Katoomba Railway Goods Yard Revived Again

The first timber platform was up in 1881 and a waiting area, ladies waiting area, office and toilets were also built.

(from the report by Ray Christison of High Grounds Consulting, Lithgow, June 2000)



I must admit that I gasped with excitement as I read about Katoomba’s latest urban design advance in the Blue Mountains Gazette. No, it is not more parking meters. The Railway Goods Yard is a site of vital heritage significance and there are now plans to recognise this status and put the space to an appropriate current day use.

IT IS ABOUT TIME.

The project also introduced modern amenities to the building, including electrical fittings, fire detection, and stormwater drainage with new guttering.

Blue Mountains Gazette 9th October 2024


Katoomba Railway Goods Yard 1906

Will something actually happen this time? Will it be worthy of the importance of this space? Why am I asking? There is a history of false starts in returning it to the prominence it deserves while incorporating appropriate design sensitivity.

The construction of the station, together with the development of guest houses and in particular the Great Western Hotel [today the Carrington] gave a huge push to Katoomba as a tourist venue, and the goods yard and station were the hub of the town, with so much produce of all kinds coming via rail and being distributed by horse transport to the town and surrounds.

P3 Ray Christison Report 2000



Council Wanted a Car Park. We Wanted a Plan for Our Town

Any history of official planning for this site that leaves out descriptions such as shabby and brainless is far too generous. Let me take you back to December 1994. The NSW Department of Transport commissioned TEC Consulting to conduct a study of the Railway Goods Yard as a potential site for a transport interchange. TEC warned that “ingress” and “egress” from the site were too difficult and even dangerous.

In particular, the report pointed to the way Old Bathurst Road (Main Street) bends towards the western bridge concealing oncoming traffic and making “egress” a perilous experience (it also makes it devilishly difficult for Islamic terrorists to get up the speed they need to destroy community festivals but that is a story discussed elsewhere).


This TEC Consulting rejection was a great disappointment to certain Council staff. So great was this disappointment that they decided to ignore it two years later.

In July 1996, Deputy Mayor, Jim Angel, sent out an invitation to members of the public to join a car parking committee. Peter Nicol, Ian McMillan and I joined. It comprised Councillors, small business representatives and ourselves as selected community representatives.

Once again, the Council vision was for a car park on the Goods Yard site. At the first meeting, we pointed out that smart towns develop a plan for their town first and then decide where to place car parks. As there appeared to be no plan for Katoomba, we proposed the development of one.

The Sydney Olympics Presents an Opportunity

We recognised the opportunity that the coming 2000 Olympics in Sydney offered for enlivening our town. The NSW Government had already announced its plans to make iconic sites such as Manly, Bondi and Echo Point major urban redesign focuses. It seemed impossible to consider revamping Echo Point without including the town up the road.

In a subsequent meeting, we drew on Peter’s daughter’s talents as a landscape architect to sketch a prospective plan for the town. This followed our forensic examination of community aspirations and proposed plans recorded in public documents over many years.

For example, the front lawn of the Carrington Hotel had long been a de facto public meeting and picnic space. The highway side of the railway line appeared a more appropriate site for a car park. This would free up the Goods Yard for a welcoming park / garden and information centre visible as people arrived at Katoomba Station.

Our plan included a community arts and information centre on the current Cultural Centre site which would have strong links to Echo Point in order to broaden the visitor experience and bring benefits to local employment and businesses. It also proposed to brighten laneways and the streetscape. We had no idea how much money was available so our vision was appropriately modest.

We have all grown dizzy watching the succession of consultantancy reports.

Member for the Blue Mountains, Bob Debus, commenting on wasted money on various government reports with little action coming from them.
Blue Mountains Gazette 5th February 1997

By March 1997, this plan had the support of state member, Bob Debus, Deputy Mayor Angel and much of the community. This was during a period of Katoomba’s revival. Winter Magic was in its fourth year and the Blue Mountains Folk Festival (now Music Festival) was in its third. In 1995, at a celebration I attended, Premier of New South Wales, Bob Carr, announced the Blue Mountains would be the state’s inaugural “City of the Arts”. Our future was looking very bright.

