Tony, who is 86, had suffered a major stroke and is still in hospital.

Your kindness and concern for him and for our dog Jet is greatly appreciated and we thank Heartlands Veterinary Service for taking care of Jet until he was able to be collected.

Thank you all.

Some years later the bank pledged another $50,000 to a shire account for funding the pool.

Last month’s Herald revealed the bank’s ongoing commitment to fund the pool with a pledge to provide another $100,000 from the sale of a bank-owned house in Stirling Terrace.

It’s community banking doing what it does best.

None of the wildflowers have had time to set seed, so there is nothing left of some endangered species.

Not to mention the bobtail goannas that must have been swept up in the mulcher and minced.

The traffic on this road is minimal, maybe one or two cars a day.

I have lived here since 1999 and all the properties have adequate firebreaks (the ranger sees to that).

I have listened to the arguments of local Community Emergency Services Manager Rob Koch and Reserve Management Officer Greg Warburton.

Mr Warburton agrees with me that it was too much at the wrong time of the year.

Mr Koch was only doing his job.

Unfortunately, he may not be allowed to attach the same importance to wildlife as I do, and as do most of the residents on this once-beautiful road.

Dryandra is a settlement plant with a life of approximately 30 years.

Now that the understorey has been demolished the dryandra will come back again; if this clear-felling is repeated time after time, we will just see a sea of weeds in future.

Dryandra is also the ‘bush larder’ for many animals and birds.

I know it is volatile, but so is a lot of the Australian bush.

The mulch that was left behind is not enough to stop wind or water erosion and now that it is clear of vegetation it will encourage people to drive on it, which will in turn prevent regrowth.

This wanton act of destruction has me in tears and makes me feel very angry at the practice of mitigation in the wrong areas.

I know there is nothing that can be done now but maybe in the future there will be some information from relevant authorities as to the viability of similar projects.

Hoping that I have helped you to understand.

I also felt very proud of my father Albie North who was a founding member and the first president of the Toodyay Naturalists’ Club.

The members of this remarkable little club were a small group of dedicated, hardworking, down-to-earth, nice people.

They had a common goal and were committed to the preservation of local flora and fauna; they complemented each other with their various skills and gave up their valuable time freely and unconditionally.

I feel a great sense of pride to have known them all when I was growing up.

At age 11, I was the youngest member of the club and was taken to each meeting by my parents.

The club’s passion and knowledge evoked my love of, and respect for, our bushland, which I hold very dearly to this day.

Looking back, I now realise how very privileged I was to be a part of this group of inspirational adults.

I remember that some meetings for an 11 year old seemed to drag on.

On many occasions when my dad was about to say, “I now declare this meeting closed”, Wally Chitty would stand up and tell us another of his stories.

Mr Chitty knew so much about the local history, wrote some very interesting books and was a very passionate and valued club member.

I remember meeting a very nice lady by the name of Rica Ericson, who gave me a signed book called Old Toodyay and Newcastle which I still have.

Occasionally my uncle who was a professional bird photographer would bring his colour slides along to show us and on another evening we watched a nature film at John Masters’ property.

We also went on outings to collect seeds or find different plants growing in certain areas, and on these days a picnic lunch was enjoyed by everyone.

This club began 50 years ago in very humble circumstances and I am so proud to see it is still very much alive and going strong today.

Thank you to all the past and present members who have taken on this very important legacy and I wish you good luck in your future endeavours.

Without dedicated people like you to preserve and protect our precious and unique flora and fauna I can only imagine the dreadful loss to future generations if it were destroyed and lost forever.

More and more people are realising the value of our precious resources and the dream of four local farmers who 50 years ago sat around a kitchen table discussing how they could make a difference in their community.

Youngsters Jye Cole (10) and Kosta Lowe (8) were having none of that.

The boys, who are great-great-grandchildren of well-known Toodyayites Marion and Charlie Ferguson, skippered the craft by a combination of swimming and paddling.

Jye’s swimming and pulling the boat, build by Charlie and friend Kevin, was reminiscent of Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen.

The boys believe it was a will to win that drove them to continue, but there was obviously more to it than that as, from the get-go, it was unlikely that they would do so.

Just sheer determination to do their best allowed Jye to soldier on in the bitterly cold water.

The boat was taken to Charlie’s scrap yard and there will be no mention of the Titanic 2 in next year’s name.

With Kosta being a year older and a year stronger, look out for the boys next year.