Noisy air-con puts Sydney woman in court

Daily Telegraph
August 20, 2007

REPLACING her old air conditioner with a reverse cycle unit has landed Dragica Koceva in court after the western Sydney resident failed to comply with a noise control notice issued by Fairfield council.

Mrs Koceva, 51, of St Johns Park, said she has been victimised because she uses her air conditioner.

''This is ridiculous. I feel like a criminal, they made me feel like I did something wrong,'' Mrs Koceva told The Daily Telegraph.

''I have lived 20 years in Australia and suddenly I have to go to court because I'm using my air conditioner ...

Mrs Koceva said since a neighbour made the complaint about her $990 air conditioner, she has spent at least $400 to modify the noise level to suit council standards ...

A council officer is expected to come out and test the air conditioner noise levels again this week. ''I don't think it's too loud,'' Ms Koceva said ...

Ms Koceva's case highlights a growing problem _ burgeoning numbers of noise complaints to local councils in response to a trend for larger, reverse cycle air conditioner units. Manly council's manager for regulatory services, Mark Pearson said the trend for larger homes had meant consumers were now installing commercial-scale reverse cycle climate control units.

''We get between 10 and 13 complaints a week about air conditioner noise,'' Mr Pearson said ...

Figures for air conditioner noise complaints from Blacktown council showed complaints have increased by 25 per cent in five years.

City of Sydney council said noisy air conditioners accounted for roughly 10 per cent of its more than 1000 noise complaints in the last calender year ...

'You try to keep them at least three metres from the property's boundary,'' he said. Ms Koceva meanwhile has been ordered to attend Fairfield Local Court next month.

QLD: Quarries proposal rocks quiet country surrounds

Daily Mercury, 16.08.2007

IN the quiet surrounds of Palmyra, west of Mackay, residents fear a proposal to mine three quarries will disrupt the rural peace and stir up dust on the country roads.

During a meeting of Mackay City Council yesterday no decision was made on whether to approve the three quarries off Bells Road, just past the Mac Speedway and Palmyra drag race track.

The applicant, Ken Vella, has already indicated blasting won't be used but that promise has failed to placate the 24 residents in the cane farming district who signed a petition earlier this year ...

Cr George Christensen, who represents the area, said residents' greatest fear was potential noise and dust from trucks rumbling up and down what he said was an already sub-standard road.

To access the quarries, trucks would have to travel along a section of Bells Road shared by locals and traffic from the racetracks nearby ...

The application is expected to come before council again.

SA: Early birds survive roasting

Adelaide Now

August 17, 2007 02:15am

A MOVE by two councillors on Eyre Peninsula to ban roosters from towns in the area has been rejected by their colleagues.

A motion by councillors Laurette Waddell-Smith and Robert Lawrie that the council impose a by-law to ban roosters in towns in the council area was rejected at Tumby Bay's council meeting on Monday night.

The council had received a complaint from a ratepayer about noise from a neighbouring property, which housed several roosters.

Tumby Bay mayor Graeme Stirling said the council could invoke Section 254 of the Local Government Act, which gave it the power to make an order against the owner of noisy animals ...

"We have here a town where more than 50 per cent of people are aged over 65, and they don't want their sleep interrupted at 2.30 or 3 o'clock in the morning."

NSW: Highway upgrade downgrading lives

Lismore Northern Star
16.08.2007 By HELEN JACK

GRAEME MILLER and wife Margit are counting the cost in lost value to their home from construction of the new Pacific Highway at Ocean Shores.

Their home overlooks a section of the upgraded highway from Brunswick Heads to Yelgun which opened on July 11. And the Millers are not alone. The new highway is causing sleepless nights for hundreds of people.

Two hundred local residents packed the Ocean Shores Country Club's main auditorium on Tuesday night to describe to RTA representatives how traffic noise is robbing them of sleep, and impacting on their health and wallets.

One Ocean Shores woman told the gathering she had resorted to sleeping pills to get to sleep.

Others, constantly woken during the night by trucks running over ripple strips, said they had given up trying to sleep, preferring to get up and pursue hobbies or work to pass the time until dawn ...

Residents living five kilometres from the highway said they were experiencing noise levels never heard before the highway opened.

RTA Pacific Highway general manager Bob Higgins told the meeting sound testing near the highway would not start until October when all work was finished.

"It's important for us to understand if (the noise) is coming from the road surface or the ripple strips," he said.

Mr Higgins' response was referred to as 'unsatisfactory' and many considered the meeting was enough public consultation with the RTA to justify approaching the director-general.

MP Don Page said he would make representations to the NSW Minister for Roads Eric Roozendaal on behalf of residents.

Gold Coast: Clubs fail noise and light safety

15Aug07 goldcoast.com.au

GOLD Coast nightclubs are likely to be told to turn their music down and their lights up because of serious concerns about health and safety.

A Liquor Licensing source told The Gold Coast Bulletin the organisation had received a report on excessive noise levels at Gold Coast nightclubs highlighting 'real concerns' staff and patrons could end up with permanent hearing damage.

Tests have shown many of our nightclubs frequently exceed 110 decibels which overseas studies have shown can damage hearing after 15 minutes exposure a day ...

The police report has recommended nightclubs operate at a maximum level of 96dB.

"The report explained there are accepted medical studies that have been available for some time from the UK showing that three out of four nightclubbers are at risk of permanent hearing damage." said the source.

