CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Australia always gets bushfires this time of the year, and the fact that a landmass the size of California has been destroyed in Southern Queensland and rural New South Wales is nothing new.
That’s according to a photograph of an orange-gold 2015 Falcon FG X.
Launched in November 2014, the FG X was the last ever locally made Ford ute – and was produced in Albury until mid-2016 – when Ford shuts its Australian factories for good.
The Ford Falcon Ute has a special place in Australian automotive history, given it was invented by young Ford designer Lew Bandt.
His creation came after a letter had arrived at company headquarters requesting a dual-purpose vehicle that was smart enough to drive to church, but practical enough to cart livestock to market. The humbled Barossa Deutscheman obliged and created the iconic vehicle.
It did its job, and was cherished by many until the Abbott government destroyed the Australian auto industry for good after refusing to invest in the changing world of motor vehicles which has since been dominated by Silicon Valley.
However, in recent years the humble Falcon Ute, especially the FG X is most commonly associated with climate denialism and rude comments about Clementine Ford.
Each day, tens of thousands of late-90s through to mid-2010s Falcon Utes dominate social media comment threads with their outspoken skepticism of the commonly-held scientific theories that suggest burning carbon emissions into the atmosphere at an accelerating rate for 300 years isn’t good for the planet.
They are also known for subscribing to the theory that ‘feminisim is cancer’ – even sometimes going as far as saying ‘Pell did nothing rong’.
However, the current trend for irate Falcon Utes is to insist that Australia always has to deal with catastrophic bushfires that destroy upwards of 2000 homes across the Eastern seaboard.
Rural Fire Service brigades have been facing off against 70 metre flames in the Blue Mountains for weeks, as the ‘megablaze continues to swallow other spot fires in its 200 kilometres journey south from Singleton.
Properties were consumed by fire but thankfully no life was lost. This mega-blaze at Gospers Mountain, where I have spent several 16-hour shifts, has been raging for weeks and burned more than 380,000 hectares. There are 117 bushfires blazing in NSW alone and we face extreme heat by the end of the week. Ten people have been killed.
This is business as usual according to the nation’s Falcon Utes, who are yet to redirect their outrage to the multinational corporations that say ‘happy holidays’ instead of ‘Merry Christmas’.
