I always respect those who have done the hard yards and earned their knowledge the hard way, Barg.
I also understand that with the knowledge and records that have been accumulated over the last 200 odd years has been good with the records over the last 30-69 years being very good. I don’t just mean here in Oz but everywhere.
The down side of our records, IMO, is that we are dealing in a tiny sample size related to the accurate and precise numbers that we gather today in respect to the age of earth or even this period in the earths history where humans have existed.
IAS I live in a town of approximately 500 souls I know most of the volunteers in the Brigade and listen to the gossip when the chatter turns to the fire shed. One thing I’ve noticed over the last 10 years is that the politics seems to override what I would think was the important stuff. Red tape, allocating funding and the infighting between paid/volunteer brigades seems to be chocking the effectiveness (to a degree) of my local mob.
It may seem a pitiful excuse but I was chatting to our local IC Firey last summer about a section of scrub on the north end of town as it hasn’t been touched by fire since I was 20. He said he knew but he had given up trying to get permission after 4 years. He said it was within his powers, he could see the boxes but he said that those boxes were magic!! each time he pointed his pen at them they moved, shape changed and sometimes vanished before his eyes before reappearing on a different page.
I do feel sorry for them as they are just there to help but our modern world does a great job of hamstring anyone who tries to help.
