Tasmania’s Tarkine is a vast wilderness region of north west Tasmania covering nearly half a million hectares (the size of Kangaroo Island); a remnant of Gondwanaland and home to the last disease-free stronghold of the Tasmanian Devil.
The Tarkine covers 1,800 km² of beautiful ancient cool temperate rainforest, as well as around 400 km² of eucalypt forest and a mosaic of other vegetation communities, including dry sclerophyll forest, woodland, buttongrass moorland, sandy littoral communities, wetlands, grassland and Sphagnum communities. The Tarkine contains a diverse array of landscapes, from giant forests to huge sand-dunes, sweeping beaches, rugged mountains and pristine river systems. It retains a rare high diversity including:
28 terrestrial mammals
111 land and freshwater birds
11 reptiles
8 frogs
13 freshwater fish
151 species of liverworts
92 species of mosses.
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The Tarkine provides habitat for over 60 rare, threatened and endangered species of flora and fauna. Tthe Tarkine is rich in frog species, with eight of Tasmania’s eleven frog species occurring in diverse parts of the Tarkine, including in the Tarkine’s rainforests, in Melaleuca swamps and scrub, and in the coastal lagoons and dune systems. Two threatened frog species, the Green and Golden Frog, and the Striped Marsh Frog, both occur in coastal lagoons, marshes and swamps of the Arthur-Pieman plains.
The Tarkine is particularly important for freshwater crustaceans – which are of global significance (PWS, 2001). One of the largest freshwater crustaceans in the world, the Tayatea, or Giant Freshwater Crayfish, inhabits the north of Tasmania and the Arthur River catchment – with the Tarkine a stronghold. This extraordinary creature, which can live for up to 40 years of age, and grow up to a metre in length, has been adversely affected by clearing of vegetation and recreational fishing, and is now listed as vulnerable.
The Tarkine’s Tayatea, or Giant Freshwater Crayfish
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The Tarkine, showing the Tasmanian Government’s 2012 plans for a $34M upgrade of the Murchison Highway, marketed as ‘tourism development’ but surreptitiously to subsidise increased mining access between the Tarkine and Port Latta.
[Source: Tasmanian Government, Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources
^http://www.dier.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/81461/01_Murchison_Highway_Upgrades.pdf]
The backward Tasmanian Government continues to ignore the place, dismissing it as an “unbounded locality” in the Waratah-Wynyard council area, and repeatedly trying to mine it, log it and bulldoze roads through it. So the name ‘Tarkine’ does not appear in maps, in order that it may be exploited section by section. Former Environment Minister Tony Burke was hoodwincked by this tactic as he was guided by miners to the denuded sections, and so diluted his pure vision of the Tarkine’s being worthy of protection for the pristine sections.
Such has perpetuated the 19th Century/early 20th Century ^Robber Baron mentality that has long followed American industrialisation over the past two centuries. On the back of the Robber Barons, the post-war Baby Boomer – “the most self-righteous, self-important, incredibly arrogant generation of all time” [^Source], has bulldozed into oblivion 75% of Tasmanian Nature, 80% of Australian Nature and exterminated Tasmania’s endemic Thylacine.
Still in Tasmania, inherited Taswegian attitudes and addictive exploitation die hard.
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Industrial Robber Barons
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However, many of the Tarkine’s unique values are threatened by destructive activities such as new mining, logging, and illegal activities such as poaching and arson, and less than 5% of the Tarkine is protected as a National Park. The Tarkine’s future as a wild place hangs in the balance.
The Tarkine is the home to the last disease free population of the Tasmanian Devil. The Tasmanian Devil is being pushed to extinction by the fatal Devil Facial Tumour Disease. This disease has been estimated to have killed 80% of the Tasmanian Devil population in the past decade. As such the habitat of the Tarkine is critical to survival of this iconic species in the wild. Threats such as mining, logging and roading place the future of the Devil at risk..
Tasmanian Devils heading towards extinction, following the Thylacine. Token funding in dribs and drabs by the Tasmanian Government toward Save the Tasmanian Devil Programme pales in the face of the Tasmanian Government encouraging ongoing destruction of the Devil’s critical habitat.
[Source: Photo by Rhys Allen in article ‘Tarkine mines could be last straw for Tasmanian devils’, 20130115, by Hamish McCallum, Head, Griffith School of Environment at Griffith University, ^http://theconversation.com/tarkine-mines-could-be-last-straw-for-tasmanian-devils-114839]
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Protecting the Tarkine
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The campaign to protect The Tarkine began in the 1960s, when a formal conservation proposal was put forward by the then Circular Head Mayor Horace (Jim) Lane for the establishment of a ‘Norfolk Range National Park’. But Lane’s proposal was not realised.
From the late 1990s, the region came under increasing national and international scrutiny in a similar vein to the environmental protests surrounding Tasmania’s Franklin River and Queensland’s Daintree Rainforest. The case for protecting the Tarkine was significantly advanced with the Federal Government’s Forestry Package in 2005 adding 70,000 hectares to reserves in the Tarkine.
The environmentalist organisation Tarkine National Coalition, headed by Scott Jordan, has proposed the Tarkine be officially declared a national park, and with the support of many Tasmanians, wishes to ultimately see the Tarkine properly internationally protected as a World Heritage listed area for all time.
Scott Jordan in The Tarkine
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In December 2009, the Tarkine was listed as a National Heritage Area following an Emergency National Heritage Listing sought by the Tarkine National Coalition to stop a proposed Tarkine Road, which would have coursed through old growth forest and detrimentally affected the natural values of undisturbed areas.
In 2013, while 80% of the Tarkine is now protected from logging, only 5% is protected from mining, and the Tasmanian Government still wants its tourist road bulldozed through it to destroy its wilderness values for tourism exploitation.
In December 2010, the incoming Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke allowed the emergency listing to lapse in the face of numerous mining proposals in the Tarkine.
The west coast region of Tasmania has a sad history of exploitative mining since the industrial Robber Baron era of the late 19th Century, when tin was discovered at Mount Bischoff, setting of a mining boom. Cooper was mined from Mount Lyell and smelted at nearby Queenstown from the 1890s. Zinc and lead were mined at Mt Read near Rosebery and nickel from Avebury near Zeehan, both along the southern fringe of the Tarkine. Gold has been from the Henty mine, mixed base metals from the Hellyer mine, and later iron ore extracted in large open cut pits at Savage River in the heart of The Tarkine.
Since 1965, ‘Savage River Mines‘ has been carving up a large slice of The Tarkine from its open-cut magnetite mine.
Savage River Mine Irrevocably carving out Tarkine wilderness, currently operated by Grange Resources Limited
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Ironically, nearby Savage River National Park is recognised for its wilderness values:
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<< The park protects the largest contiguous area of cool temperate rainforest surviving in Australia and acts as a refuge for a rich primitive flora, undisturbed river catchments, high quality wilderness, old growth forests, geodiversity and natural landscape values.
The western portion of the park includes the most extensive basalt plateaux in Tasmania that still retains a wholly intact forest ecosystem. The upper Savage River, which lends the park its name, runs through a pristine, rainforested river gorge system. The park contains habitat for a diverse rainforest fauna and is a stronghold for a number of vertebrate species which have suffered population declines elsewhere in Tasmania and mainland Australia.
The parks remoteness from human settlement and mechanised access, its undisturbed hinterland rivers and extensive rainforest, pristine blanket bog peat soils and isolated, elevated buttongrass moorlands ensure the wilderness character of the park. Like the vast World Heritage listed Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area to its south, the area is one of the few remaining temperate wilderness areas left on Earth. >>
American Robber Baron Robert Carl Sticht (1856-1922)American metallurgist and General Manager of Mount Lyell Mining and Railway CompanyElitist exploiter of copper mining and smelting from Mount Lyell on Tasmania’ wild west coast
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Sticht’s Mining Legacy to Tasmania – a denuded moonscape above Queenstown caused by sulphuric acid associated with the copper mining and smelting.
The people of Queenstown were not left wealthy after the copper mine closed – the company profits went offshore – sound familiar?
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In 2013, there are ten new mines proposed for the Tarkine over the next five years, and the campaign to prevent this onslaught of destruction is heating up. Nine of these mines are Pilbara style open cut mines. The first two companies to submit for permits are Venture Minerals for their three proposed tin and iron ore mines at Mt Lindsay, and Shree Minerals for their proposed Nelson Bay River iron ore mine.
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2011: Open Cut Mine proposed by Indian company, Shree Minerals
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Indian-owned mining conglomerate, Shree Minerals, has proposed to develop an open pit magnetitie/hematite mine and processing plant near Nelson Bay River , approximately seven kilometres east of Temma village in northwest Tasmania. The proposed mine will target 4 million tonnes of the resource over a 10 year period producing 150,000 tonnes of product per year.
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[Ed: This is in The Tarkine, but of course the term is deliberately omitted]
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Parent company, Shree Minerals and Fuels, is headquartered at 51 M.I.G., Jain Mandir Road, Shanti Nagar, Housing Board, Katni, Madhya Pradesh, India. It is was established by millionaire, Vishwanath Garodia, and is currently owned by Vijay Garidia. The Shree Minerals Board of Directors is currently made up of Chairman Mr Sanjay Loyalka, Mr. Arun Kumar Jagatramka, Mr Mahendra Pal, Mr Andy Lau and Mr Amu Shah.
<< Shree Minerals has lodged a Development Application with a supporting Development Proposal and Environmental Management Plan (DPEMP) to Circular Head Council… (and) the Australian Government has declared the proposal a controlled action which will require assessment and approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. This process will occur separately from the State Government process (which has approved the mine). >>
Tasmanian Baby Boomer politicians in 2012 with Indian chairman of Shree Minerals, Sanjay Loyalka
[Source: Tasmanian Minerals Council, ^http://www.tasmanianmining.com.au]
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<< With Tasmanian approvals in hand for mining at Nelson Bay River (NBR), Shree Minerals awaits Commonwealth Government approval, which is expected soon. Meanwhile, drilling will commence at NBR in November.
Shree Minerals (ASX:SHH) has re-affirmed that it is awaiting Commonwealth approvals for mining to commence at its Nelson Bay River Iron Project (NBR) in Tasmania.
Tasmanian approvals were received from:
– Circular Head Council, Tasmania;
– Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), Tasmania; and,
– Mineral Resources Tasmania (MRT) grant of Mining Lease
Shree said it expects a final decision from the Australian Commonwealth Government under EPBC Act, for which the final EIS has been published following response to submission received as a result of public exhibition of Draft EIS. Further that it expects to receive approval and a final decision is now expected soon.
Other highlights included:
– Grant of Mining Lease from Mineral Resources Tasmania (MRT) for mining at NBR has been received
– Maiden Reserves published and DSO mine plan for first 2 years finalised (October 2012).
– The 2011/12 fieldwork at Mt.Sorell has identified encouraging signs for the presence of Volcanic Hosted Massive
The production schedule for the first two years comprises mining of DSO iron ore. The DSO requires no further beneficiation to produce a marketable product. It only requires crushing and screening. Two separate DSO pits are planned in the first two years (comprising DSO South Pit and DSO North Pit, which is within the BFO resources) with following total resultant pit quantity of 815,000 tonnes at 57.5% iron (Fe):
The DSO is a first, lucrative stage of mining at NBR. It involves minimal CAPEX and no infrastructure CAPEX.
Development stages at NBR
Development of the project involves three stages. The first stage is to develop two relatively shallow opencut mines to produce direct shipping grade hematite ore.
This direct shipping ore (DSO) only requires crushing and sizing to produce the DSO product. Each pit will produce a separate grade of DSO product.
The south pit has a higher DSO grade and will be mined first with the product transported to Port Latta for export. The north DSO pit, situated above the main magnetite orebody will follow. It has a lower DSO grade.
Stage two involves the continuation of mining of the northern DSO opencut. Here the stage one DSO hematite oxide cap is surrounded by lower grade ore considered to have the potential to be processed to produce a commercial beneficiated oxide product (BFO). Processing the BFO material is considered to be stage two of the project.
Stage three of the project involves the opencut mining of the deep magnetite orebody beneath the oxide cap. This magnetite ore will require processing to produce commercial grade magnetite products and the BFO processing plant will be modified to achieve this objective.
Earlier studies demonstrated that the magnetite ore can produce two products, a dense media magnetite (DMM) product suitable for coal washery applications or a blast furnace pellet (BFP) magnetite product.
Suppliers are few in number for the higher value DMM product and mining generally occurs on a small scale. This would suit the Nelson Bay Iron Project.
