Letters to the Editor: Milburn, Fyfe and Mungo
Today's Letters to the Editor from readers cover topics including supporting the inland port at Milburn, a wonderful tribute to Jim Fyfe, and memories of "Mungo's Cottage". Milburn common sense inland port proposition
Thank you Cr Jim O'Malley for applying common sense and supporting the inland port at Milburn rather than at Mosgiel. The Mayor, who obviously supports heavy trucks rolling through Mosgiel, must live in Dunedin city.
As a Mosgiel resident, I know we already have enough heavy trucks travelling along our roads, especially our main street. This street is heavily used by locals and visitors, motorists and pedestrians, including many students, elderly and disabled people.
The Milburn quadrant will enable trucks to travel straight off SH1 on to the privately funded site rather than on to city council and Land Transport Agency funded roads through our township.
Even with the so-called "Mosgiel by-pass", which the agency will not fund, the Mosgiel site makes no sense. Geography lesson
I don't have a view on the location of the inland port but, as a Dunedin lad now residing in Lower Hutt, I think Cr O'Malley needs to look at a map.
Comparing travel from Dunedin to Milburn with Wellington to Lower Hutt is stretching things by a large margin. Lower Hutt's CBD is only 15km from Wellington's, the same distance as Dunedin to Mosgiel. Milburn is 49km from the city centre. That distance from Wellington would take you to the foot of the Remutaka Hill at the head of the Hutt Valley, and some 14km beyond Upper Hutt's urban boundary.
Admittedly, peak travel times by road can be higher up north, but on the rare occasions that I go to Wellington at those times, it's a pleasant 20-minute train ride beside the harbour. Random thoughts
Re the inland port. History says there is no solid ground on the Taieri: Milburn is an area of solid ground. No matter how much time one allows to drive to Dunedin, there is always lorries, some with trailers carting heavy goods, and the odd very slow cars as well. Patience is always required.
This inevitably will worsen as now in the South so many pine forests have been planted. Congratulations to Calder Stewart for their common sense actions. Bypass needed
Has any thought at all gone into how transport is going to get to and from the proposed transport hub in Mosgiel?
Obviously now is the time to get a traffic bypass operating to relieve pressure on using SH87 through Mosgiel. We do not want this heavy traffic through our main shopping area. Pillocks and manure
Bravo to Dr Robert Hamlin on his recent letter, ( ODT 15.5.25) about Sir Ian Taylor's use of the word pillock. The only time I use Kate Shepherd $10 note is to pay for bags of horse manure at our local horse stables. No disrespect meant. Fyfe praised
What a wonderful tribute to Jim Fyfe in today's Weekend Mix (17.5.25). It is truly outstanding. One has to ask, though, why he is retiring at the age of 59 when his work in advocacy for the wildlife of the Otago coast is so important both to the region and to the survival of endangered species?
I wish him all the very best in his future endeavours.
It was wonderful to see such good local reporting with the recent article on "Mungo's Cottage" ( ODT 17.5.25).
I recall standing in that lounge, looking out the window, cold, wet, and rescued. Without that sweeping view of the harbour, the Lewis family may not have noticed a scrappy blonde 11-year-old with one oar and no lifejacket drifting down the harbour in a small dinghy one evening. Down or out, whichever the correct nautical term, it was towards the ocean. The outgoing tide was fast.
"No lifejacket" you say. Were you around in the '70s? We did have some heavy orange things on the small family yacht, moored at Carey's Bay. I think they were made of sand. Even the rats did not eat them.
The relevant point was only one oar. A mistake that.
A beautiful freckled teenage boy was sent out to rescue me while his grandad sat and watched. Could have been a great romance, had I not been an obviously wilful and stupid child, exceedingly young for such adventures and rather humiliated waiting for Dad to come and collect me.
Never found the oar. But thank you Lewis family, and bless you for making sure the cottage will continue to live on to do more good works.
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: editor@odt.co.nz
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