No one from Victoria?
 

I don't think any of us are from Victoria, Australia...Reiner may be... but
I think he's from the eastern side of Victoria. I read the fire reports and
it just sounds grim. Anything you can say is an understatement.

Fingers crossed for one and all

K Barrett

No one from Victoria?
 

Funny you should write this. I just booted up and was going to ask if
everyone is okay.

Diana

"K Barrett" wrote in message
...
I don't think any of us are from Victoria, Australia...Reiner may be... but
I think he's from the eastern side of Victoria. I read the fire reports
and it just sounds grim. Anything you can say is an understatement.

Fingers crossed for one and all

K Barrett

No one from Victoria?
 

On Feb 8, 12:35*pm, "Diana Kulaga"
wrote:
Funny you should write this. I just booted up and was going to ask if
everyone is okay.

Diana

"K Barrett" wrote in message

...



I don't think any of us are from Victoria, Australia...Reiner may be... but
I think he's from the eastern side of Victoria. *I read the fire reports
and it just sounds grim. Anything you can say is an understatement.

Fingers crossed for one and all

K Barrett- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I've heard from two people who are OK. They say teh summer's heat is
tremendous, 47C is what? 117F? Sure, it gets hot & dry here but
nothing like that. Earlier in teh season John V was looking for ways
to reduce water and still keep his collection alive, but I guess I
didn't understand just how bad his/their drought is. I guess many
collections (to bring this back on topic, away from people and back to
orchids) are suffering.

All in all I can't think of a worse fire. We burned this summer but
mostly it was rangeland (not counting San Diego). Some fires went on
for weeks (big Sur) but again not much out there, not like this.

K Barrett

No one from Victoria?
 

Hi all

I posted this yesterday on OGD in response to Kathy's posting there.

"Thanks for your thoughts. I don't know of anyone from the orchid community
here who has been affected but I'll know more tonight when I attend the
Orchid Species mtg here in Melbourne. The current death toll is more than
130 and expected to rise significantly as the authorities move into the
burnt out areas. There are also severely burnt people in hospitals.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/bu...0209-81ue.html

The fires are still raging out of control and more towns are threatened. At
least the temperatures have fallen which should aid the fire fighters.

The worst part is that police suspect at least half the fires were
deliberately lit. Considering we have had drought conditions for the past
10 years it borders on insanity."

Following the meeting last night it appears that no members of our Society
were directly affected but one member had to leave the meeting when he found
out that his daughter's best friend had died in the fires. A fern and
orchid nursery in the area of the fires seems to have escaped with minor
damage.

The number of lives lost now stands at 171 and is still expected to rise.

The current situation is that more towns are now being threatened as the
fires continues their ravaging.

John
Melbourne, Australia


"Diana Kulaga" wrote in message
...
Funny you should write this. I just booted up and was going to ask if
everyone is okay.

Diana

"K Barrett" wrote in message
...
I don't think any of us are from Victoria, Australia...Reiner may be...
but I think he's from the eastern side of Victoria. I read the fire
reports and it just sounds grim. Anything you can say is an
understatement.

Fingers crossed for one and all

K Barrett

No one from Victoria?
 

John, it is good to hear from you. Our deepest thoughts are with you, and
your country.

Thank you for responding, as I know many of us are thinking of all of you
and hoping for the best. How awful to be so close to someone who perished.

Diana

"John Varigos" wrote in message
ster.com...
Hi all

I posted this yesterday on OGD in response to Kathy's posting there.

"Thanks for your thoughts. I don't know of anyone from the orchid
community here who has been affected but I'll know more tonight when I
attend the Orchid Species mtg here in Melbourne. The current death toll
is more than 130 and expected to rise significantly as the authorities
move into the burnt out areas. There are also severely burnt people in
hospitals.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/bu...0209-81ue.html

The fires are still raging out of control and more towns are threatened.
At least the temperatures have fallen which should aid the fire fighters.

The worst part is that police suspect at least half the fires were
deliberately lit. Considering we have had drought conditions for the past
10 years it borders on insanity."

Following the meeting last night it appears that no members of our Society
were directly affected but one member had to leave the meeting when he
found out that his daughter's best friend had died in the fires. A fern
and orchid nursery in the area of the fires seems to have escaped with
minor damage.