Shree is planning to commence drilling at the NBR and Rebecca Creek tenements during the second week of November. Documentation for approval to drill ~3500 m to improve resource category and further extension of resources and geotechnical studies at the Project was submitted to the Minerals and Resources Tasmania. >>
The Mine’s expected Heavy Metal products/tailings cocktail (Copper, Lead, Chromium, Cadmium, Cobalt, Nickel and Zinc, as well as Arsenic and sulphuric acid)
<< Shree Minerals chairman Sanjay Loyalka presented to over 175 investors this week at the ‘Stars in 2013′ investor forum in Sydney – and outlined the company’s pathway to production. Shree is positioned to become Australia’s next iron ore producer when the company commences production from the Nelson Bay River Project in Tasmania in mid-2013.
Shree Minerals presented to brokers, fund managers and investors this week in Sydney at Proactive Investors “Stars in 2013” investor forum – and focused on how the company will become Australia’s next iron ore producer. The production schedule for the first two years comprises the mining of DSO iron ore, which requires no further beneficiation to produce a marketable product.
Shree is targeting iron ore production in mid-2013 from the Nelson Bay River Project which is located in the west coast of Tasmania, in an area rich with infrastructure which includes being close to roads and port.
Shree has a memorandum of understanding with nearby miner Grange Resources for use of port Latta, and has an off-take contract MOU in-place with a large international trading house.
All approvals are in place for developing the mine including; Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), Tasmania; Mineral resources Tasmania (MRT) grant of Mining Lease; and Commonwealth Government under EPBC Act.
Highlighting the prospectivity of the area, it hosts world class mines including Grange Resources’ Savage River, Vedanta’s Mt Lyell, Unity Mining’s Henty and MMG’s Roseberry and Avebury.
Shree’s Nelson Bay River Project has a goethite-hematite Inferred Resource of 1.4 million tonnes, magnetite Resources of 7.8 million tonnes at 38.3 DTR, and is capable of producing highgrade concentrates to produce Blast Furnace (BF) Pellets and Dense Media Magnetite (DMM). Importantly there is the opportunity for resource growth, considering that the current resource is only based on limited drilling at the north end of the Aeromagnetic Anomaly as the company focus in last two years has been the on permitting process and project development.
This exploration potential provides the opportunity for a substantial increase in scale and mine life.
The Nelson Bay River Project differentiates itself from other iron ore projects as it does not require large CAPEX in infrastructure, and importantly there is a local workforce available, which cuts costs compared to other producers who use the fly-in-fly-out model. >>
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[Source: ‘Shree Minerals’ Sanjay Loyalka outlines path to iron ore production in front of 175 investors’, 20130125, by Proactive Investors, ^http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/38728/shree-minerals-sanjay-loyalka-outlines-path-to-iron-ore-production-in-front-of-175-investors-38728.html]
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Aug 2012: Tasmanian EPA recklessly approves Dark Side Ecology
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<< The Tarkine National Coalition (TNC) has reacted with disbelief to the Tasmanian EPA’s approval of the Shree Minerals Nelson Bay River mine despite clearly incomplete and fraudulent information tendered by the proponent.
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‘Shree EIS a mismatch of omissions, flawed assumptions and misrepresentations’
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The Shree Minerals’ Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Nelson Bay River open cut iron ore mine as a mismatch of omissions, flawed assumptions and misrepresentations. Key data on endangered orchids were missing, and projections on roadkill impacts on Tasmanian devil and Spotted tailed quoll were based on fanciful data known to contradict the company’s independent Traffic Impact Assessment.
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Scott Jordan (TNC):
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“The EPA seems to have abandoned rational science and accepted Shree Minerals’ assertion that a 1km long 220 metre deep open cut pit extending 170 metres below the level of the adjacent Nelson Bay River wont impact on hydrology.
The EPA also has chosen to accept Shree Minerals blatant contradictions and misrepresentations in the data relating to projections of Tasmanian devil roadkill from mine related traffic by accepting projections substantially lower than Shree Minerals’ own expert produced Traffic Impact Assessment. This increase of traffic will, on the company’s formulae, result in up to 32 devil deaths per year, not the 3 per year in presented in the data accepted by the EPA.”
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This failure comes within days of Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke’s decision to absolve himself of responsibility for conducting environmental assessments by allowing the Tasmanian Government to conduct the EPBC assessments for mining projects in the Tarkine.
“Is this really the assessment regime that Tony Burke want to oversee the protection of the environment in the Tarkine?”, asks Jordan. Decisions on Commonwealth environmental approvals and local council approvals have not been granted at this point. Unlike the Venture Minerals projects, the Shree Minerals also has a concurrently running Commonwealth assessment. >>
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Senator Christine Milne, leader of the Australian Greens:
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“The Tasmanian Government EPA’s approval of the Shree Minerals mine confirms exactly why Tony Burke is wrong to trust this agency with the assessment of new mines in the Tarkine. Shree Minerals has no friends in the Tasmanian mining industry. The company fudged their data on likely impacts on the Tasmanian Devil – yet here they are securing Tasmanian Government approval.
“The ball is now in Tony Burke’s court. He should reject Shree’s mine, which still has to pass federal environmental approvals tests. He must reverse his decision to let Venture Mineral’s three mines be assessed by the Tasmanian Government.
“By not heritage listing the Tarkine, Tony Burke has washed his hands of responsible environmental protection and approval of the Tarkine rainforest and the threatened Tasmanian Devil, and now we see the consequences.”
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The Tasmanian Greens will write to Tasmania’s Environment Protection Authority seeking further information over a decision to approve an iron ore mine at Nelson Bay River. >>.
Alex Schaap, Tasmanian EPA DirectorUnder fire over nondisclosure of a heavy metals spill from a tailings dam spill at Grange Resources Savage River mine into surrounding waterways in early 2013.
[Source: ‘Tasmania’s Environment Protection Agency is on notice’, 20130318, by Isla Macgregor, Tasmanian Public and Environmental Health Network, ^http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/tasmanias-environment-protection-agency-is-on-notice/]
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Greens Member for Braddon (Tasmania), Paul O’Halloran MP:
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“Serious concerns have been raised about the reliability and accuracy of information provided to the EPA by the mine proponent, Shree Minerals. The public should be able to have full confidence in the capacity of agencies like the EPA to independently assess these controversial mining projects and to test the accuracy and rigour of the data they are provided.
“Critical details regarding the impact on threatened species appear to be missing or inconsistent with previously released data, and the potential hydrological impacts have not been fully assessed. “When you consider that the mine itself will be well below the level of the nearby Nelson Bay River, it’s hard to see how this will not impact on the area’s hydrology.
“If the Commonwealth uses the same questionable data for its assessment for the project, then the Tasmanian public will be rightly sceptical when their final decision is handed down.” >>
Sep 2012: Mainland unions weigh into Tarkine v Mining debate
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National Secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union Paul Howes discusses the union’s campaign to promote mining in Tasmania.
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National Secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union Paul Howes addressing a rally in Hobart,
with Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings in the background.
[Source: ^http://www.tasmanianmining.com.au]
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ABC Television Transcript:
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<< EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: To discuss the AWU’s campaign, I was joined earlier in our Hobart studio by the union’s national secretary, Paul Howes.
Paul Howes, welcome to Lateline.
PAUL HOWES, NATIONAL SECRETARY, AUSTRALIAN WORKERS’ UNION: Thanks, Emma.
EMMA ALBERICI: The Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke on the Tarkine issue has indicated he’s not predisposed to wholesale heritage listing. So what exactly are your concerns there?
PAUL HOWES: There is a very large campaign being run at the moment by the Greens and GetUp in particular, aiming to have the entire north-western region of Tasmania, known as the Tarkine, listed for World Heritage listing.
That would potentially close two existing mines, would have the impact of not having the go-ahead for a number of new mines in the region which need to be developed.
At the moment north-west Tasmania has unemployment of around 8.4 per cent, when you compare that to the national average of 5.2 per cent, you can see how hard times are in that part of Tasmania.
And to lose a minerals industry would be devastating for the entire state, but particularly for the north-west.
The mines in question and the potential mines in question take up less than 1 per cent of the land mass of the Tarkine and whilst we accept there are many areas of the Tarkine that should be protected and should be locked up from future development, we are concerned that this large-scale campaign will pressure the Federal Government into actually granting a listing which would potentially shutdown this very important industry for north-west Tasmania.
And our members that work in the sector have been concerned for a long time, their voices haven’t been heard in the debate, and that’s why they asked us to run this campaign so that their voices can be heard on the national stage about what they believe should continue to happen in the Tarkine, which is having nature and the mining industry co-existing as it has done for 120 years.
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EMMA ALBERICI: On the process of heritage listing, you would be aware that current mines are not affected and current applications for mines equally are not affected?
PAUL HOWES: Well that’s not the case.
EMMA ALBERICI: It’s certainly the case as Tony Burke’s office explained it to us.
PAUL HOWES: If you look at the issue, for example, of Rosebery. Rosebery isn’t subject to the … the current mining operations at Rosebery isn’t subject to the listing, but Rosebery needs a new tailings dam, that new tailings dam has to be built in an area which would be subject to the listing.
If the new tailings dam can’t be built then Rosebery would should, equally for Savage River. Savage River needs to expand and move into new parts of ore bodies that would be in areas where that listing applies.
Look, I’m very hopeful and I think that Tony Burke will make the right decision, but equally it’s important that the voice of Tasmanian miners and Tasmanian communities in the north-west of the state are heard in this debate.
As we have seen in the proposals put forward by the national Tarkine coalition, if they were successful in their proposal a whole range of potential mines and exploration zones would be locked up. So that’s why we need to ensure that when the Federal Government makes a decision, that it does the right thing for the environment, everyone agrees with that, but we don’t hurt the Tasmanian economy and create a situation where we’ve had intergenerational mining in that part of Tasmania for 120 years being wiped off the map for the sake of frankly an ideological agenda being driven by a few.
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EMMA ALBERICI: But Paul Howes, we do have to make the distinction here, no-one is suggesting mining’s going to be wiped off the map in Tasmania. You say yourself these are potential mines, these are not current mines, nor are they mines under current assessment.
PAUL HOWES: Yes, they are Emma. They are currently under assessment.
EMMA ALBERICI: Well if they are under assessment Tony Burke’s office tell us they are not affected by the heritage listing. Who is right?
PAUL HOWES: Hopefully that will be the case but the campaign being run by the national Tarkine coalition and by the Greens would have the effect, if it were successful, in shutting down, for example, the venture minerals site. That’s the outcome.
Now we are providing the alternative voice, which is saying these areas equate to roughly 1 per cent of the land mass of the Tarkine and we believe that those areas should be excluded. In terms of the current mines, as I explained only just a few minutes ago, yes, it is true to say that the existing mine site at Savage River and the existing mine site at Rosebery isn’t covered by the proposal, but where those mines have to expand just slightly down the road is covered by the proposal.
And if those expansions can’t go ahead, then the existing mine sites won’t be viable. It’s not just a simple matter of getting out the map and looking at where the current mining operations take place and where the proposed ones have been, there is the case that if the national Tarkine coalition’s proposal goes ahead, you would see the mine life of a mine like Rosebery being cut drastically short.
I’m not in the business of running campaigns when we don’t have to, I would be more than happy to see a sensible campaign run by the environmental lobby that would actually result in carving out the minerals zones. But if you just log on to the national Tarkine coalition website, yourself, you’ll see that a large part of their campaign is about stopping the potential mines that should go ahead in the next couple of years, from actually happening.
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EMMA ALBERICI: Some of the current approvals being sought are possibly going to endanger… possibly going to put at risk some endangered species. You would accept surely that some of those do need protection?
PAUL HOWES: Absolutely and once again, we are talking about an environmental footprint of less than 1 per cent of the Tarkine region. You are talking about areas which have been portrayed, particularly by GetUp, for example, as saying as being virgin or untouched rainforest, where it’s just not the case.
There has been widespread mining activity across the Tarkine for 120 years. Many of the areas that have actually featured in GetUp ads are actually areas which used to be mining facilities. In fact there was a famous ad that GetUp ran in The Sydney Morning Herald with a picture of the Environment Minister Tony Burke looking at a tree – he was standing on an old mining trail.
The point is that, yes, we need to do what we can to protect endangered species and yes we should lock up those areas of the region that deserve environmental protection, but we should also look at the facts in the cold hard light of day and recognise that there is the ability to have sustainable mining practices engaged right across that region and at the same time do the right thing by the environment.
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EMMA ALBERICI: If we can move on to the Greens more broadly, you’ve been attacking them for the better part of the last few months pretty consistently. Is this part of a deliberate strategy to sort of re-establish Labor as an entity in its own right, to kind of divorce itself from the Greens on the political stage?
PAUL HOWES: In terms of the campaign that we have launched here in Hobart today, it’s a campaign that members of my union asked us to run, and I’m responding to the wishes of our members. That’s what membership based organisations do. Our union does campaign against companies, against governments and against political parties which pose direct threats to the job security of our members.
In the form of the Greens, whilst there are many policies that I do agree with the Greens on, overall their economic policies are ones which would lead to wide sections of the membership of the AWU being left out of work. That’s why we have been, for a very long period of time – it predates even my time as secretary of the union – been very strident and forthright in our criticism of a lot of the policies.
