BLOGED AMUSED.
(With apologies to John O’Brien.)

“Our land is ruined,”bloged Amused,
On Jennifer’s site late one night.
With metro centric ire enthused,
He felt his timing was just right.

We’ve felled our forests, cleared the land,
There’s desolation all around.
With salt rising on our farmland,
Productive fields cannot be found.

Once were forests, but now bare land,
The saltbush plain a scalded scar.
As Squatters pillaged lands so grand;
They’re vandals, that’s what they are.

Farmers dam and pump our rivers dry.
The red gum forests dead and dying.
The Murrays done, it makes me cry.
Our rainfall’s down it’s sure declining.

Our land is ruined, it just can’t cope.
With all this burning oil and coal.
We’ve global warming and no hope;
We’ll end up with a giant dustbowl.

Now Ian Mott from up the coast.
Claimed he was a “bombed out bogan.”
That’s what he said in lucid post.
And that was how the blue began.

An old grey headed farming man
Was browsing through the site.
He had a spread out near Culcain,
Developed it with sweat and mite.

“Well Amused, you’ve had your say,
And cast aspersions on the folk
That toil and strive from break of day.
To them your words are just a joke.

Ive farmed through drought and flood,
He wrote, through mice and rabbit plague.
My families toiled with sweat and blood;
With what I say I’ll not be vague.

I’ve seen the impoverished red soil plains,
Overcropped, with soil erosion rife.
Bleeding soil when ér it blows or rains.
Dust storms were just a part of life.

But that was back around world war two,
Before we farmers with Government aid,
Began to turn things round, to slew,
To care, improve, no more to degrade.

I’ve seen the eroded, ravaged land,
Respond to contour banks and clover.
Trees planted, standing tall and grand,
Across our land a change came over.

Amused, if you will come with me,
I’ll show you River Gums a plenty.
Growing proud, along the Murrumbidgee,
Last flood was eighty-four, their not even thirsty.

But we’ll all be ruined, replied Amused.
With all the trees that you have planted,
The water table will be abused.
You farming folk take things for granted.

Reading through the site on that night
Was “Irrigator Bill” from Tullabageal.
Incensed now and spoiling for a fight,
With words to match this Nutters spiel.

From the comfort of your anonymity,
With spin and claims outrageous.
You know it all, but more’s the pity,
As mosy of what you say is brainless.

I’ll tell you, what my land means to me.
It is my keep, my childrens education.
It is the future for my family,
And my self funded superannuation.

With every breath that I am granted,
And with science, I improvr my lands.
My spirits there in every tree I’ve planted,
And every acre, nurtured by my hands.

As “Motty”knows, I treat it as my body.
To care, improve and nourish.
My husbandry cannot be shoddy,
For if it is we all will famish.

With all this scientific GM farming,
We’ll all be ruined, replied Amused.
Overproduction, that’s what I’m warning,
And for that you’ll all stand accused.
We’ll all be ruined, wrote Amused.

Pikey.

This I adapted from a poem I wrote called “SAID BOB BROWN.”

Pikey, if this dopey boofhead had bothered to speak to any farmer about rising water tables he would know that the best way to prevent rising water tables is to sink a bore into the GFS (ground water flow system) and intercept the fresh water before it gets to the salt load. Down goes the water table and the irrigated crop pays for itself.

But what do the NRM goons do in response? They look up the data on ground water decline during the previous drought and get the Minister to bring in measures to “prevent ground water depletion”.

Here you go Dikey. Rare as rocking horse shit

So all those white patches poping up everywhere in the wheat belt….that must be sugar! Of course. I like sugar. How bout you brain rott? Do you like sugar?

So just once more for the plodoscenti. Half the total area of saline land was mapped as pre-settlement remnant ecosystem. That remaining remnant was less than half of the original area of saline land. Therefore, the only conclusion to be drawn from this is that the total area of saline land is either equal to or less than the original area.

This is the outcome after 150 years of farming. Zero increase in saline lands = zero threat from salinity. Perhaps Gordon Guymer, of the Queensland Herbarium would like to explain why this information was not part of the vegetation/salinity management policy process in Queensland?

So we live with salt. It’s there. It is not going away (infact 0.5-1 million tonnes added each year in rainfall).

“Accentuation” is what we have to deal with. Look it up in google. And you tell me what it means.

Have we made things better? Yes ofcourse. Gain and Loss. It is a richer landscape thanks to white man, but to ignore the problems inherent!

And if you or Luke had a rudimentary grasp of the salinity issue you would know that more than half of all the saline affected land in the Qld part of the MDB is, and has been all along, mapped as remnant ecosystem. That is, it was saline land prior to european settlement.

Check out the “Yelarbon Desert” on google earth, type “Desert Creek Rd, Yelarbon 4388, Australia” and note that this was included in the official register of remnant ecosystems and accorded the status of “not of concern” on the basis that more than 30% of the original extent remained.

Yes, farming had actually reduced the area of this ecosystem. A reduction in the area of saline degraded land was recorded as a reduction in the area of a natural ecosystem.

So spare us all your 1993 bull$hit predictions. That stuff is all a direct consequence of Rick Farleys gross negligence whilst employed by the NFF. He was a disgrace, a deluded nutter with a messiah complex who completely failed to get a handle on the key elements of the brief.