There remained obstacles. One of them was the fact the plan did not come from the Council hierarchy. By mid-1997, Council had developed a competing vision called the Katoomba Town Entry Study. Fortunately, that was laughed out of town at a public meeting.

At the time, it was described as the Town Entry Study that didn’t enter the town. The plan included a fast food outlet where the new medical centre is, redevelopment of the Alpine Motor Inn and a cafe at the top of Station Street so staff didn’t need to make the arduous trip to the south side of the rail line. Its almost complete erasure from the Council records accords with its hostile reception.

Blue Mountains, NSW Inaugural
City of the Arts

Who’s Ready for the Charrette?

Having their plan rejected only made Council staff even more determined which presented Messrs Debus and Angel with a problem. Whom should they support? What they did was ingenious. They listened to advice from local architect, Nigel Bell, who recommended the concept of a Charrette.

The Charrette is an intense planning process where experts are drawn from a range of appropriate disciplines to engage with community in discerning public aspirations, needs and concerns. They take this input and develop a workable plan.

The project did not have strong support in some sections of Council. The preliminary public consultation that traditionally runs in the months leading up to the event was poorly supported. At the time, the Gazette had an office in town and a local journalist, Morgan Beck, who was a strong supporter of the car parking committee’s plan which he helped to promote.

Over five days in late October 1998, the Charrette consultation finally took place. The end result was magical. The completed plan was presented by consultants, ESD, in the evening of the fifth day to around 400 ecstatic community members at the Katoomba RSL. I have a cassette recording of that event to support my claim.

Our earnest efforts as part of the carparking committee were rewarded as ESD expanded on our work, improved it and gave it authority. We had by then been upgraded to the Katoomba and Echo Point Planning Advisory Committee. Our work and that of other key players is acknowledged here:

State Cabinet, was able to establish the Katoomba/Echo Point Planning Advisory Committee and the focus and imperative for the revitalisation of both Katoomba and Echo Point. This committee provided the vital link between the Council and the community during the process and has been seeking the means to allow Katoomba to reach its full potential for anumber of years.

p iv Wendy Morris, Charrette Leader and Chip Kaufman, Lead Urban Designer principals at ESD in Katoomba Charrette Outcomes Report

So what did they propose for the Railway Goods Yard? They devoted considerable thought to this space as recorded under section 9.1 of the report (see pages 68 to 71). Anyone interested in the detail should go to these pages of the final report.

In summary, the consultants called for the protecting of the heritage values of the site. Views to Main St should be protected from the station and the Goods Yard along with views from the station into the Goods Yard. The site was “not efficient at all for car parking; its north-south dimension is too
small, especially at its western end as it tapers to only a few metres in width”.

STAKEHOLDER INPUT
Many at the Charrette expressed the desire for this space to be come a public square complemented by the historic rail buildings, while others wanted the buildings removed and for the space to be devoted to car parking for nearby shops (and possibly commuters). The SRA wanted to see significant development recommended on the site, to increase its land value at the time of its sale by SRA.

p69 Katoomba Charrette Outcomes Report

Key Elements of the Plan

* Part of the site should be a small north-facing public open space, where week-end markets and other possibly train and heritage related events could take place, and where people could sit and have lunch enjoying the sunshine, and towards which the adjoining cafes to the east could orient outdoor dining;

* Shops and open-air stalls should line the southern edge of the site against its vertical edge to Main Street;

* The historic fabric on the site should be retained and possibly re-used for other purposes, but only the small railway building adjoining the railway needs to stay in its exact original location. This recommendation should be subject to an assessment of heritage prior to finalisation of designs for this site;

* The design and lighting of the site should support its passive surveillance and safety, including after dark.



