Greens to preselect candidate for Richmond

 

I see from ABC North Coast that Mullumbimby  based comedian Mandy Nolan has announced she will be running for preselection as the Greens' candidate for the federal seat of Richmond. The map shows the current boundaries of the seat.

My eye was caught by the announcement in part because I had just written a refection piece triggered by two recent deaths, Reflections on the passage of time - deaths of Mungo MacCallum and Doug Anthony.  Journalist Mungo MacCallum moved to Ocean Shores in the electorate, while Doug Anthony was the former member for Richmond. 

The last part of the introductory course I have been running on the history of the broader New England includes an analysis of the demographic and cultural changes that took place over the last decades of the twentieth century. This included the rise of the counter culture and environmental movements and the sea change population surge to the North Coast. 

The political changes that have taken place in Richmond are part of this process. A once safe Country Party (now National Party) seat was taken by Labor. Labor member Justine Elliot who has held the seat since 2004 now faces a growing challenge from the Greens. 

The graph below shows the progressive decline in the coalition vote since 1983, along with the rise in the Green vote. The Labor vote has bounced around, but has also been reduced by the rise of the Greens. Green preferences have been important in maintaining Labor in power. 

To win the seat, the Greens really need to get in front of Labor. If they can do that, then Labor preferences will carry them to power. At the moment, I doubt that they can do that. 

   

New England aviation - Rex faces problems on the North Coast

One side-effect of the downturn in posting here is that I stopped reporting on New England aviation matters. I am not going to catch up in one hit, but a brief update on Regional Express' (Rex's) North Coast problems.

In Taree, conflict between Rex and the Council led to the termination of the service and Rex's replacement by Fly Pelican. I think that Newcastle based Fly Pelican is now the only remaining New England headquartered scheduled airline. This story by the Manning River Times Ainslee Dennis will provide you with some of the background.

Further north at Grafton there is a dispute, well a discussion at least, between council and Rex on the future of the Sydney-Grafton service.  The Clarence Valley News' Geoff Helisma has the story.

It's hard to believe that Grafton was once New England's second largest commercial centre challenging Maitland for primacy. Grafton's decline was due to many things, some local and cultural, some locational, some sheer bad luck. Now the relatively small population of Grafton and the Clarence Valley makes the maintenance of air services difficult.

One feature of the Grafton discussion that interested me was the concept of community airfares. I would like to address this later for it provides a possible path to improve the viability (and cost) of local air services. Meantime, the Council seems to to be making things as difficult as possible, accepting that (as appears to be the case at Taree) Rex is not especially subtle in negotiation.  

Discovering Kempsey's Dunghutti-Ngaku Aboriginal Art Gallery

I know New England quite well, but am constantly discovering new things. For example, I hadn't discovered the Dunghutti-Ngaku Aboriginal Art Gallery  (DNAAG). The Gallery is housed in an annex of the Kempsey Visitor Information Centre designed by internationally renowned architect Glen Murcutt

This work, Brolga Chorus 1 is by Gumbaynggirr woman Alison Williams. While born in Sydney in 1968, Alison has obviously retained her North Coast connections.

Do have a browse of the Gallery's site. There are some very nice pieces there My thanks to Regional Arts NSW (@RegionalArtsNSW) for introducing me to the Gallery.

Moving images from New England's past

This one came via the We Love South Grafton Facebook page. It was posted to YouTube by wayne hope. He describes it in this way.

Historic footage taken from feature films, documentaries, newsreels & home movies from the 1920's to the 1970's. It mainly shows people going about their daily lives. Also some of the towns festivals & street parades. Included are the NSW towns of Grafton, Inverell, Coffs Harbour, Yamba, Moree, Tenterfield, Angourie, Casino, Lismore, Coutts Crossing, Glenn Innes & Maclean. The video is divided into 6 separate decades, starting from the 1920's thru to the 1970's. 1920's begins at 1 minute. 1930's at 25 minutes. 1940's at 41 minutes 50 sec. 1950's at 51 minutes 40sec. 1960's at 1hr 2min 25sec. 1970's at 1hr 12min 10sec.

As you can see, it is quite long. However, it does provide some vivid images, slices, of daily life in parts of the North over time. Do have a browse.

A Robinson service car on the Dorrigo mountain road

This photograph comes from the Bellingen and Urunga Museums. It shows the Robinson service car going down the Dorrigo mountain.

It is historically significant for two reasons.

