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On our drive back to Mulwala from Nagambie, it sort of struck me that Australia is cooked.
On the south side of Shepparton, where I know from times gone by, that there used to be any amount of orchards, there is just piles of pushed up cherry and apple trees, waiting to be a bonfire.
Nothing else growing in the paddock now except some weeds and grape vines.
Out on the northern side where the dairy cattle used to be prolific there isn't much except a few paddocks of grass. The dairies are gone now, just a pile of pushed up concrete. A few beef cattle now graze where the dairy cows once were.
The other day I wanted to buy some oranges, but the label said they were from California, so nup. No orange's that day.
Anyway, we're cooked. End of rant.

Water is just too expensive these day ..... paid $5 for 600ml the other day

They might grow solar panels or wind turbines in those no empty spaces. The timber mill heading into Barham on the Vic border, is now wall to wall solar panels ..... A friend who worked there for around 15 yrs said there wasn't enough timber still available for the place to work every day.
The owner discovered that not only was the solar array there every day, never took sickies, never expected over time and didn't even take smoko breaks .... he reckons they are the best employees he has ever had .....

Maybe these places could grow NP's weeds that can be distilled into fuel, grow them under the solar arrays and get a dual income from the same block of ground with no fertiliser required.

T1 Terry

I get my water from the tap, costs about $2.50/ kilolitre. I seriously doubt that they will put solar panels or wind turbines on flat ground close to a regional city. Maybe turn it into a concrete jungle and put solar on the roof tops, now that I could believe.

David we noticed the state around Shep after we did a detour from Taggerty a couple of yrs ago to go see my prev living spots, both the orchards I
knew and both dairy farms had no cows at all It was a real shock to the system and it was actually very sad to see. Bloody vineyards and cotton are draining us dry.We get our water from our tank.

Dave... water and oranges free at my place

Australian oranges

You're right Bernie, you do get mindful of water use, when on tank water. There are oranges and mandarins in abundance over Yarrawonga Mulwala way at the mo'. All the home help girls that drop by the MiL's are leaving her a few. Sweet and juicy as can be.

Was on ebay this morning looking for something and noticed the head of the lists seem to be mostly USA sellers and you have to go way down the bottom to find Aus sellers, seems ebay are pushing US stuff but the cost of delivery is really high. I bypass the USA sellers on everything now and always check where my goods are coming from.

Bought a 25kg bag of black beans early this week and the wholesaler offered USA beans for a few dollars cheaper, but chose the Canadian product for a couple of dollars more. But still saved over $85 compared to buying them in 500g packets, sadly they don't seem to grow black beans in Aus at the moment, but most others they do and they are superior to anything from overseas.

As for fruit, wish they'd grow commercial crops of citrus in Tas, but the Aus ones are lovely and our organic apples are beyond nice, they drip flavour and juice, especially the pink ladies.

native pepper wrote: ↑Wed Aug 20, 2025 4:09 pm …
As for fruit, wish they'd grow commercial crops of citrus in Tas, but the Aus ones are lovely and our organic apples are beyond nice, they drip flavour and juice, especially the pink ladies.

NP,
Is Tasmania not part of Australia?

Tas is member of the Aus commonwealth, but not a part of Aus. There's a body of water between Tas and Aus of 240klm, much more than the distance between many other countries. Tas also has different historical geological origins to Aus, different political system and culture.