Perths SmartRider system not proving so smart

I’ve already covered in some detail the Perth Public Transport System. One of the latest (and most highly hyped and widely advertised) improvements to Perth’s public transport was the introduction of the new SmartRider system.

The SmartRider system basically provides travellers with an easy way to pay for travel on any of one of the services offered by Transperth (busses, Trains, Ferrys) using a credit card sized Smartcard that you credit with funds.

Once your card has some cash on it, you simply Tag on, by swiping your card across the smartcard reader, then, when you get to your destination, you Tag off.

The SmartRider system is clever enough to know how long your journey is and charges you accordingly. Sounds good in theory doesn’t it? Well it does when it works!

I’ve been using the SmartRider system for about three weeks now with no issues. For some reason this morning however the SmartRider machines were not operating.

One of the machines at Currambine train station simply said ‘out of order’ whilst a second displayed an “updating software” message to the confused patrons trying to tag on before taking their train journey into work.

A message on the Transperth Website reads:

SmartRider disruptions - all train lines

Effective: 27 March 2007

Transperth wishes to advise that due to a software upgrade malfunction, SmartRider is unavailable on all train lines. During this time, passengers do not need to tag on or tag off train services.

Passengers transferring from bus to train services at controlled stations (Kelmscott, Warwick and Whitfords) are required to tag on and tag off the bus as normal and then tag off at the station. Passenger Ticketing Assistants will be located at these stations to enable passengers to do this.

Transperth is planning to automatically reverse any default fare imposed as a result of the software problem. The adjustment will take place later this week.

Transperth bus and ferry services remain unaffected and passengers are advised to tag on and tag off as normal.

It is anticipated that this issue will take at least 24 hours to resolve. Passengers are asked to check the website for updates. TravelEasy updates will also be sent.

Transperth apologises for the inconvenience.

Now I’m not a particularly great mathematician but I reckon there must be tens of thousands of people who travel into Perth on the trains every morning.

Because the SmartRider system was broken, and so many people have been pushed by Transperth to use the system as a simpler alternative to carrying cash. The only alternative Transperth had for its SmartRider patrons today was to give them free journeys.

Now if this software problem is going to take 24 hours to resolve, it looks like its going to be a very expensive problem for Transperth.

I’m not 100% sure what the problem will be but it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s a knock on effect of the Daylight saving ending on Sunday.

I know the implementation at relatively short notice of Daylight saving in Western Australia caused problems for a number of companies when it was introduced for the first time a few months ago.

I’m sure whatever the problem, there will be a few frazzled IT managers at Transperth trying to get things sorted.

Popularity: 2% [?]

In Australia, do leaves fall off the trees in Autumn?

In Australia do the leaves fall off the tree’s in Autumn? A question I’d often pondered, sweeping up the leaves in our back garden during a chilly autumnal afternoon back in Blighty.

Well, Autumn is finally here, and I’m happy to confirm that the leaves are indeed, starting to go brown and fall off the trees.

Although its officially Autumn, its still warmer then the average British summer (still averaging high 20’s, early thirties every day) and this got me thinking; how the hell do the tree’s know its Autumn?

Do they think (if tree’s could think)..brrrrrrrr, 25 degree’s, getting a little chilly..time to drop some leaves?

More interestingly, if you picked up an English Oak tree from some country park in Yorkshire and plonked it down in the middle of Perth, would it get confused? Would it think it was Spring and start to grow it’s leaves whilst the rest of the tree’s dropped theirs?

Sure, all theoretical (and slightly crazy questions) but hey, it makes you wonder.

Popularity: 2% [?]

We have feeds

Hi Guys, I’ve noticed that we have a few people subscribing to updates from our site using the wonders of RSS feeds.

RSS What? I hear you say RSS feeds for those of you not familiar with the term enables folks to read updates from a number of websites or new services all at the same time from a common interface such as a feed reader (a software package that you down load onto your PC).

There are a few services offered by the likes of Google and Yahoo that also enable you to view these feeds online.

Why am I telling you this? Well, for those of you looking for this kind of functionality, I’ve signed up an account with feedburner.com to enable those of you interested in getting RSS updates a little easier.

Clicky Here for details of the RSS Feed and subscription options (opens a new page).

Receive an daily update by email every time we update the blog.

If you have even a slight interest in what we are up to down under, another of the funky features offered by Feedburner is the ability to subscribe to blog updates via email. Basically if you subscribe, you’ll get a daily update on the days that we get around to updating the blog. If no new content or updates are written then no email will be sent to you.

This doesn’t mean that we don’t want to see you here daily checking out our forums and stuff it might just save you five seconds of your busy lives checking the blog to see if the blog has updated to find the same old post

Clicky Here for the sign up form for email updates.

For those of you worried about privacy or being bombarded by updates relating to entries about my bum then be assured that your info isn’t shared and you can unsubscribe at any time via a link sent with any updates.

