Letters to the Editor – January 30

As an “extension of the many years of work the Company had invested in understanding and protecting these iconic species and regular visitors to the State’s jarrah forest, near where it operates,” according to Alcoa of Australia chairman and managing director Michael Parker.

Birdlife Australia project manager Vicki Stokes said land use changes had dramatically impacted Black-Cockatoos through the loss of food, roost and nest resources.

“For example, more than 70 per cent of the Swan Coastal Plain has been cleared of banksia woodlands which are vital food sources for the cockatoos,” she said.

Ms Stokes neglected to mention that the jarrah/marri forests which Alcoa dig up to mine the underlying bauxite, are major sources of food, roosting and nesting sites for the cockatoos.

This forest destruction has accelerated since Alcoa started mining an extra 2.5 million tonnes of raw bauxite for export in addition to the bauxite it mines as feed for its Wagerup refinery.

The additional bauxite is hauled from Wagerup to Bunbury in truck/trailers at a rate of five per hour, seven days a week up to 7pm.

These trucks will join the 100 truck/trailers per day on south west roads, carting lithium from Greenbushes to Bunbury and Fremantle.

Tourists and local drivers will not be favourably impressed. The Greenbushes operation will also destroy jarrah/marri forest cockatoo habitat. The Forest Products Commission is asking for tenders to obtain 100,000 tonnes of marri logs over the next year.

This will entail the logging of a huge number of marri trees which will make the survival of cockatoos precarious. The fate of the already endangered cockatoo species does not look promising.

John Vukovich, Bunbury

The recent announcement of  the need to expand the local refuge centre to cater for up to another 70 people seems to me to be sad indictment of our society today.

Is this a case of more women are refusing to suffer in silence or the message is not getting through to a portion of our male population.

Violence against women in our modern society can not be tolerated and must cease.

Ross Cartledge

The City of Bunbury professes to be waterwise. 

Our local park - Sundew Park - is on scheme water so council says it can only be watered twice weekly.

Grass and trees are dying due to lack of attention to this park despite the residents constant requests to fix this.

Koombana Bay is on scheme water but it is watered daily.

To add insult to injury, in the kids play area is a water "seesaw" that kids load sand onto then run water to wash the sand off.

This water is scheme water and just runs into the sand.

Kids run this tap constantly.

What a complete waste of scheme water.

I object that my rates can be used to water Koombana Bay daily and pay for wasted water in the play area, but our local park can not be watered properly or looked after.

Council needs to start looking after its rates base, put in bores to green our parks and reserves and stop wasting monies (an example being spending millions purchasing the white elephant, the Old Souths Furniture building).

Anna F

Last week’s Bunbury Mail featured a letter from Anonymous (sic) opposing the Step Up Step Down facility in Glen Iris and suggesting I am not interested in listening to the community.

The location of the new Step Up Step Down facility has been broadly canvassed by the Mental Health Commission within the Glen Iris community and by the local media. Any suggestion the community was unaware the facility would be built is ridiculous.

I am aware there is some opposition from nearby residents but I have received more messages of support for the facility to be built in Glen Iris from local residents. 

Such facilities operate successfully in suburban settings elsewhere in the state and I am confident this will be the case in Glen Iris.

The writer may be interested to know that since I was elected in 2017 I have held seven mobile offices and community meetings in Glen Iris to discuss local issues with local residents. 

Overall I have organised more than 40 mobile offices, community meetings and Ministerial Forums for the sole purpose of hearing directly from the people living in my electorate.

While I don’t always agree with every suggestion put forward by every constituent, I absolutely disagree with the suggestion I don’t listen.

In fact, had Anonymous (sic) been willing to publish their name, my first response would have been to pick up the phone and give them a call rather than write this letter.