Angela4Lyons

02/03/2025

Fun fact # 78: Lyons is the biggest electorate in area in Tasmania

Lyons is the biggest electorate in area in Tasmania at 34,000 square km and encompasses 12 of the 29 Tasmanian Local Government areas.

Geographically and demographically the electorate is incredibly diverse.

And yet in listening to and talking with residents all over Lyons and there are common issues:

1. Cost of living pressures

2. Concerns with all aspects of our health system (preventative health care, ambulances, emergency department waiting times, bed block, aged care, mental health service provision and GP accessibility)

3. Ongoing concerns with our education system in Tasmania

4. Housing affordability

5. Animal health and welfare concerns

6. Environmental concerns

7. Diminishing trust in some parties and politicians and recognition that there is a demonstrable lack of accountability, transparency and fiscal responsibility.
Many people would like to see integrity and hear respectful dialogue.
Many people bemoan the apparent lack of courage and conviction of our elected representatives to make the right and hard decisions- which is what our elected representatives are meant to be doing instead of opting for the politically popular decisions that allow them to keep their positions.

What can we do?

Vote for the candidates that reflect your values and that you think will best represent you and your concerns.

Don’t vote for the people that you don’t believe are doing a good job by
putting them last or near to last on your ballot paper for the House of Representatives.
Remember that for your vote to count you must number every box in the order of your choice.

21/02/2025

18/02/2025

Public information sessions on sardine research in Tasmania, hosted by NRE Tas and IMAS researcher Tim Ward

18/02/2025

Public information sessions on sardine research in Tasmania, hosted by NRE Tas and IMAS researcher Tim Ward

18/02/2025

Public information sessions on sardine research in Tasmania, hosted by NRE Tas and IMAS researcher Tim Ward

18/02/2025

Public information sessions on sardine research in Tasmania, hosted by NRE Tas and IMAS researcher Tim Ward

16/02/2025

Many Tasmanians have thoughts and experience on commercial salmon farming in the state.
The prime minister wrote to the Salmon Industry in Tasmania yesterday promising legislation to continue salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour and that no jobs will be lost.
You may have heard about the Tasmanian government plans to establish a commercial sardine fishery in Bass Strait.

Independent MP for Braddon, Craig Garland, convened a community forum, with a great line up of speakers, in Burnie today which was well attended. The forum was insightful and enabled a greater understanding of a range of views on salmon and sardine fishing in Tasmania from scientists, commercial fishers, and environmentalists. The event was livestreamed and you can watch and listen on Craigs fb site.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) Tasmania and Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) researcher Tim Ward are running a series of public information sessions on the proposed Tasmanian Commercial Sardine Fishery Research around Tasmania 18th-26th Feb. Register to attend.

Take home messages for me
are “do no harm” and that the precautionary principle should be adopted. Until we are aware of the consequences of our actions (more data required and more comprehensive surveys) any sardine fishery should start off small and sardines shouldn't be going into fishmeal for fin fish farming instead the top end eating market.
We need more stringent regulation, reporting and accountability around commercial fish farming in Tasmania.

We are the custodians and have a moral and ethical responsibility to do what we can to protect Tasmania’s precious waters and ecosystems knowing that human health, animal health and the health of the environment are interconnected.
This is the concept of One Health.

16/02/2025

Saturday 15th was the National Penny Farthing Bicycle Championships in Evandale.

Fun fact # 77

Evandale township, originally known as Morven, sits on the banks of the South Esk river (more about this river in the next post) and was recorded as having a population of 1265 (mefiam age 53) and 606 private dwellings (letterboxes) at the 2021 Census. Evandale is in the Northern Midlands Council area and has a primary school, GP clinic and pharmacy, churches, parks, pubs, shop, cafes and a fire station.

The town and surrounding area has a rich Aboriginal history.
The town is well known for its late Georgian and early Victorian buildings and beautiful main streetscape where the National Penny Farthing Championships have been held since 1983.
People from all over Australia attended as well as many Tasmanians and a competitor from Austria. There was food and drink from local Evandale businesses and additional food trucks and entertainment.

Congratulations to the sponsors and supporters and due recognition to the hard work put in by the Evandale Village Fair Committee and volunteers- without which the event could not go ahead.

