Post
by Stephen Whiteside » Sat Feb 12, 2011 7:32 pm
I can't see much point in launching into an attack on the Greens. Sure, they're not perfect, but who is? The world was going down the tubes before the green movement kicked in in the 60s. Greenpeace has done a lot of good, especially for the whales. Bob Brown and the Tasmanian Wilderness Society did a great job saving the Franklin. It's just a shame that Lake Pedder went under. A lot of people still reckon it can be drained and rehabilitated one day, and I hope they're right.
I attended the Franklin Blockade. I was shocked how many people there seemed to know nothing about bush survival. I don't regard myself as any sort of expert, but I knew enough not to take drinking water from the river downstream of the camp-site! So, yes, there are a lot of city folk in the green movement who don't have much practical knowledge about the bush. But there are a hell of a lot of ignorant bush dwellers, too, who can't see past the end of their own noses, and are motivated purely by self interest.
Maybe we should bring gold mining back into the high country, too. After all, if it's good for the goose. What about a spot of hydraulic sluicing? I spoke to an old mining surveyor many years ago. He memorably said to me 'there's nowhere that the cattlemen went on a horse that I haven't been on foot'. In other words, they are legends in their own lunch boxes. Many of them became very wealthy by virtue of access to extensive rich grazing lands at virtually no cost.
I wouldn't get too excited about a majority on this forum supporting the cattlemen. After all, if they can't get a majority on the bush poets' web-site, where will they get it?
The gulf between rural and urban Australia is very wide. Probably there is no issue that better illustrates this than this issue. There's a lot of heat on both sides, and not much light. It's like we're talking different languages.
Looks like it's going to have to be pistols at dawn.
