On Saturday, August 8, 1998 now 22 years ago, we received 300mm of rain overnight and the rush of water caused the Wingecarribee Reservoir Peat Swamp to collapse.
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This was largely due to the unwillingness of authorities to close the peat mine.
The reservoir lost about 70 percent of it's capacity and is costing the community millions of dollars in works to stabilise, protect the water and weed the massed willows.
This was the worst environmental catastrophe the shire has seen, as it destroyed the integrity of the largest hanging swamp on the mainland, along with habitat of the giant dragonfly and several endangered plants.
Our authorities should learn from this and consider the perpetual damage that they can cause by poor decisions, such as, to allow coal and sand mines in the catchment for short term gain.
Jane Lemann
Bowral
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How do we hold the council to account?
What does one have to do to hold elected public figures and organisations (eg councils) to account?
The Sun-Herald article on August 2 relating to Bowral has been widely distributed in the Wingecarribee Shire.
For some years a small group of concerned residents has been trying to hold council to account.
A proposal has been on council's books for over 40 years to help alleviate what some see as a problem with traffic.
All at once there is a desperate rush to push through with a very different proposal to the original.
As the article states, a number of historic, and beautiful, pin oaks will be destroyed to make room for something that the community DOES NOT WANT, will not improve traffic - will indeed worsen it, will REMOVE half of the commuter parking spaces from the Bowral Railway Station, destroy the present interchange and severely compromise pedestrian safety.
There are other issues but space does not permit elaboration.
A petition was lodged with State Parliament by Minister Prue Goward with over 3,200 signatures objecting to this proposal.
Nothing was done. Where is this petition now?
The Minister for Local Government and the local MP have been approached on numerous occasions - both have been totally oblivious to our pleas for assistance.
At a time when the State Government is encouraging people to use public transport and is providing parking spaces at railway stations our council is hell-bent on destroying what we already have in place.
They have told the community that there will be 70 additional car parking spaces provided at Mittagong!
Excellent for Mittagong residents but totally useless for people who commute to the city from Bowral or for people who visit Bowral.
The present situation relating to the pandemic makes public rallies somewhat difficult.
So what else can we do? Suggestions would be welcomed.
