Older folks tend to be more concerned about their own interests and fear change. Unless change occurs, in your lifetime the earth will become uninhabitable. We insure our houses and our cars, but no-one seems inclined to insure the planet.

First ensure you are enrolled to vote. Second make sure to cast your vote for whichever party you support. Familiarise yourself with their platforms and policies and vote with your conscience not your pocket.

For those not yet of voting age, according to Australian Electoral Commission, 16 and 17-year-olds can enrol so they are able to vote as soon as they turn 18. I urge you to do this. We get the governments we deserve - so make sure your vote counts.

Just to satisfy my curiosity, my assistant and I drove to Tathra via Berrambool, Mirador and Tura Beach and on the way home via Millingandi bypass to Pambula. As we approached Pambula, we turned into Bald Hills Road, and drove in behind Oaklands. After completing the Oaklands Road circuit, we headed home to Kiah, taking a quick look behind Happy Valley in Eden via Moorhead Street. Virtually every inch of the way, excluding some farmland, we were surrounded by overgrown forests, so built up with debris and unburned leaf litter that truly beggared believing.

This ticking time-bomb of overgrown bush not only encroaches on the highway and streets but on many of the homes and properties that we passed, totally encapsulating many of them and running right to the verges of the roads, making escape and firefighting all but impossible! Trying to escape Berrambool and Mirador would be signing your own death warrant and if by good luck you did, you would most likely burn to death when you hit the main road.

I have asked this question before and I'll now ask it again. What is it going to take to change the mindset, and why are we not heeding the warnings and the lessons we should have already learned? It's time to open our eyes and prepare for the inevitable by at least pre-emptively fireproofing our towns and properties?

Our civic leaders in the Bega Valley Shire Council along with the NPWS and Forestry NSW need to up the ante on prescribed burning and fire and hazard reduction to rid us of the explosive debris that not only surrounds our towns but runs deep into the very heart, before we suffer another Tathra, Kinglake, Ash Wednesday and Black Friday.

It's always great to hear of visitors enjoying our beautiful part of the world. However please don't blame the dedicated and mostly very diligent dog owners of Merimbula for the kangaroo poo left on many of our streets, and particularly in Spencer Park.

Most nights a mob of roos graze and poo to their hearts content on the lush lawn in Spencer Park, and yes it can be hard to navigate, but I'm not sure the kangaroos will change their ways with a plastic bag dispenser and penalties. Dog owners do however support the call for more bag dispensers around town for locals and our many dog visitors.

With the official calling of the federal election date, the Letters to the Editor column will be reserved for readers' and residents' submissions, rather than candidates.

All letters are welcomed, however, in line with our regular policy, we request letter writers choosing to discuss political topics make any party membership or affiliation known in their sign-off. We reserve the right to edit letters for legal or length reasons.