And some further images of what we were to expect:

Could We Outlast the White Ants? Council Still Wants Its Car Park

So that’s the happy story. The consultants also warned us to watch out for WHITE ANTS.


The white ants didn’t wait long. They were nibbling away at the site within a few years. This was equally true of much of the grand vision of the Charrette. And now we have true inheritors of that white ant tradition in key positions of power within our Council. By 2001, there were plans for a multi-storey carpark on the Goods Yard site.

This was part of an expanded vision that included concreting over the entire Goods Yard and placing shops on the top. Here is local artist, John Ellison’s, depiction of the new vision.

Above article from Blue Mountains Gazette, August 2001. The Ellison cartoon also appeared as part of this article.

A timeline of our battle to preserve the space between 1994 to 2006 is provided here. This included a march on the site in August 2001 by a large local posse and reported by the Gazette.

We learned the site had been sold to Council by State Rail (as it was then known) in mid-May 2003 for a dollar. This was contradicted by a former Blue Mountains City Council property manager who advised me in January 2004 that there was a dispute over moving the crane and who would pay for it.

A call to Council this afternoon confirmed to me that it is still part of the rail corridor and in City Rail’s keep. Well done to all involved.

The Katoomba Station Goods Shed, next to the rail line, had been steadily degrading due to decades of disuse

Blue Mountains Gazette 9th October 2024

Today the Railway Goods Yard is a Car Park

So what is the situation today? Anyone reading this week’s Gazette article could easily be misled into believing the Goods Yard site has been transformed into a Renaissance Revivalist marvel mirroring the accomplishments of 15th century Florence. No, the space is now a car park.

By huddling up the western end of site, it was possible to give the impression of an open, useful public space. Most of that space belongs to cars. As it has done for years, the site has been a parking space for City Rail staff and other lucky parkers. Free from parking meters, you can stay there as long as you like. It also seems to be a strong source of income for the GoGet hire car company as a surprising number of their vehicles share the space.

Towards the end of the Gazette celebration, Lyndal Punch of Transport Asset Holding Entity (TAHE), exulted:

“The transformation is quite phenomenal from what it was nine months ago”.

Looking at events over 30 years, I find it phenomenal just how little has been achieved.

I am sorry Trish and Lyndall but I might not be able to get up for this latest revival. A bit of paint, electrical fittings and stormwater drainage are all very exciting but I was hoping for just a little bit more. I have been for a long, long time.

For many years, there has been debate locally about promoting rail travel as opposed to car and coach which are favoured today. It has its advantages. Sitting high on the ridge, once you pass Emu Plains, the train traveller has spectacular views that those down on the highway cannot imagine. Sadly, the experience is destroyed by constant trackwork at the most inopportune tourism periods. For example, a tortuous interchange of bus, train, bus faces school holiday train travellers this very day as I write this article.

The plans for the Railway Goods Yard were meant to be part of an enticing experience of Katoomba even before people stepped off the train. Yet, what are the plans now? Might we achieve something to match the ladies’ waiting room and museum of 143 years ago or will Council and the state government continue to manipulate and ignore public opinion.

As the Mayor Celebrates His Electoral Triumph

You want to understand the sorry state of our town today? You might start by looking at the series of lost opportunities described here. More recently, we had some maddening reports from Council staff as they continue their futile attempts to lassoo the tourist coach operators.

In my research for this article, I came across one piece of correspondence I sent to a Gazette journalist in 2006 regarding the ongoing coach battle. I also found a summary of the Charrette’s plans for dealing with coaches. I make them both available here in order to assist Council staff in their future plans and struggles.

Finally, we can see who is responsible for success but who is responsible for the failures?

So simple, isn’t it. Things just happen. There is no cause. People have heart attacks. Community members fight with each other. Towns fall apart. Buildings fall apart. Communities fall apart. Families fall apart. And it is nobody’s fault. Things just happen.