First, it shows the state of that mountain road in the early days of motor transport. Prior to that bullock drays crawled down that stretch.

Secondly, it is another example of the transport services offered by the Robinsons, an entrepreneurial New England family who had so much impact on New England transport and well beyond.  

Belshaw’s World – memories of a Port Macquarie far past.

Most children growing up in inland New England had vivid memories of the places on the sea coast where their parents used to take them for holidays. Many camped, others stayed in little holiday homes or small blocks of flats. Some were lucky enough to have parents who actually owned their own holiday home.

New England has a big coastline. The places varied depending on proximity, where friends went and, in some cases, just the need for variety. Some went to Port Macquarie, some to Urunga or Coffs Habour, some to Byron Bay, some into nearby Queensland to the Gold Coast.

To many of those coastal centres, the tourist trade from the inland was a central source of income. To some it still is, although population shifts mean that many inland centers now seek to attract tourist from the coast instead of seeing the coast as their own playgrounds.

One year, we went to Port Macquarie for our holiday. I remember the trip clearly because while we were away Rover, our Red Kelpie pet who was boarding on an Aunt and Uncle’s property, was bitten by a black snake and died. Rover was an energetic and inquisitive dog, not really suited to a town environment. Very few Kelpies are.

Traveling to Port Macquarie was unusual for us because it was just so far away. Well, at least it seemed that way. To get there, we drove south from Armidale where we were living to Uralla and then turned south east to Walcha. From Walcha, we veered further east and then plunged down the Great Dividing Range along the Oxley Highway.

None of the roads to the coast were then sealed. The road to Port passed through absolutely beautiful country, but was narrow, winding and dusty. The big timber jinkers carrying huge logs to the mills were a constant problem, for it was hard to get past.

Port Macquarie was then a small sleepy coastal settlement, far removed from today’s large tourist centre. The scale difference is actually astonishing. At the time I am talking about, Armidale’s population was perhaps three times that of Port. Today, Port’s population is twice that of Armidale.

At Port, we played and swam on the small local beaches. I learned of Rover’s death on one of those beaches, so it stands out in my mind.

I was reminded of all this by a book I have been reading, Annabella Boswell’s Journal (Angus & Robertson 1965, reprinted 1981). Before going on, I need to give you a little history.

Port Macquarie was founded in 1821 as a penal settlement. In 1830 Major Archibald Clunes Innes (1800-1857) became police magistrate at Port Macquarie and was granted 2568 acres (1039 ha) and contracts to supply the convict population with food. Working with convict labour, he transformed the wilderness into the fabled Lake Innes, the greatest pastoral property north of Sydney. There he built a grand home. From this point he built a web of pastoral interests. The town of Glen Innes is named after him.

Annabella was his niece. In 1839, her father took the family to stay at Lake Innes, hoping to improve his health. That hope was to be unsuccessful, for he died a few years later. Annabella loved the life at Lake Innes and recorded it all faithfully in her diary, republishing it all in later books.

The result is actually very Jane Austen, a story of domestic life and manners of an upper class NSW country family in a still relatively new colony. We have dear mamma, our dear uncle, the gentlemen callers, the first NSW election campaign in which the women gathered to make favours, the piper and the dances.

The last part of the book records the decline of Port Macquarie as families leave for other climes. It also contains references to her uncle’s growing problems. The end result is not clear to Annabella, for these things happen slowly. Finally, Lake Innes can no longer be maintained.

Today, Lake Innes and all its surrounds have been recaptured by bush, the house itself finally destroyed by fire. The tracks that the gentlemen and ladies of the house used to ride along to the beach or Port no longer exist. Yet the memory lingers quite intensely in Annabella’s writing. We can see the flowers, the gardens, the people, the lifestyle, memories that would stay with Annabella for the rest of her life.

Note to readers: Belshaw's World began as  a column in the Armidale Express. I have resumed writing the column because I  enjoy it. You can see all the Belshaw World  columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013

New England's hippy country

Mark's Clarence Valley Today continues as a superb photo blog about life in Northern New South Wales, the broader New England that I write about. The Northern Rivers are partially hippy country. This bus is an example. 

Bike riders on a mountain road

Sunday 16 September 2012. Nowendoc-Gloucester Road.

On my way back from Sydney, I stopped at the lookout at the start of the run down into the Upper Hastings Valley below. There are some rather good views.

Now I had noticed before that the mountain road down to the coastal strip had constant motor bike signs. I also noticed the road bikes themselves. Sometimes, they outnumbered the cars and trucks.

