Greater Bendigo growth areas call for more transport | Letters

His solutions, however, suggest that he is living in utopia. Yes, we do need additional cycling and walking pathways - this would create far more user-friendly and safer options for commuters.

But Ian and others who look to just walking and cycling to solve the growing transport problems of our future need to consider the following: Greater Bendigo is an ageing population; with the development of driverless vehicles, people will be able to use motor cars for a much-longer period of their lives.

Even today, whether people are young or old, they are not going to lug bags of shopping home from a bus stop.

The future to our transport needs is simple - develop more infrastructure in the growth areas of Marong, Strathfieldsaye, Junortoun, Axedale, Huntly, Maiden Gully, Mandurang and Lockwood, etc.

And most importantly, plan for a future ring road around the city centre that links these key growth areas.

This will not only reduce the increase of motor cars entering the inner-city, but would also divert the huge volume of heavy vehicles that traverse Bendigo.

There was an interesting article in the Bendigo Advertiser on Tuesday.

The penny has dropped that because of the determination to increase the population of the city, the amount of traffic will also rise dramatically.

Instead of a natural increase in the size of the city, the politicians have targeted Bendigo for rapid growth, the massive GovHub building being an example of how the number of people working in the CBD will swell.

As I have mentioned before, the great majority of the 1000 desks in the monolith will not be occupied by central Victorians. There will be an influx of government employees from other areas.

This is all well and good, but it behooves them not to start a worry campaign about the amount of traffic on the streets in the CBD.

The local government, in collaboration with Spring Street, have concocted this situation. I would suggest to them that they cannot have it both ways - they either want to force growth on the city with the resultant extra traffic in the streets or they don't. One follows the other.

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The imminent demise of the Collingwood Magpies Super Netball team presents an opportunity for Bendigo to field a netball team in the national competition.

Bendigo has the infrastructure and will be hosting the netball in the next Commonwealth Games.

Potential sponsors could include the Bendigo Bank as part of the Netball Australia sponsorship deal.

Games would be well-attended and it would provide national exposure for the best regional city in Australia.

Dream big, Bendigo.

As many realise, the arrival of Europeans in this land was a real catastrophe for Indigenous Australians.

Our First Nations brothers and sisters were treated abysmally. They were disposed of their land, their country, they were hunted and killed, and were seen as less than human.

These calamitous events were also a catastrophe for the Europeans for they lost their humanity.

The continuing abuse of Indigenous Australians over the centuries has cemented the catastrophe for them, and for us as we live and walk on stolen land.

The introduction of a Voice to Parliament for our Indigenous brothers and sisters is an opportunity to continue the slow healing process.

It is also an opportunity for non-Indigenous Australians to cultivate their own humanity. Listening makes us human.

I feel for the Bendigo and District Environment Council which has fought long and hard for the Wellsford Forest to be granted regional park status but are frustrated by the Victorian government's snail-like progress ("Wait goes on for park", Bendigo Advertiser, May 23).

The rising price of firewood has greatly increased the risk of illegal firewood collection in the forest and threatens species that rely on tree hollows for survival.

The 2021 State of the Environment report found Australia's environment overall was "poor and deteriorating as a result of increasing pressures from climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution and resource extraction".

Protection of our remaining natural places such as the Wellsford Forest is clearly most urgent. The state government must get on with it.

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