As Promised Faithful Supporters, More Resistance starting with my long letter below, sent out today on Invasion Day… Main Roads has more money to splash, for more pointless destruction, so we may need 75,000 years of Black Law to stop the “Bulldozer Hooning”.
Please spread this petition to Help Save our Roadside Trees including our non regenerating, Old Growth Salmon Gums!!!
The Premier of Western Australia Hon. Mark McGowan
The Treasurer and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Lands… Hon. Ben Wyatt
The Minister for Main Roads, Transport and Planning Hon. Rita Saffioti
The Minister for Regional Development Hon. Alanna MacTiernan
The Minister for Water, Forestry, innovation… Hon. Dave Kelly
The Minister for Heritage, Culture, Arts… Hon. David Templeman
The Minister for Environment… Hon. Stephen Dawson
The Deputy Chair of Committees Hon. Robin Chapple
Acting General Manager Main Roads Mr Peter Woronzow
Land Consultant Main Roads Mr Frank Mattaboni
Hello Dear Premier, Honourable Ladies and Gentlemen,
SAVING “The Balkuling Warraling Creek Valley Heritage Precinct”
Re: Suggested Amended Bridge Works with Non Land Acquisition
I am sending you all this letter to elucidate your attention and hopeful action, whilst keeping a vigilant record,
to help ensure all possible conservation care is undertaken— not the usual whitewashing,
The proposed “upgrade” is a regrettably and expensive “Downgrade reality”.
It is resultant in gross erosion of public trust, with the ‘Bete Noire’ being the Main Roads Department WA,
Regrettably ever increasing, needless clear-felling bulldozer uglification,
of a recent Salmon Gum iconic state tourist drive from York, with off shoots to Wave Rock and onwards to Merredin,
connecting into the Goldfields dreaming lands.
The $100 million plus “upgrade” has resulted in “Bulldozer Hooning”… horrendous ‘Bare Earth Policy’,
with massive, ignorant, nature devastation, ridiculously the sad tragic story here, over the last three years.
I endeavoured to reach out to the previous Barnett Government and Main Roads to discover a blind audience.
Please read on this long letter and view the arial maps. (some budget savings, bushland conservation and safety suggestions are high-lit)
Hello Mr Frank Mattaboni and the General Management of Main Roads W.A.
Firstly thank you kindly Frank for your expertise, clarity and diligence in your role as Land Consultant.
Unfortunately with consideration, we will not be able to comply with your request.
However there is a compromise plan, for the Balkuling Valley Heritage Community which we represent,
that we wish you to consider… so please read on and be open to our Heritage Plan.
Quarraluna at the valley basin, north and adjacent to your Mawson Gully Bridge, on the Warraling Creek,
in the valley floor of the Balkuling post colonial townsite,
is a rare, valuable heritage asset, to the fading history of modern Western Australia.
With respect, I with many others are devastated and deeply saddened, angered and
concerned by your uglification of the once magnificent tourist drive along the York to Merreden Road.
This must stop and your department must surely listen to the cry of citizens voice!
Your blanket clearing of the “Cathedral Avenue” east of York and the pointless clearing of the north side of Needling Hills,
are just two examples of many, of the continuing uglification program you are delivering with this massive $100 million plus,
public funded needless upgrade disaster.
The wasted 10 Million dollar “downgrade” of the ”test section” between the Greenhills Townsite western entry Road and Piccadilly Rd,
is one of the worst pot holed bitumen sections I have ever seen…
an outlandish waste of money requiring continuous maintenance on this newly sealed road, which is simply unbelievable.
Surely this hundred million plus, would be more wisely spent on upgrading the dangerous Albany Highway!
We only conclude that since the closure of the tier 3 rail to Yoting, that your orders has been to construct a barren ‘Roman Road’,
with expensive splashes of new bridges for heavy vehicles, mostly grain road trains from the local farms,
to gloss over, the short sighted previous governments rail shutdown… hopefully to be reopened soon, by our McGowan Government!
However lets us put all this bad publicity and community anger and outrage aside, to work on a new “with nature", climate sensitive plan.
Unfortunately I am now devastated by three years of clear-felling and way too embarrassed,
to invite our once thriving local and international visitors out onto this degraded tourist drive.
Our State and Federal Governments along with thirty or so Australian Businesses have supported our pioneering efforts here for our celebrated
and ever increasingly difficult, “Drought Resistant, Water Harvesting Demonstration Farm".
