Opinion - Pine forests

September 12, 2024

By Deborah Hoolihan

The Fish River Brett Whiteley, July 19, 1979

Some years ago I found a book in the Oberon Library which included a copy of Brett Whiteley's sketch from around "Nestlebrae", south of Oberon. Down the sides of this sketch, Whiteley had written a letter to his mother (known to Whiteley as Ning), who was then living in the UK.

When I found this book, I was working as a photo-journalist for the Oberon Review and wrote an article on this artwork. I really wanted the people of Oberon to bask in this notoriety and perhaps more fervently appreciate some of the beauty of our district. I was proud to boast of Whiteley's claim that "the landscape really is the most beautiful I've seen in Australia". After detailing the views, Whiteley ended the letter with, "The next time you are in Australia, I would like to take you for an afternoon's walk along the Fish River at Oberon."

I don't know whether or not Whiteley ever took his mother for that stroll, but I do know that our wonderful landscapes are at risk. For starters, we are losing a huge proportion of our natural bushland and good agricultural land to pine plantations. A recent look at aerial maps of the area came as a shock, and much more land has been purchased for the planting of pine trees since those images were captured. This is understandable, of course: apart from the obvious financial rewards, some of our taxes are being used to pay carbon credits, making pine plantations much more attractive than trying to earn a living from agriculture. Alas, we can't eat pine trees.

The most immediate threat, though, is the imposition of wind towers. While the current proposal has them slated for erection in pine forests in the south of the Oberon LGA, this would seem to represent Stage 1, with Forestry representatives having stated that wind towers will be put into all plantations around Oberon. 

Forestry recently bought some of the best agricultural land in the district, at Porters Retreat. This was supposedly meant to compensate them for pines lost when wind towers are built in current plantations. I am somewhat sceptical, though, about the actual intended land use. That two-and-a-half-thousand-acre block has subsequently been leased for a three-year term to a beef producer. Why is it not currently being sown to pines? At the risk of suspecting misuse of public funds (not that Government had my permission to use my taxes to buy the place for pines, anyway), one must ask what the real plan is for this beautiful piece of Australia.  

Regardless of your stance, I urge parents of children and teenagers to take their offspring for some forays onto our country roads. Let them see the beauty of our district while it lasts because, unless we can stop this onslaught, they won't get to see its unspoiled splendour as adults.

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Disclaimer: Oberon Matters has no opinion either way on the matter of wind towers near Oberon. This article is for public information only. Please see our position of total neutrality.

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