"Many of these nightclubbers are reporting symptoms that could lead to incurable tinnitus (continual ringing in the ear) or premature deafness.

"(The report) also touched on some problems encountered by staff and police at some Gold Coast nightclubs with not being able to communicate instructions to patrons because of the extremely loud noise." ...

VIC: Driving us deaf

Herald Sun

Peter Rolfe, August 12, 2007

PULSATING car stereos are blasting Melbourne with noise louder than a jet engine.

More than rocking the suburbs, music from some cars annoys homeowners, shopkeepers, pedestrians and causes hearing damage ...

The low-frequency noise they emit shakes windows, rattles teeth, causes nausea and can damage organs.

Sound expert Graham Murphy said noise pollution was more than a nuisance.

"It can make you physically ill," he said.

Car audio specialist Angelo Di Donato said volumes had been clocked as high as 164.8 decibels.

Most of the cars causing a nuisance around Melbourne played music at between 135 and 140 decibels ...

"The louder, the better," he said. "My speakers can be heard two blocks away." ...

NSW Ulladulla: Shed 'inappropriate'

Milton-Ulladulla Times
08 August 2007

A MEN'S Shed, planned for the grounds of the Milton-Ulladulla Baptist Church, is inappropriate according to neighbouring residents.

Opponents of the workshop support the need for such a facility in the district, but believe it would be better suited to an industrial or commercial area, rather than a residential estate in Narrawallee ...

The project is part of the national Men's Shed network and will provide an opportunity for local men to work on timber and metal projects for local charities and community groups, while fostering men's health and providing a meeting place seven days a week ...

NSW: Let's give peace a chance

Sydney Morning Herald

Helene Gonski
August 7, 2007

I WANT to make a noise about noise.

I wake up to a screeching of brakes. The builders have arrived next door. They are renovating a house recently built, which to my way of thinking looked great the way it was. The knocking and banging starts. The drill is piercing like a horrific visit to the dentist.

I climb onto the train on my way to work. I am surrounded by passengers whose mobile telephones are ringing ...

I know I am in the older bracket and a little less tolerant, but where is there a quiet corner in our world? Why are we so intimidated by silence? ...

NSW: On the blower: when council keeps you up

Sydney Morning Herald
On the blower: no one to call when the council keeps you up
Sunanda Creagh Urban Affairs Reporter
July 26, 2007

AT 4AM every Monday Kay Violet lies in bed listening to the sound of a leaf blower.

"I wake up at about 2am because I know it's going to happen. I lie there waiting and, sure enough, at 4am it starts up and they are blowing these leaves down the street," Ms Violet, of Guildford, said yesterday. "Sometimes on other days they use the leaf blower at 1am but at least you can get back to sleep."

The culprits are cleaners employed by Paramatta City Council, tidying the streets outside a row of shops in Guildford Road ...

NSW: Mayor blasts super speakers

Sydney Morning Herald
Mayor blasts super speakers that give out bad vibes
Sunanda Creagh Urban Affairs Reporter
July 24, 2007

IS DOOF-DOOF making you deaf-deaf?

Sub-woofer speakers are causing headaches for apartment-dwellers, say noise activists, and the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, is calling on the State Government to look at tightly controlling their use in flats.

Cr Moore told a panel reviewing NSW noise regulations that one of her constituents had suffered illness from a neighbour's sub-woofer speakers.

"She says the low frequency noise caused vibrations and sensations within her body beyond the noise levels themselves, and that she suffered a series of associated health concerns including heart palpitations, nausea and vomiting, and inflammation of skin and other organs," she said ...

NSW: Gunfire in Sydney's east

Sydney Morning Herald

Edmund Tadros
August 6, 2007 - 8:20AM

A group of armed men have fired a number of shots and assaulted three people at an area in Sydney's east popular with car hoons ...

"There are cars and hoons driving by with loud and thumping music at night," said local resident Mary-Lynne Taylor. "It's always at The Loop, there's not much supervision there."

Another resident said police would often clear the area of car hoons but they would return within 10 minutes of the officers leaving.

"We have a lot of the teenage hoons coming down here," she said. "I'm surprised I didn't hear anything."

She said had seen up to 60 cars preparing to do their dragging on Anzac Parade around The Loop on some weekend evenings.

"Every Saturday and Sunday night it will be like Pitt Street here," she said.

The area is known to be a popular spot with "car enthusiasts", a police spokeswoman said.

FNQ: Red Baron seaplane

Townsville Bulletin
Forcing the Silence
MARY VERNON
04Aug07

WHILE of course it is important that ordinary citizens should be able to go to court and question decisions made by governments and statutory authorities the present case before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal is carrying this right to extremes.

The appeal has been brought by a resident of Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island against the operation of the Red Baron seaplane which takes tourists on sightseeing flights around the island ...

THE moment they began operating, Mrs Connolly popped up complaining about the noise and the loss of amenity caused by the seaplane ...

She complained to GBRMPA which reviewed the permit it had issued and found everything AOK. But Mrs Connolly was not satisfied with the umpire's decision and pushed her case to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal ...

IF she wins this round and puts the Mills out of business does Mrs Connolly plan to take her silencing plan further? No more cockatoos, no more possums, no more music, no more talking, no more parties, no more laughing. Children will also have to go . . . in fact, all people will have to go to maintain the blessed silence. The only living thing left will be Mrs Connolly. I hope she doesn't make a noise.