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Koala Habitat threatened by Whitehaven Coal

Saturday, October 12th, 2013

Ecological consultant David Paul with a koala found in the Leard State Forest

[Source: Photo by Tania Marshall, Front Line Action on Coal,

^http://frontlineaction.wordpress.com/]

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Environmentalists are urging the New South Wales and Australian governments to save the Leard State Forest. They are concerned about the catastrophic impact of major mining expansion on an isolated and vulnerable koala colony in its natural habitat within the Leard State Forest.

The Leard State Forest is situated near Maules Creek within the Namoi River catchment about 10km north-east of the township of Boggabri on the North West Slopes of New South Wales, about 500km nor’-nor’-west of Sydney.

Maules Creek Mine location map

[Source: Google Maps]

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The nearby town of Boggabri lies on the Namoi River, a major perennial river and floodplain within the Murray-Darling Basin. The landscape is naturally subjected to infrequent seasonal rains and widespread flooding.

The native vegetation has been naturally dominated by Box-Gum Woodland ecological communities featuring the endemic species of White Box, Pilliga Box and Bimble Box. These provide vital habitat for numerous woodland bird and microbat species and a small community of Koalas.

The Leard State Forest

An isolated remnant box woodland

The region was originally the Aboriginal land of the Kamilaroi people and their ‘place of many creeks‘. However, two hundred and twenty five years of colonial pastoral settlement and associated widespread deforestation has seen the region denuded of most native vegetation historically for sheep and wheat; and more recently for irrigated cropping, particularly water thirsty cotton.

Box Woodland decimated for industrial scale cotton

The farming model is entirely artificially dependent river-diverted irrigation for export produce.

[Source: Promotional tourism advertisement by the NSW Government,

^http://www.visitnsw.com/destinations/country-nsw/moree-and-narrabri-area/gallery]

Native habitat has been sadly reduced to a few isolated islands of land set aside as ‘State Forests’. These include the Pilliga Forest, the largest remnant temperate forest in Eastern Australia, as well as Jacks Creek, Plagyan, Rusden and Leard State Forests, as well as the rugged Mount Kaputar National Park.

Leard State Forest includes the most extensive and intact stands of the nationally listed and critically endangered Box-Gum Woodland remaining on the Australian continent and is home to nearly 400 native species of plants and animals, and includes habitat for 34 threatened species and several endangered ecological communities.

Leard State Forest location map

[Source: Google Maps]

It’s believed as few as 20 koalas are left in the Leard State Forest, which is considered its primary habitat. The primary food source for the koalas is thought to be the Pilliga Box, Red Gums and Yellow Boxes. This Koala population is very fragile and could be significantly impacted on by the future mining plans.

Ecological consultant David Paul:

“If they are part of the same population as the Pilliga koala, then Leard is a very important area for allowing the dispersal of these animals in an east west direction. Leard Forest is a stepping stone between habitat in the Pilliga and to the east and south. While there are not many koalas there it’s a very important area to allow the dispersal of koalas in the region.”

Koala in Leard State Forest

[Source: Photo by Tania Marshall, Front Line Action on Coal,

^http://frontlineaction.wordpress.com/]

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Whitehaven Coal mining expansion into the Leard State Forest

<< Approval has been given for one of the biggest open-cut coal mines in the world in the state’s north-east. Whitehaven’s Maules Creek Project, near the Leard State Forest, will extract 12 million tonnes of raw coal a year.

If given the final go ahead from the Federal Government, Whitehaven expects production to start mid-2013, with operations predicted to last around 30 years.

Managing director Tony Haggarty:

“The mine will be good for the region economically and good for the state. It’s one of the best coal developments in the world. It’s a large reserve, it’s very good quality. It’s the sort of coal that is in demand in the market place, and because the reserve is large and because it has a long life, there will be a significant area of land involved.”

But Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke says the project will now face Commonwealth scrutiny. It will examine the mine’s potential impacts on the nearby critically endangered white box woodland.

An Environment Department spokeswoman says once the assessment is complete, it will go before Mr Burke who will consider the advice of the department, the Independent Expert Scientific Committee on possible water impacts, and any public comments.

Environmentalist Phil Spark:

“The planning commission’s approval is a blow to the endangered trees and animals that live in the forest. My biggest concern is that the environment has been totally undervalued. You just can’t destroy a forest and think it’s going to be compensated. It’s an endangered ecological community and it just can’t be replaced.”

The Maules Creek Project is about 18 kilometres north of Boggabri in the Gunnedah Basin. >>

[Source: ‘Go ahead for one of world’s largest coal mines’, 20121025, ^http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2012-10-25/go-ahead-for-one-of-worlds-largest-coal-mines/1035960]

Nearby Boggabri Open Cut Coal Mine, owned by Whitehaven Coal

Saw thousands of hectares of native Box Woodland bulldozed in 2006.

Environmentalists are up in arms over a proposal to mine two thousand hectares of state forest, among it, this remnant koala habitat.

The Maules Creek Mine adjoining the Leard State Forest has received NSW government approval to expand into the forest, which will see most of the forest and its flora and fauna all but completed bulldozed into history.

Whitehaven Coal wants a new open-cut coalmine that will extract up to 13 million tonnes of coal a year to earn it $767 million. It also wants a second nearby Idemitsu Boggabri open cut mine to extract 7 million tonnes a year.

Greens Senate Candidate Cate Faehrmann:

“These approvals will literally change the face of the township of Gloucester as well as the small community of Maules Creek near Narrabri in the state’s north-west. The Maules Creek and Boggabri proposals were referred to the Federal environment minister Tony Burke because they are going to wipe out critically endangered forest which is home to many threatened species. How can any Environment Minister in their right mind approve this?

The Maules Creek coal mine alone will emit the same amount of carbon emissions each year as New Zealand during its proposed 30 year life span. This is disgraceful and it’s why communities everywhere are starting to call on the government to transition away from coal and towards a secure renewable energy future.

I have visited the site of the proposed Maules Creek coal mine recently to see the forest firsthand and saw a koala up close in the forest. Tony Burke has just approved a coal mine which will wipe out a small and vulnerable koala population

“The farmers who have been fighting coal mine proposals in Leard State Forest for years will continue to fight for the protection of their forest.”

Up until recently, Whitehaven Coal has been owned by multimillionnaire Nathan Tinkler. Its chief executive is Paul Flynn and one of its directors is former National Party leader Mark Vaile. In June 2013, after securing his Maule’s Creek Mine expansion approval, Tinkler sold off most of his shareholdings in Whitehaven Coal to an American profiteering investment capital firm, Farallon Funds.

Whitehaven Coal has been challenged in the courts against its proposal to mine the Leard State Forest by the Northern Inland Council for the Environment. This community based not-for-profit group has said the Federal government was wrong to approve the project. They are challenging the approval process of both the Maules Creek and nearby Idemitsu Boggabri coalmines “because of the dodgy process by which they were approved and the devastating impacts they will have”.

Whitehaven Coal chief executive Paul Flynn has insisted the court challenge to the approval of the Maules Creek mine in NSW will not stop the project and is merely a “frustrating niggle“.

Last financial year Whitehaven made a loss of $82 million.

[Sources: ‘Whitehaven carries on with project despite legal challenge’, 20130720, by Michael Hobbs and AAP, ^http://www.afr.com/p/national/whitehaven_carries_on_with_project_z0EwnCKbgJE1Xnrp3wJVoO; ‘Whitehaven Coal falls to $82m loss’, 20130827, by Greg Roberts, Sydney Morning Herald, ^http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-business/whitehaven-coal-falls-to-82m-loss-20130827-2sndo.html; ‘Tinkler sells out of Whitehaven’, 20130619, by Glenda Kwek, Sydney Morning Herald, ^http://www.smh.com.au/business/mining-and-resources/tinkler-sells-out-of-whitehaven-20130619-2ohnj.html; ‘Mining proposal puts koala habitat under threat’, 20121109, by Liv Casben, ABC media, ^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-09/mining-proposal-puts-koala-habitat-under-threat/4363234; ‘Concern for Koala’s in the Leard State Forest’, 20121112, by Kelly Fuller, ABC media, ^http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2012/11/12/3630754.htm; ‘Labor turns back on NSW environment’, 20130211, by Cate Faerhmann, ^http://catefaehrmann.org/tag/mining/]

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Listen to ABC Radio interview with Ecologist David Paul in 2012:

(Click icon and play audio on the ABC Radio website, turn up volume to listen)

[Source: ‘Concern for Koala’s in the Leard State Forest’, 20121112, radio interview by Kelly Fuller, Morning Show, ABC Radio New England NSW,

^http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2012/11/12/3630754.htm]

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Tags: Boggabri, Box Woodlands, koala habitat, Leard State Forest, Whitehaven Coal
Posted in Koalas, Pilliga (AU), Threats from Farming, Threats from Mining | No Comments »

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The Great South Land wild or plenty?