I’m pleased that we have seen over the last few months more people in the Labor movement stepping up to the plate, actually taking on the Greens, actually calling into question many of their policies which for too long have gone unquestioned. Ultimately I do think they should be held to account. I don’t think the Labor Party needs to differentiate itself because ultimately the Labor Party is a separate party.
The Labor Party and the Labor movement has very different values to the values of the Greens and whilst there might be some similarities in some areas, at the end of the day the type of Australia that the Labor movement wants to see and the type of Australia the Greens want to see are two very different types of Australia.
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EMMA ALBERICI: Recently you have compared the Greens to One Nation and to the DLP. Have you gone too far there? What is it about the Greens that you fear?
PAUL HOWES: I don’t fear the Greens. Things that I fear I normally run away from. I don’t fear the Greens.
EMMA ALBERICI: You clearly fear their impact on your party.
PAUL HOWES: What I have said is I think it’s incumbent upon the Labor movement to actually take up the fight to the Greens, that we shouldn’t shy away from articulating the alternative vision that we see for this country.
Now as I said, there are many Greens policies which are similar to views that I hold, but ultimately on the key questions about work, the value of work, the type of economy we have, which is I think fundamental to the nature of what it is to be Australian – the Greens and the Labor movement are worlds apart.
My view has been for a long time that we should articulate that, we should take up that fight and that we should actually demonstrate that our values are different, their values are theirs.
Now of course, voters will be free to choose between the two, but we actually need to articulate those differences in our views and policies proudly and strongly.
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EMMA ALBERICI: Is there a fear that voters won’t be able to see a difference between the two?
PAUL HOWES: I think occasionally that might be the case. I think of late, we have seen substantial differences. I was proud to be standing on the steps of Tasmanian Parliament today with the Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings, who was very strongly backing our campaign about the Tarkine.
That clearly demonstrates she disagrees strongly with her colleagues in the minority government here in Tasmania, and that’s important. It’s important to traditional Labor voters, particularly in rural and regional Tasmania and important to working-class Labor voters right across the country to know that the Labor Party – still right across the nation, stands up for the values of work and believes in the need to have a diversified economy.
Ultimately, what the Labor Party does in government, state or federal, is up to them. But as a member of the Labor movement and our union has strongly believed for a long time that this is a fight that’s worth having.
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EMMA ALBERICI: Finally, the new government in Queensland has today slashed just shy of 3,000 jobs in its Health Department.
What intelligence are you getting from your Queensland colleagues about how much further the job cuts are likely to go?
PAUL HOWES: We are very proud to represent over 10,000 workers in the Queensland Health Department and we are disappointed that Campbell Newman today in his announcement hasn’t articulated where these job cuts are going to happen.
We fear that it will be frontline workers in the hospitals that will be cut. If that happens, we will see a decrease in patient care right across Queensland. What we are seeing here is an aggressive and scary attack on services right across Queensland, but particularly in the Health Department.
Queensland Health has had a lot of problems for a long period of time, but cutting staff, stripping back services, outsourcing essential services across Queensland hospitals, is not the way to resolve issues in Queensland Health.
In fact, it will send Queensland Health back into the dark ages and frankly, we are fearful, in fact we are very strongly fearful and we suspect that this is only the beginning of deeper and harder cuts to come from Campbell Newman, once again betraying his promises to the Queensland people that he made right before the election.
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EMMA ALBERICI: Right Paul Howes we have to leave it there but thank you very much for your time.
Dec 2012: Burke approves Shree Mine based on dodgy submission
.Federal Environment Minister, Tony Burke in The Tarkine
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<< Environment Minister, Tony Burke, today approved Shree Mineral’s Nelson Bay River Magnetite and Hematite Mine in north-west region of Tasmania with 29 strict conditions.
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Mr Burke:
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“The approval conditions will ensure the mine will be built and operated in strict accordance with national environment law. By imposing these 29 approval conditions I am satisfied the project can now go ahead without any unacceptable impacts on matters of national environment significance such as nationally listed threatened and migratory species and their habitat.
In making my approval I am requiring Shree Minerals to comply with a number of key environmental conditions and actions. My decision is based on a thorough and rigorous assessment of the proposal, with extensive opportunity for public consultation.
Key aspects of the approval conditions include:
the development of a site-wide management plan for the protection of nationally threatened species at the mine site and for travel to and from the mine site
the undertaking of targeted pre-clearance surveys for the nationally listed masked-owl, spot-tailed quoll, Tasmanian devil and Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle
environmental awareness training for all staff, contractors and visitors to the site.
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“In addition I am requiring Shree Minerals to take specific actions to mitigate and avoid the threat of road kill to nationally threatened species, especially the Tasmanian devil.
I am requiring that mine vehicles travel only during daylight hours and abide by appropriate speed limits within and to and from the mine site and that they provide bus transport to limit the amount of traffic on nearby roads.
I am also requiring that Shree Minerals report all deaths of nationally threatened species from road kill caused by the operation of the mine. This information will be recorded on their website and updated at least every three months.
If reported road kill is in excess of predicted levels, the conditions require that Shree Minerals pay additional compensation or provide new resources for further environment programs to support threatened species in and near the site.
“I am also requiring Shree Minerals to fund and resource a Tasmanian Devil monitoring strategy on the mine site. The strategy will need to involve at least ten infrared monitoring cameras and be consistent with the work being done by Save the Tasmanian Devil Program.”
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Each year Shree Minerals is required to report on their compliance with the approval conditions and publish this information on their website.>>
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[Source: ‘Environment Minister Approves Shree Minerals Nelson Bay River Mine’ (media release), The Hon Tony Burke MP, Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities, 20121218, ^http://www.environment.gov.au/minister/burke/2012/mr20121218.html]
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Burke allows mining disturbance to colour his purist view:
“I was expecting to see a pristine area pretty much covered in rainforest. The truth of the industrial history and current industrial activity in the Tarkine was quite different to those images”
Burke lets mining wounds open up Tarkine to circling vultures
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<<The large expanse of land known as the Tarkine is currently host to around 60 mineral exploration licences, with 10 mines proposed for development over the next few years. The mineral rich area is also largely undisturbed, with temperate rainforests, open plains, diverse flora, and a stronghold of healthy Tasmanian Devils. The approval of the Nelson Bay River magnetite mine marks the beginning of a new chapter in the Tasmanian discourse over the benefits of exploiting natural resources over the preservation of unique natural heritage.
There are existing mines in the Tarkine region on the West Coast of Tasmania; the iron ore mine in Savage River managed by Grange Resources, the Hellyer Mine managed by Bass Metals and the Rosebery Mine managed by MMG.
A long history of mining in the area is coming face to face with a growing awareness of its unique natural and cultural significance.
Yesterday’s approval of a magnetite mine adjacent to the Nelson Bay River by Federal Environment Minister Tony Bourke is the first of several proposed new mining ventures in the area, after nearly twenty years of no new mining approvals in the state.
The interest in superior steel products is creating an increased demand for magnetite across Australia, which, after being processed, provides a consistently higher iron content in comparison to hematite ore.
The magnetite mined from the proposed open cut pit is also used to create magnetic iron oxides used in magnetic storage, for example in the magnetic layer of hard disks.
Twenty-nine conditions from Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke accompany the approval of Shree Minerals’ Nelson River Bay mangenite mine, largely directed at protecting native flora and fauna.
Included in the environmental conditions are $48,000 fines if Tasmanian Devils are killed by vehicle movement, if more than two are killed within a 12 month period.
As Tasmania takes a respite from the ongoing debate over how to restructure a floundering forestry industry, reactions to the magnetite mine approval have been swift.
Leon Compton spoke to some stakeholders in the approval on Statewide Mornings, beginning with Ian Woodward, principal environmental scientist for Tasmanian firm Pitt and Sherry, who prepared the environmental assessment report.
“In terms of the environmental significance, both the state and commonwealth assessments have been very comprehensive.”
“There are no threatened plant species on the site, there is a very low likelihood of threatened fauna, there might be one or two Tasmanian Devils that use the area.”
Shree Minerals has also committed to road transport movement during the day time, and limited speed conditions.
“Minister Burke’s concerns were confined to threatened species listed under Federal legislation, the EPA’s assessment in the Tasmanian jurisdiction was very much more comprehensive and considered all environmental matters including ground disturbance, water management, potential for acid drainage and how that would be mitigated and managed.”
The mine footprint is about 150 hectares, and will consist of two open cut pits that are designed to contain the possibility of acid generating materials being uncovered.
Exposed rock can generate acid as it oxidises, and there are examples of acidic poisoning of rivers from previous mining activities in the region.
Most famously, the King River is described as the most polluted river in Australia, a result of mining prctices at Mount Lyell on its tributary, the Queen River.
The Whyte River and Savage River, which both flow into the Pieman River, and the Arthur River at the northern end of the Tarkine, all suffer from acidity as a result of previous mining practices.
Scott Jordan, from the Tarkine National Coalition, believes that the proposed mine will have a massive effect upon the hydrology on the area around the site.
“This mine will be 225 metres deep, it will be 170 metres below the level of the adjacent Nelson Bay River, it will 60 metres below sea level.”
“In the referal that went to the Commonwealth, there were 16 Commonwealth listed threatened species identified within the five kilometre radius of the site.”
He questioned the assertions made by Pittt and Sherry regarding Tasmanian Devil numbers and the traffic impact assessment.
“They submitted to the Commonwealth that there would be an increase in road traffic affecting Tasmanian Devils of 32 percent, when in fact the Traffic Impact Assessment tells them that they would be looking at about 320 per cent.”
Asked why we have yet to hear from state green cabinet members, Mr Jordan said, “These decisions are made by a minister, they are not made by a cabinet, and so I would expect that the Green members of cabinet are just as upset about this as I am, and I expect that we will see them voicing that concern.”
Leon Compton also spoke with Circular Head Mayor Daryl Quilliam who vouched for the benefits of the proposed mine for the region.
“It’s not only good for our area, it’s good for Tasmania becvause of the investment that is happening overseas and good for the region in that jobs will be created right along the North West Coast.”
Asked about the environmental concerns Mr Quilliam said, “Everybody is welcome to their opinion, and that is fine, but you’ve got to stop and realise that there has been five or six years of planning for this mine, and just to go through the rigorous process it goes through now, all those environmental issues have been looked at.”
“Mines are not like they used to be 40 or 50 years ago, where you just dig a hole and leave a hole.”
Mr Quilliam discounted the area as the last refuge of the Tasmanian Devil, and cited Woolnorth as being more likely as that region.
“If there are protests, well I am sorry, but our local people, and I would say 80 to 85 percent of our local people are supporting that mine, will need to protest against them as well.”
Mr Quilliam called for people to work together to protect the region, and thinks that there is no reason why all values cannot be upheld. >>
<< Just a week before Christmas, Environment Minister Tony Burke approved Shree Minerals’ mine near Temma in the Tarkine region of north-west Tasmania. Perhaps he hoped the announcement would get lost in the Christmas and New Year “silly season”, because this approval is likely to be extraordinarily controversial: the mine is in an area currently proposed for World Heritage listing and is also in the last remaining stronghold of the Tasmanian devil.
The Tasmanian devil is threatened with extinction by an infectious cancer. Since its first discovery in north-eastern Tasmania in 1996, the cancer has inexorably spread westward, reducing Tasmanian devil populations by at least 80%.
Only the north-west remains undiseased. There are indications that the devil populations in the north-west have slightly different genetic composition from those in the remainder of Tasmania and may perhaps harbour some individuals with genotypes resistant to this lethal disease.
Tony Burke’s press release and his approval of 18 December explicitly recognise the threat that this mine will pose to Tasmanian devils: the developers are required to donate $350,000 to the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program Appeal to compensate for the mine’s unavoidable impact.
Within the limited area of the mine site itself, there will certainly be impacts on wildlife, including devils. More seriously, the ore will need to be trucked out by road for about 150km. Almost all of this distance will be through habitat of undiseased Tasmanian devils.
As scavengers, devils are particularly susceptible to being killed on roads, as they feed on the carcasses of other animals, such as possums or wallabies, which have previously been run over. As anyone who has driven in Tasmania will know, roadkill of Tasmanian Devils is not new. The problem is that its impact on the viability of the species as a whole is much greater now than it has been in the past, given that roadkill is additional to mortality imposed by facial tumour disease. This and other proposed mines will substantially increase total vehicular traffic in the remote north west of Tasmania.
The approval contains several conditions intended to mitigate this threat of roadkill to devils. These include an obligation to report all incidents of roadkill, a requirement that most travel to and from the mine site must occur during daylight hours and reduced speed limits of 50 km/h or less close to the mine site. But most of the distance mine trucks will travel through devil habitat on their way to port will be outside the reduced-speed-limit area.
