Thanks for the Story and Research Pete. SHARING is CARING. A five year old boy stands peering through a mop of blonde hair, big brown eyes wide with wonder. His little fingers clamp ever more tightly around his mother’s thumb as the concrete platform begins to shake and shift under tiny leather shoes. The source of this violent force soon reveals itself in the form of a huge black steam engine as it hurtles and rumbles like and earthquake toward Fairfield station. People are dancing with excitement, some leaping toward the edge of the platform for a better look. Others grab untethered children and haul them back to safety as the little ones strain in the opposite direction. Then the steaming iron monster roars by like a tornado leaving the little boy shaken, excited and marvelling in its nostalgic wake of thunder, steam and smoke. The little boy was me and it was a pivotal moment in my life and one I will always remember with unusual clarity. I would love my own children to experience similar on our own beautifully maintained little station here in Guyra. I can only imagine their excitement as they stand with wonder and that childlike receptiveness to new experience that makes everyday a new adventure. In fact, I’ve seen how much they loved the Zig Zag Railway on the two occasions we have ridden it, not to mention our own little rail cars that are run by the Guyra and District Historical Antique Machinery Group. They love it. We love it. Everybody loves an old steam train. We would all love to see one ratting through Guyra, pulling a handful of immaculately restored wooden passenger cars behind as kids laughed and screamed in excitement and mums and dads waved to passers-by. It has been done successfully at Walhalla, the Blue Mountains and Cooma as already mentioned. Those that commit to maintaining these lines are passionate, committed and hardworking, and we all benefit from their industry and generosity. In the light of the universal admiration that historic railways elicit in the general public and the commitment they generate with enthusiasts and historians, it is easy to understand the passionate resistance the New England Rail Trail has attracted by some in the community, and others nowhere near the community, who are standing up and being counted against this perceived threat to their beloved rail corridor. At first glance it seems reasonable that townships like Glen Innes (pop. 5000), Guyra (pop. 2000) and the city of Armidale (pop. 23000) may provide enough interested population to pull off an historic railway and make it viable. But when I look at the existing railways, they all seem to have the advantage of being able to augment an existing and well established tourist economy. Cooma (3 times the population of Guyra in fact) has the advantage of being only 60km from Jindabyne, the gateway to the Snowy Mountains, which is an area that receives over 1 million visitors a year. Walhalla township, though only 20 in population, is a tourist attraction in and of itself, which the railway line compliments nicely, and is only a two hour drive from Melbourne which has a population of over 4 million people. The Zig Zag is nestled in the very popular tourist destination of the Blue Mountains but is one of many popular attractions in the area which receives 1.5 million visitors each year. Even in spite of the economically strategic positions these existing historical railways enjoy, none of them would be considered profitable business ventures. Such a line in the New England would not have the same level of support that these others enjoy. New England visitors are numbered in the thousands, not the millions. But guess what? Many of the visitors that specifically come to this region are interested in hiking, trekking, camping, fishing, climbing, mountain biking, kayaking, bird watching and other outdoor activities that can be enjoyed in the surrounding heritage listed national parks, nature reserves and state forests. These are activities with which the New England Rail Trail proposal aligns itself quite nicely. Thinking locally, a proposal like the Rail Trail will be as effective in capturing the interest of this kind of tourist as an historical railway would, for far less in investment terms. I also feel that the more historical railways that pop up around the state the less attention the existing ones will get, to their detriment. However, all this aside, the main reason I support the New England Rail Trail proposal is that it would provide a safe and interesting place for my children, the community’s children and the children of visitors to ride, free of the very real and present danger that inconsiderate drivers pose every time kids jump on their bikes. As a paramedic, I realise that my personal experience of cars vs kids is unusual and outside of the realm of most people’s experience. However, I have an obligation to allow those experiences to inform my opinions and this leads me to support any proposal that will remove children from that unnecessary risk and families from life altering tragedy. With regard to the comment regarding “discrimination against the elderly,” I would think the group of a dozen or so ladies between the ages of 65 and 75 I see regularly riding the streets of Guyra would benefit greatly from a safe and easy track on which to enjoy their favoured past time. On the contrary, this trail is not about athletic young and middle aged “bike wankers” in Lycra looking for a place to ride. These ‘wankers’ are fit, motivated, tough minded and competitive people. They like physically challenging single track, not long, flat, unchallenging stretches of trail such as the Rail Trail would provide. It is this long, flat and unchallenging nature of the line that makes it so suited to families, children and the elderly. It is this demographic to which the Rail Trail is aimed. When I experienced that steam engine on the platform of Fairfield station all those years ago, it ignited in me a deep appreciation of what historical rail enthusiasts love so much about our railway history and the old trains that worked it. Within this context I feel we owe the existing rail line and its history more than just “leaving it alone” to rust and rot. If my children can’t ride a steam train from Ben Lomond to Black Mountain with the wind in their hair and the smoke up their nose, than let them ride their bikes along it in safety and learn about this great history that has served regional Australia so well in the past. Surely this would preserve the dignity of this old line more than the decay and neglect it is now so familiar with. Peter Egener
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 08:08:52 +0000