#midnorthcoast — Public Fediverse posts

The Dorrigo Escarpment Great Walk

Intensifying the throughput rate with a series of soaring walkways through the Gondwana Rainforest

The $56.4 million investment in Dorrigo National Park will create “accessible, engaging and immersive experiences for visitors. The 4-day walking track will “connect people with nature... The new 46-km multi-day walk along the rugged escarpment within Dorrigo and Bindarri national parks, includes hiker camps, pedestrian bridges and lookouts.”

The review of environmental factors for the Dorrigo Escarpment Great Walk is available for public comment
>> until 24 February 2025. >>
https://www2.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/parks-reserves-and-protected-areas/park-management/community-engagement/walking-tracks-and-trails-in-national-parks/dorrigo-great-walk
https://www.nsw.gov.au/have-your-say/dorrigo-escarpment-great-walk

The Dorrigo Escarpment Great Walk project has the potential to put though an extra 200,000 visitors ...>
https://bellingenshirenews.com/2023/11/22/new-opportunities-flagged-for-shire/

There is an information session at the

Gleniffer Hall at 10am on Tuesday 11 February

at which staff from National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) will outline the draft review of environmental factors (REF) for the Dorrigo Escarpment Great Walk.

#biodiversity #rainforest #Gondwana #MidNorthCoast #NationalParks #NSW #BindarriNP #Dorrigo #AdventurePark #infrastructure #lookouts #views #cars #Climate #tourism #traffic #TheDrive #Bellingen #experience #stuff #walkways #ecology #MoreThanHuman #impacts

"Indigenous people here speak of the lack of memorials on this land.
But every bordered property is a site for dark tourism in Australia.
Dark tourism is the effort to seek out destinations of violence and devastation, but it is not hard to see genocide from our front door in this country...Tim Rowse has called the “ongoing colonial encounter sometimes called ‘Australia’”
>>
https://theconversation.com/dark-tourism-is-attracting-visitors-to-war-zones-and-sites-of-atrocities-in-israel-and-ukraine-why-240119

Gumbaynggirr Country is located on the mid-north coast of New South Wales. It is also known as the Bellingen/ Gleniffer Valley and has curated three reserves in the 21st century with memorials which are all named after white settlers:

The Arthur Keough Reserve (Never Never River) is named after the first settler pioneer families to arrive in the Gleniffer Valley.
http://www.bellingennow.com/about/index.html

Angel Gabriel Capararo 'modernised' the Promised land.
http://www.bellingennow.com/Angel_Gabriel_Capararo/index.html

Earl Preston reserve was named after a settler who arrived in 1929
http://www.bellingennow.com/Earl_Preston/index.html

Nothing about the massacres and the poisoning to death of local Aboriginal people.

Colonial Frontier Massacres, Australia, 1788 to 1930
https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres/map.php
https://howlinginfinite.com/2021/03/22/dark-deeds-in-
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/189773560
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_poisonings_of_Aboriginal_Australians
#GumbaynggirrCountry #Bellingen #Fernmount #Gleniffer #TheDrive #MidNorthCoast #IndigenousPeoples #massacres #memorials #tourism #DarkTourism #violence #TuthTelling #denial #SettlerSociety #colonialism

Waterways contaminated with "forever chemicals"
The fate of Bellingen's platypuses

"An Australian-first study found perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in the liver of deceased platypuses collected from numerous rivers in eastern NSW. PFOS is toxic to humans and has been linked to some cancers."

"Scientists from Western Sydney University (WSU) have discovered perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in the livers of eight deceased platypuses collected from numerous eastern NSW rivers, from the north coast in Bellingen to the alps of Jindabyne."

"All eight wild platypuses collected from NSW waterways over the past two and a half years returned results with concentrations of some PFOS in them, ranging from 4 micrograms per kilogram (µg/kg) to 1,200 µg/kg — some of the highest concentrations of any species in the world."
>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-20/australia-first-study-finds-forever-chemicals-in-platypuses/104244072

Platypus Survival - Inspired by True Events
https://bellingenarea.blogspot.com/2023/11/platypus-survival-inspired-by-true.html
#platypuses #Bellingen #rivers #creeks #water #NSW #PFOS #pollution #sentinels #PerfluorooctaneSulfonate #FirefightingFoam #contamination #monotremes #wildlife #chemical #FoodChain #MidNorthCoast

Unchecked tourism at Bellingen's Never Never River
Indigenous custodians embrace chance to curb tourism at 'trashed' swimming spot

"Occasional closure part of Indigenous Protected Area plan for troubled Never Never River's Promised Lands. The spot has now been declared part of an 81,000-hectare Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) in the Bellingen Valley."

"There have been concerns about pollution in the Never Never River at a popular swimming spot known as the Promised Lands, near the town of Bellingen...In January 2023, water quality at the river showed concerning levels of faecal matter, with human and dog excrement the suspected source."

"It was once regarded as something of a secret spot, but coverage on social media has seen it become an increasingly popular swimming site. But as the site is not recognised as a tourist area by Forestry Corporation NSW, which manages the Crown Land, there are no public toilets or rubbish bins, and minimal parking."

"Rather than it being a free-for-all, driving up and down from sacred places, we need to give it a rest sometimes during the year."
>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-10/never-never-river-bellingen-indigenous-protected-area/103993356
#PromisedLand #NeverNever #rivers #Bellingen #TheDrive #ExcessiveTourism #tourism #NSW #pollution #dogs #SaveTuckersNob #GumbaynggirrCountry #GoBeforeYouGo #swimming #toilets #MidNorthCoast #platypus