Vaccine hard to come by
I have been tracking the availability of COVID-19 vaccinations since the start of phase 1b - indeed I would like to get one. Availability seems to be low in this area.
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One practice agreed to ring me back when they got supplies, but silence so far. Silence so far from Kristy McBain's office also, since I raised the issue with them.
As the Bega hospital quickly established a drive-through testing facility when it was required, why can't a drive-through vaccination facility also be established? As it is, I understand that the only strategy is patience, but it's the the gap between the government rhetoric and the reality that gets me.
Verna Aslin, Cobargo
Fix the Brown
110% in support of Mayor Russell Fitzpatrick. BDN did a great job with its Princes Highway campaign. Now let's do "FIX THE BROWN". How about it?
Jon Gaul, Tura Beach
Past time for new route
Russell Fitzpatrick is right. It is way past time that re-routing of Brown Montain is addressed. My wife, Dr Fiona Kotvojs, the Liberal candidate, made strong presentations on this issue during the general election and recent by-election. Had she been elected she would have applied constant pressure to both state and federal ministers to move on the issue. Whenever I drive on the minor routes by which Brown Mountain can be bypassed, I wonder why such a steep and unstable route was ever chosen. It is perhaps the most direct, but that is of little value when it is closed. Maybe I can, tongue in cheek, suggest that when the giant borers have finished burrowing under Sydney they might come down here and drill up towards Nimmitabel. A straight and weatherproof route to the top, and hence to Canberra, is what the Bega Valley needs to liberate our producers' full potential.
Alan Burdon, Dignams Creek
Tunnel might be the answer
After 32 years negotiating access via Brown Mountain and watching the issues involved, an alternative route is certainly urgent. Given that complex equipment and engineering will be involved in Snowy 2.0, as well as its connections via Gippsland to the Sapphire Coast, it seems a tunnel might be the answer. The Great Dividing Range runs parallel with its valleys. The few options taken on for East-West are always under fire for one thing or another. Tunnel access for floods and fires should, perhaps, be mandatory if regional development is to be expanded for coastline communities.
Nanette Kennedy, Tura Beach
Burning regrowth is reckless
While well meaning, concerns about threats to koalas due to native forest logging (BDN, 23/3) are not relevant to the Bega and Eurobodalla shires. There are no known koalas in areas available for logging in state forests. Similarly there are no recent records of koalas on private land apart from a female a with foot injury, consistent with damage inflicted from a soft jawed trap, and her joey, initially reported at Cuttagee last year.
The major threat to koalas, acknowledged by the NSW Scientific committee in 2007 is eucalyptus dieback. In 2018 the NSW Scientific committee accepted the evidence indicating dieback is a result of reduced fertility due to soil erosion and dispersion.
So if you wanted to get rid of the last few koalas all that is required is management that reduces soil fertility. This is what the NPWS do and have planned in several hundred hectares of unburnt forest with koalas in the Murrah flora reserves and Mimosa Rocks NP. Broad acre burning these regrowth forests is most likely to burn koalas, ignores the process of forest succession, will further reduce soil fertility and is therefore both an immediate and long term threat to these endangered koalas.
Very careful management is required if koalas are to survive. Leaving aside probable legal ramifications, the NPWS's planned threat can only be seen as reckless and irresponsible. Supporting the planned burning is the Rural Fire Service, even though burning these forests will permanently increase the threat of less controllable fires.
Robert Bertram, Bermagui
Shame thrives in silence
I was disappointed my health didn't allow me to travel to Canberra for the recent "March 4 Justice" at Parliament House, but I was uplifted to be marching among our Valley women closer to home.
When a person in a public space opens themselves emotionally, making herself vulnerable, this gives permission for others to do so. It gives support to delve deeper into emotionally painful pockets that often get glossed over in our everyday living. This is what happened at the Bega march.
Around 15-20 women stepped up to the microphone in Littleton Gardens to make our voices heard. Each woman touched on a vital point. One mentioned that if you've been a victim of molestation, the past three weeks of media coverage might have been triggering for you. Another advised we need to be clear in choosing political representatives that stand for our values. That women of colour bear a double brunt of racism and sexism. A young mother with a baby boy on her hip stepped up to speak of hope and determination for his life ahead.
At this point I noticed many women in the crowd shifting their positions, straightening and it seemed to me they were growing taller. Sincere thanks were given to the men and boys that were present acting as allies.
The intimacy in that public park was powerful, palpable yet soft and still. We held the pain, the vulnerability and courage all at once, And we made that happen by coming together and baring these truths. Shame thrives in silence and isolation. We women called it out that day. We connected, raised our voices and chanted, "Enough is enough!"