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What has happened in recent weeks, be it Copenhagen or the change in Liberal Party leadership federally, might just be the democratic process at work. I'm unsure whether real change finds a dynamic that rumbles onward beneath the readable text of public opinion or is to be found within it. Were we all hurried to the brink of change, did we peer over the edge and did we step back? Or was that another clamorous, rushing mob in the vanguard of a change far fewer people were committed to than was believed? The defining element of the Liberals implosion was probably the secret ballot. 55 versus 29 in favour of voting down the ETS. A greater element of doubt, than we were led by media to believe for commitment to an ETS. What uncertainty - as yet unadmitted - might a secret ballot turn up in the Labour caucus, you wonder?
The difficulty in the Climate Change era for many people is how to channel healthy scepticism into action. You
don't wish to hand the market a blank cheque for pricing because the energy sector cannot be trusted. Caltex and the oligarchy will push a
$2.00 per litre likelihood to a $4.00 per litre reality before a politician can say
'market forces'. Would the difference flow to the renewable energy
sector? Yeah, right. An emergent Yuppie carbon market would have new airport vendors crowding out Wine Selectors booths near the departure gates and selling to the wannabegreens their frequent flyer
carbon-offset certificates - investments in new forestry enterprises in Oceania and the Developing World
a la Timbercorp-2. The skimmers are the first profiteers in any market -
carbon, shares or forestry. Beware a frontier marketplace.
Coal-fired power stations require vast quantities of water to provide cooling for emissions. This was often done in a percolating water-cooling tower of durable timber construction that used both walls of dripping water and the induced airflow to cool emissions - the water being fed and recycled from a cooling pond or dam. Urban Salvage have obtained about 6000 metres of Tallowwood salvaged from a 1994 demolition of an old cooling tower at Wallerawang near Lithgow, NSW by an enterprising dairy farmer who used much of his original cache to re-floor his own home.
Love of timber drove Glenn the dairy farmer to save this hardwood.
That's why we bought the rest of it and it is the reason you will buy it.
70 x 28mm Tallowwood decking @ $7.70/metre or $110.00 per square
metre.
The noughties have seen strong growth in the use of recycled timbers in public spaces. In the 90s it was in major projects - Fed Square, Cockle Bay and Woolloomooloo. This last decade has seen widespread use in smaller private projects such as wineries, restaurants and shopping precincts. It used to be the case that the client wanted the hard-to-get, the exotic or a deeply coloured species. A corporate client or a government committee driven by buzzwords and eco credentials can easily overlook expensive road miles on a high-cost resource if it delivers cachet. Down-to-earth clients have been persuaded that the regional or local resource - messmate - is the timber of choice. Nick Coyle of Abbotsford's The Timber Trip pushes the local timber cause almost universally. It's got to be messmate, says Nick. It has a Melbourne history. Unique stories from known sources. It gets shipped no further than Geelong. Is milled at the Timberzoo, and mostly sold within the region. How good is that? The owners of North Carlton restaurant La Luna were convinced. They commissioned The Timber Trip to supply bars, panelling and tables in our recycled Messmate.
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