Clarity and brevity
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Over the past 12 months or so, the letters section has been commandeered by several groups of zealots.
One lot (Bega Valley councillors) see themselves leading us Moses-like out of the wilderness to the Promised Land.
Their opponents see them as The Whore Of Babylon and not to be trusted at any time, under any circumstances.
Another group would like to cut down everything standing and send it off to be processed into toilet paper while their opponents can apparently find a koala scat under every weed.
There is another group that assures that we will be up to our necks in water and/or sand because of global warming while their opponents deny the possibility of any such thing.
No-one is listening to anyone else, and each group is preaching to the already converted.
To the rest of us, it is just plain boring!
Might I suggest you print only the first 250 words of these letters followed by: “... etc.”
This will encourage clarity of thought and brevity of wit.
Any group wanting a two-column spread should pay commercial rates to you, and not bore the rest of us silly with their tedious prognostications.
The only exception should be my letters to the editor.
John Fuary
Wallagoot
History a click away
Jo Dodds (BDN, 16/4), data and social commentary from the earliest days of European settlement is just a click-away.
Information of all kinds is freely available online (TROVE); and if that is not enough, in our National Library and other archives.
You could visit, research, deepen your understanding and broaden your horizons.
In this country, observing has been a national pastime - weather, tides, ship-movements, postal deliveries, the price of butter, divorces and deaths.
From all over the place happenings and data were telegraphed away; many were reported the next day in newspapers across the land.
Data is instantly accessible.
Daily rainfall for Bemboka (from 1889), Candelo (1887) and Bega (1879); tide levels for Eden, Bermagui and Port Kembla; temperature data for Newtown Road, Bombala and Moruya to name a few.
Climate did not start in 1910. Historical data and commentary from all over the place disputes the Climate Commission’s conga-line of chattering professors.
The commission relentlessly marketed the long-hot 2002-2010 El Niño drought as global warming.
Since it ended, their theme has switched to climate change.
Both are fantasies.
A historical lesson for us is that we could again experience around 700mm of rain in four days like in 1898; or another 15-or-so years of drought like in the 1940s; or another overwhelming gale, like the May 1898 Maitland gale; or another bushfire like in 1952.
For elsewhere, it could be blizzards like in 1898-1903. Cyclone Sigma wrecked Townsville in 1896. In 1974, cyclone Tracey hit Darwin destroying 80 per cent of the houses. Rainfall records were broken all over the place. Another cyclone hit Mackay in 1918; Bowen in 1918 and 1970. The tornado at Nevertire in 1876 blew the place apart and even knocked horses off their legs.
For more than 100 years the 1852 flood at The Crossing Place (Gundagai) was Australia’s most devastating natural disaster.
The 2011 flood-height in Brisbane was only the seventh highest since 1840.
From time to time hailstorms have devastated all our major cities.
Since the day records began, floods, tornados, wind and hail have cut swathes of destruction across all states.
Unfortunately for the Climate Commission, history exists and it contests most of what they claim.
Bill Johnston
Bemboka
Repeal hunt decision
I was pleased to see a recent Sydney Morning Herald article pointing out several instances of bad behaviour by hunters in national parks and state forests.
The hunting lobby would have us believe their desire is to help the environment by culling feral animals, but I fear a good proportion of them just want to shoot something and are not concerned with their impacts, good or bad, on the environment.
As a visitor to some of the less frequented corners of national parks I have several instances of illegal and environmentally damaging activity by hunters to report myself.
For example, the hunter with a ute-full of pig dogs coming out of Morton NP, who asked me to keep an eye out for the dog he had lost in there and the deer hunters bogged on the edge of one of our local escarpment swamps, into which they had driven to retrieve a carcass.
The latter were very close to a population of very rare plants, which they could have destroyed had they driven a few metres further.
Both these encounters were several years ago, and since then hunters have pushed 4WD tracks up both sides of the swamp in question with no regard for the environmental damage they are causing.
Not long after recreational hunting in state forests was introduced I spoke to a farming family whose land abuts Glenbog State Forest.
They told me hunters had been breaking down their gates, cutting their fences and shooting their cattle and horses since hunting had been permitted.
Judging by the proliferation of "No Trespassing", "No Shooting" and even "For Sale" signs on fences adjoining Glenbog State Forest, they have not been alone in this persecution.
While legalising hunting in NPs will not make trespassing or shooting livestock any more legal than it is now, it will increase the area in which this sort of irresponsible behaviour is likely to occur.
Do we really want to do this?
I appeal to the O'Farrell government to come to its senses and repeal this deeply unpopular piece of legislation.
If it really wishes to have a positive impact on feral animal numbers, it could hand over the $19million this misguided program will cost to NPWS and Forests NSW to implement planned feral animal control programs by professionals.
Our management of feral animals needs a rethink alright, but letting shooters loose in public places is hardly the best solution.
Jackie Miles
Brogo
Strong opposition
Will the legislation to allow amateur hunting in national parks be revoked by the NSW Government as a result of strong opposition from the majority of voters, and will Narooma's Huntfest be cancelled as a consequence of this decision?
One can only hope so for the sake of the town's reputation, the safety of children and adults, and the continued use of national parks as sanctuaries for wildlife.
A Huntfest with no guns (at least for the first year), and nowhere to hunt in a beautiful environment like the South Coast will be as ludicrous as a Pub With No Beer in Mt Isa.
Maybe the Huntfesters will abandon their schemes to encourage killing and simply embark on the tourist promotion aspect of their agenda, even though that is a function more than adequately performed by the nearby tourist bureau.
In the words spoken at the Bega Rally, "throw away the gun and have a lot more fun".
Do you want to protect our wildlife and keep national parks for safe recreation?
Are you opposed to teaching children to kill?
Express your pro-life feelings with a poster on the fence opposite the Narooma Sports and Leisure Centre.
Susan Cruttenden
Dalmeny
Cost-effective system
It is extraordinary that we still are having a debate about mandating RFID tags in sheep.
The NSW DPI and the discipline of NSW sheep cockies has shown that the visual system is a brilliant, cost-effective traceability system.
A modest investment in compliance is all that has been required to meet excellent traceability standards, as shown by the Tuckerbox desktop traceability exercise last year.
It is important that our politicians understand that gold plating the ear tags will not stop foot and mouth disease.
Traceability is important, but in isolation it is almost useless.
We also need biosecurity discipline as well as increased diagnostic and response capacity.
Victoria seems to be obsessed with RFIDs in a desperate attempt to compensate for chronic underinvestment in other areas.
There are many ways that the visual system can be further enhanced and made even cheaper to run.
Recently we have seen some work being done on electronic National Vendor Declaration forms (NVDs).
These could improve compliance and get movement footprints into the database almost immediately.
NVDs provide excellent traceability for most consignments and we have proof of the concept for tracing animals through the abattoir with the visual tags.
It’s time to move on from this debate and invest in ensuring the current system continues to meet excellent traceability standards.
James Jackson (sheepmeat chairman) and Ed Storey (wool chairman)
NSW Farmers Association