Showing posts with label Clarence Valley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clarence Valley. Show all posts
Tuesday 23 April 2019
Clarence Valley winter woolies drive on 29 April to 5 May 2019
The
Daily Examiner,
22 April 2019, p.4:
If you have clothes
piling up in the back of your wardrobe you’ve forgotten about or won’t be
wearing any more, now is the time to dig them out.
What started out as an
initiative of the Waste Not Want Not Facebook group has quickly become a
tradition now in its sixth year.
The original yarn
bombing movement was about injecting colour and joy into everyday life, but for
Sue Noddy and the other organisers, it was a chance to help others.
“If it’s been sitting
your wardrobe forever and you don’t wear it any more bring it down, it is all
about recycling things,” Ms Noddy said.
She said anything warm
is welcomed but hoodies, jeans and mittens are particularly useful.
“We do have some ladies
who are knitting crochet all year-round rugs, hats and scarves and they will
peg their hand knitted items up,”
“We run it for a week,
we don’t take the items in at night because some people don’t want to be seen
taking things off the fence,” she said.
“We leave it out all
night, all day, even if it rains people still come and take the items.”
There will be three
locations for the community to donate their pre-loved winter woollies, two in
Grafton and one in Maclean.
Drop off points from
April 29–May 5:
New School of Art
neighbourhood house, corner of Spring and New streets, South Grafton
The Hub Baptist Church,
corner of Queen and Oliver streets
River St, Maclean, next
to the fire station.
Labels:
Clarence Valley,
Waste Not Want Not
Wednesday 17 April 2019
Yaegl Aboriginal cultural heritage areas in the Clarence Valley to be mapped
Clarence Valley Council, media release:
Mayor:
Jim Simmons LOCKED BAG 23 GRAFTON NSW 2460
General
Manager: Ashley Lindsay Telephone: (02) 6643 0200
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April
15, 2019
Mapping
areas of Yaegl Aboriginal cultural heritage
A
PROJECT that aims to help protect areas of cultural value to the Aboriginal
community is about to get under
way in the Clarence Valley.
Representatives
of the Yaegl Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation, the Office of
Environment and Heritage
and Clarence Valley Council recently signed a memorandum of understanding for a
cultural mapping
project of the Clarence.
The
project aims to identify and map known and “high potential” areas of Aboriginal
heritage to ensure culturally
appropriate information is used to inform conservation and local plans.
The
MoU says plans, which include cultural heritage management initiatives, are
intended to better protect
Aboriginal heritage within or adjacent to all mapped areas.
“Assessment
of the Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System data and extensive
field surveys
in company with nominated cultural representatives to validate and record data
is also a necessary
project component,” it says.
The
project aims to produce 1:25,000 scale topographic maps for the Yaegl Native
Title Claimed Area, annotated
with “known” and “high potential” areas of Aboriginal cultural heritage, within
and immediately adjacent
to the Clarence Valley local government area.
Once
complete, a training program will be developed for Yaegl site officers,
Clarence Valley Council staff and
other appropriate agencies.
Release
ends.
Wednesday 10 April 2019
Valley Watch urgent message to Clarence Valley residents about saving Lawrence koala habitat
Koala habitat within Larwence village streets |
Valley Watch Inc has sent this email out…….
Hi
everyone brief history and response from Essential Energy below.
Upgrade
and change of route required due to safety (currently passing over someone's
house). Project planned then needed to change route as an underground
water main was identified in their proposed route. New route chosen and
vegetation clearing increased from two trees and trimming to approx. 28 trees
& shrubs being cleared in a known koala corridor.
Thanks
to Community who raised concerns and attended special meeting where they
presented new route that could be considered. As per email below we need
to ensure Essential Energy hear there is large community support for protecting
koala habitat.
Please
telephone and email Raelene Myers at Essential Energy.
Thanks
----- Forwarded
message -----
From: Linda redacted]
Sent: Friday, 5 April 2019, 05:06:11 pm AEDT
Subject: save Lawrence koala habitat
Hi everyone,
At the end of an
information session today in Grafton, led by Essential Energy Community Liaison
Officer Raelene Myers, the Essential Energy staff told the assembled
concerned Lawrence and wider Clarence Valley residents, after much discussion,
that they will now put the plan to relocate some poles and wires to an area
that would involve koala habitat destruction on hold,
while they examine an alternative route that would not.
