It was a week after the council meeting and the road workers had come to take the tree out of the river in an environmentally sensitive way. After making a mental note I got on with the serious business of eating porridge and forgot them. A few hours later after coaxing the raspberries to grow a little better I checked on progress. The big bridge tree, now on the bank, was going up in flames as its final punishment for causing a nuisance. It was being joined on its journey by the other corpses as well as by the sole still standing ribbon gum. When ribbon gums burn they can look spectacular because the ribbons flare right up their length and send flames shooting out of the top of the tree. This one was burning so nicely the half burnt tresses were rising on the hot air and floating away across the nearby forest like little flaming beacons. The council workers were enjoying the party with a cup of something from their thermos.
My dad was keen on science and practical demonstrations for his students. He would have enjoyed the party as well because it demonstrated the principle that hot air rises. He was teaching one class about how such basic principles could be used in machines. It was a time when Barry was making superb model aeroplanes powered by tiny engines and propellers. I enjoyed watching because the liquid dope used to stretch and strengthen the paper tissue paper applied over the balsawood wing and fuselage struts smelt good. Barry used to call me a dope. I built a few planes as well but never got past gliders and rubber-band wind ups that broke. Anyhow this activity meant we always had lots of plane-making items. Dad set too to build a Montgolfier balloon to be demonstrated to the class tomorrow.
He cut some very long and thin pieces of balsawood and glued them into a hollow globe structure like a happy sack that youths kick around to show off their dexterity to inept watchers. Next he covered it with tissue paper and doped it to make a strong paper balloon that wouldn’t deflate easily. This balloon was about 40 cm diameter and had a 10 cm round opening at the bottom. This was where the hot air would enter to make the imitation Montgolfier Balloon rise. It was never intended to lift Frenchmen into the sky like the original.
When the Mongolfier brothers did their first experiments in around 1780 they made open paper bags and floated them up over their kitchen fire with frequent incinerations, to the cook’s annoyance. In their later version which was approximately 30 metres circumference, though made of cloth and paper, they stuck with the same kitchen atmosphere by lighting bales of wool and straw on the ground under it to make it rise. Luckily this was in a sheep paddock because it took off and flew about two kilometres. Everybody was impressed including the cook.
Dad’s balloon was ready to test. It had a little cage hung beneath it that carried a stub of a candle that was to flame through the opening in the globe. This was more advanced than the earliest Mongolfier machine because it would take its source of heat with it, but then Dad was smarter than them. In spirit with the Mongolfiers however, the test flight was conducted in front of the sitting room fire.
We all watched with the room lights turned off. He lit the candle and held the invention vertically to make sure the hot air went through the globe’s opening. It looked spectacular with its inner light showing off all the balsawood struts in the dark room. He let go. It wobbled up hesitantly some 10 cm then headed straight for the fire. The damp dope caught alight and the incendiary rose dramatically towards the ceiling before dropping to the floor like a Hindenburg. The carpet took a beating. Luckily Dad was quite good at demonstrating with chalk on a blackboard. He didn’t tell the class what happened the previous evening.
Nor did the council workers tell the council what they had done.
The workers understood the world better than the Creewah Greenies. The greenies were informed by the Environment Protection Authority that the EPA had misunderstood the extent of the fellings. They were really only interested to take action if the trees were cleared from an area of hectares. They weren’t interested in the effects of increased wash and bank destabilisation on the river either, as only 50 m of bank was affected. Similarly, our local member, though disturbed by the wanton destruction and sympathetic to us, could do nothing to help. There were many bigger problems elsewhere. He commented how pretty our area is. I will definitely vote for him in the next election.
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