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Copenhagen was a deadline without a plan.

Like Vikings, they rushed in. Too many issues, too many causes, too many delegates, too much reading, too many options and yet forced to deliver a global consensus solution in just 2 weeks!

Copenhagen’s approach ought to have been pragmatic. It needed to come down from the stratosphere in idealistic thinking to have focused on what could be the fastest means to offer the greatest reduction in greenhouse gases commencing in 2010.

Money is the obvious facilitator. The G11 response to the Global Financial Crisis ‘Mark I’ demonstrated the sheer scale of quick cash available from developed nations. Since developing nations need the cash, therein lies an obvious negotiating connector.

Try this scenario… rank countries on the basis of their aggregate carbon emissions and also carbon emissions per capita.  The size of reduction responses and the amount of funding for carbon reduction programmes should be proportional on both bases.  That is, the worst emitting developed nations pay more, and the worst emitting/deforesting developing nations get compensated more not to log.

Pay compensation to countries to stop deforestation is simply a matter of money and there is certainly enough of that around it seems. This should start by Christmas – calculate the forest area, calculate the compensation value, sign the agreement, developing countries contribute to a trust account, transfer the funds electronically to the host country of the forests, send in UN monitors to enforce the agreement to make sure no trees fall.  If Copenhagen just did that, it would have achieve a significant inroad – 20% reduction in one year or something in that order.

News of the pledge by US based Climate Progress of US$1 billion over three years towards decreasing deforestation is an excellent outcome. The funding will go to developing countries that develop REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) programs.

But horse trading in emissions is pure problem avoidance.  Perhaps a less patriarchal culture may have helped too. Perhaps less Viking patriarchal culture and perhaps a more matriarchal approach to negotiation would have achieved better. The alpha male approach has clearly failed.

‘COP15’ was also a silly name. It just meant the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference. Rather than the meaningless ‘COP15’ (‘Conference of Parties’ #15) , such a vital global forum series deserves a more accessible and meaningful name in order to better engage with ordinary folk.

Perhaps instead a better name should be ‘Greenhouse 2009’, then work towards ‘Greenhouse 2010’, ‘Greenhouse 2011’ – for each year, setting and achieving a distinct global reduction outcome by legal treaty. Such numbering and annual frequency would better convey the sense of urgency.

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The New South Wales Government decision in the late 1990s to permit 19-metre B-doubles to operate along the Great Western Highway was recognised by many informed Blue Mountains residents as the thin end of the wedge to encourage bigger and faster trucks and to extend Sydney sprawl.

Its planning minister in 2008, Frank Sartor, famously heralded:

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“Few understand how much transport influences land use patterns.  Transport leads land use.  Once an expressway or railway is built, it is easy to change the zoning and development laws to increase the population along the corridor.” 

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~ Frank Sartor,  NSW Planning Minister, Sydney Morning Herald, 20080929, p11.

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The Greater Blue Mountains is a vast forested wilderness covering over one million hectares, characterised by ancient sandstone tablelands and escarpments, ancient temperate eucalypt forest types,  rainforests, heathlands and swamps containing rare and endemic flora and ecological communities.   It was formally inscribed on the World Heritage List on 29 November 2000 and constitutes one of the largest and most intact tracts of protected bushland in Australia.

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Jamison Valley wilderness and beyond

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Along the headwaters of the Jamison Valley above Wentworth Falls, the Jamison Creek flows as a stormwater drain underneath the Great Western Highway.

On or about 7th July 2012, a large quantity of toxic pyrethrin, used as a fumigation pesticide, was dumped into the creek resulting in extermination of all aquatic wildlife downstream and into the World Heritage below.   [Source:  ‘Health risk posed by Wentworth Falls creek, 20120711, Blue Mountains Gazette newspaper, ^http://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/273589/health-risk-posed-by-wentworth-falls-creek/]

A year on and still no prosecution has been made against the culprit known by both the local council and the EPA.  The contamination could easily have come from the overturning of one of the many trucks that ply the highway now carting toxic chemicals, nudging 90kph.

The Great Western Highway winds its way over the central plateau ridgeline of the Blue Mountains east to west from Sydney.  In every respect, the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area is juxtaposed downstream of this highway.

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Increasingly, the Great Western Highway is becoming dominated by larger trucks and an increasing frequency of B-Double Trucks carting sand and soil, containers, palletised freight, heavy machinery and bulk liquids.  Transport companies are not delivering to the Blue Mountains; they are transiting through the Blue Mountains for destinations far beyond including Perth and Darwin.

One of the many thousands of larger trucks that now dominate the Great Western Highway

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However, local Blue Mountains supporters of this website have informed us that recently the trend is worse, with chemical tank containers now being sighted.    The company transporting these bulk chemicals is Chemtrans, a subsidiary of corporate trucker, Scott Corporation, based in Sydney’s west industrial suburb of Padstow.

The tanks display hazardous warnings on the sides.

What chemicals are being trucked over the Blue Mountains anyway?

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• Sulphuric Acid?

• Phosphoric Acid?

• Anhydrous Ammonia?

• Vinyl Chloride Monimor?

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Kills Nature

How can this be?  What if there is a crash and a spill?

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With substandard toxic containment infrastructure, World Heritage dies.

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The Great Western Highway is not designed to contain large flash runoff from storms, let alone contain chemical spills toxic to ecology from entering the downstream headwaters and water courses that flow from the ridgeline down into the surrounding Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.

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So when did the NSW Government give permission for bulk toxic chemicals to be transported through the Blue Mountains?  What community consultation did the government not engage in?  What legislative safety and governance restrictions were not enacted?

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She’ll Be Right, eh Barry O’Farrell?

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..Just like when in May this year, a FULLY-LADEN DOUBLE FUEL TANKER overturned in a short, straight, three-laned section of the highway between Katoomba and Medlow Bath in the early hours of Sunday, May 12.   The giant rig owned by Orange-based Ron Finemores Transport was being driven west when it veered onto the road shoulder and overturned down an embankment, coming to rest with the twin tankers upside down.

She’ll Be Right, eh Barry O’Farrell?

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The tanker overturned in bushland just upstream from the Cascade Water Catchment that stores drinking water for the region and in which fines for tresspass are $44,000.

But Ron Finemores Transport was not fined the $44,000.    Why not?

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Sydney Water ‘Special Areas’ prohibit public entry in order to protect water quality.

This benefits the community by:

• Protecting water quality
• Protecting large areas of bushland and plant and animal habitats
• Protecting threatened plants and animal species
• Preserving evidence of Aboriginal occupation dating back many thousands of years, and
• Preserving evidence of non-Aboriginal exploration, early settlement and phases of development such as forestry, mining and dam building.

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What Next?  Trucking nuclear waste through the Blue Mountains?

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Don’t put it past them.  There are plans afoot to truck radioactive waste and parts of Australia’s old 1960s nuclear reactor out of Sydney under plans to clean up the Lucas Heights nuclear facility and develop a national hazardous-waste dump in the outback.

The trucks will necessarily pass by residential homes carrying a radioactive high-flux reactor’ and spent fuel rods.

The Sources of Radioactive Waste

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1. The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, which manages the Lucas Heights Nuclear Reactor, has been given $28.7 million to prepare for the move. The four-year funding package will pay for ‘pre-disposal conditioning of existing radioactive waste in preparation for long-term underground storage, including radioactive contaminated buildings and infrastructure at Lucas Heights.
2. Also planned to be trucked is nuclear contaminated soil waste from the former uranium smelter site at Hunters Hill.
3. Also planned to be trucked is spent fuel rods after they were reprocessed at a nuclear facility in France.

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The target waste disposal site is on remote Aboriginal land near Muckaty, 800 km south of Darwin (specifically 100 km north of Tennant Creek) in the Northern Territory.   The most direct trucking route, some 2,387 km from Lucas Heights, is via the Great Western Highway through the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.

The only other feasible trucking route is via the Pacific Highway to Newcastle and then north-west along the Golden Highway, which is unlikely because it would pass through more densely populated communities.

The Australian Government approved its Radioactive Waste Dump at Muckaty in the Northern Territory under the National Radioactive Waste Management Bill 2010, passed through the Senate on 13 March, 2012.

This was in blatant contradiction to years of resistance and opposition from from the remote and marginalised Muckaty indigenous community and supportive environmental groups.  Traditonal Owners maintain that both the Northern Land Council and the Commonwealth failed to accurately identify, consult with and receive their consent and are seeking to reverse the decision.

What’s new?

Responsible radioactive waste management needs an approach based on:

• Non-imposition
• Community consent
• Scientific and procedural rigour.

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None of the approaches was observed during the opaque transition of this proposal into law.

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In 1997, a train carrying 180 tonnes of high-level nuclear waste derailed in France.  In 2004, a truck spilled strontium-90 onto Highway 95 in Roane County, Tennessee.

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America 2011:

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<<  With the passage of Senate Bill 1504 in the Texas Senate (Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact) , radioactive waste could soon be barreling down Texas highways and through our neighborhoods by way of Interstate 10 through Houston, San Antonio and El Paso; Interstate-20 and Interstate-30 though Dallas and Forth Worth, Midland and Odessa ; and Interstate-27 though Lubbock and Amarillo.

The greatest risk we face is having an accident with vehicles containing waste.  Cleanup estimates range from $100 to a billion dollars or more according to the U.S. Department of Energy, but the state of Texas has set aside only $500,000.  Taxpayers would pay the rest.

And what if an accident happens next to a school, playground or hospital?  Don’t we want to make sure that our local emergency responders have the training and equipment needed to handle an accident where a truck is leaking radioactive waste?

Thanks to Senator Seliger’s leadership, there have been some important protections added in, but a number of loopholes remain that dramatically increases the risk and liability assumed by Texas taxpayers.  There is still a chance to close these loopholes.  This bill goes to the Texas House floor next week and Texans should ask their legislators to make sure that there is an immediate thorough analysis of transportation risks, costs of cleaning up contamination from accidents or leaks, and waste capacity at the site.

As the Japanese nuclear disaster has taught us, cleaning up after radioactive waste can be a costly and dangerous process.  We urge the house to make sure we have protective measures in place before an accident.  >>

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[Ed:  The Texas Senate Bill 1504 was made effective 9th January 2011]

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Book released in June 2013:

<< In this accessible and beautifully produced full colour book, The Age (newspaper’s) brilliant political cartoonist John Spooner and leading environmental scientist Professor Bob Carter combine with colleagues to answer a series of critical and highly controversial questions about the politics and science of climate change.

