Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows Christina Khumari, a jeweller, arriving at the block of land where she is building her house from recycled materials. Christina explains her concern about a recent council decision to allow mining at a nearby quarry. The quarry would provide gravel for roads into new subdivisions within the area. Interviews with Christina on her picturesque property are intercut with ground and aerial shots of the quarry, which she strongly opposes on personal and environmental grounds.

Educational value points

• The conflict between progress and the desire for environmentally sustainable development in Byron Shire, New South Wales is highlighted in the clip. The view presented is biased as it does not include the perspective of the quarry company or the developers.

• After the documentary was broadcast in 1996, the Independent Complaints Review Panel (ICRP) investigated complaints that the film was seriously biased and that it presented land developers and their supporters in an unfavourable manner. The ICRP supported the complaints and released a report saying that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), which commissioned and broadcast the film, should have indicated that the documentary presented the viewpoint of the filmmaker, who opposed development in the area. An on-air apology was made to those concerned after the ICRP released the report.

• Since European settlement Byron Shire has supported timber, pastoralist, sand-mining and whaling industries but in the 1970s a critical mass of people moved into the area seeking alternative lifestyles and bringing about a change in attitudes towards the land. More recently, tourism and a growing permanent population have increased the demand for services and residential developments. This is again changing the cultural and environmental landscape of the area and indicates the ongoing pattern of change in land use at Byron Shire.

• Residents debate the advantages and disadvantages of the population increase and the subsequent development of Byron Shire, and have successfully campaigned to prevent a number of transnational corporations from opening, such as McDonalds and Club Med. Media reports have detailed a growing resentment from locals towards tourists and newcomers to Byron Shire and have alleged that this may have contributed to an increase in reported violence.

• Film techniques that reflect the filmmaker’s perspective and attitudes are evident in the clip. The narration, choice of shots and music support the subjective interpretation of the issue provided by Christina Khumari. The narrator presents a personal perspective of events. The camerawork and the editing purposely frame the development as inappropriate and the dramatic shift in music is used to contrast the images of the bush with those of the quarry.

• The documentary was directed by David Bradbury (1951–), a critically acclaimed Australian filmmaker who has developed a reputation in Australia and overseas for his politically challenging stories. His films Frontline (1981) and Chile: Hasta Cuando? (1986) were nominated for Academy Awards for Best Documentary in 1981 and 1987.

This clip starts approximately 46 minutes into the documentary.

Christina’s house is being constructed in the Byron hinterland. We see her talking to the builders on site.
Narrator Being against development doesn’t stop greenies from building their own houses. We all want a roof over our heads, in the most beautiful place we can find. Christina is a jeweller and soon to have a house.
Christina It looks like something, huh? Nah, well, it’ll be solid, sure. But since it’s all recycled and it was built strongly to begin with – it’s beautiful.
Voiceover, Christina I knew in ’69 I wanted to come back to Byron Shire. I absolutely knew then that this is where my heart was going to be, to settle. And, um, I came back and I looked at places, I looked at places, I looked at places, and I finally found this one. And I knew the second I walked on it, it was mine. There’s a stillness in this valley.

Christina is interviewed on site, looking over the valley.
Christina Quiet is extraordinary in the valley, because there’s no through traffic. Just people who live here come here, and their friends. There’s not more than that. There’s no through traffic going. And the bird life – everything about it is just totally magic for me. It’s absolutely my heart’s desire, this place. Took me a long time to find it.

Christina walks up a nearby slope and indicates the proposed site for a new quarry.
Narrator Christina’s dream was to last six short weeks after council approved her building application.
Christina I can take you to see the quarry. What they’re doing with it now. They want to take the whole hill away. For 23 years, they want to blast it, five-and-a-half days a week, and run the trucks seven days a week on that road that’s just on my boundary, right on my boundary, up a very, very, very steep grade. The noise of the trucks is horrendous when they come up there now. What they’re envisaging in the DA is to have in excess of 8,000 truck movements on this piece of road.

Ominous music. Quarry vision.
Christina Per year, going up and down here. That’s just the start. That’s just the first year. And I live – I’m building – I will be living within 100 m of here. It’s not possible. It’s time for it to stop. The quarry people say they want the gravel to make the roads for all the new subdivisions. We don’t need the subdivisions. We don’t need to haul out our hills just to make roads for new subdivisions. We really don’t. It’s more than personal, for me. It’s my stand for the environment, to keep Byron Shire as beautiful as it is right now. We don’t have to keep cutting it up. There’s no reason for it, except for a few people to make another million or two. And, I’m sorry, that just doesn’t hold up in my mind.