Queenslanders told to toughen up for Storms, Bushfires

"Queenslanders need to adopt a survivor mentality and learn to fend for themselves in storms and bushfires, the state's disaster response chief warns."

Interesting story, thanks for the link.

Seems like this is a recurring theme now that most people live in cities and get a bit soft as urban services strive to meet their every need. It's certainly true in Canada.

Isn't it funny how advice from governments (local and national) on advising people to prepare to take care of themselves is coming right alongside this awful global economy. The old concept of patting the citizens on the head like babies and saying, "That's okay, we'll take care of you" seems to be fading into the sunset, doesn't it?

IMO, booting the rears of a lot of complacent people into some self-reliance can only be a good thing... even if they're kicked into it kicking and screaming.

Sue

After living in Queensland for a year, I am sorry to see that the lousy zoning and urban growth policies are now coming back to bite the citizens in the backside. You can't just let developers and homebuilders go in a plop a house in the middle of a forest of highly volatile vegetation without due consideration of what sort of risks are involved. Now the houses and such are in there, and no provision for adequate fire control measures has been planned or implemented, so the answer is for the provincial leaders to tell the residents they are on their own now? Lack of prior planning will cause emergencies, and this in a region that's been under drought conditions for the past decade. They should've done better at warning and restricting development when they had a chance, instead of just looking to fill the coffers with more property tax monies and then walking away from the mess they helped create.

Urban growth isn't just about finding the most lucrative way for the government to allow land use; sometimes it requires a little forethought for the environment and the welfare of the people who will occupy it.

Jeez, Ben!

You want government to invest in a little forethought???

The next thing you'll want is fiscal responsibility!

Sue, shaking head in wonder

Yeah, I know, I can wish in one hand, right?

Knowing some of the folks that are going to have to deal with this new policy back there makes me more sympathetic I suppose.

Funny thing is, I see this sort of behavior in parents with their kids a lot as well. They will molly coddle them and let them go through childhood with no ambition and no direction, then at 18 they pull the rug out and then wonder why their children are on welfare programs, raising 3 kids by the time they are 20, and already in trouble with the law. Not too hard to figure out where our role models are coming from when governments sets such an obvious example.

The big killer in Qld will be floods.

The canal developments are swampland with canals dug/dredged to get some dirt/sand enough above water to stick an expensive house on. Think of even a weak cyclone down to the sunshine coast (has been known to happen) with lots of rain and low pressure add a king tide = GLOOP.

Better to watch the aftermath on TV, it probably won't be live.

Ooh boy howdy, when they get one of those gullywhumpers come around the horn on them, it does make quite a mess of things. The two times I sat through a nor'wester that made it in past Alice Springs, that was almost as bad as one of them there west Texas mid-August thunderstorms. It really churns through Brisbane quick and hard. It doesn't happen often, as they usually turn out east once they hit the reef.

Some of those houses they plopped out on the hillsides out west heading toward Toowoomba would slop down the hill in a flooding rain just like them houses out in LA you see on the news.

I gotta think the fire situation would be worse, though. Gum tree tend to explode like dynamite when they get lit.