Responding to misconceptions
They say that any major work of art worth its salt is going to stir up some controversy. I think that refers to artistic merit but also as to whether it pleases the viewer. In that respect the current controversy about "Water Cloud" in Dorrigo is to be welcomed.
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What is not so welcome is comment based on misconceptions. I would like to put three of those to rest:
1. Water Cloud, drought or no drought, will not use any water. It will not even be connected to the water supply.
2. It will not obstruct traffic or prevent deliveries in the main street of Dorrigo. If there was a chance of it doing so, I doubt if Council would have even considered the proposal.
3. It will be lit by banks of LED tubes, producing a soft glowing light but the best explanation I can give is probably that of the artist: "The linear lighting allows whole of work lighting that illuminates both the main beam and the inside faces of the tube assemblies. This gives a sense of the work being internally illuminated and adds to the sense of the form having an innate energy and presence. The lighting can be static but it can also be programmed to allow a series of 'light waves' to ring around the work at different speeds. This would give the work a dynamism ... and adds a sense of excitement and street presence desired in the brief."
Nick Wright, Dorrigo
Accident potential
What cloud is Bellingen Shire Councillor Desmae Harrison living in? If she really took the time to speak to the local town people in Dorrigo, she would realise that the vast majority do not want this ugly metal sculpture hanging over our heads.
Tourists are also overwhelmingly unimpressed by the proposed sculpture. This I can verify as they are signing a petition to oppose this "Water Cloud" IN THEIR DROVES. Is Councillor Harrison swayed by the opinions of a handful of 'want to be more famous' artists who think they can tell locals what they need in this town?
In a democratic society we are allowed to voice our opinions and be heard, or so I believe.
This sculpture belongs in a urban landscape not in a rural farming town. Gaudy flashing coloured lights at night, does the Bellingen Shire Council want us to think it is Christmas every night of the year in Dorrigo.
If the artists who want this in our main street are not content with our town will they please go move to a city where they can get their modern sculpture fix on a daily basis. Don't wreck our town with a metal cloud that will make us a laughing stock when the rain stops falling like it has everywhere else in NSW.
When the first pedestrian/s are knocked over by a motorist gawking at the spaceship floating over our town, what then?
The police can book drivers for looking at their mobiles while driving. Will the NSW police also be able to book motorists for taking their eyes off the road to gaze upwards in awe of the "Water Cloud" ?
Michele Zbudowski
Water bomber shortages
To fight our most extensive fires we depend on the availability of large scale water bombers on loan from countries in the northern hemisphere. This year only half of the larger craft for lease arrived on time due to overlapping of fire seasons.
Experts warn that our fire services do not have enough large aircraft to deal with the unprecedented fires we are now experiencing and each new water bomber costs around $38 million .
Scott Morrison announced recently that Australia's firefighting force was to be allocated the sum of $11 million to serve as a funding injection to assist in the present crisis.
What can this meagre sum do to arm our firefighters with the equipment they so desperately need ? It would only fund a fraction of the cost of one water bomber.
In February we heard that our government has pledged $50,000 million to buy a fleet of 12 attack French submarines which will be delivered in 15 years time.
Which is more urgent - the equipment to fight a life threatening series of bushfires today or 12 submarines to fight an unlikely conflict in 15 years time ?
Marlene Griffin
Valla
The Ingredients And Warnings Were there
Before I touch on the fire situation, the thing for 2019 that sticks in my craw is this extinction rebellion movement. A minority radical group harnessing our children, filling their immature minds with propaganda, holding up placards and demonstrating before many could read or write.
A couple in their early thirties, (having lived the soft life) said, Darcey do you think you and those from past generations should apologise? No bloody way will I say sorry to you pair of overfed lazy selfish individuals while you lap up all this stuff you take for granted and feel you are entitled to.
The fires are still ongoing as I scratch this down. The loss of homes, stock and infrastructure is staggering.
I can only imagine losing one's home and all those treasured personal possessions that have been passed down. The extreme dry is obviously a major factor for this disaster, but also the urbanisation of much of our eastern coastline, a tree change and building among the gum trees.
So much of our eastern coastline once cleared for farming and grazed down in dry times has now regenerated back to native forest. which has been encroaching closer and closer to many towns and small villages.
The ingredients and warnings have been there for years, and it had to happen. Authorities these days in the main, born and reared in an urban environment, were oblivious to the developing storm.
Our own shire has been so lucky to date, but a classic example of a time bomb, with all that once-cleared farmland now bush.
There are still some fires poking about in the upper catchment held at bay by that rain during Christmas. The downside after just 50 to 100 mls was the erosion from the National Park following that fire on the northern side up the escarpment.
All virgin, no logging,no human activity up there but the erosion into our beautiful river a disaster. There was some impact from the Horseshoe side, but minor when compared to that. All that erosion from the logging in the sixties was nothing, if compared to this one event, and imagine when the real rain comes.
January is the hottest month of the year and can be dry. Our three fire agencies - the Parkies, the Forestry boys and our RFS are on red alert doing a great job putting in defence lines for the unthinkable, a wildfire along the Horseshoe to Boggy Creek and Bellingen.
As an eternal optimist, I believe the rains are coming and all will be forgotten, but do prepare for all that organic National Park mud, ash and shale.
And think twice about planting eucalyptus in your backyard.
Darcey Browning
Thora
In office but not in power
"From this time on, no pretence was credible: the unemployed saw this one thing clearly, that the Australian government was in office but not in power. And that has remained the case ever since. Those with the real power are seldom known to the public and are never voted for."
This quotation is taken from Australia: Image of a Nation, 1850-1950, written by Rodney Hall, published in 1983.
The context was the election of a Labor government for the first time in 1929, at the onset of the Great Depression in this country.
In those days the power was in the hands of British bankers, and the Australian government was at their mercy, unable to repay massive loan interest. The currency was devalued, wages cut, unemployment and homelessness caused misery across the land.
Now, 90 years on, we are suffering misery again, but this time from 'natural causes' - or are they?
Well yes, strictly speaking that's true, but why is it that the federal government will not take meaningful action on the indisputable ill-effects of climate change upon those causes?
The 'unprecedented' scale and ferocity of the current fire disaster has shocked many previously sceptical people into understanding the direct link between global heating and extreme weather events, and created deep fears for the future of our successors on this planet.
Those words, "the Australian government was in office but not in power" seem very relevant right now.
What we have now, far from true democracy, is a government actively serving the interests of power, and we now do know where that power is held. Foreign investors, both government and private, minerals councils representing coal and oil interests, corporate juggernauts, right-wing think-tanks, radical conservative media companies, hi-tech corporations.
It has to be 'business as usual' for as long as the people are prepared to tolerate it, but the word is getting around now, and we have reason to hope that the days of 'getting away with it' may be numbered. Change towards actual democracy must happen, however messy that change may have to be.
Jeremy Barrett
Bellingen
Water inertia
Following four floods in the Bellinger some years ago I wrote to Minister Tanner urging him to implement a water conservation scheme, including a plan to drought-proof the Murray Darling. Minister Tanner replied suggesting I contact the Water Commission, assuming I had more influence than he did.
After 30 years of water restrictions we are now paying the price of government and council inertia. If anyone has an idea as to how we get this crowd to do anything let me know.
Allan Green
Mylestom