Commenting on the story: Pest beetle threatens to wipe out Adelaide’s Elm trees

This problem with the Elm beetle was prevelent a couple of seasons ago, at that time it was my observation that they almost entirely disappeared after one heatwave of 46 degrees.

Our tree in Strathalbyn remains beetle-free at the moment in spite of having a serious infection previously. – Eric Hender

Chickens save Elm trees! We had a Golden Elm which got a bad infestation of Elm Leaf beetle in about 2013. By coincidence, we purchased chickens the same year and allowed them to occasionally forage around the trunk of the Elm tree. The following year, the Elm Leaf beetle damage was far less, despite media reports of the infestation increasing around Adelaide. By 2015, the tree showed few signs of damage.

Evidently the Elm Leaf beetle spends part of its life in the ground, and to do this climbs up or down the trunk of the tree. The chickens used the tree as a grazing platter, sufficient to significantly reduce the damage to the tree. – Terry Ormond

I also have an old Golden Elm tree with holes in her leaves. Would love to keep her going, alas have been trying and they keep coming back!  Maybe a local policy from councils and some help with this matter of health of our trees. – Georgina Hobson

Elms were chosen as the dominant street tree in Colonel Light Gardens, a State Heritage Area since 2000. A check last week shows our ageing elms are also now suffering from the Elm Leaf beetle attack. Mitcham Council has not responded to the concerns first raised two weeks ago. – Philip Knight

With the amazing resource Dr Delaporte has at her command in the Waite Arboretum, maybe she could be planning ahead for a warmer, drier future by propagating and distributing young plants from the many warm, dry climate trees grown there without irrigation for the last hundred years or so.

As a University of Adelaide research station, the challenge for the university now is to move the knowledge and resource – the dry grown trees – out into the community where they can help green Adelaide for the next 100 years.

The elms may be history but they won’t serve as anybody’s memorial as the climate changes. Is it time to stop spending large sums on cosmetics and spend instead on trees of the future. – Trevor Nottle

Commenting on the story: Adelaide Uni in ‘reasonably good shape’ ahead of merger talks

This informative article includes some interesting statistics. It is plain that the perpetual financial shortfall is due substantially to the funding model based disproportionately on fees, especially, overseas fees, and is one underlying problem.

I note the deeply underwhelming figures for confidence in the senior leadership (29-34%). Amongst academics I have talked to at U of A, there is an overwhelming consensus that the university administration absorbs far too much of the income.

All Australian unis appear to have been captured by an administrative class who are willing implementers of government dictate, but do so at the overall cost of institutional priorities, and indeed, public credibility. When are these comfortable suited executive types going to be cut and funding redirected to diverse and properly funded teaching, not least in the humanities and social sciences?

When are ill-considered faculty amalgamations going to end and be reversed? And importantly too, much improved conditions for part-time/casual junior staff, who do so much of the heavy lifting in all Australian unis and are often treated so shabbily by uni admins (and the Federal government during Covid).

When are we going to get government ministers who are bold enough to wield the knife where it is actually needed and to leave academics and their teaching alone regarding variety, topic and content, so as to restore a decent measure of self-government and institutional integrity?

As to the merger,” unfortunate” might be generous. Adelaide and UniSA do somewhat different jobs; like trying to join a swan to a chicken from the neck. It may be unkind to call SA “SuperTAFE” but people do, because it is primarily a vocationally-directed institution, and does it well, by most accounts. Adelaide is a “traditional” uni and needs to aspire to remain so. Enough said! – Greg Shepherd

Commenting on the opinion piece: ‘Business as usual’ state budget won’t cut it

Ross makes many salient points. Successive budgets in SA have been predicated upon privately funded mining expansion and government funded defence projects to provide revenue outside of the usual suspects – stamp duty and gaming tax to name two.

The private funds have been far less than presumed in mining, and federal défense spending is erratic beyond belief. Gargantuan attempts to reinvent the MATS plan of the sixties has given some mere day to day income maintenance and opportunity for some.

SA is full of opportunities in big private projects, if port and rail infrastructure was enhanced. That is massively expensive, but can deliver in the long term. Maybe the RAA dream of 2m population can be achieved, otherwise the pleasant 3% growth curve of SA GDP will continue. Unfortunately, the ageing population will need more GDP than the input.

Long term choices rather than the election cycle choices can be made. A robust future of SA will not be built upon motor car races or AFL carnivals, or urban sprawl land releases. – Roderic Lindquist