Newcastle Herald letters to the editor, Thursday August 13, 2020: We should be guardin' our Garden Suburb

This area is the habitat of other less-common fauna such as powerful owls, black cockatoos, king parrots, antechinus and as well as unusual flora such as the vulnerable back-eyed susan, and at least six varieties of native orchids.

Significantly this development will remove six out of 14 suitable large trees in the area for powerful owls. In the wake of bushfires and COVID-19 lockdowns, a Sydney paper reported on plans for "shared backyards" in urban areas as proposed by the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment in its draft "Greener Places policy" (Angus Thompson, SMH 25/6), especially highlighted by the recent COVID-19 restrictions, and "rare urban ecosystems on the brink" (Peter Hannam, SMH, 5/8).

DA1284/2013 should be now rejected as conditions, attitudes and laws have changed since it was originally raised in 2013. Unfortunately, after seven years this has not happened because the DA was raised by Landcom. With proper ecological management this could be a fabulous area for walkers, birdwatchers, and mountain bikers - once it's gone it will never come back. Please reconsider this development and really make our suburb a "Garden Suburb."

THE recent catastrophe in Beirut brings into question the adequacy of the ammonium nitrate storage facilities on Kooragang Island.

The owners of the Kooragang facility tell us that it would take a serious breach of procedures for such an explosion to happen at Kooragang. We cannot assume that such a breach will not occur.

With the knowledge of what can happen, it is time that the Australian Dangerous Goods (ADG) code is reviewed. It is imperative that the quantity of ammonium nitrate, held at an individual facility, is limited to avoid an explosion of the magnitude experienced in Beirut.

IN OTHER NEWS:

The Australian Army is aware of the dangers associated with dangerous goods, as demonstrated by their efforts to segregate munitions at the Central Ammunitions Depot at Myambat, near Denman. At the depot, bunkers containing limited quantities of explosives are located several kilometres apart, so that if an accident occurs at one storage facility it will not impact on other facilities.

Ammonium nitrate should be afforded similar precautions. Get bulk storage off Kooragang to a location where a possible accident will do limited damage.

I HAVE been following the terrible news of the explosion in Beirut and alarm over a similar accident on Kooragang Island possibly levelling Newcastle. I recall from my interest in all things catastrophic of two similar accidents, both due to human error.

The first in Halifax Nova Scotia during 1917 and again in Bombay (Mumbai) India in 1944. Both accidents involved ships loaded with highly dangerous munitions during wartime. The first, the result of a ship collision and ensuing explosion, killed almost 2000 people and destroyed much of the port and city. It is considered the largest man-made explosion prior to the atom bomb. In Bombay a dangerously loaded ship with 1400 tonnes of explosives, along with cotton bales and a dozen Spitfires caught fire whilst waiting to unload. The two massive explosions killed an estimated 1300, injured 2500 and made 80,000 homeless in the slums around the busy port, sinking 11 ships as flaming cotton bales descended starting numerous fires.

I think these events highlight the risk of human error and volatile materials in a major port-side city. I suggest to any readers, Google these accidents and sleep well.

WHY must we insist on "closing the gate after the horse has bolted?"

At the end of the first COVID-19 lockdown, we were almost past the post in defeating the virus. Gladys Berejiklan was resisting calls to relax the lockdown restrictions and rightly so. However, it is my opinion that she caved in to pressure from the NRL, no doubt driven by sponsorship dollars, and commenced relaxing the restrictions. Had we stayed in lockdown for another month, I believe we would not be in the invidious position we now are.

To emphasise my thoughts, I say look across the ditch at New Zealand where Jacinda Ardern was initially criticised for taking the strong action she did. Nobody is criticising her any longer. All other states, besides NSW and Victoria are managing quite well. Now, bit by bit, we are heading for another lockdown which will probably be longer than the extra month suggested above. Ms Berejiklian has turned procrastination into an art form at a terrible cost.

JEFF Corbett believes colonisation of Australia by "any other of the seagoing nations ...would have been almost certainly very quickly different for Aboriginal people."

We'll never know if Mr Corbett's opinion might have been correct, but what we do know is that the most powerful empire on the planet at the time colonised Australia. We don't know how other less powerful countries might have treated Indigenous society but it's well documented that the British inflicted murder, cleansing, exclusion, starvation, poisoning, sterilisation, exile, slaughter, removal and 'breeding out'.

MORE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:

So confident were state governments in the destructiveness of these practices that they officially developed policies to 'smooth the pillow of a dying race'. However, the resilience and adaptability of Indigenous Australians prevented extinction despite these orchestrated efforts.

Mr Corbett is right to say we can't judge those actions "by the laws and attitudes" of today, but if we shrug off the historic disadvantage those policies have inflicted on today's Indigenous Australians then we are shrugging off those atrocities inflicted by our forebears. It implies tacit agreement.

JEFF Corbett expressed the views I have much more eloquently ("Cooking up division", Herald, 8/8).

We need to move on, accept the history of our country and celebrate the wonderful diverse country we live in. Each day when we see events unfold in other countries, I thank my ancestors who came here.

Many of the early settlers came here as convicts or as escapees from harsh situations and have pulled together working hard to create our society.

The fact that it was an Englishman who came, explored, mapped the east coast and enlightened the rest of the world to what this country held, decided the foundation for the future of what has become Australia.

LLOYD Davies (Letters, 8/8) makes some good points about car usage. If I may, I'd like to add a point about the classic catch-22 with Newcastle's bus services: the route 11 (and all other Newcastle bus routes) covers a lot of ground because it is uneconomical to run a direct service. And the main reason it is uneconomical? Why, because people find it too indirect!

IT does not inspire much confidence for the Prime Minister to say Newcastle is much safer than Beirut. Just about anywhere is safer than Beirut over the past decades. Clearly Mr Morrison does not live within 1 km of 12000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate. And neither should anyone else. To store the equivalent of a nuclear weapon in a residential area is crazy no matter what assurances are given. The trail of destruction through Lebanon, France and the United States from similar "accidents" proves that Orica and the PMs claims are wrong. Please move this dangerous material immediately.

IF Orica's stockpile of ammonium nitrate on Kooragang Island went off, it would be 'goodbye Newcastle' as far as Charlestown. It would also set on fire whatever was left of coal mounds on Kooragang Island. Orica, has a bad track record in regards to safety and the environment. The EPA has too few troops on the ground to enforce safety. To protect Novocastrians, Orica's whole ammonium nitrate stockpile should be moved up the Hunter Valley near the coal mines that use the explosives derived from the chemical. The stockpile should be surrounded by a safety or buffer zone. That way, if the lot went off, it would kill fewer people. It may destroy a few coal mines. But might not that be good for the environment?

WHAT do Chernobyl, Fukushima and Kooragang have in common? The inhabitants were told it couldn't happen.When it comes to the storage of ammonium nitrate in built up areas, I am a NIMBY.

SO, Brad Hill (Short Takes, 5/8) and Mac Maguire (Short Takes, 6/8) think that Australia is in danger of becoming an "unrecoverable abomination" under this LNP government. They obviously haven't had a close look at the worst Labor opposition in recent history, with such under achievers as Albo, Wong, Chalmers, Shorten etc,etc. One can only imagine what this clueless mob, who are all devoid of anything positive to say, would handle this once in a lifetime pandemic. Go ScoMo, the next election will be a cake walk.

THAT lowlife Brett David Hill should get the same sentence as his young victim. That young lady received a life sentence, so should he.