Re: Request From HuntFest Co-ordinators for Guns on Display

WE have been contacted by several concerned citizens of Narooma regarding Eurobodalla Shire Council being asked to deliberate on a request from HuntFest Co-ordinators for guns to be on display at the 2014 HuntFest in Narooma.

This is a significant addition to what council gave its approval to last year.

In fact, at the meeting of Council on the December 10 a decision may be made. 

The Mayor and Councillors have told us they want to respond to the needs and wishes of the community.

On such an important matter as this we thought they would have sought community feedback.

However as there's so little time we're asking each Councillor to defer the decision at this meeting when it comes up for deliberation.

What needs to be acknowledged is the opportunity and time for community members to call a meeting to allow all points of view to be expressed.

When these are heard and a clear indication of the desires of the community obtained, councillors would be in a much better position to make an informed decision.

There is broad consensus that December is not conducive to such a process and haste not the prudent way in any matter whatever its magnitude.

Noel and Trish de Laney-Davis

Narooma

Plea to stop the abuse

THIS letter is aimed at the whole community but more so at the members of it opposed to HuntFest.

I’m the daughter of Dan Field, president of the South Coast Hunters Club who is also one of the organisers of HuntFest.

I would just like to point out what our family has had to put up with over the last few weeks, and that is constant telephone abuse 24/7.

To pick up our family phone and have some foulmouthed anti-guns/hunting campaigner scream obscenities at us is just beyond belief, and to think such people live in our community!

It was bad enough that for five months my father was vilified and belittled on a facebook page by members of this intolerant group in our community, just because he hunts as people have in the Eurobodalla for thousands of years, but then have a local Greens councillor tell my sister and I that this offensive behaviour was ok because dad is a “public figure”, was just disgusting.

If you don’t agree with what my father’s club is doing at HuntFest then voice your views in the correct forum, not via abuse directed at my family.

Please be tolerant of others in our community and stop the abuse towards each other too.

All my life my parents have asked me to be tolerant of others and their beliefs and way of life.

Many a time my father has told me “you may not agree with what people say but always defend their right to say it”, but this time he is wrong. If you’re not happy about HuntFest call the council. Please just stop the intolerable abuse of my family and I.

Zoe Field

Narooma

Keep it local

THE latest retail forecasts from the Australian National Retailers Association and the GE Retail Index estimate that Australians will spend more than $30 billion this Christmas, which breaks down to an  average of more than $1000 per person. The research also goes on to say that online shopping is projected to be slightly higher again this year and that thirteen per cent of people surveyed said they would prefer to spend their money from the comfort of their homes.

Keeping your money local and supporting local businesses at this time of the year makes good sense on many levels and is a way that we can all contribute to making Eurobodalla a better place to live. Keeping it local creates jobs and is better for the environment. Everyone benefits when your money stays local and the flow-on effect supports schools, sporting clubs, community groups, the arts and much more.

If you are one of the thirteen per cent of people who say they prefer to shop online from the comfort of their homes, maybe it’s time to reconsider? Some of you might like to make your shopping trips a day out and spend some time in a part of Eurobodalla you don’t usually visit. Find some new shops, cafes, and markets; visit a new beach or take a drive somewhere different.  Make shopping locally a social or healthy lifestyle activity! 

‘Staycations’ or holidays at home are also a great way to keep your money local. More than one million visitors a year choose to holiday in Eurobodalla and our tourism industry offers an array of things to do and see and places to stay if you like the idea of getting away from your own home. The Visitor Information Centres in Batemans Bay and Narooma showcase a treasure trove of holiday ideas. Give your family the ‘101 Things to Do in Eurobodalla’ brochure and make up your own holiday itinerary, or pick up the Holiday Planner and simply follow one of the four suggested itineraries on pages 2 and 3.

Keeping it local is a way we can show our appreciation of the business that have been working just that bit harder this month to make their shop windows and towns look festive and welcoming for the holidays. Our chambers of commerce are also working hard behind the scenes to make this happen as well and I encourage you to enjoy the town activities, markets and late night shopping hours planned for December.

Please let me know if there is any issue you feel Eurobodalla Shire Council may be able to help you with. You can email me at mayor@eurocoast.nsw.gov.au or phone me on 0418 279 215.

