ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

A local public servant who’s already put his feet up for the year has been left with nothing to complain about.

So, in the foodcourt of the Betoota Heights Hyperdome, he pulled out his phone and had a whinge over the bushfire smoke currently cloaking our cosmopolitan desert community.

“This smoke is so fucked,” he wrote in a caption under a photo of thick smoke blanketing Lake Betoota posted to his Instagram story.

He put the phone down, took a photo of himself, then added the following text on his face.

“Like I get it that the Diggers fought in mustard gas so we might have the opportunity to breathe bushfire smoke in peace and prosperity but where do you cross the line? My dog has asthma and I can’t take her for walks.”

Control burns are underway in the Simpson Desert State Forest to the town’s west and by chance, the wind has changed direction and with it came a thick blanket of smoke.

Earlier this morning the Bureau of Meteorology issued a warning for people who enjoy complaining for the sake of complaining, telling them to make sure their phones are charged and ready.

The Advocate asked BOM to tell the people of Betoota when the smoke will clear. They said when the wind changed or the fire was put out.

“Fair enough,” our reporter said.

More to come.