Are human industrial carbon dioxide emissions causing dangerous global warming?

If it is so then climate change surely is one of the great moral challenges of our time.

But is it possible that the so-called consensus science around global warming produced by lavishly funded research institutes and with its own international political lobby organization – the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – is wrong?

Could it be that the emperor has no clothes?

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<< Accessible, clearly written and illustrated with simple scientific illustrations, and accompanied by Spooner’s brilliantly wry and telling cartoons, Taxing Air answers – without the spin, evasions or propaganda that pollutes most official writing on climate change – every question you have about global warming but have been too intimidated by the oppressive ‘consensus’ to ask. >>

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..Did You Know?

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• Just 8,000 years ago, there was virtually no summer sea-ice in the Arctic Ocean.

• Sea-level rise is natural, and declining in rate.

• Australian rainfall has not decreased over the last 100 years.

• A previous Australian drought lasted 69 years.

• By catchment management, the Murray-Darling Basin now contains almost 3 times as much water as it held naturally.

• Global air temperature has not increased for the last 16 years, despite an 8% increase in CO2.

• Global ocean temperature is also steady or cooling slightly.

• Australian territory absorbs up to 20 times the amount of CO2 that we emit.

• The CO2 tax will cost about $1,000/person/year; and rising.

• The result of reducing Australian CO2 emissions by 5% by 2020 will be a theoretical (and unmeasurable) cooling of between 0.0007 O and 0.00007 O C by 2100.

• No scientist can tell you whether the world will be warmer or cooler than today in 2020.

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Just a selection of the fascinating facts provided in answer to more than 100 basic questions about global warming and climate change that are covered in the book. >>

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[Ed:  Yet while they tax air in the name of Climate Change,

Weak Environmental Laws exacerbate pollution]

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James Cook University caves in to Climate Change Evangelism and Bullying

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So much for “higher” education.

James Cook University (in Townsville, Far North Queensland, Australia) has blackballed Professor Bob Carter, not because of any flaw in his scientific reasoning, but because he speaks outside the permitted doctrine. His views on climate science do not fit with the dominant meme (or the grant applications). And then there were pesky complaints and emails from disgruntled fans of the prophets-of-doom. (Quite a drain on the office.)

They took his office a while back, then they took the title. Carter was still supervising a student, and another professor hired him for an hour a week with his own budget. It meant Carter could continue supervising and keep his library access. But that wouldn’t do. Professor Jeffrey Loughran blocked that as well. The library pass and the email was shut off on June 21. It takes an active kind of malice to be this petty.

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Professor Bob Carter

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In years to come when everyone admits that the Great Global Warming Scare was hyped, James Cook University (JCU) could have been seen as one of the rare beacons of academic honour and principle. Instead, apparently, it’s as spineless as any other bureucratic collective. The irony for James Cook University, is that Bob Carter has been working there for 31 years, and they only had to put up with him for a little bit longer in order to claim their glory (albeit post hoc) and then pretend that really they had supported him all along.

The dominant meme is collapsing, thousands of respected scientists are speaking out and skeptic blogs are storming the awards. The evidence has turned, the carbon market has sunk to junk status, and assertive daring articles are appearing in mainstream media in places they would never have been seen a few years ago, like the New York Times, and the Economist. The climate scientists themselves are admitting they don’t know why the world isn’t warming. But the man who was right about that all along is persona non-gratis.

Professor Bob Carter has been a key figure in the Global Warming debate, doing exactly what good professors ought to do, challenging paradigms, speaking internationally, writing books, newspaper articles, and being invited to give special briefings with Ministers in Parliament.

He’d started work at James Cook University in 1981 and served as Head of the Geology Department until 1998. [UPDATE: to clarify, sometime after that he retired]. Since then he’s been an honorary Adjunct Professor.

All James Cook University had to do was to approve an extension of this arrangement, giving him library and email access, at little cost to them, and he could have continued to help students and staff, provide a foil, a counterpoint, and keep alive the spirit of true scientific enquiry. (Not to mention his continued speaking, books, and influence on the National debate).

Instead every person in the chain of command tacitly, or in at least one case, actively endorsed the blackballing. Each one failed to stand for free speech and rigorous debate. In the end, James Cook University didn’t even make any effort to disguise the motive. The only reasons given were that the staff of the School of Earth and Environmental Studies had discussed the issue (without any consultation with Carter) and decided that his views on climate change did not fit well within the School’s own teaching and research activities.

Apparently it took up too much time to defend Carter against outside complaints about his public writings and lectures on climate change. (Busy executives don’t have time to say “Why don’t you ask Carter yourself?” or “We value vigorous debate here.” Presumably they are too busy practising their lines and learning the litany? )

Each of these eminent professors, no doubt, is certain that they are independent minded, tolerant of other views, and have exacting ethical standards. I gather any one of them could have risen above the lap-dog obedience to the dogma of the day.

None did. >>

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Jet A1 gusling hypocrites fly globally

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And while Australia scaremongers Climate Change, Coal remains King

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Australia’s Pollution Fact Sheet

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1. Australia is the world’s #1 Developed Nation polluter

Consulting the US Energy Information Administration database (see: http://www.eia.doe.gov/ ) we obtain the following information on “annual per capita fossil fuel-derived carbon dioxide (CO₂) pollution” in “tonnes (t) per person per year” for Australia and other major polluters (2004 data): 19.2 (for Australia; 40 if you include Australia’s coal exports), 19.7 (the US), 18.4 (Canada), 9.9 (Japan), 4.2 (the World), 3.6 (China), 1.0 ( India) and 0.25 (for Bangladesh).

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2. Germanwatch index places Australia #54 in the list of the worst polluters (#56 being worst)

Of course “annual per capita fossil fuel-derived CO₂ pollution” is but one – albeit a very important – indicator of climate impact. The Germanwatch Climate Change Index 2008, a comparison of the 56 top CO₂ emitting nations (see: http://www.germanwatch.org/ccpi.htm ), takes other parameters into account in ranking. In this ranking of 56 top CO₂ emitting nations, Sweden and Germany are #1 and #2 for greenhouse responsibility, while shale-oil-rich Canada (a US ally), coal-rich Australia (a US ally), the USA and oil-rich Saudi Arabia (US-linked) rank #53, #54, #55 and #56, respectively (see: http://www.germanwatch.org/ccpi.htm ).

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3. In 2004 Australia (0.3% world population) gave 3% total fossil fuel

Consulting the US Energy Information Administration database (see: http://www.eia.doe.gov/ ), in 2004 Australia (0.3% world’s population) yielded 1.4% of world’s fossil fuel-derived CO₂ (3% including coal exports). The World’s 27,043 Mt fossil fuel-derived CO₂ (2004) comprised 10,850 Mt (petroleum), 5602 Mt (gas), and 10,592 Mt (coal) with the Australia breakdown being 810 Mt (total), 117 Mt (petroleum), 52 Mt (gas), 217 Mt (coal, domestic), 424 Mt (coal exports).

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4. Australia world’s largest coal exporter (30% total world coal exports)

From Australian Coal Association (see: http://www.australiancoal.com.au/exports.htm ) Australia maintained its position as the world’s largest coal exporter with exports of 233 Mt in 2005-06 ($A24.5 billion) or 30% of the world total (777 Mt) (M, G, T = million, billion, trillion).

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5. Australia produces about 6% of world hard coal (black coal)

From World Coal Institute (see:

http://www.worldcoal.org/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=188 ) total World: hard coal consumption 5339 Mt (2006); coal production 5370 Mt (2006); World brown coal 914 Mt ; Australia 309 Mt hard coal (5.8% of World production; used for thermal electricity and as coking coal for steel production).

From Australian Minerals Index (see:

http://www.australianminesatlas.gov.au/build/common/siteindex.jsp ) Australia produces about 6% of the world’s saleable black coal and is ranked fourth after China (45%), US (19%) and India (8%).

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6. Australia has 24% of World’s brown coal and produces 8% of World’s Total

From Australian Minerals Index (see: http://www.australianminesatlas.gov.au/aimr/commodity/brown_coal.jsp )

Australian brown coal production for 2005/06 was 67.7 Mt (valued at $849 million) – all was from Victoria and used to generate electricity. Australia has about 24% of World recoverable brown coal and is ranked first. However, Australia produces about 8% of the World’s brown coal and is ranked fifth largest producer after Germany (22%), Russia (10%), USA (9%) and Greece (8%).

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7. Australian coal reserves

Australia has about 77 billion tonnes of coal resources

http://gc3.cqu.edu.au/modern-world/index.php . There are 909 billion tonnes of proven coal reserves worldwide (see: http://www.worldcoal.org/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=100 ). The price in 2006 was about US$100/t but is expected to reach US$300/t in 2008.

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8. Coal to CO₂ and coal to kWh conversions

Carbon (C, atomic weight 12) to carbon dioxide (CO₂, molecular weight 44 ) conversion involves a stoichiometry of 12 g C -> 44 g CO₂ i.e. 1 g C to 3.7 g CO₂. 1 g coal yields about 1.9 g CO₂ (depends on coal type). Thus the US Energy Information Agency estimates World total CO2 from energy-related coal burning at 12,898 Mt in 2008 (see: http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/ask/environment_faqs.asp#source_by_fuel )  and the World Coal Institute estimates 2008 coal production at 5,845 Mt  hard coal and 951 Mt brown coal/lignite (see: http://www.worldcoal.org/resources/coal-statistics/ ), this yielding 12,898 Mt CO2/6,796 Mt coal = 1.9 Mt CO2/Mt coal, the specific values for different kinds of coal being  2.85 Mt CO2/Mt coal (anthracite), 2.47 Mt CO2/Mt coal (bituminous), 1.86 Mt CO2/Mt coal (sub-bituminous) and 1.40 Mt CO2/Mt coal (lignite, brown coal) (see: http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/1605/coefficients.html ).  In a coal-fired power station 0.327 kg coal yields 1 kWh (kilowatt hour) of energy.

Greenlivingpedia (see: http://www.greenlivingpedia.org/Australian_coal_exports ) estimates that in 2008 Australia exported 288 Mt CO2/120 Mt thermal coal (2.4 Mt/Mt thermal coal) and 238 Mt CO2/140 Mt coking coal ( 1.7 Mt CO2/Mt coking coal) for an average value of 526 Mt CO2/260 Mt coal (and an average value of 2.0 Mt CO2/Mt coal exported from Australia).