Easy Eh? Comments, questions then please feel free to post em!

Mark

Popularity: 2% [?]

Just in case you need another reason to emigrate to Australia

The first race of the Formula one season took place this weekend and I watched the TV coverage live from Melbourne on channel 10.

I’ve always enjoyed watching F1 coverage on television although the frequency of my viewings has reduced somewhat since ITV won the rights over the Beeb and choose to introduce ads at inopportune moments.

I also missed Murray Walker who decided to hang up the headphones and retire from F1 commentary back in 2001. Since those days watching a race had never really been the same either.

How positively delighted was I then, when I heard Murrays dulcet and yet familiar tones at the beginning of Channel Tens coverage.

Yes, it would seem that Murray didn’t hang up his microphone for good back in 2001 but has instead signed a deal with Channel ten to cover the Australian Grand Prix

Sure, Murray won’t be doing 18 or 19 races a year with lots of long haul flights in between, but he did make a special effort to cover the Australian Grand Prix and for that I am very grateful.

Some of my Favorite “Murrayisms”

“And just to clarify, Häkkinen leads and has yet to stop, Coulthard leads and has yet to stop”

“Now we go into lap 53, the penultimate last lap but one.”

“Excuse me while I interrupt myself…”

“With half the race gone, there’s half the race still to go.”

“If the gloves weren’t off before—and they were—they sure are now!”

“That’s a good stop. Just under 10 seconds. Call it 9.7 in round figures.”

“Now he must not go the wrong way round the circuit and unless he can spin himself stationary through 360 degrees I fail to see how he can avoid doing so.”

“And now the boot is on the other Schumacher!”

“Now Laffite is as close to Surer as Surer is to Laffite.”

“There’s a difference of only one second between these two cars …one… that’s how long a second is”

“I should imagine that the conditions in those cars are totally unimaginable.”

” ‘If’ is a very long word in Formula One; in fact, ‘if’ is F1 spelled backwards.”

” Watch the lights appear to countdown the start! —One light! —Two lights! —Three lights! —Four lights! —Five laps!”

“The interesting thing about this circuit is that it has inclines; not just up, but down as well.”

“This has been a mediocre season for Nelson Piquet, as he is now known, and always has been.”

“And the track temperature has in fact risen in degrees!”

“And here comes Damon Hill in the Williams. This car is absolutely unique—except for the one following it, which is identical.”

“Do my eyes deceive me or is Senna’s Lotus sounding a bit rough?”

“Tambay’s hopes, which were nil before, are now absolutely zero.”

“Alboreto into the pits and I’m going to stop the startwatch!”

“And it’s a sad ending, albeit a happy one, at Montreal for today’s Grand Prix”

“It’s the first time Schumacher’s won here since 1959″ (Michael Schumacher was born in 1969)

“Schumacher in the McLaren, Häkkinen in the Ferrari.” (At the time, Schumacher was a Ferrari driver and Häkkinen was a McLaren driver)

(Approaching Bernie Ecclestone) “Bernie, it’s some 17 years since you bought McLaren, you’ve had some good times, you’ve had some bad times, what do you remember best?” Bernie replies: “I don’t remember buying McLaren…” Murray: “I’ve done it again, haven’t I?”

On Gerhard Berger’s Ferrari failing at Suzuka 93 “That’s Ayrton Berger!”

“Mansell knows exactly where Senna is because he can see him in his earphone.”

“Seven of the previous champions are on the starting line, and four of them are Michael Schumacher”

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How much money can I borrow to buy a house in Australia?

When we were back in the UK, it seems banks and building societies used a similar formula for calculating how much money you could borrow when applying for a mortgage.

It went something on the lines of 3.5 times your income if you were the sole person applying for the mortgage or 2 times the joint income if you were applying for a mortgage with your partner.

As we have finally sold our house back in the UK and may now be in a position to buy a pad here in Australia I thought I’d pop into one of the local banks here in Perth to understand how much money we could borrow.

Based on my earnings and the fact that I have a missus and a four year old to support, the bank were willing to offer me a figure which equates to more then, wait for it….5 times my annual earnings. FIVE times!

I was absolutely gob smacked. Sure this would be over a thirty year term but five times a person’s income?

It’s nice to know that we can start to look at houses slightly larger or in better suburbs but is it really worth the risk committing to so much debt?

Getting back to the office later that day and discussing Australian banks lending criteria with a number of colleagues it seems that it’s pretty common practice for banks to lend ‘stupid’ amounts of money to people.

One of the guys in our office (who is also a British Expat) recently managed to secure a loan of $1 Million to help him secure a property.

Sure it was a bridging loan but a million dollars!

Even taking into account the exchange rate this is still a ridicules amount of money to be lending someone. I have no idea how much this particular chap earns but I’m pretty certain that the loan in this instance would have certainly exceeded 5 x annual earnings.