The alternative route
was put forward by meeting attendees. The plan attached shows the existing
route in green, the habitat-destroying route in orange, and the
non-habitat-destroying route in red.
Raelene has undertaken
to keep updated people who let her know they want to be. Our best chance of
saving the koala habitat now is to get as many people as possible to contact her and let her know we are in favour of the non-habitat
destroying route and want to be kept updated. Her contact details are below.
Please pass this
information on to anyone you think might care.
Regards,
Linda
T: 02 6589 8810 (extn 88810) M: 0407 518 170
PO Box 5730 Port
Macquarie NSW 2444
General Enquiries:
13 23 91
UPDATE
The Daily Examiner, 10 April 2019, p.5:
Clarence Valley
councillor Greg Clancy said the the proposal would result in the removal of a
number of trees and put at risk the koala population in the area.
“We think they could
reroute the power lines a different way to reduce the number of trees that
would need to cut down,” he said. “I think it’s going to push the local
population further towards extinction"
Mr Clancy said despite
the relatively small number of trees marked for removal, the frequency with
which koalas could be found in them meant they should be saved.
“I was out there the
other day with a representative from Essential Energy and there was a koala in
one of the marked trees,” he said.
“The point is the koalas
are always in these trees and there is a lot of habitat they may not find as
suitable. You need to rely on where the koalas are, not where they might be.”
Labels:
biodiversity,
Clarence Valley,
flora and fauna,
Koala,
Lawrence,
trees
Sunday 24 March 2019
Big Bat & Wildlife Festival, Noon to Sunset, 30 March 2019 Showground, Maclean NSW
Cyclone Oma might have postponed the festival but the events organisers are ready to go again.
The new date is Saturday 30th March at the Maclean Showground.
It is the same day as the Yamba Gourmet Food festival - so the Clarence Valley can offer culture and conservation.
It is also Earth Hour on the 30th March.
At the Big Bat & Wildlife Festival Uncle Ron Heron will be giving a Welcome to Country; while Bill Walker will tell some yarns about Yaegl experiences with wildlife and explaining totems.
As for the singers in the community they are planning an 'all-together-now' performance of 'Sing for the Climate' lead by the Macleles Ukulele Band.
Labels:
Clarence Valley,
entertainment,
Maclean
Friday 22 March 2019
Police hunt for information in Lawrence and Sandy Beach about alleged perpetrator of NZ terrorist attack
The
New Daily, 18
March 2019:
Family members of the
Australian man charged with murdering Muslim worshippers at two mosques in New
Zealand are devastated one of their own could be involved in a massacre.
Brenton Tarrant’s
grandmother, Marie Fitzgerald, said the family was gobsmacked he’d been charged
over Friday’s shooting attacks on mosques in Christchurch.
“It’s just so much of
everything to take in that somebody in our family would do anything like this,”
the 81-year-old woman told Nine News in the NSW city of Grafton on Sunday.
“The media is saying he
has planned it for a long time so he is obviously not of sound mind.”
Tarrant went to Europe
after his father died of cancer in 2010 and came back a different man, Mrs
Fitzgerald said.
“It’s only since he travelled
overseas I think, that that boy has changed completely to the boy we knew,” she
said.
His uncle Terry
Fitzgerald apologised on behalf of the family for his nephew’s alleged
murderous act.
“We are so sorry for the
families over there, for the dead and the injured,” Terry Fitzgerald said.
“What he has done is
just not right.”
Tarrant spent most of
his time on computer games during his high school days, rather than chasing
girls, his grandmother added.
The family had dinner
with Tarrant in Grafton a year ago for his sister’s birthday.
His sister and mother
have been put under police protection after Friday’s attack, which has left 50
dead and others in a critical condition on hospital.
Meanwhile,
counter-terrorism police raided two homes on the NSW mid-north coast on Monday
as part of investigations into the shootings.
Officers from the NSW
Joint Counter Terrorism Team searched a property in Sandy Beach, near Coffs
Harbour, about 8.30am on Monday, before storming a second house at Lawrence,
near Maclean.
“The primary aim of the
activity is to formally obtain material that may assist New Zealand Police in
their ongoing investigation,” the Australian Federal Police and NSW Police said
in a joint statement.
“The community can be
assured that there is no information to suggest a current or impending threat
related to this search warrants.”
Tarrant was not on any
watchlist in Australia or New Zealand, despite online profiles linked to him
containing white supremacist material.
The 28-year-old posted a
74-page document online before the attack. A 17-minute video of the shootings
was also live-streamed.