A penalty of $48,000 will be applied to each Tasmanian devil in excess of two per year killed on the road by mine vehicles. This sounds a strong disincentive in principle, but I wonder what will happen in practice. There will be an even stronger incentive for vehicle operators to simply throw a carcass off the road into the bush rather than admit to killing a devil and incurring this substantial financial penalty.
More generally, this example highlights a problem with Australian environmental regulation. Up to 10 mine developments are currently proposed for the Tarkine area. The impact of each one individually might perhaps be acceptable in terms of increased risk of impacts on Tasmanian devil populations. But the impact of all 10 in aggregate will certainly be much less acceptable.
If mines are evaluated individually, we risk a scenario of “death by 1000 cuts”. The appropriate way to evaluate the risk would be to take all of the proposed developments together and assess whether the joint effect of all can be handled without unacceptable risk to biodiversity conservation.
The fact that this mine development has been approved individually does not give me confidence this approach will be taken. >>
Feb 2013: Tony Burke refuses Tarkine heritage listing
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In December 2009, with wide recognition of its National Heritage values, The Tarkine was granted Emergency National Heritage listing by former Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett, however this lapsed in December 2010 .
Despite the Australian Heritage Council (AHC) already recommending a 433,000 hectare National Heritage Area, Minister Burke has instructed the AHC to reassess the Tarkine. The reassessment deadline was extended to December 2013.
<<..Despite a 2010 Australian Heritage Commission recommendation for the listing of 433,000 hectares of the Tarkine, Mr Burke said on Friday he would only recognise its Aboriginal heritage.
Mr Burke said he had tried to find a boundary that would incorporate the natural values without delivering unacceptable social and economic outcomes.
”I simply haven’t been able to find a way to recognise the natural heritage values with a boundary that will find a balance,” he said. ”For this reason I have decided to only put the indigenous values on the national heritage list.”
Mr Burke said he acknowledged that his decision was not the outcome for the Tarkine that many groups were seeking. He said part of the Tarkine’s coastline would be entered on the National Heritage List as the Western Tasmania Aboriginal Cultural Landscape.
The decision was warmly backed by the local MHR and parliamentary secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Sid Sidebottom. ”Minister Burke has listened carefully to my representations on behalf of our region, and to the delegations of union members – particularly from the Australian Workers Unions – and of my local mayors,” Mr Sidebottom said.
The AWU under secretary Paul Howes mounted an ”Our Tarkine – Our Future” campaign promoting job opportunities in the region.
The move drew praise from a local MP, but sparked an angry response from Greens leader Christine Milne, who said the Minister had ”abandoned the Tarkine to the mining and timber industries”. Ms Milne said she was ”devastated”: ”If anyone has any doubt as to who is running the environment portfolio in Australia the answer is very clear: the mining industry.
”I have been campaigning for the Tarkine for a very long time . . . Tony Burke has completely sold out the environment for logging and mining.”
She called on Mr Burke to release the heritage council’s latest recommendations, made in a report to the government last December. >>
Apr 2013: Conservationists find a qualified doctor to save the wounded Tarkine
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<< Mining in Tasmania’s Tarkine region is being challenged as conservationists take their battle to the federal court.
The Tarkine National Coalition has lodged a case in the Federal Court seeking a review on Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke’s decision approving Shree Minerals iron ore mine.
Campaign co-ordinator Scott Jordan said Burke approved the mine without knowing the impacts it could have on the endangered Tasmanian devil.
“We will argue that Minister Burke has not acted in accordance with the provisions of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, and as such the approvals granted are invalid,” Jordan said. “This mine should not have received approval, and we are asking the court to rule against it. “
Debate erupted over the application for mining developments in the region last year, with Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke rejecting a National Heritage listing for the area.
Debate continues to rages between environmental groups who want mining developments halted and companies and potential employees who say opening up the Tarkine region to mining is crucial in the future economic prosperity of Tasmania.
Earlier this year, Tasmania’s Premier Lara Giddings said three new mining projects were expected in the region following Burke’s rejection of the National Heritage listing.
Giddings said she expected Venture Minerals’ proposal for a $200 million tin mine at Mount Lindsay to be approved, creating 1000 jobs.
She said that developments like Venture’s Riley Creek mine and the approved Shree Metals mine at Nelson Bay were signs that mining investment would grow in Tasmania now that the “dark cloud” of the Tarkine national heritage nomination had been removed.
Environmentalists argue that open-cut mining will destroy the area and say that any decision to expand mining will result in irreversible contamination. >>
Desperate times again drive Tasmanians to burn their house to stay warm
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<< The Deputy Premier has defended the Labor-Greens Government at a pro-development and pro mining rally in north-west Tasmania.
The Unlock Tasmania Rally in Smithton yesterday heard from eight industry speakers, including representatives from the mining industry, and the Farmers and Graziers Association.
Organiser Joan Rylah estimates more than 3,000 people attended. Ms Rylah says the State Government has been influenced by minority fringe groups, while the majority’s concerns have been ignored. “These people are feeling that they have not been heard,” she said.
The Deputy Premier Bryan Green also addressed the crowd. He says times are tough, but the minority government is not to blame.
[Ed: Yes it is]
“It is an easy target,” he said. Mr Green says he shares the crowd’s frustrations at the court injunction launched by conservationists, banning work at the Shree Minerals mine at Nelson Bay River in the Tarkine until a legal hearing next week. >>
<< A conservation group (Save the Tarkine) has stopped an open cut iron ore mine in Tasmania’s Tarkine region which it says threatened the Tasmanian devil. The Federal Court has ruled that the Federal Environment Minister’s approval of Shree Minerals’ open cut mine at Nelson Bay River was invalid.
Then minister Tony Burke approved the mine last December, imposing nearly 30 conditions to protect the devil and other threatened species.
The far north-west is considered one of the last disease-free areas for the state’s devil population.
Environmental group Save the Tarkine sought a judicial review of the decision, arguing Mr Burke did not act in accordance with the Environment Protection Act.
The group’s Scott Jordan was in the Federal Court in Melbourne to hear the judgement.
“It’s a great day for the Tarkine and it’s a great day for the Tasmanian Devil that was placed under threat by this mining proposal,” he said. “The Minister’s been given a clear message; that short cuts to get mines over the line in the Tarkine won’t be tolerated.”
Save the Tarkine has flagged it will continue to fight any other proposed mines in the area.
“They shouldn’t be taking short cuts to get mining projects up like the Tarkine. This is an area that shouldn’t be mined,” Mr Jordan said.
The $20 million project was expected to employ 70 workers and was the first mine approved in Tasmania in 26 years.
A spokesman for the new Federal Environment Minister, Mark Butler, says the decision is being examined. “The Minister will carefully consider the court’s decision before proceeding further,” he said.
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Ruling disappoints Tasmanian Premier and local Circular Head Mayor
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Tasmania’s Premier Lara Giddings says it is disappointing.
“We would have hoped to have seen Shree Minerals go ahead,” she said.” “We see it as economically sustainable, environmental sustainable and important investment that will help create jobs in the mining industry. “We will now of course review the Federal Court decision and see what Government can do to assist that company.”
Circular Head mayor Daryl Quilliam has called it a sad day for the whole state. “While I respect the court’s decision…I just think it gives any investors who want to invest in Tasmania, probably puts a query for them and whether they’re going to continue to invest in Tasmania,” the mayor said.
Circular Head mayor Daryl Quilliam
Same Baby Boomer age group, same Baby Boomer mindset
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Despite the ruling, he is optimistic Shree will proceed with its plans. “I expect that they’ll have to deal with some issues that have been raised by the court and I wouldn’t expect that it’ll knock it in the head completely.” “But it will certainly slow up the process and I just hope that they continue on and do whatever is necessary to make it valid.”
Tasmanian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz says most sensible Tasmanians would want the mine to go ahead.
“It is important for our state to harness our mineral wealth and our forestry wealth and the Government has been busy in destroying job opportunities in both areas and in the one area where they’ve made an exception, they’ve mucked it up,” he said.
TasmanianEric Abetz MP
Same Baby Boomer age group, same Baby Boomer mindset
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The Commonwealth will pay the legal bill from the court challenge. >>
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Read Federal Court Ruling:
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Case Citation: ‘Tarkine National Coalition Incorporated v Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities [2013] FCA 694’
The industrial fight persists to exploit the last of Natural Tasmania
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<< The Federal Court’s decision to halt work on an iron ore mine in Tasmania’s remote Tarkine region has spooked the industry, but the State Government has vowed to help fight it.
In December, the then Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke approved $20 million plans by Shree Minerals to build an open cut mine in the north west, the last disease-free stronghold of the Tasmanian devil.
Justice Shane Marshall has upheld a claim by the lobby group Save the Tarkine that Mr Burke did not properly take into account conservation advice about the endangered species and ruled its approval invalid.
Terry Long of the Minerals Council says it could scare off potential investors. “It’s been challenged on a detail in the court and knocked over. So from Tasmania’s point of view it’s a worry into the future, I mean it’s going to be difficult to get people to take on projects in the state under the circumstances.”
But Tasmania’s Resources Minister, Bryan Green, is viewing the ruling as a setback that can be resolved easily. Mr Green says he will be asking the new Environment Minister, Mark Butler, to quickly reconsider the project, taking into account the conservation report on the Tasmanian Devil. “This is a setback but it’s not the end of the process by any stretch of the imagination.
“Because from what I can see, based on the Federal Court’s decision, other than this administrative error the approvals process is sound,” said Mr Green.
The Premier Lara Giddings believes the mining proposal is economically and environmentally sustainable. “We will now of course now review the Federal Court decision and see what Government can do to assist that company to be able rectify any problems that the Federal Court has identified and ensure we can get that investment back on the right track,” said Ms Giddings.
The Greens leader Nick McKim does not think the Federal Court decision paints Tasmania as a risky place to invest. “The decision says nothing about the investment environment in Tasmania and says everything about the need for the Commonwealth Minister to follow a lawful process,” he said.
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Jobs blow for struggling region
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The mine was expected to employ seventy workers. The earthmoving contractor, Rodney Collins, says he employs 10 people and was looking to recruit more. He says the court’s decision is a kick in the guts. “You know there’s (sic) thirty new people who can’t have a job and at the moment after today we don’t know what we’re going to do with the people working for us at the moment,” he said.
Another three Tarkine mining projects are awaiting approval. Shree Minerals says it “followed the approval process to the letter of the law and beyond, with the best possible scientific advice. “For the project to be set aside on appeal is disappointing in the extreme.”
The (new) Environment Minister replacing Tony Burke, Mark Butler MP, now with the title Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Water; says he is carefully considering the court’s ruling before deciding his next step. >>
<< Calls by Tasmanian Minerals Council chief Terry Long, Tasmanian Deputy Premier Bryan Green and Braddon MP Sid Sidebottom for some kind of technical or administrative fix to yesterdays Federal Court decision to set aside approvals for the Nelson Bay River mine in the Tarkine, are both uninformed and an example of the kind of corrupted process that resulted in the Federal Court decision.
“The failure of the Minister and his department to consult the Approved Conservation Advice was not an administrative oversight. The Approved Conservation Advice is the key source of advice on which the Minister must rely to determine how best to protect the Tasmanian devil in any assessment,” said Save the Tarkine Campaign Coordinator, Scott Jordan.
“You can’t just add it to the appendix after the event and publish the same decision. The court didn’’t say the Minister forgot to list it, it actually said the Minister failed to consult it at all,”
“The comments by Long, Green and Sidebottom show an example of trying to solve a problem by repeating the action that created it”.
“The Minister must either let the court decision stand as the final judgement, appeal to the full bench of the Federal Court, or go back to the start of the process and conduct a proper legal assessment. Anything short of this will end up back before a court on exactly the same grounds”. >>
[Source: ‘No quick fix for Tarkine mine’, 20130718, media release by Scott Jordan, Campaign Coordinator, Save the Tarkine]
<< I can feel the souls of my ancestors calling me back home
To all the familiar places and tracks I once did roam
I can see my Grandmother’s house at the end of Adams Street,
Where all the Aunties, Uncles and Cousins I did meet
To the banks of the Bokhara River running under the Richmond Bridge
You can hear the waters flow to the sound of an Elder’s didge
I can smell the boogalies cooking in a camp oven at my Aunty’s place
I can see the sun arising on the wrinkles of my Pop’s face
I can recall how my uncle taught me how to ride
In a paddock near their place with Robbo by my side
But I know I must stay here to get a good education
For I want to go back home after my graduation
To see the many family, friends and familiar faces I have known
I can feel the souls of my ancestors calling me back home
They’re calling me back, my ancestors in Mother Earth
I want to go back home, to the country of my birth. >>
Another heavy linehaul truck crashes on another wide, fast, multi-laned highway
Truck drivers paid on a trip rate, not the safer hourly rate.