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A further estimate comes from 12,064 Mr CO2 from coal in 2006 (see US EIA: http://www.eia.doe.gov/iea/carbon.html )  and World production of 6779 million short tons of coal (6779 x 0.9072 = 6,150 Mt of coal) in 2006 (see US EIA: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/aer/txt/ptb1114.html ) – 12,064 Mt CO2 /6,150 Mt coal = 1.96 or about 2.0 Mt CO2 per Mt coal (this includes brown coal and low quality sub-bituminous coal in the denominator and would thus  would underestimate the CO2 from the burning of exported Australian coal).

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9. Australia gets 77% of its electricity from coal, 92% from fossil fuels

According ot the Australian Uranium Association (see: http://www.uic.com.au/nip37.htm ) electricity generation in Australia involves about 51 billion W (51 GW) capacity; the price varies during the day etc at about 4 c /kWh; in 2006 Australia’s power stations produced 255 billion kilowatt hours (trillion Wh = TWh) of electricity; the energy source breakdown was 92.2% Carbon-based (black coal 54.8% , brown coal 21.9%, oil 1.3%, gas 14.2%, hydro 6.8%. and renewables 1%; 77% is coal-based electricity.

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10. The true cost of coal energy is 4 times the market cost (Ontario Government study) – 4,860 Australians killed by coal annually @ $1.6 million each?

In Ontario (see: http://www.evworld.com/news.cfm?newsid=8836) the cost/kWh jumped from $0.04 to $0.164 with environmental and human impacts added; pollution from coal plants producing 27 TWh/year (20% of supply) kill 668 people per year in Ontario (population 12.2 million) suggesting coal plants producing 77% of Australia’s annual 255 TWh of electricity (see: http://www.uic.com.au/nip37.htm ) i.e. 0.77 x 255 = 196.4 TWh/year might kill about 196.4 TWh x 668/27 TWh = 4,859 people annually in Australia (population 21 million); in Australia 255 bn kWh x $0.04/kWh = $10.2 bn; 0.77 (coal-based) x $10.2 bn = $7.85 billion; $7.85 bn /4,859 deaths i.e. Australian electricity consumers pay for electricity @ $1.6 million per fellow Australian killed by coal.  >>

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Australia is the world’s leading coal exporter !

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<< Over the past 10 years black coal exports have increased by more than 50%.

Japan takes 39.3% of Australia’s black coal exports – the largest share, with a total of 115.3 million tonnes exported last financial year.

China is our second largest market with 42.4 million tonnes in 2009-2010, almost double the previous year.

The Republic of Korea accounts for 40.7 million tonnes, India for 31.92 million tonnes and Taiwan for 26.53 million tonnes, rounding out the top five destinations for coal from Australia.

Together these five countries accounted for 88% of all black coal exports with a further 28 countries taking the remaining 12%.

Demand for coal in China and India is expected to increase dramatically over the next decade in line with these countries’ projected need for coal for energy and manufacturing.

Australia was the only one of the world’s 33 advanced economies to grow in 2009 during the worst global recession since the Great Depression.

The principal reason for this was our continued coal exports. The importance of coal in the economy is also evident in its growing share of Gross Domestic Product.

This share has more than doubled, from 1.7 % in 2006-07 to 3.5 % in 2008-09, making it the largest contributor to the mining sector.

In 2011, Australia’s thermal coal exports grew by four %, relative to 2010, to total 148 million tonnes. Projections for 2012 see an increase of 10% in 2012 to 162 million tonnes, then growing at an average annual rate of 11 % between 2013 and 2017, to total 271 million tonnes by the end of the period.

Australia’s exports of metallurgical coal are forecast to increase at an average annual rate of eight %, reaching 218 million tonnes in 2017, with total earnings forecast at $40 billion in current Australian dollars..

Looking to purchase coal?

Please contact our members for further information. >>

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Haze and sulfur aerosol pollution produced by China unnaturally.

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Pollution impacts on China

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Further Reading

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[1]   “Taxing Air” – climate change facts and fallacies’

For more information about this book, including how to order go to: ^www.taxingair.com.

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[2]  “Axe the tax”and “adapt to the fact” of climate change, Professor Bob Carter says’

^http://australianconservative.com/2011/08/%E2%80%9Caxe-the-tax%E2%80%9Dand-%E2%80%9Cadapt-to-the-fact%E2%80%9D-of-climate-change-prof-bob-carter-says/

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[3]   ‘Gillard’s climate committee is a farce, Bob Carter says’

^http://australianconservative.com/2010/11/gillards-climate-committee-is-a-farce-bob-carter-says/

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[4]    ‘Prof Bob Carter reviews the climate debate and Gillard Govt’s irrational response’

^http://australianconservative.com/2012/02/prof-bob-carter-reviews-the-climate-debate-and-gillard-govts-irrational-response/

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[5]    ‘Bob Carter on the climate counter-consensus’

^http://australianconservative.com/2010/05/prof-bob-carter-on-the-climate-change-counter-consensus/

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[6]  ‘ “Their” ABC gags climate realist Bob Carter’

^http://australianconservative.com/2010/03/their-abc-gags-bob-carter/

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[7]     ‘Politicians miss the point on climate change’

^http://australianconservative.com/2010/08/politicians-miss-the-point-on-climate-change/

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[8]    ‘100 reasons why climate change is natural’

^http://australianconservative.com/2009/12/100-reasons-why-climate-change-is-natural/

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[9]     ‘The World’s Worst Pollution Problems:  Assessing Health Risks at Hazardous Waste Sites’

2012, by Blacksmith Institute and Greencross Switzerland

>World’s Worst Polluted 2012  (4MB, PDF)

^http://www.worstpolluted.org/files/FileUpload/files/2012%20WorstPolluted.pdf

[10]   Who are the world’s biggest polluters?

^http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?articleId=USRTXRKSI#a=1

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[11]    Eleven Most Polluted Rivers in the World  (by Humans)

^http://www.takepart.com/photos/10-most-polluted-rivers-world/lake-karachay–russia

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The World Heritage Committee meeting in Phnom Penh today has just approved a 170,000 hectare extension of Tasmania’s world heritage wilderness, taking in the wild eucalypt forests fringing its eastern boundary.

The 21 nation committee accepted the nomination without dissent, despite a recommendation from an advisory body to refer the case back to Australia for more work on the extension’s cultural values.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature had been making repeated recommendations in support of protecting these forests.

Committee members Germany, Malaysia, India, Serbia, Albania and Estonia all spoke in strong support of the extension.

Old growth native forests in the Upper Florentine, the Styx, Huon, Picton and Counsel River Valley have been afforded the highest level of environmental protection, World Heritage Listing!

The decision today by the World Heritage Committee to approve the extension to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area is testament to the power of the community, after decades of action to defend these forests.

The Observer Tree and the forest surrounding it as well as the site of Camp Florentine blockade are now World Heritage listed.

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Miranda Gibson  (Still Wild Still Threatened):

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<< “On December 14th 2011 I climbed to the top of a tree in a threatened forest and said I would stay until the forest was protected. That forest is now World Heritage. It is thanks to the support from people right around the world that the forest is still standing and is now protected.

For 14 months I watched over the forest every day with the hope that we, as a community, could defend those trees for future generations. Today, for that forest, we have achieved that” said Ms Gibson.

Today I think of the wedge tailed eagle that I watched fly above my tree, whose habitat was once under threat and is now protected and of the Tasmanian devils who lived in the forest 60 meters below my platform who can now raise their young in peace.”

Today we celebrate the protection of some of Tasmania’s most significant forests including the Tyenna, Weld and Upper Florentine. For six years the Upper Florentine Valley has been defended by Tasmania’s longest running forest blockade. This forest is still standing because the community took action and halted logging to protect the values of this ecosystem, that are now officially World Heritage. This Sunday the community will return to site of Camp Florentine to celebrate our success in ensuring these forests will be standing for future generations.”

“Thousands of people across the globe have been part of this global movement to protect Tasmania’s ancient forests as World Heritage. Right around the world people today are celebrating the power of community action and what we have achieved for Tasmania’s forests.”  >>

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Actively defending Tasmania’s ancient forests since before 2009

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Australia’s Environment Minister Tony Burke:

“If you look at the Styx in particular, there are trees that are the length of a football field going straight up. This decision today means those extraordinary giants of the forest are added to the World Heritage list.   For the first time the listing happened through negotiations with the forestry industry and conservation movement, rather than by politicians drawing arbitrary boundaries.  That provides a path forward for Tasmania different to the conflict model that those opposite are completely wedded to.”

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Jenny Webber (Huon Valley Environment Centre, Tasmania):

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“After eleven years of campaigning for the globally significant forests of the Weld, Middle Huon and wild forests in the Esperance and Far South (in Tasmania) we have achieved an awesome milestone here…

Today, thousands of hectares of contiguous tall eucalyptus wild forests, endangered species habitat, wild rivers and ancient karst systems have finally had their globally significant values recognised.  This is the first time Huon Valley Environment Centre has witnessed the protection of forests.”

We have walked thousands of people through these forests, stood on the front-line to defend them as they have been wantonly destroyed with large scale logging and burning. At last, some of these forests have been saved, and we thank the artists, activists and community members who have participated in our campaign all this time. 

This is truly the people’s achievement. For decades people have struggled to protect these particular forests and finally we can say, despite shortsighted and wasteful governments, inept land resource management and failed efforts to undermine and marginalise conservationists, we did it!”

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Campaigners for Tasmania

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Further Reading:

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[1]   The Observer Tree

^http://observertree.org/

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[2]   Still Wild  Still Threatened

^http://stillwildstillthreatened.org/

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[3]  Huon Valley Environment Center

^http://www.huon.org/

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Bushfire ends Miranda Gibson’s record 457 day tree protest near Hobart

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Anti-treelogging activist, Miranda Gibson in the Styx Valley

Picture: Miranda Gibson

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A deliberately lit bushfire by loggers has ensured an activist’s record tree-sitting protest has gone up in smoke.

The fire in the Styx Valley, about 100km north-west of Hobart, has ended Miranda Gibson’s epic tree sit-in, which lasted 457 days.

