The Mallee Fowl ......

The mallee fowl was once more than a ‘mallee’ fowl. Like the retreat of a continental ice sheet during climatic warming, the shrinking range of the mallee fowl that once covered most of western NSW tells of disappearing trees and vegetation, and the spread of unsustainable resource use. The giant secretive mound builder should symbolise the west. Its colourful hues of soft browns and creamy underside, folded wings covered in panes of vibrant tan, trimmed with white, were once seen widely amongst the similarly coloured western landscape. But now the ‘mallee-woodland’ fowl can only represent what we have lost. Beyond the mallee there remain three places mallee fowl can be found – the woodland remnants at West Wyalong, the Pilliga and Goonoo. These are the last large expanses of native vegetation left in central NSW.

  Western woodlands

The woodland region in western NSW has suffered severely since non-Indigenous people arrived with cattle, sheep, wood and crops in their sights. The terrain and infertility that impeded the total exploitation in the mountains of eastern NSW were absent here. And the western limits (now the NSW Western Division) were determined by lower rainfall.

This region, referred to as ‘western woodlands’, contains ecosystems in serious trouble. What is immediately obvious from looking at a vegetation map of western woodlands and spending time in the area is that little native vegetation survives. Solitary trees or scattered patches can be found, but in most cases the other components of the original ecosystem are missing: the understorey (native grasses and herbs), the animals and micro-organisms. Commonly, a distant tree-topped rocky ridge will be it!

The temperate woodlands, including the western woodlands, are more threatened than any other wooded ecosystem in the country. Rough estimates show only about 20% of the original vegetation exists, much of which is degraded. Currently 1.1% of the western woodlands is protected in 34 conservation reserves. Nationally agreed conservation targets broadly aim for at least 15% of each bioregion to be conserved – targets which are being met in better studied and popularly appreciated areas such as the Australian Alps and the Sydney Sandstone.

Western woodlands: why the west must be won (NPJ Aug 99) described the historical loss of
ground mammals and the wave of extinctions now occurring in woodland birds. This has been most apparent in the southern parts of the western woodlands where the least vegetation remains, but the bird decline is now expected to reach the central and northern parts. The paradise parrot is already lost, while some particularly susceptible species such as the crested bellbird are almost gone from the region.

  NPA focus on Pilliga and Goonoo

Pilliga, making up about half a million hectares or around 1.5% of the western woodlands, and Goonoo form the two largest blocks in the entire woodland region. Pilliga and Goonoo are all that can serve as a core of a conservation network. Throughout the woodlands there is little other public land available for protection, beyond the approximately 380 small State forests scattered through the region.

As you may have noticed from previous Journals, NPA has stepped up its activity to address the serious problem in western woodlands. My employment at the start of the year coincided with a shonky regional assessment process over the Pilliga and Goonoo State forests in order to facilitate the supply of large quantities of charcoal to produce silicon without the need for a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

The regional assessment was introduced by a commitment from the NSW Government that it would be "looking at ways to bring the community together and develop ecologically sustainable land management practices". What happened was almost the opposite. The community came together to oppose the Government’s fast-track assessment and plans to supply up to 65,000 tonnes per year of native ironbark, box and red gum from Pilliga and Goonoo. NPA led the revolt and participated in public meetings in Tamworth, Armidale, Coonabarabran, Dubbo, Bathurst, Katoomba and Cowra.

On the eve of the NSW Salinity Summit held in Dubbo (see p 19), Premier Bob Carr announced that there would be no logging for charcoal from Pilliga or Goonoo. The Government heard the overwhelming opposition organised by NPA and regional environment groups. It retrospectively stated, "…assessment outcomes identified a significant potential for changes in the structure of the Goonoo-Pilliga forests if charcoal production should proceed because of the…slow growth rates evident from the studies ..."

"You were watching the wrong ball", Col Dorber, a timber industry representative, said shortly after the decision. And to some extent that was right! Under a veil of secrecy, Government busied itself ensuring the current timber industry could continue extracting white cypress and ironbark from Pilliga and Goonoo for purposes including sawlogs, fencing, vineposts and firewood.

Cypress pine has been logged from Pilliga for close to a century, and today is concentrated in Barradine. State forest management has excluded fires to help cypress become a dominant tree species, and until 1982 also removed or ringbarked other tree species. Due to over-harvesting, few very old, large cypress pines now survive.

Ironbark from Pilliga and Goonoo was heavily harvested for sleepers until replaced by concrete sleepers in the 1980s, leaving few large ironbarks in either forest. In Pilliga, this demand was replaced from the early 1980s by an operation making electric fence posts and droppers only from ironbark, set up by Insultimber at Barradine.

There has never been an EIS completed for logging operations in the Pilliga and Goonoo, or any other State forest in western NSW. Feeling exposed, industry (with Government support) is seeking to put in place a five-year ‘forest agreement’ under special forestry legislation that blocks the EIS requirement. Government would conduct a proper comprehensive assessment over the five years, and follow this with a 20 year forest agreement.

Forest agreements are meant to only follow on from comprehensive and scientifically based regional studies, similar to those conducted in the eastern forests. The data collection for Pilliga and Goonoo was rushed and superficial, conducted for six to nine weeks over summer and criticised by many scientists.

Conducting a comprehensive assessment will allow us to determine the detailed implications of continued logging. But already the basic scientific information on State forests throughout the western woodlands, in particular for Pilliga and Goonoo, warns that permanent protection is necessary to avoid local and regional extinctions. We need to act immediately.

NPA is committed to working to protect the western woodlands. We are seeking to prevent the adoption of any forest agreement and have been working with the local Aboriginal people to formulate a plan to permanently protect Goonoo, major parts of Pilliga and other smaller State forest areas. This close cooperation arose from the public meeting at Dubbo jointly convened by Aboriginal people, NPA and Central West Environment Council.

E Date, D Goldney, J Bauer and D Paull (1999) "The Status of Threatened Vertebrate Fauna in NSW Cypress Woodlands: Implications for State Forest Management" in Nature Conservation 5: Conservation in Production: Managing the Matrix. Dec

D Robinson and B Traill (1996) "Conserving Woodland Birds in the Wheat and Sheep Belts of Southern Australia". Supplement to Wingspan RAOU. Vol. 6 No. 2 June

E van Kampen (1997) A history of the Pilliga Cypress Pine Forests. State Forests of NSW. June

 Andrew Cox,
 NPA Western Woodland Project Officer