{"id":12465,"date":"2014-01-24T09:45:19","date_gmt":"2014-01-23T22:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=12465"},"modified":"2019-04-14T00:01:36","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T14:01:36","slug":"maverick-narrabri-councillor-bevan-oregan-certain-style-country-bloke-leardblockade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/maverick-narrabri-councillor-bevan-oregan-certain-style-country-bloke-leardblockade\/","title":{"rendered":"Maverick Narrabri Councillor Bevan O’Regan ‘a certain style of country bloke’: @nocsg profile, Margo interview #leardblockade"},"content":{"rendered":"[clear]\n
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Bevan O’Regan, Narrabri Councillor – Photo Kate Auburn<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

UPDATE 12.55pm:<\/em><\/p>\n

Margo\u2019s Q&A with dissident Narrabri Councillor Bevan O\u2019Regan<\/b><\/p>\n

Bevan, 81, is a retired wheat and cattle farmer and the deputy Mayor of Narrabri Council with three sons and three grandchildren. \u201cMy hobbies are studying world and domestic politics, and my interests are my family and the farming world.\u201d<\/a>. I spoke with him this morning after he revealed improper use of the Rural Fire Service by the Council<\/a>\u00a0to evict the #leardblockade camp from a road reserve and lodged a motion to rescind council\u2019s decision.\u00a0
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Margo:\u00a0<\/strong>You seem to be alleging abuse of the Rural Fire Service (RFS) for an improper purpose by the mayor to eviction the blockade – is that right?<\/p>\n

Bevan:\u00a0<\/strong>We (the Council) are using them actually as as third party. We had a letter from a Jim Casey, the union secretary of the RFS in Surry Hills in Sydney, and he stated pretty plainly that we were using them to get where we want, and it\u2019s really a third party. The crux of the matter is that protestors in the Leard Forest have been there for 17 months and people have been helping them – and all of a sudden they\u2019re the bad boys.<\/p>\n

Margo:\u00a0<\/strong>What is your position on the coal mine at Maules Creek?<\/p>\n

Bevan:\u00a0<\/strong>I think it\u2019s going to be absolutely devastating. It\u2019s going to be the deepest hole in Australia, I think, well below the aquifer level of the Namoi River. When you start digging holes that big and you\u2019re putting the overburden somewhere else and the overburden has pressure – I think it\u2019s pretty frightening what\u2019s going to happen.<\/p>\n

In the short term it\u2019s going to make a lot of money for the state government but in the long term it will destroy the agricultural industry in the area. Agriculture is sustainable forever, and it\u2019s improving – the crop yields are improving in the agricultural world. Mining is a finite industry, and when mines finish you\u2019ve a big hole. It will have devastating effects on the irrigators downstream of the area, because you\u2019ll have some pollution and I believe it will lower the water table by 10 to 11 metres (due to mine\u2019s water use).<\/p>\n

In the bush it\u2019s about 98 per cent against coal seam gas and coal, but in the town\u2026<\/p>\n

Margo:\u00a0<\/strong>I was interested in your praise for the protesters, because there\u2019s a lot of people in Sydney saying: ‘They\u2019re all just feral, this and that’ –<\/p>\n

Bevan:\u00a0<\/strong>There are some very sensible people at the camp, with university accreditation. They\u2019ve earned the respect of the people, because locals are giving them fuel, wood, groceries – they always call in on their way to town – \u2018Can we get something for you?\u2019. People wouldn\u2019t do that if they were ratbags, not after 17 months anyway. Seventeen months at a camp is a long time.<\/p>\n

Margo:<\/strong> Is it true you voted Green after a lifetime voting for the National Party?<\/p>\n

Bevan:\u00a0<\/strong>Yes, I voted Green at the election for the first time ever. I think they\u2019ve got more of a grip. I\u2019m not a greenie at heart, but the reason is that the Greens do look at the sustainability of agriculture. Maybe they\u2019re getting votes, maybe they\u2019re using this as a ploy, but so what? A lot of people use things as ploys, don\u2019t they?<\/p>\n

Margo:\u00a0<\/strong>They do –<\/p>\n

Bevan:\u00a0<\/strong>What\u2019s happening\u00a0 in this shire is disgusting. People don\u2019t realise what an industrial shire we will end up as. It will all be very grubby – look at Singleton, and Muswellbrook particularly. The (NSW government) \u2018Matters of State Significance\u2019 laws should not allow a state government to overrule a Local Environmental Plan (LEP). They pulled this project in to rule the council out of the equation.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Bevan O’Regan<\/strong> profile By\u00a0Rosemary Nankivell<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0@nocsg<\/a><\/p>\n