The 31-year-old has been living at the top of a 60 metre eucalypt tree since December 2011 in a bid to stop logging in high conservation value forests. She has been urging the federal government to seek world heritage listing for the Styx Valley, the Florentine and Weld forests.

When she got down, she said that her campaign will continue – for the short term at least – on the ground.

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Miranda Gibson has spent a year up a tree.

“I’ll be assessing the situation as it goes in terms of the fire risk and in terms of the campaign and what I can effectively achieve on the ground or in the tree,” she told AAP.

“As time goes on I’ll be able to make a decision about how I approach that.”

An emotional Ms Gibson abseiled to the ground to be embraced by former Greens leader Bob Brown.

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Miranda Gibson had vowed to stay up the tree until the Tasmanian forest is protected from logging.

“Congratulations,” he said. “You’re our hero of the forests.”

Since taking up residence on a platform suspended at the top of a 400-year-old eucalyptus tree, she has blogged about the experience, on Observer Tree.

Ms Gibson’s  campaign has attracted worldwide attention, with the former teacher appearing on news shows around the world.

She’s also used satellite technology to speak at a number of environmental conferences and acted as a spokeswoman for the Still Wild Still Threatened conservation group.

Ms Gibson broke the record for the longest Australian tree-sit last July, topping the 208 days Manfred Stephens spent atop a tree near Cairns in 1995.

Isolation and solitude were the biggest challenges she faced in living in a tree, as well as coping with Tasmania’s harsh winter weather.

One of the hardest things was the uncertainty about how long she would be in the tree.

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[Source:  ‘Bushfire ends Miranda Gibson’s record 457 day tree protest near Hobart’, 20130307, by journalist Hannah Martin, The Mercury (Hobart)/AAP,  ^http://www.news.com.au/national-news/bushfire-ends-miranda-gibsons-record-457-day-tree-top-protest-near-hobart/story-fncynjr2-1226592464722]

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Common Wombat  

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June 2013:

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Tragically, a native Wombat has been deliberately poisoned this month in Mount Wilson in the Blue Mountains, and so the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is appealing for information from the local community.

Ranger Neil Stone of the NPWS Blue Mountains Region:

“A Wombat was recently found at Mount Wilson village (population 220), suffering from what a local veterinarian thinks was poisoning and sadly the animal had to be euthanized.

“Wombats become unpopular with landholders when they damage fences and infrastructure or trample on gardens.  But there are methods, including installing Wombat Gates, that enable Wombats to pass through properties without damaging them.”

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An example of a purpose-built Wombat Gate

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NPWS Ranger Neil Stone:

“Wombats are extremely strong and determined, constructing their burrows (often under homes) to escape from the heat and to hide from predators (typically domestic and feral dogs nowadays).  The burrows can be up to 30 metres long which can cause conflict between Wombats and humans.”  

“Wombats and all other native animals are protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 and Regulations and it is illegal to harm them without a licence.  There are fines and possible imprisonment for people found to have intentionally harmed native wildlife.”

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Wildlife Poisoning is Animal Harm

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Wombats being mammals are sentient animals, meaning that they feel emotion and pain.   An animal is ‘sentient‘ if it is capable of being aware of its surroundings, its relationships with other animals and humans, and of sensations in its own body, including pain, hunger, heat or cold.

Individuals who harm animals including the harming of wildlife such as by poisoning, tend to harbour a personality disorder.  Statistically, animal abusers are five times more likely to go on to commit violent crimes against people.

Deviant behaviors like animal abuse generally originate from a traumatic childhood.  The American Psychiatric Association considers animal cruelty as one of the diagnostic criteria of conduct disorder.

The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) defines conduct disorder as  “a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others or major age appropriate societal norms or rules are violated.”   Conduct disorder is found in those who abuse animals and abuse people.

Clinical evidence indicates that animal cruelty is one of the symptoms usually seen at the earliest stages of conduct disorder, often by the age of eight. This information has only recently been included in the DSM so some psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers are just now becoming aware of it.  Many psychological, sociological and criminology studies in recent decades have clearly shown that violent offenders have adolescent histories of serious and repeated animal cruelty.

Director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Asia, Jason Baker, has said, “We believe that cruelty to animals is not inherent, but learned. That being said, teaching kindness and respect for animals – in our schools and homes – will foster empathy, the ability to understand what someone else feels.” He added, “Incorporating the simple concepts of kindness and respect into our daily lives and teaching our children to respect and protect even the smallest and most despised among us will help kids value one another.”

The link between animal abuse and interpersonal violence is becoming so well established that many U.S. communities now cross-train social-service and animal-control agencies in how to recognize signs of animal abuse as possible indicators of other abusive behaviors. >>

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Martin Bryant as a teenager nursing a juvenile Wombat

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Penalties in NSW for Harming protected Fauna

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Sect 98   ‘Harming protected fauna, other than threatened species, endangered populations or endangered ecological communities’ 

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(Ed:  i.e. Wombats)

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(1)   In this section, protected fauna does not include threatened interstate fauna, threatened species, endangered populations, endangered ecological communities, or locally unprotected fauna under section 96.

(2)  A person shall not:

(a)  harm any protected fauna, or (a1) harm for sporting or recreational purposes game birds that are locally unprotected fauna, or
(b)   use any substance, animal, firearm, explosive, net, trap, hunting device or instrument or means whatever for the purpose of harming any protected fauna.

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Maximum penalty:

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(a)  100 penalty units and, in a case where protected fauna is harmed an additional 10 penalty units in respect of each animal that is harmed, or

(b)  imprisonment for 6 months, or both. >>

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Note:  As at 2013, 1 penalty unit in NSW equates to $110.  So 100 +10 penalty units incurs a fine of $12,100 per protected Wombat harmed     [Calculation:    (100 + 10) x $110]

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So who killed the Mt Wilson Wombat?

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It is likely that Mount Wilson’s Wombat was poisoned by an ignorant and frustrated local landholder.  He is one of just a few hundred residents living at remote Mount Wilson village, and probably he is some arrogant newcomer with no respect for the natural environment or its resident wildlife who were there first.  It is extremely rare for a female to commit wildlife poisoning.

The perpetrator is likely to be someone holding an Anglicised mindset toward rural property, desiring the exotic deciduous garden and with a phobia towards the natural Australian bush.  Whereas the more established residents tend to be respectful towards the special environment in which they live and have become more accommodating towards the place’s resident wildlife.

Mount Wilson lies in a remote forested wilderness region of the Blue Mountains

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Hillcrest Lane (right), Mount Wilson

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Consistent with the profile of the typical member of the Game Council NSW, the perpetrator is likely to be a middle-aged or older male Babyboomer approaching 65, having an anthropocentric worldview of Nature, and an evangelistic belief that economic growth and personal wealth accumulation is a right – Wombats being collateral damage in rural housing development.

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The perpetrator has not yet been confirmed, and anyone with information about this harmful offence is asked to contact the closest NPWS base at the Blue Mountains Heritage Centre in nearby Blackheath.

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NPWS Blue Mountains Heritage Centre

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The ‘Common‘ Wombat?

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The Common Wombat (Vombatus ursinus) is also known as the Coarse-Haired Wombat or Bare-Nosed Wombat.   In the case of the Bare-Nosed Wombat, this reference to its nose, distinguishes it from its other two subspecies, the Southern Hairy-Nosed Wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons) and the endangered Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombat (Lasiorhinus krefftii).

The ‘Common Wombat‘ is a nocturnal marsupial native to south eastern Australia and is found in small sections of southeast tip of Queensland, eastern New South Wales, eastern and southern Victoria, and south-east South Australia.  They are common throughout Tasmania and also on Flinders Island in Bass Strait.

The head of the Common Wombat is more rounded than that of the hairy-nosed subspecies.  Their short ears are triangular and slightly rounded. Their nose is large, shiny black and furless.  Their fur is coarser, thicker and longer than that of the Hairy-nosed Wombats, better suited to a colder, wetter habitat. Fur colour varies from sandy to brownish black or even grey, sometimes flecked.

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Bare-Nosed Wombat

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Wombats have short legs, and the second and third toes of the hind feet are fused, with a double claw used in grooming. Wombats are solid and stocky, with short legs and tail. Their front legs and shoulders are powerful. Their front feet are large, with bear-like long claws. They use their front legs for digging burrows. The dirt is pushed to one side and the Wombat backs out, moving loose dirt with front or back paws.   It grows to an average of 98 cm long and up to a healthy weight of 26 kg.

Wombats are stilll classed as ‘least concern’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (on the IUCN ‘red list’).  [Ed:   So were the Koala and Tasmanian Devil until recently].

At Healesville Sanctuary in Victoria, more than 2,000 sick and injured native animals treated each year including Wombats at its Australian Wildlife Health Centre.

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Situated on Badgers Creek

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Although Wombats have been named by European Australians as the ‘Common Wombat‘, their numbers and their existence value does not translate to anyone treating them as commonplace.

Common Wombats were once widespread from south-eastern Queensland, through NSW along the Great Dividing Range and most of Victoria. Now they have a fragmented distribution in NSW, being most abundant in the south-eastern parts of the state. Remaining populations are under continued pressure from land clearing, road mortality, disease and illegal shooting.  These pressures may be acute for some local populations.

While the word ‘Wombat’ is derived from the Aboriginal name for the animal, ‘common’ was added at a time when these animals were plentiful and the Australian bush landscape relatively less destroyed by colonial settlement.   Wombats were likened to European Badgers by the early colonists.

We prefer the more respectful name, ‘Bare-Nosed Wombat‘.

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In 2010, university student Nikki Selles, from the School of Natural Sciences at the University of Western Sydney, undertook a field fauna study on Wombats in the Mt Wilson and Mt Irvine area.   Due to the behaviour of slow moving, ground-dwelling Wombats being sensibly shy and noctural, Selles used camera-trap data to identify their habitat and distribution in the urban-bush interface.

Results ought to be obtainable from the university.

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While the Bare-Nosed Wombat is not yet threatened with extinction, the Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombat is endangered.  This is mainly due to overgrazing by sheep and cattle destorying their fragile semi-arid habitat across more central Australia, as well as the culture of broadscale hazard reduction and uncontrolled bushfires.

