Beth Shelley, Booerie Creek
It seems our world gets darker and more confusing all the time. Bushfires, floods and extreme weather suggests that climate change is real and yet our governments still hesitate to take real action. In America COVID and Trumpism dominate and everyone seems divided about what it all means.
The spirit of connection that binds us all together, humans, animals and the Earth seems to be desperately breaking apart.
I live surrounded by beauty and it reminds me that the connection is real, but so many others are suffering from loss. I am grateful for what I have in my small world but there’s much to worry about.
Personally I’ve felt devastated lately about the NSW government’s decision to close parts of our railway here in the Northern Rivers. I believe the government can afford it, and our communities need it, but they just don’t care. I’ve been banging my head against a brick wall on this issue and now my head hurts.
I know there is support from all the people who need rail but they’re the last ones to be heard. We need to build that support and bring it together.
A wonderful surprise right now is that I can go out dancing. Something lovely emerges from the COVID restrictions and we can dance again.
It’s not a railway that can save us from traffic congestion and transport emissions. It’s just something that helps me to keep going and not give up. I treasure the small blessings.
The rail corridor in the Northern Rivers has been closed to public use since 2004, when the Labor government suspended rail services; a decade later the LNP concluded it would not reinstate rail services. The rail corridor has been closed to the public by law, but more effectively by the exotic weeds and bush preventing people from even walking along it.
Even diehard rail supporters know that no one is going to fund any rail services on what is now the Bentley to Crabbes Creek Rail line, particularly now we know the NSW Government advised Byron Shire it will not fund any shuttle rail. We are not governed by Trump, but by much more evidence based policy makers, and all the the evidence is a regional rail on branch line would do nothing to reduce emissions or traffic. While many of us like the idea of trains we accept the reality that they are not coming back. But a few diehard rail supporters want to keep the rail corridor closed even if there is no train, just to protect those rails.
It is wonderful we can dance and sing in public, but even in this Covid normal world we need exercise and we need to walk and cycle. Only by building a path along the rail corridor can we open it again for the public. Not everyone is so lucky as to live in Boorie Creek, and they too want to enjoy and exercise in our beautiful area.
Do we want to open the rail corridor to the public, or leave it closed and unused, overgrown with exotic weeds, just to protect the rotten sleepers and disused rails?