts for weeks in the most developed country in the world! Clearly having the resources is one thing, having proper organisation without in fighting to get help when it is needed is another. Does not take some end of world scenario to put people in a bad way these days. The more developed we get especially with Technology, the more fragile we become. Bush fires and floods here have shown the Vulnerabilities but we seem to do much better providing for people in times of Crisis than the Yanks do. I read about stores in the US that had supplies but people had no cash and there was no power or communications for EFPOS so they closed down. Another thing my wife and I were both raised with, keep plenty of cash in the house. One reason is I have been known of the very rare and odd 20-30 occasions to see something on Gumtree and want to go get it straight away and not always Minor purchases. :0) The supply Chain is Very Fragile. Even with the Wuhoofloo there are so many things in short and unavailable supply. Largely a symptom of most western countries placing all their eggs in the Chynaah basket instead of making what we well could and once did here. Chynaah would only have to freeze exports for a month and many countries would be in a bad way. The other thing is distribution. The Wuhoofloo meant a lot of places had to halve or less workforces for anti social dystopia. Obviously their throughput fell through the floor and that resulted in shortages even though the supplies were ready and waiting. As far as shooting, I think the crims arsenal would well out strip the amount of legal firearms out there by a good margin so the Gangs would pretty much get what they wanted. That said, In my backyard proclivities I have spent a lot of time and effort making sure I didn't get a Darwin award with different materials and creations I have made. Done the wrong way, innocent backyard sh*tfluckery can go bad quickly. Turned around, what I and I'm sure nearly everyone here knows could make for some formidable protection if so desired. I have a friend that is a disposal expert in the army. He calls Bunnings " The one stop Terrorist Shop" . Failing that he says the Supermarket is a great fallback. I am looking to get into archery. I think the humble Bow and arrow is Very under rated and in a survival situation, could be very effective even against those with guns particularly the crims whom are untrained with them and more often than not, basicly stupid. Matter of using what you have to it's best advantage. Stealth is a big one with a Bow as is penetration. Takes a Big calibre to go through a Drum of sand. Pretty easy for an arrow. I'm also into knives. That's all I would need to feed myself off the Cattle round here. I have Taken out dangerous Dogs before with nothing but a knife. Warned the owners to keep them locked up instead of Terrorising the Neighbourhood, They ignored me, one went to attack me in my front yard one night and the next morning it was hanging out their tree. I have skinned Rabbits and Foxes and other game and know how to section out a carcass for eating. I guess many people could be starving and have a Cow walking round their front yard and not have a Clue what to do with it. Even city people with outdoors knowledge and skills would do MUCH better than those who's experience is limited to a 2 Hour Hike and then back home or to the Luxury hotel. If they had to get out their homes they would be in a bad way with no idea how to even create basic shelter in the bush. Most people have never read a single sentence relating to bushcraft or survival skills in the wild or urban environment. Wouldn't say I'm an expert but I know damn well I'd get on a lot better than most as would anyone that has ever spent time in the bush. ( or the snow!) :0) I think everyone got the idea the Wuhoofloo gave people chronic Diarrhea or something? Seemed crazy they were more worried about what was coming out their nether Regions than what they were going to put in their mouths in the first place. I saw last year where some moron had cleaned out a shopping chain of bog roll and was selling it on anti social media at extortionist prices. When the panic stopped, the shelves filled and no one was buying it off him at his inflated prices. He tried to return a mountain of it and the store refused and rightfully so. He'll have to live to 120 years old and have a family of 28 Kids to get through it all. Serves him right. My wife and her mother before her always had a thing for a very good supply of Bog roll. Since coming here well before the current stupidity, we had a large cupboard that was for the bog roll and there were still large packets in the spare room. I used to give her heaps about it but she has had the last laugh now. In fairness, now she does buy most of it at Costco In bulk packets. Before she had an account at another bulk wholesaler that supplied smaller shops and clubs etc. We only go to costco a few times a year on average to stock up on things we buy in bulk, washing powder, pasta and tomato paste being other ones, so she does tend to buy several months supply when we are there for that reason. That is our normal buying curve, not a panic reaction. I remember my wife saying when bogroll was back on the shelves. I Jokingly asked if she got some? She said why? We have loads in there yet, I'll get it when we go back to costco in a month or so! She could never figure out how people didn't have a couple of Months supply in the first place and what the panic was about. The neighbour was complaining when the great Bog roll shortage happened last year saying she only got it every couple of weeks and they were out and there was none available. I came in and got half dozen rolls and took it over. Why one wouldn't keep at least a few weeks supply, I don't know. While panic buying it is stupid, I would suggest not having a decent supply in stock is also questionable unless you have some other alternative. Having our own sewage system, we don't because we are VERY limited on what