Mayor4Unley

It can be difficult selecting a plant for that special spot at home. You may want a tree or a shrub, something for the shade or a sunny location. To make the decision much easier, the Botanic Gardens has a plant selector website. You can refine your search to postcode, height, aspect, soil type etc. Give it a try. Here’s the link to the website

The Unley Repair Cafe held monthly (on the last Saturday of the month) at Clarence Park Community Centre is just fantastic. Such a great concept and all made possible by a large group of skilled volunteers. I went to the May session and took my broken bentwood chair. The chair had a wonky leg with a screw broken off (inside the wood). It was a tricky job, but Unley resident and volunteer Peter Moors fixed it. Peter did a great repair job and I picked up a couple of tips. Every repaired job gets a photo. Here is a pic of me absolutely delighted with the repaired chair. #Unley #RepairCafe #UnleyRepairCafe

What a fantastic innovation ... and all the way from Iceland. Don't build a speed hump, rather, paint a 3D white Zebra Crossing. It sounds simplistic, and it is but it is highly effective. It reduces vehicle noise (over the hump) and reduces pollution from cars slowing and then speeding. Unley Council is reviewing this concept to see if it is legally compliant in SA It may not not comply with existing Australian standards. If it doesn't then we should be pushing to get it approved. Have a look at the 1 minute video. I would love your feedback. watch the video

Slugs are a gardener's nightmare and efforts are made to eradicate the slugs. Damn things come out at night and munch on the greens in the garden. We squash them and poison them; or at least some people do. But, the humble slug has captivated the minds of medical researchers. The slime of the slug has been studied and now replicated with reasonable success. Its use as an adhesive is a medical break-through. The laboratory made slug slime is now emerging as an adhesive and is being used during surgery instead of staples and stitches. At least, it worked well during surgery on a pig. A great outcome by scientific study of the simple slug. Read the slug slime story ...

The State Government has recently released a pilot IT facility that enables residents to subscribe (to DPTI) to receive email/sms alerts about upcoming scheduled works on the rail and tram network. I understand that the intent is reduce the extent of letter-boxing residents to inform them of scheduled track work, especially work scheduled at night. Here's the link to subscribe ... www.dpti.sa.gov.au/worksnotifications It's an excellent initiative. However, there must be an ongoing need to letterbox residents in the immediate location. Thinking about this, I propose that Council launch a similar facility and request all residents to subscribe. That way Council would be able to quickly alert residents of planned works in their local area eg. road works, road closures etc. The benefit would a reduction of letter-boxing the broader area; a significant cost reduction. I ask the Council Administration to assess and pilot this proposal.

A fantastic good news story from Unley Council ... Unley has a number of strategically placed Wildlife Boxes at various locations within the City to support the breeding and habitat survival of our local fauna. A total of 28 Artificial Hollows/Boxes were installed in June 2009. They were erected in Ridge and Heywood Parks, with a single box installed on Windsor St. Over the years Council has built up the number of boxes to where we now have 121 located across all part of the City on Council parks, reserves or verges (106), schools (12) and private property (3). Each year, as part of an environmental initiative, Council is provided with a report on the outcomes, success or otherwise of fauna use. As part of this monitoring process, each box is assessed for any changes that have taken place and to determine whether possible maintenance issues have arisen. This process is required to ensure that the wildlife value of the boxes are maintained and that public safety is observed. Tow...

What a fantastic initiative by Mannum Council to erase (or hide) remnants of chewing gum on the footpath through the Main Street. The gum can't be fully removed; leaving a sticky stain. The solution is to paint splotches of art over the offending marks. The result is a colourful street of art under foot. Given the number of art works along the street, Mannum must be the chewing gum capital of Australia. View the photos

Goodwood Road @ Goodwood is undergoing a massive transformation. It's slowly, slowly with traffic restrictions due to reduced lanes, one each way. On the positive side, traffic is slower and it is a lot quieter; and it's safer for pedestrians. Goodwood is growing as a shopping destination; and justifiably as there are some great shops there. I do most of my local shopping at Goodwood. I was impressed by the initiative of a couple of Goodwood traders who gave away Goody packs of food to frustrated drivers waiting at the pedestrian lights. A fantastic initiative to calm the drivers and to entice them to come to Goodwood to shop. Here's a link to a media report ...

Soon to be considered by Unley Council is the matter of what to do about the trip hazards on the footpaths. There seems to be less on the old bitumen footpaths compared with the new brick pavements. Seriously, perhaps we should consider returning to bitumen . That was one idea I proposed at a recent workshop. Despite it having merit that proposal wouldn't get through Council. The matter of what to do about trip hazards has been the subject of several workshops. There have been many proposals and variations. I insisted that the criteria (for a trip hazard) be applied equally across all footpaths in Unley. An earlier proposal had different trip tolerance heights (eg. 20mm vs. 15mm vs. 10-15mm) in different streets. That was totally unacceptable. That inequity will not be in the proposal to come to Council. The trip hazard criteria will now be applied equally across Unley, from Black Forest to Fullarton. The options that Council will consider are: Do nothing (and...

The debate has commenced on the proposal to store high level nuclear waste deep underground in the far north of South Australia. It will gain momentum over the next 12 months. The economic benefit to SA is huge. The risk seems to be contained. The people will decide in 1-2 years. It needs to be a well informed and educated decision. The recent issue of Resourcing SA has an excellent article on the subject by Ms Kyra Reznikov who has toured nuclear storage facilities across the globe. The bottom line will be if the people of SA fully understand the storage process and the associated risk; of the waste buried 500m. To put the risk into perspective, Reznikov examines a storage facility under construction in Finland. In the worst case scenario, if the steel/copper canister containing the nuclear waste rods is defective ... then if a person stood on the ground above the facility for one year then they would be exposed to the equivalent of one tenth of a banana! Yes, bananas (and s...