The JCTT is made up of
officers from the AFP, NSW Police, as well as ASIO and the NSW Crime
Commission.
–AAP
Labels:
Clarence Valley,
Grafton,
terrorist attack
"Please don’t run away from this so fast we fail to learn anything by it. Call out racism. Call out bigotry. Then call it out again, and again."
The Daily Examiner, 20 March 2019, p.28:
The
Grafton community is in shock, left heartbroken after news that Friday’s terrorist attack
in New Zealand was perpetrated by a man who grew up here.
So
it’s understandable we want to try to distance ourselves from what is now one
of the worst mass killings in modern history.
We
feel for our city, we feel for the local family caught up in this, and we feel
for the people of New Zealand.
What
is apparent though is a lack of acknowledgement of the people who were
specifically targeted in this murderous rampage. Muslims. People, including
children as young as two, who were killed because of their faith and their
race.
And
don’t for one minute think it’s not about race, it’s a package deal for white
supremacists, and the 28-year-old who grew up here is one of those.
So
why do Clarence Valley spokespeople gloss over such details like they are
trivial facts in this horrendous story?
If
a Middle Eastern gunman of Muslim faith walked into a Catholic church in
Australia and open fired on white Christian families there would be no such
leniencies extended to the perpetrator or his ilk in the conversations that
follow.
But
here we are in protection mode. This isn’t our Grafton. This isn’t our
Australia.
This isn’t us. Which is correct if we judge the perpetrator only on
his actions on Friday.
But
we have to come to terms with the fact these things don’t happen overnight.
There is an innate beginning to a journey that takes you to a place where you
are capable of planning an attack of this level of calculation and carnage,
write an extensive manifesto to showcase the act, film it and broadcast it
live, and, after being captured, smirk to the media as you face the first of
the many legal consequences of your actions.
So
if it’s not us, who is it? Pakistan, Finland, any other country? Is it the internet
or social media? Computer games? Is it the moment he left Grafton? The moment
he was ‘radicalised’?
Ultimate
responsibility lies with our society and the attitudes we foster. The
conversations we have and behaviours we encourage and allow.
Everything
contributes to this. What we hear from governments, what we hear from the
media, what we hear from our family and friends. What we are exposed to growing
up, what we talk about when we are old, the messages we share in pubs and on
social media.
So
in the Clarence, our Muslim-free narrative is very telling. So, too, the
idealistic version we create of ourselves.
Please
stop telling me how wonderful this place is. I already know it is; as long as
you look like me, you go OK.
But
describing the Clarence Valley and Grafton as a diverse and multicultural
region that prides itself on being inclusive, while it makes a great sound bite
or quote in a news story there is plenty to fault in these broad overviews with
little evidence to back them up.
About
80 per cent of Grafton is made up of white people and more than 70 per cent
identify as Christian (national averages are 65 per cent and 52 per cent
respectively).
Our demographic is made up of Australians, English, Irish,
Scottish and Germans predominantly. Our indigenous population falls under the
Australian component and makes up 7.4per cent of that, representing the major
group as far as our cultural diversity goes. It is more than double the state
average at 2.9per cent. Our representation of other people of colour is
negligible by comparison.*
So
to call us a culturally diverse place is a stretch. Inclusiveness is easy when
we all look the same and have the same beliefs.
Our
indigenous locals may have a different take on what that looks like.
When
it comes to sport and the arts, sure we champion inclusiveness with First
Nations people, but when we are really tested, like we were with the Coutts
Crossing name debate, we demonstrate a low tolerance. Same with national issues
like changing the date of Australia Day.
When
our Citizen of the Year expressed her support of that in her acceptance speech
she received random boos from an audience that also included members of our
indigenous community.
Every
October when we are – to quote someone well known for her lack of regard for
other races – “swamped with Asians”, our lack of tolerance for the influx of
visitors eager to photograph our beautiful trees is demonstrated with the
barrage of abuse they receive from passing motorists.
But
it’s not about race, they’re just idiots standing in the way, right? Like the
booing of Adam Goodes wasn’t because he was an Aborigine, he was just a bad
sport.
What
if the Muslim community came en masse to Grafton to mourn their slain? What if
they came to a town where they don’t exist?
It’s
impossible to have all those other conversations about our wonderful town
without having this one.
As
difficult as it is, not mentioning the war as we wait for things to blow over
isn’t an option. It’s no longer Grafton’s story to tell, or its agenda to set.
