How much can a koala bear?
While out walking last week your blogger and ever-faithful blue heeler happened upon an irate local resident.
Upon inquiring of the cause of his trouble, Blinky, of Minchinbury Terrace let fly with such a spray of invective that even the cattle dog from Queanbeyan (see profile pic) visibly blushed.
'Angry? I'm bloody ropable,' he spat. Koalas are notoriously cranky when woken during the day, but it seems this one had deeper issues.
'First I've got to put up with being endangered, but now I hear I'm f**kin' fictitious!!'
How so, I inquired of the foul-mouthed marsupial.
Turns out that the bear's neighbours on Minchinbury Terrace, had tried to alert DPT&I to his existence as part of the 'community consultation' (*sham up*) run by the department back in May.
Upon being informed that eucalyptus trees lining the road verge formed a wildlife corridor, the departmental bods responded with a dismissive wave and concluded "it's not like you've got koala bears just wandering along the rail corridor, is it?"
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| Blnky of Marion, eyes up the chainsaws |
'How do they think I get along it? Catch a taxi?' said Blinky, again unleashing the kind of cursing that would do a sailor proud, but is seldom heard in the dress circle of Marion.
Blinky maintains that he's worked bloody hard for this country, what with putting us on the map as a travel destination for Asian newlyweds and the rest... With all the corporate offshoring, Blinky reckons he's had the devil's own job trying to get the balance of payments sorted.
'Would it kill you to buy Australian?' opined the national treasure.
Not one to idly whinge, or take things lying down, Blinky undertook to get DPTI's attention via the Oaklands Estate Residents' Association. In fact, he went straight to the top of the tree (where the leaves are sweeter), organising a meeting with the President, which was recorded in the association's latest newsletter.
'Fred was alright', said Blinky, 'Nice bloke. Bushwalker - dunno where he finds the energy. But at least he didn't treat me like a friggin' unicorn!'
Fred wrote to DPT&I to ask them to clarify what exactly was involved in tree pruning.
How much of the canopy is removed exactly and what happens if you 'prune' a tree to death, is that considered removal? Does tree death trigger compensation? Blinky believes OERA is still waiting for a reply.
Similar queries (and more) were put from a resident at number 12 Abbeville. If you have to take out the big redgum at the end of Bassi Street why not keep the trunk in the ground so that the animals could still use the limbs and hollows he asked?
Surely this would also stop the kind of slumping we see at the northern end of the platform where a 300 year old redgum was removed two years ago? And shouldn't we prune koala food species lightly and replant something for them to eat?
'If we went to this much trouble at one station, what kind of rail system would we be running?' reasoned the bureaucrats.
'A good one!' said Blinky.
What do you think?
Email ussafemarionstation@gmail.com and we'll post your response.