At the lookout, every notice on the notice board was bike related. This is an example of one sign. 

After driving down the mountain, I stopped at Barrington for a coffee. I always stop here when travelling alone. There I found another set of bikes.

You see dirt bikes all the time on this road. Sometimes driven, sometimes on the back of cars or on trailers, they are heading for the excitement of wild country driving in the New England escarpments to the west.

Sitting listening to the conversation at this cafe among a group of dirt or mountain bike riders, I wondered how they get on with the road bike riders. They are two very different worlds.

I would like to have stayed and introduced myself, but time was pressing. Grabbing the remnants of my chips, I drove on.      

Grafton to Inverell cycling classic turns 51

One of Australia's oldest road races is the Grafton to Inverell Cycling Classic has just turned 51. Clarence Valley Today was there to record the start.  

This is a pretty but rugged race that crawls up the escarpment from Grafton, runs across the New England Tablelands and then down to Inverell. Mark's posts are:

• Grafton to Inverell Cycle Classic 2011
• The Race of Life Must Go On

Grafton's Gate to Plate

Just a short post today.

With 320 guests, 10 courses and matching wines from the Granite Belt served over 4 hours, Grafton's Gate to Plate is, to quote Mark, a gastronomic marathon celebrated in the historic 'Barn'.

You will find Mark's photos of the event here:

• The Barn - Tin Temple of Good Times
• Gate to Plate
• Gate to Plate: The Seafood Courses
• Gate to Plate: Behind the Scenes

I really would love to have gone. I feel quite envious!

Kempsey worries about its flood levies

I have written two stories on floods in Kempsey, both connected with the 1949 disaster - Belshaw's World - Kempsey disaster – six killed, huge damage, Aeradio and the 1949 Kempsey Floods. Now I see from the Macleay Argus that Kempsey Mayor John Bowell is worried about the state of the levees protecting the town.

One on the features of New England rivers is their quick rise with heavy rainfall. Quiet streams can quickly go to rampaging torrents.

I do wonder whether or not we need new approaches to flood mitigation. It's not an area I am expert in. I do know that in the 1950s there was a coordinated approach to the topic centred on dams and levies. The approach now seems to have become much more reactive. In fact, we seem to be struggling to maintain the work previously done.

I am not saying that we should build more dams, although that may be sensible in some case. I am just wondering how we get a better approach. 

Manning River Winter festival 2012 dates set

There is already a Manning River Summer Festival. Now I see from the Manning River Times that there is a Winter Festival as well.

Next year's Festival will be held over a four day period, June 7-10, 2012.

Sixty-four organisations have been approached and the organising committee is awaiting responses from them.

Roger Woodward, world renowned concert pianist, will appear in an afternoon concert at the Manning Entertainment Centre on Sunday June 10, on the new grand piano.

Other events already scheduled are: the art awards at Manning Regional Gallery, combined choirs concert, artists walk and art gallery exhibition, possible dance or ball and the Melbourne Comedy Festival.

Should your organisation wish to be involved in the program next year, contact president Mike Collins (02) 6553 6659 or  Don Macinnis (02) 6552 3080. There doesn't appear to be a web site at this point.

Memories from a Glenreagh past

I found this rather wonderful history video via the Glenreagh community blog. 

For those who don't know where the village is, it is the south western gateway to the Clarence Valley, a half hour drive along the Orara Way from Grafton (in the north) and Coffs Harbour (to the south east), through the picturesque Orara Valley. From Armidale, we would drive down through Dorrigo.

I do recommend it to you. It's fun.

Two flocks

Two days since I posted!

I am still working on the next in my re-imagining Newcastle series. in the meantime, a photo from Mark.

This photo shows the Anglican Church of OBX Creek on the old and historic Glen Innes - Grafton road. 

This is a dual purpose building. The human flock gathered in the front, while the rear of the building provides shelter for the animal flock. 

A great Clarence Valley photo blog

In memory of Grafton beer drew a companion post, The Beer That Made Grafton Famous from Mark Bellamy.

It would be unfair to steal Mark's thunder by repeating the photo. Instead, have a look.

Mark really has a great Clarence River Valley photo blog.

While I won't  repeat the Grafton beer photo, I will show this shot 

It shows the last remnant of the once extensive Poplar tree forests that serviced the Federal Match Co in North Grafton.

I really was pleased to find Mark's blog because it provides another building block showing the visual texture of life in New England today.