The city will forever wear a horrific international act of terrorism as part of
its story and in its history books.
Interest
will follow us for a long time as the world learns who the perpetrator was,
what kind of place he grew up in and how he ended up committing an act of
hatred so obscene it stopped the world.
Like
all the official spokespeople out there, I too love the Clarence Valley, but
I’m not blindsided by that affection so much I believe we are incapable of
being a breeding ground for racism. We aren’t the only Australian town to have
this potential, but we are the town caught up in this mess.
Please
don’t run away from this so fast we fail to learn anything by it. Call out
racism. Call out bigotry. Then call it out again, and again.
*2016
ABS Census
LESLEY APPS
Labels:
Australian society,
bigotry,
Clarence Valley,
racism,
xenophobia
Sunday 3 February 2019
Offensive odour leads to EPA inspection & pollution fine for Clarrich Farms piggery in northern NSW
Clarrich Farms Pty Ltd, a company registered in Queensland since
April 2015, also operates a 2 site
(Breeder-Grower), 1000 sow operation in Northern NSW region of Australia.
One of those piggery sites is on Jacksons Flat
Road, Jacksons Flat near Tabulam in the Clarence Valley.
NSW EPA, media
release, 23 January 2019:
EPA fines Clarrich Farms
$15,000 for failure to manage waste
The NSW Environment
Protection Authority (EPA) has fined Clarrich Farms Pty Ltd $15,000 for
allegedly mismanaging piggery waste at its Tabulam property.
EPA Regional Director
North Adam Gilligan said Clarrich Farms piggery had failed to properly manage
piggery effluent and other waste materials at the premises, posing a risk of
pollution to the nearby Clarence River and breaching their Environment
Protection Licence.
“The EPA carried out an
inspection of Clarrich Farms in July 2018 in response to a complaint about
offensive odours from the piggery. The inspection identified a large area on
the premises that had been smothered by a thick blanket of effluent sludge,” Mr
Gilligan said.
“Our investigations
found that the previous day the licensee had pumped sludge and liquid effluent
from a treatment dam onto the ground to manage odours emitted from the piggery.
“Analysis of sludge
samples returned highly elevated nutrient and faecal contamination levels.
Phosphorus levels were particularly high.
“During the inspection
EPA officers found the sludge and effluent flowing towards the Clarence River,
ultimately covering approximately 7.25 hectares of ground.”
The EPA required
Clarrich Farms to immediately clean up the sludge, and implement ongoing
measures to contain and reduce the elevated phosphorus levels of the impacted
area of land.
The EPA is also liaising
with Clarrich Farms on the broader environmental management of the facility
including increased environmental monitoring requirements.
The EPA investigates all
reports of suspected pollution and encourages anyone with a concern, or
knowledge of environmental harm to contact the 24-hour EPA Environment Line on
131 555.
Penalty notices are one
of a number of tools the EPA can use to achieve environmental compliance,
including formal warnings, official cautions, licence conditions, notices and
directions and prosecutions. For more information about the EPA’s regulatory
tools, see the EPA Compliance Policy at
www.epa.nsw.gov.au/legislation/prosguid.htm
Labels:
Clarence Valley,
EPA,
pollution
Wednesday 9 January 2019
The bad news for NSW North Coast regional communities just never ends
According to
the Berejiklian Coalition Government’s Transport
for NSW website: The
Community Transport Program (CTP) assists individuals who are transport
disadvantaged owing to physical, social, cultural and / or geographic
factors. Individuals who do not qualify for other support programs may be
eligible for community transport. CTP is funded by the NSW
Government and aims to address transport disadvantage at the local level via
community transport organisations.
In the
Clarence Valley medical specialist services are rather thin on the ground and
residents are frequently referred to medical practices and hospital clinics
hundreds of miles away.
For
communities in the Lower Clarence where a high percentage of the population are
elderly people on low incomes this can frequently present a transport problem,
as often there is no family member living close by to assist or the person’s peer
friendship group doesn’t include anyone capable of driving long distances.
Community
transport has been the only option for a good many people.
Until now…..
The Daily Examiner, 8 January 2019, p.3:
The thought of paying
$200 for a trip to see her specialist about her medical condition made Yamba
pensioner Gloria George glad she was sitting down when she made the call.
The 80-year-old said
when she contacted Clarence Community Transport and was told the price to be
taken by car to the Gold Coast for a Wednesday appointment, it could have
brought on a heart attack.
