This is not a highway. It is a magnificent stretch of forest, creek and estuary crossings made more enjoyable by the wooden bridges. Cuttagee bridge is described in brochures as "iconic", used for promotions and made famous by the film "The Man Who Sued God".

The bridges slow the traffic; waiting at the give way side of the bridge to wave thanks to the waiting vehicle is part of the experience of this wonderful meandering piece of road.

Replacing these bridges with concrete dual carriageways will completely alter this beautiful coastal road, with cars speeding across these waterways; especially Cuttagee Bridge where children are swimming will be dangerous and destroy this crossing.

If trucks and caravans need a fast route they can use the Princes Highway.

Around the world historic bridges are valued and preserved - eg the timber Bridges of Madison County and small one lane bridges all over Europe. This coastal road could be promoted as the South Coast Historic wooden bridges road.

The millions available to build new bridges could be spent on maintaining these wonderful historic bridges.

In an article published on March 16, SERCA spokesperson Harriett Swift made a number of statements opposing a resumption of native forest harvesting in small areas of the 191,000 hectares burnt by the Border Fire in January 2020.

Ms Swift claimed, among other things, "Scientific advice tells us that any burnt forests which are now logged will take possibly 200 years to recover, if ever." "Any bushfire survivors among these species will have no hope if this logging goes ahead," Ms Swift said.

After the December 1972 fires south of Eden, salvage started in Nadgee State Forest soon after the fires were extinguished and continued for over four years. In 1980, these salvaged areas were burnt again.

Some salvage and twice burnt areas of state forest were added to Nadgee Nature Reserve in January 1997 and these areas became part of the 18,880 hectare Nadgee Wilderness. The Nadgee Nature Reserve Management Plan tells us "Wilderness areas are declared under the Wilderness Act 1987. They are large natural areas of land that, together with their native plant and animal communities, are essentially unchanged by human activity."

If what Ms Swift has stated about post fire and harvesting recovery taking possibly 200 years, why have southern brown bandicoots and many other threatened species been able to repopulate the regrowth forests within a decade or two, rather than a century or two? Why would government agencies designate areas of former state forest as wilderness, less than 25 years after salvage was undertaken?

Councillor Robyn Bain's amendment to BVSC staff recommendations for changing the name of Ben Boyd NP is simply another nod of approval to our grievous colonial history. Ben Boyd was a slave trader and treated Aboriginal people deplorably. Robyn Bain knows this yet flatly refuses to acknowledge these terrible events for her own party political reasons.

Dog whistling to the white blindfold mob of massacre deniers and those who wish to ignore the atrocities of the colonial history of our coast is simply adding to the trauma and injury of the original custodians of the Yuin Nation.