10/02/2025

Thank you Tasmania JackJumpers, players, coach Roth, staff, management and all of the team behind the team.

The last home teal game for NBL 25 season encapsulated all that is wonderful and good about the community engagement culture of the Tasmania JackJumpers club and the enjoyment the JackJumpers bring to so many.

A fantastic display of the core values, hard-work and teamwork and “grit and grind” to “defend the island” not only to win that last game but raise awareness and funds for S.H.E. : Support, Hope and Education for gynaecological cancers.

What a special 4 years it has been and may it continue well on into the future.

Thank you

Go Jackies Go 💚🐜🏀💛🐜🏀

05/02/2025

Please say hello next time you see me out and about!

BTW I am at the Evandale market most Saturdays. You can also email ([email protected]) or phone me ( 0409 319 405) if you wish to discuss a local issue with me.

01/02/2025

Fun fact # 75

Today along with an estimated 1400 others I attended a rally at Carlton beach saying no to the expansion offshore commercial salmon fish farming pens and a potential threat to the critically endangered red handfish.

Brachionichythys Politis, Red handfish, grow up to 15 cm long and have skin covered with denticles which are tooth like scales.
So called because they are crimson coloured and have distinctive modified pectoral fins that resemble human hands which they use to “walk” across the sea floor. Handfish lack a swim bladder for buoyancy and swimming.

A not so fun fact is that it is estimated that there is less than 100 red handfish left in the wild living on two small sections of reef in south eastern Tasmania in Frederick Henry Bay.

Red handfish are classified as critically endangered affected by habitat degradation from one or a combination of threats; introduced species, pollution and siltation, increasing water temperatures (climate change), the proliferation of other native species, ? overgrazing of kelp and sea grass.
So endangered are they that two captive breeding programs have been established that the federal government is co-funding, and there has been some early success.

24/01/2025

Last night I was lucky enough to attend the Meander Valley Celebrating Community and Volunteer Awards Event.

What a wonderful evening.

A big congratulations to all of those nominated and awarded and welcome our newest citizens to this beautiful part of the world - the Meander Valley, Tasmania, Australia.

Truly an evening of community, connection and celebration.

It was such a great event so well run and organised from design, staging, presentations, fabulous fresh food (berries, ice cream, veges and dips and BBQ), singing and music, smoking ceremony, sample croquet and bowls outside on the Westbury Village Green.

Put this one in your diary for next year.

17/01/2025

Fun fact # 73

I’ve just finished “letterboxing” the far S.E. of Lyons-the Forestier and Tasman Peninsulas.

The Aboriginal inhabitants of this area preceding European arrival were the Pydairrerme people.
It was on the shores of the Forestier peninsula that the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman claimed possession of the land for Prince Frederick Henrijk 3rd Dec 1642 naming the territory Van Diemen’s Land after the Governor of Batavia.
The peninsulas are spectacularly beautiful with wide bays, cliffs and coves, rolling eucalypt forested hills and white sandy beaches. The area has a rich convict heritage with the historic remains of penal outposts including Port Arthur, bay whaling activities in the 1830s and 1840s, timber milling from early settlement times utilising the abundant local resource and the apple and pear orchard industry which reached its peak in the 1950s.
Tourism is now the major industry.

Dunalley is a fishing village at the northern end of the Forestier Peninsula established around the man-made Denison canal built in 1902.
Murdunna, the name believed to come from the local indigenous word meaning “place of the stars”, is the only town on the Forestier Peninsula.
Eaglehawk Neck with its cliff top lookout and white Sandy beach is a narrow (less than 100m wide) isthmus that joins the peninsulas. During penal settlement days dogs were chained across the isthmus to deter them from attempting a land escape.
Taranna on the Tasman Peninsula shipped timber to mainland Australia and England. The Norfolk Bay Convict Station at Taranna was built by convicts in the 1830s from bricks made at Port Arthur. Originally the Commissariat Store it became the Tasman Hotel after the closure of the penal settlement in 1877 and after that a guest house.
Nubeena township is now the administrative and service centre for the district. Nubeena is believed to be the local indigenous name for crayfish.