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Hume Highway at Marulan July 2013:
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<< A man has died in a crash involving a truck and several cars on the Hume Highway, about 15km south of Marulan.
A NSW Police spokeswoman:
“The male driver of the semi-trailer was ejected from his vehicle and died at the scene. Emergency services responded to reports of a collision between a semi-trailer, a smaller truck and two cars in the southbound lanes of the Hume Highway” at 6.25pm (last night). The drivers of the other vehicles and their passengers were assessed by paramedics on site before being taken to Goulburn Base Hospital for further treatment.”
One southbound lane of the highway remained closed on Tuesday morning as traffic was directed around the crash site. >>
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Hume Highway at Kyeamba Gap (same night):
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<< Meanwhile, northbound lanes remain closed on the Hume Highway at Kyeamba Gap between Tumbarumba Road and Little Billabong Road following a truck accident there early this morning. >>
<< About 12.45am (Tuesday March 27, 2012) a B-double semi-trailer was travelling north laden with furniture , about 5km south of Marulan overnight.
The semi rolled onto its side spilling its load onto the highway, blocking all northbound lanes. A semi-trailer travelling behind the B-double truck crashed into the rear of the B-Double.
The driver of the B-double was taken to Goulburn Base Hospital suffering a possible fractured rib, while the driver of the second truck was not hurt. A salvage operation is underway following a double truck crash on the Hume Highway.
Australian Native Landscapes linehaul semi jack-knifes One of many speeding over the B,ue Mountains
Truck drivers paid on a trip rate, not the safer hourly rate.
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<< Jack knifed … a truck accident shut the Great Western Highway at Mount Victoria this morning. The highway was shut for over an hour after a truck jack knifed blocking both lanes of the highway. A heavy tow truck was brought in to remove the truck. The road reopened around midday.
Australia Post (government-owned) StarTrack Express B-Double truck crashes off the Hume HighwayThe overnight linehaul truck driver fell asleep on cruise control
Truck drivers paid on a trip rate, not the safer hourly rate.
[Photo: CHRIS GORDON]
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<<The 47-year-old driver of this rig died when it ran off the Hume Highway near Marulan in the early hours of July 29. A report is being prepared for the coroner.
ROAD CLOSURE: The scene of Wednesday morning’s accident 500 metres south of Goulburn’s northern exit at 6am when for unknown reasons a B-double left the road. The driver suffered minor injuries.
With another two serious truck accidents on the Hume Highway near Goulburn in the past two weeks – one of them fatal – the Goulburn Post examines whether cruise control is a possible factor. LEIGH BOTTRELL reports.
IS cruise control on long-distance trucks – often allied with automatic transmission – contributing to serious accidents on our main highways?
This question increasingly is being raised as big semis and B-doubles proliferate and speed limits are increased on some major NSW country roads. Or, is boredom leading to drowsiness, brought on by modern “easy driving” truck technology and improved highways, the real culprit?
The jury is still out on this, while there is not yet definitive accident survey evidence pointing to cruise control’s role in accidents. But anecdotal evidence and practical knowledge of people long-associated with big rigs and their drivers suggests cruise-auto can be a mixed blessing.
Bert Cool has seen the aftermath of more truck accidents than probably anyone else in his 30 years with Royans, the Wagga Wagga-headquartered heavy vehicle recovery and repair group.
Now operating Australia-wide, Royans over the years have been called on to haul thousands of trucks back onto the road from every imaginable predicament. Too often, the smashed or burnt cabs tell the story of lives lost and families shattered.
And Bert Cool has no doubt that drivers falling asleep while their long-haul rigs are running on cruise control is a contributing factor to a growing number of highway accidents.
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Bert Cool:
“Definitely. It happens more often now. A driver can nod off and the truck just keeps going, because he doesn’t have his foot on the accelerator. Before he wakes up, they’re in the scrub, or they hit something.
Before cruise control, if a driver dropped off at the wheel his foot nearly always fell away from the accelerator and the truck slowed down. He usually was woken up before they got into real trouble.”
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However, Sergeant Rod Cranston, of Goulburn police highway patrol, doubts that cruise control by itself is a contributing factor to truck accidents.
[Ed (ex-trucker): Overnight driving is inherently dangerous, and with trucks the risk is exacerbated. Linehaul (long-distance) freight should travel by rail for reasons of safety away from ordinary road users and economy of scale. Local distribution freight should travel BY DAY on the roads until governments can adequately safeguard local communities from the unacceptable risks and consequences of heavy-vehicle driver fatigue.
Linehaul rail freight is inherently safer that linehaul road freight when professional management is on par. Linehaul rail freight is cheaper per unit of freight over a large volume. This will be moreso as the price of imported diesel structurally increases.
For hundreds of linehaul trucks driven by hundreds of drivers to do the job of one linehaul train say Sydney to Darwin is uneconomic. The door delivery component either end requires logistical design and efficiency (pulling bureaucratic fingers out).
Immorally, trucking companies exploit truck drivers by denying them employee status and benefits, selfishly to shift decent driver wages and benefits to employer profit.
Yet both Federal and State governments across Australia are stuck in a 20th Century truck-centric mindset when it comes to freight logistics strategic planning, disregarding the environment ruined in the process of building bigger, more and wider highways, disregarding the permanent negative impacts upon local communities, and driving truck drivers to early graves. It is all very selfish and ^Robber Baron in thinking. The main beneficiaries are the trucking barons.]
Linehaul has a smarter way: Intermodal Rail/Road Logistics
. Bucharest International Rail Freight Terminal (BIRFT)
A semi-trailer from the first scheduled train with intermodal wagons to arrive from Germany and Austria at BIRFT is transferred to a road vehicle by ‘Big George’ on 29 October. The terminal is operated by Tibbett Logistics, part of the UK-based Keswick Enterprises Group
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<< Romanian-based ^Tibbett Logistics, the operator of South-Eastern Romania’s prime intermodal rail terminal, has this week received the first scheduled train with intermodal wagons from Germany and Austria. The new service will initially comprise two trains a week in each direction.
The first train arrived early on the morning of 29th October 2012 with 38 units – eight semi-trailers and 30 45’ pallet-wide continental containers, destined for import customers in the south east of Romania, primarily Bucharest and Ploiesti.
Tibbett Logistics has recently renamed the terminal as the Bucharest International Rail Freight Terminal, or BIRFT, because it has become clear to the company – which is part of the UK-based Keswick Enterprises Group – that a large proportion of the marketplace in Eastern Europe remains unaware that the services offered at the terminal go well beyond simple domestic road-rail transportation.
The open-access terminal is used to transfer shipping containers arriving on rail wagons to road trailers, and vice versa. BIRFT is the only such facility in Romania operating regular scheduled block trains between Constanta Port and Bucharest, on both import and export movements. Customers include the major shipping lines and freight forwarders, as well as direct users.
In addition, it is the only intermodal rail terminal offering CFS (Container Freight Station) and warehousing services within the terminal itself, linked directly to the rail tracks. The terminal accommodates domestic and international conventional rail wagon traffic, and Tibbett Logistics combines these activities with conventional road transport whenever the latter is more efficient than collecting or delivering containers using its own rail wagons.
Completing the services offered at the terminal are stripping/stuffing containers, customs clearance and transit operations, along with container management, repair and storage.
Tibbett Logistics CEO, David Goldsborough, commented: “We believe that – via the Port of Constanta – Romania is the natural entry point to Europe from the East and elsewhere. Our aim is to facilitate the efficient transportation of goods from the Port to end-destinations throughout Europe, as well as from EU states back to Romania.
“Since the inception of our regular block trains between Constanta and Bucharest we have had many discussions with users and potential users regarding other rail-related services – including the handling of conventional wagons, where we already have an excellent infrastructure in place. We have developed additional services so that we can customise the mix of rail-based and road-based transportation in either containers or conventional trucks – depending on the exact needs of the customer. Given the increasing cost of diesel, this is being very well received by both existing clients and those coming to the service for the first time.”
Tibbett Logistics is Romania’s largest privately owned contract logistics specialist. In addition to intermodal activities, it offers comprehensive supply chain management services to the automotive, textiles, retail and other FMCG sectors throughout Romania and across South East Europe. It operates approximately 70,000 square metres of warehousing, plus a distribution fleet comprising tilt trailers, double- and triple-chamber reefers and container chassis – along with its own intermodal rail wagons. >>
Actor Bing Crosby used to famously play golf back in the 1950s, but in 2013 who plays golf but the last of retired male Baby Boomers? The sport is a ‘has been’ and most courses have been constructed necessitating broadscale habitat destruction, and arrogantly so.
Golf’s origins date back to 15th Century Scotland and to the exclusive pastime of its landed gentry – male gentry, one for Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden. Along with croquet and lawn bowls, it dates to a bygone era – up there with duelling, archery practice and pheasant hunting.
This week we learn about the demise of another golf club struggling to attract new members as its 20th Century members ‘pass on’.
In the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, the Katoomba Golf Club as registered body formed just over a hundred years ago back in 1911. The land on which Katoomba Golf Club sited Katoomba Golf Course after the war in May 1923, had few previous owners in historic times.
A brief reflection on relevant colonial history
In the 18th Century, the island continent we now call Australia, was considered ‘undiscovered’ by the then dominant global European powers that be. In 1768, the then head of state of the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King George III commissioned his Royal Navy to undertake a world expedition voyage under the command of Lieutenant James Cook (combined with Botanist Joseph Banks of the Royal Society) to the south Pacific Ocean aboard HMS Endeavour, which took place between 1768 to 1771. Amongst the voyage’s prescribed tasks were to observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun (3–4 June that year), and to seek evidence of the postulated Terra Australis Incognita or “undiscovered southern land”, plus other exploratory, naturalist and mapping duties.
In April 1770, the voyage famously became the first known European expedition to reach the east coast of Australia, mapping the coastline and making landfall near present-day Point Hicks, and then proceeding north to Botany Bay, naming the land New South Wales.
On 21st August 1770, Cook’s exploration party stepped ashore on an island in the Torres Strait situated 2km off now Cape York Peninsula (since called Possession Island) and declared possession of this “undiscovered southern land” to the British Crown. This was on the basis of unilateral possession – the land perceived as ‘terra nullius’, being Latin for ‘land belonging to no one’, because Cook and Banks considered there were few ‘natives’ along the coast and deduced that there would be fewer or none inland.
Subsequently, the British colonial First Fleet arrived at Botany Bay then Port Jackson in 1788 to establish a British convict settlement was set up in New South Wales.. The Proclamation of NSW Governor Richard Bourke in 1835 implemented the legal principle of terra nullius in Australian law as the basis for British settlement, 47 years later. Such were the powers that prevailed at the time. Various ‘frontier wars’ were waged sporadically between the Aboriginal peoples and the vastly out-weaponed British military and colonists for 46 years (1788-1934). By 1901, Australia was universally declared a unified federated nation state – The Commonwealth of Australia.
This island continent had been ‘legally owned’ (possessed) by the British Crown since Cook’s authorised declaration of possession in 1770. From 1788, the British penal colony of New South Wales was ruled by successive British military governors of the Colony of New South Wales. Until 1824, the military governors of New South Wales were absolute rulers with rights granted to them under an Act of the British Parliament of 1787. The only power superior to them being the British Parliament at Westminster in London, England.
History is history.
So, back to the land of Katoomba Golf Course – obtained historical written records show that the land site was then ‘legally owned’ by the London Chartered Bank of Australia from at least as far back as the 1870s. Katoomba was then not a settlement. Only a sandstone rock quarry ‘The Crushers‘ is historically documented to be in the area to supply ballast for the new railway line roll-out from the 1860s to 1874 when a railway siding was built. It appears that soon afterwards, English migrant (entrepreneurial merchant, miner then property developer) John Britty North acquired vast acreage around the south western area of The Crushers, which would become called the township of Katoomba.
Thus far, our research has not revealed how the local council happened to acquire the land of what would become granted to Katoomba Golf Club in 1920 to deforest the bushland for a golf course. In 1889, Blue Mountains Council did not exist, rather it was one of a number of smaller regional municipal councils across the central Blue Mountains, then it being termed the Katoomba Municipal Council Incorporated).
This is an historic legal document we have obtained that reveals the original deal dated 28th January 1920 between the Katoomba Golf Club and the then local council. At the time the deal was in fact legally between ‘The South Katoomba Land Company Limited‘ and ‘The Council of the Municipally of Katoomba‘. The former was the registered legal body that certain local business owners had established as a legal entity, and the then legally named local council.
Now this is a good revealing read. How’s these stated legal requirements for instance:
“Council at its own expense… (read Clause 1), (read Clause 2)”
(Clause 3) “THAT the said Council its successors and assign will not at any time erect on the said land any dwelling house or other building except a golf club house or a tennis court or croquet cloub house or a club house for any other purpose for recreation as allowed by paragraph (a) 2 and sheds outhouses stables and other buildings in connection herewith.”
