On Thursday night I drove to the groin <\/p>\n\n\n\n
at the back of Apollo Bay\u2019s harbour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was vaguely upset to see two motor homes set up<\/p>\n\n\n\n
on the expanded parking lot, one on either side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
maybe there are lots more on other evenings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These camp sites must be quite expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Screaming silver gulls were eating discarded chips<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I BEEPed feebly and drove out the Barham River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Paradise picnic reserve I was definitely upset<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two monster tourist buses had squeezed in <\/p>\n\n\n\n
using up half the public parking spot, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
a bloody tree in the way or there could\u2019ve been more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their hapless customers huddled on the road\u2019s edge waving torches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Presumably the trade has discovered glow worms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was raining. Hopefully they weren\u2019t swept away <\/p>\n\n\n\n
by trees, rocks and waterfalls or locals driving home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Strangely, the only living Beech Trees I can find<\/p>\n\n\n\n
are the ones we planted on our farm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s happened to protected native flora <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not only is AB plagued by potholes and drainage issues–<\/p>\n\n\n\n
like drive ways that appear to flood existing homes<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and burn offs willy nilly on windy days<\/p>\n\n\n\n
we\u2019ve donated our flora and fauna it seems<\/p>\n\n\n\n
to the wheels of progress and rank opportunism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe flashing lights on the foreshore\u2019s Norfolk Pine <\/p>\n\n\n\n
are compensation for absent street lighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We were told koalas would be good for tourism, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
perhaps the Chamber of Commerce should take over<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and inspect buildings at appropriate stages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve logged the heart out of our forests <\/p>\n\n\n\n
and fed them and live creatures in boats to the export trade<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t feel the price of this glittering progress <\/p>\n\n\n\n
is evenly shared around the community, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
nor are all souls adequately informed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our recreation reserve presents as a squalid dump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the powers that be have decided to shift it <\/p>\n\n\n\n
like the site of the former shire offices, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
is it far too valuable to be wasted on simple folk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a shonky consultation the idea of a roundabout<\/p>\n\n\n\n
on our most dangerous intersection has been shelved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Serious action on an expensive parking consultation <\/p>\n\n\n\n
is still being meditated upon, it seems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Houses make real gold. Grand designs, ocean views.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And monster caravan parks where the poor seek shelter <\/p>\n\n\n\n
rather than cardboard chucked in a vacant garage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They say everybody visits Apollo Bay once in their lives<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and it is truly delightful, a pity about the essentials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Thursday night I drove to the groin at the back of Apollo Bay\u2019s harbour. I was vaguely upset to see two motor homes set up on the expanded parking lot, one on either side. maybe there are lots more … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"kt_blocks_editor_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.otways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.otways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.otways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=297"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.otways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":324,"href":"https:\/\/www.otways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions\/324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.otways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.otways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}