Still Feeling The Heat In Tasmania

Only a cooler spell expected this week will stop Hobart having its hottest recorded summer. The mean maximum temperature for Hobart since December 1 is just over 23.5C, topping the record 23.3C of 1899-90.

If temperatures stay close to forecast next week, the capital will come in just under that mark.

"We'll be up there. We are tracking very close to the record," weather bureau climatologist Lorien Martin said.

Yesterday's top was 35.7C, the season's ninth day over 30C. Other parts of the state have also come close to their hottest, although the data does not go back as far as Hobart's. Hobart has also had its driest summer since 2002, when only 26.8mm fell all summer.

 

"The significant thing this summer has been the 41.8C on the fourth of January," Ms Martin said -- a whole degree leap on the previous mark." The average year has six days over 30C, not nine.

"That's only three more but we had a lot of warmer-than-average days."

Since December 1, only 45.8mm of rain has fallen, about a third the usual. January received 11.4mm, against a 47.3mm average. February has averaged 12.4mm so far against the usual 40.2mm.

Launceston has also had a hot summer, with a mean maximum of 26.2C so far in February and with just 8.4mm of rain, but no days above 30C this month. It received 14.8mm in January but 63.5mm in December.

People in southeast Tasmania were working in the heat and others working to keep cool. Valley-View Roofing owner Joshua Cook said staff let him know when it's too hot to work.

"We just keep going until it gets unbearable. Someone says 'I've had enough' and it's a bit of a chain reaction. They knocked off about 3 and the boys up at Orford at 1pm," Mr Cook said. His Hobart team were doing ground work and not roof work yesterday.

"It's still not very pleasant. If you don't work you don't get paid."

Glenorchy Pool manager Simon Marsland said the pool filled up fast after school.

"It's really busy today. We have about 300 now," Mr Marsland said just before 4pm.

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Cruise Ship Tourists Brave Bushfires.

Hobart will be awash with 16,500 seafaring tourists during the next five days who face altered sightseeing plans because of bushfires sweeping the south.

The Crystal Symphony will dock today followed tomorrow by the Voyager of the Seas, bringing to 5786 the number of people landing this week.

Another three ships will arrive by Monday, taking the total number of passengers past 16,000.

Hobart Lord Mayor Damon Thomas said the concentrated number of arrivals was unprecedented.

He said Hobart City Council's Tasmanian Travel & Information Centre had been liaising with the cruise lines on the state of the bushfires.

"It is also co-ordinating tours, buses, facilities, retailers, volunteers as well as services and activities for crew, aiming to make sure the experience for our visitors is ... organised and valued once they leave," he said.

Alderman Thomas said alternative shore excursions were being organised to compensate for the unavailability of short tours, because of the fires, to places such as Port Arthur and Mt Field.

"The Centre is now assisting the cruise lines to find alternative shore excursions to ensure passengers can see and do as much as possible during their short stay in our city," he said.

Port Arthur is one of the most popular destinations for cruise ship visitors but the historic attraction is off limits as bushfires continue to burn on the Tasman Peninsula.

Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania chief executive Luke Martin said on Monday 80 per cent of cruise ship passengers with the Diamond Princess booked to go to Port Arthur were happy with an alternative tour.

He said tours to Richmond, the Huon Valley, Bruny Island, Mt Wellington and MONA had been popular alternatives.

He said on Sunday the Diamond Princess and Celebrity Solstice would arrive with a further 5550 passengers and 2600 crew.

And on Monday the Oosterdam will dock with 1848 passengers and 812 crew on board.

Related articles

• Bushfire near Hobart may burn for a week (radionz.co.nz)
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• Bushfires devastate Tasmanian town (theage.com.au)

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Tasmanian iPad Gamer Beats Tourette's

By launching a game for the iPad, Tasmanian Tourette's sufferer Paul Wilkinson has done what he thought the disease would never allow him to.

In September 2010, Mr Wilkinson had electrodes inserted into his brain to control the debilitating and potentially dangerous tics that Tourette's triggered.

Since the treatment, the 29-year-old has started Subspark Entertainment, which launched its first game on Apple's App Store in March.