The land was then owned by the then Katoomba Council (i.e. by the local community). The land was acquired from the local council for £1500 by property developers under the name of the South Katoomba Land Company. Was the escarpment land paid for, loaned or gifted? A nearby Gully was acquired a generation later from the Katoomba Council via a £27,000 loan to build a motor racing track, but the loan was never repaid.
So golf playing at the Katoomba Golf Club was in full swing from the 1920’s, and when Bing Crosby was playing during the post War 1950’s, golf was in its heyday. But by the end of the 1980s for reasons of waning interest, other competing interests for a four hour round of golf, busy lifestyles and basic economics; the Baby Boomer golf fad was fading. This was not just across Australia, but across America and elsewhere. Read the article at the end of this one by Nancy Keate, in The Wall Street Journal.
“Over the past week, we’ve been discussing the declining number of golfers, both in Canada and the United States, a topic sparked by this story (see below) by Gene Yasuda of Golfweek.
Of course, the U.S. numbers used by Yasuda were provided by the National Golf Foundation, but here in Canada, we have no recent official numbers to go by, so it could be argued that there’s no cause for alarm about the number of Canadian golfers.
Some might even be tempted to lean on the crutch that Canada is among the world leaders in golfers per capita. Even if that is still the case, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the number of golfer isn’t dwindling.
All golf operators need to do is look out on their fairways and compare the number of golfers out there today to what it was five or 10 years ago to come to a realistic conclusion on how the number of golfers is affecting their businesses and whether it’s up, down or stagnant.
Of course, that number may be affected by the number of golf courses in a saturated market, but the feeling I get from different regions of the country leads me to believe that the number of overall golfers in this country is stagnating at best. If only there were numbers to back that up.
The consensus in the Golfweek story is that the U.S. numbers are affected mainly by the struggling American economy more than a lack of interest in the game.
Here in Canada, however, we’ve come out of the economic downturn a lot quicker that the U.S., but economic factors such as the price of gas and other inflation and the possibility of rising interest rates may be playing a part.
On the other hand, Canadian golf may be feeling the competition from other entertainment and recreation sources, which could indicate a waning interest in the game. While economic pressures on golfers might be a temporary factor, waning interest is more long term.
Which of those two factors do you feel is affecting the number of golfers in Canada? That’s the subject of this week’s GNN Poll.”
U.S. golf participation falls for third consecutive year
May 9, 2011 [SOURCE: http://golfweek.com/news/2011/may/09/us-golf-participation-falls-third-consecutive-year/]
“For the third consecutive year, the number of golfers in the U.S. declined, falling 3.6 percent to 26.1 million in 2010, according to the National Golf Foundation.
The slide, from 27.1 million golfers in 2009, wasn’t unexpected in light of the heavy toll the recession has had on the sport and the economy in general.
The silver lining, if any, according to NGF officials, is that the participation falloff is more linked to financial pressures rather than golf losing popularity among consumers.
“Multiple NGF studies of golfers since 2008 would attribute the gradual decline in golfers and rounds primarily to the impact of lower job security and concern over personal finances, not waning appeal for the game,” said Joe Beditz, NGF president and CEO.
The NGF supported that conclusion by citing golf’s continuing ability to attract “new” participants – in 2010 a total of 3.6 million, including 1.5 million first-time beginners and 2.1 million returning former golfers.
That gain, however, was negated by the loss of 4.6 million golfers who played in 2009 but not in 2010. According to the NGF, the number of new golfers held steady while the number of those who left the game decreased significantly. In recent years, golf industry leaders have been emphasizing improving the retention of golfers.
For all their efforts, though, the downward trend of participation remains a major concern. By comparison, the number of golfers in the U.S. in 2000 and 2005 was 28.8 million and 30 million, respectively.
Among the other findings:
The number of “core” golfers (eight or more rounds annually) dropped to 14.8 million – down 3.6 percent from 15.3 million in 2009.
“Occasional” golfers suffered a similar decline: a drop of 3.7 percent to 11.3 million from 11.8 million in 2009.
The number of rounds played in 2010 was 475 million, down 2.3 percent from 486 million in the previous year. (By comparison, rounds played in 2000 and 2005 was 518 million and 500 million, respectively.)
The participation study defines a golfer as a person, age 6 or older, who plays at least one round of golf in a given year. Its results are “derived from a multi-sport study of 40,000 Americans, executed in conjunction with the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association,” the NGF stated.
Yet, despite this general waning interest in golf and despite specifically the falling membership at both Katoomba and nearby Leura golf clubs, some Baby Boomers in complete denial decided in the 1990s to expand the Katoomba golf course from 9 holes to 18. [Editor’s Corrigendum: Correspondence received from an informed reader after publication, has confirmed that the golf course was in fact expanded from 9 holes to 18 holes circa 1927 (^Source). The development works circa 1995 instead relate to expansion of the course acquiring 5.6 hectares of adjoining community zoned woodland alongside Narrow Neck Road in order to build 13 townhouses and a resort hotel. Also circa 2007, a fairway/green was extended into bushland near Stuarts Road.] Further, they had grandiose notions of building a dozen new dedicated golfing townhouses next to the clubhouse, so perpetuating the ‘has-been’ American trend of the 1980s.
Where did the millions in development finance come from and how much was put up by local Blue Mountains Council negotiated behind closed doors claiming a dubious excuse fo commercial in confidence” dealing with this being zoned ‘Community Land‘ ?
Of course, this development necessitated a considerable acquisition of more surrounding bushland to be logged, the vegetation slashed and bulldozed, the soils landscaped, grassed and fertilised. This has meant permanent destruction of the ecosystem just like open cut mining. All this occurred immediately above and upstream of the Jamison Valley wilderness, now part of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.
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Juxtaposition of the Katoomba Golf Club (light green coloured fairways) replacing virgin habitat across the escarpment; all so that a few retiring Baby Boomer men can selfishly play golf at the expense of Ecology.
[Source: Google Earth, 2013]
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During the construction of the additional nine holes [Editor’s Corrigendum: The construction instead related to building 13 townhouses and a resort hotel], the development proposal submitted to the local Blue Mountains Council, specified a new track would be constructed through adjacent bushland to connect two fairways. It was deceptive, because that track became a new wide fairway, complete with soil replacement, landscape contouring, grass seeding and fertilizer.
Repeated instances of sediment run-off from the construction were formally reported to the local Blue Mountains Council by concerned local residents, yet no remediation action was undertaken and no punitive fines were issued.
Golf courses not only necessitate absolute ecological destruction in such places, but the ongoing maintenance of the fairways and greens demands constant fresh water irrigation. Irrigation, as with farming, risks causing saline intrusion into the groundwater.
The keeping of golfing greens green to uphold the lush traditional image, necessitates that golf courses use extensive amounts of chemical fertilizers containing elevated levels of nitrogen (as sulphate of ammonia), potash , sulphur and phosphorus, as well as the application of pesticides and herbicides. All such chemicals are toxic to Australian native vegetation and to aquatic wildlife in the downstream watercourses. Effectively they are environmental pollutants and so next to and upstream of vital World Heritage, use of such chemicals needs to be legally banned.
The local Blue Mountains Council has failed to monitor run-off from the construction activity into the surrounding natural environment. The custodian of the World Heritage Area, National Parks and Wildlife Service, simply isn’t interested.
<< It’s big, blue and beautiful! Blue Mountains National Park is located just 60 kilometres west of Sydney. It is unique in it’s history, its wildlife and world famous scenery…includes the Grose Wilderness, dedicated for its wild unspoilt natural beauty. At Katoomba see the Three Sisters and Katoomba Falls… 300 kilometres of heritage walking tracks and hundreds of lookouts, most within easy reach of a string of train stations. It’s a wilderness made easy to get to! >>
[Source: NSW Government, ^http://www.visitnsw.com/destinations/blue-mountains/katoomba-area/blackheath/attractions/blue-mountains-national-park]
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[Ed: No mention of golf in the tourism promotion these days]
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Katoomba Golf Club R.I.P.
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<<..“the locksmith has been in” and the club is no longer trading.
Unfortunately the club has temporarily closed its doors to the public. They have appointed administrators to handle the business. We are no longer employed. We, the staff thank all of you for your patronage, your friendship, your laughs and your well wishes – it has been a wonderful and memorable time for all of us. A bit of a sad day for us, so thank you. >>
Escarpment Karma?Yet over 50 hectares of vital escarpment habitat has been lost to a Baby Boomer selfish pastime.
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Notice of First Meeting of Creditors of Company Under Administration
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Company: Katoomba Golf Club Ltd
ACN: 000 952 992
Status: Administrators Appointed
Appointed: 01 July 2013
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Meeting details:
Notice is given that a first meeting of the creditors of the Company, or a first meeting for each of the Companies, (for multiple companies), will be held:
Location: Katoomba Golf Club, Acacia Street, Katoomba New South Wales
Meeting date: 10 July 2013
Meeting time: 12:00PM
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[Source: ASIC Insolvency Notices].
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‘Fore Sale – Luxury golf communities have hit a rough patch’
<< After years of aggressive golf course expansion, interest in golf declined just as the market for luxury homes plunged. Now, once-pricey real estate is available at below-par prices. Selling a lot for $1.
Debbie Bowers and her husband, tired of life in their cold Ohio town, spent eight years looking for a home near a sunny luxury golf course in a Southern state. Everything they saw was too expensive. Then this past May, they got a call: A lot was available at South Carolina’s Colleton River Plantation, one of the country’s premiere golf communities—for free.
Prices at luxury private golf communities are crashing, done in by rampant overdevelopment, the economic downturn and waning national interest in the sport. Nancy Keates has details on Lunch Break.
The seller was even willing to pay the $15,000 club initiation fee and the first year of $17,000 annual membership dues at Colleton River, which includes three celebrity-designed courses (two by Jack Nicklaus, one by Pete Dye), a Stan Smith-designed tennis center and a new 6,000-square-foot fitness center. Mrs. Bowers, 55, met her husband that day at the site and signed the papers. They’re now building a 3,000-square-foot house that should be finished by November.
The past two decades saw an unprecedented boom in the building of high-end golf courses linked to luxury real-estate communities. Betting that aging Baby Boomers would embrace golf as their pastime of choice, the National Golf Foundation set a goal of building “A Course a Day” beginning in 1988. Real-estate developers teamed up with top-name golf-course architects, building exclusive communities adjacent to courses, and requiring homeowners to pay annual club dues—sometimes even if they didn’t play. Then, in a moment of spectacularly bad timing, both the golf industry and the real-estate market took a nose-dive at once.
Now, private golf communities are dealing with the fallout. Many sellers are dropping their prices radically, in some cases even paying people to take their land. Gated communities that once traded on their exclusivity are aiming to appeal to a wider swath of buyers, building family-friendly “village centers” with ice cream shops, hiking trails and bowling alleys. A few are even “repurposing” by reducing courses to nine holes from 18 and selling off the reclaimed land.
At golf communities near Bluffton, S.C., like Belfair Plantation, Colleton River Plantation and Berkeley Hall, several lots that initially sold for at least $150,000 are now on sale for $1 apiece. Investors who bought but never built on the sites are trying to unburden themselves of the thousands of dollars—typically $12,000 to $17,000—they still have to pay in annual club dues.
At the Mizner Country Club in Delray Beach, Fla., which has an Arnold Palmer golf course, a lakefront home with five bedrooms, a pool and a spa is asking $795,000. It sold for $1.6 million in 2007. A lot in Horseshoe Bay Resort, near Austin, Texas, that sold previously for $300,000, is on sale for $39,000.
In Bend, Ore., interior designer Ronda Fitton and her husband paid $500,000 for a lot at Pronghorn, a gated community with golf courses designed by Tom Fazio and Jack Nicklaus, in 2006. A similar-size lot sold for $10,000 earlier this year. Ms. Fitton is hopeful values will go up but she says the lot is “worth nothing now. It’s a real bummer.” (Lot prices exclude membership fees.) Lots at Rams Hill in Borrego Springs, Calif. are also selling for about $10,000, compared with $100,000 at the peak.
The housing downturn is partly responsible. But the crash in value has been exacerbated by a development binge that resulted in too many courses just as the sport of golf began to fade in popularity.
From 1990 to 2003, some 3,000 new courses were built in the U.S., swelling the total number of courses nationally by 19% and costing about $20 billion, according to the National Golf Foundation.
Many of these new courses were inextricably linked to the luxury-real-estate market. About 40% of the courses built during the 1990s were tied to real-estate communities—a shift from the previous decades, when that number was closer to 18% and the vast majority of golf courses didn’t have people living on them. The golf courses were the lure to get people to buy houses: The bigger the name of the architect who designed them, the greater the prestige and the more expensive the real estate.
Soon after, however, the sport started to lose its allure. The percentage of the overall population in the U.S. that plays golf is down over the past 10 years, from 11.1% in 2000 to 9.2% in 2010, according to the National Golf Foundation.
