The Lake Macquarie News Wednesday February 18, 2004 front page story was about the sorry state of Lake Macquarie Council giving the go ahead to chop down a 600 year old BlackButt to make way for private "development".

They passed the buck (or should that be bucks? :) to the Land & Environment Council who today, Tuesday the 24th of February ruled that the tree will get killed in favour of profit.



Why do they call destruction of the precious remnants of Australia's heritage "development" anyhow? Council is probably also out of touch in their definiton of "progress" despite last Sunday's episode of Compass on ABC report that "Over the last decade 23% of Australians have chosen to 'downshift' to a simpler lifestyle on less income."

I you are disgusted by Council's disrespect for nature and pessimistic "get what you can when you can" outlook please call one of the campaigners Nick Burgess (497 33 792) who has detailed the tree's progress meticulously over the last 25 years. In fact his evidence sheds much doubt on the credibilty of the "independent" arborist consulted by Council.



If we allow money to totally rule our decisions then Australia has no hope for the future. If you are interested in learning about how logging continues in our World Heritage areas of tasmania have a listen to Last Friday's Radio National episode of Australia Talks Back.

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