Pioneer Heritage Lost
I REFER to the sale of church properties proposed by the Anglican Church, to redress compensation for victims of abuse in the past. Surely there must be another way? To even contemplate selling St Matthias Church at Windermere, St Mary’s Church at Hagley, St Paul’s Church in East Devonport and so many others, is beyond belief.
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So much of our ancestral heritage and history is found in the remarkable and unique architecture of our early churches built in the 1800s.Tasmanians are very proud of their rich pioneer heritage. These churches have been a vital and integral part of the communities they have served over many years.
They are beautiful places, whereby people have gathered to pray during two world wars and other conflicts, to mourn and to bury their loved ones in the church grounds. Each church has its own story, memorial windows reflect the past. These are hallowed places, not to be lost.
Does the Anglican Church have a right to sell off the assets of its forefathers to the highest bidder? And what of the cemeteries? Are not the burial places of pioneer ancestors as important as the burial grounds of Indigenous people? I am not of Anglican faith, but I share the pain being felt by many church communities at the present.
Colleen Hill, Youngtown.
Cost of church
WAKE up Tasmanians. Do you know how much it costs to run a church these days?
Who pays for power, water, cleaning, maintenance (inside and out) of the building, the grounds, the priest’s stipend superannuation, long service leave, rental assistance and car allowance, insurance for building, contents and workers, the Bishop and administrator of the diocese - they do not have a private income.
Are there young people to take over from you? Irrespective of redress parishes need reorganising to make them viable into the future and like it or not that means selling church buildings and making arrangements for the care of existing cemeteries.
Mary Bonnily, Trevallyn.
Pyengana Church
HOW does the Anglican Diocese get to own the Pyengana Church? The land was donated to the community in 1894 by Miss Macdonald and the community built the church with voluntary labour with material donated by the community.
It does not seem possible that it could then belong to the diocese. My ancestors and families are all buried in the cemetery at Pyengana and I feel betrayed to think it might be sold.
Aileen Gough, Devon Hills.
Water Woes
EACH summer Bridport suffers the ignominy of usually being the only Tasmanian town on water restrictions.
The demand on Bridport’s water treatment plant at that busy time exceeds the plant’s capacity.
Should there be unusually low water flows in the Brid River, coupled with this inadequate treatment capacity, what does this potentially mean for Bridport’s residents, visitors, fire-fighting capacity, hatchery, port and other businesses?
I suggest a disaster waiting to happen.
Yet, there is a simple solution.
Scottsdale’s water treatment plant’s capacity has four to five times the demand there.
When needed, a low-cost gravity-fed pipeline could transfer some of that excess to Bridport.
Such a pipeline was in TasWater’s own works program, but has now been deleted.
Despite a $1.5 billion works program, TasWater now apparently regards Bridport as such a low priority that no solutions are proposed.
Respectfully we disagree and hope that our political representatives will also push for a higher priority when the government Memorandum of Understanding with TasWater is settled.
In a letter published in February, TasWater’s community relations general manager promised that TasWater would soon begin a community engagement program to establish the impacts of water restrictions on Bridport.
As far as I am aware, this is yet to commence.
Ten years after the Scottsdale-Bridport pipeline was first proposed, isn’t it time that TasWater, the council, and our political representatives truly grasped the potential gravity of Bridport’s water shortcomings and got together with the community to fast track a solution.
Len Gillett, Bridport.
Chivalry
I WOULD like to thank the young couple who pushed my car when I broke down (July 23) in Bathurst Street.
Also the two gentlemen who moved it for me to a side street, many thanks and bless you.
To the woman who was angry and blowing the horn, thumbs down to you.
Sorry I was in your way, but break downs do happen, you had room to merge.
J. Douglas, Launceston.
Backflips By Public Figures
GIVEN that Donald Trump regularly backflips on major issues, it would be appropriate, in future, to refer to major backflips by public figures as “Trumpisms”.
It could be way we will remember him, once he leaves the political scene, which hopefully will be sooner rather than later.
Derek Holden, Newstead.
Tourists
GIVE the people want they want.
There's been a lot of talk about tourists coming to our great island state in recent times.
But, I wonder, how are they supposed to get there in all convenience without our great national catamaran, the "Devil Cat"?
Comfort, security, luxury - this is what the tourists want.
You can even bring your cars.