Mount Wilson also provides vital native habitat for fauna species that are recognised as endangered.  These include the Sooty Owl (Tyto tenebricosa), the Eastern Bent Wing Bat (Miniopterus schreibersii oceanensis),  the Large eared pied bat (Chalinolobus dwyeri), Little John’s Tree Frog  (Litoria littlejohni), and the Eastern False Pipistrelle (Falsistrellus tasmaniensis).

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Living with Resident Wombats

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Wombats are locally territorial, like Humans

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<<Wombats are an iconic part of the protected fauna of NSW.   They are extremely strong and determined animals.

They can build their burrows under Human-introduced houses, driveways and cattle stock routes.  This may cause Humans inconvenience and conflict between Wombats and non-Indigenous Humans.

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But Newcomer Humans need to respect that Wombats were there first. 

Who likes Invasion or Displacement?

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Human-Wombat conflicts can be respectfully resolved and accommodated by wisdom – by learning about the behaviour of Wombats and understanding their habitat needs.

The Bare-Nosed Wombat is the species most frequently found in NSW. They prefer temperate forested areas of the coast, ranges and western slopes. Slopes above creeks and gullies are favoured sites for burrows and they like to feed in grassy clearings, including farm paddocks.

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Wombat Habitat Needs

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Wombats construct burrows to escape the heat and hide from predators. They prefer areas where it is easy for them to dig. The burrows can be up to 30 metres long and several metres deep and are usually situated above creeks and gullies and may have multiple entrances. Active burrows are often characterised by fresh cube-shaped droppings and scratch marks as well as freshly dug soil at the burrow entrance. Wombats will often build more than one burrow within their home range of 5 to 25 hectares.

Wombats are mostly solitary animals, but overlapping home ranges can occasionally result in a number of Wombats using the same burrow. Wombats are possessive about their particular feeding grounds and they will mark out these areas by leaving scent trails and droppings. These markings are prominently placed on rocks and logs around the boundaries. If an intruding Wombat encroaches on another’s territory it will be discouraged through a series of snorts and screeches and at times physical aggression.

Breeding occurs year-round with each female typically producing one young.  In some areas, however, Wombats are seasonal breeders and may have dependent young in burrows from April to June. Young Wombats take up to 21 months to reach full independence and two years to become sexually mature.

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Wombat Behaviour

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Wombats become unpopular with landholders when they damage fences and infrastructure or trample upon gardens. Undetected burrows can be a hazard to livestock as they may trip or fall into burrows and injure themselves.

Many of the problems caused by Wombats can be resolved with some patience and innovation. Landholders willing to share their property with Wombats may find that there are simple solutions to most problems. For example, a post or small strand fence can be used to mark burrows in paddocks or driveways to keep stock away from burrow entrances.

Wombats use the same trails to get to and from their preferred feeding areas. Instead of going around an obstacle, such as a fence, a determined Wombat will try to go through, or under it instead.  Installing purpose-built ‘Wombat Gates’ at known Wombat breech points along a fence will allow them to pass through a fence without damaging it.  The fence needs to continue to exclude other animals such as wallabies, rabbits and foxes.

Removing the lowest fencing wire (15 cm above ground level) will also allow Wombats to move through an area without damaging the fence. This is a much cheaper option than excluding them completely.

Check first with a Certified National Parks Wildlife Ranger.

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Excluding wombats from Rural Property

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It is possible to exclude Wombats from continuing to use a burrow that is under a building but this requires intervention by a Certified National Parks Wildlife Ranger.

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Increasing Native Vegetation

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Wombats prefer to burrow in areas of vegetation and rocky debris. Land clearing has forced Wombats to build burrows along creeks and drainage lines where vegetation still exists. Wombats are also often incorrectly blamed for causing erosion, which is more likely due to poor land management practices.

Planting trees and revegetating areas away from creeks can play a vital role in reducing Wombat burrowing activity along creek beds. Retaining existing trees, logs and rocks, and establishing new areas of native vegetation encourages Wombats to construct burrows in less fragile areas and reduces the risk of erosion.

Check first with a Certified National Parks Wildlife Ranger.

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Trapping or Relocating Wombats Prohibited

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The trapping and relocation of Wombats is prohibited and attracts heavy fines.

Wombats are territorial animals and if relocated, they are likely to be harassed or even killed by resident Wombats.  Wombats are classified as protected fauna under the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974.

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Can I bulldoze or infill a Wombat burrow?

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No!   Only inactive Wombat burrows may be destroyed, but each one needs to be first validated by a Certified National Parks Wildlife Ranger.

Bulldozing an active burrow can lead to wombats being buried alive and suffering a slow and painful death.  Even if you have located an apparently vacant burrow, you must not fill it in without confirming that it is inactive. Burrow activity can be confirmed by placing sticks across each entrance and checking (every day for at least a week) if these are disturbed.

Remember that if you think you have an inactive burrow, check first with a Certified National Parks Wildlife Ranger.

contact your local National Parks office for expert verification before any action.

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Further Reading

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[1]   Wombat Gate Design

>Wombat Gate Design   (PDF, 850kb)

^http://www.dpiw.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/Attachments/LBUN-84H7FT/$FILE/Wombat%20gate%20design.pdf

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[2]   Guide to Living with Wombats

>Living with Wombats  (PDF, 720kb)

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[3]  National Parks and Wildlife Act (NSW) 1974

^http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/npawa1974247/

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[4]    Wombat Protection Society of Australia

^http://www.wombatprotection.org.au/

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Why Do Wombats Need Protection? 

Lack of Legislative Protection/Enforcement!

<< In Australia native animals are “the property of the Crown”. This means that no-one owns wombats, they can’t be kept as pets and to do anything with them you have to be licensed by government departments.

Government Departments do little to protect or help wombats. Most research and all welfare (rescuing injured wombats, raising the joeys of mothers killed in collisions with vehicles, removing wombats from unsuitable places) is undertaken by voluntary organizations.   While penalties exist if someone is found to hurt or kill a wombat, the same government departments charged with wombat care issue permits to farmers to cull wombats. Sadly, there is often no check whether this is necessary, whether it is done humanely or any insistence that alternative options be employed before issuing such permits.

On the other hand although penalties exist for the illegal killing of wombats, such killing occurs every night where on a farms they are shot, buried  alive and gassed and on the highways of Australia vehicles indiscriminately drive directly at wombats without penalty.  Live joeys left in their dead mother’s pouches die slowly and a lack of public education means few Australians understand how to rescue a joey still living after its mother falls victim to road kill.  >>

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The Crown

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[5]  The Wombat Foundation

^http://www.wombatfoundation.com.au/

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<<The Wombat Foundation is a charitable organisation set up to support activities that aim to bring the Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat back from the brink of extinction.

The Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat is one of the world’s most endangered species – it is more endangered that the Panda.

In the 1980s, there were as few as 35 wombats remaining on the planet – all at Epping Forest National Park in central Queensland. A second population was established at Richard Underwood Nature Refuge in southern Queensland in 2009. At last count, in 2010, there were a total of 176 wombats across the two sites. Since then, the population has continued to grow: in 2012, the combined population at the two sites was estimated at 200 wombats. >>

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[6]   Wombat Awareness Organisation

^http://wombatawareness.com/

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<<We are a charity established to help save the Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons) from extinction.

The wombat is an Aussie icon but few people are aware of the peril these gorgeous little animals face: drought, floods, climate change, disease, vehicular incidents and culling – both legal and illegal. It’s not rocket science to see these animals are in trouble but thanks to the work of WAO volunteers, there is hope!

Currently, the wombats are being affected by an unidentified disease outbreak. The visual symptoms are hair loss and emaciation, internally the wombats are anemic and in some cases there is liver damage and heart disease. The direct cause is unknown however it is suspected that due to an increase in weeds there is a decrease in food availability therefore the wombats are forced to eat what they can most of which unfortunately is toxic. >>

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[7]    WIRES

NSW Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service Inc.

^http://www.wires.org.au/

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[8]  Rocklily Wildlife Refuge

Taralga, NSW, ^ http://rocklilywombats.com/blog/rocklily-history/

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<<This website is about Rocklily Wildlife Refuge, and a few other wildlife carers we know in Australia too. Providing a safe place for our native flora and fauna and the various wildlife projects we are undertaking can be an expensive business, so we sell reasonably priced, quality Australian-made gifts and artisan products to raise money for our wildlife projects.

..This website has come about with our move to Rocklily Wildlife Refuge: a safe place for wild native animals just inside the SW border of the Greater Blue Mountains National Park, and within the locked gate of the Sydney Water Catchment. >>

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[8]   Healesville Sanctuary

^http://www.zoo.org.au/healesville

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<<Healesville Sanctuary, or the Sir Colin MacKenzie Fauna Park, is a zoo specializing in native Australian animals. It is located at Healesville in rural Victoria, Australia (east of Melbourne), and has a rare history of successfully breeding Australia’s native animals.

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[9]   People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals  (PETA)

^http://www.petafoundation.org/

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[10]   Voiceless, The Animal Protection Institute

Paddington, New South Wales

^https://www.voiceless.org.au/the-issues/animal-sentience

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[11]   The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness

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‘The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness’, 20120707, by Philip Low,  Paper presented at the Francis Crick Memorial Conference on Consciousness in Human and Non-Human Animals, Churchill College, University of Cambridge, England, ^http://fcmconference.org/img/CambridgeDeclarationOnConsciousness.pdf

<< In 2012, an international group of eminent neuroscientists signed The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, which confirmed that many animals, including all mammals and birds, possess the “neurological substrates that generate consciousness.” >>

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>Cambridge Declaration On Consciousness 2012   (PDF, 30kb)

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[12]    The Baby Boomers Who Destroyed the World

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‘The Baby Boomers Who Destroyed the World’, 20110218, by Karlsie, in Subversify, ^http://subversify.com/2011/02/18/the-baby-boomers-who-destroyed-the-world/]

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[13]   Mount Wilson Property Prices

^http://reareports.realestate.com.au/house_prices_growth_rates/nsw/mount_wilson/2786

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2013 Price?

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Ed:  This article was submitted by E. R. Bendall 20130614. 

Likewise, we encourage genuine environmentalists to contact us at The Habitat Advocate about submitting articles to us concerning impacts and threats upon wildlife and wildlife habitat.

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Ed:  Exploitative 19th C timbergetters still prevail across New South Wales

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<<Several large tree specimens, remnants from a time long past, remain standing in New South Wales, Australia.