Cr Lindsay Brown, Mayor of Eurobodalla Shire

Call to lobby against weapons display

AT the end of 2012, at a poorly-advertised meeting with the Eurobodalla Shire Council, the South Coast Hunters Club, supported by a powerful gun lobby, gained permission to hold, for this and the next four years, a HuntFest in the taxpayer owned Sports and Recreation Centre in downtown Narooma, on the understanding that there was to be no promotion or sale of guns.

Now, only 12 months later, in a similar hasty manner, the Hunters Club is requesting Eurobodalla Shire Council (ESC) for a broader license granting them permission to display firearms, and not just to allow such things as game meat tasting, exhibitions of knife sharpening and photographs of happy hunting scenes.

Why hasn’t the application for permission to display firearms been put on display for the electorate’s consideration?

The hunters have always advocated “responsible shooting”, but how responsible is it to encourage children to think it’s fun to kill animals?

The idea of “family hunting” is ludicrous, especially as there are so many wonderful, life-affirming activities to be enjoyed here in this beautiful seaside shire.

Maybe this was the reason a festival of hunting was not included in the list of happy events in the shire’s glossy “As Life Should Be” booklet for 2014?

Their claim to be “conservation hunters” has been trashed by the Dunn report which has led to amateur hunting being banned from our nearby national parks (for the time being at least).

If you care about the excellent “Nature Coast” image of our shire, and are concerned that it sends a wrongful message to our children when we as a community appear to condone guns, you are urged to be at the ESC meeting on the late afternoon/evening of December 10.

Let your feelings as a ratepayer or resident be known by writing, phoning, or emailing the council before that date. Your elected council has the power, if they choose, to reject guns and weapons being displayed in any community-owned building in the shire.

Say no to guns.

Susan Cruttenden

Dalmeny

In search of positive contributions

THANKYOU for your comments on climate change in your editorial in last week’s Narooma News.

On the subject of climate change, I think both sides' arguments are like the "parson's egg" - good in parts.

I can remember being told at school 60 or so years ago that the world's climate was subject to cyclic changes and that the rainforest areas of the world, the Amazon Basin typically, were the "lungs of the world" - their trees taking in carbon dioxide and breathing out oxygen which, when you think about it, is pretty much opposite to what humans and animal do.

Even if the sceptics went to different schools, can they dispute that it can't be good for our future that, as the demand for oxygen in the air increases with growing populations, we persist in removing forests and at the same time exacerbating the situation by consuming so much fossil fuel?

Suggestions on how we might make a positive contributions to improving the situation, you might think, would be focussing on how to produce enough (more?) oxygen for the sustainability of the atmosphere and/or how to reduce our consumption of nature's finite fossil fuels.

I look forward to reading some positive contributions from my fellow readers and less statistical analysis trying to find fault and disprove the opponents' views.

As I write, the frogs are happily singing away in their friendly wetland environment after the recent rain, little knowing the snakes are circling. Perhaps the frogs believe what they have been told (by the snakes?) about snakes being deaf! Kermit is right!

Jeff de Jager

Coila

Huntfest responds: tolerance should be applied to all

LAST week the Mayor and Councillor Harding, along with other councillors, proposed a motion to support gay marriage in our community.

This shows just how tolerant we of the Eurobodalla are towards other people’s beliefs, views, lifestyles and cultural practices. 

Since then I have read the press release and advertisement by Clr Harding, in last week's Narooma News re: firearms and HuntFest and realised how hypocritical this councillor really is.

On the one hand she votes to show empathy, respect and fairness to one group in our community, then on the other hand she shows no empathy, respect or fairness towards another cultural group just because they own firearms or would like to see them at an event.

Yes, I say a ‘cultural group’, because the Greens themselves acknowledge a “guns culture”.

It goes without saying that the Greens are, by philosophy, culturally tolerant, just as long as the culture is one they approve of.

In her press release Harding tells members of the public that organisers want to include “interactive killing games” at HuntFest. 

In actual fact we would like to run a training simulator that educates hunters in the safest and most humane ways to target game.

It also promotes firearms safety when hunting. The Greens are always screaming that conservation hunters need to be better trained, and then when we attempt to implement better training it’s called a “killing game”.

How hypocritical of Clr Harding. Using emotive words like “killing” is a deceptive tactic aimed at scaring the public into believing HuntFest represents something threatening and illegal, nothing more.

The press release reads “Council is due to consider this request at its meeting on December 10, to meet an unreasonably tight decision deadline set by HuntFest organisers”.

