I see IIS has border advertisements for real estate now. Iron Stone housing development at Margaret River, close to beach blah, blah.
Well, that is the death knell for a once beatiful spot. Now it will be an overdeveloped sea of McMansions and rolling hills of terra-cotta roofing tiles. Parking meters, cafe's on the beach, and all manner of human effluent flowing in to the sea.
I wonder when there will be a five star hotel built on the summit of Mt Everest. A ski village at the south pole. A restaurant on the top of the Great Pyramid of Cheops. A brothel in the Vatican. etc etc.
When I grew up an old bloke next door who was stationed on the island of Bali during WW2 told me back in the 1940's it was an absolute paradise. He went back to Bali in the mid 1970's, and told me he cried the whole time. It was utterly perverted and destroyed. The beaches were filthy, as was the whole place, and where once clean native villages were, dirty streets with the locals practically begging were in place.
And I can remember what Lorne in Victoria once was like.... A quiet peaceful village. Now its an over developed ugly yuppie haunt, for just 3 months of the year...
I agree ..we are lucky to have at least lived in an age where there were spots that were away from it all...good spots nice spots...but folk can go anywheres these days and after a lot of folk see a quiet spot it ceases to be a quiet spot.
People think I am mad for living up in the hills away from everything that is human but it is so nice to be away from the build it out trip on beauty.
The Rocky River (beautiful river) at the back of me is one of the few unpoluted rivers or was until they go stick a cyanide gold processing works some place up stream...but the money drives all and they rather gold than the possibility of destroying another beautiful place...
but how many on the planet...6,000,000,000 or there abouts... and humans are very viscose..they will flow everywhere.
alex
Margaret River has been going that way for years. It used to be busy in the summer and quiet in the winter, but not any more. When I first went there for work 12 years ago there were a few fishermans houses at Prevelly, now its built up all over the place. Our sewage plant was well away from habitations ( no untreated effluent into the sea, I might add) but now they are getting closer every year and say the Water Corp should move it. Why, the darn thing was there for many years before they were. And no, it doesn't pong, a plant that is running properly doesn't.
Southwest Wastewater Team Motto "You Eat It, We Treat It"
The worst thing about Bali is the all the festy Aussies (and other backpackers) that have taken over the place. I passed through there a couple of years ago and was almost ashamed to be Australian.
Being an immigrant I'm part of the problem. I do though know exactly what you mean, Night Owl. Years ago as a young fellow I spent a couple of weeks at a place called Copocabana (or is that Copacabana? - I'm too lazy to go and get my maps). It was a beautiful place - tall trees filtering sunlight and a few dozen 'holiday shacks' sprinkled around underneath them.
Many years later, on a weekend drive, I peeled off from our direct route to show the place to my children. As we crested the rise prior to dropping down into the coastal valley I was met with a landscape denuded of all those wonderful trees and populated with a sea of roofs. Like your friend and his Bali experience I literally had tears in my eyes.
Progress, greed or population imperatives ... I don't know.
Anyone here from around the Coffs Harbour area? I used to love the place and its surroundings. I read some years ago that Valla Beach (or possibly Hungry Head) was being developed. Please tell me I misread.
they sure do grow and make some nice wines round there. leuwin estate mmmmmmmm
is its happening evrywhere including here, I can think of a number of places, specially coastal and adelaide hills - but our population supposedly isnt going up much (except for temporary overseas students! which have tripled) its got me stumped lol but then i read an article about the trend that everyone likes to live in a house on their own now, explains a lot? - d-i-v-o-r-c-e is the main element?
i often think of the farmers/sons ect. and imagine the rush they must experience sub dividing the farm and becoming instant millionaires or even better - must be hard to resist!
Last edited by fringe_dweller; 19-02-2008 at 11:34 PM.
They sure do Fringe Dweller, lived in Bunbury for 10 years and sampled quite a few. Some of the ones from outside MR are nice too, Capel Vale comes to mind.
Saw a lot of changes in the Southwest in that time, not all of them for the better.
I go for the bird flu, Miaplacidus
. Second choice would be to put the Pill in our drinking water - then we humans would all be gone in no time. After all, they are going to poison our water with flouride soon, so why not add a few more things??
Ah, yes. That's why I have no regrets giving up on the big smoke and moving to Tassie. One of the few places you can still get away from people.
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I will focus on the beautiful places still left, tassie is one of them, ive walked along the Western Arthur range and looked down to the Southern ocean knowing there unlikely to be more than a dozen people between me and it, been to Lake Rhona where you can sleep on a crystaline white sand beach next to a lake for a week and see no-one, sat on Mt Geryon and watched the sunset with mist rising up the cliff face again no-one to be seen, been to the walls of jerusalem in winter photographing icicles hanging off 2000 year old trees.. no one else there either. walked from cradle mountain to barn bluff in a thunderstorm stopping in waterfall valley to see the falls- pretty quiet that day. Camped at Shelf camp on mt Anne watching the sunrise on the fluted columns, camped by the gordon river watching wild platypus feed on the surface at dusk, ....... its not all gone just yet
FUNNY YOU GUYS CAME UP WITH TASSIE!
Just a few weeks ago we decided we have had enough of polluted crowded Brissie, and we hope to be down there, maybe within the year Yes, I have never been there, but it sounds just the ticket. And, yes there are still some beautiful places left in the world.. My son just came back from Viet Nam - Hanoi, and spent some time in a hill village. Fantastic photos, beautiful people and no high rises. As for that large bay near Hanoi (Han Lon Bay??) Must be a wonder of the world.
No not all stuffed up yet
Happened to pick up a magazine in the docs waitingroom today, what caught my eye was a full page ad for a 14Ha development in Gracetown, just up from MR. There's another nice place gone to the dogs.
...but the money drives all and they rather gold than the possibility of destroying another beautiful place
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