Bundarrah Days

Push For The Bush has started a new blog which I have been asked to contribute to and edit.

Due to time constraints and a growing lack of megabytes I've reluctantly decided to say goodbye to Bundarrah Days at Blog Spirit.

However, Push For The Bush will include everything you've been accustomed to reading here and more.

I hope you decide to join us there and contribute to our efforts to build a powerful rural network.

I'll see you there: http://www.pushforthebush.blogspot.com

By Robyn Burke

The Tom Quilty Endurance Ride is planned to be staged in the Bunyip State Park in Nov’08.

This is a well known national event that would bring some 4000 visitors to Cardinia Shire.

On applying for a permit to Parks Victoria the person in charge of setting the tracks, Jane Mclaughlin, has met with major problems. The last management plan saw the demise of many tracks to suit local residents on the problem of motorised vehicle noise, therefore limiting the distance needed to run such an event. Many of the through tracks are now Management Vehicle Only (MVO) tracks but some are also 4WD by permit only.

These tracks remain gated . Since the resolution of the management plan the Federation of Victorian Bushwalkers have been given access to these tracks, and apparently pushbike riders, but not horse riders,

Why not?? Other members of the Community Advisory Group for the Management Plan were not advised of these changes.

Jane Mclaughlin met with Parks Victoria & bushwalkers to ask for access to these tracks for this one major event and was given a resounding NO.

Why do a minority group like the bushwalkers have so much clout??

Horse riders need to unite, we are such a fragmented lot, dressage, trail, endurance, etc.,etc. but there does not seem to be a united body (like the Victorian Bushwalkers Federation, AMTRA for motorbikes, and national 4WD Clubs) The loss of good bridle trails in our forests is becoming very obvious.

Please write, phone, email Parks Vic, John Thwaites MP, Cardinia Council, and any other group or person that may be able to influence the outcome of the Tom Quilty Ride with your complaints and suggestions.

Please forward email onto other riders so they can also participate.

Let’s unite for the sake of horse riding in the future.

Email Jane McLaughlin here: hmlaughlin@iinet.net.au

Country Victorians who have been dudded and deceived by the Bracks Government will not be surprised to learn that premier, Steve Bracks, believes that decisions come before consultation.

Bass Coast Shire councillor, Peter Paul, said yesterday he was "absolutely staggered" by the lack of consultation over plans for Victoria's first desalination plant.

The people of the Goulburn Valley, those of the river red gum country and the Mountain Cattlemen would all agree.

Mountain Cattlemen were still being told no decision had been made on their future long after advertisements had been made extolling the decision to expel them from the Alpine National Park in June 2005.

Moira Shire yesterday accused the government of the same kind of deception. Moira Mayor, Malcolm Frank said the government's meeting last week with Goulburn Valley mayors was a "farce" given that a $1 million advertising campaign about the Great Divide pipeline was produced days earlier.

"We feel very betrayed," he said. "I suspect the State Government has lost all credibility up here."

Despite the anger Bracks remains unrepentent and dictatorial saying that the "place of consultation does not come before the decision making process."

Translated into plain English that can only mean there is no place at all for consultation with this government which might very shortly mean that there is a place for confrontation.