Page 2056 - Week 07 - Thursday, 24 June 2021
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There are also desire lines. I have written to a succession of ministers about this. Desire lines are paths where people like to walk, usually the shortest path between point A and point B. There are a couple of examples where people are walking where there are no paths. This means that there is a lot of degradation of the soil in those areas. There is no grass left; the topsoil gets washed away; it becomes very rocky underneath; nothing is going to grow there for a long time. I have written about having paths built on those desire lines, but I have yet to have that achieved.
A couple of examples specifically come to mind for me. When you come down off the bridge on the Drakeford Drive side of the lake towards the dog park side, people cut the corner. There is a lot of degradation of the slope there. Another one is near the Sea Scouts hall, where there are some barbecues and a little jetty; people often cut that corner. There is a well-worn path. It would be great to make that a more formal path. Again, it gets rutted out and really muddy. Then people walk further out into the grassed area and it makes more and more trouble. Installing additional barbecues, tables and bins is a practical measure that would make the area even more attractive than it already is.
Litter around the lake is something I have raised with a succession of ministers. Members of the public request more bins. Various ministers have come back with a range of reasons why more bins are not possible. That is not what the community are asking for. They hate seeing litter. There are people who actually litter. With any luck, if there were more bins around the lake, some of that litter would end up in a bin rather than around the lake. I must commend a number of locals who pick up litter when they are out and about walking around the lake. That is a great thing to see.
Some recreational facilities for younger people could be provided at Lake Tuggeranong. At Yerrabi Pond they have public graffiti walls. The minister was talking about a street art festival there soon. They have a BMX track, a basketball court, a skate park and a flying fox, which is a bit more than we have around Lake Tuggeranong.
At the very least, I would like to see Tuggeranong residents get the same level of attention for their major recreation area that Yerrabi Pond is getting. Tuggeranong residents often say to me that they feel neglected. ABC radio were recently down in Tuggeranong, and I think that was their headline takeaway from their time down there on 19 May. The headline was “Tuggeranong residents say they’re being left behind as Canberra’s population and infrastructure investment head north”.
This is an opportunity for us to come together—just as we did with Mr Pettersson’s motion for Yerrabi Pond—and say to Tuggeranong residents, “We hear your concerns about Lake Tuggeranong and we will support more infrastructure and a bit more love, care and attention for the area around Lake Tuggeranong, because we acknowledge how important this is for local residents.” I look forward to hearing the views of other members of this place in support of my motion today.
MR STEEL (Murrumbidgee) (3.34): I thank Ms Lawder for bringing forward this motion, which supports Labor’s election commitment to upgrade the Lake
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