Last year the number of rounds played in the U.S. dropped to 463 million from 518 million in 2000. The number of golfers fell to 25.7 million in 2011 from 28.8 million in 2000. A net of more than 350 golf courses have been closed since 2005. In 2011, more than 150 courses closed, outpacing the 19 courses that debuted last year.
Compounding the problem: Real-estate developers didn’t think about the viability of the golf courses themselves, says Art West, founder of Golf Course Advisors, a golf-course consulting company. Many of these courses designed by brand-name golf-course architects were championship-level, too difficult for the average player. They took a long time to play and cost millions a year to maintain, pushing up annual dues.
“It was a perfect storm,” says David Hueber, former president and CEO of the National Golf Foundation, who wrote a paper called ” ‘Code Blue’ for U.S. Golf Course Real Estate Development” stemming from research for his Ph.D. in real-estate development at Clemson University.
Across the country, about 2,000 of the 16,000 golf courses are “financially distressed,” according to the National Golf Foundation. Mr. Hueber estimates that 4,000 to 5,000 golf courses will be in financial danger if they don’t change their model.
Membership fees for many clubs have tumbled. The initiation fee at Old Palm Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., which was as high as $250,000 in 2007, is now down to $175,000, while the fee at Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Fla., is now at $50,000, compared with $145,000 at its peak.
In some parts of the country, the premium that home buyers are willing to pay for a house on a golf course versus a house that isn’t on a course has dropped to about 25%, from 50% in 2007, says Doug Schwartz, who runs the sales, marketing and homebuilding operations for WCI Communities, in Bonita Springs, Fla., which currently owns four golf communities. Lisa Treu, an agent with the Treu Group in Palm Beach County, says homes on golf courses in Southeast Florida could at one time command a 25% premium over non-golf-course homes; that premium has now dropped to about 10%, she says. (Some areas are still strong, like Palm Springs, Calif., where agents say the premiums are as much as 35%).
“There are a lot of people who would like to get out of here because of the economy,” says Don Davis, who with his wife bought a house in South Carolina’s Colleton River for $970,000 in 2001. The couple, who have loved living in the community but want to move back to Atlanta to be closer to their grandchildren, say it doesn’t make financial sense to move without selling their house because they’d still have to pay the community’s annual membership dues of some $17,000. Their house, listed at $775,000, hasn’t had any offers in its six months on the market.
Real-estate agent Dick Datz of Carolina Realty Group says Belfair and Colleton River are offering agents a $5,000 bonus when they sell a $1 lot; otherwise the commission would be pennies. Rob Norton, president of the Colleton River Plantation Board, says houses in the community are selling and there’s lots of new construction. It’s mostly the people who bought the land as an investment who are having a hard time, he says.
Some developers are recasting their golf communities to appeal to a broader swath of home buyers, including more families and young people. One example: Tuscany Reserve, a 450-plus-acre private golf community in Naples, Fla., which had about $200 million invested in its infrastructure, including a golf course designed by Pete Dye and Greg Norman, before it went bankrupt. Florida developer Syd Kitson recently bought the community for $30 million and changed the name to Talis Park, which he thought sounded more youthful. Instead of building a clubhouse as planned, Mr. Kitson, will build a “village center” with a cafe, a spa and walking paths. Homes are now expected to be in the $700,000-to-$2 million range instead of up to $6 million, as originally intended.
“The model of a country club in its current form is gone forever,” says Mr. Kitson.
After seeing sharp decreases in its sale prices, Pronghorn, the gated community in Bend, Ore., opened its gates, launching a 48-suite lodge in 2010 and inviting the public to use one of its two golf courses. The Resort Group, a resort operator based in Honolulu, Hawaii, took over in February and announced it will bring in Auberge Resorts to manage the property, turning it into a five-star resort with a spa, three restaurants, two pools, tennis courts and a kids club.
The Cliffs—a group of eight residential developments spread among 20,000 acres between Greenville, S.C., and Asheville, N.C., with golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus and Tom Fazio—filed for U.S. Bankruptcy Court protection in February, with estimated liabilities between $100 million and $500 million. A planned golf course for the Cliffs, designed by Tiger Woods, hasn’t been started. According to a 2007 news release, the Cliffs sold 40 lots in the $500,000 price range, and lots at that time couldn’t be purchased below $200,000. Earlier this year a lot sold in one high-end community for less than $10,000, according to real-estate agent Justin Winter.
Owners at the Cliffs, who tried to bail it out earlier by putting up $64 million to keep the club operating, say they are optimistic and are in the midst of a reorganization with Carlile Group, a diversified company based in Marshall, Texas. Carlile is working with two other groups.
Owners say the revamped club will have more options for membership. The initiation fee, which was $150,000, is now $50,000. “We are working diligently to find and deliver the best solution for all members and property owners at the Cliffs,” Steve Carlile of Carlile Group says in a statement.
Golf-course architect Bobby Weed of Bobby Weed Golf Design has been helping residential golf communities over the past few years “repurpose”—by compressing the properties. He is currently working on several proposals to shrink 18-hole courses to nine holes. At the Deltona Club in Deltona, Fla., he helped reduce the amount of land used by the clubhouse and the golf course to create a separate, 17-acre parcel for development.
The steep decline in prices is a boon for potential buyers, of course. “Now I’m getting worried I’m going to miss out if I don’t move quickly,” says Gordon Flach, 44, who has been looking for a golf resort home in Montana, Utah or Oregon for the past three years. Mr. Flach, who is part owner of a resort in the Bahamas, has his eye on a $425,000, 3,800-square-foot four-bedroom house in Pronghorn. A similar house was going for $1.1 million when he first started looking.
Ron Ruff, a 55-year-old semiretired anesthesiologist, got his lot at Pronghorn free about a year ago. The seller also kicked in part of the $115,000 reimbursement of his golf-club membership initiation fee he got back when he “sold” the land. Mr. Ruff says that he felt, despite the dire climate and other people thinking he was crazy, that Pronghorn has a “magical” feel and that the value would be realized again, just as he had seen happen in other areas before. His house is now complete.
John Reed, the original developer of Colleton River Plantation, Belfair Plantation and Berkeley Hall, concedes there are too many golf-course communities. “There’s a train wreck in the industry now,” he says. “We overbuilt and the market stopped.” He had Pete Dye and Tom Fazio design a golf course for his latest development, called Hampton Lakes, but decided to nix it in favor of a 165-acre freshwater fishing and boating lake.
“The best golf course we ever did is 9 feet underwater,” he jokes. >>
Miranda GibsonTree-sitting for 457 days in defence of Tasmanian ancient forests
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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 GibsonHolds the world record for Tree Sit activism in her personal defence of Tasmanian ancient forests
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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 TasmaniaMiranda Gibson, Jenny Weber and Jasmine Wills
(and many dedicated people behind the scenes)
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.The special spirit of Tasmania, its people, its island
Bushfire ends Miranda Gibson’s record 457 day tree protest near Hobart
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Anti-treelogging activist, Miranda Gibson in the Styx ValleyPicture: 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.
Common Wombat
(Vombatus ursinus)
A legally protected native animal throughout Australia
[Source: Healesville Sanctuary, Victoria, Zoos Victoria,
^http://www.zoo.org.au/healesville/animals/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
If one can afford property at exclusive Mount Wilson with average prices currently $750,000 [^Source]
then one can afford to contribute a few purpose-built Wombat Gates across their property,
constructed by wildlife experts who know what they are doing!
[Photo Source: Rocklily Wildlife Refuge, Taralga, NSW, ^ http://rocklilywombats.com/blog/rocklily-history/]
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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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[Source: ‘Not so divine: Wombat dies in suspected poisoning’, 20130612, Blue Mountains Gazette newspaper (print only), p.15]
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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. >>
Martin Bryant as a teenager nursing a juvenile Wombat
Bryant reportedly tortured animals as a child.
In 1996, at age 29 Bryant murdered 35 people and injured 21 others
at Port Arthur Tasmania
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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]
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
And the native Wombats have lived there thousands of years before
Colonial DeforestationHousing DevelopmentAnglicised Garden Romanticism
[Source: Google Earth]
(click image to enlarge)
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Mount Wilson Best described as a remote hilltop residential hamlet Situated on an ancient volcanic hill Since the 1870s, logged, burned and settled by English colonists amongst the ‘Wombat Holes’
[Source: Google Earth]
(click image to enlarge)
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Hillcrest Lane (right), Mount Wilson
[Source: Google Maps, 2013]
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Mount Wilson before the Anglicising
[Source: Mt Wilson/Mt Irvine Historical Society, ^http://www.mtwilson.com.au/]
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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.
Mount Wilson bushland
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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
Located towards the eastern end of Govetts Leap Road
outside the nearby township of Blackheath
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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
a more respectful naming than ‘Common’
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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.
Situated on Badgers Creek
A place of inspiration to this Editor,
when visited as a child.
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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.
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 HumansTry to relocate them, and they will stubbornly resist – even after repeated flood, drought, bushfire and earthquakeAsk any Human who has endured such tempest.
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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.
<< 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
Disinterested in protecting Australian wildlife
The kangaroo and emu images are but token symbolism
<<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. >>
<<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.
<<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. >>
<<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)
‘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.” >>
Forests NSW has been rebranded the Forestry Corporation of NSW for what wasteful reason? It continues to make massive losses and should be wound up, not rebranded.It destroys native habitat and makes an $8 million annual loss in the process.This makes forestry not a commerical business, but a Costly Cult of Logging Losers.
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<<Taxpayers in NSW are losing money to subsidise the logging of native forests, at an average cost of $671 a hectare ($8 million p.a.), undermining a parliamentary report calling for a massive increase in such logging.
According to new figures, each of the four native forest operations run by the Forestry Corporation of NSW made a loss, combining for a total loss of $7.9 million.
Fees paid to contractors to harvest and haul timber, staff and administration costs for forestry management reached $119 million last year, but revenue from pulpwood and sawlogs was just $111 million.
come…
Rebranding with a chainsaw image and new website. Like the RTA-come-RMS…same organisation, same management, same Baby Boomer culture, different in name only. That was a big fat waste of money Premier Barry O’Farrell.
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A state parliamentary inquiry, dominated by the Shooters Party and the Nationals, has recommended an increase in logging of native forests to keep loggers in jobs. But Greens MP David Shoebridge said the data revealing the losses, which was released in response to questions on notice by the Greens, showed any expansion of logging would ”cost taxpayers dearly” and doesn’t make economic sense.
”Wood chipping native forests causes enormous environmental destruction – it’s not like health or education where people expect the government to subsidise a social good,” said Mr Shoebridge. ”Rather than expanding native forest logging, as the Shooters Party and the Nationals are calling for, the government should be actively transitioning away from native forests to plantations.”
Forests NSW, which pays a dividend to the state government, was corporatised in January with the aim of stemming the losses from the native forestry operations, which are being cross-subsidised by profitable plantation logging.
Plantation profits reached $32 million in the 2011/12 financial year, but the dividend paid to the government was cut in half by the loss in the native forests division.
A Forestry Corporation spokeswoman said: ”It is true that in recent years the native forest operations of the former Forests NSW have been loss-making in pure commercial terms.”
She said all aspects of the business are now being reviewed by new management, and new revenue streams and products have been identified, including rocks, gravel, commercial recreation, permits for telecommunications towers and tourism, to generate money.
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Forestry is a Costly Cult of Logging Losers
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Timber Getters“A proud a rich history”.. in logging native forests and destroying native habitat for personal profitWhat’s Changed?These days they do science degrees and come out calling themselves ‘foresters’.
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But there are no plans to stop logging in native forests because the state government is locked into contracts with long-term wood supply commitments.
”The timber industry is often the main employer and source of economic activity in rural and regional areas,” the spokeswoman said.
Mr Shoebridge said the industry was pushing for the government to increase the volume of wood harvested from 160,000 cubic metres to 269,000 cubic metres a year.
”To feed that massive 80 per cent increase will require logging more than 40,000 hectares of NSW forest every year from protected reserve areas and overexploited state forests.”
Logging in Forestry Corporation’s central region native forests near Wauchope lost $2.36 million in 2012. The western region near Dubbo lost $3 million, the north-east region forest near Coffs Harbour lost $1.63 million, while the south-east region near Batemans Bay lost $931,700.
A Forestry Corporation spokeswoman said if logging in native forests was stopped, taxpayers would have to foot the bill for the management of land.>>
[Ed: So be it. The $8 million in annual losses would quickly pay for the legal payout of the wood supply contracts. It’s about political will, and Barry is a teddy bear.]
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So the timber industry in New South Wales is now pushing to be allowed to log up to a million hectares of national parks so it can harvest the volumes promised in unsustainable timber supply contracts. This outrageous move has occurred at the same time that the NSW Government is conducting a secret review of forestry regulations and timber supply options.
