The Random thought thread

[onetrack]

The minerals and elements in the soil definitely affect the taste of the fruit or nuts. In my neck of the woods, the gravelly ironstone soils of the Darling Range produce superb-tasting citrus and stonefruits.

Your Pacific Ocean-facing slopes are possibly mineral deficient, after millions of years of increased rainfall causing soil leaching, as compared to the lower rainfall, Western slopes of the GDR.

 

The water in the Perth Hills is highly mineralised, with dams having a blue water colour, due to the mineralised water. The minerals are generally calcium, magnesium and silica, and they are leached out of the weathered granite and dolerite rocks, the pipe clays (kaolin) and the lateritic (ironstone) gravels, that are the common rocks and soils of the Perth Hills. This water is used to irrigate the orchards and provides additional beneficial minerals to the fruit and nut trees.

"Cracker dust" (fine dust from dolerite or granitic rock crushing for roads and ballast) is often used as a fertilising agent, which dust acts as a slow-release provider of calcium, magnesium, silica, and other beneficial minerals to plants, as it breaks down over time.

 

Elsewhere in W.A. where "light" sandy and sandy gravel soils proliferate, there is a need to apply trace elements to enable the plants to take up the nutrients in the soil. Failure to apply trace elements means poor crops and trees, and plants that struggle to thrive - even if you have applied other fertilisers such as nitrogen, phosphate or sulphate fertilisers.

The primary trace elements needed are copper, zinc, manganese, and molybdenum. As indicated, only "trace levels" are needed in the application, but the results are impressive when carried out.

 

For many decades, "light" sandy soils were regarded as useless in W.A., especially for grain cropping, until an ag researcher at the UWA in the early 1930's, found that trace elements were needed on the sandy soils to enable the plants to uptake the nutrients in the soils.

Once this was done on a broadacre farming scale, the yields of wheat, barley, and oats multiplied enormously, and large areas of light land were then cleared for agricultural use.

Trace element application is generally only needed every 5-10 years, it is a long-lasting soil beneficiation treatment.

[willedoo]

The main rock around my area is rhyolite. A lot of years ago I had a bloke with a dozer do a slight contour modification, basically pushing off the topsoil, doing a cut and fill then replacing the topsoil. Before he replaced the topsoil, he pointed out some patches of a purple coloured, soft chalky rock that had been exposed. He told me it was rich in minerals and that bananas did really well with it. Turned out he was right. I planted Lady Fingers on that area and they did really well considering the shallow topsoil depth. I fed a lot of flying foxes and bush turkeys on those bananas. The flying foxes weren't too bad; they wouldn't rip the bags apart and would just eat the end bananas on the bunch that they could reach at the bag openings. The turkeys would fly up onto the bags, rip the bags open and peck bits out of every banana on the bunch. They wouldn't eat complete bananas, just destroy the whole bunch by partially eating every single banana.

[willedoo]

42 minutes ago, onetrack said:

For many decades, "light" sandy soils were regarded as useless in W.A., especially for grain cropping, until an ag researcher at the UWA in the early 1930's, found that trace elements were needed on the sandy soils to enable the plants to uptake the nutrients in the soils.

Once this was done on a broadacre farming scale, the yields of wheat, barley, and oats multiplied enormously, and large areas of light land were then cleared for agricultural use.

It always amazes me what they can do in that light soil. A cousin of mine farms around 11,000 hectares in the Tammin area and they get into a fair bit of high tech stuff. At that scale a lot of it is about minimising costs so a lot of their decision making is data based. It's another world from where he grew up with black soil metres deep.

[facthunter]

Sugar affects the taste the Most. Unripe fruits are Bitter tasting. The Plant MAKES the sugar. Of course soils will alter the Fruit taste but not the sweetness which was my Point. High acid or alkaline figures will Kill Plants but Lime (alkaline) is considered to "sweeten" the soil but not in the way putting sugar in it would. Neutral Ph makes More Nutrient available to the Plants. Microbes and Worms Help the soil provide more nutrient and Urea (nitrogen) makes leaves greener..  Soil testing is a Must with Farming and knowing where the water table is.  Nev

[willedoo]

3 hours ago, willedoo said:

This year was a bumber season for the nuts in S.E. Queensland

Bumper season that should read. 

[willedoo]

I bought this pedestal drill on marketplace today. It's a bit of a monster, two of us loaded it into the back of the ute, but it must weigh at least 100kg or more. The head is solid cast steel which contributes a lot to the weight, although it's built like a tank from top to bottom. One thing about it though, the on/off switch on the left hand side reminds me of the safety aspect of modern drills with front facing switches. I've got an old bench drill with that same side mount setup and it's not ideal.

 

[onetrack]

Nice buy, Willie. The old Taiwanese pedestal drills are good value if you acquire them for the right money. Even better if they have a Morse taper 16mm chuck. You just have to watch breaking the table mountings/castings with too much pressure. Seen quite a few with busted table mountings, which immediately makes them worthless, as there's no hope of getting replacement parts. They certainly are heavy.

