There was a wildfire this afternoon reported to be at Lot 6 (No name - to protect the guilty) Road. The trouble is, there are several Lot 6's on that road, one in each subdivision. Smoke wasn't easy to see against the cloudy sky and firies took some time to locate the fire. It's probably 20 years or more since the Litchfield Council allocated road numbers in the Darwin rural area, yet many people persist in just using their Lot number. The road numbering system is quite simple. The number indicates the distance in kilometres from a reference point, usually where the road starts off a major road. Driving down the road from the start it's odd numbers to the left, even numbers to the right. For example, 1290 on that road is 12.9 kilometres from the Stuart Highway on the right hand side of the road. It also happens to be a Lot 6, but it's about 10km from the Lot 6 where the fire was found. When rural residents get their act together by clearly marking their blocks with the road number and using that number when calling emergency services it will make things easier for all concerned. Just imagine if they had called an ambulance for someone having a heart attack? |