Frank Lynch, Wilsons Creek.
A large tree threatens to take out a bridge at Parmenters Road, Wilsons Creek.
It jammed against the bridge in the late March flood and in the recent flood more debris has lodged in it and against the bridge. It requires heavy machinery to remove it and then it could be done quickly.
Seven properties would be cut off if the bridge goes. We have asked Byron Shire Council, RMS, DPI (as it is water catchment) and most recently the SES to assist – so far without any results but with a lot of ‘avoidance diplomacy’.
One of the latest bits of avoidance diplomacy was from Council Works Department, who tell us that we ‘just hire someone to remove it’. The trouble with that advice is that it requires permission from Crown lands before any work is done by private authorities in and around rivers. Understandably this permission is itself a drawn-out process especially where water catchments are involved. But the Crown (and any arm of the Crown can act.
So we are still waiting and hoping that our plaintive cries are heard.
In Huonbrook private land holders can be seen unblocking roadway pipes beneath the public road and attending, with chainsaws, when fallen trees threaten infra structure. My last viewing of the said tree was after the March /April deluge. I wondered then why local landholders had not removed it. Surely in their own interests in protecting their bridge?
Since the March floods great erosion points are now evident along the Wilson Creek banks where Coral trees have been poisoned. If managed more appropriately, and at a slower pace with replanting immediately, we would not be contributing to loss of soil, distributing herbicides into our creeks and taking advantage of what the target plants contribute as they fill the niches humans have created. Climate change is very real and we all have a responsibility to adapt and maintain.