Saturday, October 5th, 2013

‘Typus Orbis Terrarum’ (Spherical Model of the Earth) of 1564

[Source: ‘World map showing the Great South Land, or ‘Terra Australis nondum cognita’, from Abraham Ortelius’ ‘Theatrum orbis terrarum’, No 41 Autumn 1988, The La Trobe Journal State Library of Victoria, State Government of Victoria Australia, ^http://www3.slv.vic.gov.au/latrobejournal/issue/latrobe-41/fig-latrobe-41P001a.html]

Click image to enlarge

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This is one of the earliest walled atlases of the world by Flemish cartographer and geographer, Abraham Ortelius (b.1527). Ortelius is generally recognized as the creator of the first modern atlas, here adopting the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum or “Theatre of the World” projected interpretation. Across the south of the world he extrapolated a then yet to be discovered ‘Terra Australis nondum cognita’ or Great South Land not yet known’.

Once known, it became abbreviated to ‘Terra Australis’ and subsequently named by British explorer Matthew Flinders’ simply as ‘Australia’. Since then Australians have abbreviated everything possible..

Ortelius is also believed to be the first to imagine that the continents were joined together before drifting to their present positions. So perhaps Ortelius should be a scholar of Gondwana.

The following extracts have been taken from the Introduction in a 1987 book by Ian G. Read entitled, ‘The Bush – a Guide to the Vegetated Landscapes of Australia‘.. Images have been added by our Editor.

<< Australia is a vast land of never-ending horizons, broken back ranges, eerily silent forests and golden, blue shores. It is also a land of vast suburban sprawls, monotonous cropping country, eroded hillsides and long lanes of traffic leading to the beach. It is a land that has been populated for millennia and a land that has attracted new populations to its more equable southern and eastern fringes. It is both an old and a new Australia.

Perhaps each Australian would gain from pilgrimage to the infinite horizon of The Great Australian Bight,

to grasp its awe and so with it, their own smallness.

[Ed: Note the curvature of the horizon. The planet is not as unlimited as many babyboomers imagine.]

To the European man Australia as firstly a mere conception, a conjecture on the earliest world maps, the Great South Land. With exploration and discovery the land grew in the minds of explorers, the map makers and the ruling classes of Europe. To Asian man Australia was a reality, particularly its northern shores which were frequently visited by peoples of the islands to the north. To the Aborigines Australia was home and has been for at least 40,000 years.

Europeans, being the latest of mankind’s races to make contact with Australia are, due to their history and traditions, the least capable of understanding the land. Having only settled here for seven or eight generations many European types have yet to establish a connection with the land beyond that of viewing the land as a resource. The last two hundred (and twenty five) years has seen the land undergo significant changes, the changes of occupation. No longer is the land in a state of balance but a state of change based on economic development.

Anchor Tin Mine , Lottah Tasmania

(Tasmaniana Library, State Library of Tasmania)

As this development gained momentum during the twentieth century the new arrivals became less dependent on the land for their existence. There was a shift of values regarding the land; values which alienated the land further from the occupiers. European man did not see the land as nurturer but as a resource to be exploited. >>

AGL Coal Seam Gas Drill Rig Spring Mountain Hunter Valley

Coal Seam Gas Mining in the Hunter Valley north of Sydney, 2012

^http://www.huntervalleyprotectionalliance.com/HVPA_brochure_20120109.html

<<..The history of European occupation of the lands of Australia is not a good one. Through fear, ignorance, greed or power much of the land has suffered. It is thought that the earliest settlers wanted to create landscape similar to where they came from so they imported planst and animals and a way of life in order to tame what they thought was a harsh environment.

El Questro Station, The Kimberleys

Some things don’t change. The cattle station was initially established in 1903.

In 1991, an English aristocrat bought the cattle station and developed into a tourist park, and continues to run 8,000 head of cattle.

[Source: ^http://www.broomeandthekimberley.com.au/gibb-river-road-and-gorges/]

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The discovery of gold brought (considerably) more people who came to exploit the land without returning anything to it; needless to say many remained on the goldfields though most returned to coastal cities or to whence they came. Then followed a period of pastoral expansion whereby over ten per cent of the land was cleared of trees and another sixty per cent was grazed, browsed and trampled by sheep and cattle. Even today vast tracts of country are being cleared of vegetation.

Queensland Vegetation Management Framework Amendment Bill

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman’s government this week passed the Vegetation Management Framework Amendment Bill, which effectively removes protection of two million hectares of mature and recovering bushland.

[Source: ‘Newman takes axe to Abbott’s Direct Action, and Qld bush’, 20130524, by Giles Parkinson, Australian and New Guinea Fishes Association – QLD Inc. ^http://www.angfaqld.org.au/aqp/blog/2013/05/24/newman-takes-axe-to-abbotts-direct-action-and-qld-bush/]

Much of the Brigalow country of Queensland is disappearing; plans have been put forward to clear parts of the Western Division of New South Wales for crops while the conservative elements in Western Australia had plans to clear the Yilgarn and Dundas wilderness so that the sons of farmers could work their own properties. All this was (and is?) to occur in the face of unreliable rainfall, rising salt in the soil (which makes the land useless in less than three generations), and a loss of countless habitats.

Brigalow Ecological Community (Acacia harpophylla)

Listed as Endangered in 2001 due to two centuries of continuing mass deforestation for cropping and pasture.

^http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicshowcommunity.pl?id=28&status=Endangered

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Though fear of the land may have been reduced over the last two hundred (and twenty five) years ignorance, greed or power are still potent masters, and each still operates to alienate the European from his or her new landscapes.

The landscape does not evoke fear or alienation, the mind does. The landscape can trigger those feelings but it is the perception of that landscape through ignorance or a lack of understanding that induces a negative reaction.

Changing one’s perception requires more than changing one’s mind but it may be that understanding and interpreting what is being seen is all that is required. Interpretation need not be involved because all it requires is a knowledge of its components. It’s how these components fit together that is complicated. To be able to put a name to something greatly assists in interpreting what is being seen while to actually discover that named ‘something’ is an experience in itself. >>

~ Extracts from the Introduction, in The Bush – a Guide to the Vegetated Landscapes of Australia, by Ian G. Read, 1987, Reed Books, pp. 9-10.

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Perceived character of natural areas (1978):

Less than 4% see natural areas as bad, ugly, noisy, dirty, repulsive, evil, wasteful, boring, dead, uninviting, dull, useless or depressing
Between 4% and 25% see natural areas as bleak, dangerous or fragile
Between 25% and 50% see natural areas as happy, friendly, sacred, huge, roadless or pure
More than 50% see natural areas as good, remote, alive, exciting, unique, wild, challenging, inspiring, valuable, restful, unspoiled, free, beautiful or natural. >>

~ Based upon research for a doctoral thesis by Keith McKenry, contained in Mosley, 1978.

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“Too far South for spices and too close to the rim of the earth to be inhabited by anything but freaks and monsters.”

~ Abel Tasman upon sighting the West Coast of Tasmania in November 1642.

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Photograph of Cape Point Raoul, South West Wilderness, Tasmania.

[Source: Jane Stadler, ^http://www.australian-cultural-atlas.info/CAA/listing.php?id=72]

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<< Australia’s most important environmental case, ‘the Franklin Dams Case’, a successful High Court challenge, influenced the outcome of a federal election and resulted in World Heritage nomination for south-west Tasmania in 1982.

Enlarged in 1989 to cover 20 per cent of Tasmania’s land area, the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (1.38 million hectares) failed to protect the tall eucalypt forests excluded by a convoluted eastern boundary. These ancient forests are being progressively decimated by industrial forestry, despite an international outcry. The south-west is recognised as one of the earth’s few remaining extensive temperate wilderness areas, a significant tourist drawcard posing fresh challenges as increasing visitor numbers impact on its outstanding natural values. >>

[Source: South West, by Helen Gee, 2006, in Companion to Tasmanian History, Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies, University of Tasmania,^http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/S/South%20west.htm]

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<< Overall, Australia has lost nearly 40% of its forests, but much of the remaining native vegetation is highly fragmented. As European colonists expanded in the late 18th and the early 19th centuries, deforestation occurred mainly on the most fertile soils nearest to the coast.

In the 1950s, south-western Western Australia was largely cleared for wheat production, subsequently leading to its designation as a Global Biodiversity Hotspot given its high number of endemic plant species and rapid clearing rates. Since the 1970s, the greatest rates of forest clearance have been in south-eastern Queensland and northern New South Wales, although Victoria is the most cleared state.

