FORMER local environmental activist Alex Preema believes he knows why State Forests is putting on hold further plantings in the Newnes Plateau area. “It’s the dreadful soil up there,” Alex said . “The pines grow far too slowly and that part of our countryside is only suitable for native plants.” He said that back in his activist days the local lobbyists had to lobby long and hard to thwart a plan for commercial pine plantations in the pristine Kanangra Boyd National Park area. “That would have been an environmental disaster had they been allowed to go ahead,’ said he.

Memory tests

REGULARLY the column gets requests to pick the brains of our readers in attempts to track down obscure information —sometimes to resolve bar room debates, sometimes for more serious purposes.Today we have two. Firstly the bar debates: what year was the old New Scenic Hotel in Inch Street demolished to make way for a Workies extension? That’s out of the way, now a more serious challenge. Do any of our readers know anything of the history of Wagstaff House in Lithgow’s Ordnance Avenue? Some years back the large and imposing residence on the corner of Main Street Lane was faithfully restored by the late Doug Marsland as an upmarket B and B. After his death it was purchased by Westfund as a residence for professionals engaged by the fund to practice in its Dental Centre. Any takers on either of those challenges can pass the information