Enail: katwlr@protonmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KatoombaReview/

Twitter: @KatoombaReview1

Fauci Faces Ferguson

Two nights ago, the ABC’s (Australian Broadcasting Commission) ace reporter, Sarah Ferguson, interviewed one of the great criminals of the last two thousand years. There is no hyperbole in this and if you found any then your ignorance is now on full display.

Sometimes the ABC produces programs so exquisitely designed to get on my nerves that I fear NSW Health has handed on my DNA from one of those foolishly taken local PCR-tests and Yuval Harari already has me hacked.

Every sentence, every stupid question, every simpering appeal to this monster appeared carefully crafted to jangle my nerves. I normally leave the room week nights when this Hillary Clinton groupie turns up but I was intrigued to hear what she might contrive with this rat. He was cornered. For God’s sake, Sarah, snap the trap. Nothing, NOTHING. In seconds I went from homicidal to suicidal, due to the absence of an appropriate victim. After a mere three minutes, I ran from the room to save my life.

I wonder why the comments were turned off. In fact, I have just checked another couple of ABC videos related to Fauci and all comments are tuned off. What are they afraid of?
Read more

Trust the Magic – the bewitching of the Left

The magicians who created spike

“I trust the science”.
This statement has killed more conversations than the mobile phone. Yet, we have been enchanted by a story more magical than scientific.

On 22nd February 2021, we were offered the first of a range of miraculous products to combat the Sars-Cov-2 virus (hereon known as Spike). These shamanic offerings carried strange names and no limits to what they could do.

They were all safe and effective so there was no need to test them. “Nothing up my sleeve”, was good enough for our statutory bodies.

We had to take these mercurial elixirs to save the lives of everyone we knew. Each of us channelled Jesus as the saviour of humanity.

Our sacrifice didn’t end there. We had to offer up our reason to be boxed and stored for magic to be free and do its work. We’d retrieve it later, in more rational times. For now it must be locked up and stored on a high shelf. Its place would be taken by credulity and viral sprites.

In March 2020, the director of the USA’s National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, told the world masks may make you feel better but they won’t do any good.

A rapidly shifting official rhetoric urged us on to a first life-saving injection which presaged a second and then a third and ……

Unencumbered by reason, we straddled each new, contradictory demand of the changing narrative.

Read more

WHO is in charge of health policy

Yesterday, I couldn’t resist.
For health reasons, I have been staying away from the ABC. I’ve missed Fran Kelly’s tearful departure from breakfast radio and its joyful reporting on the pharmaceutical industry’s recent triumphs.

With New South Wales’ citizens freed on Wednesday, I had to know of any plans to reshackle us. An interview Patricia Karvelas conducted with celebrity medic, Mary-Louise McLaws, not only showed me the proposed implements of torture but also plans for their use.

Modelling by University of New South Wales suggests 25,000 of us, daily, will develop new Covid infections by the end of January. Trish invited Mary-Lou to “take us through the modelling”. Sadly, she hadn’t been involved though she works at the uni part-time.

How do I know she works there part-time? I don’t but if you follow this link on the UNSW website you will see that Mary-Lou’s involvement with the World Health Organisation (WHO) leaves her very little time for anything other than ABC interviews.

It seems there is barely a WHO board she hasn’t clambered onto but this one impressed me: “She is the Focal Point for the WHO Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN)“. I’ve never met a Focal Point.

Read more

Who Are the Real Fascists?

The behavioural scientists have betrayed us

FASCISM

  1. A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, a capitalist economy subject to stringent governmental controls, violent suppression of the opposition, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
  2. A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government.
  3. Oppressive, dictatorial control.

I have been a close observer of politics for fifty years. In that time, nothing has impressed me more than the size of the propaganda campaign surrounding Covid-19.

We have had this ambitious project imposed on us worldwide with all the emphasis on injections. Deaths and injuries caused by them are generally ignored by all of our main institutions. When they do break through we’re told they are rare.

The Three Commandments

Media’s participation has been vital to the project. It reinforced three commandments.

  • Thou shalt be afraid. Covid-19 is dangerous beyond belief and you will be lucky to get out of this alive.

