Banda Aceh - Almost 5 years after the Tsunami

Traditional fishing boats in the bay of Layeun.

Kids on the new Banda Aceh sea wall facing Pulau Weh
This fishing boat saved the lives of 59 people. It is being kept as a memorial.











The beautiful interior of the Main Mosque in Banda Aceh; Mesjid Raya Baiturrahman.

Most of us have forgotten – as one does with catastrophic events the other side of the world – about the December 2004 Tsunami that killed over 160,000 people in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. However, I have had a lot of remembering of this event in the last few weeks.

We have returned from a short trip to Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia, which was very close to the epicentre of the earthquake. For the people of Aceh it was a short time between the earthquake and the tsunami, a matter of minutes.

The city has recovered with an huge amount of rebuilding made possible by the billions of dollars of aid that poured in. The people of Aceh are generous and welcoming. When you talk about the tsunami, all were effected in some way, noone was unscathed.

Whether you survived or not was a random matter – were you in town that day? Were you working driving a client into the hills, were you on a study tour overseas, were you on the ferry to the nearby islands? Then you escaped but came back to a town that was devasted; to find close family members gone.

We travelled to a small fishing village, called Layeun, down the west coast, even closer to the epicentre. The village was in a wide beautiful bay. The shape of the land caused the tsunami wave to increase in height to over 30 meters. The population was about 900 people and the homes were close to the beach. The village was flattened, amazingly about 600 people survived, but women, children and older people did not. I spoke to one mother who lost 4 daughters, another, 2 of her 4 daughters and all but one of her grandchildren. People who stopped to help others were swept away. Now the village is rebuilt far away from the beach against the mountains. People are reclaiming their lives but sadness remains throughout the community.

The new Tsunami museum interior.

"It's been designed so that future generations will never forget the day the tsunami hit"

Aceh is well worth visiting for many reasons. I hope that people will visit the country to see if for themselves.

My Late Father's 98th Birthday - born 13 March 1911

My father, Mervyn Smithyman, would have turned 98 yesterday. He died in August last year after he fell and broke his leg and had to have an operation. Dad had been in fine mind, if frail of body. He was still walking with a little help and only went into frail care the preceding October.

At the age of 91 he had emigrated from Africa to live in Chester, UK, but he remained an African in my mind.

There was something special about the breadth of his vision, his ability to see beyond the minor inconveniences, beyond petty quarrels to common interests that we all shared. When I complained about some small nuisance, he would say, ‘but that is not a train smash’. Even when my mother and he, (and the dog and I) left Zanzibar Island during the revolution with nothing, not even passports, he recognised that we were the lucky ones. Things did not matter, people did.

I mourn his passing this last year, I miss him but am glad for what we had: a father that stayed the long journey with us, intelligent, fun and loving.

The first photo is of Dad at the age of 93 in Chester, UK.

Three generations in 2002: Here are Frost, (Dad's first great grandchild), David Adams, Dad's grandson (and my son) & Dad.
The last photo shows him on Independence Day (Uhuru) for Zanzibar Protectorate in December 1963 when Dad was 52. The revolution was a month later.

Raining on the Koalas!

It has been showering for over a day now and everyone in Adelaide is delighted. Soft soaking rain is what we need. We received 17mm in 24 hours (3/4 inch), others in the Hills behind us, 44mm (1.5 inches). But many regional areas in the State received nothing. A mixed blessing.

The Neotrigonia Shell - an Australian living fossil

The Neotrigonia is a Bivalve shell that is found in Australian waters. There are only 3 species in this family and they are the last ones of an ancient bivalve, often called a 'living fossil'. Its all to do with the hinge or dentation - where the shells join together. The shell has a strange primitive mechanism for the hinge. It is called 'trigonid'. It is believed that this family of shells, in ancient times, gave rise to the mussel families.

The Neotrigonia was called the 'brooch' shell because they were used as brooches in the Victorian era - due to their internal nacrous lustre.

It is a beautiful shell and normally found in relatively deep sea, up to 80 metres. However dead shells have been washed ashore on Brighton Beach, Adelaide as a result of the dredging that is occuring offshore.

And I have been collecting them.

Ana Glavinic of Flinders Uni, who is doing her Phd on this shell, says 'Neotrigonia is the sole surviving genus of the Trigoniidae, prominent during the Mesozoic, but only survived by a few species today in the southern ocean, occupying coastal waters of Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. '

We first met Ana when she was doing her honours degree and we went on an expedition with the Waterhouse Club of the South Australian Museum into the Outback of northern South Australia. Ana was excited by the many shell fossils that she found.

The scientist leading this was Prof. Tim Flannery and we were looking for Cretaceous marine fossils that once inhabited the shallow, cold inland sea of Australia, called the Eromango Sea. We found many shell fossils. Its strange to come across ancient fossil reefs of shells in the middle of a desert. Our team was very happy to find the almost complete fossil of a baby ichthyosaur, like a huge fierce-toothed dolphin. It is now in the South Australian Museum, Origin Gallery.