They are often trees that were spared from logging due to being of a shape not suitable or impractical to remove. They are often surrounded by secondary forest that is State owned and is still being logged.

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The magnificent Blue Gum (Eucalyptus saligna)

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Due to the destructive and unsightly nature of logging in native forests, incentives given to the public by the State to visit them are often not exciting, their facilities rudimentary and their roads difficult to navigate and/or impassable.  The general public is blissfully unaware of what happens in NSW State Forests.

It is not an accident that our most valuable timber and productive forests are not protected and are located adjacent to our National Parks, giving the illusion that something has been done to conserve nature.

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“I’m not sure if NSW Forestry (Corporation) gives licences to contractors to log areas, but I would say it’s possible given that they ran over their own signage (Myall River State Forest). 

It is a state owned ‘State Forest’ squashed between a section of Myall Lakes National Park and Ghin Doo-Ee National Park, about 40 mins drive (north east) from (the township of) Bulahdelah.  Easily accessible with a 4WD along Cabbage Tree Road, although the other entrances to the area from the west and north are impossible due to missing bridges/road, etc.”

~ E. R. Bendall

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While Australians point the finger at our overseas neighbours over the logging of their ancient forests, time slips by and nobody notices what is happening in our own backyard.

Each day we lose another piece of our Primary Forest (less than 8% of pre-European level remains), yet no one in an office block thinks twice about the printing of that paper or where it may have come from.

Where exactly does it come from?

Ask yourself that question in every regard and every aspect of your life.  Don’t ignore anything.

Are you willing to go out there and have a look for yourself what is happening in our own bush?

The Wild still exists!  >>

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Longwall Mining is permanently destroying to rivers of the Illawarra.

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Waratah Rivulet is a stream that is located just to the west of Helensburgh (55km south of Sydney) and flows into the Woronora Dam.  Along with its tributaries, it makes up about 29% of the Dam catchment.

The Dam provides both the Sutherland Shire and Helensburgh with drinking water. The Rivulet is within the Sydney Catchment Authority managed Woronora Special Area.

There is no public access without the permission of the SCA. Trespassers are liable to an $11,000 fine.  Yet mining companies are authorised to destroy complete river systems.

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Longwall Mining under Waratah Rivulet

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<<Metropolitan Colliery operates under the Woronora Special Area. Excel Coal operated it until October 2006 when Peabody Energy, the world’s largest coal mining corporation, purchased it. The method of coal extraction is longwall mining.

Recent underground operations have taken place and still are taking place directly below the Waratah Rivulet and its catchment area.

In 2005 the NSW Scientific Committee declared longwall mining to be a key threatening process. The Waratah Rivulet was listed in the declaration along with several other rivers and creeks as being damaged by mining. No threat abatement plan was ever completed.

In September 2006, conservation groups were informed that serious damage to the Waratah Rivulet had taken place. Photographs were provided and an inspection was organised through the SCA to take place on the 24th of November.

On November 23rd, the Total Environment Centre met with Peabody Energy at the mining company’s request. They had heard of our forthcoming inspection and wanted to tell us about their operation and future mining plans. Through a PowerPoint presentation they told us we would be shocked by what we would see and that water had drained from the Rivulet but was reappearing further downstream closer to the dam.

The inspection took place on the 24th of November and was attended by officers from the SCA and DEC, the Total Environment Centre, Colong Foundation, Rivers SOS and two independent experts on upland swamps and sandstone geology.

We walked the length of the Rivulet that flows over the longwall panels. Although, similar waterways in the area are flowing healthily, the riverbed was completely dry for much of its length. The cracking of the sandstone streambed caused is typical of that caused by longwall mining in the Southern Coalfield. The SCA officers indicated that at one series of pools, water levels had dropped about 3m. We were also told there is anecdotal evidence suggesting the Rivulet has ceased to pass over places never previously known to have stopped flowing.

The whole watercourse, where the coal has been extracted by the longwall machine, has tilted to the east as a result of the subsidence and upsidence. Rock ledges that were once flat now sloped. Iron oxide pollution stains in the streambed were also present. The SCA also told us that they did not know whether water flows were returning further downstream. There was also evidence of failed attempts at remediation with a distinctly different coloured sand having washed out of cracks and now sitting on the dry river bed or in pools.

Also undermined was Flat Rock Swamp at the southernmost extremity of the longwall panels. It is believed to be the main source of water recharge for the Waratah Rivulet. It is highly likely that the swamp has also been damaged and is sitting on a tilt.

The longwall panels that have damaged the river are LW 8-13. These pre-dated the new approvals process that came into force in 2004. A Subsidence Management Plan for LW 14-17 was recently approved by the DPI and LW 14 is currently being mined. The SMP states that land above LW 8-13 had subsided about 1.3m on average and that there has been no significant impact upon net flow or water quality.

The Total Environment Centre has applied under FOI legislation to the SCA for documents that refer to the damage to the Waratah Rivulet.

During the meeting with Peabody on 23rd November, the company stated its intentions sometime in 2007 to submit a 3A application under the Environmental Planning &Assessment Act 1974 to extract a further 27 longwall panels that will run under the Rivulet and finish under the Woronora Dam storage area.

This is very alarming given the damage that has already occurred to a catchment that provides the Sutherland Shire & Helensburgh with 29% of their drinking water. The dry bed of Waratah Rivulet above the mining area and the stain of iron oxide pollution may be seen clearly through Google Earth.>>

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Damaged: Cracked rocks along the Waratah Rivulet

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Longwall Mining under or close to Rivers and Streams

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<<Seven major rivers and numerous creeks in NSW have been permanently damaged by mining operations, which have been allowed to go too close to, or under, riverbeds. Some rivers are used as channels for saline and acid wastewater pumped out from mines.

Many more are under threat. The Minister for Primary Industries, Ian Macdonald, is continuing to approve operations with the Department of Planning and DEC also involved in the process, as are a range of agencies (EPA, Fisheries, DIPNR, SCA, etc.) on an Interagency Review Committee. This group gives recommendations concerning underground mine plans to Ian Macdonald, but has no further say in his final decision. A document recently obtained under Freedom of Information rights by Rivers SOS shows that an independent consultant to the Interagency Committee recommended that mining come no closer than 350m to the Cataract River, yet the Minister approved mining to come within 60m.

The damage involves multiple cracking of river bedrock, ranging from hairline cracks to cracks up to several centimetres wide, causing water loss and pollution as ecotoxic chemicals are leached from the fractured rocks. Aquifers may often be breached. Satisfactory remediation is not possible. In addition, rockfalls along mined river gorges are frequent.

The high price of coal and the royalties gained from expanding mines are making it all too tempting for the Iemma (Labor NSW) Government to compromise the integrity of our water catchments and sacrifice natural heritage.>>

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Longwall Mining in the Catchments

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<<Longwall coal mining is taking place across the catchment areas south of Sydney and is also proposed in the Wyong Catchment.

A story in the Sydney Morning Herald in January 2005 stated that the Sydney Catchment Authority was developing a policy for longwall coal mining within the catchments that would be ready by the middle of that year. This policy is yet to materialise.

The SMP approvals process invariably promises remediation and further monitoring. But damage to rivers continues and applications to mine are approved with little or no significant conditions placed upon the licence. Remediation involves grouting some cracks but cannot cover all of the cracks, many of which go undetected, in areas where the riverbed is sandy for example. Sometimes the grout simply washes out of the crack, as is the case in the Waratah Rivulet.

The SCA was established as a result of the 1998 Sydney water crisis. Justice Peter McClellan, who led the subsequent inquiry, determined that a separate catchment management authority with teeth should be created because, as he said “someone should wake up in the morning owning the issue” of adequate management.

An audit of the SCA and the catchments in 1999 found multiple problems including understaffing, the need to interact with so many State agencies, and enormous pressure from developers.

Developers in the catchments include mining companies. In spite of government policies such as SEPP 58, stating that development in catchments should have only a “neutral or beneficial effect” on water quality, longwall coal mining in the catchments have been, and are being, approved by the NSW government. Overidden by the Mining Act 1992, the SCA appears powerless to halt the damage to Sydney’s water supply.>>

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Clive Palmer’s Waratah Coal

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<<Waratah Coal is an exploration and coal mine development company which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mineralogy Pty Ltd.

Formed in 2005 and based in Brisbane, Waratah Coal is focused on the exploration and development of coal projects in Australasia. Along with another Mineralogy subsidiary, Galilee Pty Ltd, Waratah Coal proposes an $8 billion coal mine and infrastructure project in the Galilee Basin in Central Queensland.

The Galilee Coal Project includes a large scale thermal coal mine near Alpha, west of Emerald. The complex will include four underground mines, two surface mines and associated coal handling and processing facilities. The mine will be linked to a new coal terminal at Abbot Point near Bowen by a new 471km standard gauge, heavy haul railway line.

The Galilee Project and Waratah’s Galilee Power project have both been granted ‘significant project’ status by the Coordinator-General of Queensland in November, 2008, and September, 2009, respectively.

After being listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and later the Australian Stock Exchange, Waratah Coal in December, 2008, accepted an offer from Mineralogy Pty Ltd for a controlling stake in the company.

Waratah Coal became part of the Mineralogy Group and the company is 100 per cent owned by Mineralogy Pty Ltd. The Mineralogy Group and associated entities have 25 years’ experience developing, managing, and funding a range of major projects. Mineralogy Group has a current market capitalisation of approximately $11 billion.

The Group currently employs around 2,200 Queenslanders in its activities in the state. Through its diversified interests (which includes the $6 billion Yabulu Nickel refinery in Townsville, oil and gas exploration in Papua New Guinea and the $5 billion Sino Iron magnetite iron ore development in Western Australia) the Group has formed major international alliances in China and domestically.>>

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[Source:  Waratah Coal, ^http://www.waratahcoal.com/corporate-profile.htm]

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Mining Jobs, Jobs, Jobs?

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<<Waratah Coal believes that outstanding staff are a vital key to its success as an organisation and is committed to providing a rewarding and challenging environment for its staff.

Current Roles available at Waratah Coal:  “There are currently no positions available.”>>

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The Jamison Valley Landslide

Blue Mountains Mining Legacy of Katoomba Colliery

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Further Reading

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[1]    2010:  BHP Billiton threatens Dharawal Swamps and Rock Art

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Possibly the cleanest water in New South Wales

Cobong Swim Hole in O’Hares Creek in the Dharawal State Conservation Area

Photo by Kate Geraghty

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<<A vast new coalmine planned for Sydney’s south-western outskirts will damage the city’s natural desalination plant – the ”hanging swamps” that filter pure water down into the Georges River.

