Not only do we enjoy the top quality health care, education, arts and culture and other advantages that you hope for in a major city, but we are surrounded by beautiful forests and some native grasslands.

Some of these treasured places enjoy the partial protection provided by National Park status.

Other areas, which we have perhaps come to take for granted, remain unprotected.

This is despite their population of endangered species: mammals, birds and others which are less cute and cuddly but precious none the less.

There is a real danger that creeping sub-division and “development” will simply wipe some of these areas out, fragmenting our forest fringe and driving species closer to extinction.

The City of Greater Bendigo has proposed a Significant Landscape Overlay for two particularly important and vulnerable areas; one at Big Hill and one in the Mandurang Valley.

This amendment would provide some protection for our wild and lovely fringe.

There will be objections to the landscape overlay amendment, especially from those vested interests who rightly see it as constraining their ability to exploit important bushland and grasslands for their own profit.

So if you do want to continue living in “a city in the forest” as opposed to “a city in suburbia”, inform yourself about the City of Greater Bendigo's Amendment C217 and consider supporting it.

I have just come back from outback Queensland.

It is sad to see such desolate country for thousands of kilometres.

The amount of roadkill is tragic, the only grass is on the edge of the road.

Farmers are being forced to the wall.

We are selling off our food-producing land at fire-sale prices to China.

As soon as the drought is over the cattle industry will boom again, prices will rise out of sight and all profits will disappear overseas.

Instead of outright sale to overseas buyers, why don't we lease for up to 100 years?

That way we don't totally give away our children's heritage for a short-term gain.

Australia is still currently wealthy due to the sell-off of most of the infrastructure accumulated over 200 years of hard work, drought and wars .

Now the baby boomers want to give it away in one hedonistic splurge.

Surely this is where our superannuation funds could be encouraged to invest into food production, land, water and jobs for the long-term.

It is fantastic news for the Bendigo community to hear of all these international sporting events like Rugby Sevens, table tennis and snooker all being landed by our council for our city, but I only have one question to the council: how much are we, the ratepayers, paying these events to come to Bendigo?

Surely they do not come for free.

The only ones to really benefit from these events are the motel and coffee shops, not the everyday mums and dads who are actually paying the money for these events by their rates.

Do not agree with flying the Aboriginal flag beside the Australian flag.

I believe it causes division.

We are all Australian. Apparently!