This place really is going to take some getting used to.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Perth weekly rents continue to surge

Ever week, amongst all of the crap and junk mail that gets posted through our letter box, we also get a real estate paper which provides details of houses for sale in the local area and a small blurb from the ‘industry’ detailing the current state of the local housing market.

This week’s headline reads:

“Perth weekly rents will continue to surge despite changes to the letting fee”

As I mentioned last week, the letting fee now has to be paid by the landlord of the property and not by the tenant, the idea being that this small reduction in costs will help those on lower incomes. It seems that it’s not really making any real difference though.

Apparently, rental prices have historically dragged behind the growth of the average house price which means we are soon going to be in for a major market correction in relation to rents.

Some mad stats:

During the past twenty years, the average house price in Perth has increased by a whopping 718% to $450,000.

In the same twenty years the average weekly rent for a house in Perth has increased by a slightly more modest 154.9% to $260.00 (Hop on over to XE.com for some up to date conversions )

So, what does this mean for you and me?

Well, with a vacancy rate of less then 1% it’s looking likely that rents will continue to rise and tenants like us will be forced to pay out even more dosh to rent a home.

Perhaps it might be time to buy somewhere sooner rather then later?

Popularity: 2% [?]

Australian Government introducing enhanced security screening from 31st March 2007

If you’re flying out to Australia after the 30th of March this year you’ll need to be aware of a number of new enhanced security procedures the Australian Government has introduced.

From 31 March 2007, the Australian Government will introduce enhanced security screening measures to limit the amount of liquids, aerosols, and gels that can be taken through the security screening point for passengers who are flying to and from Australia.

Liquids, aerosols and gels include, but are not limited to:

water and other drinks, soups, syrups, jams, stews, sauces and pastes; foods in sauces or containing a high liquid content;

creams, lotions, cosmetics and oils;

perfumes;

sprays;

gels including hair and shower gels;

contents of pressurised containers, including shaving foam, other foam and deodorants;
pastes including toothpaste;

liquid-solid mixtures;

mascara;

lipsticks;

lip gloss or lip balm; and

Any item of similar consistency at room temperature.

Carry on Baggage Restrictions

All liquids, aerosols and gels must be carried in containers of no greater than 100mV3.30z capacity (approximately 100gm in weight).

All containers must fit comfortably in a transparent, resealable plastic bag.

The plastic bag must be no greater than 1 litre in capacity with a total outer edge measurement of no larger than 80cm.

There is a limit of one plastic bag per passenger.

The plastic bag must be removed from carry on baggage and presented to security personnel at the checkpoint for inspection and separate x-ray screening. Containers larger than 100ml will not be accepted, even if only partially filled.

Medication and Baby Products

Prescription medication and prescribed medical devices may still be carried on board. Reasonable amounts of non-prescription medication required for the length of the flight are permitted.

Baby products to be consumed in-flight including baby milk, sterilised water, baby juice, baby food in liquid, gel or paste form and wet wipes may be carried on board. All medication and baby products may be subject to additional security checks.

For further information on the Australian regulations you can visit dotars.gov.au.

Information source: Qantas.com

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So where will you be heading?

Ok guys, lets cut to the chase

If / When you move down under to Australia, where will you be heading. If you’ve been following this blog you’ll know we went for Perth because it gave us a little more of the kind of stuff we were looking for

BUT, where are you going to be heading to?

Click here to visit and vote in our funky poll.

Cheers

Mark

Popularity: 1% [?]

Walking with Dinosaurs the live experience - A Review

Walking with Dinosaurs the live experience is a show that I have been meaning to write a blog entry about for some time.

If you remember some time ago, the BBC launched a six-part television series called Walking with Dinosaurs. The Show, narrated by Kenneth Branagh, used computer-generated imagery and animatronics to recreate the life of the Mesozoic, showing dinosaurs in a way that previously had only been seen in feature films like Jurassic Park.

The series was a big success, some of the success possibly down to the record breaking amount of cash spent by the beeb to produce the programs (walking with dinosaurs won a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most expensive documentary series per minute ever made).

As the title suggests; walking with Dinosaurs the live experience is a live show featuring huge, life size mechanical dinosaurs operated by teams of puppeteers and drivers. We saw the show at the Burswood dome in Perth a few weeks ago.

The little lad has loved dinosaurs for some time and after seeing a trailer on the net and seeing the adverts for the show on TV, he was so excited about seeing a T-Rex in the flesh that we had to book the tickets at the earliest opportunity.

Now life size mechanical dinosaurs operated by teams of puppeteers and drivers doesn’t sound very impressive does it but when you see these things and appreciate the enormity of the scale, it’s simply amazing. The quality of the dinosaurs and the way the animatronics were used was also just brilliant!

