YOU SAID IT! The last beat of the Jungle Drum
letters and comments
John Sullivan
Thank you Lawrence Mason for your views and information from North of the River. It has been valuable to understand the distressed state of the Douglas Shire. Hanging up the pen reflects the apathy of the Shire residents and shows the struggles that the Douglas Shire Ratepayers Association Inc and the Douglas Chamber of Commerce have had over the past five years in trying to address the dire issues in our community and motivate change and calling out poor performance from our politicians and bureaucrats at all levels.
Carl Schmid
I will certainly miss Lawrence Mason column, being a born and bred local who currently resides interstate I am very interested in what’s going on in the Shire.
Tamara Scenna
Thank you for having spent the time writing about your views on the north of the river community Lawrence Mason over the last few years. I’ve been interested to see what you chose to write about each week. While I haven’t always agreed with everything you have written, as someone relatively new to the Daintree Coast community, your columns have increased my awareness of some events and generated discussion, which may not otherwise have occurred. Community development only happens well when the community is empowered and whole of community views and lived experience are listened to and considered when decisions are made. I’m still hoping… But can completely understand your frustration after learning more about the lived experience of the Daintree Coast community.
Jonathan Foster
Unfortunately as always your description of the current state of affairs within the Shire are very accurate the local government ignore the residents and pander to the bureaucrats and greenies. Hopefully we will get better representatives next elections but looking at the current prospects I highly doubt it. Thanks for your efforts anyway mate.
JB Blockey
I don’t always agree with everything you’ve beaten the drum on Lawrence Mason, but I always look at your perspective with an open mind. And you are usually a pretty straight shooter.
On your article today, I emphatically agree with your sentiments. Bubbling issues abound in our shire - and yet many similar mistakes are being made. I am dismayed to hear you are putting yourself back in the box, but I empathise with how you’re feeling, drum-beaten perhaps… I hear you!
Geoff Field
Thanks for being courageous. All the best in the future.
Russell O’doherty
Totally understand why you have pulled the pin Lawrence. It wears you down after fighting for years as you have done, enjoy the fishing hopefully some others will take up the fight.
Vivienne Heng
Sad to see you lay down your pen! You've done an outstanding job bringing attention to the Daintree and its community's plight, fostering debate and discussion. Your efforts, though perhaps not met with the action you hoped for, are appreciated. Thanks for your tireless advocacy. Enjoy the fishing!
Bob Holland
Well written and spot on, nothing ever changes up there, with the demise of DSSG and their purge from council the situation might have changed from active economic sabotage of the Daintree community to just stupidity and incompetency, but it will always be a Fawlty Towers show, unless maybe a re-amalgamation with Cairns happens. So happy I moved out of there six years ago.
Journey to Paradise stripped bare by road works
Tania Sheppard
I hope they will re-instate the palms along that stretch!
Sean Il
It was either that that or the road went in the drink.
Emily Beutel
It's not just about planting new trees, the trees that were there were saving the bank even with today's 3m tide so much more bank has been lost. They may just be trees to you but I live here and going from a beautiful stretch of coast to a desolate destroyed landscape is enough to make anyone feel passionate that there were other ways around it. And yes they will plant new trees, more than likely not coconuts though.
Lance Johnston
Considering they were all falling into the ocean one by one over the last few years and now the cyclone nearly made the road fall into the ocean. They have just sped up the process to fix the problem, trees grow back quickly up here.
Ian Bateman
They could have put in a rock wall between the palms and the ocean (which they’ll probably have to do anyway to save the frekkin road)
Patrick Giddins
This entire roadworks project is a fiasco. They still haven't repaired one of the major pieces of damage which has cut the road back to single lane, they're building little platforms everywhere so they can play on the sides of the hills with their little Tonka trucks and it's costing us hundreds of millions, or more likely billions to put up with these delays. Most of those sections where they are playing on slope stabilisation hadn't come down during Jasper and if two meters of rain didn't shift it I don't know what was going to.
Vale Dr Louise Bleier
Kirsty McLeish
Aww I am so sad to hear this! Dr Louise changed my life in so many ways! Eternally grateful for her patience, her kindness and her determination to get answers for me! An incredible woman xx.
Lizzie Buttrose
God bless Dr Louise.
Pam Williams
Very sad to hear this. Condolences to Dr Ron and Dr Liz.
Barb Bateman
Oh how sad!
Let the farmers plant trees on their places
How disappointing that a shire whose economy depends on nature more than any other in the country can tell farmers they can’t plant trees on their place for carbon storage or nature restoration. And in a global biodiversity hotspot. Protecting ag land is vital but telling farmers what they can or cannot grow is bizarre. No other shire in the region bans trees for carbon or biodiversity. Today these are commodities just like cane or cattle, produced on farm and sold into a market.
For farmers this is a financial decision. On marginal ag land, such as that proposed, farmers will likely earn more restoring wetlands, sequestering carbon and regenerating nature than any other option they have. One farmer from a long-time cane growing family, affected by this decision is distraught. He says he has no other option – it floods regularly, too wet for anything but cane, the cattle get bogged, the fences damaged by floods and he is told he cannot grow trees to earn a living.
Restoring coastal and wetland ecosystems such as this will trap nitrogen and sediment and can make Douglas the only region on the Great Barrier Reef coast that could legitimately claim that catchment runoff has no detrimental impact on the reef and offer carbon neutral holidays for visitors. Instead we ban it!
At the height of its green reputation, tourism was also at its height, Daintree and the reef were in the media all over the world. Bill Clinton, president of the USA in brighter times, chose here to call on Australia to adopt “legally binding greenhouse gas targets”. Leaders from China, Germany and the UK, followed, extolling the virtues of our environment. It bought positive publicity no amount of advertising could buy.
Mike Berwick AM
Former Mayor
