Melani Caldwell

I am a resident in the area where Pat and some of his team came out 29 October to do some filming. They set up their drone and camera to film three 4WDs drive as fast as they could, all three through Flaggy Crossing in The Falls, just one of the 14 river crossings. This action of this complete stupidity is the reason our SDRC council has decided to concrete the crossings to apparently make them safe. So far three of the 14 crossings have been destroyed with concrete. Three more crossings are on the cards for this next year, with more to come until every crossing is concreted. All the residents have been fighting our council for over twenty years to stop this destruction of this pristine area, where the water from this river starts at The Head, the beginning of the river system that flows to the Murray Darling Downs. The reason our council has decided to concrete the crossings is to stop the 4WDs from trashing the river system by driving as fast as they can, as witnessed on Sunday, through the river. This action of driving as fast as they can so they can see water spraying from the sides of their 4WDs sets a poor example of Tread Lightly. Platypus and fresh water turtles are all hatching at this time of year and most never live due to poor 4WD activity. Pat, you set a very poor example to your viewers by showing off this ignorant behaviour. Instead, you should be leading by example and showing your viewers the proper way to drive a river system that houses platypus, turtles and fish that are becoming extinct in the Condamine River where we live. The ones who pay the price for what we witnessed on Sunday are the residents who have all had our rates massively increased to pay for concrete we fought so hard to stop. We clean up the rubbish along the road and river system left by hoons trashing our road and river crossings in and out of the gorge. The residents have to drive the crossings daily to go to work, we have to repair the mess made by 4WDs smashing their way through each crossing, instead of driving slowly through the crossings and Treading Lightly ! No Pat, your actions on Sunday were appalling. If this is the kind of examples you are setting for future 4WDers, you need to stop now. You were not in a National Park or 4WD Park, you were in our neighbourhood on a public road we have to pay for. Think about that. Next time you visit our neighbourhood, Tread Lightly.