[LINK] NSW Government tried to expunge cancelled Metro from the web

[Tom Worthington]

To get a copy of the NSW Government's web pages about the cancelled 
North West Metro project, I had to go to the National Library of 
Australia's Pandora archive:
<http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/86061/20080623-1145/www.sydlink.com.au/site/page2b99.html?u=26>. 
The NSW government appears to have tried to remove the embarrassing 
details of the project from history by deleing the web site of the 
project <http://www.sydlink.com.au/> and by making sure it was not in 
the Internet Archive: <http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.sydlink.com.au>.

Previously I was able to use Pandora to obtain copies of the Sydney 
Olympics web site, which was deleted after its sponsors were found to 
have unlawfully discriminated against the disabled. By providing 
information which some would prefer we forgot, the NLA is making a 
valuable contribution to Australian society. In the current case 
Pandora may help prevent the waste of billions of dollars on poorly 
thought out transport infrastructure projects in NSW. Perhaps the 
creators of Pandora should be nominated for an Order of Australia.

ps: The new Sydney West Metro proposal makes a lot more sense 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2009/01/sydney-cbd-to-parramatta-west-metro.html> 
than the cancelled North West Metro, which was not the "European 
style metro" it was claimed to be: 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2008/09/metro-in-sydney-transport-plan.html>.



Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617                      http://www.tomw.net.au/
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Australian National University