Although you could sometimes see some of the mechanics operating the dinosaurs, within a couple of minutes this all simply blurred into the back ground and you were transported back to the Jurassic periods. Even the guys wearing the smaller ‘dinosaur suits’ somehow managed to pull it off

We saw all sorts, Allosaurus, Brachiosaurus, a Stegosaurus and the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex to name but a few (wow that gave the spell check a work out).

Before booking the tickets we were a little worried about taking our four year old.

Firstly, the show didn’t start until 8pm which was well after junior’s bedtime. The show also attracted a Parental Guidance recommendation and we didn’t want to terrify the little mite.

We got around the first issue by making junior have an enforced sleep during the afternoon. This is normally a bit of a struggle but as he was told that he might not be able to go if he was to tired, he forced himself to go to sleep (bless) and had a good 90 minutes during the afternoon.

This is perhaps as well as the show didn’t start until 8:20 due to traffic issues outside.

To help alleviate the second PG concern, we made sure (as recommended on the website) that we didn’t book seats right at the front near the stage.

In hindsight, this was a good thing as we watched at one stage a ten meter long (yup 10 meter) Brachiosaurus (the one with the long neck) looming down on the audience below.

The T-Rex would have also been pretty terrifying close up as it roared at the audience from only feet away.

The show itself is brilliant (can you tell that we enjoyed it yet?) It’ also very educational as the palaeontologist (who is played by either Bruce Spence or Felix Nobis depending on the show) walks you through the evolution of dinosaurs from the beginning of time though to the big bang

From a timing perspective, walking with Dinosaurs the live experience is split into two thirty minute segments with a 15 minute interval in between.

Personally, although it might have been better to watch the show in one big bite, it didn’t bother us to much. We were very conscious of the time though, especially as juniors eye lids appeared to be getting heavier and heavier as time went on.

I’m not sure why they choose to have an interval after only 30 minutes but I’d assume this is more down to technical reasons then anything else. At the end of the day, I’d imagine that recharging a Brachiosaurus’s batteries isn’t something you can do in only five minutes.

The only downside to the whole experiences was physically getting out of Burswood dome at the end of the show.

Burswood is a pressurised building apparently which means everyone has to leave out of the main exits otherwise the roof has an uncanny knack of collapsing (fire exits can be used in emergencies and are scattered at regular intervals throughout the building though).

As it was warm and about 12000 people were trying to get out at the same time, some tempers were getting a little frayed as everyone converged on the revolving exit doors at the same time.

Nothing to detract from Walking with Dinosaurs though, I think Burswood must be the only place large enough in Perth to house a show of this kind of scale and despite the issues getting out of the building at the end of the show the complex itself is great and provides all of the amenities you could look for in a big entertainment complex.

At the moment, walking with dinosaurs live is touring Australia. At time of writing the show is in Adelaide and is due to move onto Melbourne from the 23rd of March.

I hope for everyone’s sake it that the production team decide to take the tour outside of Australia and hopefully a world tour covering countries such as the UK and the States will be on the cards very soon.

It begs the question though. How the hell do you move a 10 meter long Brachiosaurus

Some Other Resources which you may find of interest:

Walking with Dinosaurs Official Website: Click Here

Walking with Dinosaurs Video: Click Here

Popularity: 7% [?]

First time buyers going rural to avoid high property prices

I read an interesting story over at news.com.au today

It turns out that the whole housing situation is getting so desperate for first time buyers that some are upping sticks and moving out into the regional areas where property prices are cheaper.

The report by the Housing Industry Association (HIA) says that population growth in regional areas outstripped, or equalled, capital-city growth in Australia’s three largest states in 2005 and 2006.

“Record low housing affordability in many state capitals has forced an increasing number of first-time home buyers to relocate into non-metropolitan areas, which in many cases has caused these people to give up their current jobs in the hope of finding a home to start a family,” the association’s director of housing and economics, Simon Tennent, said.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show the Northern Territory capital Darwin had the nation’s highest population growth rate, of 2.5 per cent in 2005 and 2006.

This was followed by regional Queensland which welcomed 46,938 new residents sparking a record population jump of 2.1 per cent.

It outstripped the state capital Brisbane’s 1.6 per cent population increase rate of 29,454 new arrivals.

Regional Western Australia, which is experiencing a mining-led resources boom, had a growth rate of 1.9 per cent (10,010 new residents) while Perth enjoyed a 2 per cent rise (29,910 newcomers).

A greater proportion of residential housing is moving to regional areas, Mr Tennent said following the release of the HIA’s annual population and residential building hotspots report.

“In addition, the balance of residential building work is also moving out of capital cities and into metropolitan areas with many building and population ‘hotspots’ being located in regional centres where housing is considerably more affordable,” Mr Tennent said.

Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales recorded the highest population growth in the year to June 2006.

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