One thing not to celebrate on Australia Day
It seems rather ironic that Ballina’s Australia Day celebrations will be centred on the Richmond River and Lance Ferris Park.
“On Australia Day we come together as a nation to celebrate what’s great about Australia and being Australian. It’s the day to reflect on what we have achieved and what we can be proud of in our great nation,” says the Australia Day website.
There are many great things about this nation which we can celebrate on Saturday. However, the dead Richmond River is not one of them.
And one wonders what the late Lance Ferris, founder of Australian Seabird Rescue who died suddenly last year at the age of 60, would be feeling if he was still with us. No doubt Lance would be heartbroken by the recent fish kill which has forced the closure to fishing of the Richmond for the second time in seven years.
All who gather at Lance Ferris Park on the Richmond riverbank on Saturday should take a moment to reflect on what effects the closure of the river will have.
Tourism will be affected. This will mean loss of jobs.
Those who work in the fishing industry — the professionals, the bait shop owners, the local fish co-op employees — will struggle, not just while the river is closed, but well into the future as, hopefully, fish stocks are replenished.
I was at a meeting last week which was attended by an out-of-town visitor. Also present was a Ballina Shire councillor. The visitor’s first words to him were: “Councillor, you have to do something about that river. It stinks.”
She was right. The smell coming from the Richmond over the past fortnight has been diabolical. It’s the smell of death — not just dead fish, but a once pristine river dying. What message are we sending to those who want to visit our beautiful area?
There’s been blame apportioned, denials of guilt, pleas for something to be done.
If the wind is blowing off the river on Saturday and that smell still lingers, it will serve as a timely reminder that there are some things we cannot celebrate on our national day. A dead river is one of them.
Nor can we celebrate the fact that we were warned by the 2001 fish kill that there is something wrong with the way we treat our river yet we have let this happen again.
Let’s stop pointing the finger at who is to blame and get on with fixing the problems, once and for all.
