Demolition experts go to great lengths
In an effort to keep the peace and avoid a battle of wills (not to mention 10 Ball Magical Shooters), we're going to put a cap on the home armaments (C8) chapter very soon. But we do have room for Joy Cooksey of Harrington: 'On the aftermath of one cracker night, my brother built himself a pea-shooter. All the powder from the various unexploded crackers was collected and tipped into a piece of steel piping clamped in the workbench vice. But as he rammed down the largest ball bearing available, this supersized pea-shooter was activated. Any reference to the hole in the ceiling always made him think twice before considering any other inventions.'
Doug Vorbach and his 'orange cannon' escapade reminded Les Tomlinson of Berowra Heights of his own adventures: 'We used a length of two-inch galvanised water pipe, tuppenny bungers and lemons with devastating effect. We also used metal downpiping and rockets as a makeshift bazooka. When eventually conscripted into the ADF in the mid-1960s, it was probably inevitable that I found myself assigned to an artillery unit.'
Kerrie Wehbe of Blacktown remembers a more melodic repurposing of pipes: 'During my years teaching in PNG's Milne Bay Province, the students used PVC pipes with rubber stretched over one end to do the job of the traditional kundu drum. This modern item, among all the traditional grass skirts, shells, plants and feathers, was quite a sight, but it did the job.'
Peter Singer of Hamilton South reckons 'HE STOOD CORRECTED' seems like a suitable statement for Richard Stewart's headstone (C8) and adds that 'maybe for someone whose missives for Column 8 are continually ignored it could be 'HE LAYS REJECTED'?'
'Put those know-it-alls in their place, Richard,' implores Col Burns of Lugarno. 'Expand your epitaph to 'HE ONCE STOOD CORRECTED BUT NOW HE RESOLUTELY MAINTAINS HIS POSITION'.'
Philip Laird of Keiraville notes that 'the bus stop outside the Wollongong Botanic Garden on Northfield Avenue, and opposite the busiest bus stop in Wollongong at the university's main campus, has a timetable dated January 27, 2015. Since then it's just possible that some services have been added and some withdrawn.'
'If the chicken Bob Selinger (C8) writes about is not claimed, I wonder if its goose is cooked?' ponders Wayne Duncombe of Lilyfield. Either way, Tim Slack-Smith of Castle Hill considers the whole thing 'just a poultry piece of fowl play'.
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The Age
4 days ago
- The Age
Demolition experts go to great lengths
In an effort to keep the peace and avoid a battle of wills (not to mention 10 Ball Magical Shooters), we're going to put a cap on the home armaments (C8) chapter very soon. But we do have room for Joy Cooksey of Harrington: 'On the aftermath of one cracker night, my brother built himself a pea-shooter. All the powder from the various unexploded crackers was collected and tipped into a piece of steel piping clamped in the workbench vice. But as he rammed down the largest ball bearing available, this supersized pea-shooter was activated. Any reference to the hole in the ceiling always made him think twice before considering any other inventions.' Doug Vorbach and his 'orange cannon' escapade reminded Les Tomlinson of Berowra Heights of his own adventures: 'We used a length of two-inch galvanised water pipe, tuppenny bungers and lemons with devastating effect. We also used metal downpiping and rockets as a makeshift bazooka. When eventually conscripted into the ADF in the mid-1960s, it was probably inevitable that I found myself assigned to an artillery unit.' Kerrie Wehbe of Blacktown remembers a more melodic repurposing of pipes: 'During my years teaching in PNG's Milne Bay Province, the students used PVC pipes with rubber stretched over one end to do the job of the traditional kundu drum. This modern item, among all the traditional grass skirts, shells, plants and feathers, was quite a sight, but it did the job.' Peter Singer of Hamilton South reckons 'HE STOOD CORRECTED' seems like a suitable statement for Richard Stewart's headstone (C8) and adds that 'maybe for someone whose missives for Column 8 are continually ignored it could be 'HE LAYS REJECTED'?' 'Put those know-it-alls in their place, Richard,' implores Col Burns of Lugarno. 'Expand your epitaph to 'HE ONCE STOOD CORRECTED BUT NOW HE RESOLUTELY MAINTAINS HIS POSITION'.' Philip Laird of Keiraville notes that 'the bus stop outside the Wollongong Botanic Garden on Northfield Avenue, and opposite the busiest bus stop in Wollongong at the university's main campus, has a timetable dated January 27, 2015. Since then it's just possible that some services have been added and some withdrawn.' 'If the chicken Bob Selinger (C8) writes about is not claimed, I wonder if its goose is cooked?' ponders Wayne Duncombe of Lilyfield. Either way, Tim Slack-Smith of Castle Hill considers the whole thing 'just a poultry piece of fowl play'.