Mrs George said CCT told
her there was a bus service to the Gold Coast that ran on Monday, Wednesday and
Friday for $70.
“My appointment was on
Tuesday and the clinic I was booked into was not available on the other days,”
she said.
“They said they had made
cutbacks and the price to be driven to the appointment was $200.
“I’ve got a bad heart
problem and I nearly fell over when they told me.
“Who can afford $200 to
go to an appointment?”
Mrs George said she
still has a licence, but would not feel safe driving to her appointment.
“I think I’ll be able to
get a friend to drive me there and take me home again. I hope so,” she said.
The manager of CCT,
Warwick Foster, said the price rise for services had come in when the government
cut $250,000 from CCT’s funding when the NDIS came in last year.
“We could no longer
afford to operate the bus five days a week,” he said. “And we can’t afford to
drive people to appointments for the same fee we charge for the bus service.”
Mr Foster said the
government subsidy for transport of $31 a trip created a juggling act for CCT
to afford its services.
“Each trip, no matter
the distance, is subsidised at $31,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter if
the trip is across town or to Brisbane, the subsidy is the same....
Monday 24 December 2018
Clarence Valley Council gets its just deserts - a $300,000 fine
Every member of council staff who signed off on the desecration of this scar tree should be demoted a pay grade.
The Daily Examiner, 22 December 2018:
The removal of an
Aboriginal scar tree in Grafton has resulted in a $300,000 fine for Clarence
Valley Council.
The judgment was passed
down on yesterday in the Land and Environment Court of NSW, prosecuting the
council for the destruction of the registered culturally modified tree that
stood on the corner of Breimba and Dovedale Streets, Grafton.
The offences occurred in
two increments, in 2013 with a severe lopping that “exacerbated the decline in
the health of the tree” and the complete removal of the remaining trunk in
2016.
The council potentially
faced fines up to $1million for its actions.
The news provoked a
backlash against the council on social media.
Ratepayers were
disgusted at the thought their money would be used to pay the fine and court
costs.
Many wanted the
individuals who made the decisions that led to the tree’s removal to take on
some of the costs of paying the legal bill.
The Daily Examiner will
present more on the scar tree findings and reactions from Clarence Valley
Council and the Aboriginal Lands Council in a special report next week.
Sunday 23 December 2018
Castillo Copper Limited operations suspended on exploration leases in the Clarence Valley NSW
Clarence Environment Centre brings welcome news as 2018 ends.
Castillo Copper Limited operations at Cangai, in the Mann River Catchment, Clarence Valley NSW have been suspended on the grouns that there is: a lack of sediment and erosion controls; poor management of drill cuttings/waste materials; clearing and excavation works undertaken outside of approved limits; the drilling of five bore holes without approval; and a failure to progressively rehabilitate in approved time frames.
Castillo Copper Limited Ope... by on Scribd
https://www.scribd.com/document/396200281/Castillo-Copper-Limited-Operations-Suspended-at-Cangai-NSW-21-December-2018
Labels:
Clarence Valley,
environmental vandalism,
mining,
water wars
Thursday 20 December 2018
PEOPLE POWER: Grafton Loop of the Knitting Nannas six years old and still going strong
The Grafton Loop of the Knitting Nannas Against Gas was officially launched six years ago on 19 October 2012.
The local nannas first began knitting in peaceful opposition to coal seam gas exploration and mining in the early days of the Glenugie blockade of a Metgasgo CSG test drill site in the Clarence Valley.
As part of the wider NSW Northern Rivers movement they helped keep the north-east "Gasfield Free!"
The Grafton Loop continues to be active on environmental issues and regularly hold knit-ins outside local state and federal MPs electoral offices.
This is the Grafton Loop on 13 December 2018 outside Nationals MP for Page Kevin Hogan's office, accompanied by "Nanna Kerry", a mascot veteran of mining protests in south-east Queensland.
This letter was sent to Kevin Hogan on the same day.....
Letter to Nationals MP for Page Kevin Hogan from Grafton Loop of the Knitting Nannas Against Gas, NSW Austr... by clarencegirl on Scribd
https://www.scribd.com/document/395886572/Letter-to-Nationals-MP-for-Page-Kevin-Hogan-from-Grafton-Loop-of-the-Knitting-Nannas-Against-Gas-NSW-AustraliaWay to go, Nannas!
Labels:
activists,
Clarence Valley,
coal,
Coal Seam Gas,
people power
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