Rubbish! By the time Council votes on this matter the paper work will have been in Council’s hands for over a month, hardly unreasonable time for Councillors to make a decision on any matter. 

As if Clr Harding needs more time to decide she is against it.

Let's be honest, what her claim really means is that the time-frame is insufficient to allow her to promote the kind of fear and misinformation campaign required to defeat a motion she's against.

The first part of the advertisement in our local paper reads “Nature Coast or Hunting Coast?” does that mean the Greens are happy for hunters to hunt in other parts of NSW, just not the Nature Coast?

The second part reads “NO TO GUNS IN EUROBODALLA” I hate to be the one to tell Clr Harding but the guns are already here, and have been for the better part of two hundred years.

Yet there is no slaughter in the streets and the sun still rises every morning.

The Eurobodalla has five firearm clubs, some of which have been in the local area for over 35 years.

That doesn’t take into account the farmers or the firearm owners who aren’t in local clubs. 

Does Councillor Harding expect all the local firearm owners to move or just hand their firearms over to the local Council or police to keep the Greens happy?

The message is clear, the Greens don’t want anyone to live in or visit the Eurobodalla if they don’t approve of them.

It’s called intolerance! So what’s next, a ban on all forms of fishing in the Eurobodalla perhaps?

HuntFest is not compulsory. If you don’t like firearms or the hunting culture, don’t come along, it’s that simple, Clr Harding. The event brings in much needed tourism dollars to the Eurobodalla which is more than can be said for the Greens whom you represent.

The South Coast Hunters Club has a reputation for the generous financial support of community groups within our shire.

What do you and your fanatical devotees really contribute to the community, Clr Harding, other than to serve as a constant caution against the excesses of zealotry?

Dan Field

President

South Coast Hunters club

Road danger 1

ONE morning recently my wife and I, while traveling between Dalmeny and Moruya, saw a young female red P-plater driving a small silver/grey Toyota station wagon at speeds of up to 120km/h. In fact she did not at any time drive at her red P-plate speed limit of 90km/h.

Her driving was worrying and to this young lady we would say: “Slow down. Being a few minutes late for work is better than being dead, or worse, killing another innocent person/s because of your reckless driving. And think of those you leave behind to suffer for eternity”.

John Van Der Heul

Dalmeny

Road danger 2

WHAT is going on at Tilba? Just a year ago the new section of the Princes Highway was opened, and 10 days ago the entire section or road was resurfaced with all line markings removed – including overtaking lanes and turnoffs to five side roads.

At the Central Tilba turnoff there are six lanes all without any safety lines, but the speed limit of 100km/h remains.

A stranger would be absolutely lost and if anyone doubts me try the intersection from both directions, and then try and turn into the southern access point to Victoria Creek Road.

All that money spent on the resurfacing the highway to whose advantage? That southern access has nearly claimed yet another casualty with a new set of skid marks just missing a roadside post.

Declan Wood

Sunnyside Road

New NATA fence should stay

THE new fence at NATA Oval is a very good one, solid and long lasting, erected by money raised by the Animal Welfare League. Why is our council wanting to pull it down, wasting the $8000 that the fence cost and putting up a new picket fence, again at added cost?

What a complete waste of money.

There is nothing wrong with the existing fence. Council would be better off spending the money on buying a new grass cutter to mow the shire's lawns which are being neglected in many areas as the council hires out cutters through private contractors, resulting in delayed moving and weed control.

I live in a street which has not been adequately maintained by keeping the weeds and grasses down for years since the council began hiring contractors. How about the council puts ratepayers’ money into what we do need, not wasting it like it's trying to do.

Lorraine Moss

Narooma

Mayor’s about-face on NATA fencing

I RECALL that only last year the Eurobodalla Mayor, Lindsay Brown, proudly and with some fanfare, announced the completion of the long-awaited and long-fought for fine new pipe and chain-wire fence around the Narooma NATA Oval.

Council also produced and installed signage at the safety gates. This was a fine achievement by council with the financial help of the Animal Welfare League, which contributed $8000 to its cost.

Imagine my bewilderment when I heard on the local radio news last week that the very same man, Lindsay Brown, being quoted as stating the current fence had safety problems and that there were plans to replace it with a “village green” style plastic picket fence. This about-face is breathtaking in its lack of logic.

Surely council cannot possibly be contemplating any change to a fence less than two-years old which serves its purpose perfectly, is eminently safe for its current frequent users, cost a great deal of ratepayers' money and has proved its efficiency and safety.

