Dereel

You will notice that the main poll (Should Dereel have a mobile phone tower?) has now been closed. It's been running for 2 weeks and that seems like long enough. Looking at the logs there were many votes from outside Victoria (Queensland, NSW and SA) so it appears some people have been trying to skew the results. Voting in polls will now require a registered account to help reduce this sort of abuse in the future, and just like what all the big news organisations say:

Polls are not scientific and reflect the opinion only of visitors who have chosen to participate.

DATA want us to believe that mobile phone towers make us sick, that they make animals sick and that ultimately they will lead to our early demise. Well if that's true then surely an area that is literally blanketed in mobile towers would be impossible to live in, right?

Here is an image from cellsite.nudge.id.au which has a map of mobile towers in Melbourne:



You can't even see the CBD. If there was any evidence to support DATA's case you'd think people wouldn't be able to work in the CBD of Melbourne and yet they do, every single day of the year. Millions of people and thousands of mobile phone towers all living and working in perfect harmony.

For comparison here is what our area looks like:



Take a close look at the scale of those maps (in the bottom left corner).

Let's use our common sense on this issue.

Everyone has heard of the placebo effect, it's when a sick person is given nothing more than sugar and told that it will cure their illness when in fact it doesn't have any active ingredients at all. The person is so convinced that the tablet or surgery or device they are given will cure them that it actually does. But were you aware that there is an opposite effect to? It's call the nocebo effect. In this case the person has so convinced themselves that a medicine or surgery or invisible microwave is causing them harm that the body actually manifests real symptoms - in other words they worry themselves sick when there is actually no root cause other than their own thoughts.

Something to think about.

There will be a community meeting on Tuesday the 3rd of August in the Dereel Community Centre between 6:30pm and 8:30pm to discuss planned burning operations to be undertaken in and around Dereel, Enfield and Berringa.

You are invited to attend to listen and to ask any questions you may have about the operations. The draft plans can be viewed at www.dse.vic.gov.au/fire.

For more information you can contact Merydth Whitehead (DSE Land & Fire Planning Manager) on 5335-0729 or Lee Glesson (DSE Fuel Management Officer) on 5321-6888

DATA try to employ fear to rob you of your reason, well I can do that too. The only difference is my fear is real. My family has lived in Dereel for over 20 years, in February of 1995 the Enfield forest caught fire. It destroyed homes in Berringa and it threatened to destroy homes in Dereel, including ours.

In total 10,000 hectares was burned and nine houses were lost. It was by far the most terrifying time in my life. The CFA were using our dam as a filling point as the fire headed towards Dereel. Trucks and helicopters were everywhere. Eventually the fire reached our home and all the members of my family fought it - but we didn't for a second imagine we'd win, our car was packed and if the fire took hold of our home or threatened to block our escape route we would have evacuated.



I think back to that time and think we were fool hardy and that we were just lucky that the CFA were so near our home when it needed protection. It wasn't good planning that kept us alive and our home safe - it was mostly luck. If another fire threaten would we do it again? I doubt it. At the time our family consisted of 4 strong boys and their parents but 15 years on that's no longer the case. No, if a fire threatened our home again we'd pack up and leave.

So now my thoughts turn to how would we safely evacuate? Obviously we'd pack our cars with what belongings and pets we could and head off but once we leave the home how are we going to communicate? What if we get separated while evacuating? What if a car breaks down during the evacuation or the fire changes directions and makes a road impassable? What if...

There are lots of nice and happy reasons to want a mobile phone tower in Dereel but for me it's the reasons I can't think of that matter the most. I hope I never have to use my mobile phone for an emergency ever again in my life, but I will fight tooth and nail to ensure the service is there just in case I do. Fire has killed more people and animals and destroyed more homes than electromagnetic hypersensitivity ever has. If a tower in Dereel saved even 1 life it would be worth every penny.

Of all the towns in Victoria there is only 52 listed as being at extreme risk of being destroyed by bush fire, Dereel is one of those. Of those 52 only a handful have no designated evacuation point, Dereel is one of those. How safe do you feel not having mobile phone coverage?

(all the pictures in this post are from the 1995 Berringa/Enfield Forest fire)