At the moment 3MGB is running a Shop Local campaign which I fully support. As long as both local supermarkets remain viable it is very difficult for people to go around, with any degree of credibility, saying if x does not change or y is not improved then the town will die.

However it is a two-way street, recently I found my preferred brand of whatever replaced by a Home Brand equivalent. Not only was it a inferior product but was also fully imported unlike the Australian brand it has apparently replaced. Who is shopping locally now?

I appreciate that local retailers have their problems. Some time back a popular brand of crumpet disappeared off the local shelves. I understand that both supermarkets use the same wholesaler and it was the wholesaler who took this product off range. It is still available up the coast and has gone onto our up the coast list.

We do not go out of town for groceries but about once a month, the dentist or optician or a car service or some other form of specialised shopping takes up up the coast. And up there we stock up on all the grocery items that are not available in Mallacoota or are often out of stock, and naturally, anything else we need.

I do not expect the local retailers to provide the range of merchandise available in Merimbula or Bairnsdale and I would hope they do not expect me to cut my coat to suit their cloth.

We are told the use of Home Brands will increase dramatically over the next few years. This is fine for large supermarkets which have the self space to stock both the normal product and the equivalent home brand, they can allow their customers to determine the appropriate balance. But here in Mallacoota the supermarkets will be forced into an either / or situation which could well result in further additions to my up the coast list. Perhaps over time the two supermarkets might differentiate into one that heavily utilises Home Brands and the other that stocks only the more basic items in that range.

Almost as soon as I took over the job of editing the Mallacoota Mouth, the issue of censorship emerged and in recent times the Bastion Point Ocean Access process has bought this concern into sharp relief.

Before taking over as editor, I felt the Mouth habitually erred on the side of caution but have learned the hard way how quickly bitterness can emerge and how rarely letters to the Mouth help to generate meaningful dialogue.

A fortnight or so ago I was challenged on this issue again and I responded with an email which, in part, said, In recent years the Mouth has evolved into a general interest magazine style publication and to judge by improved sales and increased advertising income it is a direction that most readers appreciate. I do not think you would expect commercial publications of this type (Woman's Weekly, TV Week etc.) to involve themselves with overtly political material.

As far as freedom of speech is concerned I believe web logs such as this are the tools of the future. Not because they are more wildly read, they are not, although some already get daily 'hits' into the tens of thousands, but because they last.

This entry will still be available on the internet in years to come. Letters to the papers rarely make it to their web sites and in most cases all their content disappears behind a pay-to-view wall after a few days. (One of the few exceptions to this is the not for profit Guardian)

Researchers already use the internet to gather information. Why should a researcher go to the State Library and read through endless copies of the Mallacoota Mouth to glean specific or general information about Mallacoota when Google can provide all and more at a click of a button. And Google is remarkably up to date, this entry will appear in searches within days of being posted.

And then there is the wide range of topics about which the Mouth can do nothing except reflect the official politically correct cant or risk the serious displeasure of the community and education department alike.

Social attitudes to recreational drugs both legal and otherwise is one such topic. I am firmly convinced that a society which tolerates nicotine, promotes alcohol and demonises marihuana is a society with real problems however I do not expect the Mallacoota Mouth to debate this topic nor do I dash off a letter of complaint every time the orthodox view appears in the Mouth.

And by the way, at the personal level, I am against major change at Bastion Point. If the co-op felt it was needed, I would begrudgingly accept it as a necessary evil and as for the safety issue, for my money, pure disingenuous FUD.

It has been a long time between drinks. Life just got very busy and I found myself spending too much time on things I had to do and not enough on things I wanted to do. Currently I am in the middle of extricating myself from my role as 3MGB Treasurer (Any takers?). From here on in I will try to add something every week, there is plenty to talk about at the moment.

People around the world, not just Americans, are beginning to speculate on the extent to which unwise and short-sighted coastal development contributed to the devastation wrought by hurricane Katrina. I am not for one minute comparing the proposed changes at Bastion Point to the massive development along the US shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico but it is a reminder of the unpredictable nature of natural processes and the ease with which unforeseen and unwanted consequences can accrue from coastal development.

Incidentally America's laissez faire economic model seems poorly adapted to coping with this kind of disaster. I am only too happy to pay my taxes if it means effective and well-coordinated emergency services that are supported by government at the highest level.

Check out Boing Boing or The Huffington Post for Katrina analysis and links.