AstroPlasma is a digital version of air-hockey that gives the player a first-person, rather than top-down view, of proceedings.

"This game is the first to utilise so many of the iPad's features and it truly redefines our genre," Mr Wilkinson said.

"Multiplayer allows people across the world to challenge one another."

The game took nine people six months to make and since its launch it has received five-star ratings in Australian, American and Polish App Stores.

Mr Wilkinson said Tasmania was a great place to do business and

hopes to establish a full studio in Hobart.

He has co-ordinated with staff in and out of the state to create the game.

He said the only challenge was to find people with the right expertise in Tasmania and he hoped to work with the education facilities in Tasmania to tailor a course to suit.

"There isn't a fully integrated course to produce the kinds of skill needed," he said.



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More Gun-Related Crimes In Tasmania

Robbery not allowed (Photo credit: Arenamontanus)

Police are under intense pressure at both ends of the state as a series of armed robberies and drive-by shootings leave Tasmania in the grip of a crimewave.

While Hobart recorded four shootings last week and three further gun-related incidents in the past three months, Launceston has been under siege as armed robbers target inner-city, busy businesses armed with deadly weapons.

The North has recorded six high-end armed robberies in the past month.

Two involved a sawn-off shotgun, one offender was carrying what appeared to be a handgun, and two armed robbers used a knife to threaten their victims.

A woman was accosted by a male in a public car park at Scottsdale in the early evening on Thursday as she made her way to her vehicle.

The man was wearing a balaclava and produced a knife and demanded money as she tried to get into her car.

On Friday, the Commonwealth Bank in the busy Newstead shopping precinct was targeted.

Police arrested a 24-year-old Burnie man in Launceston's CBD on Saturday.

He appeared before the Launceston Magistrates Court yesterday.

But the majority of these crimes remain unsolved, leaving residents wondering what will come next.

The Police Association of Tasmania says the explosion in gun crime has "deeply troubled its officers, who face great danger" when attempting to apprehend those responsible.

"This is critically serious," acting president Robbie Dunn said.

"We're seeing threats to people's lives, and serious injuries."

Sergeant Dunn rejected Police Minister David O'Byrne's recent comment that "it's not Underbelly".

"Tasmania's underbelly is armed, it's prepared to use [the weapons], and the rate of shootings and crime is going through the roof," he said.

"But while the under-resourced police service is out there chasing these gun-toting maniacs, we have a government dismissing the issue."

Call To Double First Home Owners Grants

Flag of Tasmania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

TASMANIA'S first home owner grant should be doubled to $14,000 to boost the state's sluggish economy, real-estate advocates say.

Real Estate Institute of Tasmania president Adrian Kelly says upping the grant even if only for 60 days would have a huge impact on boosting the ailing real-estate industry and the wider economy.

The incentive would help first-home buyers enter the real-estate market, create work within the building industry, and have a flow-on effect for small businesses right across the state.

It would also offer much-needed relief within the overcrowded rental market, as people moved out of rental accommodation and into their own homes.

Mr Kelly said there were plenty of prospective young buyers and an extra $7000 would be just the incentive they needed.

He said the extra funds would help buyers secure an existing house at the state's median price of $350,000 or build with a house and land package.

Meanwhile, buyers looking at properties under $200,000 perhaps in Hobart's northern suburbs could use $14,000 to make a sizeable dent in their new mortgage.

Mr Kelly said an influx of first-home buyers would have a ripple effect, prompting existing homeowners to upgrade to newer and more expensive homes.

"We need first-home buyers because they push the second and third-home buyers up," Mr Kelly said.

There were 18,000 house sales in Tasmania in 2003 but this has fallen dramatically, with annual figures now down to about 11,500.

The number of new-home starts has also fallen and properties are staying on the market for longer, with many people choosing to renovate existing homes rather than buy a new home.

Mr Kelly said the Government might be strapped for cash but boosting the first home owner's grant, even for a short period, would produce big results for a relatively small financial outlay.

Housing Industry Association of Tasmania executive director Stuart Clues said when the grant for building in Tasmania was tripled to $21,000 almost four years ago, it provided an immediate boost to the economy.

He said doubling the grant for 60 days would be a great start but six months would be better.

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