I thank the community members and businesses that have donated many thousands of dollars to fund professional assistance with opposing the development.  I thank all our councillors who listened to the community and unanimously voted to oppose the development. Thanks to state Member for Bega Andrew Constance and Labor candidate Leanne Atkinson who both publicly oppose the development. Thanks to our federal Member for Eden-Monaro Mike Kelly who also publicly opposes the development.   

On Wednesday, August 29, the State Joint Regional Planning Panel has a public meeting at noon in the Bega Civic Centre to hear if our community wants the largest flying school in Australia in the beautiful Bega Valley.  Please come and show your opposition to this development that will destroy the beautiful rural lifestyle we all so enjoy.

This is our last chance as a community to stop this horribly intrusive development happening.

At the upcoming Frogs Hollow Flight Training School meeting  on August 29 the developers must present their case first then the residents can respond accordingly.

I have been a party to many DA council meetings where only a couple of residents were allowed to speak in a very limited timeframe. Then while they were speaking the developer’s professional script writers frantically work to try to blow holes in everything residents said. Residents were not then given the right of reply.

At one meeting I rose to object to something a developer said and was told I couldn’t speak. That was a big mistake on both the council and developer’s part. I spoke for 20 minutes anyway and the residents backed everything I said and the developer was denied their DA.

Something that puzzles me is aside from those with an interest in the flight school I have not seen one article from a resident who wants it.

We also only tend to remember what the last presenter said which is another reason for the residents to speak last.

Imagine the magic we could bring to our beautiful native forests if each state forest could be given well-paid and well-qualified protectors drawing on the knowledge and practice of traditional owners who cared for this land before colonisation.  Their knowledge is not lost; their knowledge lies in the land – they know it still.  

Each of the 75 or so state forests in the southern region could be managed according to its needs and attributes.  Managed to deal with the awful way they have been left and for eradication of pests and weeds.  Managed for the way they could yet be again – places of beauty, biodiversity, with blossoming eucalypt canopies and moist forest floors; habitat for threatened and vulnerable forest species such as koalas, gliders, and owls; a welcome safe haven for migrating parrots; and secret places for lizards, ants, fungi and bacteria.  

How much easier would it be to manage fire if canopies were left intact. What a wonderland of excitement could be generated if we set our sights on returning our forests to their natural state and planting even more. What an economic boost could be made from tourists coming to see these places of richness and beauty.  How proud would this make our nation!  

It would take decades of clever work but we need to stop pussy-footing around and get on with the job – 100s of jobs in fact.