Today, degradation is occurring in the largely forested tropical north due to rapidly expanding invasive weed species and altered fire regimes. Without clear policies to regenerate degraded forests and protect existing tracts at a massive scale, Australia stands to lose a large proportion of its remaining endemic biodiversity. The most important implications of the degree to which Australian forests have disappeared or been degraded are that management must emphasize the maintenance of existing primary forest patches, as well as focus on the regeneration of matrix areas between fragments to increase native habitat area, connectivity and ecosystem functions. >>

[Source: ‘Little left to lose: deforestation and forest degradation in Australia since European colonization’, by Corey J. A. Bradshaw, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Adelaide, article in Journal of Plant Ecology, Vol. 5, Issue 1, pp. 109-120, ^http://jpe.oxfordjournals.org/content/5/1/109.full]

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Posted in Tasmania (AU), Threats from Deforestation, Threats from Farming, Threats to Wild Tasmania | 1 Comment »

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Professional trucking has become oxymoronic

Wednesday, October 2nd, 2013

An out of control petrol tanker semi-trailer speeding 80kph down Mona Vale Road rolls and explodes, burning two motorists to death.
A further six people remain in hospital. The truck was carrying 18,000 litres of fuel when it rolled and erupted into a fireball. Mona Vale in is Sydney’s north.

[Source: The Daily Telegraph, 20131001, ^http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/driver-a-8216hero8217-after-runaway-tanker-explodes-in-mona-vale-victims-never-had-a-hope-witnesses-say/story-e6frea6u-1226730998888]

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The cause is unknown at this stage, but it is the consequence that is the issue, irrespective.

Hardly a day goes past without some news story about a truck crash on a Sydney road and this is compounded across Australia.

Yet in transport policy unison, governments across Australia at state and federal levels have abandoned rail freight and instead are headlong encouraging more and bigger trucks on our roads. They are encouraging larger and long trucks and spending billions to accommodate them. Road making has become governments’ panacea for solving linehaul freight challenges. The numbers of trucks on local, suburban and regional roads across Australia must have doubled in the past decade or so.

At the same time, both levels of government have been lax for decades to ensure high standards of heavy vehicles and the professional competency of truck drivers. Australian trucking has become a cowboy game plagued by industry cost cutting and unreasonable delivery expectations. The industry’s problems compound down to the truckie.

Truck drivers across Australia are no longer paid a fair hourly rate for their work, but have been reduced to being paid by a minimalist ‘trip rate’. So the more trips they do, the more they get paid. Overnight linehaul trucking is a ticking time bomb.

Truck drivers across Australia more often than not are no longer paid employees who are professionally trained by their employers. They are typically owner driver sub contractors with a massive bank mortgage tied to the truck or prime mover they own. They only get paid by the runs they do and have all the burden of maintenance, repairs, insurance and loan repayments. That is before paying themselves a wage. Forget leave and superannuation.

Trucking industry professionalism is out the door. Anyone can get a truck licence. The concept of trucking being a profession in Australia in the days of TNT and Mayne Nickless has long become a distant memory. It is a mugs game now.

Truck drivers, motorists and roadside communities are the victims of dumbed down bad government transport policy. The only ones who are benefiting from cheap dumbed down trucking are the trucking magnates and their corporate retail clients. The politicians save money building trucking roads instead of big picture rail and integrated multimodal logistics. But roads for trucks is short term thinking. It is a policy that has ignored road users’ rights to expect the highest standards of road safety.

Australia’s trucking regime is sapping billions for faster and wider roads instead of long term investment in freight rail,just like their doing to the Great Western Highway to freight produce and goods across the continent. It’s to hell with the local communities they rip up along the way. It’s to hell with the native habitat they rip up to build wider and new trucking expressways. When fuel and toxic chemicals spill from overturned trucks, it’s to hell with the downstream environment.

More roadside communities are increasing exposed to the risk of deadly speeding trucks, and people are dying as a result.

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Woodford residents fight for safer passage

Safety First

Residents of the roadside community of Woodford in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney protest over losing their pedestrian crossing so that trucks can cruise nudging 90kph through their village. [Photo by Jodi McConaghy, 20130608]

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The NSW Government’s RTA-come-RMS (roads authority) has “ripped the heart” out of Woodford.

Woodford Progress Association spokesman Ian Robinson told 100 residents in a protest rally last June that Woodford was “once known as the heart of the Mountains but the RMS has ripped the heart right out of our town”. Mr Robinson says the current plans leaves the elderly stranded, splits the town in two and forces school children to make a large detour to get to their bus stop, he said.

“Without lights across the highway within the vicinity of the Woodford Academy, not only children, but also residents and fire brigade volunteers on the north side are cut off from south side neighbours [and] the elderly … are stranded in their own village,” he said.

The truck-centric civil engineers with the RTA-come-RMS expect local residents to take a two kilometre detour to use the pedestrian bridge at Woodford railway station.

Mr Robinson said:

“They also now tell us that they do not regard Woodford as a ‘town’ and that they want to run four lanes of traffic at 80 km/hr right through the heart of Woodford.”

Cheap but dangerous seagull intersections are to be built in the centre of the new wider trucking expressway between massive trucks doing 90kph down the hill through Woodford.

A third resident petition to the NSW Roads Minister has again been ignored. It’s all about trucks with the politicians.

(Former) councillor Geordie Williamson, a Woodford resident, says the plan also threatens the lives of the 2500 Woodford residents.

“The very least RMS can do is grant residents a safe means of crossing the newly-widened highway. Failing to do so will virtually guarantee injury or loss of life in the years to come,” Clr Williamson said. “The highway should not only be designed to massage the bottom line of freight haulage companies.”

[Source: ‘Woodford fights for safer passage’, 20130620, by B. C Lewis, Blue Mountaisn Gazette, ^http://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/1585708/woodford-fights-for-safer-passage/]

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The Mona Vale Road trucking experience

Coming to a roadside community near you.

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Footnote

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Government belatedly issues Cootes Transport with 126 Defect Notices

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<< Police believe mechanical problems are the most likely cause of the fatal crash involving the Cootes Transport petrol tanker since the out-of-control fuel tanker ploughed into a power pole and four cars before erupting in a fireball on Mona Vale Road.

A Mr Shane Day has been identified as the driver of the petrol tanker, who works for Cootes Transport. It is not clear if he is an employee or a contractor, but industry probability would like be the latter and not paid by Cootes by the hour.

So two men were burnt alive when this Cootes petrol tanker lost control on Mona Vale Road at Mona Vale about 3:40pm (AEST) yesterday. Police say the dead men are a 71-year-old local and a man in his 60s from interstate. Both men were travelling in the same car, when this trucking wall of death bore down upon them.

Assistant Police Commissioner John Hartley:

“It certainly looks like they were killed at the scene by the fire rather than the crash itself.”

They were burnt alive.

Twelve trucks operated by Cootes Transport have been taken off the road. Inspectors from the New South Wales Government’s Roads and Maritime Services have subsequently inspected more than 80 Cootes Transport trucks at checking stations in Sydney and Newcastle late this afternoon. The company has been issued with 26 defect notices and 12 trucks have been taken off the road.

[Ed: A belated slap on the wrist for purported negligence causing two men to burn to death, just to pacify the media and political fallout. Government reactive and random monitoring of safety is negligent cost cutting and so life costing. At no time should unroadworthy trucks be in service. At no time should unprofessional heavy vehicle drivers be behind the wheel. It must cost more, and so be it. Next week as the media interest fades, it’ll be government trucking as usual and billion dollar truck magnate profit as usual].

Mr Hartley:

“We’re investigating a number of factors that may have contributed to the crash but at this stage we’re looking at the possibility of mechanical failure on the truck itself. That’s probably the most important lead we have at this stage. The vehicle needs to be fully examined properly. At the end of the day we’ll find that something quite simple such as mechanical failure or a mistake by the driver has caused these fatal consequences.”

Meanwhile, the toxic spill caused by a fuel tanker’s 18,000 litres of petrol from the exploded tanker has flooded and contaminated surrounding waterways and bushland.

A mix of fuel and fire retardant has leaked into the surrounding waterways for at least a 1.5 kilometre radius.

Fire retardant and fuel pollute surrounding waterways

A toxic mix of 18,000 litres of petrol and fire retardant polluting surrounding waterways.

Without trucks Australia may stop, but with the current trucking mentality people are dying, like the two men burnt to death in the above car.

(Source: ABC News)

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NSW Fire Brigade Superintendent Ian Krimmer:

“It is a big operation to clean up the leaking fuel which has seeped into drains and waterways at Mona Vale. We’re placing sand in a number of those drains to contain the fuel spillage,” he said. It’s still unknown how much fuel has leaked into those drains. It could take several days to mop up and clean up that particular situation.”

