Community Clipboard
Last Updated 22/5/10
NEW Action Required Save Bastion Point - Politician Lobby Kit Now Available
(22/5/10 - CC) Save Bastion Point ask for your support
Click here to see the lobby kit, or go to www.savebastionpoint.org
(17/9/09 - CC) Forging strength and purpose to promote compassion and save communities
Click here for more information
CURRENT Action Required A New Community Voice2: Living With The Bush (and Bushfire)
(17/9/09 - CC) A site where you can show you support sensible solutions to bushfire safety - sign up if you think there's more to it than just clearing vegetation
Here's what Living With The Bush had to say about the State government's new 'slashing and burning' controls:
This week is a dark one for native vegetation and the environment
On Thursday 3rd Sept Brumby bulldozed amendments to the Dandenong Ranges and Yarra Valley Regional Strategy Plan.
This was pushed through both houses of parliament with less than one day's notice so the Government can soon remove vegetation protection to allow:
- clearing of all trees and vegetation within 10m of a house
- clearing a 4m wide strip of all vegetation along each property boundary
- clearing any vegetation except trees between 10m and 30m from a house;
from all of Victoria except the 20 urban councils around Melbourne proper.
This will have a devastating impact in many areas of Victoria where many communities live with in a bushland setting.
And the evidence is that doing this will not make us safe from bushfire. There are examples from Black Saturday of houses without any nearby vegetation that burnt, of fires that raced through short grass fields to ignite buildings. Houses located more than 380 metres from continuous bush were lost.
Vegetation can also act as an essential windbreak, reducing the wind that intensify a fires, and may provide protection from radiant heat as well as slowing down or stopping embers.
Yet the Brumby government intends to allow this clearing until the final recommendations of the Bushfire Commission are released next year.
By then everyone who has been endeavouring to clear their block for any reason, including gaining a better view will have done so. We will have lost forever even more of our biodiversity and dumped more green house gases into the atmosphere.
The Living With The Bush Coalition has been formed to campaign against this proposal. We believe that this unfettered clearing is fundamentally flawed in that it will not protect houses from bushfires, may in fact increase the danger by creating more intense fires and will destroy the reason so many of us live with the bush.
You can read our charter at www.livingwiththebush.org as well as more information on this issue, why we have reached this position and what you can do.
If you support the views expressed in the charter please consider endorsing it, either individually or as on behalf of a group.
You can register your support at the website or email me and I'll sign you on.
With a large community outcry we hope we can get these unilateral changes modified to something that will protect our lives instead of just removing trees.
Click here for more information.
See also MRRA article on the State government's new "slashing and burning' controls, now introduced into all planning schemes in Victoria.
MRRA Says:
This is one close to our heart. If the places we all love so much are to survive, we surely all need to think carefully and closely about what happens next. There has to be a better answer than the one put forward by the State government - cut it down or burn it. MRRA thinks there needs to be a much more thoughtful response and better long-term solution. MRRA's vote goes to not putting any more people in fire risk locations - just common sense, really. We would like the 'tree-change' trend to become the 'fire-risk' rule.
The rest of us must weigh up the risks of living in bushfireprone areas - and odds for survival - and make some tough decisions. Cutting the bush down won't solve the problem or ensure safety. It is more likely to create a completely false sense of security that will do no-one any favours.
(2/4/09 - P) Are you looking at www.marvellousmelbourne.org?
Planning Backlash says:
There are lots of interesting things going onto our website, thanks to our great webmaster. The latest is another video by our very generous photographer Tony. It features the Director of the Shrine talking about their fight with the Planning Department over a high rise development next to the Shrine forecourt. There is a Panel hearing this week and it is costing the Shrine a fortune for a barrister and expert witnesses.
Browse through the web and see all the videos now on it. Also lots of other items of interest and info. Be great if you could get into the habit of opening up the web and seeing what comes up.
If you are part of a community group and have a planning story that warrants a video on the website, please contact Mary Drost on 0401 834 899.
We "Can Do Better" - Fascinating Political, Social, Environmental Website
(14/4/08 - O) Post your articles or your blogs. This is an interactive website that encourages people to become active and express their views. Check it out at http://candobetter.org/ More...
Is this site something you can relate to? Could it be the site you've been looking for? There's only one way to find out: check it out!
Here's some material from the site that gives you an idea of what it's about.
Mission Statement on candobetter.org:
"To encourage ordinary people to engage themselves with the political processes that decide the fate of our society in order to help make the necessary difference that will allow our society to turn back from the brink of the looming global environmental catastrophe that threatens our survival."
Here's what the site says you can do:
"Above all, become active. If you become active you can make a difference.
Inform yourself by reading material on this site or on sites linked to from this site.
Inform others by:
Discussing these issues with friends, family, work associates and other acquaintances.
Write letters to your local newspapers. If they don't print your letter, send us a copy, and if they do, still send us a copy.
Phone radio talkback shows. If they don't give you a fair hearing, please let us know about it.
Raise this issue in on-line forums and mailing lists. Include, in your contributions, links back to articles on this web site.
If you are active in a political party, a union, a professional association, a church, a political party or other group, raise this issue at meetings.
Join a political party in which members are likely to be receptive to these ideas. Such Parties may include The Greens, The Democrats, the Southern Cross Party, One Nation the Sustainability Party or even the Labor Party. If none of these parties prove willing or able to rise to meet the challenges before them, help us to build a better political party.
Contribute your ideas by posting comments in response to articles on this site. If you are interested in contributing more substantive articles, photographs, artwork or other material, please let us know. Contact us through the site contact forms, or if the response seems to be slow phone or text the administrator on +61 412 319669 (0412 319669 in Australia).
Ask of anyone who holds public office to act to confront these problems. If he or she won't, then give your vote to someone else who will, or consider standing for office yourself.
Support community campaigns against overdevelopment and environmental destruction and for social justice. Some campaigns can be found within the menu structure "What can be done?". "
"Prime Minister Michael": Definitely A Man With Vision And Purpose
(3/10/06 - CC) Young Michael won't be fobbed off getting his message across. Here's a delightful story sent in by a resident. We thought Michael deserved some recognition... (Well done)
"Our 11 year old, Michael got the opportunity to meet John Howard last week in Gisborne. At the end of the visit, Michael had a chance to ask why Australia had not signed the Kyoto protocol. Mr. Howard replied with his standard ‘economy before environment’ speech, but didn’t pause to engage in any dialogue and abruptly left before Michael could give him the $20 he had taken from his pocket money so Mr. Howard could buy a ticket to ‘An Inconvenient Truth’.
Seeing the distress on Michael’s face, one of Mr. Howard’s staffers came over to see what the problem was. Michael explained what he wanted to do and gave the money to the staffer. Michael is now following up on his investment in his own future to see if Mr. Howard has seen the documentary! I suggest Mr. Howard keep a keen eye on his job – Mike is now after it."