You cannot renew history
I would like to give my thoughts on the Heritage listing decision placed on our Pioneer Settlement and question some of the words from our Mayor on her statements (The Guardian, March 18).
As a ratepayer and community member we are continually required to apply for permits for construction, land subdivision, clearing native vegetation, displaying of signs, so why should it be any different for our council being required to apply for permits?
Our Mayor stated “to apply for permits for that space and anything else we had planned now has to go through a process”, it’s exactly the same as we have to do.
Most councils would be grateful to have something in their backyard declared to be “state-level heritage significance and added to the Victoria’s Heritage register”.
The Mayor also said “that council was still trying to understand what this all means, but we already have other options. We will work with Heritage Victoria Officers to find out what we can do and what we can’t do”.
Shouldn’t this be seen as a positive to learning more about Heritage Victoria, about grants available, about the education and progression of improvement to councillors and council member and a new learning experience for all involved?
The Council opposed the listing as it was concerned about the potential impact the listing could have on the day-to-day operations of the Settlement and, more importantly, the ability to renew and add to the Settlement.
You cannot renew history. You can preserve and you can restore, but history and artifacts cannot and should not be renewed.
The Mayor stated that “the Settlement was quickly taken over by Sovereign Hill in terms of folk museum and education and pioneer history”. Has council ever looked or investigated to why this is? We have much better weather then Ballarat.
Perhaps council should be looking into the advertising of our Pioneer Settlement as the new heritage listed venue with more hours of sunshine than the Gold Coast, instead of the doom and gloom that they are currently expressing in our local paper, of a council that has lost a cause due to a minority of community members.
Colleen Crossfield,
Woorinen South
Stop this horrific cruelty
(Re: Protected ducks shot, The Guardian Tuesday, March 22):
I attended the opening of the Victorian duck shooting season both at Lake Bael Bael and Lakr Murphy last week. What l witnessed at both wetlands has left me deeply traumatised and sickened to the core.
Lake Bael Bael was a haven and a waterbird nursery for nesting swans, spoonbills and Eurasian coot just before the duck shooting season commenced last Wednesday. Since the season began all the nests have been deserted and shooters have smashed the eggs and trodden many nests into oblivion.
Furthermore illegally shot protected species such as the Blue Winged Shoveler and Hardhead duck have been recovered from this wetland by rescuers as well as other protected species that were not even ducks.
The Game Management Authority is the so called “governing body” of this horrendous “activity”. Not once have they successfully caught or prosecuted duck shooters illegally going against the rules.
As team member and spokesperson for The Coalition Against Duck Shooting, Craig Davey, was quoted: “lf the the Game Management Authority (GMA) had done it’s job properly, this wetland would have been closed to shooting because of the prescence of threatened species as well as many nesting swans.”
Rescuers have recorded and taken photos of cruelty against waterbirds time and and time again yet the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews allows and supports this horrific cruelty to continue against beautiful and gentle native waterbird species to appease the tiny minority of the gun lobby.
Kerang is Victoria’s Kakadu. The amount of jobs that could be made from wetlands and nature based tourism far outweigh the utter futility and cruelty of duck shooting.
Kate Bossence,
Kerang