With Trucks Australia Stops

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[Sources: ‘Cootes trucks taken off the road after fatal tanker explosion in Mona Vale’, 20131002, ^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-02/mechanical-failure-suspected-cause-of-tanker-explosion/4994502; ‘Truck driver’s name revealed’, 20131004, ^http://www.dailyadvertiser.com.au/story/1819612/truck-drivers-name-revealed/?cs=332; ‘Toxic spill clean-up continues after fatal tanker crash at Mona Vale in Sydney’s north’, 20131002, ^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-01/two-dead-in-fuel-tanker-crash-in-sydney27s-north/4991974]

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Tags: fuel and toxic chemicals, Great Western Highway, Mona Vale Road, overnight linehaul trucking, Petrol Tanker Crash, professional trucking, Roads and Maritime Services, RTA, RTA-come-RMS, speeding semi trailer, truck spills, trucking expressway, With Trucks Australia Stops, Without Trucks Australia Stops, Woodford pedestrian lights
Posted in Threats from Road Making | No Comments »

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Blue Mountains hazard reduction same as arson

Monday, September 30th, 2013

Hawkesbury Heights Hazard Reduction 2013

Hawkesbury Heights hazard reduction negligence

Well our fire “escaped”. Sorry, we’re immune from prosecution.

[Photo by our Investigator along Hawkesbury Road, Blue Mountains, Australia, 20130921, photo © under ^Creative Commons]

Partners in crime: big ego Blue Mountains National Parks with even bigger ego Blue Mountains RFS, have jointly stuffed up big this time.

A hazard reduction north of the Hawkesbury Road from the previous weekend was left abandoned.

A few days later the forecast wind picked up and voila: HR come wildfire. Woops.

Sound familiar? Warrumbungles (2013), Macleay River (2012), Grose Valley (2006), Canberra Firestorm (2003)

[Source: Fairfax, ^http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/hazard-reduction-burn-started-major-sydney-bushfire-20130913-2tois.html]

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Hawkesbury Heights residents will recall last year’s escaped hazard reduction along the Springwood Ridge inside the Blue Mountains National Park. It was left for few days, then the forecast prevailing sou’wester picked up on 30th August 2012. The fire jumped containment lines then threatened the Bowen Mountain community to the nor’ east.

<<More than 30 firefighters from the NSW Rural Fire Service and National Parks and Wildlife Service have worked behind homes in the community of Bowen Mountain to contain this fire. Crews backburned to establish containment lines around the fire with the assistance of helicopters and earth moving machinery.>>

National Park ablaze thanks to government-sanctioned arson

[Source: Blue Mountains RFS, ^http://www.bluemountains.rfs.nsw.gov.au/dsp_more_info_latest.cfm?CON_ID=18199, Reference will probably disappear within days of publication.]

How much did that stuff up cost? This is where donations to the RFS are going.

The Habitat Advocate reconstructs that the HR folly at Hawkesbury Heights two weeks ago probably unfolded as follows:

Blue Mountains National Parks decides that its a good idea to set fire to the Blue Mountains National Park along Shaws Ridge. Shaws Ridge is over two kilometres from the Hawkesbury Road. It has nothing to do with ‘asset protection’ to private properties. So the Parks Service just calls it ‘strategic’ or an ‘ecological burn’ – good for the bush.

“Generally over an 8-12 year cycle it [vegetation] needs to be burnt, which allows it to regenerate.” ~ Blue Mountains RFS district manager David Jones, 20130918.

The bush and its wildlife likes being burnt. Parks Service’s gospel Fire Maps shows in bright red that this part of the protected Blue Mountains National Park (World Heritage Area) hasn’t been burnt for 8 years, so it must to be burned, just in case it burns!

So the fire cult’s mindset is fixated. Parks Service includes the area to its annual hazard reduction burning programme and checks the weather forecast. The Bureau of Meteorology forecasts low winds but with expected changes later in the week. She’ll be right. The job will be over in a day. Parks Service sees the low wind HR window and goes for it.

Parks Service musters up their fire friendly mates at the RFS down at Winmalee and Hawkesbury Heights and complicitous stations. The HR is on! So all the cracks had gathered to the fray. All the tried and noted firies from the stations near and far mustered along Shaws Ridge fire trails. For the firies love the smell of wood smoke along the fire trails and the old red Isuzu’s snuff the battle with delight.

Hazard Reduction: Reducing the World Heritage Hazard

‘Cos see when there’s a real wildfire, Dad’s Army can’t cut the mustard

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The hazard reduction proceeds on the Sunday 8th September with hardly a breeze in hilly timbered terrain, using trucks only along ‘fire’ trails. We won’t need choppers. They’ll only blow the budget. Sunday night falls, job done and the vols go home. Monday a bit windy, then Tuesday really warm and the wind picks up, gusty to blazes.

The media reports as follows:

<<A hazard-reduction burn that got out of control sparked one of four major bushfires that ravaged western Sydney and the Blue Mountains this week, fire authorities have revealed.

NSW Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said the National Parks and Wildlife Service had been conducting a hazard-reduction burn near Hawkesbury Road in Winmalee last weekend, which flared up in Tuesday’s soaring temperatures and high winds. [Ed: Winmalee? Close, but try Hawkesbury Heights further north.]

Rob Rogers:

“Basically it was burnt on the weekend, it was patrolled on Monday, there was smouldering activity. That fire then jumped containment lines [on Tuesday].”

The Parks Service and RFS secretively keep fire operational matters behind closed doors for fear of embarrassment and of being sued.

So our research investigator conducted a post-fire inspection on Saturday 20130921 and has estimated the above impact and scenario.

Perhaps those in charge can prove us wrong? We invited them to.

[Source: The Habitat Advocate, assisted with Google Maps]

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<<Just 10 minutes earlier the family had been told by firefighters to remain calm before a freak wind change sent the blaze roaring uphill towards their house. “Evacuate” was the order.>>

[Source: ‘I put my foot down and drove through the fire’: Mother tells how she fled with children in Winmalee’, 20130911, by Taylor Auerbach, The Daily Telegraph, ^http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/i-put-my-foot-down-and-drove-through-the-fire8217-mother-tells-how-she-fled-with-children-in-winmalee/story-fni0cx12-1226716604185]

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Tackling the Winmalee Hazard Reduction come Wildfire on Hawkesbury Road.

Heroes extinguishing the neglect of their Parks Service cousins.

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<<A fire burning in the area of Hawkesbury Road at Winmalee has already claimed one property, with more than 100 firefighters working to contain the blaze. Five firefighters have suffered from smoke inhalation and two received minor burns battling the fire in Winmalee.>>

[Source: ‘Bushfire burns Winmalee home, others at risk in Blue Mountains’, 20130910, Sydney Morning Herald, Photo by Nick Moir, ^http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/bushfire-burns-winmalee-home-others-at-risk-in-blue-mountains-20130910-2ths1.html]

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<< Firefighters have contained a blaze that has burnt through more than 1000 hectares of bushland west of Sydney. The fire, at Winmalee in the Blue Mountains, has been burning since Tuesday fanned by high temperatures and strong winds, plunging the region into emergency. Firefighters were still water bombing the burning bushland on Thursday.

The Rural Fire Service on Friday said the fire had been contained.

RFS spokeswoman Laura Ryan:

“It was brought fully under control last night just before a community meeting at Winmalee High School. Firefighters (unpaid) would today work to extinguish the blaze, but said it was too early to say how long that would take. Firefighters will be working hard to get every bit of that fire out.”

The RFS and NSW Police say they have launched investigations into the cause of the bushfire, with some locals raising concerns that recent hazard reduction burns in the area may be responsible. [Ed: NSW Police need not investigate far beyond the operational records of the Blue Mountains National Parks and Wildlife Service, with internal documents circulated to the RFS]

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Winmalee and Yellow Rock residents at the local high school

More than 350 Blue Mountains residents pack the Winmalee High School on Thursday night 12th September, fearful whether they could lose their homes to Hazard Reduction.

[Source: ^http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2013/09/13/07/00/winmalee-bushfire-contained-rfs]

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<< A Rural Fire Service organised community meeting held last week at Winmalee to discuss the fire situation in Winmalee and Yellow Rock was well attended.

Winmalee and Yellow Rock residents aired their bushfire concerns at a community meeting organised by the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) at Winmalee High School last Thursday night.

Despite the meeting only being publicised that day, the school hall was nearly full with 350 residents. At least 10 people in the room did not receive an RFS emergency safety warning text message to take shelter.

