Post by Daggsey on May 15, 2008 8:46:33 GMT 10
Hi all,
On my travels around this great land of ours, a number of things have occured which have alarmed me about what is happening to our heritage.
You may have noticed on other threads, my photos of caravans I have spotted that need rescuing. What I haven't shown yet, is the number of old cars, trucks, buses etc sitting in paddocks etc that are also part of our "touring heritage".
What has prompted me to start this thread is the fear that a lot of this heritage is disappearing. We know and have heard the stories about the metal crushers going out to farms etc and paying farmers for all the scrap metal they have laying around. In these times of drought, who can blame a farmer for wanting to pick up a quid or two. What gets to me is that a few years ago, if you approached some of these farmers to rescue a car or caravan, you were generally met with a negative response.
All this came to a head for me the other day when I stopped at a little town called Trundle in central west NSW. A farmer from Nyngan pulled up to admire my FC and caravan and then promptly told me he had just had the "metal miners" to his farm and they had crushed 5 FCs and 4 FB Holdens
. I said that I didn't need to know that and he laughed 
. 
Yesterday I was in Gulgong and visited what I believe is one of the best museums in a country town that I have ever seen. It absolutely blew me away with the amount of stuff they had....it probably impressed me more than the National Museum in Canberra. There were no cars or caravans, but an amazing collection of sulkys and drays and tractors and heaps of other memorabilia etc. dating back to the middle 1800's.
Later in the day, I was in one of those "variety discount stores".....you know the ones that sell all that cheap stuff that is generally made in a large country to our north (that is hosting this year's Olympics) and that is of questionable quality. It hit home to me that what is for sale in these shops is probably made from our crushed heritage .
In Genoa, the last town in east Gippsland before entering NSW, a new bridge was built (as part of the Princes Highway)over the river...the local townspeople fought the Vic. Gov't and maintained the old one lane wooden bridge which you can now walk over. My thoughts went back to the days when that bridge was constructed and how difficult it would have been. It also occured to me that in those days, people drove to the conditions and freight was carried on trains, not thumping great heavy-weight trucks that are ruining our roads.
I don't know where this thread is taking me other than it is something I needed to get off my chest. Do we as a group get political and start highlighting this raping and pillaging for the sake of the almighty dollar? Do we as individuals lobby our local members of State Federal and Local Governments? Do we as individual members of car clubs etc start highlighting this issue within those organisations?
Maybe it is all beyond our control and all we can do is (regardless if some have personal issues with him) thank Mark Taylor profusely for his foresight in starting this website which at least has had a major effect in preserving one aspect of Australia's touring heritage.
Maybe I should start a website called "woodenbridgespotting.com" ;D ;D
I don't know if this post has a lot to do with vintage caravans and I apologise for the length of my musings......like I said earlier, I just needed to get it off my chest.
Daggsey
On my travels around this great land of ours, a number of things have occured which have alarmed me about what is happening to our heritage.
You may have noticed on other threads, my photos of caravans I have spotted that need rescuing. What I haven't shown yet, is the number of old cars, trucks, buses etc sitting in paddocks etc that are also part of our "touring heritage".
What has prompted me to start this thread is the fear that a lot of this heritage is disappearing. We know and have heard the stories about the metal crushers going out to farms etc and paying farmers for all the scrap metal they have laying around. In these times of drought, who can blame a farmer for wanting to pick up a quid or two. What gets to me is that a few years ago, if you approached some of these farmers to rescue a car or caravan, you were generally met with a negative response.
All this came to a head for me the other day when I stopped at a little town called Trundle in central west NSW. A farmer from Nyngan pulled up to admire my FC and caravan and then promptly told me he had just had the "metal miners" to his farm and they had crushed 5 FCs and 4 FB Holdens
. I said that I didn't need to know that and he laughed 
. 
Yesterday I was in Gulgong and visited what I believe is one of the best museums in a country town that I have ever seen. It absolutely blew me away with the amount of stuff they had....it probably impressed me more than the National Museum in Canberra. There were no cars or caravans, but an amazing collection of sulkys and drays and tractors and heaps of other memorabilia etc. dating back to the middle 1800's.
Later in the day, I was in one of those "variety discount stores".....you know the ones that sell all that cheap stuff that is generally made in a large country to our north (that is hosting this year's Olympics) and that is of questionable quality. It hit home to me that what is for sale in these shops is probably made from our crushed heritage
.In Genoa, the last town in east Gippsland before entering NSW, a new bridge was built (as part of the Princes Highway)over the river...the local townspeople fought the Vic. Gov't and maintained the old one lane wooden bridge which you can now walk over. My thoughts went back to the days when that bridge was constructed and how difficult it would have been. It also occured to me that in those days, people drove to the conditions and freight was carried on trains, not thumping great heavy-weight trucks that are ruining our roads.
I don't know where this thread is taking me other than it is something I needed to get off my chest. Do we as a group get political and start highlighting this raping and pillaging for the sake of the almighty dollar? Do we as individuals lobby our local members of State Federal and Local Governments? Do we as individual members of car clubs etc start highlighting this issue within those organisations?
Maybe it is all beyond our control and all we can do is (regardless if some have personal issues with him) thank Mark Taylor profusely for his foresight in starting this website which at least has had a major effect in preserving one aspect of Australia's touring heritage.
Maybe I should start a website called "woodenbridgespotting.com" ;D ;D
I don't know if this post has a lot to do with vintage caravans and I apologise for the length of my musings......like I said earlier, I just needed to get it off my chest.
Daggsey
. 
sadly not many have survived. Vintage and classic cars there are plenty.
