…by A. Breeder.
Remember this back in 2006? What did it all come to?
The unique Hawkesbury poultry culture may suffer if the Liberals gain control of Hawkesbury Council.
Little things (sic) seem to be already occurring in Hawkesbury – there is a growing culture of complaint about noise and the smell of chicken faeces while other supposed ‘concerns’ are regularly raised. The Council listens to complaints, although in this case, the Council may be trained to listen if the complaints serve an agenda.
The local people and those who have come to Hawkesbury to escape modern urban living and to enjoy rural scenery and a free lifestyle, have a keen interest in preserving their physical heritage.
Ever since early colony poultry and livestock have featured strongly in our lifestyle and culture. The ‘Cowpastures’ at Camden is a case in point as was the early sheep industry. Our poultry industry is as vital if not always as glamorous
Different breeds like Australorp are noted; other breeds like the Australian Game were of Malayoid origin and adapted to our environment. Original settler fowl had a remarkable heat resistance which suited the Australian summer and such traits were infused into the Leghorn breed.
Current councils see more concerned with noise pollution than the loss of a poultry gene pool. Indeed IF, and we say IF climate change is real, or IF it is occurring for the reasons advanced, our country, like the rest of the world to whom we export, could easily face a chronic food shortage.
The small cottage poultry breeder industry keeps rare breeds alive. The multinationals and other lands don’t have this gene pool.
Modern breeds have difficulty in withstanding the artificial environments created for them with the heat the greenhouse gases which constantly surround them. It is not impossible to imagine that the Australian poultry industry will need to be reinvigourated from the selective rare breeds gene pool.
The poultry industry of the Hawkesbury also includes regular chooks. Sydney derives almost all of its eggs from North West Sydney and the Nepean areas. If Hawkesbury is turned into a fringe city of Greater Sydney, whence do we obtain eggs?
Your commentator here has travelled overseas and viewed the pounltry industry. The king and Queen of Thailand have a policy have a policy that maintains old traditions in the industry and even protect a gene bank of rare seeds for future food production and animal feeding.
Why shouldn’t we do the same?
The Hawkesbury was originally known as the ‘Green Hills‘. It was at its earliest inception a major food growing area of market produce to the growing Colony and continued as a Market Garden Region until the Turf Farm Industry came into dominance in the latter part of the 20th Century. The actual Windsor township was where the South Windsor shops now are and the shops grew along the road from South to North to meet the river trade d.emands. The Hawkesbury rural industry is a thread in the life of our country.
I regard myself as a patriotic Australian. My Nationalism more than a desire to preserve inaminate buildings, although I think that’s vital and I do whatever I can to protect the Hawkesbury heritage; but I see it as something about the the fabric of our lives.
Invade our culture on the rural fringe and I feel attacked. I am tired of those who get annoyed if ducks quack, horses neigh and roosters crow at dawn. This area is vital to our State and we must protect it.