Blue Mountains RFS district manager David Jones said he would, “feed that back up the line … it may be a service provider issue, I’m not sure, that may be part of it” and that he would look further into the issue.

A Yellow Rock resident asked what hazard reduction burns would take place in Yellow Rock in the near future.

Supt Jones said the weather conditions last week hadn’t been suitable to maintain control of a backburn.

“It’s a one-way, one-road in and its never received the recognition it deserves on that basis in terms of protection,” the Yellow Rock resident said. “I would hate to see a real emergency situation develop here at Yellow Rock.”

Supt Jones said he’d look at the RFS organising a meeting with Yellow Rock residents in the near future to address these issues. Supt Jones said residents could have a fire mitigation officer assess if hazard reduction was needed in their area by lodging a hazard complaint with the RFS.

“Generally over an 8-12 year cycle it [vegetation] needs to be burnt, which allows it to regenerate,” he said.

National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) Upper Mountains area manager Richard Kingswood said there weren’t many days a year suitable for conducting hazard reduction burns — only 10 days in the Upper Mountains and a few more in the Lower Mountains, although last autumn and spring had provided more opportunities. He said in the last financial year NPWS had initiated 38 burning operations over 50,000 hectares, which was more than usually occurred.

Another resident asked why, with safety concerns with overhead powerlines, they couldn’t go underground, especially as the highway was being widened. An Endeavour Energy spokesman said cost was an issue. “It costs about 10 times more to put mains underground.”

Others were concerned about issues around road blocks, where children as well as adults were allowed to walk past roadblocks to return home, yet people couldn’t get their vehicles through. It didn’t make sense from a safety perspective, the resident said.>>

[Source: ‘Concerns aired at Winmalee fire meeting’, 20130918, by Ilsa Cunningham, Blue Mountains Gazette, ^http://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/story/1782194/concerns-aired-at-winmalee-fire-meeting/]

Hawkesbury Road well and truly hazard reduced

[Photo by our Investigator along Hawkesbury Road, Blue Mountains, Australia, 20130921, photo © under ^Creative Commons]

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<< More than 1200 firefighters were involved in battling the four major fires on Tuesday along Hawkesbury Road in Winmalee; in Marsden Park in the Blacktown area; near Tickner Road in Castlereagh; and Richmond Road at Windsor. Fourteen helicopters and 350 trucks from the Rural Fire Service, Fire and Rescue NSW and the National Parks and Wildlife Service were involved in the firefight.

Just before 1.30pm on Tuesday, the temperature in Sydney was 31.6 degrees. Mr Rogers said strong wind also made fire conditions worse, with gusts reaching 90 kilometres an hour, which was much higher than forecast.

He said RFS firefighters helped in the hazard-reduction operation in Winmalee, which was under the supervision of the NPWS, and he apologised to anyone who experienced property damage.

“Combined with the winds, how dry it is, the temperature and the steep terrain, fire takes hold very, very quickly.”

He said the RFS also was investigating whether a hazard-reduction burn escaped and forced the closure of the M1 (formerly the F3) Motorway on Thursday.

“You would have to obviously be suspicious that it did come from a hazard-reduction, given that it was in a very close proximity to it. That’s something that we’re going to be looking at very, very closely,” he said.>>

<<Fire authorities have issued an emergency warning for a bushfire threatening homes in Castlereagh in Sydney’s west, and alerts for other out of control bushfires in Blacktown and Hawkesbury.

NSW Rural Fire Service Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers said National Parks and Wildlife Service had been conducting a hazard reduction burn near Hawkesbury Road in Winmalee last weekend. The fire flared with Tuesday’s soaring temperatures and high winds.

..He apologised to anyone who experienced property damage from the Winmalee fire. ”..It appears on first look that it’s a case of the weather was worse than was predicted, the fire jumped out, it took hold really..quickly.” >>

Even though the fire ripped through Hawkesbury Heights, the National Parks and Wildlife Services has released a public notice asking any Winmalee residents who experienced property damage or loss have been urged to contact NPWS on 1300 361 967 for sympathy and counselling.

New South Wales Rural Fire Service (paid) Deputy Commissioner Rob Rogers has said that his (unpaid) RFS firefighters helped in the hazard-reduction operation in Winmalee, which was under the supervision of the NPWS, and he apologised to anyone who experienced property damage.

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Hawkesbury Heights property damaged by bushfire

RFS: Sorry about that

Property loss at Hawkesbury Heights (Wheatley Road?) but who pays?

Owner: “we won’t need hazard reduction for a while.”

[Source: ‘Bushfire wake-up call’, 20130918, by Shane Desiatnik,

^http://www.theleader.com.au/story/1782048/bushfire-wake-up-call/]

[Sources: ‘Hazard reduction burn started major Sydney bushfire’, by Megan Levy, 20130913, ^http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/hazard-reduction-burn-started-major-sydney-bushfire-20130913-2tois.html; and ‘Burn-offs and arson suspected as cause of two bushfires’, by Megan Levy and Peter Hannam, 20130914, ^http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/burnoffs-and-arson-suspected-as-cause-of-two-bushfires-20130913-2tq15.html]

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National Parks and Wildlife Advisory Council Report

(42nd meeting held on 28-29 May 2013)

<< Council noted the following details regarding the current status of fire management activity by NPWS:

The 135 000ha annual target has been met with a total of 176 000ha now treated.
Almost 3 times more area treated than the average for last five years.
6-7000ha hazard reduction activity planned over the next week.
Opportunity to increase positive community profile for NPWS.
Statewide strategy with performance indicators in place at state and regional levels. >>

[Source: New South Wales Government, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, ^http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/about/NPWAdvisoryCouncMay2013.pdf]

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In Parks we Trust

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In New South Wales the National Parks and Wildlife Act became law on 1 October 1967. The legislation created a single agency, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, to care for, control and manage the original nineteen parks and any new ones created in the future.

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Tags: blue mountains, bush arson, Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, Hawkesbury Heights, Hawkesbury Road, Hawkesbury Road Winmalee Fire, hazard reduction, hazard reduction out of control, National Parks and Wildlife Service, NSW Rural Fire Service, Shaws Ridge, Winmalee Hazard Reduction, Yellow Rock
Posted in Blue Mountains (AU), Threats from Bushfire | 2 Comments »

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Cicadas are back and it sounds like summer again

Sunday, September 29th, 2013

Yellow Monday Cicada (Cyclochila australasiae)

After seven years subterranean dormancy, they’re back chirping in the trees, and it sounds like summer again!

[Photo by Editor 20130928, photo © under ^Creative Commons]

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The shrill rhythmic cacophony of cicadas is one of Australia’s most memorable sounds of summer.

Cicadas are the loudest insects in the world and there are more than 200 species in Australia. The Yellow Monday Cicada (pictured above) is also commonly known as the Green Grocer (and formerly as the Great Green Cicada). It is about 4 cm long and has variants of colour, green or gold, but always with red compound eyes. It also has three simple eyes (‘ocelli‘) in the centre of its head, which are harder to see. These serve to help it to detect light intensity, its orientation to the sun, and are likely to assist in flight stability.

Cicadas spend nearly all their life dormant in nymph form sustained by imbibing sap from nearby trees, shrubs and grass roots underground.

In Australia, after about seven years and prompted by the onset of warm rainwater at or above 18 degree Celsius percolating down the soil, they emerge from the earth as pupae crawling vertically upwards. They leave mud tunnels to the surface which become signature holes in the ground. They climb above ground to safety, usually up the nearest tree.

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Cicada pupae mud tunnels, often in lawns below trees.

These are commonly mistaken to be Funnel Web Spider funnels.

Best NOT to put your finger down the hole to find out.

[Photo by Editor 20130929, photo © under ^Creative Commons]

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Here they metaphorphose into adults, shedding their exoskeleton (exuvia). The fully-winged adult cicadas emerge leaving their old empty nymphal skin behind and become capable of short flight. This all happens within days and hundreds of shed exuvia are commonly seen on tree trunks in gardens and bushland during the summer months.

A day or two passes for them to gain strength before they are able to climb into tree canopies and start their mating call. Metaphorphosis must be an energy sapping experience.

As adult cicadas, they only live for six weeks; fly around, mate, and breed over the summer, then die.

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“We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.”

~ Carl Sagan (b.1934)

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After mating, the female cuts slits into the bark of a twig, and into these she deposits her eggs. This can be repeated until she has laid several hundred eggs. When the eggs hatch, the newly hatched nymphs drop to the ground, where they burrow. The lifecycle of the cicada thus continues.

The lifecycle in Australia is generally seven years, but for some species can be as little as two years, or in some parts of the world up to seventeen years.

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Cicada Chirping

The male circadas make loud shrill calls to attract females to mate. Each cicada species has a unique song to attract only its own kind.