Here's a letter to the editor, published on 14 September 2016 ... During last week's Royal Adelaide Show, parking in adjacent Unley suburbs was a total mess. Local traffic was heavy and slow. Why don't more people catch public transport to the Show? The cost of fares for single tickets is a big expense for families. A simple solution would be if the SA Government provided free public transport for people with prepaid tickets to the Show.

This time with no mystery, the Marree Man had returned. He has be re-etched on the desert soil. The old outline has been freshened by a grader that cut 10cm into the soil. It took 3 days and was done by local identities. Marree Man is 4.2km tall with a 28km outline on the southeastern edge of Lake Eyre. Long may he live and help to make the outback alive. Tip: it's best seen from the air 😉

I just had to share these videos. Enjoy ... Molten copper and coconut part 1 Video part 1 Molten copper and coconut part 2 Video part 2 ... my fav My tip is to wear gloves and eye protection.

Good news about Origin Energy partnering with solar power company Natural Solar and reselling Tesla Energy’s Powerwall to the Australian market. This is a state-of-the-art Li-Ion battery system that will provide electricity off the grid and be available in case of a mains power outage. It's time I started thinking about a solar system. Read the story

Why is the limit of an SMS 160 characters? It’s not a decimal number ie. not a multiple of 10 and has nothing to do with dozens (12), not  even  a butcher's dozen. So why is there a limit of 160? BTW if you often push the limit of 160 characters, then you really need to get a life. But, back to basics … why the limit of 160? There are 2 stories and reasons suggested. A man called Friedhelm Hillebrand, Chairman of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), had the task of setting the limit on the amount of characters a text message could contain. This would become the international standard. He did this by analysing  typical  sentences viz. questions and answers. He also reviewed messages written on postcards and received by Telex transmissions. (Telex was not so long ago the state of the art message transmission technology.) Friedhelm Hillebrand arrived at the answer of 160 characters. His recommendation became the standard. T...

All I want for Christmas … is a croc claw back-scratcher. Its just $45 !! a Bargain, and made (and produced) in Australia. I spotted an advertisement for a back-scratcher made from the claw of a deceased crocodile. It sounds like the perfect scratcher. I just love a good back-scratcher and the dog ate the last one. These are made in Darwin by CrocStockandBarra company who do most of their trading at the local markets in Darwin. According to the advertisement ' it’s made from a real crocodile claw and taxidermied to keep the scales on and preserve the natural colour of the crocodile, This back-scratcher is not just a novelty but really gets at those hard to reach itches.' for more information ... http://crocstockandbarra.com/

Whilst on holiday in FNQ ... The beauty and magic of the Great Barrier Reef is shattered in places by devastation of the coral by cyclones and that nasty Crown of Thorns Starfish (COTS). Out on a boat, a biologist was telling me that for years divers had been killing the COTS by hand injecting them with a salt compound. A tedious process given the extent of the reef. Now, a Queensland Uni has developed a mini robot with smarts to detect and kill the COTS. A fantastic development of technology with IT smarts that works under water for 8 hours. Here's an extract from a Government publication ... The Crown of Thorns Starfish, also known as COTS, which has been devastating the Great Barrier Reef for the past 40 years may have just met its match. Researchers at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) have developed a robot specifically designed to detect and eliminate COTS on the Great Barrier Reef. The COTSbot, as it’s known, is a small submarine type robot equipped ...

This is one kind of big belly that definitely looks good. And it’s solar powered. Big Belly is a public litter (waste) bin that provides on-site (in the belly) sorting of solid waste from recyclables and then compacts it. The compaction is such that the unit can hold 5 times as much. This unit is appearing on the Australian landscape and has recently been installed in the Flinders Ranges in SA.  Benefits include:  solar-powered, automatic compaction, reduces collections by 4 times or more, eliminates overflowing bins, keeps litter in, pests out, demonstrates commitment to community & environment, educate the public, can provide marketing platform – Advertising mounts.  Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn1Ac1DE4BY Unley Council is considering the merit and cost of Big Belly. It certainly has merit and if the cost is right, it should have a big bellied future across Australia. www.solarbins.com.au

'Squishy' batteries can be made from trees – this may be the future. Zero pollution. A new type of squishy battery has been designed. It’s made from tree pulp and is 'squishy' to touch, but is stress and shock resistant. Also, it is ideally wearable, embedded in our clothes to power own 'wearable' devices. Importantly, it is not harmful to the environment when disposed. The description gets a bit more technical so I’ll leave you to read the link below. It’s amazing how our (technology) environment is transforming as a result of technology research. Read more here

What a fantastic initiative. A Virtual War Memorial website has been created and receives SA Government funding to enable students to contribute stories. Schools  are being encouraged to get students involved. School children will be urged to get involved in an online project telling the stories of those who have served Australia in war. The South Australian Government is providing $780,000 over four years to a partnership project between the state Education Department and the Returned and Services League (RSL). The Virtual War Memorial was launched as a Centenary of Anzac project. It is planned to increase the collection of online biographies and records of servicemen and women. It’s a good looking website that encourages participation. Make sure that your local school is involved. For more information, click here For more information, click here Click here to visit the Virtual War Memorial