Diary of a Flood Survivor

I couldn’t be more proud of my community right now.

While I attended the Saturday food rally as a journalist, I knew full well the frustration and grief that many of those who attended had been going through.

is enough’.

From local business owners, who want to get back on their feet but not offered any support, to elderly people living in sheds during winter, how can this still be?

Another gentleman was in bright yellow with a sign that read ‘Be Goody to Woody’.

The Northern Rivers Careers Expo is on again at the Lismore Showgrounds on Tuesday 25 July 2023.

Connect Northern Rivers (a not for proft organisation) has once again organised another FREE Careers Expo event to be held at the Lismore Showgrounds. There will be over 2,500 students attending from all over the NSW north coast. Students will be arriving from 9 am and we welcome the public from 12 noon to 2 pm. Any person, no matter what age, looking for a job/career or to further study are invited and encouraged of universities from all over Australia. TAFE NSW, our Expo Partner and Greg Clark Building will be sponsoring the “Try a Trade” with a separate indoor/outdoor pavilion. There will be lots of different vocational sections including Aviation, Early Childhood, Bricklaying, Hair & Beauty, Creative Industries, Animal Sciences, Agriculture, Automotive, Business, Allied Health & Fitness, Engineering, Tourism and Hospitality to allow young people to have a hands on experience. Some of the businesses attending include Byron Shire and Lismore

Force Recruiting, Whiddon, Southern Cross University (Transport Sponsor), Bennett Constructions, Essential Energy, Frizelle Sunshine Automotive Group, 10+ universities from around Australia, Marine Rescue NSW, Sydney Actors School and Sydney Film School, Headspace, SAE Creative Media Institute, NSW Police, Austral Fisheries WA, and many more …

There will be a Defence Force vehicle, simulators, animals, speedways cars, go karts, motorbikes, SCU’s electric kombi van, boat and solar Sunfower (used to power music festivals), a Ready, Steady, Cook competition and school performances, CPR demonstrations, a dodge ram, lots of food and coffee vans, Visual Reality goggles experiences and activities to ‘Try a Trade and much more.

Contact Connect Northern Rivers on 1300 183 352 or Ingrid Johansen on 0447 185 428 for further information.

The rally was in protest of the lack of support and the feeling of invisibility projected on the small villages in the mid-Richmond, all hard hit by last year’s food. For 16 months many have been living in substandard accommodation because the bureaucrats seemed to have been just twiddling their thumbs and fnding ways to cut costs.

That’s how it seems.

On Saturday, many small villages got together to say ‘enough to attend. There will be a jobs vacancy board, two pavilions jam packed and full of large and small businesses looking for staff, apprentices and trainees and lots

The big man upstairs must have also been in support as the day was a beautiful sunny, crisp one with a dazzling blue sky. This can create problems for photographers if the sun as at the wrong angle, but that’s a minor problem in the great scheme of things.

Many people brought old election signs, recycled to promote their villages and say what they were feeling. One lady dressed up as a swan to represent Swan Bay.

A number of people had painted their umbrellas with slogans, a nod to the inundation of water we received all those months ago.

Creativity was amongst those who attended.

There was also anger and yet a positivity, as a cheer went up when the local mayor announced the DA for a new petrol station was nearly approved.

We were promised the visit of some senior ministers in the near future, who will hopefully undo the purse strings and help those most in need. We wait and we continue to survive. Little steps.

Councils, Koori Mail (Community Sponsor), Byron Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, Coles, Casino Food Co-op, Jobs

Northern Rivers, Thomas Noble Russell, Defence

A big thanks to our Expo Partner TAFE NSW and our sponsors: Greg Clark Building, Southern Cross University, Koori Mail and Summerland Careers Advisers Network.

“AN arrogant person,” once said Leo Tolstoy, “considers themself perfect. This is the chief harm of arrogance. It interferes with a person’s main task in lifebecoming a better person.” And what better purpose could one have than aspiring to become a better person; to continually rise through self-improvement instead of resting on feigned laurels or the simple delusion of having achieved perfection.

While arrogance is one of the least mistakable traits a person can infict or exude in the presence of others, it is also the most grotesque expression in a cluster or continuum of antics that include audacity, and its lesser offensive sibling – precocity. As such, the origin of the word arrogance derives from the Latin ‘arrogans’ which means overbearing or insolent. Audacity on the other hand comes from ‘audacitas’, meaning boldness. And all the word precocious means, is to ripen early.

For as long as Western culture has fermented, confounded and unfolded in all directions, these three spectre-like character traits have both aided and abated proceedings in the most subversive and subtle of ways. Indeed, the Roman poet Horace, who coined the expression ‘Carpe Diem’ or ‘Seize the day’, also came up with the dumb me downdefying line – ‘Sapere aude’, meaning ‘Dare to be wise’, which in turn became the catchphrase of the entire period known as the Enlightenment.