More than 50 swamps in the little-known Dharawal State Conservation Area, south-east of Campbelltown, will be undercut by longwall coalmines, which the mine owner, BHP Billiton, admits are likely to crack the bedrock and drain swamps. Aboriginal rock art above the mine site is also at risk.

The proposal, being considered by the NSW Government, calls for a huge expansion of existing coalmines near Appin, which would lock in mining there for 30 years.Opposition to the plan is growing, and a coalition of local residents and environment groups and the National Parks Association are calling for mining to be excluded from the conservation area.

”It is literally underground and metaphorically under the public radar,” said Sharyn Cullis of the Georges River Environmental Alliance. ”There should be widespread outrage or, at the very least, public debate about whether we really want the landscape desiccated … sacrificed for the sake of coal.

”The hanging swamps are shallow sandstone bowls, packed with matted sedge, native grasses and banksias that act like a sieve and a sponge, holding water in dry times and allowing it to seep out and feed some of the state’s cleanest creeks.

”I would rather they mined under my own house than in the conservation area,” said Julie Sheppard, of environment group Rivers SOS, whose home lies above another planned longwall panel near Appin.

O’Hares Creek, which flows through the conservation area and provides more than two-thirds of the water to the Georges River, is itself fed by the swamps.

”A total of 226 swamps have been identified within the entire Bulli seam project area, of which the Dharawal State Conservation Area is a part,” a BHP Billiton spokeswoman said in a statement.

”There is some potential for impact but a monitoring and management plan has been developed.

”The company said its plans had been designed to minimise impact on larger rivers.”Illawarra Coal has not mined directly beneath rivers since 2002, and consistent with this commitment, we have positioned longwalls away from major rivers and streams in the Bulli seam project.

”A detailed study by the staff at the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change found the swamp network to be a ”priority fauna habitat” for several endangered species, including the ground parrot and the giant burrowing frog.

The area also contains dozens of Aboriginal sites.”Once you take the coal away, there’s nothing to support the sandstone, and our artwork is cracking,” said Alan Carriage, an elder of the Wadi Wadi people.

A June 2009 report produced by Biosis Research for BHP Billiton found that 11 Aboriginal rock art sites in the southern coalfields had already been damaged by subsidence from longwall mining. But hypocritically and consistent with darkside consultants who will say anything for a buck concluded that “overall there is a low risk of significant impact to Aboriginal cultural heritage values”.

Before damaging a recognised Aboriginal site, a mining company must obtain a “permit to destroy” under the NSW heritage protection system. However Bev Manton, of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council, dismissed this process as a “regime to manage destruction”.

She said five permits allowing damage to Aboriginal heritage sites are being issued a week by the State Government, and called for a new regime that gives more power to Aborigines to protect their significant sites.>>

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[Source:    ‘Mining ‘threat to swamps and rock art’, 20100130, Ben Cubby with Andrew Small, Sydney Morning Herald, ^http://www.smh.com.au/environment/mining-threat-to-swamps-and-rock-art-20100129-n48w.html]

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[2]    2012:  Apex Energy’s coal seam gas threatens Sydney’s drinking water

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<<A coal seam gas company’s bid to save its Illawarra exploration project has triggered a flood of community opposition and again raised fears about mining in the water catchment.
Apex Energy’s approval for a 16-borehole exploration project around Darkes Forest and Maddens Plains expires tomorrow.

By comparison, coal company Gujarat NRE’s application to expand its mine and open a new longwall beneath the water catchment only received 23 public submissions and two from interest groups.Stop CSG Illawarra spokeswoman Jess Moore put the difference down to greater community awareness about Apex’s project and its threat to the catchment.‘‘It’s outrageous that I can be fined up to $44,000 for walking in the catchment yet the government will allow CSG development in that area,’’ she said.Gujarat’s proposal faced harsher criticism from government agencies than Apex’s, which is located partly in the water catchment and is still at the exploration stage.Further approvals would be required before production.Wollongong City Council opposed Apex’s time extension, saying even with stringent environmental controls it would be hard to argue CSG activities would have only a neutral or beneficial effect.The Office of Environment and Heritage said it would be ‘‘unlawful’’ to drill the three proposed boreholes in the national park.Apex’s application said more than 10,000 boreholes had been drilled in the southern Sydney basin during the Illawarra’s long mining history, but only 50 exploration boreholes had been drilled by the coalmining industry in the timeframe they had followed.An independent panel will determine the application.  A spokesman for Planning Minister Brad Hazzard said the government’s new Strategic Regional Land Use Policy applied Australia’s ‘‘toughest protections and regulations’’ to CSG mining..

[Source:  ‘ Opposition grows to coal seam gas bid in Sydney’s drinking water catchment’, 20120921, ^http://coalseamgasnews.org/news/world/australia/nsw/opposition-grows-to-coal-seam-gas-bid-in-sydneys-drinking-water-catchment/]

 

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[3]   2012:  Peabody Energy’s Longwall Mining irreversibly cracking riverbed  – government turns a blind eye

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<<Sutherland Shire (New South Wales) environmentalists are calling on Peabody Energy to release information on the state of the Waratah Rivulet, which supplies drinking water to the Woronora Dam.   They claim the company has failed to divulge the success or failure of its attempts to remediate the damaged riverbed.

The rivulet, which is in the Woronora special area and off-limits to the public, first hit the news in 2007 when cracks were discovered in the riverbed and some its waters disappeared underground.  The damage was blamed on longwall coal mining underneath the riverbed undertaken by the Peabody-owned Metropolitan Colliery.

The National Parks Association of NSW has released a video documenting a visit to the rivulet by a group of environmentalists and Greens MP Jeremy Buckingham six months ago.

It shows unremediated cracks, as well as some of Peabody’s remediation attempts.

Nationa Parks Association Southern Sydney Branch Secretary, Gary Schoer:

“No one has been able to find out if the damage to the rivulet was ongoing or if remediation was actually working.  When we visited we found out the remediation is still proceeding,” Mr Schoer said.  “We saw many cracks which had not yet been filled.  But we don’t know how extensive the damage is, or how successful the remediation is.   The NPA has been trying to meet with Peabody for the past six months.”

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Peabody Energy, NSW Environment Minister Robyn Parker and NSW Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodginkinson, who is responsible for the Sydney Catchment Authority have all declined to comment.

Turning a blind eye

Katrina Hodginkinson

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Georges River Environmental Alliance Secretary Sharyn Cullis, who visited the rivulet with Mr Schoer:

“What I saw on a tour of inspection, inside what is supposed to be a protected catchment, really horrified me. 

The riverbed of the Waratah Rivulet was smashed.  What should have been clear, clean water in the stream, which is 30 per cent of the inflow into the (Woronora) dam, was a murky orange brown.   What should have been drinking water didn’t look fit for a dog to drink. 

Remediation attempts so far appeared to be “futile”.

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Gary Schoer said tests conducted by environmentalists had confirmed chemical changes to the water which flowed through the damaged areas of the rivulet, but said he did not know, and had been unable to find out, how much of this water was flowing into the Woronora Dam.

Should there be greater protection for the rivulet? >>

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[Source:  ‘Fears for ruined water source’, 20120528, by Kate Carr,  The Leader newspaper, St Georgeand Sutherland Shire, ^http://www.theleader.com.au/story/266961/fears-for-ruined-water-source/]

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[4]     2013:   BHP Billiton’s Illawarra Longwall Coal Mine threatens stream subsidence

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Ed:  In what?

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<<An Illawarra Coal mine plan could cause significant cracking in parts of the Upper Nepean swampland leading to surface water loss, a Sydney Catchment Authority submission states.

The bulk of Macarthur’s drinking water is sourced from these catchments, where Illawarra Coal is proposing to operate a new underground coalmine, seven kilometres west of Port Kembla.

In its submission to the Planning Department, the Sydney Catchment Authority said: “Significant cracking is predicted that would lead to diversion of surface stream flow . . . resulting in surface water loss.”

An Illawarra Coal spokeswoman said BHP Billiton had been successfully mining at Dendrobium without any significant environmental impacts since the NSW Government approved mining in the area in 2001.

“Illawarra Coal has modified its mine plan to avoid significant impacts to key environmental features in the area such as Avon Dam and Wongawilli Creek,” she said.

“Illawarra Coal has developed a mine plan which has our longwall blocks positioned well away from the full supply level of Avon Dam and several kilometres away from the dam wall. We have no evidence of impacts to the dam.”

The National Parks Association has expressed fears Macarthur’s water catchments are under threat from the mine plan and called for a “rejig” of the longwall layouts to avoid damaging the swampland.

Illawarra Coal was granted conditional approval for the Dendrobium project in 2001 but is now seeking approval for its subsidence management plan to move into Area 3B.

National Parks Association spokeswoman Julie Sheppard said measures should be put in place to avoid harming an important part of the catchment.

The Sydney Catchment Authority, in its submission, recommends more stringent conditions be placed on the subsidence management plan.

The NSW Department of Urban Affairs and Planning says the Dendrobium project expects to extract 5.2 million tonnes of coal a year over 21 years.  It also said the project expected to provide up to 261 full-time construction jobs and up to 277 direct jobs during the operational time.>>

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[Source:   ‘Swampland ‘at risk’, 20130122, by Michael Cox,  journalist with Wollondilly Advertiser, ^http://www.wollondillyadvertiser.com.au/story/1250517/swampland-at-risk/]

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[5]    Rivers SOS

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In 2005, Rivers SOS (a coalition of 30 groups) formed with the aim of campaigning for the NSW Government to mandate a safety zone of at least 1km around rivers and creeks threatened by mining in NSW.   The peak environment groups of NSW endorse this position and it forms part of their election policy document.Rivers SOS, ^http://riverssos.org.au/

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[6]     Stop CSG Illawarra

^http://stop-csg-illawarra.org/csg-in-water-catchments/

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[7]    Coal Seam Gas News

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<<The purpose of CoalSeamGasNews.org is to provide quick access to Coal Seam Gas mining news, research, forums and public meeting schedules, provide a voice for the many Australians who want a sustainable mining industry, and to help people get the facts – not myths –  about the Coal Seam Gas industry. ^http://coalseamgasnews.org/

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[8]  Australian Coal Alliance

^http://australiancoalalliance.com/main.htm

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<<The Independent Member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie, has joined Lyn White from Animals Australia ( ^http://www.animalsaustralia.org/ ) to release new footage of cruelty to Australian livestock exported to Egypt and announce another attempt to progress legislation to ban the trade.

