Page 1587 - Week 05 - Thursday, 8 May 2008
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officials provided detailed information on the park and the input to the plan of management over an eight-hour period. Rangers Brett McNamara and Bernard Morris and senior planner Trish Bootes provided the committee with an extra vehicle, at the request of Mrs Dunne, so that she could bring one of her children along, it being school holidays. Mr Speaker, it is not a bad idea. I am fully supportive of providing child support wherever we can in the workplace. But Mrs Dunne could not make it. Once again she was AWOL from the committee meeting. No explanation was provided, but we did see in the paper the next day that she was able to attend Mr Seselja’s policy launch on stamp duty that night.
Coming back to Namadgi, the visit was a fantastic opportunity for the committee to see and hear in detail some of the issues that the consultation process gave rise to. We began by travelling up Brindabella Road to Piccadilly Circus and turning up onto Mount Franklin Road.
Mrs Dunne: I take a point of order as to relevance, Mr Speaker. This motion is about the publication of the revised draft management plan. It is specifically about the publication and in the time that Mr Gentleman has spoken he has not spoken about the publication of the report.
MR GENTLEMAN: On the point of order, Mr Speaker—
MR SPEAKER: Mrs Dunne, you consistently referred to the work of the committee, and I think Mr Gentleman is entitled to refer to it as well.
MR GENTLEMAN: As I was saying, it was a fantastic opportunity for the committee to see and hear in detail some of the issues raised in the consultation process. We began, as I said, by travelling up Brindabella Road to Piccadilly Circus and turning up onto Mount Franklin Road. As we approached Bull’s Head we learnt of the history of this area, the direct impact of the 2003 fires and issues relating to the park’s location alongside the New South Wales border.
We witnessed first hand the difference between the regrowth of mountain ash and eucalypt—epicormal growth versus seed generation. It was outstanding to see that this mountain ash has now grown to a full one metre since the bushfires. Did Mrs Dunne see this? No, Mr Speaker; she was absent. From Bull’s Head we travelled further along the ridge and made a stop at Mount Franklin. We had a wonderful opportunity to see the historic site and learn of the work done by the ACT government after the bushfires in 2003. Members may be interested to know that a new visitors centre has been constructed just a little distance from where the historic chalet once stood.
We learnt of the loss that occurred during the fires, but also of the wonderful work of ACT rangers, volunteers and planning and architectural students at the site. We heard of the foresight of Brett McNamara in collecting some of the historical artefacts from the chalet just before the fires came through. Unfortunately, while he was fighting the fires he lost his own house during that time. Most of the committee heard the story; Mrs Dunne was absent.
From Mount Franklin we travelled along the fire trail towards Pryors Hut, passing Stockyard Spur. We heard of the issues regarding greater access to fire trails and
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