we can put down there. Those on town sewage can put down what they like and it's someone elses problem at the other end. I saw a Vid few months back on the problems these wet wipe things cause. They are supposed to be degradable but NONE apparently are. They pull many tons of the things out of sewage plants everywhere and they are a big problem for them. I have 2 water tanks here plus 5 IBC's . The water in the IBC's could not be drunk due to what the containers had previously. That would be for the toilet and as I use it for the garden. The 8000 and 2000L tanks however I have made sure are Clean and potable. I keep at least the little one full at all times. When a lot of rain is expected I drop one or the other or both and let them refill. The big one is on the garage and takes 80MM of rain from empty to capacity. The little one much less as it's on the house and I have blocked certain downpipes to give max collection area. There are places with swimming pools round here and also a lake hidden behind the next street. Water could be taken from there and then distilled for drinking. I have several ways of doing that being solar and combustion which is something the veg would come in useful for. I could also cook with it and run some of my generators as I do normally. I have had Generators for years in case of outages and in fairness, I can only remember 3 occasions where they have been needed. Probably the longest one was couple of years back here when the power was out for about 12 Hours. Happened late afternoon and came back on early morning. Neighbour and I were Fine, brought out our Gennys and fired them up and I had more lights and things on than normal to put some load on the thing to stabilise it a bit. Rest of the street was pitch black except for the odd candle and torch. We both had questions from Neighbours how come we were the only 2 Houses with power? Refrigeration is my main concern with power. If we lost that we would loose a fair bit of food reserve. My father in the country has frequent short blackouts and the occasional day one. He keeps his Honda generator in the Laundry where it's easy to get and I made up a custom lead that goes to the fridge, freezer, the TV and a lamp. Also bought him some Rechargeable torches that have this very convenient facility of turning on in case of power failure when they are in the charge dock. I was looking at getting him a UPS with some deep cycle batteries but the power supply seems to be getting more reliable. I would hate to live in a unit block. If things go south, those people are stuffed. They will be fleeing the citys fast as they can and heading out this way. I hope they keep going past! :0) |
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| Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406 |
Its a fair bit different in a quarter acre suburban block, with neighbors only a few metres away in every direction. Things we don't have to worry about here, are snakes and bush fires. But as you say, if the local sevo runs out of petrol, the ATM stops working, or the local supermarket gets looted and burned down. most suburbanites around here are going to be in real desperate trouble within a very few days. Mates I know that live out bush, have pretty good food gardens, and chickens, and like yourself, keep a reasonable stock of food and household consumables on hand. Planning to have a go at baking bread very soon. Have enough of the makings to make enough bread to last me many months, just need some baking tins. Never tried to make bread, but it looks easy, and people have been baking bread successfully for thousands of years. Refrigeration is the critical thing these days. I have solar, and not much can go wrong with that. I have enough spare parts to fix anything that could possibly go wrong, so no problem with possible inverter failure. No battery though, but the fridge should get through the night o/k if I don't open the door after sunset. Should not be a problem. Its just a case of thinking things through, and having some alternative ways of doing things. Cheers, Tony. |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9063 |
We had that panic-buying of bog-rolls over here too, and it happened AGAIN with the latest government lockdown announcement, or it would have, had the supermarkets not put a limit of two packs on any purchase. People can be very dumb, it must be said. The virus does not and never has attacked your bumhole, and you can't eat toilet paper. If you stock up on anything, make it canned food and water for God's sake! I did. I still have my food and water stash, even though our shelves are restocked pretty quick I have to say, but a stock of non-perishable food is a very good thing to have IMHO. Our petrol over here does NOT age well if not used, so we can't really keep a stock of that. After about three months, it turns into something with the flammability of cat piss and won't burn anymore and you have to throw it out. Engines will NOT start on it without being primed with fresh fuel, and even if you get the engine running that way, they sound like they are missing half the cylinders idling on it, and they have practically no power at all. Not even the mechanics seem to know why that is over here, only that it IS the case that the fuel goes bad quite soon. How long does petrol last in Aussie if you store it? Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406 |
Its not the virus that gives you the runs, but out august government's policy. The old leaded petrol would last just about forever in a properly sealed container. I am told that the new unleaded is spcially formulated so it breaks down very quickly so it CANNOT be stored. They don't like the peons being self sufficient. Cheers, Tony. |
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| CaptainBoing Guru Joined: 07/09/2016 Location: United KingdomPosts: 1985 |
 coffee came out of my nose |
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| Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406 |
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/peon Cheers, Tony. |
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| Davo99 Guru Joined: 03/06/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1577 |
True But I don't think suburbia stops anyone putting away a decent food supply. One can also put away Bottled water or get a small tank. My little 2000L job could be fitted to any free-standing home or town house. Goes against the wall and takes up maybe 500MM width. There are also IBC which can be had cheap or free that could be used to store water for flushing or washing. Again, take up little space and can be stacked 4 High and take up just over a Sq Meter. Again, in a freestanding home, a 200L Drum of fuel takes up virtually no space at all. Many people don't even keep half a tank of fuel in their cars. My neighbour used to bake bread quite often in the wood fire oven I built her. Was great. I have done flatbreads many times. Couldn't be easier. You don't actually need baking tins for either. My Neighbour never used them and used to get Loafs and rounds. Those electric bread makers do a decent job. My neighbour would often put everything in the bread maker and tell it to stop before baking. She would then pull it out and put it in the Pizza oven. Let me assure you, food NEVER tasted better than when cooked in or over a wood fire. We would do Chicken most weeks. Put it in a tray, surround it with vegetables, cover it all in oil, foil over the top and an hour in a preheated oven. Remove the foil for 10-15 min to crisp everything up and perfect. The oven temp seemed very inconsequential. I'd pre heat it, have a good bunch of coals at the back, in with the tray and was perfect every time. Never touched it except to take the foil off at the end. Could not cut the chook, touch it with a fork and it fell apart and the juices would be streaming out. Really need to build another oven here. We did roasts in it and the Mrs even cooked a few Cakes in the thing. We did steaks and other things not normally done in an oven but they were all unreal. Thermal mass is the trick there. Keep the fridge full with bottles of water. They cool during the day and provide cool at night. If you have the room, put some in the freezer section and move them to the fridge at night. I have a small freezer at the holiday house like a bar fridge we never use. Going to bring that down here so I have extra Ice making capacity. Couldn't agree more. The thing is most people believe this is crackpot stuff and there is no need for it. I hope they are right. None the less, it's very little inconvenience and gives me a LITTLE comfort in being a bit prepared. I think a lot of people believe they will do something if things get bad. Like the Bogroll Rushes have demonstrated, time you realise things are going south, it's already too late because people have beat you to the punch. I have been thinking of getting a 20 Kg bag of rice and trying to find a container I can seal it in airtight. Will also get some CO2 and try and purge the container with that as best I can to make sure there are no Weevils or anything else that can be in grains that can destroy them. Might need a few Boxes of tinned sweet and sour to go with it or other things that are good with rice. The other great foods that are like MRE rations are some of the heat and serve packets and the noodles you just add boiling water to. My kids wanted to live on them when they were young. One other thing we have a good supply of is Vitamin Tablets. Very important when you can't guarantee a variety of fresh foods. Only takes one basic vitamin deficiency to put a person in a bad or at least very sub par way. |
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| Davo99 Guru Joined: 03/06/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1577 |
Yes, same here. Mrs was laughing that the bog roll was disappearing again. After my previous post and realising we haven't been to the bulk place for 3+ Months, I checked on the Bogroll situation. Cupboard is half empty but there are still 2x48 Roll packs in the spare room. I think we are good for several more months yet. That said, I don't believe there is any shortage or Limits ATM but long time since I have been into a supermarket now. One of the things that there was a Rush on here last time was Pasta and sauces. Remember going to the supermarket and they were cleaned out when most other things were available. Rice, sugar and Flour went quick too. We don't keep much of the latter 2 as we don't eat a lot of either. I was surprised that honey was in plentiful supply. The most longest lasting, nutritious foods of all. Before this latest Lockup I was making enquiries about getting some hives. Wasn't really thinking of doomsday scenarios, Just nothing like fresh, unprocessed honey. As a kid my uncle had hives and would always have a jar of it for me with the Comb whenever I got to Visit. It was better than lollies... in a bunch of ways. Yes, something my grandparents were always Conscious of. Lots of tins of tinned fruit as well. |
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| Davo99 Guru Joined: 03/06/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1577 |
