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Last week’s article “Cinderella Tourist Pursuit” was an interesting and emotively persuasive article that seems to imply that ‘agriculture’ is the primary activity of the New England. This is a bold statement and I would imagine many in the community would feel it is all too true to argue with. The author has also given the idea of agriculture’s prominence some validity with the word ‘agriculture’ being mentioned no less than five times throughout.
Keeping our local context of Armidale Dumaresq in mind, in fact, agriculture is the primary industry outside of Armidale city and the townships that surround it. Agriculture supports many in these smaller surrounding communities (such as Guyra) and brings in around 50 million dollars per annum to the economy. These facts are undeniable. They are also impressive figures given that agriculture represents a small percentage of the total working population in the New England (under 7% for Armidale Dumaresq Council) and they are testimony to the hard working spirit and ‘never say die’ attitude of so many in the agricultural sector. However, in the context of the Rail Trail proposal and the greater New England community, the author is misinformed.
When a proposal like the Rail Trail is to be debated and decided upon, fact is more helpful than ill-informed propaganda and subjective, unsubstantiated fear mongering. The Rail Trail concept is for the New England community and visitors to it not just for a small, albeit important, subsection of Guyra’s community.
Regarding tourism, it is important to realise that it does not provide a “short term gain.” Tourism is not a “Cinderella pursuit.” In fact, overnight tourism brought over 240 million dollars to the New England North West community in 2013. So rather than a being a “short term gain for a limited section of the community,” tourism is substantial by comparison to even agriculture in this region.
The Rail Trail also falls in line with Australia’s National Long-Term Tourism Strategy which projects more than 8.5 billion dollars of visitor spending by 2020. Rather than “white washing history,” as stated by the author in another article, the Rail Trail looks to enhance peoples engagement with our railway history and save it from the current ‘red wash’ of rust and decay while supporting the Australian Government’s vision into the future, and staying current with what the majority of people in the region would benefit from now, rather than what worked for an industry 50 years ago (as significant and important as that is to all of us).
Agriculture is called a ‘primary’ industry because it is involved in extracting or harvesting raw materials, not because it is the most important industry or represents a majority of the tax paying population. In fact, the primary industry in terms of percentage of the population in our own area is Education which represents three times the taxpaying population in our area than agriculture does. That’s a lot of people who are not directly involved with our important and proud agricultural sector and history.
Interestingly, formally educated people are statistically more likely to engage in healthier lifestyles and physical fitness pursuits than non-educated people. That’s not to say that all the educated people interested in staying fit and healthy are hiding away in schools and universities. Educated people are in all sectors. Then there are the people who are socially educated about health due to internet access to health education. People educated about health and interested in pursuing varied and interesting ways to stay fit and healthy are everywhere.
I ride every morning with people from the Professional, Scientific, Agricultural, Small Business, Retail, Health and Trade sectors. I see a lot of mature aged ladies and men on their bikes. I see a lot of mums and people from all sectors in Guyra running, walking, and doing boot camp. That is just in Guyra. All this adds up to a lot of people who are interested in staying healthy and keeping fit in the New England. I would postulate that this subset of the New England community far out numbers those in Guyra who would benefit from a local abattoir to kill meat for a ‘limited section of the community.’
One of the other industry sectors that is double in size to agriculture is Health Care. The health costs that taxpayers are footing are astronomical and the status quo seems unsustainable. The primary reason for this astronomical health care bill is poor lifestyle choices. Complications from obesity, which is reversible for most with a healthy eating plan and active lifestyle, cost Australian taxpayers 21 billion annually. A reversal of this epidemic and the current downward trend in health will have far more impact on the greater community, including the tax payers in our local one, and help more people than a return of “freight and passenger services” to Guyra ever will. The Rail Trail is a small step, but a step in the right direction.
Yes agriculture is strong at 3% of national GDP, but tourism is stronger. It may not be stronger here but it could be. To move forward into the future with strong and growing economies we need a diverse economy not a reliance and inequitable focus on one sector of it.
And again, the author states that a rail trail will “render the corridor useless for any future use for rail.” On the contrary - the Rail Trail proposal has already factored this in and if any rail service is considered viable and necessary in the future the Rail Trail would be replaced with a modern rail line suitable for modern trains. Again, let’s stick to facts and deny ourselves the temptation to scare monger.
The author also mentions that “the only way to bring life back to the Great Northern rail corridor is to reinstate freight and passenger services.” Where is the evidence or rationale for this emotive and subjective statement? Thousands of communities throughout the world have proven otherwise by utilisation of rail corridors for rail trails with million dollar results to the local economies.
“The future use of rails is a distinct possibility” was stated by the author, but again where is the evidence to substantiate this persuasively subjective statement? I am not sure that future use as a rail line is readily identifiable as something that might happen at some indeterminate time in the future considering the old design, current state of disrepair and more modern means of freight and passenger transportation and infrastructure.
Let’s keep to the facts and an eye on the future of our whole region rather than looking inwardly and always asking ‘What’s in it for me?’ (…ironically the answer to that question might reside in the Rail Trail too).