Marys Mount dump
There is a proposal afoot which would appear to be on the cusp of turning the home town of Dorothea Mackellar and the Koala Capital of the World into not a "wide brown land" but a "wide refuse land" and the 'Garbage Mecca 'of the North West.
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The developments are being being proposed by members of the Mackellar group.
The project involves, it would appear, the transport of hundreds of thousand of tonnes of industrial and domestic waste from as far away as Sydney and the coast of Queensland. This would be processed at a massive dump recycling sight to be built on the doorstep of the beautiful and picturesque town of Gunnedah.
Virtually in the shadow of the grain terminal silos, recently painted with Dorothea's 'Wide Brown Land" poem. Tourists would be able to read the poem on the silos and view one of the biggest garbage processing plants in NSW within a comfortable two-minute drive.
The un-reclaimed material from the proposed processing terminal would be then transferred to the serene and quiet farming community of Marys Mount, some 20km from the town of Gunnedah.
A large number of farm and residential landowners, some as close as several hundred metres, received no meaningful consultation from the proponent before the development documents were quietly lodged with the Gunnedah Shire Council.
Similar proposals for a garbage dump at Armidale took 11 years to gain consent and then only after intensive investigation and community consultation.
The Gunnedah proposal proponents, it has been rumoured, we are told, are already stockpiling waste at various centres in Sydney and Queensland ready for immediate shipment to the 'Koala Capital'. If true, it could be viewed as a very bold investment move.
It could be argued there are some highly unusual circumstances surrounding the proposal. The residents are certainly troubled. It has been split into two 'different' development proposals. The development of the disposal site at Marys Mount is to have its future decided upon by what could be seen as a lower authority as a designated development. So much easier for the box to be ticked. While the other related site, on the doorstep of Gunnedah township, is a state significant project.
The 'two' developments are inextricably linked and one cannot survive without the other. The two developments are virtually one and the same for the sake of the argument. The EIS says as much.
Serious questions need to be asked as to what is happening here before Gunnedah Shire Council has to paint new slogans on the entrance to Gunnedah and rework the wording on the silos. The 'wide refuse land and the 'Garbage Mecca of the North West' don't have quite the nostalgic ring to it as the original did.
It would not be hard to imagine the distress and heartache of the young Dorothea Mackellar would feel sitting on her horse overlooking her beloved Gunnedah. To see it not known for AgQuip, the biggest Agricultural Exhibit in the Southern Hemisphere, the' Koala Capital of the World' and the home of her famous poem.
Now, as the sun glints on the mountains of rubbish stored at Marys Mount and upon the roof of a massive garbage processing shed on Gunnedah's doorstep, too have it now recognised by its new title as the 'Garbage Mecca of the North West'. It is ironic to think that a company known as the 'Mackellar Group' is promoting these proposals.
With Gunnedah recently nominated as one of the top three regional destinations in the state for 'tree changes' to move too, that rating could be short lived. The potential negative impact of Mackellar Group's proposed developments could well bring an end to land value increases or viewing the area as a desirable place to live and raise a family.
The balance of allowing a private developer to negatively impact the vast majority of landowners in Gunnedah in its endeavours to make many millions of dollars seems grossly unreasonable.
The mayor recently highlighted, in concerns he voiced on the state of Gunnedah hospital and the Rural Health Centre, that a large portion of the problem with the positive progression of these facilities was directly due to prudent and meaningful consultation on those issues not being afforded Gunnedah residents and other affected stakeholders, Hunter New England Health and the state government.
It appears a selective view on how effective consultation should be afforded to affected parties on one very important matter directly impacting the Gunnedah community and a certain absence of concern on something that will potentially destroy the
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