It has taken a life time of research from my beginnings in Environmental Science at Murdoch University in the 1970’s
to create “Quarraluna—Revisioning the Drylands Western Australia Project”.
Twenty Five years of hard work and research to demonstrate a model out of the long predicted climate change created drought.
To be mirror transparent, I finished my first degree at Murdoch in another discipline but my early environmental field studies were
in monitoring the subterranean water flows in the Swan Coastal Plain.
After graduation I changed track and worked as a history writer for the Churches of East Central London.
We have hundreds of ever increasing supporters from across the globe to beseech your department, to at least, not destroy the Heritage precinct Of Balkuling.
I am only able to protect and indeed must protect our Noongar land in this district of Balkuling “The place of Balgas or Xanthorrhoeas.”
Be assured that I am willing to die to save our land and We will use every means within Law to safely protect the Balkuling Heritage Valley.
Unfortunately the appalling display of your department in your “upgrade” of York to Meridian to date, has demonstrated a brutal fiasco,
destroying priceless irreplaceable picturesque old growth trees, flora and habitat, eroding public faith and giving me no option
but to call to other powers, as nobody now trusts your Northam branch of the Main Roads Department.
So this open letter is written with the chance of an independent overseer with conservation not Roman Straight Road Politics in heart.
Late 2018 we were honoured with a visit and environmental help, from the grand son of Jandamarra from the legendary Banuba Resistance,
(the last Elder to stand against the troopers in the Kimberley battles) helping with our sacred land here.
We will go to every possibility, to stop any more destruction of road side land here.
As a drought resistant demonstration property with many hundreds of visitors, we have explained our research over the long years,
including a distinguished visit from a Lord and Lady of Margaret Thatchers government (now both deceased),
The Lord with his Lady after viewing Quarraluna, changed his views on the value of trees and declared that a farm as this,
was a model of true richness unlike the elites he had met over his long international career.
The Heritage of this property Quarraluna dates back to the late nineteen hundreds. There was initially a dwelling on the S.W. side of this property,
on land that you wish to steal, dating back to around 1870, prior to the existing dwelling here that dates to circa 1898.
The local district water hole or spring, was a camp spot for the sandalwood trade and later the water source for the passage of some Gold Rush hopefuls to Kalgoorlie.
There are sacred sites such as ancient gnamma holes around, so we must protect our heritage—Our Country.
The homestead here was an oasis work camp during 1900 -1905 where 20 rail men slept on the verandah, as the crew to extend the rail from Greenhills to Mawson.
The district folk were permitted here to make use of the telegraph phone on the dwellings outside verandah, as a Saturday morning public service.
Anyhow Frank and your colleagues… The New proposal plan.
I am sure your department will disagree but my learnings and observations see the following…
Cost Effective Safety Suggestions, in an era of the dwindling public purse, to save many lives.
!. Trees, especially an avenue of trees, provide for “Safer Driving” as drivers are less distracted and unable to gaze off into barren horizons.
2. Massive road shouldering, that is millions of tonnes of aggregate are needed, without any bitumen road widening.
Specifically that is with, much longer extensions of gravel shouldering at the bitumen height, before slight angling to the drain for water run off.
3. Correct Natural Camber, (unbelievably—almost totally tragically lacking on W.A. roads),
4. Sonic strips are absolutely essential for the cheapest road safety precaution, surely a first priority, to eventually be mandatory on every bitumen roadside edge!
Now specifically for the Balkuling Valley…
The priceless rare avenue of old growth Salmon Gums, Wandoo and other species, on the south side of entry into the Balkuling Valley,
must be protected at all costs.
The Salmon Gum or “Wurak” the iconic “Karri of the Wheatbelt” are tragically not regenerating and regrettably,
there are now almost none remaining on the York to Merredin Road, since your upgrade contract commenced.
To preserve these irreplaceable precious trees, the solution is to simply spend less of your budget on bulldozer hooning and instead,
integrate massive road shouldering with compacted aggregate…complimented with a couple of km of safety rail.
If this does not satisfy you, God knows for what reason, then it is possible with keeping the existing road base with bitumen and
simply add an extra strip of bitumen to the north road side, where there are No Trees.
In regard to the Mawson Gully Bridge, there is ample room for discrete work within the existing road boundary, with out hijacking our land and disrupting our services.
If you wish to extend massive road shouldering on both sides this would be wise for the following reasons as outlined ahead…
If you decide to push beyond the road shouldering then, east of this bridge is desert barren land, on the Southern Neighbouring property.
