The rezoning and fragmentation of highly productive basalt soil within the water catchment area for the city to allow an industrial estate and heavy vehicle thoroughfare represents an extraordinary proposal at many levels. 

The area boasts some of the best quality soil in the country, and our own operation as a reputable Limousin cattle stud joins other committed and hard-working locals who have attempted to create a sustainable and progressive farming heritage. 

Our neighbours regularly gain the highest price for fat lambs at local sales, truffles are grown nearby, and the Huntley Berry Farm is an iconic entity popular with visitors and locals alike. 

We strive to emulate the national reputation of Orange as a food and wine center, something hard won over the last 25 years by many enthusiastic businessmen and women. 

The establishment of an industrial estate at one of the gateways to our beautiful city beggars belief. 

Visitors arriving by air will be greeted by the visual impact of industry during their descent onto the tarmac, and those traversing through the quaint villages of Huntley and Spring Hill en route to savour the many delights of the Millthorpe village will have the same experience. 

Roads will be shared with heavy vehicles and suffer in condition as a result.

The establishment of an industrial estate and heavy vehicle routes will erode the natural beauty and ambience of the Orange city and surrounds - important factors in attracting health professionals, academics and educators to our region. 

The diversification and strengthening of our economic base has recently been reinforced with the downturn in local mining activity. 

The more recent establishment of the new Orange hospital at Bloomfield has increased the desirability of the area. Properties south of Orange offer easy and rapid access for medical personnel - as well as lifestyle choices. 

Such a proposal creates an eyesore and aesthetic blight on the southern rural region, and acts against the need to sustain an attractive environment for new professionals to establish a home for themselves and their families. 

The establishment of an industrial estate and heavy vehicle routes will provide a potential threat to the local environment from industrial waste, disruption to natural water flows and noise effects on indigenous and farming fauna and flora. 

Specifically more detail is required on water management of the four creeks within the area that drain naturally into Suma Park Dam as part of the city’s water supply. The land in this proposal falls within the water catchment area for Orange city.

Furthermore, this proposal comes at a time when innovation in science and technology is helping to improve sustainability and efficiencies on the land. 

The destruction of a large area of productive farming land removes the future opportunities for improved food production forever. 

Industry does not have soil fertility requirements, nor does it rely on the delicate balance of an ecosystem to be productive.  Therefore industry should not collide with agriculture in a district where areas are already set aside for this express purpose. 

In a city that has housed the Sydney University Agricultural College and became the centralised site for the NSW Department of Primary Industries, there should be a  melding of experienced landholders and professional agri-science innovators to optimise a sustainable agricultural future.  

The establishment of an industrial estate and heavy vehicle routes must be considered on the basis of need and economic merit. Neither exists. 

Orange already boasts established industrial estates, with vacant infrastructure and numerous sites under occupied and underdeveloped (e.g. land unit SAB - BCO Sub Regional Rural and Industrial Land Strategy). These facilities exist in better locations for such uses and are closer to existing transport routes in and around the city. 

The idea that there could be economic and logistical benefit in creating another such estate on a substantial scale near the airport, some 12km from the city is ludicrous. 

The farming district in and around the airport has endured recent disruption to the community during the major infrastructure changes at the airport. Properties were purchased, dissected, landforms and watercourses changed irreversibly, and to what advantage to the average Orange city ratepayer? 

The scaling back of mining activity has already rendered the Orange City Council decision to extend the runway and upscale the airport infrastructure at taxpayer expense a costly and ill-advised one. To allow such a proposal to proceed would be adding insult to injury.

The history of Orange is steeped with older icons - none greater than A.B. Paterson, whose writings immortalise the pastoral heritage, and whose festival brings in locals and visitors to the city.

Significant properties exist on every side of Orange and add to the farming and viticultural tradition of the area. This includes farms to the south around the airport. 

The proposal threatens to destroy the strong sense of belonging and farming community spirit that now exists among hundreds of people who have called the ‘southern villages’ area home for generations. 

In conclusion we find the proposed rezoning of land around the airport contravenes aesthetic, practical, economic and sustainable imperatives for our region and city. The proposal should be rejected.

 In light of the concerns of locals and the recent Department of Planning  (Western Region) setback we invite OCC to reassert its justification to Orange city ratepayers in a public document for pursuing this proposal.

Robert and Nickie Greenough,

“Huntley View”, Spring Terrace