The loud chirping calls of the male are heard over the summer months; harsh and high-pitched, these may reach 150 decibels. The sound is made by the rapid buckling of the timbal ribs, and amplified by resonation in an air sac; the frequency is around 4.3 kHz. Both male and female cicadas have organs for hearing. A pair of large, mirror-like membranes, the tympana, receive the sound. The tympana are connected to an auditory organ by a short tendon. When a male sings, it creases the tympana so that it won’t be deafened by its own shrill mating call.

Male mating calls typically occur during the day when sunny and at or above 18 degree Celsius, to compete to attract females.

The loudness of the cicada chorus is also thought to help repel predatory birds, probably because the noise is painful to birds’ ears interfering with their normal communication. The males of many cicada species, including the Greengrocer/Yellow Monday, and the Double Drummer, tend to group together when calling which increases the total volume of noise and reduces the chances of bird predation.

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The Yellow Monday Cicada is naturally distributed from south-eastern Queensland through eastern New South Wales and Victoria to the Grampians, and through to Mount Gambier in south-eastern South Australia. It is common along the Great Dividing Range, and is also found in the Warrumbungles. It is commonly seen (and heard) around Sydney and Melbourne, the Blue Mountains and Gippsland. In Brisbane, it is only encountered at elevations above 300 m (1000 ft). It was associated with the White Stringybark (Eucalyptus globoidea) in a study at three sites in western Sydney.

Cicadas are so conspicuous that many of their common names were initially given to them by children. As a result cicadas probably have the most colourful common names in the insect world. Some of these include the Black Prince (Psaltoda plaga), Double Drummer, Floury Baker, and the Yellow Monday.

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An adult Cicada in habitat

[Source: ‘Festival of the Cicadas’, by Craig Vetter,

^http://www.chicagowilderness.org/CW_Archives/issues/spring2007/cicadas.html]

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“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”

~ W.B. Yeats (b.1865)

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References and Further Reading:

[1] The Australian Museum, ^http://australianmuseum.net.au/Cicadas-Superfamily-Cicadoidea

[2] ‘Greengrocer or Yellow Monday Cicada’, Climate Watch, ^http://www.climatewatch.org.au/species/insects/greengrocer-or-yellow-monday-cicada

[3] ‘Cyclochila australasiae’, ^http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclochila_australasiae

[4] ‘Summer of singing cicadas’, by Owen Craig, ABC Science, ^http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2001/02/17/2822486.htm

[5] Moulds, M.S. 1990. Australian Cicadas. New South Wales University Press. 217 pp., 24 pls. (Also publications in 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998).

[6] ‘Cicada’, Wikipedia, ^http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicada

[6] Clyne D (1998). Cicada Sing-Song. Gareth Stevens Publishing, Milwaukee. USA.

[7] Ewart A (1990). Status of the Germar and Leach types of Australian cicadas (Homoptera) held at the Hope Entomological Collections, Oxford. Australian Entomological Magazine 17(1): 1-5

[8] Gwynne DT, Yeoh P and Schatral A(1988). The singing insects of King’s Park and Perth gardens. Western Australian Naturalist 17(2-3): 25-71

[9] Hill KG and Hill CE (1979). Acoustic behaviour of the bladder cicada Cystosoma saundersi. Australian National University Research School of Biological Sciences Annual Report – 1979: 122.

[10] Hayashi M and Moulds MS (1999). Observations on the eclosion of the hairy cicada, Tettigarcta crinita Distant (Homoptera: Cicadoidea: Tettigarctidae). Australian Entomologist 25(4): 97-101

[11] MacNally RC (1988). Simultaneous modelling of distributional patterns in a guild of eastern-Australian cicadas. Oecologia (Berlin) 76(2): 246-253.

[12] MacNally RC and Doolan JM (1986). Patterns of morphology and behaviour in a cicada guild: a neutral model analysis. Australian Journal of Ecology 11(3): 279-294.

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Tags: cicadas, Cyclochila australasiae, Yellow Monday Cicada
Posted in Blue Mountains (AU), Least Concern (LC), Other | No Comments »

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Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone

Thursday, September 26th, 2013

This is a Blue Mountains Swamp

It is a surviving remnant of Blue Mountains Swamps in the Sydney Basin Bioregion ecological community, which in 2005 were listed as Endangered by the Commonweath Threatened Species Scientific Committee.

[Photo by Editor 20120128, photo © under ^Creative Commons]

Click image to enlarge

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Blue Mountains Swamps?

Blue Mountains Swamps are globally restricted to the Central (and upper) Blue Mountains and to Newnes Plateau at altitudes between 600 m to 1200 m AMSL. They exist on peat soils above a sandstone substrate geomorphology. The soil tends to be water logged due to the presence of constant groundwater seeping over the impermeable claystone layers in the sandstone which impedes their drainage, however some swamps can be constantly flooded or else ephemeral, varying with seasonal rainfall patterns and more long term with El Niño/La Niña climatic phases.

Blue Mountains Swamps are typically situated at the headwaters of watercourses below ridges, but can also be hanging swamps on steep ridges, or valley bottom swamps. The structure and species composition of Blue Mountains Swamps varies with localised geology, topographic location, depth of the water table, extent and duration of water logging, drainage gradients, sedimentation and soil type.

Blue Mountains Swamp vegetation structure can range from being open or closed variants of sedgeland, rushland, heath, tussock grassland, tussock grassland, tall grassland, scrub and tall shrubland. The vegetation is typically under 3 metres in height, although taller shrubs may be present. Emergent tree species favouring wet root systems can occur on the swamp margins, and the vegetation here tends to be closed woodland in their undisturbed natural state.

Both the structure and species composition of swamp vegetation vary from site to site, and the individual species and structural types shown below do not all occur at every site. Within a single swamp area a complex mosaic of vegetation types (structure and species composition) may be present.

The structure of Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone vegetation includes sedgeland, closed sedgeland, open-rushland, open-heath, closed-heath, tussock grassland, closed-tussock grassland, tall closed-grassland, open-scrub and tall shrubland. The vegetation is usually less than 3 m in height, although taller shrubs may be present. Emergent trees may occur on swamp margins, and the vegetation here tends to open woodland.

Typical vegetation is characterised by the presence of sedges, graminoids (grass-like plants) and forbs (herbaceous non-grass or grass-like plants) with or without shrubs. They are endemic to the upper Blue Mountains, comprising numerous small patches which aggregate to being about 3,000 heactares in total area. They occur naturally nowhere else on the planet.

Blue Mountains Swamps are scientifically included as a class within the nationally recognised Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone ecological community. On 29th April 2005, Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone was included in the list of nationally threatened ecological communities under section 181 of Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. [Source: ^http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/F2005L01134]. This was mainly due to Threatened Species Scientific Committee recognising its limited distribution and vulnerability to ongoing threats.

It followed a ten year campaign by Blue Mountains environmentalists..

Global distribution map of Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone

Global distribution map of Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone ecological community.

[Source: Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone, Biodiversity, Species Profile and Threats Database, Department of the Environment, Australian Government, ^http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicshowcommunity.pl?id=32#status]

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Twynam Swamp

Twynam Swamp is essentially an upland Blue Mountains Sedge Swamp dominated by coral fern (Gleichenia dicarpa).

It is situated on a hillside at the headwaters of Katoomba Creek in the heart of the distribution area for Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone. The swamp here is predominantly a sedge swamp and is permanently water logged, probably due to the localised presence of natural groundwater springs.

This particular upland swamp area features a diverse ecological community including the following indicator swamp flora species:

Coral Fern (Gleichenia dicarpa),
King Fern (Todea barbara)
Tasman Flax-lily (Dianella tasmanica)
Soft Twig Rush (Baumea rubiginosa)
Fork-leaved sundew (Drosera binata)
Red-fruit Saw Sedge (Gahnia sieberiana)
Alpine Heath (Epacris paludosa)
Spreading Rope Rush (Empodisma minus)
Mat Rush (Lomandra longifolia)
Peat Moss (Sphagnum cristatum) in the ground layer

and a range of Hakea and Grevillea shrub species.

Characteristic of this upper Blue Mountains ridgeline landscape, above this swamp margin stands emerging Eucalyptus oreades, endemically rare in their own right.

Twynam Swamp is but one of the Blue Mountains Swamps localised fragile ecosystems coming under increased pressure mainly by deforestation for housing development and by frequent bushfires especailly from broadscale hazard reduction regimes. Both practices are not only facilitated by government, but sanctioned and enshrined in legislation, despite being scientifically recognised as key threatened processes.

