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Environmental  News and Action Lake Wollumboola – no to housing Narran Declaration Wilderness assessments Sydney Greenprint Biodiversity month Deer, oh deer Clarence dammed UNSW course

The Narran Lakes are something special – they have high ecological, biological and social values, and are listed under the Ramsar Convention. They are under threat though from many directions, particularly from water extraction which has upset the natural hydrological balance. These threats cross political boundaries and decisions need to be made by both the Queensland and NSW governments.

On 19 March, a Declaration was signed by a wide range of conservation groups, including the Inland Rivers Network, Nature Conservation Council, Queensland Conservation Council and World Wide Fund for Nature. The Declaration calls on the state governments to establish joint arrangements for appropriate management of the northern Murray Darling Basin, including restoration of ecological flows to the Narran Lakes. It also calls on the Federal Government to work with the states in ensuring Ramsar values are protected.

During the second half of the year substantial wilderness exhibition processes will be conducted for both the northern and southern forest regions of the State. Exhibition of southern wilderness assessment begins in early June; exhibition for the north-east will probably start in September.

The Carr Government has reserved 897,637 hectares of wilderness in its first term. Roughly 100,000 hectares of this area was former State forest land. Since election in 1995, the Carr Government has identified just the Wollemi, Levers, Grose areas and the additions to the Brogo wilderness.

While these are tremendous achievements, much more work needs to be done:

• there are another 46 wilderness areas and additions scheduled for assessment and protection by the end of the year;

• at least 34,000 hectares of State forest on the north coast and about 110,000 hectares of former State forest (now national park) are contained in the 850,000 or so hectares of land within the wilderness assessment areas.

In March 1999 the Carr Government made a commitment to expand wilderness protection and gave an undertaking to assess a further 13 new wilderness areas and 13 additions to existing areas.

In addition to this major commitment, government forest
processes have flagged further
wilderness areas for consideration. In the northern forest regions nine new areas and two extra additions 

were flagged, while in the Southern Forest Region an additional four new areas and five sets of extra additions to areas were found in addition to the 1999 policy areas.

If you want to know more, contact the Colong Foundation at foundation@colongwilderness.org.au or write to:

Colong Foundation for Wilderness, Level 2, 362 Kent Street, Sydney 2000.

Further information is also available at our website: http://www.colongwilderness.org.au

The second Greenprint for Sydney conference will be held on 20 July at the Powerhouse Museum. The day-long conference will begin with an overview of recent planning policy and law developments. Specific plans for the key areas of energy, waste, water and air will then be presented, with assessment by expert panels and audience participation.

For more information contact Kathy Fook on ph 9299 0189 or e-mail cipse@ozemail.com.au

As we've reported before in the Journal (Feb 1999 p 8), rusa deer may be very photogenic, but they can wreak havoc by competing with native animals for food as well as damaging vegetation. They are now spreading beyond Royal NP – introduced there a century ago – and have appeared as far south as Ulladulla. Even more worrying is that they seem to be adapting to local conditions.

The NPWS has outlined methods for removing deer from the park but some environmentalists think these are too gentle with the deer, at the expense of local wildlife. There also remains the problem of dealing with them once they are on private land.

The Clarence Valley-Coffs Harbour Regional Water Scheme (RWS), first announced by local councils in 1994, was given the go-ahead at the end of March with the proponent, the Lower Clarence County Council, being the determining authority (see also Dec 98 NPJ, p 14).

This approval followed consideration of the scheme by both the Healthy Rivers Commission and a Commission of Inquiry.

This scheme involves the extraction of water from the Nymboida River, an important tributary of the Clarence River; the construction of a 30,000 megalitre dam at Coutts Crossing near Grafton; and a pipeline to Coffs Harbour.

The Nymboida is currently the source of water for the lower Clarence Valley (servicing the urban areas of Grafton, Ulmarra, Maclean, Yamba, Iluka and some rural areas), but the RWS will involve the addition of the rapidly growing Coffs Harbour area as well as construction of a dam.

Some of the concerns about the scheme relate to the growth of Coffs Harbour; the lack of consideration of proper water-efficiency measures before adoption of the large engineering "solution"; questionable costing of a combination of alternative sources; threatened species; Aboriginal heritage issues at the dam site and along the pipeline route; as well as long-term effects on the Clarence River.