Welcome to this week’s editorial,
Welcome to March and welcome to Autumn.
It appears as though we managed to make it through summer without the onset of further bushfires. I for one am now quite apprehensive when I smell woodsmoke and the merest hint of smoke out of context sets me on edge. No doubt there are many like me in the community.
I drove north the other day, the first time in ages, and was saddened that most of the burnt forest remains as it was nearly a year ago with little more than basal regrowth offering a false sense of recovery.
Our communities are also beginning to regrow with new houses being built where the old ones stood. Mogo Pottery is an example of a local business rising from the pyre. It is a pleasure to see the old Church being rebuilt in its original form that will, one day soon become the much loved home and gallery it was before the fires.
Last weekend I was invited to attend the Community Day at Mogo Zoo where I met many members of the Mogo community and staff of the zoo. It was a day of recognising that the community rose as one to help each other through difficult times, and continue to do so long after.
A recent visit by the Premier of NSW to Mogo found her observing that little had changed since her last visit. She may have been surprised to see that much of the fire affected properties in the township remain as cleared, overgrown, vacant blocks. Knowing that there had been millions of dollars injected into bushfire recovery it was obvious from the Premier’s reaction that she wondered where the money had gone as there was little evidence of it being spent in the areas of Mogo she saw.
To any outsider it is evident that Mogo is still hurting however they are a strong community and have shown themselves to be stoic and resilient under adversity (and for often being overlooked).
There is much that can be done for the Mogo community and it would be good for Council to go in and actually listen for once rather than delivering their continual excuses and endless rhetoric.
Mogo will recover in time. And we MUST help them to do so because They are Us.
Until next
lei
Image: The Mogo Lolly Shop
