Memo to NSW Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Paul Toole & NSW Minister for Transport and Roads Andrew Constance: Pull you fingers out and fix this!

Sportsman's Creek Bridge (1910) sited close to where the creek meets the Clarence River
Image: GeoLink

The Daily Examiner, 6 May 2019, p.1:

As he stood on the now dismantled Sportsmans Creek Bridge approaches, Lawrence Museum and Historical Society president Rob Forbes held a series of letters that appalled him.

For the past two years, based on a positive relationship with Roads and Maritime Services, the society had made plans to reconstruct a full section of the bridge, preserving its memory at the museum.

Now, with a change in management, that agreement made has seemingly vanished, with RMS offering a ‘take it or leave it’ approach to what will be preserved.

“I’m appalled to think that a small local historical society trying to save one of the most historic and important structures in Lawrence has to record every single conversation made with every single person we talked to so we don’t get shafted,” Mr Forbes said.

Mr Forbes said for the first stages of planning, the rapport with RMS could not have been better, with RMS employees regularly visiting the museum to see what could be done.

“They couldn’t do enough for us,” he said. “They even organised a license from the EPA so we could take some of the building that was removed for the bridge which had lead paint.

“It carried over when we wanted a section of the bridge. I stood in the museum with the representative and we looked at the model so we were talking about the exact same thing.”

Originally it was agreed two complete ends of one span (both sides of the structure) could be reassembled to create a good representation of the bridge.

“The engineer at the meeting said we could have two complete ends of one span and ‘probably’ also a large amount of the other bridge timbers ‘if we wanted it’,” Mr Forbes said.

After the bridge was demolished recently, and with a change in management at RMS, these verbal agreements made months earlier were disregarded, according to Mr Forbes.

“An email was received stating we could now have only two ends of one truss (one side of the structure only) and 150 square metres of decking – and that this was non-negotiable,” he said.

“We’ve even had emails saying if we had a problem with the quality of the timber they’ll sell the whole lot to salvage... and we feel pressured to sign the new agreement or it’ll best lost forever.

“There was no agreement, but when they said yes for two years, as far as I’m concerned the deal was done.”

A spokesman said RMS had worked with the Lawrence community, including the museum and historical society, throughout the Sportsmans Creek Bridge project.

“Roads and Maritime has provided a replica of the bridge to the society to commemorate this historic structure, along with an agreement to supply timbers from the old bridge for re-use as a commemorative structure,” the spokesman said.

“The agreement includes providing 150sqm of bridge decking timbers to be used as a floor to support the old Ashby ferry, two ends of one truss (each end of one single truss) and supports for display purposes only and transport of the timber and truss to the museum.

“This agreement has not changed and Roads and Maritime will continue to work with the historical society to commemorate the old Sportsmans Creek timber truss bridge.”

The Lawrence Historical Society urges people to show support for the cause by either contacting Mr Forbes on 0412 715 805, or leaving comments on their Facebook page.

Who will be to blame if Essential Energy cuts down koala trees in Lawrence, NSW?

Koala habitat within Lawrence, NSW

Essential Energy is a NSW state-owned corporation supplying ‘poles and wire’ infrastructure to communities on the North Coast.

One of those communities is the small village of Lawrence on the Lower Clarence River.

An attractive feature of living in this village is that it is one of the ever diminishing small regional/rural urban areas which still have resident koalas.

Koalas like this one sitting in a tree line marked by Essential Energy for felling.

Photograph of Lawrence koala supplied

Koala mid-canopy & circled in black
Photograph supplied

Apparently those surveying the short new route for a section of poles and wires in Lawrence neglected to look up into the trees – what else can explain the fact that known koala trees have been marked for destruction?

So who is it that employs such incredibly blind staff?

Well Essential Energy has a Board of Directors (very comfortably remunerated from $60,600 up to $764,200 pa) and all apparently living far from this particular group of koalas.

These board members are:

Patricia McKenzie – Chair, Non-Executive Director

Robyn Clubb – Non-Executive Director

Jennifer Douglas – Non-Executive Director

John Fletcher – Non-Executive Director

Peter Garling – Non-Executive Director

Patrick Strange – Non-Executive Director

Diane Elert – Non-Executive Director

John Cleland – CEO and Executive Director.

The shareholders are represented by the NSW Treasurer and Minister for Finance, Services and Property. Current Treasurer is MP for Epping Dominic Perrottet.

With the exception of the Treasurer all these people belong to what might be called the professional directors class and, between them are associated with a number of other businesses and a research facility:

APA Group, Health Direct Australia,

Australian Wool Exchange Ltd, Craig Moyston Group Ltd, Elders Ltd, NSW Primary Industries Ministerial Advisory Council, Rice Marketing Board of NSW,
Hansen Technologies Limited, Opticomm Pty Ltd, Peter MacCullum Cancer Foundation,

Charter Hall Funds Management Limited, Charter Hall Limited, Energy Group Limited, Downer EDI Limited, Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Limited, Tellus Holdings Limited,

Auckland International Airport Limited. Chorus Limited, Mercury Energy, NZX Limited.

Annotated image; photograph supplied

A fair number of people in Lawrence have told Essential Energy that they want these koala trees to be left standing and the corporation states it has taken its plan under review.

So if Essential Energy does decide these koala trees are to be cut down in the next few months, don’t blame the men with chainsaws, blame these eight professional directors and the successive NSW Coalition governments who appointed them - from the O'Farrell Government in 2013 through to the Berejiklian Government in 2018.

Because state government is clearly appointing directors who cannot even ensure that Essential Energy’s environmental policy (for which they are responsible) is comprehensive and actually mentions vulnerable and threatened flora and fauna.

It is a policy which (aside from a brief mention of greenhouse gas emission reduction) fails to give clear direction to staff, given there is only a single broadly worded line in its 12 point health, safety & environmental policy to cover all manner of environmental issues ie., "Comply with relevant legislation, regulations, standards, codes, licences and commitments"

These directors appear so divorced from real life that they apparently never thought that their regional/rural staff need to be trained to look up into tree canopies before they decide to mark a tree line for destruction.

The bottom line is that the Koala as a species is at risk of localised extinction across the areas in which populations still survive and, sadly is at risk of total extinction across the entire country by as early as 2050 if  those in positions of power continue to be deliberately blind to the fate of this Australian icon.

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

E: raelene.myers@essentialenergy.com.au

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.”