  • Thou shalt have one solution that must be repeated forever. Take the injection.

  • Thou shalt have no other options.
Read more

How Gates and the WHO Killed Ivermectin

How Gates and WHO Killed Ivermectin

Some of the great untold and mistold stories
of the current Covid-19 crisis have surrounded Ivermectin. Somewhat akin to the way people are misled about Assange, a series of lies and half truths are designed by skilled, well-paid behavioural scientists and you are invited to pick up the one that fits your needs.

It requires work to have even a passably informed opinion on any subject in which the media and powerful have a vested interest. It is often much easier to pick up one of these lies. You trot out this lie when someone raises an issue to give the impression you are a thinker.

This allows you turn away and take comfort in your alignment with the establishment perspective. Little occurs to ruffle your day knowing you are doing the right thing.

This extract should remove that comfort. If it doesn’t, you are immovable in the righteousness of your uninformed and expertly curated world view.

Extract from Robert Kennedy Jnr’s
“The Real Anthony Fauci” p100-11
3

The massive and overwhelming evidence in favor of ivermectin includes scientist Dr. Tess Lawrie’s highly regarded, peer-reviewed meta-analysis.

Read more

Key Covid-19 Links

The people mainstream media is trying to hide from you

We are often talking to friends and family about the work of one of these important people in the list below. The idea of this page is to make it easy for you to link to and share these people’s work. These are the sort of people that Anthony Fauci, Peter Doherty and John Skerritt would rather you didn’t know existed (the latter two are Australian references).

The list is not meant to be in order of importance. I am almost ashamed to have Catherine Austin Fitts near the bottom. And for example, the Melissa Ciummei interview is compelling; no I just listened her story again. IT IS CHILLING. As we move down the list, we move away from Covid-19 to broader issues. Please let me know anyone you think I have missed or any corrections needed.

Deregistered Professor Peter McCullough is the most published person in the field of heart and kidney specialisation in the world. He is the editor of two major academic journals. His championing of safe and effective treatments has cost him his job and has lead to death threats. He must be listened to.

Front line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance. This is one of the first and most significant organsations that developed a response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It developed a group of effective protocols in the absence of official action and in the face of official hostility.

Joe Mercola is an osteopath and one of the early champions of effective treatments like ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamin d and c and other natural health cures. He has been attacked by media and has had his life threatened. Social media and the main search engines have completely banned his work. He provides daily output in the form of videos with compelling interviewees.

Robert Kennedy Jnr leads the Children’s Health Defense which exposes the corruption that is at the core of much of modern medicine.

Tess Lawrie is the Director of E-BMC Ltd, and EbMCsquared, a community interest research company. Tess is committed to improving the quality of healthcare through rigorous research. Her range of research expertise, based on research experience in both developing and developed countries, uniquely positions her to evaluate and design research for a variety of healthcare settings.

British Ivermectin Recommendation Development Group (BIRD)
Interview with Maria Zeee (part 1)
Interview with Maria Zeee (part 2)
How Gates and WHO killed Ivermectin

James Roguski is an author, researcher, activist, and natural health advocate. He specializes in researching highly complex issues and translating data into simple language that is easily understood to facilitate action. He is currently working with people around the world to challenge plans to destroy national sovereignty and replace individual rights with equity as part of of WHO / UN / Sustainable Development nightmare.

Steve Kirsch – one of the true champions of this battle with Big Pharma. Steve is an electrical engineer, entrepreneur, activist and prolific writer on matters Covid-19. He has $1 million gift for any mainstream champion of the vaccines who will join him in debate. And this is a recent development on that front.

The Unnacceptable Jessica Rose – is a dynamic debunker of the mainstream narrative. She is a researcher with a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Mathematics and a Master’s degree in Immunology from Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Maryanne Demasi is Australia’s top medical investigator. She has worked for many to inform us about Big Pharma’s deepest secrets and endemic corruption.