The proposed replacement would be a recycled plastic pseudo-picket fence, impractical, easily damaged and “grafitied”, easy for children and dogs to jump and impale themselves on.

Also, according to my expert information, it would be unstable and would need replacing within a few years.

For several reasons, leave the fence alone. Save money which the council says it hasn't got. Forget this bureaucratic double-talk about “integration” and “continuity” bandied about by councillors. Spend the money (which council says it hasn't got) to replace trees in front of the information centre so wantonly destroyed by planners committing acts of vandalism in the name of progress.

The new roundabout, associated islands and signage is damage enough to that part of our nice little town. Let's just minimise the damage with trees and shrubs and let the users of the NATA Oval keep their perfectly good pipe and chain-wire child and dog-proof fence.

Finally, less innocent and trusting souls than me might ask themselves: why are Eurobodalla Councillors and staff so hell-bent on this harebrained new plan? Is someone out there going to benefit financially from the construction of a plastic picket fence? What other logical reasons could there be for the destruction of an ideal fence so long awaited and so recently achieved?

Peter Robinson

Narooma

NATA white plastic fence the wrong option

AS new residents to the wonderful town of Narooma/Dalmeny, we were very happy to find such fabulous facilities for our dogs to play safely off lead at NATA Oval. We also took advantage of the wonderful volunteers who give up their time and effort to train naughty dogs as we had one.

But we are totally dismayed at what council appears to have planned for the oval.

Council is considering wasting the large amount of money supplied by the ratepayers of Narooma and surrounds, and the $8000 donated by the Animal Welfare League, to build a dog-proof fence. I believe they are contemplating a plastic fence which can be absolutely defaced by graffiti.

We have recently moved from a farm next to a neighbour who erected a similar fence. This fence proved to be extremely inadequate as it was uprooted by strong winds, easily pushed over and became brittle in the sun.

The fence as it stands is not only strong and high enough to ensure the safety of dogs and children but also it is not an eyesore. How incredible that council could believe a glaring white fence could possibly create a beautiful vista among the trees, grass and harbor surrounds?

Even the bridge has been painted to blend into the scenery not stand out.

They seem to be considering cutting down the beautiful shade trees, part of the Narooma heritage, and which not only support the oval but also the swimming pool.

These trees were part of our invitation to live in Narooma and it was difficult enough to accept that some trees had to go for the road works, but to cut these extra trees down is devastating.

They seem to be considering decreasing the size of the oval. It would seem it could hardly be called an oval now but to decrease the size means decreasing the other uses besides dog training.

The oval in its present size and fencing is a fine venue with controlled access for the periodic Rotary markets, a facility that other towns would desire.

Council has not invited a member of the Animal Welfare League to be part of its committee of advisers to put forward the views of that society and so ensure that as many groups possible have a say in their community assets.

The Animal Welfare League uses this oval at least every Saturday afternoon and the number of visitors who watch the activities of the afternoon is highly beneficial to the tourism of the town.

Council has not considered the service that the Animal Welfare League does for Narooma. With a safe dog fenced area the volunteers can train unruly and even dangerous dogs to become better pets and not become a nuisance which the council then has to handle in the pound.

Sandra Doyle

Dalmeny

NSW Forestry answers pose more questions

THANKYOU to Daniel Tuan for the information he provided to the Narooma News last week (Forestry harvesting at Narooma due to finish by Christmas) which answered some questions I had raised.

It was certainly heartening to see that 53 per cent of the timber harvested in this operation was provided to sawmills and processors throughout the state. It’s definitely very different from most other operations here on the south coast.

The figure of 25 per cent sent to the Eden chipmill from this compartment is in stark contrast to the figure of more than 90 per cent of the cut from the southern and Eden regions that have ended up there in past years. The harvest plan for the compartment actually estimated about 38 per cent. One wonders what’s happened to the market for woodchips to bring about this huge reduction.

I also wonder where this 22 per cent sent for firewood came from – it didn’t figure in the harvest plan and hasn’t been a feature of previous harvesting operations as far as I’m aware.

And why are we cutting down perfectly good trees in Narooma and trucking them as far as Pambula so that they can be cut up for firewood and probably then trucked to Canberra or some other distant place to be sold?

It would be interesting to know if the royalties for firewood are any better than the $14-odd that we taxpayers get for our forests that are sent to Eden for woodchipping.

The answers pose more questions.

Seán Burke

Central Tilba