24th January 2014<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Intro: <\/i><\/p>\n

Plenty will be said and written about this week\u2019s swift action by Narrabri Shire Councillor Bevan O\u2019Regan, who managed to block the Council\u2019s attempt to evict protestors from two mining areas in NSW\u2019s Leard and Piliga state forests. <\/i><\/p>\n

The eviction was attempted on bushfire safety grounds, with Rural Fire Service (RFS) and Forestry NSW intervention labelled<\/a> as politically motivated.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a council we have stooped to gutter politics in an attempt to achieve a desired result,\u201d Cr O\u2019Regan said<\/a>. \u201cThe protestors at the camp are protesting in a passive manner. They have been there for about\u00a017 months and have survived on donations of fuel from farmers, as well as water, firewood and groceries from the general public as they call in on their way to Boggabri to shop\u201d.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cIn my 31 years as councillor, I have not seen any attempt by the Narrabri Council to circumvent normal council procedure to achieve a political result as the actions that has surfaced in the last 48 hours.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

No Fibs is pleased to publish Rosemary Nankivell\u2019s account of the man behind the last minute reprieve for the #Leardblockade.<\/i><\/p>\n

There is a certain style of country bloke very much in the character of the heroes of A.B. (\u2018Banjo\u2019) Paterson\u2019s poetry.<\/p>\n

They are generally men of honour, highly-principled, determined and exhibit a marvellous knack of being able to achieve a goal in an unorthodox manner.<\/p>\n

They are simply spoken, clever and known to get the job done.<\/p>\n

They have a deep love of the land and are keen judges of horseflesh and other stock.<\/p>\n

They are masters of understatement, usually possess a wicked sense of humour and have a questionable tolerance for the status quo. They also believe deeply in a fair go.<\/p>\n

Bevan O\u2019Regan is of this ilk.<\/p>\n

As a child I competed many times in pony club events where Bevan, an active community member, was the President of the Narrabri Pony Club.<\/p>\n

He was a stickler for rules, worked passionately at all levels and did many jobs others avoided.<\/p>\n

There was a generally feeling for those of us from competing clubs that Bevan was \u2018the man\u2019 – Mr Narrabri in fact. As such, we pony club members were keen to keep a distance.<\/p>\n

Therefore, it was with trepidation that I found myself sitting alongside Bevan at a federal inquiry into the impacts of coal seam gas extraction in the Murray-Darling Basin, held within Narrabri\u2019s Crossing Theatre forty years later.<\/p>\n

Judging by the twinkle in his eye, he was clearly amused to see me there. However, as we both shared a love of the land and deep concerns about the impacts of the extractive industries on the water resources of this region, the day improved quickly.<\/p>\n

One of his quotes – \u201can aquifer knows no boundaries\u201d – has stayed with me ever since.<\/p>\n

Narrabri, a pretty country town in a comfortable agricultural region, is experiencing the challenges of adapting to the development of coal and coal seam gas industries.<\/p>\n

The power of mining interests, hand-in-hand with a compliant and largely unquestioning council, have resulted in the community losing its faith in due process and questioning the transparency of the council and its actions.<\/p>\n

Many perceive Narrabri Council as a tool for the mining interests and, increasingly, as a vehicle for those council members with political aspirations.<\/p>\n

It is not surprising, then, that at the recent council elections, Cr O\u2019Regan won the majority of primary votes, far outpolling the sitting mayor.<\/p>\n

Councillors such as Bevan O\u2019Regan, who are genuinely trying to serve the people, are a welcome change.<\/p>\n

Rosemary Nankivell is a Liverpool Plains farmer who is concerned about the protection of farmland and water resources.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[clear]   UPDATE 12.55pm: Margo\u2019s Q&A with dissident Narrabri Councillor Bevan O\u2019Regan Bevan, 81, is a retired wheat and cattle farmer and the deputy Mayor of Narrabri Council with three sons and three grandchildren. \u201cMy hobbies are studying world and domestic politics, and my interests are my family and the farming world.\u201d. I spoke with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3434,1584,514,62,1469,585,1586],"tags":[1587,1088,1365,2659,627,1260,258,326,1588,1468],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Capture_2014_01_24_09_35_42_220-e1390516612714.png?fit=800%2C511&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t0mw-3f3","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12465"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}