Environmental News and Action

On 15 March the Premier, Bob Carr, announced there will be no logging of the Goonoo and Pilliga forest for charcoal production. This follows a sustained effort by NPA and many other groups (particularly local conservation and Aboriginal groups) against a proposal to take 160,000 tonnes of timber for charcoal production from these woodlands and other forests (see NPJ Aug/Dec 99).

NPA congratulates the State Government on the decision – the proposal would have caused massive destruction in the forests and decimated their threatened wildlife. To cap off the reprieve, rapid declaration of a national park and mallee fowl reserve at Goonoo would be welcome.

NPA is now raising with government the issue of timber sup- plies from State forests in western woodlands, and the need for a proper assessment of current operations. Many scientists are concerned about the ongoing large-scale operation to reduce the 400,000 ha Pilliga region into a cypress pine plantation.

What you can do:
Write to the Premier, Bob Carr, congratulating him on the recent decision about Goonoo and Pilliga, and raise concerns about the forest assessment process, the proposed silicon smelter and the need for woodland reserves.

Aboriginal links with the land are to be affirmed by a change of name for Botany Bay National Park to Kamay-Botany Bay National Park, acknowledging the significance of the area for both the local Dharawal people and European settlers. Kamay is the Dharawal name for the area.

As Captain Cook’s first landing place in Sydney, focusing attention on this site is a symbolic move to foster reconciliation. NPA State Council at its meeting in March expressed wholehearted support for an expression of prior ownership by Aboriginal people. The meeting noted NPA looks forward to a time when the park would be named solely as Kamay National Park.

In January the Minister for the Environment, Hon Bob Debus, announced that construction of new cabins for accommodation in the Warrumbungle National Park would not proceed. The proposal was rejected after the NPWS conducted environmental studies.

Park-based resort development and the accompanying infrastructure is in direct contradiction to setting lands aside for conservation. The proposal would also have disadvantaged the local tourism economy. Coonabarabran is only 25 minutes away and provides a range of accommodation; any development in the park would have been in direct competition with local businesses.

Over 10,000 weirs, floodgates, causeways and levees have been built in south-eastern Australia to provide water supply or to prevent flooding of agricultural land. But at what cost?

The Inland Rivers Network is hosting a conference to look at ways of reducing the environmental impacts on waterways, to be held on 18 -19 August in Sydney.

The NPWS has produced a comprehensive set of maps of the endangered Cumberland Plain Woodland vegetation in Western Sydney. The project took 18 months and the NPWS worked with conservationists, local government, industry and the community in developing the plans.

Cumberland Plain Woodland vegetation used to cover a vast area within the Sydney Basin, but now only 9% of this remains. The vegetation is made up of various types, of which less than 1% of Sydney Turpentine and Blue Gum High Forest is left and only 7% of Castlereagh Ironbark.

NSW Environment Minister Bob Debus has also announced that a recovery plan will be released later this year. This is also to be a cooperative effort, involving the NPWS, the Nature Conservation Council, the Urban Development Institute of Australia, Landcom and the Housing Industry Association, among many others. Such a collabarative effort is in itself a major achievement, and the maps represent an advance for the conservation of nationally significant bushland.

Koala records wanted

Recent koala sightings in the Blue Mountains have triggered the initiation of a comprehensive survey. Details of sightings are required for a survey being conducted under the auspices of the NPWS over the next few months.

If you have seen a koala in the Blue Mountains or know of sightings, historic and current, please call 02 9962 9996 or visit our web page
http://wildscenes.com.au/koalas