As someone who has dedicated their life to getting stuff done Joe Pentridge, now Cr Joe Pentridge, is never likely to be found sitting on his hands waiting for something to happen.
There are two ways of approaching one's time on this planet: one is to sit around waiting for something to happen and the other is to get out there and find purpose for yourself and make stuff happen.
Joe is a doing person and he perceived that he needed a bridge to get his cattle to high ground when Glebe Farm floods. There was a bridge, so why not put one back right where there was one?
Arguably, Glebe Farm sits on land that in precolonial times was Tasmania's most fertile land but it is on a flood plain. In precolonial times the land supported an abundance of life – waterfowl, bird life, wallabies, kangaroos emus, food plants, shell fish etc.
However the colonisers spent that resource all too quickly and ignored many food resources and almost starved. That in itself is a big story that is yet to be better understood.
When Joe acquired Glebe Farm it was run down over grown and a poorly managed farm. Since then Joe has turned all that around.
Joe has spent decades bringing Glebe Farm from an unproductive farm to land that is now highly productive. He envisaged that a bridge would enable him make it even more productive. However, Council administrators and government bureaucracies did not share his vision.
The story is bigger than that and it is time for all its machinations to be unravelled. Time will no doubt reveal a great deal.
The farm has a rich colonial history and back in those time there was a bridge and what is left of it after well over a century of flooding is still visible. So if there was a bridge and there is current need for a bridge, put one where there was one.
As it turns out Launceston's Council's planners and administrators along with other government public servants had another world view.
'JOE'S BRIDGE' has taken on a presence and become something of a community symbol as things do when there is a contest of ideas.
It is said that stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess people and damage ambition. Yet at the same time stories can also empower and restore our humanity. Stories can break the dignity of a people yet they can help repair things that get to be broken.
So, behold there is a story to be told!
SOME PRESS REFERENCES
Simply click on the image for a larger image
Simply click on the image for a larger image
V
No comments:
Post a Comment