Legalising life on Lightning Ridge Mining Claims
On his recent tour around the outback, Member for Barwon, Roy Butler visited Lightning Ridge with fellow MP, and Minister for Land and Property, Steven Kamper.
After witnessing the announcement around funding for the Walgett Pool, Mr Butler and Mr Kamper, who is also Minister for Small Business, Multiculturalism and Sport, headed to Lightning Ridge.
“We caught up with people from around town on different issues,” Mr Butler said.
“We also visited the Chambers of the Black Hand so Minister Kamper could get his head around the tourism aspect of the region.”
“From there, we met with the Opal Community Land Trust, the crown land reserve managers, and we talked through some of the challenges they have.
“They do an amazing job trying to manage the crown reserve including managing Hudson pear and maintaining roads, but the way that they are funded doesn’t allow them to do everything they probably should be doing.”
“We also caught up with the Lighting Ridge Miners Association and talked through their concerns about the increasing bureaucracy around small scale mining, and the added cost burden.”
The unique nature of people living on mining claims was a topic of conversation. Recently in the news, the issue of living on a claim but not mining has become controversial. […]
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