Larger scale distribution map of Blue Mountains and Newnes Plateau Swamps

[Source: ‘Nationally threatened species and ecological communities’, Department of the Environment, Australian Government,

^http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/publications/pubs/temperate-highland-peat-swamps.pdf]

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This Blue Mountains Swamp also contains a rare significant stand of Eucalyptus oreades (Blue Mountains Ash) around its periphery, which in itself holds rare ecological value.

Click image to enlarge

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But try telling this to the local Blue Mountains Council. Council has just approved the bulldozing through and above this endangered and protected swamp for housing development.

Council’s zoning under its own Local Environment Plan of 1991 actually recognises this particular swamp as being environmentally protected. The swamp covers much of the Katoomba Creek headwaters site that has just been approved for housing development at the end of Twynam Street. It practically adjoins a restricted Sydney Water Catchment area on the ridgetop.

This site is a swamp. It has no connected water, power, gas or telephone. It has no stormwater connection. It is a swamp.

Not surprisingly, the developer’s Flora and Fauna Assessment has concluded that the bulldozing of the swamp will “unlikely.. (cause) any significant impact on any endangered ecological community, population or any threatened species and as such a Species Impact Statement.” [Source: Anderson Environmental Consultants, May 2012, for 121 Twynam Street, p. 13]

So Blue Mountains Council’s Senior Environmental Health and Building Surveyor, Daniel Roberts, approved construction two weeks ago (12th September 2013) for a two storey dwelling and driveway to carve through this Blue Mountains Swamp. The consent conditions for this development application (X/673/2012) read as if the site was just an urban block of land in downtown Sydney; nothing special.

Rules for some?

Still council’s wholesome vision advocates “respecting our heritage and safeguarding our fragile environment” – a clear disconnect between propaganda and practice.

Blue Mountains Swampcare at Kittyhawke Swamp, Wentworth Falls.

Similar swamp characteristics, just more convenient location for Council and Parks Service to jointly show they care.

[Source: Blue Mountains Council’s Upland Swamp Rehabilitation Programme (2007) enticing community volunteers.]

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Ed: To Blue Mountains Council development staff, ‘Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone’ national legislation is a discretionary matter depending upon where the swamp happens to be situated.

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Blue Mountains Council is content to be hypocritical about its stance on protecting Blue Mountains Swamps under its Swampcare Programme, while at the same time its development planning staff authorise destruction of these swamps. It is in flagrant breach of national legislation.

Fortunately, there remain many in the local Blue Mountains community who place high value and have due respect for Blue Mountains Swamps and their need for consistent protection under the national legislation, irrespective of where the swamps happen to be situated. Next door resident, Francis Scarano, has repeatedly objected to the Blue Mountains Council about this development’s certain destructive impact upon the swamp:

“The swamp out the front will die along with the E. Oreades as they are not able to cope with excavation for the drive way across roots and concrete next to them and the swamp cannot cope with cut ground water supplies.

What happens when you build above a swamp? You kill a swamp even if you do not build on it. Development above is more than enough to do the job. Winding roads around Eucalyptus oreades grove and building turning bays is enough to make the trees in groves to fall down. Even though the developer is not clearing the oreades grove or swamp his actions will kill them all the same but more slowly.

The swamp particularily depends on the hydrology ie underground springs being undisturbed. They do not understand that building above a swamp will kill it anyway.”

Her concerns have fallen on deaf, ignorant ears at Blue Mountains Council.

But council ignorance has not stopped local residents making a stand to save this precious remnant swamp.

Friends of Twynam Swamp

A collective of friends of Francis Scarano who stand in solidarity with Frances Scarano

to save Twynam Swamp (behind) from the developer’s bulldozer.

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Tags: Alpine Heath, Baumea rubiginosa, Blue Mountains Swampcare, Blue Mountains Swamps, Coral Fern, Dianella tasmanica, Drosera binata, Empodisma minus, Epacris paludosa, Fork-leaved sundew, Gahnia sieberiana, Gleichenia dicarpa, indicator swamp flora species, King Fern, Lomandra longifolia, Mat Rush, Peat Moss, Red-fruit Saw Sedge, Soft Twig Rush, Sphagnum cristatum, Spreading Rope Rush, Tasman Flax-lily, Temperate Highland Peat Swamps on Sandstone, Todea barbara, Twynam Swamp
Posted in Blue Mountains (AU), Threats from Development, Threats from Greenwashing, Threats from Weak Environmental Laws | No Comments »

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In Tasmania, pristine remains defenceless

Monday, September 23rd, 2013

In Tasmania, pristine remains defenceless

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Hope from 2013:

“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 metres below my platform who can now raise their young in peace.”

~ Miranda Gibson, The Observer Tree, Tasmania, ‘National student movement stands up for Tasmania’s native forests’, 20130710,

^http://observertree.org/2013/07/10/media-release-national-student-movement-stands-up-for-tasmanias-native-forests/]

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Recalling the STIHL nightmare from 1982:

Tasmania’s Farmhouse Creek Conservation Blockade of 1982: the people’s forest stance against industrial ecocide. Moral courage in the face of adversity – it resonates with the robust spirit of our brave young people. Lest we forget our young folk’s personal exposure to Corporate Logger Bully Violence, personal sacrifice and its haunting trauma.

[Source: ‘For the Forests – A history of the Tasmanian Forests Campaigns’, 2001, book by Helen Gee and Janet Fenton, The Wilderness Society, Hobart, Tasmania]

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From 2001:

<< In a world in which the tropical forests are disappearing and oldgrowth forests are threatened everywhere, global biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate. Australia can no longer afford to destroy oldgrowth forests. They are a priceless resource. Few of our tall forests of any type remain in pristine condition,and particularly where they have not been degraded they should be protected. The practice of destroying oldgrowth forests in order to replace it with plantations is criminal vandalism. Plantations should only be established on already degraded land.

Tasmania has the tallest forests in the Southern Hemisphere, some of the greatest areas of pristine temporate Gondwanan rainforest found anywhere on Earth, and some of the world’s oldest trees. This makes it a Mecca for tourists as forests disappear elsewhere. Because Tasmania is the State with the most forest – 40% of area forested – and because the quite erroneous view prevails that forests regenerate completely after clearfelling, a shameful attitude to forest conservation exists at the highest level in bureaucracies.

The Island is being torn apart by the woodchip-at-any-cost mentality. The forests are being sold off at a loss. The royalties paid by private companies fall far short of covering the cost of forest management, regrowth and infrastructure. Job losses attributable to woodchipping were estimated at 4,000 by 1995 – refuting the contention that the industry is good for employment. The Government, for sake of keeping a few foresters in work for a few years does not have the fortitude to stop the destruction. >>

<< Gondwanan forest, in its complex rainforest and wet scherophyll expression, does not regenerate to form its original mixture. The complex web of life that it comprises, the extraordinary antiquity and grandeur of its thousands-of-years-old giant components, and the untold interactions betwen its macroscopic and microscopic plant and animal species and soil biota, make it a living entity – ‘a surviving dinosaur deserving of complete protection’.

Over 70% of forests logged are clearfelled in Tasmania, destroying habitats and most of the wildlife they support. Replacement plantations and regenerated areas cannot provide the range of habitats or the biota. Over 90% of the timber extracted from natural forests is woodchipped and only five percent ends up as sawn timber. (An estimated five million cuibic metres of woodchips a year are sold, mainly to Japan). The common practice of burning ‘waste’ in felled coupes, a scorched earth policy, results in total slaughter of small animals and organisms, many of which are little known or understood. >>

Dark Forces Regrouping

Will Hodgman’s 20th Century ignorant wrath

..against everything naturally Tasmanian

<< Even at the start of a new millenium, logging operations are penetrating into more of the untouched valleys. Forests of World Heritage value are being destroyed and the integrity of the World Heritage protected areas themselves is being compromised. The damaging effect of logging operations, and particularly the clearfelling, on streams and on the hydrology of catchments, and on soils, is never taken into account and is a serious consequence. The brave people who have spoken out, risked their lives and faced arrest at peaceful direct actions around the Island, need your support. Every Australian who appreciates the heritage values of our forests and wants future generations to experience them, can learn what is at stake here and support the campaigns that are ongoing. >>

~ Mary E White DSc

[Source: Forward by Mary E White in book by Helen Gee (b.1950) and Janet Fenton: ‘For the Forests – A history of the Tasmanian Forests Campaigns’, 2001, published by The Wilderness Society, Hobart, Tasmania]

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[2] Extracts of an interview Dr Mary White in 2003 by Amy Heague (Focus Magazine), ^http://focusmag.com.au/mgl/interviews/dr-mary-white-paleobotanist

<< When Dr Mary White moved to the Manning Valley (New South Wales mid-north coast) back in 2003, the area acquired a true visionary and pioneer in the world of Paleobotany and environmental conservation.

