See you at Hillwood

Sven Weiner

George Town Council has just received a petition signed by 602 of their council voters requesting that it hold a public meeting and oppose the proposed Long Reach pulp mill. It seems likely that any such official public meeting will not be before November, by which time Malcolm Turnbull will have made his decision regarding the pulp mill. To raise awareness of the concerns of George Town Council residents and especially of the 100 petition signatories from the small community of Hillwood situated at the southern end of the municipality (only 10km downwind from Long Reach), we’re holding a unofficial meeting at which they can have their say much earlier, on Sunday 23 Sep.

George Town Council meets two days later in its last monthly meeting before the October council elections after which many hope there will be an entirely new council with not so many pro-pulp mill councillors. All councillors apart from Beechford councillor Heather Barwick and Hillwood councillor Bob Wallace voted to pass a motion officially supporting the Long Reach pulp mill proposal.

The meeting on Sunday 23 September will be at Hillwood Hall (280 Jetty Rd, Hillwood) and go for around two hours from 3PM. At this stage of the pulp mill assessment process with a federal election coming up, national media exposure of this Hillwood Hall meeting would be ideal especially if there is a huge turnout. Bring an umbrella and warm clothing as we’re unsure just how many will turn up. There is plenty of car parking.

Please invite along any of your friends who are concerned about likely negative impacts of the proposed Long Reach pulp mill, especially if they’ve never been to Hillwood before. Its a very picturesque locality and looks certain to suffer badly if the pulp mill is built as proposed. A map showing the location of Hillwood Hall in relation to the Hillwood turnoff from East Tamar Highway is on the internet at

http://users.picknowl.com.au/svea/hillwoodhall.html

A basic description is to turn east off the East Tamar Highway at the signposted Hillwood turnoff (approximately 27km north of Launceston). Follow that road (called Jetty Rd) for about 2.8km but don’t actually go across the only bridge which takes you over Egg Island Creek. Hillwood Hall is just before Egg Island Creek.

Hope to see you there !