Fortress Australia

Back in March of last year when COVID-19 started to impact the world Australia closed it’s borders and has been rather successful in controlling the virus.  State governments were responsible for physical quarantine of arriving personnel with the Federal government being responsible for policy and funding.  The way some States responded made those politicians wildly popular.  Here in Western Australia the Labor government was returned to govern with a massive majority.  The Federal government didn’t fail to notice that fact and decided to reap some of the popularity by retain control of the vaccine rollout.  Usually it is the State government health systems who control vaccination programs. 

Well the Federal government has made a ‘pigs ear’ out of their national vaccination program.  Selection of vaccines, purchase, delivery and distribution have all been confused and delayed.  Communication has been poor.  By the time arms started to be bared the AstraZeneca blood clotting scare had arrived.  People started thinking “Why vaccinate… we are in fortress Australia and safe”.  Vaccine hesitancy is now rampant. 

The problem is COVID-19 is here to stay… Forever!!!  Fortress Australia isn’t sustainable.  Eventually Australia is going to have to open it’s borders and COVID-19 will then be loose in the community.  We need to achieve herd immunity NOW!   

Today Postman Pat delivered the Mortise & Tenon tool I’d ordered from China.  Unfortunately it has received rough handling in transit which has resulted in the aluminium box being damaged.  Initially I thought the tool had escaped damage but on closer inspection I’ve realised it is missing a screw.

If you are interested in how the tool works there is a YouTube video here.

I managed to extract the foam rubber from inside the tin and then panel beat the aluminium container roughly back into shape.  Fixing the tool will take further investigation.

Yesterday I stumbled upon another interesting narrowboat blog.  Somehow I’ve missed not identifying Narrowboat Annie.  That has been rectified and she now appears on our blog list.  Dredging the faint memories in the back of my mind I think I read a canal magazine article about the construction of Annie.  Fitted out at Wharfhouse Branston??   

Paul, you are correct about the potential issue of low light with the house front security cameras.  I have already fitted a porch light with a motion detector and the camera has HDR capability.

Today it’s back to the ‘man cave’ in an effort to complete three recent projects.