Visiting the Tasman and Forestier Peninsulas to letterbox and understand better the issues concerning residents and affecting the environment and animals in this spectacularly beautiful far south eastern part of Lyons, I’ve learnt that most residents must have post office boxes as apart from roadside rural boxes (and it is too dangerous to stop at most) there really was only a line of letterboxes at Taranna!

14/01/2025

An election will be called soon - and I am preparing for the campaign! As an independent I will need your help to succeed.

If you have time to help make posters or print leaflets, have space for a re-purposed corflute on your fence, can letter-box or hand out how-to-vote cards at a polling booth please contact me or sign-up on my webpage https://angelaofford.com.au/get-involved/

OR if you can assist with my social media/photography - please get in touch!

11/01/2025

Fun fact # 72

Triabunna, south of Swansea, is a coastal town (population 905, 565 private dwellings/ 395 occupied) in the Glamorgan Spring Bay LGA. Triabunna is the second largest township on the east coast after St Helens.
Established as a garrison port town in 1830 for the penal colony at nearby Maria Island, Triabunna is Australia’s first rural municipality.

Triabunna is the Aboriginal word for the endemic Tasmanian native hen- a fast running flightless bird with a bright red eye found only in Tasmania and affectionately known as “turbo chooks”.

The town is bordered by Spring Bay at the mouth of MacCleans Creek and Vickerys Rivulet, beaches, hills and eucalypt forest.
Fishing, sailing, surfing, diving and bushwalking activities are popular in the area.
Triabunna is the departure point to Maria Island which is a wildlife sanctuary with historic ruins, sweeping bays and dramatic cliffs.

The sandstone St Mary’s Anglican Church (1880) and the Spring Bay Hotel (1838) are surviving historic buildings from Tasmania’s colonial period.

11/01/2025

Fun fact # 71

Bicheno (population 1,049, 983 private dwellings/447 occupied) is primarily a fishing port and coastal holiday town in the Glamorgan Spring Bay LGA.

The town was named after James Ebenezer Bicheno, the British Colonial Secretary for Van Diemen’s Land 1843-1851.
Waub’s Harbour was named after an Aboriginal woman Waubbedebr who rescued two sailors in the early 1800s.
Waub’s Harbour was the location for shore-based whaling stations in the late 1830s and early 1840s. Coal was discovered in the nearby Denison River in 1848 and for a short time the harbour served as a coal port then most people left for the gold rush.

Today farming continues in the hinterland and Bicheno is known for fishing, scuba diving, swimming, bushwalking’s and swimming in the nearby Douglas-Aspley and Frycinet National Parks.

11/01/2025

Fun fact # 70

Falmouth on the east coast south of Scamander, north-east of St Mary’s, is a small (population 131, 117 private dwellings/62 occupied 2021 Census) coastal community in the Break O’Day LGA.
The name is believed to be derived from the Cornish port of Falmouth in England.

The first European settlers in the area were Captain John Henderson and William Steele in 1829.
William Steele’s nephew built the large Victorian homestead just outside of Falmouth, Enstone Park, now owned by Enstone Park Pastoral Co.

In the 1840s there was a probation station housing 150 convicts built at Falmouth who built St Mary’s pass.
The Break O’Day council are considering plans for an alternate route as the road is narrow and dangerous and blocked by land slip and rockfall on an annual basis.

Falmouth is a popular holiday spot by low cliffs, Henderson Lagoon (an important wetland bird breeding area) and Steel beach- great for swimming, surfing, walking and bird watching.

07/01/2025

There will be an election soon!

I do need your help to run a good campaign and welcome your support in any way that you can.

Talk to your colleagues, follow me on facebook angela4lyons (link) and comment and share my posts with family and friends.

Would you like to participate and be part of the campaign?

No matter how much time you have to offer there is a role for you.

Volunteer activities include letter boxing, door knocking, printing, repurposing corflutes, hosting a corflute in a high traffic area, putting up flyers and signs, market stalls, fundraising activities, help with digital media, organising events and a myriad of other things!

Let me know how you would like to become involved.

Please get in touch if you want to get involved in my campaign.

Please share this post!

I am your independent candidate for LYONS - working for you- NOT working for Billionaires!