Please remember to keep your pets safe during fireworks

[davidc4430]

a lot of animals, dogs in particular don't like fireworks so please make sure your pets are safe during the new years celebrations.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-31/new-years-eve-fireworks-to-draw-millions-to-cities/8155400

i know Foo hates fireworks so he'll be a shivering mess. i'll have the curtains closed and music turned up so it has less effect on him untill the explosions finish.

[bushies.girl]

Not only against the law but totally irresponsible to be keeping illegal fireworks   .... that's if you really do have them lol

[davidc4430]

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@chameleon54 wrote:

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

Yes, it is the illegal fireworks that can cause the problems.

There have not been many around here this year......far less than previous years, thank goodness.

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When we lived out bush we would often have large bonfires in the winter months. We would use the front end loader and pile fallen trees into huge heaps on the farm or go out to an old quarry or railway cutting in the scrub for "a bushie"..  Fireworks used to be part of the fun, along with making bush damper and burning magnesium VW gearboxes. They look like a giant firework, when they light up ...

Now I,m a suburbanite I have still got a couple of large eskies full of fireworks hidden away in the shed. I,m not game to let them off now so they are just sitting there ageing with the wicks getting dryer. I guess the kids will find them when I fall off my perch. Maybe the grandkids will have some fun with them.....

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might be a post death gift that kills your grandkids, who knows if very old fireworks will perform as they were intended or explode?

if it was me i'd fill the eskies with water until fireworks were unusable, then dispose of them.

[chameleon54]

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@bushies.girl wrote:

Not only against the law but totally irresponsible to be keeping illegal fireworks   .... that's if you really do have them lol

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Bushie, do you have a law degree now LOL

Each state has its own laws on fireworks. I havnt checked for a long time, but last time I looked it was only illegal to sell fireworks in my state and in the NT it was still legal to sell, own and discharge them. 

 I agree that letting fireworks off in residential areas is irresponsible and I dont do it.  What happens on an isolated rural property or an abandoned quarry in the middle of no-where though ( no cinema or council provided entertainment out there, you have to make your own fun  ) ..........totaly different thing.

The main purpose of laws is to assist people to live with each other. The higher the concentrations of people, the greater the need for regulation. Jam a lot of people in a very small area ( our cities ) and restrictions on peoples freedoms need to be very intrusive in order that they can succesfully live together.

If you really are a bushies girl ( LOL ) you would know that if you place a person in the middle of no-where, many laws have a lot less meaning. In fact some of the regulations that are vital in built up areas are counter productive in isolated areas. Think issues such as wild dog control, snake control, kids driving vehicles and motor bikes etc.

Heck as kids growing up in a remote rural area, we had to make our own fun. Most teenagers had old unregistered motor cycles that we would ride for hundreds of km. in a weekend exploring the baren mallee scrub and national parks in our area. We would visit remote old aboriginal campsites and hunt for stone implements and flint shards, camping at night at old station ruins. These where usually pug and pine huts with old wells or broken wind mills. We would ride along state border tracks climbing trig point survey towers that where the highest point for miles and had magnificent views. We spent a lot of time riding through thick scrub searching for old lost ruins that where marked on army survey maps or rolled up 100 YO district maps our grandparents had owned. 

We would visit wedge tailed eagles and malleee fowl nests or abandoned quarries and railway sidings with a couple of ruined workers cottages, a small tin community hall and an overgrown footy oval or tennis court.. And yes, if it was winter we would let a few fireworks off around the camp fire at night.

ILLEGAL - The whole thing was illegal, but it was all too isolated for park rangers. The local cops new exactly what was going on but turned a blind eye as long as we stayed out of trouble and where not hurting anyone.

Unfortunately these isolated places of my childhood have been over-run by weekend warriors with thier shiny black SUV,s. With the people the parks are now heavily regulated. Signs tell you where you can drive and camping is illegal. The border tracks are all one way traffic now and the boggy sandy sections which where the highlight of the motorcycle trip all have clay bypasses so the city folk dont get bogged. Park rangers are regularly on patrol and camp fires in winter are illegal. The stone aboriginal tools and flints are long gone as each car load of tourists took a few home. The trig point survey markers have been removed to stop tourists climbing them. ( they might fall and hurt themselves ) and there are signs everywhere. Thats rules, regulations and progress I suppose.

So the remaining fireworks left over from my teenage years sit in a couple of old eskies in the shed. Un-used and lost under a pile of junk. I keep them as a happy reminder of simpler times when laws on such things where more guides than rigid straightjackets and police where a bit flexible, letting you off with a warning rather than a $600 fine.

[chameleon54]

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@bushies.girl wrote:

Not only against the law but totally irresponsible to be keeping illegal fireworks   .... that's if you really do have them lol

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And yes that is one of the old penny bangers on the note ........ You could blow up a letter box with that thing.....

[lionrose.7]

My brother blow up a few Letter boxes, they were wooden in those days.

We also used to take all the powder out of the crackers, make a big ring or line and set it alight.

It is a wonder we never burnt down the neighbourhood.

[chameleon54]

Myself and a group of friends from our small town would often drive over 100 km. to the nearest regional centre for the weekend. It was back in the days when all the lads had hotted up old cars and you would do mainies up and down the street on a Saturday night. It was lowered FC holdens with twin carbs and old Valiants with the big slant six or V8 with noisy extractors. My ride was a black, lowered 1964 two door Falcon XM with chromies and split leather seats.  The mainees would be followed by a visit to the speedway, a pub to see a band or a rodeo. This particular night we chose the drive-in as our entertainment.

We parked our cars up in a line to watch Saturday Night Fever, got the "deckies" out and where enjoying the movie. It was all good until some of the local tough hoons who where sitting around the edge of the tray in a hot Holden ute started making suggestive comments to "our chicks".  ..........................................They wernt quite as tough though when a string of lit jumping jacks landed unexpectedly in the back of the ute................ Fireworks all round .....Ahhh.    Happy days.....

[bushies.girl]

Cant be bothered reading your scrollers, prob cause most it sounds like BS to me  lol  ..... 

[chameleon54]

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@bushies.girl wrote:

Cant be bothered reading your scrollers, prob cause most it sounds like BS to me  lol  ..... 

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Some shots from the old photo albums.

Top left clockwise. One of the numerous large bushies ( bonfires )  we had in the scrub ( with fireworks LOL ) , Riding the old Honda XL175 through thick sand , ( thats the best photo of me you are ever gonna see ) The small outback town that I grew up in, Bogged in an old ute on a sandy bush track, Band picks are of our practice room in the scrub, so no-one could hear us LOL ) Last two are a support gig we did for one of Australias biggest bands at the time.

I know my younger years where probably a lot different to most peoples, but heck it was great fun and as I get older, I realise how lucky I was to grow up in the bush. Thats all you get bushies girl, its all strange but true   .  

[lyndal1838]

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@lionrose.7 wrote:

My brother blow up a few Letter boxes, they were wooden in those days.

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Your brother could only blow up a wooden letter box?

Where I lived the houses all had letterboxes set into the brick fence.....the local boys regularly managed to blow the top off fence posts as well as demolish the box itself.

I lived in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, so not an isolated area by any means.  There was a vacant block of land on the opposite side of the street where the local kids built their bonfire every year.  It was always very well patronised and was the biggest one in the district.

There was plenty of adult supervision and the local fire brigade was 4 doors away.

One year we managed to set fire to one of the neighbour's fences...it just happened to be the Premier of NSW.....Bob Heffron.

After that year he aways had his backyard hose connected up and hanging over the fence but it was never needed.