Bushfire Management Plans

Everyone is talking bushfires in Australia at the moment as the heartrending stories emerge from Victoria. (our neighbouring state). We in South Australia consider ourselves lucky to have escaped this time. When bushfire danger conditions are predicted (the hot North Wind is the worst) we are all encouraged through the media to, “revisit our bushfire management plans”.

Some years ago we attended a CFS (Country Fire Authority) education day where we learnt about making a bushfire plan. So we now are alerted to the “go or stay” issue and how to defend your home.

Here is an example from a local authority:

Ask Yourself
* Are you ready for the bushfire season?
* Is your family and home at risk?
* Will you and your family stay and defend your home or leave early before the fire starts?

Things to Consider
* Does your family include, children, elderly or people with disabilities?
* Can you or your family physically or mentally defend your house during a bushfire?

Put together an emergency/survival kit
* with spare batteries. Candles to provide light.
* Matches or lighter. Battery radio with spare batteries.
* First aid kit. Medication.
* Fire extinguishers. Fire blankets.
* Bottled drinking water. etc

(I learnt something new from the story of a survivor in today's newspaper: leave a car in your driveway, out of the garage, as a final escape option. AND don't lose the keys)

Although we argue that we are not really in danger in our location (on the Hills Face Zone overlooking Adelaide), we still are prepared.

We have decided to be “stayers” so we have our bushfire kit ready in a spare bedroom (boots, long pants, long sleeved wool shirt, buckets, spare water hose).
We also have a generator to pump water from our rain water tanks; a system to start the sprinklers on the roof that will fill the gutters with water (no good if the power goes) and a bolt hole to hide if all else fails. We should keep buckets filled with water at various spots around the house.

They say that as the fire front approaches you stay inside, with curtains closed. Once the front has passed you can go outside and put out spot fires and watch for embers. Many houses are burnt by embers travelling before or after the fire front.

Our bolt hole is our wine cellar! It is between a huge rain water tank and the basement of the house. All walls are concrete. And we will not fall short of sustenance!

Many people die when they decide to leave at the last moment and get caught in the thick smoke, darkness and are unsure which route to follow.

The gum trees (eucalypts) are another concern. We love our trees, plant more and protect them, but in a major fire, gum trees are the fuel. So you have to remove any that are too close to the house.

These terrible fires will go down in Australian history.
Famous ones are “Black Friday” in 1939 and the “Ash Wednesday” fires of Feb 1983. Factors combined to make for extreme fire conditions.

It has happened again and I wonder what the fires of Saturday, 7th Feb, 2009, when “fire fell from the sky”, will be called.

Koalas in Stress

The koala population in the Adelaide Hills is not original to the area. They were introduced and have flourished spreading down onto the plains and urban areas. We have resident koalas. Sometimes up to 4 are visable in the daytime and their donkey-like brays are commonly heard at night. With the drought and the lack of moisture in the eucalypts leaves they come out of the trees to seek ground water. Sometimes they look distressed and on the recent 45.7 degree day we sprayed them in the trees.

One adolescent did not leave the front lawn in the morning. I thought that he was done for. So my husband decided to don large gloves and pick him up (not recommended as they have suprisingly big and sharp claws) and put him in a tree to see if he could feed himself.

There is a koala rescue line but they would be flat out in these conditions, so this was our Plan A.
The koala was quite docile, and after he was put into a small tree, he sat and recovered for a while before climbing higher. Next morning he was back on our lawn hugging a bird bath but a few hours later climbed another tree. We think he is OK now.

Another, larger koala, took to hiding next to our tool shed in the shade. They can be harassed by large dogs so the ground is not recommended.

This heat wave is due to pass on Sunday when the temperature is expected to drop to 25 oC. Meanwhile we take showers several times a day!

The Heat is on in Adelaide, South Australia

This is the 6th day that the temperature in

Adelaide has been over 40 o Centigrade (104 oF). We are told we can hope for a milder cool front next Saturday when it will drop to 30 degrees. But still no rain is expected. The top of 45.7 C(114 oF) last Tuesday was some sort of record for Adelaide. People are talking about 100 year records and that would be since records began here.

It is the main topic of conversation between locals: how to cool down, how to care for your garden, pets, wild birds and animals. At over 46 degrees C birds start to perish.

Round our home on the hills overlooking Adelaide the birds have used our garden as a refuge. They hide in the shade of the larger trees, creep under our outside tables and drink copious amounts of water from the many containers that we have put out.

The shy Common Bronzewings come in close to the house and I can see their throats fluttering. Wikipedia states that: "Birds also avoid overheating by gular fluttering which is similar to panting in mammals since their thin skin has no sweat glands".

Meanwhile, I worry about going outside and disturbing them in case flying off will cause them stress. At the end of the day we put on a water sprinkler for the little birds. They come in droves: striated paradoles, honeyeaters, superb wrens, willie wagtails and thornbills.

We are the lucky ones as most people cannot water except according to the tight restriction rules of Level 3 - which means you can use a hose or dripper system for only 3 hours a week during determined hours according to your address. Our fortune is to be in a one of the few suburbs where all homes depend on bore water systems that don't yet have restrictions.

Climate change seems very real in South Australia at the moment!