Dr White has an amazing career that spans over five decades and two southern continents, is an accomplished and award winning palaeobotanist, lecturer and over the last 20 years author of several award winning books on the evolution of the Australian continent and its ecosystems. She is a passionate conservationist, was named a Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia for service to botany as a researcher through promotion of increased understanding and awareness of the natural world and just a few weeks ago was awarded the Lifetime Conservation Award from Australian Geographic.>>

Interviewer: You came to Australia in 1955. Tell us about your first encounter with Australian plant life.

Dr White: We docked at Fremantle and had three days to wait until we came to Sydney, so we hired a car and went to look at the sand plains and wildflowers. I was amazed at how the composition of the flora was just slightly different from what I had been finding in South Africa.

I had this questioning feeling; how had I travelled thousands of miles across the ocean to get here and yet I could recognise at a family level everything growing around me. It was the same kind of ecosystem I had just come from. So, I suddenly was confronted with the concept of Gondwana and believed it totally.

Interviewer: What prompted you to purchase Falls Retreat at Johns River at the base of Middle Brother in 2003?

Dr White: I wanted somewhere I could covenant the land to maintain biodiversity and develop as an environmental education centre. It is in a wonderful part of the world and well worth protecting. Since we’ve done all the plant, animal, bird, bat and frog lists and what not, we have realised that the biodiversity here is much, much richer than we ever thought it was going to be. We have even found a couple of rare and endangered frogs.

I am now very much into climate change and have a very important message to send, which is hopefully what I have been concentrating on doing and intend to do for the rest of my life. I decided a long time ago I was going to die at a 107, so I have a few good years left in me yet – so be warned! >>

Dr Mary White – Paleobotanist, curator, author

(b.1926 in then Southern Rhodesia)

<<..original ecosystems must be preserved because they are complete and have all the interconnections. “Ultimately you need to understand that this is a living planet and it behaves like a huge super organism, and that everything is interconnected and interrelated.”>>

[Source: ‘Dr Mary White Moves On’, 20130806, ABC NSW Mid North Coast, by Carla Mascarenhas, ^http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/08/06/3819380.htm]

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Tags: Farmhouse Creek Blockade, Gondwanan rainforest, Helen Gee, Stihl, Tasmania, Tasmanian Forests, The Wilderness Society
Posted in Tasmania (AU), Threats from Deforestation | No Comments »

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Governments’ trucking mindset

Saturday, September 21st, 2013

Riverside Refridgerated Transport semi-trailer loses control at speed at night in the wet on the Great Western Highway in an 80kph zone

Then crashes into a Springwood home narrowly missing the occupants.

Last Monday 20130916 near midnight

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This loaded semi-trailer was being driven by 43 year old truck driver from Cowra, where Riverside Refridgerated Transport is based. It was near midnight and he was likely delivering refridgerated farm produce to Sydney markets.

Problem is that it was wet and along that section of the Great Western Highway through Springwood the speed limit is 80kph. So the truck driver must have been either speeding or fell asleep at the wheel, or both. The semi careered off the highway on the right bend and ploughed into a telegraph pole, cutting it in half under the force, then crashed into the side yard of 2 Boland Avenue, just metres from the house and its innocent occupants.

So much for carting Cowra’s best produce to market

Pay peanuts, cut corners…

The crash also ruptured a gas main, which caused a significant leak, causing all west bound lanes of the highway to be closed for one and a half hours. Police also had to evacuate residents from another two nearby homes.

[Source: ‘Driver, family escape close call’, 20130917, Cowra Guardian newspaper, ^http://www.cowraguardian.com.au/story/1781566/driver-family-escape-close-call/]

What caused the crash? The media is quick to report the crash as a newsworthy story, but rarely investigates the cause nor takes much interest in the repeated recurrence on our highways.

The government authority responsible for trucking operations and for road design and safety across New South Wales is the Roads and Maritime Services (the old RTA-com-RMS, just rebranded). There is no crash barrier on this right bend of the Great Western Highway, yet this particular road section allows for all vehicles to travel at 80 kph. It is just past a down hill run, so how many vehicles travelling east typically nudge 90 kph, including trucks?

The RTA-come-RMS doesn’t care. Has it ever had speed monitoring at this location? Road policy at the RTA-come-RMS is that crash barriers and upgrades to highway safety are not implemented unless there is a history of “crash data”. Someone has to die before the RTA-come-RMS does anything.

Consider the nearby George Street intersection with the Great Western Highway just a kilometre east. When the highway was widened gto four lanes and tranformed into a 80 kph trucking expressway, George Street access was without traffic lights. Entry into the highway was Russian Roulette. Around this four laned expressway section of the Great Western Highway between 2000 and 2010, as it travels through Springwood, some 137 crashes have been documented according to Blue Mountains Council records. [Source: ‘Springwood to Valley Heights Link Road -Traffic Modelling Report, 20120408, by GST Consultants p.5, – see report attached at end of this article].

Wider and faster is not safer! More faster bigger trucks are not safer!

Midnight trucking is inherently deadly because late and night and the early hours of the morning only defies the human biological clock when humans naturally need sleep. Graveyard shift work on the road through the night is killing truck drivers and fellow motorists sharing the highway. Midnight trucking is a ticking time bomb.

Fatigue Management is a farce

…just don’t forget to spell towns properly in your log book.

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Yet governments across Australia including the New South Wales government are encouraging this unnatural practice, by accommodating the trucking industry with bigger roads and transforming regional highways like the Great Western Highway into national trucking expressways.

And as they build bigger roads for bigger trucks, they destroy the environment and roadside communities.

Bullaburra disappearing

Click image to enlarge

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Australian governments at national and state levels are changing laws to allow for larger and longer trucks B-doubles and B-triples to do the overnight linehaul task best suited to trains.

B-triples (basically ‘road-trains’) have already been introduced on regional highways in South Australian, Queensland and Victoria

Yet despite national legislation to try to address the systemic fatigue problem amongst linehaul truck drivers, goivernment agencies like the RTA-come-RMS provbide not fatigue managemnent infratructure along the entire length of the Great Western Higwhay between Penrith and Orange.

It’s a disgraceful “she’ll be right” mindset – just use the servos or park your rig on the highway shoulder outside local residents homes, like opposite the Caltex servo in Mount Victiria and leave your refrigerator compressor on all night.

Midnight Refridgeration

…passing through a town near you

Five days previously in Adelaide, on Wednesday 20130911, at about 1:00 am a B-Double left Glen Osmond Drive in the suburb of Frewville and collected a parked van, stobie pole, water hydrant and gas meter, before coming to a rest in the front of the Singapore House restaurant at 203 Glen Osmond Road.

[Source: ‘B-Double truck crash ends in restaurant’, 20130911, by Brett Williamson, ABC, ^http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/09/11/3846020.htm].

Last week, a speeding truck careered down a hill and overturned into a house at Cottage Point in northern Sydney.

[Source”: ‘Truck crashes into cars, boats and house’, 20130904, Yahoo!7, ^http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/national/watch/18778570/truck-crashes-into-cars-boats-and-house/]

In February this year, a B-double ploughed into a residential house in Sydney.

[Source: 9RAW, 20130226, ^http://video.au.msn.com/watch/video/9raw-truck-crashes-into-sydney-home/x6ztgyn?cpkey=8b31708a-606a-4ae7-b648-e55d939f0796%257c%257c%257c%257c]

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Sand Truck smashes into Adelaide house 2011

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Not the first time for midnight trucking on four laned sections of the Great Western Highway

..and this is before you get to the deadly six-laned M4.

Still, the NSW Government remains manifestly committed to its 20th Century trucking mindset, ignoring big picture freight rail. It has this week just announced it will spend $11.5 billion on a 33 km trucking motorway across Sydney. That is nearly a third of the annual Gross Domestic Product of New South Wales.

Just as the F3 was widened from two lanes each way, the existing M4 is to be widened to four lanes each way.

[Source: ‘Green light given for the 115 billion west connex motorway’, 20130919, by Andrew Clennell State Political Editor, The Daily Telegraph, ^http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/green-light-given-for-the-115-billion-west-connex-motorway/story-fni0cx12-1226722391732]

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And then there’s the billion dollar trucking bypass of Mount Victoria on the cards.

Artist’s scary impression…more trucking expressways.

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Tags: b-doubles, B-triples, Dog tired Fatigue Management, Great Western Highway, Riverside Refridgerated Transport crashRiverside Refridgerated Transport, RMS, Roads and Maritime Services, Roads and Traffic Authority, RTA, truck crash, trucking expressway
Posted in Blue Mountains (AU), Threats from Road Making | No Comments »

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