Bathurst Community Climate Action Network

During the week just gone, the ABC 7.30 program ran an intriguing series on the topic of population which concluded with a panel of experts from Tim Flannery to people with expertise in business, cities and planning.
Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swann have been busy on the air waves too letting us know that we face difficult times ahead with populuation estimated to almost double between now and 2050 to around 36 million people based on current birth rates (and death rates) and current rates of immigration. Kevin was keen to point out that he was in favour of a "big Australia" and he was not ashamed to say so.
Population world wide is also expanding rapidly of course, and current estimates indicate that there will be between 9 and 10 billion of us sharing this planet by 2050. After this date, some  (eg. Colin Tudge - "So Shall We Reap" estimate population will begin to level out due to world wide declining birth rates and over several hundred years begin to decline.
Bathurst too is looking at a doubling of its population over the next 40 years and this will present its own set of challenges and opportunities. In microcosm we face local issues which Australia and the nations of the world are grappling with. In the face of this pressure, how do we ensure water supplies, dwellings, health systems, quality education, food security and at the same time halt the alarming decline in biodiversity and ever increasing carbon pollution.
The pressues on our environment are immense and more people thrown into the mix increase that pressure enormously. Even if we individually increase our energy efficiency and decrease our waste, on an overall measure these figures have to rise.
One of the factors which arose in the round of public consultations conducted by the Bathurst Regional Council in designing the new Land and Environment Planning document (yet to be ratified by the Sate Government) was the general reluctance of people to embrace medium density development in our city and surrounding villages. Understandably, most want their block of land and they put to oneside the obvious disconnect that we cannot simply keep encroaching out into the countryside to satisfy that demand.
One of the factors which is of particular concern to me is that some of the land immediately on the outskirts of Bathurst is prime agricultural land, some of it currently utilised as orchards and grazing land. To put this land under housing, would be a loss we could come to regret.
Although Bathurst is currently in a good position regarding water supply, many of our neighbours are less so and the river system downstream is also under extreme stress due to lack of flows. As time goes on there will be more pressure to assist our neighbours and build pipelines between towns, by-passing the river entirely at the considerable loss to farming and the environment along the river.
Transport is another issue very pertinent to this area. Local business and the council are lobbying strongly for a new highway from Sydney to Bathurst to facilitate increased freight and people movement between here and the metropolis. Unfortunately for this plan is that various in-depth studies of this plan over the years, show this scheme to be incredibly expensive and a huge risk to the pristine environment of the Blue Mountains National Park.  In my view this opens the door to looking at a high speed rail link between Sydney and Bathurst, through the mountains and not over it.  This has been done in Japan, China and in Europe so it is technically feasible and in this way the burden of increased motorised traffic is reduced and the safety of heavy transport on our roads minimised.
Within the bounds of Bathurst city itself, an increased population means more traffic on our roads here, increasing an already existing problem. At the risk of sounding repetitive, but here the challenge is to rapidly increase the use of bicycle transport within the city.  If 20% of our traffic was converted to cycle traffic on safe cycle lanes and paths, the congestion on our roads would be significantly reduced and the overall health of our community would be increased and the the conviviality of our society increased markedly.
You will have your opportunity to  put your views in an upcoming BCCAN meeting which will focus on these issues on the the 6th of February at BINC starting at 12 noon. Bring your lunch, tea and coffee will be provided.