The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 2

2 www.smh.com.au MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1998 Red Cro considers rp JL- "7rVE 1 I tt vt? --fid ciiarsui i for blood. tag for house of heritage Leamington, the 1908 Arts and Crafts-style house at Darling Point recently saved from demolition after a Land and Environment Court ruling, has been listed for November 4 auction. Now on Woollahra Council's heritage list, it last traded at $2,225 million in March 1997. The property has been listed with expectations of more than $2.3 million through Nationwide agent Mr Daniel Baran. A syndicate, including property developer Mr Terry Andri-otakis and estate agent Mr Greg Malouf, lodged apartment development plans after first confirming the house was not listed as a heritage item in Woollahra's Local Environmental Plan of 1995.

But the demolition application was rejected when the council realised its heritage significance. Leamington is one of a few essentially intact Federation Arts and Crafts-style houses in Sydney. Meanwhile, auction success rates, which have beci. steady at about 60 per cent, slipped last week to 55 per cent. This is 18 percentage points down on the 73 per cent success rate being achieved at the same time last year.

Agents sold 60 per cent of their 99 1 listings in the last month. The best-selling price bracket was houses valued between $401,000 and $500,000, with 65 per cent sales rates from 167 listings. The poorest clearance rates were houses and units priced between $151,000 and $200,000 with 54 per cent finding buyers. JONATHAN CHANCELLOR Cyclist killed A woman was killed and a man seriously injured when a car slammed into group of cyclists at West Pennant Hills yesterday. The two cyclists were among five riders travelling east on Castle Hill Road about 6.30 am.

Dump squad Dave Ngeru and Mark Miller with some of the high-tech equipment used to catch litter bugs. Photograph by PETER RAE It shouldn't be, but this place is a real tip DIABETES CAMPAIGN So-called "garden shed magazines" -aimed at men may be used to raise diabetes awareness among the most difficult to reach high-risk group, working men, in a coming national health campaign to fight the disease. Blue-collar men predominate among a conservatively estimated 350,000 Australians now believed to be undiagnosed diabetics, the manager of the National Diabetes Strategy, Ms Jeanette Baldwin, said yesterday. The disease develops insidiously in people over 40 who are overweight, have a family history, lack exercise or may be from some ethnic groups including Aborigines, Vietnamese women and Fijian Indians. ANDREW DARBY But he denied that would lead to actual financial charges to hospitals that exceeded their blood budget.

Instead, he said, the figures could be used as an "education tool" to demonstrate to hospital transfusion committees areas in which they could improve their usage. Patients would not be charged for blood, Mr Hetel emphasised. Hospitals varied in the amount of blood they used for the same procedures, according to data from eight public hospitals in Victoria, published in the same edition of the Medical Journal The research also found a wide variation in the volume required for operations on accident victims. The scientific head of transfusion services at Royal North Shore Hospital, Dr Robert Flower, acknowledged the Victorian research but said hospitals were already using blood conservatively. "On the basis of protecting people against the risk of transfusion transmitted disease, doctors are making the most cautious use possible of blood products," he said.

By JULIE ROBOTHAM Medical Writer The Red Cross is considering "notional" charges to hospitals for blood products in order to discourage doctors from "inappropriate" and excessive use of blood during transfusions. But the chief executive of the recently established Australian Red Cross Blood Service, Mr Robert Hetel, acknowledged that such a move could be unpopular with donors, who are not paid for giv ing blood. And he signalled a plan to boost blood stocks through shorter waiting times for donors, an increase in the number of blood collection centres and improved ability for centres to take blood from people who did not make an appointment. Mr Hetel, who canvasses the issue of charges in today's Medical Journal of Australia, said there was increasingly a shortfall between the amount of blood hospitals required and what was donated. Donations peaked nationally at a million units of blood in 1991, but have since levelled off and this year stand at around 950,000 donations from 3 per cent of Australians.

Two per cent of the Blood Service's $130 million annual budget comes from charitable donations while the remainder is financed 60 per cent by the States and 40 per cent by the Commonwealth. Meanwhile, demand was increasing as a result of an aging population and more complex surgical techniques used on very sick patients, Mr Hetel said. Demand in Victoria had increased by 3 pei cent in the last year. Mr Hetel suggested a uniform national price list for blood products, which could then be acquired by hospitals from a "notional" budget agreed with the Government By TIM JAMIES0N Urban Affairs Writer Huge rises in tip fees have forced one council to equip its officers with night-vision goggles to help catch people illegally dumping household and other waste in Sydney's west. The flying squad have fined 16 offenders $600 each for dumping rubbish in the parks, industrial estates and back streets of Fairfield in the past four weeks.