Dr Judy Wilyman is a specialist in government vaccination policies and is an educator of professionals and the general community on vaccination decisions in Australia. Her stories will astound you. She paints a devastating picture of Big Pharma regulatory capture.

Dr Vernon Coleman is well known for his “Old Man in a Chair” video. Has been a savage critic of the Covid-19 and a relentless debunker of the Schwab agenda

Meryl Nass, MD, is an internal medicine physician and activist with expertise in anthrax and bioterrorism; her interest is in prevention, investigation, amelioration, and safe and effective medical response. Her expertise and experience includes treating patients with Gulf War syndrome and adverse effects from the anthrax vaccine

Igor Chudov is an independent journalist and researcher with a strong maths background. Writes fascinating and regular articles on substack. Well worth following.

Dr David Martin is a patent law expert who cuts across the Trump / Biden divide to describe both as corrupt. This is a charge he levels at their predecessors and the people who form[ed] their administrations, present and past. He links Fauci to a 2002 patenting of coronaviruses. He also makes very clear that the virus we are dealing with is a bioweapon of human creation

Professor Dolores Cahill is an Inventor, Founder and Shareholder of Companies, has been Granted & licensed Patents in Europe, USA & worldwide with applications in improving the early accurate diagnosis of disease (auto immune diseases & cancer).

Dr Sam White is a GP who resigned because of his doubts about Covid-19 vaccines has won his High Court battle for freedom of speech after he was ordered not to make comments about anything to do with Covi-19 or the government’s response to it.

In 2020, Dr Bryan Ardis lost his father-in-law due to ill-advised hospital protocols. He has been relentless in his exposure of the improper use of Remdesivir which he describes as a kidney poison. The promotion of this product by our TGA in place of effective treatments, is one of the great crimes of all time.

Dr Bret Weinstein is a Professor of Biology now dedicated to correcting myths and falsehoods around Covid-19. A brief look at the savagery of his Wikipedia entry suggests he must be doing something right. His interviews with leading figures in this debate are always informative. His weekly podcast is great listening.

Reiner Fuellmich is a lawyer with an international reputation who ran the original Corona Committee with Vivienne Fischer and now the Corona Investigatve Committee.

Matthew Ehret is an excellent resource for anyone seeking to place current events in context, particularly from an historical perspective.

Whitney Webb is a journalist operating out of Chile. She is remarkable for the volume and the quality of her content. Much of it leading edge analysis drawing on some of the best minds from a wide range of disciplines. Her forecasting of events in this Covid era has been prodigious.

Australian Senator Gerard Rennick – one of only about 6 politicians in the country standing up to Covid tyranny but probably the most effective and eloquent. His efforts are crucial in this battle.

John Campbell was for many years a director of nursing. He has a masters degree in Health Science and has a Phd in philosophy. John is probably the most conservative presenter in this list, yet, some of his work is outstanding in uncovering duplicity and fudging of data. Here are a few examples.

James Corbett is an investigative reporter who has been ahead of much of his contemporaries in interpreting current trends. His work is forensic and confronting.

Neil Oliver is an archaologist, broadcaster and historian. He has been one of the most eloquent voices challenging the Covid-19 plandemic and its context as part of a planned attack on humanity.
China Wall Street and the New Global Economy

Dr David Hughes has written extensively on Covid-19 and related issues. His latest collaborative work discusses Mass Formation and seeks to place it in context.

Typically, mainstream references to Mark Crispin Miller describe him as an espouser of conspiracy theories. In truth, he is one of the world’s leading experts in media analysis and propaganda.

Nick Hudson, an actuary and co-founder of Pandemics – Data and Analytics, also known as PANDA. It was formed by a group of four friends, professionals – an economist, a doctor, a lawyer and a little actuary. What we shared was an observation that the data and the facts – the reality – of Coronavirus was far away from what the media and public health institutions were telling us.

Dr Naomi Wolf is a bestselling author, columnist, and professor; she is a graduate of Yale University and received a doctorate from Oxford. She is cofounder and CEO of DailyClout.io, a successful civic tech company.

