Citizen action when fig trees were about to cut down in Laman Street Newcastle today. The chain saws soon began their work despite the protests to keep the old trees.

Following is homage to elders among the green activists seen during the protest.

Right: J. Sutton. Special edition T shirt.  

D. Lithgow.

M. Henry left and J Sutton

D. Lithgow, left and J Sutton.

Major personalities in the current fig tree protest are covered in the media rather than in these pics. 

Other citizens at the protest follow in pics below.

 subversive flag, protestor in wheelchair

Law keepers.

Mayor and partner on right. 

NBN TV

Radio 2HD

T Leahy, Uni lecturer

Fig tree remnants were handed out.

After the fair in Lambton Park. An innovative food and wine affaire.

The City Council has worked wonders on the park and the fairground was in a pretty setting.

The set-up was rather 'commodified' and could have done with a touch of mystery and surprise but who am I to say!

Garside Gardens in King Edward Park are colourful and the design copies the logo of the City Council and celebrates 150 years of Local Government (in floral script). Logo: Great place, Great lifestyle, Great Future.

Below, Happy Buccaneer and 48 hours later, on Tuesday afternoon, the unloading operation looks to be in a similar position as it was yesterday.
Second photo shows a loader already in operation and is the type of thing being extricated and unloaded.

On a corner of the park in Lambton the citizens are blessed with flowers and with books in a branch of the City Library.

Crazed by the heat-wave had I stumbled on the Alhambra or was it only a mirage?
No. An oasis, cool and palm-fringed stood in the park in Hamilton. The air was heavy with the scent of the fruit of the fig trees and the earth was thickly covered with the 'berries' from off these large old shade trees. .

A group of city council gardeners was/were busy working there. Many other council workers were on strike today over an issue. Council workers don't strike very often at all.

Council Work vans. The stranded Pasha Bulka recorded in the folk art above.

Local Government elections, with compulsory voting, take place on (this) Saturday Sep 13. Will we have a new Lord Mayor or more of the same? We expect the councils to give us services that help make out lifestyle better but they probably don't have a massive budget to play round with.

The Federal Government makes nice little statements about specialized fields that are beyond them and receives constant publicity. For example, of course, a national curriculum would probably be a good thing, blind Freddie could see that but does it take a massive, nation wide, duplicate tier of government to say as much?
All of that deflects attention from the State Government who get up to all sorts of ticks on the quiet but has to do the hands-on work. Who cares about a five star rating from some distant suspect instrumentality?
We always have to strive to improve; our services have shortcomings, they are uncreative, yet are pleasing, some things are just slack enough to be strangly reassuring except for hi-tech medicine, which is scary, and investment funds.