But the problem is not just confined to Fairfield, and today the Environment Minister, Ms Allan, will announce a strategy to fund a regional squad that will comb the streets of Liverpool, Penrith, Blacktown and Fairfield looking for the offenders. The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) and the Western Sydney Waste Board will meet half of the $240,000 cost to fund four waste enforcement officers who will form the regional illegal dumping squad. Another part of the strategy ill target the growing problem of illegal landfill sites being established on private land. The EPA is monitoring two unnamed sites one is a tyre dump in Sydney's north-west but there are plans to widen the crackdown across Sydney. "Waste is dumped on our roadsides, on private properties and in public bushland," Ms Allan said.

"The dumping is illegal and poses a hazard to the environment and is totally unacceptable to the community." The EPA is investigating 13 illegal landfill sites and is pursuing three cases in the Land and Environment Court. Meanwhile, in Fairfield, the two-man squad, equipped with digital cameras and mobile phones, sometimes travel separate cars when trailing suspects around the parks and industrial estates. They will also hide in bushes, waiting to ambush unsuspecting litter louts. Those caught have dumped anything from fridges and old stoves to furniture and grass cuttings and are just some of the 500 illegal drops the council estimates occur each year. What has infuriated Fairfield's mayor, Councillor Chris Bowen, is that some come from outside the area to dump their waste.

Mr Ross Smith, the manager of Fairfield Council's waste services unit, warned: "If you get sprung for dumping rubbish, you will get a $600 fine. No beg your pardon." Ex-Neighbours here with one another 80 whales saved after stranding on beaches 2) mJM mm mm October 21-25 (AVI A 1 1 IE AUSTRALIAN Antiques Singing budgie and the young pretender Kylie and Natalie. dy Richard jinman entertainment Writer Ihey both found fame in Neighbours and pop salvation in London, but they've rarely gone head-to-head on home turf. This week, though, Kylie Minogue and Natalie Imbruglia will slug it out in several categories at tomorrow evening's 12th Annual ARIA awards. At 23, Imbruglia is the young pretender, but her debut album Left of the Middle and hit single Torn have earned a hefty nine nominations.

The Whitlams and Regurgitator (eight nominations each) and The Living End (five nominations) should prevent a Savage Garden-style rout this year, but Imbruglia is still a favourite to win a swag of awards. Minogue's Impossible Princess has yielded four nomina- GALA Preview Wednesday 21 Oct Brumby and Kate Ceberano -and go head-to-head in the best pop release category. The parallels between their careers are tantalising. Both suffered the indignities of soap stardom: Minogue's Charlene was inflicted with a poodle-esque perm and Imbruglia, as Beth Brennan, was forbidden to cut her long locks for two years. Today they both call London home and Imbruglia, who's valued at $13.2 million in rich lists, has recently bought an 800,000 ($11 million) house in West Hampstead.

American success has largely eluded Minogue despite her phenomenal success in the UK (four No 1 hits) and Australia. In contrast, Imbruglia's brand of street-wise pop was perfectly timed to catch the US market's shift away from rock. Rescuers working in cold seas yesterday beat the odds to save about 80 pilot whales stranded on Tasmania's east coast Volunteers and wildlife officers supported the animals for hours in the surf, overcoming dozens of repeat strandings. The director of Tasmania's Parks and Wildlife, Mr Max Kitchell, described it as a "Herculean" effort: "There were young people who just would not come out of the water." About 80 of the small, dark-skinned whales died in the strandings, which happened on two east coast beaches about 20 kilometres apart The first was discovered on Saturday morning at Marion Bay, about 40 kilometres east of Hobart. Volunteers helped and Fine Art AIR 6pm-10pm Thursday 10 am-8pm Friday 10am-8pm Saturday 10am-8pm Sunday 25 Oct 10am-6pm Royal Hall of Industries (adjacent Fox Studios) Driver Avenue, Moore Park A volunteer dampens the skin of one of the pilot wnales, 35 back into the ocean.

Another group caught in a nearby sandy lagoon were trucked 30 kilometres to Eagle-hawk Neck and set free. Rescuers were last night trying to save nine survivors of the second stranding of 66 at Rhe-ban Beach, north of Marion Bay. ANDREW DARBY tions. The album won credible reviews, but strong Australian sales (70,000) have not been matched in the UK or America. Both women were in Sydney yesterday appearing together at an Opera House party organised by a radio station.

Earlier Imbruglia performed at the Field Day free concert at the Old Sydney Harbour Casino and Minogue announced she would present the ARIA awards for debut album and single. Pundits have Imbruglia as a "white-hot favourite" in those categories, so there's a strong chance they'll be reunited on the stage of the Capitol Theatre tomorrow night Minogue and Imbruglia will also contest-the best female artist award the field includes Tina Arena, Monique The Dig One $40,000,000 of furniture, jewellery, paintings, silver, porcelain, clocks, rugs, Asian antiques, collectables. J.tmc A Johnson Associates (03) 9887 4077 or 0418 393 435 It's not hard to lose the plot when it comes to understanding property investment. That's why you should start by having a few words with the Commonwealth Bank. We have over 2,000 investment property financing specialists who can help you through all the mumbo jumbo.

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