Page 617 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 20 May 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
I also go back to the sense of history, to the sense of heritage that is very important in every region of Canberra. During the election campaign many people spoke about green spaces; they spoke about the unique green space adjacent to their houses, down the road, where they take their children to play. In the Red Hill area that unique green space is Red Hill, where Charlie Russell has his cows, and our unique green space is even more unique. If you go up on any Saturday or Sunday you will see many mothers or fathers, with their young children, going up to have a look at the cows and the calves. You will see that that area is substantially more important than many other areas, both from the nature study perspective and also from the green space perspective.
In this case we are not talking about building on it; we are not talking about infill; we are not talking about more students for our schools; we are not talking about better usage of facilities. We are talking about a piece of land that has been grazed for a very long time. It is important to our children. The children from the local schools regularly walk up there with their teachers to have a look, particularly in calving season.
Mr Wood: But they cannot plant trees. They want to plant trees.
MRS CARNELL: When the teachers from the local primary schools want to have a look at trees, at the natural heritage of our area, they take them on the Mount Mugga nature walks and so on. There are different needs for different times. I know that my children very much enjoy those walks up through Red Hill to have a look at Charlie's cows. Regularly, Charlie makes himself available to speak to the children and to tell them about the grazing heritage of this area, to tell them about the cows, to tell them about what Canberra was like before they were here and before most of us were here. I think that those talks that Charlie has given regularly, and continues to give regularly, to the children are very much a part of our heritage.
Comments were made by both Mr Humphries and Mr Wood on the bushfire problem. As everybody is very well aware, the Red Hill area does run right down to residential parts of the suburb of Red Hill. The bushfire risk is very real to those people and I know that, to a man and a woman and a child, those people with adjacent residential properties want the cows retained. But it is not only bushfires. There are other undesirable things that would happen on Red Hill if the cows were not there, like trail bike riding. If we think that daisies have problems with cows, I can promise you that trail bikes will be substantially worse. It is a problem already; but, of course, they get a little bit concerned about cows.
Ms Follett: They are not allowed up there, are they?
MRS CARNELL: They are not allowed up there, but Charlie spends a very large percentage of his time each week in shooing them off.
Mr Connolly: Yes, they all come down to the bottom end of Narrabundah and do it around my place.
MRS CARNELL: But they are allowed down there. I think the environmental issues are very important. It is very important to keep some areas that are natural, that do not have cows, that have our natural flora and fauna; but it is equally as important to keep the grazing heritage that is as much a heritage of this area and surrounding areas in Canberra.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .