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ONE OF BLACKTOWN ’ S FINEST : Wayne Olling
by Greg Martin
The Chappell brothers Ian , Greg and Trevor , all played cricket for Australia and Ian and Greg are rated among the greats .
Ken , Dick and John Thornett all played for Australia in the rugby codes , and there are the Johns brothers , Andrew and Matthew , the three Walters brothers as Australian reps .
Steve and Mark Waugh are two more cricketers numbered among Australia ’ s greats . Richie and John Benaud ....... plenty of examples .
Jon and Ilsa Konrads in swimming , Rod and Graeme Marsh in cricket and golf respectively ........ plenty of examples of siblings excelling in sport , but it ’ s unusual to have siblings making major contributions in separate fields .
The Ollings have , and Seven Hills and the Blacktown district can claim them .
Graham Olling had a notable rugby league career with Parramatta and Australia .
Brother , Wayne , has made a valuable contribution too , but in the unrelated fields of heritage and environmental values .
He ’ s the long-time president of Cumberland Land Conservation Conservancy and long-time member of Blacktown and District Environment Group , has fought good fights on multiple fronts and authored multiple campaign reports .
Those fights have seen his name in major media , from the Sydney Morning Herald , to Guardian Australia , to the local media , particularly when weekly community newspapers were still printed .
More importantly , the preservations he has been arguing for have been defended .
“ Federal and state governments build economies on development and the environment suffers ,” Olling says , giving his succinct summary of the guiding philosophy .
“ It hasn ’ t worked elsewhere and it ’ s not going to work here .”
He first got involved in environment issues when “ they were going to build a three-lane highway through Seven Hills . That was going to be a great
Wayne at an EDJA function .
divide , cutting through and dividing the community ”.
How committed is he to the historical record ?
“ Three months after arrival on the east coast of this land , Governor Arthur Phillip followed the creeks from Parramatta , heading to the foot of the Blue Mountains , he wanted to see if there was a river flowing east to west ,” Olling said .
And there are rivers , the Hawkesbury and Nepean , but they don ’ t flow east towards Parramatta .
“ During the trip , Phillip ascended a hill and called it ‘ Belle Vue ’ because of the excellent view it gave . There ’ s been argument on whether it was Prospect Hill or at Bungaribee .
“ There was a description of the journey by Surgeon-General , Dr John White , a member of the exploration party .”
Olling wanted to resolve the argument and followed Dr White ’ s diary record .
“ We set out from Parramatta one morning and followed the creeks and it took a few hours ,” he said .
“ There followed a detailed description of the creek system and surrounding landscape and vegetation , on once , virgin land .
“ Key to it was Dr White ’ s assertion of always travelling west .”
And the winner , says Olling , Bungaribee Hill .
“ From this hill , in present day Doonside , Phillip became resolved in mind that this land could sustain a colony and all that followed led to the nation of Australia today ,” Olling explained .
Olling became active in heritage development issues in 1995 through concern at that mooted dividing highway , but the foundation had long been there , waiting to be built on .
He lived in the Seven
Hills family home , near Grantham Poultry Research Station , for more than 60 years before moving to Leura in 2015 . “ I prefer the cold ,” he said . “ When we were kids , Graham and I , along with friends , would have a packed lunch and explore the bushland behind the poultry research station . We loved it .”
That love has been turned into multiple campaigns and there is one which symbolises how effective grassroots campaigns can be - grassroots pun intentional .
In 2015 , then-Federal Environmental Minister , Greg Hunt , made a grand announcement .
“ The Australian Government has secured more than 38 hectares of endangered Mulgoa bushland as part of its commitment to establish a Cumberland conservation corridor in greater Western Sydney ,” Minister Hunt said .
“ The property contains intact native vegetation , state-threatened habitat and vulnerable species . I particularly want to thank local member , Fiona Scott for her leadership , along with Wayne Olling and Lisa Harrold .
“ Three other smaller properties were acquired and conserved as well .”
Olling had been in close contact and regular lobbied Mr Hunt .
A description given to Guardian Australia sums up his service to helping preserve local landscape .
“ There are vegetation and western species that are native to western Sydney that are found nowhere else in the western world ,” Olling said .
“ It ’ s saddening to see it turned into concrete , bitumen and brick .
“ We don ’ t have the beaches , we don ’ t have the mountains , we have the Cumberland Plain and its fauna .
“ That is our retreat and it ’ s been decimated and turned into isolated patches with no connectivity .”
The fights go on and there have been victories .
“ This 38ha property was formerly a grazing property so obviously managing invasive weeds is our biggest and most ongoing challenge ,” Olling said of Mulgoa .
“ Weeds can become very well established in a property like this , so it is an ongoing and costly process to control them , but thanks to Commonwealth and NSW Government grants and the hard work of volunteers and local conservation organisations , we are managing to stay on top of that .
“ There has been noticeable improvement in the riparian margins of Mulgoa Creek and further up the hills , so we know we are having an impact .”
The Cumberland Land Conservancy manages four properties in western Sydney and is dedicated to a single land
Wayne Olling .
management objective : the conservation and recovery of native flora and fauna in one of the most heavily cleared landscapes in Australia .
Part of that mission is to connect large areas of land under conservation to provide a connected corridor .
“ It ’ s our belief that having connected corridors is the best way of sustaining viable populations of flora and fauna in western Sydney ,” Olling said .
Olling has found related solace amidst the fights .
“ Graham became a Christian and I followed him ,” he said , and Olling ’ s Christianity includes accepting the biblical account of creation in six days about 6000 years ago .
With a friend , Marc Kay , he created a pictorial display Curious Earth , and took it to street festivals around Sydney .
“ I went through my back issues of Creation magazine , identified about 60 pictures I thought I could use , got copyright permission , reproduced the pictures , added captions , had the pictures laminated , bought display panels and then attached the pictures to the display panels with Velcro tape ,” he said .
Olling hopes to step down from the Cumberland Land Conservancy presidency , but not out of it .
He was one of the biodiversity panel of experts convened to advise on the offset plans for the new Western Sydney airport , though he is not happy with how that all turned out .
One of the sites Olling and the community have fought to protect is 558 ha of bushland on the site of the former Airservices Australia radio transmitting station at Shanes Park . This site is now being turned into a wildlife sanctuary by the NSW Government . The fights go on .
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12 ISSUE 39 // JUNE 2024 theindependentmagazine . com . au BLACKTOWN CITY INDEPENDENT