Mr Wilkie said his Bill would phase out live exports in three years, as well as immediately impose mandatory stunning of Australian livestock slaughtered overseas.

Mr Wilkie:

“The live export industry is systemically cruel, opposed by the vast majority of Australians and not in our economic interests. This latest evidence of horrific animal cruelty in Egypt demonstrates that this trade will never have appropriate animal welfare outcomes and must be stopped. 

I have given formal notice of my intention to introduce the Live Animal Export (Restriction and Prohibition) Bill 2013 into Federal Parliament.  A similar Bill was rejected by the Government and Opposition in August 2011.  Since then we have seen shocking evidence of more live export cruelty in Kuwait, Pakistan, Israel, Egypt and Indonesia. 

It is my hope that the Government and Opposition will now see sense and support the end of this cruel trade.”>>

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Outback Marginal Grazing is Unviable

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• Outback Queensland depends upon the inflated outback cost of diesel to freight cattle hundreds of kilometres to abattoirs or to port for live export
• Australia’s native northern has since colonial times been abused, overgrazed, broadscale burned uncontrollably until the savannah has become desert
• Seasonal drought has struck northern Australia’s savannah yet again, like in 2011 and many times prior – nothing new there.
• Greedy cattle farmers have built up excess herds, creating over-supply in cattle at meatworks, meaning cattle prices have plummeted below the cost of getting them to market
• Indonesia’s live export market was always a short term option as Indonesia built its own herds to a point of self-sufficiency – no news there
• Starved cattle stock with visible bony ribs are currently selling for $20 a head at Longreach.   It happened before in the 1974 beef crash – no lessons learnt from that.
• Western Queensland land values have slumped and northern and western Queensland stations — like their excess cattle — are virtually impossible to sell
• Australia’s rural sector is now weighed down with $66 billion of combined debt, many cattle farmers are in a debt crisis and marginial equity in properties
• Bankers are now starting to call in debts, especially in the north, triggering a new round of station sales and mortgagee auctions.
• Three of Australia’s biggest cattle companies, Macquarie Agricultural Fund’s Paraway Pastoral, the stock-exchange listed Australian Agricultural Company and North Australian Pastoral Company have already written down the value of their vast portfolios by a combined $80m.
• AACo announced yesterday that fast-falling cattle prices had forced a $43m writedown of the value of its 600,000-head herd.
• The Cattle Council of Australia yesterday warned that this week’s disastrous $20-a-head sale prices had created a critical situation.
• “These prices are indicative of the critical conditions our northern producers are experiencing; unseasonably dry conditions, suppressed market conditions and the continued fallout from the live trade suspension,” CCA president Andrew Ogilvie said. “I fear that the situation will continue to get worse.”
• A survey by rural bankers Rabobank this week reflected widespread fears of approaching drought. It showed 37 per cent of farmers had lost confidence in the future and expect the next year ahead to be tougher than the past 12 months. About one third expect to suffer a fall in income in 2013-14.>>

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Ain’t a farmer’s duty to leave a place better than how one found it?

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Not looking good.

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[Ed:  A previous image here has been removed by us upon becoming aware of its alleged copyright.   We obtained the image from the Internet and there were no copyright notices.  We noted multiple copies attributable to different sources.   Nevertheless we have removed the image immediately and offer our apologies to the owner/s of the image.]

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Australian Drought Every Decade

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Australia is subject to seasonal drought commonly at intervals of 11 to 14 years. This has nothing to do with Climate Change theory. Think more El Niño and the varying Pacific Ocean currents and temperatures.  The pattern is historically consistent since at least colonisation and probably through millennia.

Major droughts have included 1803, 1809-10, 1813-15, 1826-29,  1835, 1838-39, 1846, 1849-50, 1864-66, 1868, 1877, 1880-86, 1888, 1902, 1911-15, 1918-20, 1937-47, 1965-68, 1982-83, 1991, 1994-2006, 2013.

Australia is the driest continent on Earth.   Don’t rural Australian kids get that drummed into them in primary school?   Northern Australia’s vast and dry savannah country, inland and west of the Divide is marginal at best for pasture, let alone cropping.   Yet after a few bouts of rain, short term memory kicks in.  The marginal farmer’s false hope of good timely rain is legendary chronic folklore full of wishful thinking, short term memory loss and denial of Australia’s weather.

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Occasional rain has become the Marginal Farmer’s Pyrite – fool farmer’s gold.

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Overgrazing

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One of the risks associated with arid and semi-arid grazing systems in particular, is land degradation as a result of overgrazing. Overgrazing can be defined as the practice of grazing too many livestock for too long a period on land unable to recover its vegetation, or of grazing ruminants on land not suitable for grazing as a result of certain physical parameters such as its slope.

Overgrazing exceeds the carrying capacity of a pasture. However there may be other factors involved or contributing to apparent overgrazing such as climate change. Overgrazing often results in soil erosion, the destruction of vegetation, and other problems related to these processes.

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Overgrazing is repeating the US Dustbowl of the ’30s

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<<Extensive deep plowing of the virgin topsoil of the Great Plains in the preceding decade had displaced the natural deep-rooted grasses that normally kept the soil in place and trapped moisture even during periods of drought and high winds. Rapid mechanization of farm implements, especially small gasoline tractors and widespread use of the combine harvester, were significant in the decisions to convert arid grassland (much of which received no more than 10 inches (250 mm) of precipitation per year) to cultivated cropland.

During the drought of the 1930s, without natural anchors to keep the soil in place, it dried, turned to dust, and blew away with the prevailing winds>>

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The glut of unwanted cattle is a symptom of an industry run by incompetents.  Cattle farmers who put their trust in government and industry big wigs do so at their peril.

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Australia has only 6% Arable Land

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<<The Arable land (% of land area) in Australia was 6.14 in 2009, according to a World Bank report, published in 2010.

Arable Land includes land defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as  ‘land under temporary crops (double-cropped areas are counted once), temporary meadows for mowing or for pasture, land under market or kitchen gardens, and land temporarily fallow‘.   Land abandoned as a result of shifting cultivation is excluded.>>

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Case Study of Good Rainfall and Sustainable Location

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Corumbene Brangus Cattle

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<<At Corumbene Brangus we are dedicated to producing the type of stock that you would be proud to have in your herd.  We have taken the time to assess, improve and adapt our breeding herd to the Southern Australian climate and producing cattle of distinction and character that we love.

Our property is situated in the Western District of South West Victoria.  We have a high average rainfall of about 30″, with temperature ranging from mid 40’sC       (104 Fahrenheit) in summer to low minus in winter. Our pastures are predominately rye and clover kept productive with an extensive pasture renovation and soil conditioning program.

Corumbene Brangus cattle are raised solely on these healthy pastures.  Brangus cattle are known for their ability to excel on pasture alone with early finishing and easy fleshing ability no matter what season or time of the year, in all our weather extremes. We calve down during Spring (August-October) each year.>>

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Observations about MLA’s herded strategy for Northern Australia

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1.  Putting all cattle into a single export market to Indonesia is poor strategy – remember that proverb, don’t put all your eggs in one basket – what action has been taken to develop other export markets?

2.  Indonesia has long indicated to Australia that it is breeding towards self-sufficiency in its own live cattle supply, so the decrease in live cattle demand was on the cards, to eventually dry up.

3.  Northern Australia’s drought and flood cycle is not new.  Farmers must have been aware of the likelihood of drought following the floods of the past four years, so why risk excessive stock?

4.  Poor quality control of live export to ensure Australian standards were being met was slack.  The strategic risk of discovery of cruel abuse of cattle by an Indonesian abattoir was high.  So given that risk, the Meat and Cattle Association (MLA) should have been proactive and diligent in ensuring such abuse was not possible.   When abuse is systemic it is only a matter of time before it would be publicly exposed.  And the likely consequences of a trade shut down would be been reasonably forseeable.

5.  Aside from the above live export has an ongoing record or cruelty and abuse under industry self regulation.  So it is always going to be high risk from a social stakeholder perspective.  Those who live by the sword…

6.   In Australia, in any industry – media, agriculture, mining, forestry- self-regulation never works to the standard expected of Australian society.

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We have no sympathy for the industry.   May the northern Australian cattle industry linked to live trade go bankrupt as it morally deserves.

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<<She won’t mind if the place we stand is marked by ash.
She believes what doesn’t kill her only takes more time to kill her.
Then she smiles as she paints her lips and does her lashes.
Stunning as a taxidermy victim in a silver cage.

I’m arrested by an aria brought from the country.
Stuck in dumb amazement like a dog who’s told to levitate.
This smash number-one goes to her lover in the belfry,
Singing like a bird in flames and headed for the window pane.

In the coming years, let’s try and milk a fortune off them.
I think we’re qualified by now.

Alouette, gentille alouette.
Head to toe so thoroughly until we’re both dismembered.
Alouette, gentille alouette.
Naá¯ve, yes, but none the worse, spinning glue back into horses.
I’ll never leave the place where you are.

Hand-in-hand into a rented car.
Merrily into the abattoir.
Spilling out all over, I’ll be Noah on the storm.
And two-by-two in love we’ll speed back into bed and never leave it.

In the coming years, let’s try and milk a fortune off them.
I think you’re qualified by now.

Alouette, gentille alouette.
Head to toe so thoroughly until we’re both dismembered.
Alouette, gentille alouette.
Naá¯ve, yes, but none the worse, spinning glue back into horses.
Alouette, gentille alouette.
Head to toe so thoroughly until we’re both dismembered.
Alouette, gentille alouette.
Alouette, gentille alouette.>>

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[Source:  The Pernice Brothers’,  Cruelty To Animals’]

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[Ed:  My father’s family heritage was sheep farming in Victoria’s west dry marginal Wimmera and our sheep farming roots extended back to 18th Century England.  That tradition ended under tragic circumstances near Stawell in 1942; yet in hindsight, subsequent generations of our family are far better for it.  Relocating takes more guts than putting up.  Honour is more deserving of our future generation; the oldies should understand.]

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