Government planners do not recognise any boundaries or special respect for what we think of as our local community and area.
With a stroke of a pen and no consultation with anyone in the community they can commit large areas of our farmland and bushland to housing developments with or without any new facilities or roads.
With a stroke of a pen they can approve large housing developments to move culturally / socio-economically / religiously different people into our stable community en masse without any understanding or respect for what we have here.
We are our own community with our own distinct cultural profile. It doesn’t mean it is any better than somewhere else but we have a high local respect for our own culture and being very up front about that will be valuable in working to build resilience here and to protect it against potentially destructive decisions by bureaucrats without any care for who we are here.
There is a politically abusive term for people who want to look after their home environment and their local community well and treasure their community’s culture. It is NIMBY (not in my back yard).
So someone who loves gardening and lives peaceably with neighbours is being a NIMBY if they don’t want a wild party of louts next door shouting obscene language into the night.
We need to understand the value and preciousness of our local culture who we are what we are/ have been creating to be confident in standing up for our rights to be the people we are in this upper Kedron Brook valley.
There are differences among us here. Let’s own our own differences and learn to live well together enjoyably and respectfully. We shouldn’t be looking to “export” our “problems” from the upper Kedron Brook valley community if we want to be able to argue that we shouldn’t be forced to “import” “problems” from elsewhere.
Resilience is a quality of a community and resources that takes a lot of work and care and time and effort to build up. It can be plundered or destroyed in one fell swoop. A stable community is a hugely valuable asset.