canberrabirds

Lack of any life in the suburbs

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Subject: Lack of any life in the suburbs
From: "tom green" <>
Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2006 18:37:09 +1100
I went to a lunchtime seminar at CSIRO Discovery today.
It was MOST disappointing.
The theme was to be "Communities at the bush/urban interface" and the focus was to be on the problems likely to develop around Mulligans and Garooyaroo as the new suburbs go in.
Most speakers just trotted out a tired list of their organisation's achievements and were bereft of any useful ideas for the future.
Apart from the organisers and speakers I counted just 4 members of the public attending.
I felt very sorry for Jenny and Chris, It must be disheartenig to have to prepare a talk for such a tiny audience.
We do need to do more to protect the natural values of Mulligans Flat and to involve the Gungahlin people in the protection of their reserve but we did not advance that cause today.
 
We need to get out of the CSIRO "ivory tower". Hold the next meeting in the local primary school (good idea Chris!).
We need to put forward proposals that the locals can own. I'm sorry but no-one moving into a bare dusty block in Forde is going to give a damn about Chilean Lovegrass. Let's talk about low impact recreational activities and attracting birds to the garden. Let's talk about community tree planting in Garooyaroo to those poor people who will never be able to grow one in their tiny backyard.
Let's get positive. Too much of what I heard today sounded like "us" wanting to keep "them" in their place.
 
Tom Green
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