It occurs to me that a majority of these people probably moved here from a city, or at least were not brought up on the land.

These people who moved here to embrace a country lifestyle most probably still have strong connections to the city and regularly go there for shows, restaurants and to see friends. At the same time they are trying to halt any real progress here in a selfish attempt to exclude others from coming and enjoying the same lifestyle.

My mother (born in Moruya 1910) embraced everything new and was strongly in favour of progress.

Country life was much harder then.

We had to eat pidgeon pie from time to time as the kangaroos had eaten the cattle crops or the quoll had killed all the chooks and ducks and the fruit bats and white cockatoos had decimated the fruit and nut trees.

We are now encouraged to love all things furry or at the very least, those living in gum trees. Meanwhile our city cousins had milk from bottles and food put on their plates for them and were aghasted at the thought of a kangaroo being shot.

My family arrived here in 1848 and we want things to progress. The conservationists, probably all newcomers, want us to return to the past or maintain the status quo.

There was a time when I too wanted to live up the Araluen River in the bush as did my great grandfather for a time, but we all come to our senses when we get older. My great grandfather moved to Summerhill Moruya in 1872.

If my mother was still alive I know she would enjoy chips from the new Moruya McDonalds because somebody else had made them for her.

And yes, the now defunct Summerhill retirement village was to be on my land, a casualty in part to overzealous conservation.

And by the way, I never liked pidgeon pie as there were too many bones and shotgun pellets in it.

Phil Jeffrey

Moruya