An overdue dusting of bookshelves resulted in the discovery of this long forgotten 1975 booklet in a batch of slim, buckling volumes , including what it was like in the Concentration Camp at Dachau ,translated from the German ; 1968 selected poems of Yehuda Amichai, translated by Assia Gutmann, a Hebrew holograph on the cover ; the l970 Concept poetry ,No.1, edited by David Rees, published in Edinburgh .
Makes you wonder what other forgotten interesting items are tucked away gathering dust on the shelves, in boxes, filing cabinets. Makes one weak just thinking about it .
By Peter Simon
The 70 page ,illustrated handbook, published with a grant from the NSW Council of Social Services , was written and prepared by the Community Action Exchange which operated between January and May 1975. It was written and prepared by 21 concerned people, Eva Cox, Rob Tickner among those whose name rings a bell. Peter Manning was probably a reporter with whom i worked on the Sun- Herald .
In describing citizen participation , early in the text , it ran an extract from the Journal of the American Institute of Planners ,July 1969, entitled A ladder of Citizen Participation in the USA by Sherry Arnstein .
There is an extensive section dealing with how to use the media and using your own media sources .
Of particular interest to this writer is the section headed Media Contacts which names journalists in media outlets and suburban newspapers along with their telephone numbers and particular interests.
One name in the suburban newspaper list jumped out : Juanita Nielsen, owner of the Kings Cross newspaper, said to be interested in property owners , rate payers, tenants .
Nielsen , shown above at her newspaper, NOW, who vanished without trace, thought to have been murdered because of her opposition to high rise projects , was the subject of a recent ABC series , which was pulled . In that series , which included footage of people opposing the projects , the author Frank Hardy was sighted without mention. Hardy described the Northern Territory News editor, Jim Bowditch , as the last of the great crusading editors.
The handbook contains the above photograph of what seems to be a protest at Kings Cross , media present, about the demolition of buildings . Another illustration touched on the relationship between developers and councils
A whimsical note was introduced to the handbook in the section dealing with Action Groups and what could happen at meetings with the use of a Leunig cartoon .
The Environmental Action section mainly deals with air and noise pollution by factories and cars .