[facthunter]

Check whether it's a SPLINE or Keyed Quill  and has good bearings and a depth stop..  My table can be rotated and tilted.   I use the Milling machine for any accurate work. Nev

[willedoo]

I might have to stop complaining about my 30% council rate increase last year. I was listening to a grazier speaking on the ABC radio country hour talking about his latest rate bill from the Cassowary Coast Regional Council. He's had a 60% increase this time around. Combined with big increases preceding that, he's now handing over a third of his income to council in rates. Or as he put it another way, for every three cows he sells, one goes to paying rates.

[willedoo]

On that rate topic, I also heard the Gold Coast mayor on the radio saying they're keeping the rate increase this year to a 4% average. I'm not looking forward to my next bill after our council recently announced they're a billion dollars in the red on their budget.

[willedoo]

The ABC radio has just issued a traffic warning of a rooster on the loose in the vicinity of the big pineapple. They're on to it. It's usually something like a ladder on the road or an escaped cow or horse, but this is the first rooster warning I've heard.

[onetrack]

It appears as if quite a number of councils are really badly run, regardless of the State of Australia they're in. Here on the left coast, we've had quite a few councillors suspended, and their council placed under administration.

The suspensions usually come about because of council infighting that makes the council dysfunctional. So the W.A. Govt steps in and appoints an Adminstrator for the Council until new elections are held.

In some cases, the council is placed into Administration due to essentially becoming bankrupt due to poor financial planning, bad management, and gold-plated local projects.

The Coolgardie Shire Council is typical, they went and built a massive mining accommodation camp, then COVID hit, and they ended up with a half-empty camp and a huge debt.

I think the Camp cost around $45M, and there was still about $25M owing on it, when the Govt stepped in with a Strict Monitoring Plan, whereby the Council has to show it can regain proper financial and management control of its operations.

 

The Coogardie Council Primary problems included:

 

Financial Distress: The Shire recorded significant multi-million-dollar budget deficits and incurred liabilities exceeding assets, casting doubt on its viability. This resulted in deferred infrastructure projects, ratepayer protests, and community-led overhaul initiatives.

 

Administrative Mismanagement: The Auditor-General’s audit highlighted that the council used restricted funds to cover shortfalls, failed to follow purchasing policies for a $1-million housing project, and paid out $150,000 to settle two unfair dismissal claims.

 

Remote Work Controversy: The audit exposed that a senior employee was permitted to work remotely from the Caribbean island of Montserrat for almost a year, improperly drawing a council salary.

 

Executive Turmoil: Long-serving Chief Executive James Trail was suspended following workplace culture investigations and subsequently left the council. The Chief Financial Officer was also suspended, requiring the Shire to implement an ongoing Financial Recovery Plan.

 

I am very fortunate to live in the City of Stirling, which is well-run, has minimal debt, no "councillor-enhancing" projects, and has only very modest increases in rates, year on year.

The City of Stirling rate increases have ranged from 2.95% to 4.9% annually over the last few years, with this year being the biggest at 4.9%.

The City had to cope with a major Auditor-Generals upwards revaluation of Gross Rental Values right across the entire City in 2025, and they reduced the "rate-in-the-dollar" charges to reduce any major impact on residents rate bills.

They're the biggest Council in W.A., with 254,000 residents, and they have to look after around 105 sq kms of very intensely developed surburbia. 

 

I read an article earlier today, where Albury is looking at a 42% increase in rates over the next 2 years! That is unbelievable! Either the residents have been getting dirt-cheap rates for too long, or the council has been too exuberant with its spending.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-16/albury-council-looks-to-steeply-increase-rates/106802924

[nomadpete]

In my opinion although many people go on about federal or state government corruption, it is local government (councils) that are by far the most corrupt level of government

 

[willedoo]

The amalgamation of councils by the then state government made it a lot worse here. Small, well run councils thet were in the black and cashed up were swallowed up by the larger councils that were heavily in debt. The supercouncils it created was like handing kids the keys to the lolly shop. Higher rates, more potholes for most places. It increased the bureaucracy a lot; our council now has 1,800 staff and 1,000 of them work in the office behind a desk. Things worked a lot better under the old system of smaller, leaner councils. In our three tier system of government, local government is far and away the weak link in my opinion. They are the most wasteful of the three and the worst for caring about the people that voted them in. There would be good councils around the country and anyone who lives in those council districts is very fortunate indeed as it's not the norm.

[Marty_d]

4 hours ago, willedoo said:

The ABC radio has just issued a traffic warning of a rooster on the loose in the vicinity of the big pineapple. They're on to it. It's usually something like a ladder on the road or an escaped cow or horse, but this is the first rooster warning I've heard.

If they interview the bird, maybe it can answer that age-old question of why it was crossing the road...