LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Land use

THERE is a considerable interest in the efforts of Paul Ryan of Olive Vale Station in the successful harvesting of a trial agricultural planting of 150 hectares near Laura on the Cape York Peninsular.

Of course, one successful crop does not necessarily mean that agriculture so far up north without irrigation is sustainable. Only successive crops in coming seasons can prove or disprove this assumption.

This land was the subject of a very controversial land clearing approval by the Campbell Newman Government during its final days. This was well documented by TV and condemned absolutely by environmentalists as nothing less than rape of nature in a pristine area, a condemnation largely unanswered at the time.

However, this land has now produced an agricultural crop and has resulted in relatively substantial employment of indigenous people living in this area. Moreover, if this experiment proves to be viable in the long run, the consequences will be huge. There will be extreme and unanswerable pressure to clear this land opening it up for agriculture.

The world needs more food and when it can be grown successfully especially close to the Asian Continent, it is an absolute requirement that this area be open to agriculture provided it is proved fertile. It will also be a great source of employment for the local indigenous people. It fits in perfectly with the Federal Government’s insistence that the north should be developed. Where the State Government stands has been kept very quiet as it is a great source of possible employment in an electorate they must win yet they tried unsuccessfully to stop the clearing of the site.

The only logical objection is the loss of habitat of the local wild life. It is sad but true that food for humans comes first. There is a wonderful way for anyone who is reasonably fit to counter this loss.

Before the coming of the Europeans our escarpment was a wonderful source of native animals to feed the indigenous inhabitants. It has now few native animals as it is largely overgrown with lantana and other noxious weeds. Join the Friends of the Escarpment tackling this problem and prove who is a true lover of the environment.

Bypass name

REGARDING (TC, 2/8) “Bypass name debate” item and in response to previous suggestions for naming the “Toowoomba Second Range Crossing”; Toowoomba local business owners, not wanting potential trade to “pass by” their establishments, originally (c. 1990s) objected to references to that project, prior to its completion and final naming, as a “bypass”, preferring “Toowoomba Second Range Crossing” (TSRC).

In deed, more than 20 years ago the front page of The Chronicle (29/4/1995) reported a Northern Action Group spokesman observed “the government was still confused over whether it was building a bypass or an access road”. NAG also suggested the new highway cross the range north of 7 Signals Regiment, Cabarlah. That proposal was quickly dismissed by Queensland Transport.

Some recent suggestions for the new highway name are worthy of consideration.

However, I am still of the same opinion as Mark Copeland (TC, 17/5/16 and TC, 31/5/16), Jnette Harvey (TC, 1/8/17) and some others and offer a parody on poet C. J Dennis’ poem The Play, a send-up of Romeo and Juliet:

“Wot’s in a name?” they say. An’ then they sighs,

An’ clasps their ’ands, an’ rolls their eyes.

That road, b’ any other name

Would be the same.