The number of lives lost now stands at 171 and is still expected to rise.

The current situation is that more towns are now being threatened as the
fires continues their ravaging.

John
Melbourne, Australia


"Diana Kulaga" wrote in message
...
Funny you should write this. I just booted up and was going to ask if
everyone is okay.

Diana

"K Barrett" wrote in message
...
I don't think any of us are from Victoria, Australia...Reiner may be...
but I think he's from the eastern side of Victoria. I read the fire
reports and it just sounds grim. Anything you can say is an
understatement.

Fingers crossed for one and all

K Barrett

No one from Victoria?
 

On Feb 10, 10:24*am, "John Varigos"
wrote:
Hi all

I posted this yesterday on OGD in response to Kathy's posting there.

"Thanks for your thoughts. *I don't know of anyone from the orchid community
here who has been affected but I'll know more tonight when I attend the
Orchid Species mtg here in Melbourne. *

Hi John,
I don't know if you got Helene Wild's (ANOS) email. Eddie Sabljak's
house and Fernacres Nursery are OK. Helen and Barry Richards in Yarra
Glen had some property damage but the house is apparently OK.
Andrew Gibbons

No one from Victoria?
 

Hi Andrew
I didn't get Helene's e-mail but I was told last night at OSSV that Eddie
and Ferndale had escaped. Hadn't heard about Helen and Barry. Pleased to
hear they only had relatively minor damage. I trust everyone else out that
way is OK.
John

"Andrew" wrote in message
...
On Feb 10, 10:24 am, "John Varigos"
wrote:
Hi all

I posted this yesterday on OGD in response to Kathy's posting there.

"Thanks for your thoughts. I don't know of anyone from the orchid
community
here who has been affected but I'll know more tonight when I attend the
Orchid Species mtg here in Melbourne.

Hi John,
I don't know if you got Helene Wild's (ANOS) email. Eddie Sabljak's
house and Fernacres Nursery are OK. Helen and Barry Richards in Yarra
Glen had some property damage but the house is apparently OK.
Andrew Gibbons

No one from Victoria?
 

On Feb 11, 12:11*am, "John Varigos"
wrote:
Hi Andrew
I didn't get Helene's e-mail but I was told last night at OSSV that Eddie
and Ferndale had escaped. *Hadn't heard about Helen and Barry. *Pleased to
hear they only had relatively minor damage. *I trust everyone else out that
way is OK.
John

Other than Helene's son, who's house in Kinglake had a bit of fire
damage but otherwise survived, those ANOS members who Helene has
contacted seem to be OK. To be honest those with serious property
damage may have greater priorities at the moment than checking in with
their orchid society.
Andrew

No one from Victoria?
 

On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:04:28 -0800 (PST), Andrew
wrote:

On Feb 11, 12:11*am, "John Varigos"
wrote:
Hi Andrew
I didn't get Helene's e-mail but I was told last night at OSSV that Eddie
and Ferndale had escaped. *Hadn't heard about Helen and Barry. *Pleased to
hear they only had relatively minor damage. *I trust everyone else out that
way is OK.
John

Other than Helene's son, who's house in Kinglake had a bit of fire
damage but otherwise survived, those ANOS members who Helene has
contacted seem to be OK. To be honest those with serious property
damage may have greater priorities at the moment than checking in with
their orchid society.
Andrew

Those of us in CO and CA here have seen close up what a wild fire can
do with a wind behind it. Our hearts go out to all of you and we weep
with you for the loss of so many. The survivors quilt will be as hard
for many to deal with as the loss of property.

Fire is a cruel beast and firebugs are like terrorists, the worst
murders of the lot.

SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/orchids

No one from Victoria?
 

On Feb 11, 1:04*pm, Andrew wrote:
On Feb 11, 12:11*am, "John Varigos"
wrote:

Hi Andrew
I didn't get Helene's e-mail but I was told last night at OSSV that Eddie
and Ferndale had escaped. *Hadn't heard about Helen and Barry. *Pleased to
hear they only had relatively minor damage. *I trust everyone else out that
way is OK.
John

Other than Helene's son, who's house in Kinglake had a bit of fire
damage but otherwise survived, those ANOS members who Helene has
contacted seem to be OK. To be honest those with serious property
damage may have greater priorities at the moment than checking in with
their orchid society.
Andrew

http://www.vnpa.org.au/subsubsection...ction_id =276

I mainly knew Jenny through ANOS Victoria's tuber bank- a programme
that serves as a legal source of otherwise difficult to obtain
Australian terrestrial orchid tubers. Jenny was a regular contributor
to our tuber bank with several of the orchid species she donated
coming from cultivated plants that were originally collected from her
Steels Creek property. Very sad news.