The neighbour lives about four kilometres South of this boundary and rarely accesses this paddock,
so they are probably amenable to storing your earth moving equipment through their gate, by the Water Departments large water valve on their vacant land.
The saline Warraling Creek basin, at the edge of our South boundary is riddled with subterranean springs, aquifers and small streams,
that cumulate near your Mawson Gully Bridge.
It has taken twenty five years, to grow saline tolerant melaleucas and sedges and some mallee species, along here, to stabilise the salt scald.
We have lost hundreds of species here from heat, drought and occasional flash flooding over the decades,
and with the drying climate, its is becoming impossible for sapling survival, without shade cloth, mulch and even difficult winter watering.
Thus, these precious trees in the high hot salt river plain are practically and virtually irreplaceable.
One pristine ancient magnificent eucalyptus loxophleba or ‘Yandee” tree
towers to the North overlooking your bridge. Her root system is within your land proposal however…
This river and soil preserving, district navigational heritage landmark tree, measures five metres in circumference. This jewel must never be interfered with.
It also stands alongside remnants of the late 18th century entry bridge across the Warraling Creek… Heritage sites that must remain intact.
The dozens of tree family relatives here, stabilise the river bank and add stability to your relatively new bridge infrastructure here.
When a cyclone hits the district, the river flats here enlarge up to 30 metres across.
It would be unwise to enter or interfere with any of this water course, particularly as we have spent tens of thousands of dollars,
in construction of retention dams, soaks, water channels and earth berms, to divert the waters from this road—
to hold water back from this section of the York Quairading Road.
Realistically it would be total folly to go any where near this saline valley basin.
We understand that any new bridge maintenance or reconstruction, would be wiser to head south of the primary water course,
which is furthest away from the sensitive, active river bank basin.
Regarding “my" water harvesting dam constructed on the SW corner of Quarraluna.
No, we are not prepared to sell your this community asset.
It is constructed to hold water back from flooding on the Balkuling Road Corner where the five roads meet.
It is needed to alleviate flooding onto this low valley point.
It stops all run off water from north of the boundary, from entering Quairading Road, through a large constructed channel or earth berm canal.
We have also constructed a channel to reroute drainage water from North Balkuling Road into this holding dam…
You would be most welcome to subtly excavate or grade into this channel 50m up North Balkuling Road,
to stop any flooding problems on this tricky 5 road meeting point.
I would insist on being present if your decide to proceed, with assessors from the Department of Water & Environmental.
Although I am sure you will disagree, and not wish to allocate these precious funds, to “Danger Hot Spots” like the Albany Highway and Great Northern Highway…
The Mawson Gully Bridge is a recently (2004?) refurbished bridge, with massive strong timbers, iron and concrete supports, that will surely endure safely for a couple more decades.
Otherwise, with minimal less expensive discreet works, you could simply proceed with your bridge refurbishment or replacement within the existing road reserve.
The two accidents that occurred here over the last twenty five years, were not related to the road itself,
as both drivers left the road and crashed on the opposite road side verge due I understand to personal internal in-cab distractions.
To be crystal clear our preferred action is ‘no action' on this safe, straight, well surfaced, rare beautifully treed Balkuling Valley pass.
This could begin to prove your sincerity to our supporters and your citizens, that Main Roads Western Australia is sincere,
in your dedication to conservation, roads of durability, safety, with environmentally intact road verges,
as with your forebears with their once proud Roadside Conservation Board in memory of a more pristine era.
A Clarion Call to Eradicate African Love Grass that is quietly invading our city and country verges and bushlands.
Ps. Whilst I have your ear, please consider to allocate funds to eradicating, the state wide invasive African Love Grass from all our road verges.
This weed is killing what’s left of our roadside native bush, creating a fire risk and adding to the ugly.
You may consider to distribute weed identification pictures, of these and other pests like watsonia,
to your roadside tree maintenance crews and road work staff, to eradicate, whilst they attend to complimentary road duties.
Also this menace requires urgent Shire, School and Public Education, as everyone I mention it to,
have never seen or heard about it, although it scurges most road sides.
Openness with enlightened omni-paradigm education, are key to our states future, into the ever increasing devastating drying climate.
Surely it’s the duty of every citizen, to speak out, protect our fragile Environment and conserve our Heritage,
from short term bureaucratic bunglings and political agendas for a Decent Future for All.
I hope we are able to reach an agreement, to preserve at least one unique state icon —“The Balkuling Warraling Creek Valley Heritage Precinct”.
In considered respect,
Michael
Environmental Systems Designer (Retired)