While you will get the fine notice you shouldn't have to pay it - there is an option to reply with a reason why you shouldn't be fined and being overseas at the time would count as a legit excuse.
Yep, like in other elections we do have pre poll and postal voting (with a valid reason and you need to apply for postal) but the standard method is turning up on the day. I'm not sure if that has any effect on turnout compared to other states.
Probably less likely than a federal election but I'd still give it decent odds of finding one (particularly if the school is trying to raise funds for something). I can't remember exactly whether this was during council or state elections but I have turned up to vote before and not found a sausage sizzle.
Public transport in this area is indeed less attractive if you have any other form of transport, particularly if you live on one side of the ACT/NSW border and commute to the other. Google reckons for example that it'd take me a bit over an hour to get to either of my usual work sites on a bus compared to the 15-20 minutes it takes me normally.
Not mentioned (like usual) is motorbikes as an alternative to cars. The space advantages when it comes to both on road and parking are obvious compared to the usual one person per car (and they use less resources to make, particularly when it comes to EVs) so you'd think anyone actually worried about congestion would do more to encourage their use.
I was wondering if this would happen after seeing Brisbane cancelled their contract, they've followed suit pretty quickly.
Yep, they ended up deciding it was sparked by various batteries that had ended up in one of the compactors. Whatever they had for fire protection mustn't have been enough to stop it once the fire was noticed - I assume the source was within a big pile of recycling so would have required a serious amount of water to put out. It ended up being a rather large fire (one of the local accident chasers has some decent photos) and took out the recycling capability for the whole area. The rubbish piles within ended up smouldering away for a few days after the main fire was put out.
For over a year and a half now I believe most if not all the ACTs recycling has had to be sent to Sydney due to this fire, so I can understand the new centre getting priority when it comes to the waste management budget.
I think the QLD and NSW options are actually decent, which is surprising for a modern flag redesign. Not sure about the Victorian one, could do with either making the symbol more regular (i.e. less finger paint style) or deleting the crown (too hard to keep details on) and making the stars loosely drawn too. WA seems a decent idea but could do with a cleaner swan rather than the ruffled feathers on the back. The SA idea looks pretty good but does have hints of invading Poland due to the ~~imperial eagle~~ magpie. Tasmania however is another one I could get behind.
Not a real fan of the current ACT/NT flags and I don't think changing to a wavy line helps them, and the idea for the Jervis Bay territory seems a bit too committee style bland for my liking (like most new flag designs I see mentioned).
Tree pollen season has already kicked off, I was sitting at the traffic lights on City Hill just the other day watching the wind blow visible clouds of pollen off the pine trees.
Not keen at all on how it increases picture sizes and makes certain articles more prominent at the expense of actual information.
Also, what pelican told them that video shorts should take up such a massive section of the page (and not at the bottom either)? One of my bugbears these days is how information that can be conveyed much faster as text keeps getting pushed as video so people can spend both more time and vastly more data to find it out.
I'm sure there will be someone found who doesn't like it, but did you look at the map of the area where the limit is changing? Hardly anyone lives within that perimeter or even in the immediate surrounds.
I wouldn't have too much sympathy for anyone moving into Civic and expecting it to be quiet anyway. It's like those who buy in Braddon around Lonsdale St and complain about evening noise and Summernats as if these things popped out of nowhere...
Seems a surprisingly sensible decision, I think it's a good move towards addressing the concerns people have about the new Garema Place hotel potentially affecting nearby live music with noise complaints.
According to a news article I just read this morning gets the record for coldest spring morning ever recorded in Canberra, so you could say it was pretty chilly.