No one from Victoria?
 

Really sorry to hear about Jenny, Andrew. She will be missed.


"Andrew" wrote in message
...
On Feb 11, 1:04 pm, Andrew wrote:
On Feb 11, 12:11 am, "John Varigos"
wrote:

Hi Andrew
I didn't get Helene's e-mail but I was told last night at OSSV that
Eddie
and Ferndale had escaped. Hadn't heard about Helen and Barry. Pleased to
hear they only had relatively minor damage. I trust everyone else out
that
way is OK.
John

Other than Helene's son, who's house in Kinglake had a bit of fire
damage but otherwise survived, those ANOS members who Helene has
contacted seem to be OK. To be honest those with serious property
damage may have greater priorities at the moment than checking in with
their orchid society.
Andrew

http://www.vnpa.org.au/subsubsection...ction_id =276

I mainly knew Jenny through ANOS Victoria's tuber bank- a programme
that serves as a legal source of otherwise difficult to obtain
Australian terrestrial orchid tubers. Jenny was a regular contributor
to our tuber bank with several of the orchid species she donated
coming from cultivated plants that were originally collected from her
Steels Creek property. Very sad news.

No one from Victoria?
 

Has anyone heard from Reiner? Used to post under the name AusDigi. His
website is down, but since it was housed on his own server that may not mean
anything. He used to take photos of terrestrials on his tramps through the
national parks.

True, these people probably have bigger problems than contacting folks from
their orchid societies, but it just lets you know how the world has changed.
We've never met you and probably never will but we know you and wonder how
you are and hope everything's OK.

K Barrett

No one from Victoria?
 

On Feb 12, 3:41*am, "K Barrett" wrote:
Has anyone heard from Reiner? *Used to post under the name AusDigi. *His
website is down, but since it was housed on his own server that may not mean
anything. *He used to take photos of terrestrials on his tramps through the
national parks.

True, these people probably have bigger problems than contacting folks from
their orchid societies, but it just lets you know how the world has changed.
We've never met you and probably never will but we know you and wonder how
you are and hope everything's OK.

K Barrett

Reiner lives in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. He should have been
far enough away from the fire that burnt parts of parts of the Fern
Tree Gully area. His house is not near the fires burnng to the north
or east of Melbourne.

No one from Victoria?
 

I'm with you, Kathy. In a much different way and on a much happier occasion,
that's why we all toasted you and Joe when you got married. And sent orchids
to Joanna when her baby was born. It's a virtual family.

Diana

"K Barrett" wrote in message
...
"Andrew" wrote in message
...
On Feb 12, 3:41 am, "K Barrett" wrote:
Has anyone heard from Reiner? Used to post under the name AusDigi. His
website is down, but since it was housed on his own server that may not
mean
anything. He used to take photos of terrestrials on his tramps through
the
national parks.

True, these people probably have bigger problems than contacting folks
from
their orchid societies, but it just lets you know how the world has
changed.
We've never met you and probably never will but we know you and wonder
how
you are and hope everything's OK.

K Barrett

Reiner lives in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. He should have been
far enough away from the fire that burnt parts of parts of the Fern
Tree Gully area. His house is not near the fires burnng to the north
or east of Melbourne.

_____________
Thank you Andrew. You're a pal! I guess I can't get over being a den
mother.

K Barrett

No one from Victoria?
 

"Andrew" wrote in message
...
On Feb 12, 3:41 am, "K Barrett" wrote:
Has anyone heard from Reiner? Used to post under the name AusDigi. His
website is down, but since it was housed on his own server that may not
mean
anything. He used to take photos of terrestrials on his tramps through the
national parks.

True, these people probably have bigger problems than contacting folks
from
their orchid societies, but it just lets you know how the world has
changed.
We've never met you and probably never will but we know you and wonder how
you are and hope everything's OK.

K Barrett

Reiner lives in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. He should have been
far enough away from the fire that burnt parts of parts of the Fern
Tree Gully area. His house is not near the fires burnng to the north
or east of Melbourne.

_____________
Thank you Andrew. You're a pal! I guess I can't get over being a den
mother.

K Barrett

No one from Victoria?
 

On Feb 12, 8:43*am, "K Barrett" wrote:
Thank you Andrew. You're a pal! *I guess I can't get over being a den
mother.

K Barrett

Not a problem. I realise it's quite disconcerting, when disasters
occur outside of your country, to try and piece together where your
international friends are on a map you're probably not familiar with.

No one from Victoria?
 

Does anyone know anything about Kye?

Diana

"Andrew" wrote in message
...
On Feb 12, 8:43 am, "K Barrett" wrote:
Thank you Andrew. You're a pal! I guess I can't get over being a den
mother.

K Barrett

Not a problem. I realise it's quite disconcerting, when disasters
occur outside of your country, to try and piece together where your
international friends are on a map you're probably not familiar with.

No one from Victoria?
 

Hi Diana

No need to worry about Kye. He lives in Queensland and is probably closer
to the floods in Northern Australia than he is to the bush fires in
Victoria. Such is the nature of Australia that we are drowning in the
north, burning in the south and being eaten in the middle (two shark attacks
in Sydney in last two days!)
http://www.theage.com.au/national/bo...0213-86a6.html

John

"Diana Kulaga" wrote in message
...
Does anyone know anything about Kye?

Diana

"Andrew" wrote in message
...
On Feb 12, 8:43 am, "K Barrett" wrote:
Thank you Andrew. You're a pal! I guess I can't get over being a den
mother.

K Barrett

Not a problem. I realise it's quite disconcerting, when disasters
occur outside of your country, to try and piece together where your
international friends are on a map you're probably not familiar with.

No one from Victoria?
 

Thanks, John. I am geographically (not to mention vertically!) challenged.

Diana

"John Varigos" wrote in message
ster.com...
Hi Diana

No need to worry about Kye. He lives in Queensland and is probably closer
to the floods in Northern Australia than he is to the bush fires in
Victoria. Such is the nature of Australia that we are drowning in the
north, burning in the south and being eaten in the middle (two shark
attacks in Sydney in last two days!)
http://www.theage.com.au/national/bo...0213-86a6.html

John

"Diana Kulaga" wrote in message
...
Does anyone know anything about Kye?

Diana

"Andrew" wrote in message
...
On Feb 12, 8:43 am, "K Barrett" wrote:
Thank you Andrew. You're a pal! I guess I can't get over being a den
mother.

K Barrett

Not a problem. I realise it's quite disconcerting, when disasters
occur outside of your country, to try and piece together where your
international friends are on a map you're probably not familiar with.

No one from Victoria?
 

On Feb 12, 4:04*pm, "John Varigos"
wrote:
Hi Diana

No need to worry about Kye. *He lives in Queensland and is probably closer
to the floods in Northern Australia than he is to the bush fires in
Victoria. *Such is the nature of Australia that we are drowning in the
north, burning in the south and being eaten in the middle (two shark attacks
in Sydney in last two days!)http://www.theage.com.au/national/bo...dneys-second-i...


That reminds me of when I was in India a few years ago. I was in the
Punjab, where the monsoons had failed for several years in a row by
the time I arrived. Average temperature was 45 degrees Celcius, and
Rajastan, to the south of Punjab was even hotter and drier. The
suffering of those in rural areas and in ghettos was terrible. And a
month after I arrived in the Punjab, in Assam, the easternmost state
in India, they had terrible floods that drove all kinds of nasty
critters into homes, and we remarked how cool the Punjab had become
when the termperatures moderated to 35 degrees Celcius ;-).

To bad one can't easily create an infrastructure that takes such
surplus water and pipe or otherwise ship it to neighbors who need it.
That makes as much sense as the pipelines that carry oil and natural
gas from western and northern Canada down to the states and east to
central Canada, perhaps more so. Reduce the hazard, at least a
little, due to flooding, and get it to the south to ameliorate the
worst aspects of the drought.