While the measured or conscious daring of audacity clearly drives progress and improvement on all fronts; it is the Frankenstein-like infuence of arrogance that acts like a fully activated break whenever momentum needs additional thrust to reach a breakthrough. Or as Pushkar Ganesh Vaidya once enthused, “Our audacity must be rooted in our humility.”

Tweed Shire Council is working alongside the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) to alert locals to be on the lookout for red imported fre ants, following detections of the invasive ants at Mermaid Waters, just 11.5 km north of the Queensland border.

Because when it is not it becomes lost in the dim, bearing-less night of self-importance, a selfimportance that directly leads to the blank void of arrogance.

Half a century before the lofty example of Martin Luther King Jr, who was arguably one of the most inspiring African-American fgures of all time, there was an educator and activist called Booker T. Washington.

From the last generation of African-Americans to be born into the utter blight of slavery, Washington went on to advise numerous American Presidents. Like a thunderclap from the realm of reasoned decency, Booker T. once accurately surmised, “Egotism is the anaesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.” Egotism being merely the smarmy, short-sighted refection arrogance casts when it catches sight of itself in the mirror.

Regardless of how good, special or important any of us believe ourselves to be, nothing erodes the reality or remote actuality of these qualities quite like the prevalence of arrogance. It is like a ginormous interpersonal eraser that rids and rubs out everything that might otherwise be worthy of praise. Or as Erik Pevernagie once confded, “We need not be afraid of learning to know ourselves, fearing it would come down to disappointment.

Remaining humble allows us to have compassion for ourselves for not being perfect. If we stay lucid and grounded, we steer clear of the steep cliffs of delusional self-importance or arrogance.”

Councillors in recent weeks, and a mailout to all Tweed households expected to be issued soon.

The NSW Government, which is leading the charge against the invasive pest, announced last week it would spend an additional $80 million to protect the State from the insect.

First detected at the Port of Brisbane in 2001, red imported fre ants have recently been detected at Mermaid Waters in Queensland, just 11.5 km orth of the border. This followed the discovery of other nests at Mudgeeraba, Carrara, Worongary and Innisplain, all within 18 km of NSW.

A comprehensive awareness campaign is underway by the NSW DPI, with DPI representatives holding meetings with Tweed Shire Council’s feld-based staff and

NSW DPI Invasive Species Biosecurity director Scott Charlton said fre ants cause serious social, economic and environmental harm and it was important to keep NSW and the Tweed free from the aggressive pest.

“Local residents and businesses should check their properties and if you see any sign of fre ants, please call NSW DPI on 1800 680 244 – fnding them early and alerting us will increase the chances of successful eradication,” Mr Charlton said.

Tweed Shire Council Pest Management Supervisor Brian Falkner said the pest management team is preparing to tackle this invasive pest.

“Working closely with NSW DPI and Queensland authorities, we are running fre ant surveillance programs and preparing to respond if fre ants are found here,” Mr Falkner said.

“Educational support and training workshops are being provided to all feld-based staff, so they know what to look out for on the ground.

“Local developers, builders, road crews and the agricultural industry should also be on alert. We cannot allow fre ants to take hold in the Tweed. We need your help to look out for this invasive species to help keep our community safe.”

Residents and businesses are urged to check their properties for any evidence of fre ants.

Fire ants can look similar to other ants but their nests are distinctive with mounds of loose, crumbly or fuffy looking soil with a honeycomb appearance, up to 40 centimetres high, with no obvious entrance holes.

Fire ants are dark reddish-brown with a darker black-brown abdomen and are from two to six millimetres long.

They are very aggressive and will swarm out of the nest if gently poked with a stick. If people are stung, the multiple stings fre ants infict form white pustules within 48 hours.

Look for them in sunny open areas, including lawns, parks, school grounds, sports felds, golf courses, gardens, foreshores, paddocks, disturbed soil and roadsides.

Fire ants may be found in areas where hay, turf, mulch, soil, potted plants, sand, gravel, or agricultural machinery have been used or stored, especially goods from southeast Queensland. They can spread up to 5 km by fying and can be moved in nesting material, which includes mulch, woodchips, compost, sand, gravel, soil, hay, other baled products, and even pot plants.

Anyone bringing these goods into NSW from Queensland should check if they came from areas within 5 km of a known fre ant infestation. Such goods are subject to strict entry conditions and must be accompanied by a certifcate.

If you buy or bring these materials from Mermaid Waters, Mudgeeraba, Carrara, Worongary, Innisplain or the red imported fre ant biosecurity zone in southeast Queensland, you should check your requirements online at red imported fre ants (nsw.gov.au).

Anyone who fnds signs of fre ants on their properties is urged to call the NSW DPI on 1800 680 244.