in the 90's my friends father decided he better do something about the 4 200L dums of fuel he put in the back of the shed during the early '70s fuel shortages. He rang a couple of fuel companies and they said should be fine long as it was well sealed. Tried it in the mower, no problems, put it in the wifes car, all good, Put it in his V8 Falcon, no difference. I would take that with a grain of salt. E10 is crap to start with and I can see where that would easily give trouble and break down and pull water just through pouring the stuff in and out of containers but that's just the nature of the beast not the way it was bred. The 95 and 98 I have never had any trouble with up to about 18 Months which is as long as I keep fuel when I forget it's there. I try to rotate it more often. I don't think it's necessary to store it for years. If you are driving you can rotate it pretty easy. I think most people don't because it's a hassel getting it in and out the drums rather than just filling up at the servo. I tend to empty a drum and refill it straight away. Fill the car and the Drum(s) at the same time and that makes servo attendants wake up if they hadn't taken any notice in the first place. Last year at an independent servo I bought fuel for .67C a litre. I think the guy had got used to seeing people fill up for about $30 at that rate. When he punched my bowser and saw over $250, he nearly had a fit. If I could have found more Drums to put it in at the time, I'd have bought $1000 worth. People avoid all the effort they can then go to a Gym to get the exercise they spent effort and money avoiding in the first place. |
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| Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406 |
Now that is really clever, never thought of that. A plastic milk container full of water in the freezer during the day can expand and contract with the ice and should work very well down in the lower fridge at night. Will give that a try. Baking bread should be o/k, but its rather time consuming. About two hours from start to finish regardless if its one loaf or ten, and you need to be around. Only a very few minutes walk to shops here, so buying bread is much more convenient and its fresh. In a SHTF scenario, you can just about live on bread and little else. All the materials are very cheap and store well for many years, its a handy alternative to have. You can get used to powdered milk. That is all we had in the Antarctic, its not wonderful, but you do get used to it. Also have a lot of propane stored here, can refill smaller tanks from the larger tank for propane camp stove and light. Its not difficult or all that expensive, but like Dave says, you need to think ahead and be prepared, well ahead of the panicking morons. Cheers, Tony. |
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| Davo99 Guru Joined: 03/06/2019 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1577 |
We go through a LOT of milk so are always throwing out the bottles which seems bit of a waste. I have water in milk bottles in all the cars and use them for other things in the shed and garden. They are surprisingly Durable and seal well. perfect for this application as they are free and the right size... long as you don't fill them right up. As for putting them in the fridge, I always had in mind to put them on the top shelf as cold in my understanding tends to fall. My last fridge had all the evaporator coils at the top above the top shelf and you could see the condensation fall. The current one has the coils at the back but the outlet where the fan forced air comes out is also at the top. The old ice chests tended to have the ice at the top or the side to accommodate the bigger blocks. The ice compartment itself tended to be metal which was then used to transfer the cold into the food compartment. Maybe laying the bottles on a big baking tray or even a metal plate would help conduct the cold just like a heatsink... in reverse. Maybe it makes no difference as to the positioning but that was just how I pictured it. If time was a concern, maybe you should have a look at the bread makers? My Italian Neighbour was pretty happy hers and you Know what Italian women are like with their proclivities of cooking! As I understand it, you just put the ingredients in and bread comes out and you never have to touch it. I think some may need the Kneaded bread moved to bake but never had one so not sure. The one she had you could also program the thing so you loaded it in the morning and say came home at night to still hot bread. She often cooked it in the woodfire Pizza oven but did also get the machine to to the whole job. If hanging around for a couple of hours watching it was inconvenient ( as well as boring) This may be something to help you out. I used to get the 45 Kg Cylinders and refill the 9Kg Bottles. Just bought the fittings and brazed them to some copper line and used that. 45 had to be inverted and crack the vent on the 9 and that was it. The price of 45's was much cheaper per Kg than getting 9's but that's turned around now especially with the yearly rental cost of the 45's. I also used to have a supply of old Car LPG tanks. I'd Milk them into 9 Kg Bottles. If I got a half to full one, I'd take that home and hook that up direct to the BBQ or the heater. On a couple of occasions heated the pizza oven with a burner I made during fire bans. All they took was 12V to open the solenoid but not all had that and some had other ports that could be tapped into. Once you had the fittings they were quick and easy to hook up. People say the gas is a different formulation but I never saw any evidence of anything burning any different to the regular LPG. |
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| Warpspeed Guru Joined: 09/08/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 4406 |
I have never head of a bread making machine? The work in in the kneading, then letting it rise, and kneading it some more. Not sure how a machine could do that. Two hours out in the shed torturing metal, or blowing up electronic parts is nothing. Two hours preparing and baking bread does not sound like nearly quite so much fun. But each to his own I suppose. I had to make my own fittings to transfer gas from one cylinder to another. I have a full 45Kg cylinder that is well beyond its use by date, but as long as it cannot rust or get seriously dinged, I cannot see why cylinders are supposed to have only a ten year legal life span. Also have numerous 9Kg cylinders also all full. Put a 3 litre water filled milk container in the freezer three hours ago. Interested to see how long it takes to go completely solid. Almost there, its not solid yet, but feels crunchy with slush. Another hour or two should do it. Cheers, Tony. |
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