whilst i'm on the topic of my local supermarket i may as well document a small action i carried out upon it last year, and provide an update on where things are currently at.. so. last year I read about the community of Maleny in QLD and their struggle to stop a Woolworths being built in their town. They opposed the need for a 'one stop shop' in their community and were up in arms about the proposed build site, which was right next to the Obi Obi Creek. Together they had also raised funds to buy the land and create a park. We're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's pretty incredible. They also conducted an environmental impact study and discovered that that area of the Obi Obi creek is a sensitive platypus breeding ground (ie contained up to thirty burrows). Now as far as I'm aware when an animal is an 'endangered' species I their habitats are protcted by law. But somehow with the help of Caloundra council Woolworths managed to 'gazzump' the community, acquire the land and get their building permit. All the background info about the backyard dealing are available here:
http://www.malenyvoice.com/. I have never seen a platypus, and have gone on several treks down rivers with the sole purpose of seeing one so I was pretty upset by this. It wasn't until the Maleny community took a full page ad out in The Australian stating their case and asking people to boycott Woolworths that I felt I should do something. I've never met these people and their approach to the whole thing has seemed pretty reasonable so I didn't want to do anything to radical that may actually harm their position or causes or put their name to anything that they were not associated with, so I went down the more subversive route to spark the interest or imagination as it were.. so going on the no skateboards, no knives yadda yadda as you entered the supermarket I added these to the window of the supermarket and a couple of other in the greater area where i live:
they lasted a couple of days before they took them down, but the thing is i walk past there on my way home and i'm a bit of a night owl and the supermarket was always closed and i just whacked new ones up. this lasted a few weeks before I felt I'd made my point. It was quite fun really. I also wrote to the MD of Woolwoths who sent back a very detailed explanation of their case which sounded quite rational (a bit like the nuclear energy debate does).. anyway, I emailed the community with these images and they were very pleased and put them on their website here:
http://www.malenyvoice.com/obiobi/Your_Opinion/pages/sydney.htm . So a year on and and after the flouro debarcle I thought I'd revist. triplej's hack did a story which you can listen to here:
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/notes/mp3s/woolies.mp3 it's very interesting. And arcording to Maleny's
website (which was updated last week) the woolworths has opened. nobody is shopping there. their perishables are going off and they are being underwritten by other supermarkets in the chain in that area. It does seem like a pretty stupid and futile exercise on the part of Woolworths. What is inspirational is the way the community have banded together and continue to be vigilant. If you have some time you should check out all the amzing and creative actions they've taken over the past year. Actually you can see the remnants one of the platy stickers on the bin full of flouros in the post below.
another boot appears! This boot was found in the park behind my house.. they are getting closer.. it's another single boot - this one has laces and the other (listed a few posts below) did not, so unless there is a one legged man (i assume from the size of the shoe) whom discards his spare boots willy-nilly i believe that this game might be still on rather than it just being my imagination.. i was beginning to doubt myself, as i had to stop tending the other boot when i went to WA for a week and it had disappeared when i came back. Though, given where i put it it was for all and sundry to grab, and given I don't exactly live in the most broadminded corner of sydney, it's not surprising. It did last about a week up there though, and I would place new, different flowers in it most nights. Anyway, when this boot appeared - placed ever so obviously - i decided to leave it where it was but add flowers again. i have no idea what this is about but it's definitely blossoming into something..