Sydney Morning Herald
4 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Demolition experts go to great lengths
In an effort to keep the peace and avoid a battle of wills (not to mention 10 Ball Magical Shooters), we're going to put a cap on the home armaments (C8) chapter very soon. But we do have room for Joy Cooksey of Harrington: 'On the aftermath of one cracker night, my brother built himself a pea-shooter. All the powder from the various unexploded crackers was collected and tipped into a piece of steel piping clamped in the workbench vice. But as he rammed down the largest ball bearing available, this supersized pea-shooter was activated. Any reference to the hole in the ceiling always made him think twice before considering any other inventions.' Doug Vorbach and his 'orange cannon' escapade reminded Les Tomlinson of Berowra Heights of his own adventures: 'We used a length of two-inch galvanised water pipe, tuppenny bungers and lemons with devastating effect. We also used metal downpiping and rockets as a makeshift bazooka. When eventually conscripted into the ADF in the mid-1960s, it was probably inevitable that I found myself assigned to an artillery unit.' Kerrie Wehbe of Blacktown remembers a more melodic repurposing of pipes: 'During my years teaching in PNG's Milne Bay Province, the students used PVC pipes with rubber stretched over one end to do the job of the traditional kundu drum. This modern item, among all the traditional grass skirts, shells, plants and feathers, was quite a sight, but it did the job.' Peter Singer of Hamilton South reckons 'HE STOOD CORRECTED' seems like a suitable statement for Richard Stewart's headstone (C8) and adds that 'maybe for someone whose missives for Column 8 are continually ignored it could be 'HE LAYS REJECTED'?' 'Put those know-it-alls in their place, Richard,' implores Col Burns of Lugarno. 'Expand your epitaph to 'HE ONCE STOOD CORRECTED BUT NOW HE RESOLUTELY MAINTAINS HIS POSITION'.' Philip Laird of Keiraville notes that 'the bus stop outside the Wollongong Botanic Garden on Northfield Avenue, and opposite the busiest bus stop in Wollongong at the university's main campus, has a timetable dated January 27, 2015. Since then it's just possible that some services have been added and some withdrawn.' 'If the chicken Bob Selinger (C8) writes about is not claimed, I wonder if its goose is cooked?' ponders Wayne Duncombe of Lilyfield. Either way, Tim Slack-Smith of Castle Hill considers the whole thing 'just a poultry piece of fowl play'.