Implications for New England from health reforms

I have just finished a post on my personal blog, Unpacking the Rudd Government health care changes. I wrote it to try to clarify my own thinking.

One of the problems for New England from the changes is just what the changes might mean at local level. This is quite complicated, but I think that locals need to watch this like a hawk. I thought that I might tease this out a little, taking Bellingen Hospital as a case study.

By way of background for those who don't know Bellingen, the services at the local hospital have been cut back. The fight now lies in the best way of recovering some of them, preventing further erosion.

The new health care approach provides for direct funding to local hospital networks. Generally, this will be on an activity basis - a specified price paid for a particular type of service delivered. The more services, the more paid. However, there is provision for bulk funding for regional/rural hospitals in some cases that might otherwise be disadvantaged under the arrangements.

In addition to these changes, the Commonwealth is taking over full responsibility for primary health care and for aged services.

Now what might this mean for Bellingen and the surrounding area? Well, based on my experience we can put forward some tentative conclusions:

1. The decline in services offered at Bellingen hospital means a decline in the potential revenue from activity based funding.
2. The ability of a hospital network to access bulk funding depends upon the way the network is defined. A network that includes a relatively large base hospital such a Coffs is less likely to receive bulk funding, more likely to be on a fee for service basis. This applies across the whole network. In this event, the capacity of smaller hospitals to get any extra cash will be reduced because it means taking cash away from bigger hospitals who have "earned" that cash from bigger volumes of services.
3. This adds to the urgency for Bellingen Hospital to re-build its service offerings in advance of any move to the new arrangements. It's now become an absolutely time critical issue.
4. The issue of just what local hospital network and the boundaries of that network Bellingen might belong to also becomes quite critical.
5. Given that the existing area health services are to be abolished, this will affect their planning and willingness to do new things. I do not mean this in any way as a criticism. It's just going to add to inertia.

Death of Patricia Wrightson

A grateful Hat tip to North Coast Voices on this one.

I did not know until I read Vale Patricia Wrightson that New England writer Patricia Wrightson had died.

Oddly, I was talking about her last week with Professor John Ryan as we walked together through the Armidale autumn sun. This must have been about or soon after the time she died. John was telling me stories about her and her work, and wanted to show me some material on her in the Dixon Library.

I hope that there will be some good obituaries. I have far outrun my capacity to properly record the passing of time and the deaths that result.     

The truth about the Yamba "riots"

Congratulations to Patricia Laurie, The Grafton Daily Examiner and North Coast Voices on this one. Patricia Laurie for putting things in perspective, the Examiner for running the story, North Coast Voices for promoting the truth more widely.

I little while ago I noticed a story in the Sydney about an outbreak of trouble at Yamba. It caught my eye because Yamba has always been a favourite spot for part of my family. Just to add visual interest, this is a shot of Aunt Kay and cousin Jamie at Yamba, 1961.

As is the way with the Sydney media, the story was somewhat sensationalised.  Now Patricia has provided a context.

Some years ago, there was a much bigger outbreak of trouble in Armidale's main street. My thought at the time was thank heavens this wasn't spotted by the Sydney press. Restrained local reporting allowed the matter to be worked through outside the type of sensationalised glare that comes from big city reporting.

And, for the benefit of non New England readers, you are actually far safer in Yamba than you would at the better known Bondi Beach in Sydney. It's not that Bondi is unsafe, just that when you have large numbers of people incidents are more likely to happen.

For those that want to know more, you will find the North Coast Voices post here.   

Round the New England blogging traps 11 - Tablelands and coast

Congratulations to Bronwyn Parry on signing a contract for two new books. Well deserved. I complained in A fit of depression about my own slow progress in writing. Bronwyn has the good fortune now to work full time as a writer. That remains my dream.

While not a New England blogger, Kanani Fong had an interesting post on writing, Writing The Path.

With partner Gordon of lookANDsee fame, Bronwyn recorded a recent excursion into the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park in Top Creek & Macleay River trip.

For those who do not know the Park, it is one of those dotting the New England Tableland's eastern escarpment.

It appears that once Bronwyn has finished the current Dungirri series - this is set in New England's Western Plains - her new book is likely to feature this country.

After a long posting delay, Peter Firminger's Wollombi Valley has posted again with A Fair Go for the Hunter Community Coalition.  The post begins:

A Fair Go for the Hunter Community Coalition consists of community groups whose objective is to halt the wave of bad planning by this NSW Government in order to get the best results for the Hunter community.