Mattias Desmet is a clinical psychologist with PHD in statistics who does a wonderful job of explaining the mass psychosis that underpins the current public response to Covid-19.


Catherine Austin Fitts is financial adviser
 and former US public official with a compelling perspective on our current dilemma.

Max Blumenthal and thegrayzone.com is an incredible on material relating to Covid-19 but also with regard to world politics in general.

In this stunning interview with the The Irish Inquiry, Melissa Ciummei explains what Covid-19 and these passports are about. It is not about health. It is about control.

They Want Your Children

Jimmy Dore is something of an anomaly; a left wing shockjock. That is old-style left with its focus on the economics. He is equally scathing of WOKE politics and works with people like Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate to provide a intelligent coverage of subjects such as the Ukraine debacle.


Dane Wigington has a background in solar energy and was a former employee of Bechtel Power Corporation. Dane was also a licensed contractor in California and Arizona. He produces that seeks to inform the public and challenge the mainstream narrative on climate change.

Norbert Haering is an economist, journalist and author who writes extensively on finance and changes we are facing such as the push remove cash from the economy and the thrust for Universal Basic Income.

Maria Zeee appears to be everywhere and her work is critical for people wanting to understand how Covid-19 and its related oppression is being imposed on Australians.

David Sorenson of Stop World Control produces and hosts an excellent series of videos and articles. He believes multibillionaire criminals are planning a New World Order that will impose worldwide tyranny. You decide.

Ernst Wolff, German journalist, author and expert in matters of the global financial economy explains this is not about health. This is about a major economic and social reset.

This article can also be found on my Katoomba Review’s Substack page.

Warren Ross
email: katwlr@protonmail.com

Neoliberalism to Covid-19 & the Left

Friedrich von Hayek founder of the Mont Pelerin Society

To know the art of impressing the imagination of crowds is to know at the same time the art of governing them.

“The Crowd” by Gustave Le Bon



The market is the best information processor the world has ever known. In its perfect form, aided by government to the extent of its needs, it has led the western world to prosperity over the last 50 years. This perfect form is achieved through neoliberalism.

This is the story that champions of the market have sold to us.

I am not describing the world of laissez-faire capitalism and small government. We moved on from there after the Great Depression. If you’re over 40 today, you knew an anomalous period before neoliberalism gained a firm grip on society.

During this time it was easier, comparatively, for people to pay off a home and build a nest egg or six in the form of investment properties, share portfolios and superannuation. For most young people today, the only share they know is accommodation, super is weak and the door to home ownership has been slammed shut.

Read more

I am a unvaccinated patriot

This is a patriotic time.
Especially, with all these people injected and feeling pretty good about themselves. Some curmudgeons would call them smug. Not me. I simply want a bit of that admiration. With this in mind I want to put myself forward, and only me, as part of an experiment.

Alfred Hospital in Melbourne is using a new anti-viral drug, Favipirivir, in an experiment involving 120 people. The one I’m proposing will be much cheaper. The Melbourne experiment requires participants to take 18 tablets one day and 8 the next. You’d feel like putting a lid on yourself. Again, my test will use much less.

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How Can We Ever Trust Them Again?

Claire Hooker thinks natural immunity and vaccine produced immunity are equal.

[N]othing is more fatal to a people than great reforms, however excellent these reforms may appear theoretically.”

“The Crowd” Gustave Le Bon

Last week an erstwhile friend stopped me in the street long enough to call me selfish for not being vaccinated. He’d seen some of the pieces I had written recently and decided they were reason enough to reassess my character and put aside a friendship that extended over 30 years. It seems I had broken the trust that underpinned our relationship.

Who do you trust? Why do you trust them? These are important questions that major media organisations have been struggling to shape and control. The media battleground has been shaken up significantly in recent years. With the collapse of the traditional funding model, the fragile relationship between the mainstream media and the public has been shattered.

Read more