The Advertiser
13-06-2025
- The Advertiser
'We started a fire': ADF criticised over major blaze
The Australian Defence Force knew about fire risks posed by its aircraft years before an army helicopter sparked a catastrophic blaze that razed most of a national park during Black Summer, a coroner has found. The fire was ignited by the searchlight on an ADF MRH-90 Taipan helicopter, known as ANGEL21, when the crew landed for a toilet break while on a reconnaissance mission outside Canberra on January 27, 2020. The fire quickly spread from the Orroral Valley and went on to burn more than 82,000 hectares of the Namadgi National Park, causing significant damage to the environment and Indigenous sites. The ADF knew about the risk of the lights, which can reach temperatures as high as 500C after 10 minutes of use, after a Black Hawk helicopter ignited a grass fire in 2013, ACT Chief Coroner Lorraine Walker said in inquiry findings handed down on Friday. But while a warning about the lights was added to the Black Hawk flight manuals, it was not included in the MRH-90 document. "The situation is unlikely to have arisen had the aircrew been made aware through the MRH-90 flight manual of the risk of fire associated with landing lights," Ms Walker said in the ACT Coroners Court. "This failure reflects a systemic failure to apply the lesson learned in one context ... to the broader yet patently alike context of another aircraft utilising similar technology." The crew, who had been tasked to identify safe helicopter landing points as bushfires raged across southern NSW, were within their rights to stop for a break, the coroner found. But they made an error of judgment by failing to report the fire to their superiors and other authorities. The inquiry heard the crew noticed the fire soon after landing at 1.38pm, with a flight recording capturing one crew member saying: "We started the fire. We started a fire." As the flames moved towards the fuselage and the crew prepared to take off, another crew member was recorded saying: "Yep f***ing searchlight. Dammit." The crew made an emergency call at 1.45pm to report fire damage to the helicopter, but did not alert anyone to the blaze. When asked why he didn't immediately raise the alarm about the bushfire, the pilot said he was concerned the helicopter could "fall from the sky at any moment". Ms Walker said the situation was clearly frightening for the crew, but they should have reported the fire at a time of heightened risk. "It must have been obvious to any thinking person that a delay in reporting the fire could potentially impact the capacity of the relevant organisations to respond to it," she said. During the inquiry, the federal government did not dispute the searchlight had ignited the fire. Ms Walker made several recommendations, including that the findings from incident reports be shared across the ADF and included in any risk and training materials. The Australian Defence Force knew about fire risks posed by its aircraft years before an army helicopter sparked a catastrophic blaze that razed most of a national park during Black Summer, a coroner has found. The fire was ignited by the searchlight on an ADF MRH-90 Taipan helicopter, known as ANGEL21, when the crew landed for a toilet break while on a reconnaissance mission outside Canberra on January 27, 2020. The fire quickly spread from the Orroral Valley and went on to burn more than 82,000 hectares of the Namadgi National Park, causing significant damage to the environment and Indigenous sites. The ADF knew about the risk of the lights, which can reach temperatures as high as 500C after 10 minutes of use, after a Black Hawk helicopter ignited a grass fire in 2013, ACT Chief Coroner Lorraine Walker said in inquiry findings handed down on Friday. But while a warning about the lights was added to the Black Hawk flight manuals, it was not included in the MRH-90 document. "The situation is unlikely to have arisen had the aircrew been made aware through the MRH-90 flight manual of the risk of fire associated with landing lights," Ms Walker said in the ACT Coroners Court. "This failure reflects a systemic failure to apply the lesson learned in one context ... to the broader yet patently alike context of another aircraft utilising similar technology." The crew, who had been tasked to identify safe helicopter landing points as bushfires raged across southern NSW, were within their rights to stop for a break, the coroner found. But they made an error of judgment by failing to report the fire to their superiors and other authorities. The inquiry heard the crew noticed the fire soon after landing at 1.38pm, with a flight recording capturing one crew member saying: "We started the fire. We started a fire." As the flames moved towards the fuselage and the crew prepared to take off, another crew member was recorded saying: "Yep f***ing searchlight. Dammit." The crew made an emergency call at 1.45pm to report fire damage to the helicopter, but did not alert anyone to the blaze. When asked why he didn't immediately raise the alarm about the bushfire, the pilot said he was concerned the helicopter could "fall from the sky at any moment". Ms Walker said the situation was clearly frightening for the crew, but they should have reported the fire at a time of heightened risk. "It must have been obvious to any thinking person that a delay in reporting the fire could potentially impact the capacity of the relevant organisations to respond to it," she said. During the inquiry, the federal government did not dispute the searchlight had ignited the fire. Ms Walker made several recommendations, including that the findings from incident reports be shared across the ADF