The new group will be launched on 8 October 2009 at the Newcastle Leagues Club. You can find the details in the post. I wish the new group well.

We have far too few locality blogs. I have argued for a long time that blogging is one way for individual areas to promote themselves. For that reason I was very glad to see a new post from Peter.

Sticking to locality or area blogs, North Coast Voices continues its mix of local and political. I tend to turn off the political commentary, I get enough of that anyway. However, to those of a different political persuasion from NCV, the blog is really worth while reading for its local content. K Roo's post, Calf confusion or why the little bull loves fence posts, is really very funny. I won't give the story away. just read it.

On the purely political, Clarence Girl's post Shame Rudd Shame: government gets a fail on pension increase was just so wrong on public policy grounds that it deserves a full reply. I know where she is coming from, I understand her motivations, but while I am in complete sympathy I think that we need to look objectively at the issues raised by the decision she refers to.

This post is a blog review: I will respond in another post that focuses just on the public policy issues.

Staying with NCV and indeed with Clarence Girl, Lowdown on the Joint Regional Planning Committee for the NSW North Coast deals with a very important issue, the Sydney Government's approach to planning and to the approval of developments. Two joint planning committees affect New England; one covers the Hunter, a second the rest of the North.

I am not close enough to the politics and public policy issues on this one to have a view beyond the common suspicion that pretty much everybody has about just about anything coming out of Macquarie Street at the present time. It's something that I really need to look at because CG, rightly, highlights its importance.

Staying on the North Coast, LYNNE SANDERS-BRAITHWAITE turns sixty this month and is planning a public party for Friday night 16 October at the South Grafton Emporium. Lynne wrote:

Call  02 6643 3524 to book a table if you would like to join us. Izzy and friends will provide the music , Peter Freeman the food and Annie Dodd, the Lady of the Emporium, has created a community atmosphere that is hard to resist. In fact – Don’t Resist it.

Happy birthday Lynne. I would love to go to actually meet you both; after this time, I feel that I know you both quite well!

Lynne's post MONDAY IN SEPTEMBER is all about Festivals. This photo shows Izzi with Mereki and Robyn.  Robyn owns Shellbound, one of the four indigenous businesses involved in this year's Wide River's Festival.

Lynne notes that Robin Bryant's JTD Merchandise is providing an umbrella for the four businesses involved. Looking at Robin's web site, I see that 5% of all merchandise sold goes to support the Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-Operative. 

As it happens, I have been meaning for a while to write a little bit about Muurrbray as part of the story of the Aboriginal Language Revival Movement in New England.

The Clarence River marks the dividing line between two very large Aboriginal language groups.

To the north, the Bundjalung language with its various dialects was spoken in a huge sweep of territory north along the coast into what is now Southern Queensland and west onto the Tablelands. To the south, Gumbaynggirr was spoken down to and including the Nambucca Valley. It, too, extended onto the Tablelands essentially following the headwaters of the Nymboida. Like Bundjalung, Gumbaynggir had a number of dialects, including Baanbay on the Tablelands around Guyra.

Yaygirr, the language spoken at the mouth of the Clarence, was a Gumbaynggirric language, but sufficiently different to be classified as a language in its own right.               

    The Language Revival Movement began in the 1980s as a way of recovering languages that had either died or were in danger of extinction. Muurrbay played a key role on the coast, while there was a similar movement in the west concerned with the revival of Kamilaroi.

I really got side-tracked on this post digging around for supporting material. There are so many other things that I meant to write about, but these will have to wait until my next meander around the New England blogging traps.

The different textures of New England - Ulmarra

I do so love the very different textures of New England. Most people miss these because so many just drive through on the main highways. 

The Clarence River tourism people describe Ulmarra on the Clarence as one of the best preserved 19th century river ports in Australia. I think that they are right. I first visited Ulmarra when I was staying at Maclean, stops that I described in Distant memories of a now vanished North Coast - Ministering to Maclean.

Today Lynne Sanders-Briathwaite has moved to Ulmarra and has been describing her experiences in her blog. So small is the town that its Wikipedia entry is but a stub. 

This photo by Lynne shows Ulmarra's mains street. Hard to believe that this quiet scene was once the location of fierce commercial rivalry as rival merchants from different places fought it out.

I haven't had time to check the details, but if my memory serves me correctly, the Edward Ogilvie that I described in Saturday Morning Musings - New England's Ogilvie dynasty was one participant in these battles.