HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW YOUR BACKYARD?

How often do we ignore the wonders in our own backyard? 

As I write this, parts of the Hawkesbury and close neighbours in the Blue Mountains are moving from a bushfire emergency to recovery.  A recovery that won’t take days or weeks or even months, but in many instances, years.

Governments of all levels must be responsive to the immediate and long term needs of bushfire affected communities.

Communities like Bilpin, Colo Heights and St Albans in the Hawkesbury, and Mt Wilson, Mt Tomah, and Mt Victoria in the Blue Mountains, which were directly impacted by the fires, have a long physical recovery ahead of them.

Individually, we can help with their recovery by exploring and getting to know the many wonderful, hidden gems that are in lots of cases, less than an hour’s drive from home.

Bushfire affected areas need people to come and support them, and they’re open for business. Many other towns and villages have also felt the effects of the fires which turned their usually bustling communities into ghost towns.

Our villages all along the Bells Line of Road, such as Kurmond and Kurrajong, have seen large drops in their trade, as has the whole of the Blue Mountains.

February is traditionally a downtime for many small businesses which is a double whammy for those who have had the worst ‘busy’ period imaginable. December and January have been incredibly bleak months for them all.

Small businesses across the Hawkesbury and Blue Mountains and our tourism industry need help to entice people back to our still beautiful towns, villages and vistas. The many mini-campaigns encouraging Sydney-siders to do just that are a good start, but these communities