and included in any risk and training materials. The Australian Defence Force knew about fire risks posed by its aircraft years before an army helicopter sparked a catastrophic blaze that razed most of a national park during Black Summer, a coroner has found. The fire was ignited by the searchlight on an ADF MRH-90 Taipan helicopter, known as ANGEL21, when the crew landed for a toilet break while on a reconnaissance mission outside Canberra on January 27, 2020. The fire quickly spread from the Orroral Valley and went on to burn more than 82,000 hectares of the Namadgi National Park, causing significant damage to the environment and Indigenous sites. The ADF knew about the risk of the lights, which can reach temperatures as high as 500C after 10 minutes of use, after a Black Hawk helicopter ignited a grass fire in 2013, ACT Chief Coroner Lorraine Walker said in inquiry findings handed down on Friday. But while a warning about the lights was added to the Black Hawk flight manuals, it was not included in the MRH-90 document. "The situation is unlikely to have arisen had the aircrew been made aware through the MRH-90 flight manual of the risk of fire associated with landing lights," Ms Walker said in the ACT Coroners Court. "This failure reflects a systemic failure to apply the lesson learned in one context ... to the broader yet patently alike context of another aircraft utilising similar technology." The crew, who had been tasked to identify safe helicopter landing points as bushfires raged across southern NSW, were within their rights to stop for a break, the coroner found. But they made an error of judgment by failing to report the fire to their superiors and other authorities. The inquiry heard the crew noticed the fire soon after landing at 1.38pm, with a flight recording capturing one crew member saying: "We started the fire. We started a fire." As the flames moved towards the fuselage and the crew prepared to take off, another crew member was recorded saying: "Yep f***ing searchlight. Dammit." The crew made an emergency call at 1.45pm to report fire damage to the helicopter, but did not alert anyone to the blaze. When asked why he didn't immediately raise the alarm about the bushfire, the pilot said he was concerned the helicopter could "fall from the sky at any moment". Ms Walker said the situation was clearly frightening for the crew, but they should have reported the fire at a time of heightened risk. "It must have been obvious to any thinking person that a delay in reporting the fire could potentially impact the capacity of the relevant organisations to respond to it," she said. During the inquiry, the federal government did not dispute the searchlight had ignited the fire. Ms Walker made several recommendations, including that the findings from incident reports be shared across the ADF and included in any risk and training materials. The Australian Defence Force knew about fire risks posed by its aircraft years before an army helicopter sparked a catastrophic blaze that razed most of a national park during Black Summer, a coroner has found. The fire was ignited by the searchlight on an ADF MRH-90 Taipan helicopter, known as ANGEL21, when the crew landed for a toilet break while on a reconnaissance mission outside Canberra on January 27, 2020. The fire quickly spread from the Orroral Valley and went on to burn more than 82,000 hectares of the Namadgi National Park, causing significant damage to the environment and Indigenous sites. The ADF knew about the risk of the lights, which can reach temperatures as high as 500C after 10 minutes of use, after a Black Hawk helicopter ignited a grass fire in 2013, ACT Chief Coroner Lorraine Walker said in inquiry findings handed down on Friday. But while a warning about the lights was added to the Black Hawk flight manuals, it was not included in the MRH-90 document. "The situation is unlikely to have arisen had the aircrew been made aware through the MRH-90 flight manual of the risk of fire associated with landing lights," Ms Walker said in the ACT Coroners Court. "This failure reflects a systemic failure to apply the lesson learned in one context ... to the broader yet patently alike context of another aircraft utilising similar technology." The crew, who had been tasked to identify safe helicopter landing points as bushfires raged across southern NSW, were within their rights to stop for a break, the coroner found. But they made an error of judgment by failing to report the fire to their superiors and other authorities. The inquiry heard the crew noticed the fire soon after landing at 1.38pm, with a flight recording capturing one crew member saying: "We started the fire. We started a fire." As the flames moved towards the fuselage and the crew prepared to take off, another crew member was recorded saying: "Yep f***ing searchlight. Dammit." The crew made an emergency call at 1.45pm to report fire damage to the helicopter, but did not alert anyone to the blaze. When asked why he didn't immediately raise the alarm about the bushfire, the pilot said he was concerned the helicopter could "fall from the sky at any moment". Ms Walker said the situation was clearly frightening for the crew, but they should have reported the fire at a time of heightened risk. "It must have been obvious to any thinking person that a delay in reporting the fire could potentially impact the capacity of the relevant organisations to respond to it," she said. During the inquiry, the federal government did not dispute the searchlight had ignited the fire. Ms Walker made several recommendations, including that the findings from incident reports be shared across the ADF and included in any risk and training materials.
