Thursday 27 December 2007

How to save $599,999,920


Helen Tunnah of Mareeba has the right idea when she writes in today's Cairns Post.
Helen provides a start, more economical and greener solution to the Kuranda Road debacle... simply stick a 60k speed sign up... and hey presto!
I dead set against stuffing around with the Kuranda Road and don't for a minute believe the best solution has been arrived at.
In most other eco-sensitive destinations around the world, a 4-lane highway through this kind of rainforest would be the last thing to be considered, not the first.
To suggest that much of the forest wouldn't be effected is stupid, as would the remote villages of Myola and surrounding Kuranda.
This government seem to be all quick off the marks to build and build bigger. When will they learn that this "progress" is not sustainable.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have been thinking about the new and improved Kuranda road that has been proposed.
If the government thinks that a 4 lane highway is going to slow people down while travelling to the tablelands, then they are wrong. I travel the range quite regularly, and find that I drive up there at about 50kms per hour. Drive down at about 60kms per hour. That feels safe in my 1991 model Toyota Corolla. If they put a 4 laned highway in, I would more than likely do it a little quicker. But, unfortunately, not everyone drives a 1991 Corolla.
I remember the days when I was younger, drove a 1997 model HSV Holden Commodore. This car was a street registered version of a group "A" race car that Peter Brock drove back in those days. If they had a 4 lane highway built up to Kuranda when I had that car, I would have been able to drive up there at between 100km/hour and 140km/hour. There are a lot of young people that own cars similar to what I had, and in a lot of cases, quicker than that commodore. You quite often see them gathered at McDonalds at woree, or Portsmith Fuel at Bentley Park. My partner and I call them the "Small Penis Club". Young guys and girls with souped at sports cars, with no where to race them. Hence, they race the suburban streets of Cairns on the Thursday night. I know if I was still a memeber of this club, with a souped up race car, and a nice new 4 laned highway to race up, I would be there with bells on.

Anonymous said...

This article is generally music to my ears Mike, but something has been bothering me about it.

Today I figured out what.

You left three digit off the end... and some.

Not $599,920.

$599,999,920!

Or, according to recent comments by Main Roads Minister Warren Pitt, more like $1,000,000,000+

A tidy saving.