Needless to say, our thought and prayers in this household are with
the folk down under who are living through such tough times; both in
the flooded north and burning south.

Ted

No one from Victoria?
 

Thanks for your thoughts Ted. Our politicians have been talking about a
North-South water pipeline to bring water from the monsoonal north to the
drought stricken south for more than 100 years. If they had started back
then it would have been finished by now.

Now, had it been an oil pipeline that was required ......!!

John



"Ted Byers" wrote in message
...
On Feb 12, 4:04 pm, "John Varigos"
wrote:
Hi Diana

No need to worry about Kye. He lives in Queensland and is probably closer
to the floods in Northern Australia than he is to the bush fires in
Victoria. Such is the nature of Australia that we are drowning in the
north, burning in the south and being eaten in the middle (two shark
attacks
in Sydney in last two
days!)http://www.theage.com.au/national/bo...dneys-second-i...


That reminds me of when I was in India a few years ago. I was in the
Punjab, where the monsoons had failed for several years in a row by
the time I arrived. Average temperature was 45 degrees Celcius, and
Rajastan, to the south of Punjab was even hotter and drier. The
suffering of those in rural areas and in ghettos was terrible. And a
month after I arrived in the Punjab, in Assam, the easternmost state
in India, they had terrible floods that drove all kinds of nasty
critters into homes, and we remarked how cool the Punjab had become
when the termperatures moderated to 35 degrees Celcius ;-).

To bad one can't easily create an infrastructure that takes such
surplus water and pipe or otherwise ship it to neighbors who need it.
That makes as much sense as the pipelines that carry oil and natural
gas from western and northern Canada down to the states and east to
central Canada, perhaps more so. Reduce the hazard, at least a
little, due to flooding, and get it to the south to ameliorate the
worst aspects of the drought.

Needless to say, our thought and prayers in this household are with
the folk down under who are living through such tough times; both in
the flooded north and burning south.

Ted

No one from Victoria?
 

On Feb 12, 9:17*pm, "John Varigos"
wrote:
Thanks for your thoughts Ted. *Our politicians have been talking about a
North-South water pipeline to bring water from the monsoonal north to the
drought stricken south for more than 100 years. *If they had started back
then it would have been finished by now.

Now, had it been an oil pipeline that was required ......!!

One can live without oil, but one can not live without water! And
business can't thrive if there's no-one to hire to do the work or buy
their product/service.

I guess the politicians there are as useless as those here.

Maybe someone needs to rattle their cages and demand that they get it
done. I would hold them, and their predecessors, guilty of negligent
homicide in the deaths of everyone who has died as a result of either
the floods in the north or the fires in the south.

A combination of water pipelines, with appropriate water management,
and creative landscaping ought to minimize risk of wild fire at least
in urban centres, and around homes in rural areas.

There are wildly different kinds of plants growing in each area. For
example, in the Canadian boreal forest, there is no such thing as a
truly old growth forest. The forest NEEDS fire to replenish itself,
and many boreal tree species can not reproduce unless fire burns the
resin of their cones so they can open. And some of these species have
bark that is loaded with resin, and they burn magnificently. But
there are species that, if sufficiently mature, will suffer only
trivial scarring, surviving most fires well, and there are some
species that can be described as reluctant burners: stands of these
are sometimes referred to as asbestos forests. It isn't that they
won't burn, but rather that wildfires tend not to propagate through
them very well. All of these live in the same general environment:
the Canadian boreal forest.

As for water management, lessons can be learned from beavers. When
they were thriving through north america, including the arid southwest
of Alberta (I guess that would be in the foothills, primarily, as they
need access to streams and trees, those sites with the largest
concentration of beaver always had plenty of surface potable water
even in the worst of droughts.

It isn't likely that any of these Canadian species could survive down
under, but understanding their ecology here, and the hydrology of
ecosystems containing lots of beaver, could aide in designing useful
water management systems, and identifying native plants that could
provide something of a buffer between homes and areas prone to
wildfire.

I can only hope the final death toll is no worse than what we've
heard, and that once the shock of the tragedy has subsided, all the
people there start taking their politicians to task, demanding that
they finally do something useful to minimize the chances of such
tragedies occuring again.

Cheers,

Ted