Moving: UQ: The Ekka: Imbolc

Everyone is moving at the moment. We moved and then Atratus' house, um, exploded and everyone moved, Pan's moving into our old room at the Coop and tomorrow we spend the day shifting my Da and Jane from their West End house.

I'm partially convinced it's got to be in the stars: everything's in Leo. Our Housewarming (which rocked and thanks to everyone who came) was on the 5th when Sun was in Leo, Moon was in Leo, Mercury was retrograding in Leo and Saturn was in Leo (which is of course where my Saturn was at time of birth and I'm coming up to my Saturn Return next month). And then Neptune was squaring all of that in Aquarius. Now I'm not going to do a detailed analysis but suffice to say when there's that much stuff going on, well, stuff goes on.

I'm adjusting to going to UQ: it's very different to what I'm used to. Atratus says that there are 30,000 staff and students which is more than the whole town of Armidale (population in 1993: 25,000) when I was there. And QUT isn't really that big population-wise, particularly spread across the campuses. So a little intimidating. Of course the xplore-it gene has kicked in and I'm coping and can finally find where all of my classes are (which has more to do with screw ups on si-net, the uq web based thing, than with my direction sense). Greenintestines is also on campus and Arika but I haven't tracked anyone else down and its another place where it'll take a while to make friends and actually I'm pretty good at that.

The Ekka's on and we go past it on the new train line. People reckon that it's flu season with the Ekka - another good reason to avoid it. We won't mention the price. We're talking about a day trip to Dreamworld/Movieworld/Seaworld next month to make up for not going. Oh and actually getting to go on rides. (A history of the Ekka can be found here.)

It's shifted ever so slightly into spring. The light's changed again and you can feel the touch of heat in the sun. The days are a bit longer too. The 8th was Imbolc by the 15 degrees Leo tradition and the 5th by Full Moon in Leo tradition. I bet if I went outside somewhere where there was Acacia's they'd be blooming.

Maleny vs Woolworths

On the 20th August, the citizens of Maleny are asking us to join them in protesting the building of a Woolworths on the creekside of the Obi Obi.

Maleny is a small rural town in the Noosa Hinterland, about an hour and a half north of Brisbane. They sit on the top of the D'aguilar range which feeds into the watershed of the Brisbane River Catchment. It's a beautiful part of South-East Queensland and has an interesting mix of rural and green residents. There are farmers and communities all sheltering in the valleys on the top of the table land. My Dad has lived there, with both my sisters and his wife, for most of the last twenty years and while I get the most horrendous allergies whenever the camphor laurels are in flower, it's one of those spots that I'm so glad I can get to, and so glad it exists.

Woolworths is putting in a Store on the edge of the Obi Obi Creek that runs through the town and currently the residents are running a campaign to stop it's development. The Woolworths is being built on the edge of the creek where Platypus burrows have been found and are being destroyed by the building works. It's competing with small rural businesses that have been running at least as long as I've been going there which will have detrimental affects on the economy of a small town that has managed to survive the rural to urban immigration of the last fifty years. It's also being built in an area that is known for it's existing traffic problems and will only add more traffic. It's across the road from a primary school and high school with all the safety issues that entails.

The way that Woolworths have been responding to the actions has been quite heavy handed. The Maleny Voice site has a lot more information, both on the affects and the way that Woolworths have been responding. You can find the copies of the reports, planning documentation and press releases updating on the current state of the campaign on the site.

I've been asked to spread the word about the action on the 20th of August and let everyone know what's going on. If you can't make it there, at least think about boycotting Woolworths in support.