Pat Durman says if anyone’s worried her plans for a national park along the Georges River will affect property prices they needn’t be.
“The price of houses in Wedderburn increased since Dharawal National Park was declared,’’ says the long time president of the Macarthur branch of the National Parks Association of NSW Inc.
But it’s true her application for a national park has rattled some residents in Kentlyn who are worried they may lose access to the bushland if Ms Durman gets her way.
Her application for an Upper Georges River National Park is currently with the NSW Department of Planning and Environment.
On June 25 she will meet with officials from the department to find out which way the government is leaning.
Pat Durman thinks the best she can hope for is a conservation area.
But even that would help her achieve her main aim, which is to provide long term protection for Campbelltown’s koala colony.
It will do that because a national park or a conservation area along the Georges River could scuttle plans for a multi lane Georges River Parkway road running through bushland.
“I would like to stop the [Georges River] Parkway going ahead, because I don’t think anybody wants a road running through their backyard, and it would mean more air pollution and noise, and we’ve got enough of that,’’ she tells the South West Voice during an interview in bushland in Kentlyn.
“The Parkway would decimate the koala colony,’’ Ms Durman says.
“My plan includes some of the Parkway road, not all of it.
“The government plan is for a conservation area east of the Parkway corridor from Glenfield and down south to near Wedderburn.
“The Upper Georges River National Park would be mostly contained within the present Georges River Regional Open Space in the Campbelltown City Council area so it would be a name change mostly.’’
Pat and Barry Durman chose to live in Campbelltown almost 40 years ago after migrating from England in 1980.
Living in a migrant hostel when they first arrived, they set out to find their ideal part of the Sydney metropolitan area to make a home for their family.
“Every day I’d get on the train and go somewhere and say to a real estate agent, OK, what’s here,’’ says Pat.
“And they would take me down and show me houses.’’
Eventually the Durmans settled in Ingleburn.
“We came here because it was green, open and the people were friendly,’’ says Pat.
But it wasn’t long before the Durmans bought a 10 acre property at Wedderburn – even though they had no money left and had to live in a caravan for about a year.
“We didn’t have any money left after paying for the land,’’ explains Barry.
“It was very hard, especially with two teenage children.’’
In winter they used a tin to make a fire every morning, and used a bucket of hot water to have a bush shower.
“The water from the damn was lovely and soft,’’ says Barry.
But there was no drinking water so they had to make the trek to Campbelltown to get some.
Seven years later, in 1992, they joined the Macarthur branch of National Parks Association of NSW Inc.
Pat in particular has become synonymous with the work of the branch, which is advocating for the environment.
Some people have wondered over the years whether the Durmans brought their green credentials with them from England or did they develop that once they came to Macarthur?
“Well we didn’t really have to be [green] in England because we lived in a feudal village and there was no way they were going to spoil it because they had thousands of visitors every day,’’ says Pat.
“In England we were taught that we are part of the land, and it was our duty to look after it.
“Here, even now when we go bushwalking, I am still amazed some people don’t know what a brushtail looks like.
“Or they look at a bird and say, what is it?
“To me, the reason we joined NPA was to learn because when you come from a different country the trees are different, the animals are different, everything’s so different.’’
The last healthy and expanding koala population within the Sydney Basin has chosen to live along the Georges River corridor mostly within the Campbelltown City Council region,’’ says Pat in her submission for a national park.
“This has been confirmed in the Draft Campbelltown Koala Plan of Management and by many years of studies by Professor Robert Close of the University of Western Sydney.
“If we can get a national park or a conservation area it will go a long way to protecting that koala colony.’’
That is if this Coalition Government does not open the nation parks to developers as they are doing a review of all crown land and I believe it is with a view to selling any they can