Throughout this review, the timber industry has been campaigning hard to bring in damaging reversals of the hard won forestry regulations that protect our threatened animal and plant species and their habitats.
Premier Barry O’Farrell must resist pressure from the Shooters and Fishers Party, and from within his own government, to make more forests available for logging and other damaging changes to the forestry regulations that protect our unique wildlife and the areas they call home.
It is unthinkable that the O’Farrell Government would allow the destruction of areas like Nightcap National Park so the Forestry Corporation can turn a profit.
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[Source: Kate Smolski, Campaigns Director, Nature Conservation Council of New South Wales, ^http://www.nccnsw.org.au]
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Nightcap National Park in the sights of cowboy hunters
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And the shooting threat hasn’t gone away…
<<Several North Coast national parks have been included on a “hit list” of parks to be considered for recreational shooting.
Last week Premier Barry O’Farrell announced changes to the Game and Feral Animal Control Act (2002) that would allow 79 of the state’s 799 national parks, nature reserves and conservation areas to be used by licensed shooters. The list includes the Nightcap, Richmond Range and Yabbra National Parks.
The announcement has been widely criticised by environment groups and the Opposition as a “backroom deal” to secure the support of the Shooters and Fishers Party in return for support to privatise the state’s electricity assets.
Premier O’Farrell said prior to the last election: “There will not be a decision to turn our national parks into hunting reserves.”
Vice president of the ^North Coast Environment Council Mr Jim Morrison said he was “absolutely outraged” by the election backflip.
“We’re disappointed because we were given assurances before the election this would not happen,” he said. “I’ve got little faith in the O’Farrell government now to manage the environment… I think the difficult issue will be compliance because when there are people running around with guns, it will be impossible for National Parks staff to know who is legal and who isn’t… I’m frightened people who visit some of the more remote parks where there aren’t any services will be turned off visiting for activities such as bushwalking.”
Mr Morrison said he also feared a resurgence of “cowboy shooting activity” in remote areas. “It’s a bad message to be supporting a blood sport and I don’t believe it will be an effective way to do feral animal control. It should be managed by park staff.”
The NSW Public Service Association (PSA), which represents park rangers, has directed its members not to assist with any activity involved with establishing recreational hunting in national parks in NSW.
PSA General Secretary Mr John Cahill:
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“Our members have expressed serious concerns about the danger to themselves and the community when shooting is allowed in bushland popular with walkers and picnickers. Our members have been working very hard to control and manage feral animals in parks.
Recreational shooting will compromise the professional and scientifically proven feral animal control programs run by National Parks staff, placing native plants and animals at risk.
“Industrial action like this is not a decision we take lightly but we simply cannot let the State Government’s compromise of our national parks to go ahead.”
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Spokesperson for the North East Forest Alliance (^NEFA) Dailan Pugh issued a statement calling for the Federal Government to intervene.
“The fact that Premier O’Farrell can say in one breath that they will exclude World Heritage, and in the other identify six World Heritage listed parks for shooting, shows how ill-conceived his backflip is… The Federal Government needs to intervene to over-ride the State Government’s announced intention to allow shooting in world-heritage properties,” Mr Pugh said.
CEO of Northern Rivers Tourism Russell Mills issued a cautious warning. “My initial view is that national parks like the Nightcap that are part of the World Heritage and their primary
drawcard is the pristine nature of the wilderness areas… If National Parks (management) are considering the pros and cons of shooting, I hope they take into consideration the motivation for visiting parks, and I believe they would.”
Rob Andrews from the Northern Zone Hunting Club said he had been “deluged” by up to six calls a day since the Premier’s announcement from people wanting to know how to go about getting licences.>>
The New South Wales Government’s dictatorial roads department, the RTA-come-RMS, has again kowtowed to the trucking lobby by deciding in its infantile wisdom to remove centre double lines from the Hawkesbury Road through the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, so that big sand trucks with trailers (basically ‘B-Doubles‘) can hog both sides of the highway.
Looka Me Looka Me Looka Me!
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The idiots in the fancy new RTA-come-RMA headquarters in Parramatta want no restrictions on truck-length, no speed restrictions for these trucks along Hawkesbury Road – the bigger trucks the better, God Damn!
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Strategy to avoid a B-Double
An Outback vernacular joke, not so funny…
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Outback Crash Often the End of Everyone’s Story!
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It’s a Northern Territory Outback Approach – unlimited speed and road trains – despite Hawkesbury Road winding tightly down the mountain at Hawkesbury Heights and passing through residential areas between Springwood and Richmond.
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Winmalee ain’t trucking Tennant Creek!
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According to Hawkesbury Road residents typically 90 tipper trucks with dog trailers (basically B-Doubles) hoon along the road daily.
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In late 2012, the RTA-come-RMS removed the centre line marking on four hairpin bends at Hawkesbury Heights so that bigger trucks can cross the center of the road without crossing over centre double lines because the double lines have been painted over.
No centre lines, no road centre, see, just like Mount Panorama! No speed cameras, no police patrols, speeding cowboy truckers out of control. Car, motorbike and pedestrian traffic are just collateral damage.
Bugger!
Truck rollover along Mill Road at Kurrajong in the Blue MountainsCowboy Trucker going too fast – nuh.
[Source: Photo by Top Notch Video, in article ‘Lucky Easter accident escape’, 20120412, by Cerise Burgess, journalist, Hawkesbury Gazette, ^http://www.hawkesburygazette.com.au/story/273890/lucky-easter-accident-escape/]
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The local Blue Mountains Council has rightly branded the RTA-come-RMS decision to remove these double centre lines as “absolutely insane”‘, “ridiculous” and “plain criminal” at its councillor meeting on 23rd April 23 2013. Councillor Brendan Christie stated, “I just think it is completely ridiculous that six bureaucrats from the RMS sat down for a nice lunch and this is all they could come up with.”
Blue Mountains Council’s delegated Local Traffic Committee: Minutes of Meeting 20130326
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Two years ago in 2011, the Blue Mountains Council reported on a Road Safety Action Plan. The report identified that:
<<the Blue Mountains has almost triple the amount of speed related crashes than the Sydney Region. Our rate of 33.73% is almost double that of the rate of NSW. This makes reducing speeding on our roads a clear road safety priority for the Blue Mountains community.>>
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The report also identified trucks as a key issue:
<<The Blue Mountains has a significantly higher proportion of trucks involved in crashes than the Sydney Region, Western Sydney or NSW.
Over a five year period, light trucks constituted 9.53% of crashes in the Blue Mountains. This can be compared with 7.85% in Sydney, 8.31% in Western Sydney and 8.67% in New South Wales as a whole. The Blue Mountains also experienced significant increases in crashes involving trucks over the last five years.>>
Yet at the same time, the Blue Mountains Council is similarly embracing more trucks transiting through Blue Mountains by planning a new truck route through native bushland habitat and over the headwaters of Fitzgerald Creek and carved through critically endangered Sydney Turpentine Ironbark Forest in protected Deanii Reserve.
The Council has already spent $77,000 on a study to consider possible route options for a truck link road between Hawkesbury Road and the Great Western Highway at Valley Heights. The preferred route necessitates massively increasing the road weight limit, creating a two-lane, three-span bridge 35 metres above Fitzgerald Creek with a total the project construction cost of $26 million, all to encourage more trucks through the Blue Mountains.
Borrowing the same mealy-mouthed spin as the RTA-come-RMS, the Council’s consultants try to justify the new road would “improve traffic flow and reduce delays.” No doubt its environmental impact statement would be conjured up by darkside ecologists to pretend the road works and bridge works would cause minimal impact to endangered ecology.
The initial council study will go on public exhibition soon with a report back to council in August 2013. We shall be ready to rip the EIS apart, or will it be watered down to another Review of Environmental Effects as per usual?
Truck rollover in the Blue Mountains April, 2005RTA-come-RMS is giving tacit approval for truckers to use excessive speed and ignore common safety measures.
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The RTA-come-RMS is the handmaiden to the truck industry and has allowed Hawkesbury Highway to become a trucking cowboy corridor.
The Bells Line of Road is just a bad:
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Somewhere in the Blue Mountains there is a truck collision or rollover a week. The trucking menace is out of control and these are the bureaucrats responsible – New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell and his Roads Minister Duncan Gay.
Premier Barry O’Farrell (left) and Roads Minister Duncan GayHandmaidens of Trucking
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Local residents and ordinary users of the Hawkesbury Road are intimidated by these trucking cowboys speeding, hogging the road and tailgating like their on a speedway circuit.
Blackheath, Blue Mountains, already a statistical victim
Betty Dowdell of Blackheath, 16 Dec 2008, rest in peace
Your memory is not lost.
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Drivers on the bends of Hawkesbury Road have raised concerns about the serious risks of heavy vehicles crossing to the wrong side of the road as they negotiate the narrow corners. The Roads and Maritime Service removed the centre lines on the bends late last year which residents say has only increased the problem.
Trucker Wet Dreaming
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With four schools on the 10km road, driver safety is paramount both on the Winmalee stretch and also for those people driving down from the Mountains via the bends. According to local politicians, the solution would be for a proper review of the road by the RTA-come-RMS, with a view to enforcing the road rules, including a return to the centre lane markings on the bends and looking at other engineering options.
But many local residents have had enough and are demanding a complete ban trucks from driving on Hawkesbury Road which would mean it would no longer be gazetted as a State Route.
Kredies Trucking speeding down Victoria Pass, 5th December 2011
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<<A truck driver has been airlifted to hospital with suspected spinal injuries, and a major cleanup operation has been undertaken following a truck overturning on Mount Victoria Pass this afternoon (5 December 2011).
Emergency Services were called to the bottom of Mount Victoria Pass (Great Western Highway) just after 2:30pm today following reports an eastbound semi-trailer carrying scrap metal had rolled onto the concrete divider, leaving the driver trapped in the cabin.
Several Fire and Rescue NSW crews, Police Rescue, an Ambulance and a rescue helicopter responded to the scene. Rescue crews freed the driver about 4:45pm before he was airlifted to hospital suffering suspected spinal injuries.
The Great Western Highway has been closed for several hours while a clean up and salvage operation is underway with debris scattered across the roadway. The RTA has advised traffic is being diverted into the Darling Causeway with eastbound motorists being advised to use Chifley Road (Mort St) and the Darling Causeway as an alternative route.>>
Speeding Truck Overturns down Mt Victoria Pass, 3rd August 2011Two truckers dead
The pass has been there and steep for a long time – nothing new.
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<<Two men have been crushed to death inside the cabin of a truck in the Blue Mountains today. Police said the truck rolled and crashed into a barrier on the Great Western Highway, near the top of Victoria Pass, just after 10am. The two men were found dead inside the cabin. Their ages are unknown. One eastbound lane of the highway is expected to be closed for some time while police investigate.>>
Again, we didn’t have to wait long to learn about yet another dangerous trucking cowboy in New South Wales.
In Sydney’s outer north this morning, a truck side-swiped a school bus and didn’t stop.
The small school bus was travelling along Bay Road at 9 am at Berrilee, when the bus driver was forced to swerve to avoid a head-on collision with the truck over the centre lines.
In avoiding the collision, the bus driver scraped along a rockface alongside the left hand side of the narrow section of Bay Road. Four bus windows were smashed, and seven children on the bus suffered minor cuts from the smashed glass. Two of them were taken to hospital. The truck driver drove on (another hit and run) following the incident and yet police decided not to contemplate pursuing criminal charges.
Unbelievably the police are sight unseen self-excusing the trucker for ‘perhaps’ not realising the damage, because of some fabricated personal presumption that the truck was too big for the driver to notice. “We don’t think he even realised something had gone wrong” the police spokesman said.
Was this comment correctly reported by the media? If so, how does the police spokesman know? Does it take a child to die for these police to treat seriously the near fatality of children on a supposedly safe school bus?
If so, these police should state this presumption to the faces of the children’s parents and see what response they get for excusing dangerous trucking behaviour endangering the lives of their children.
If so, then these police are ignorant of what could have happened, of the likely trauma experienced by both bus driver and the children who will never forget this incident that could have ended their lives. These police seem to nonchalantly care nothing for road safety or for proactive policing.
‘She’ll be right reckless trucking‘ is unacceptable and here we record yet another trucking cowboy excused by police, until next time when an innocent road user is killed.
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The Tarkine’s Tayatea, or Giant Freshwater Crayfish
The Tarkine, showing the Tasmanian Government’s 2012 plans for a $34M upgrade of the Murchison Highway,
marketed as ‘tourism development’ but surreptitiously to subsidise increased mining access between the Tarkine and Port Latta.
[Source: Tasmanian Government, Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources
^http://www.dier.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/81461/01_Murchison_Highway_Upgrades.pdf]
Industrial Robber Barons
Tasmanian Devils heading towards extinction, following the Thylacine.
Scott Jordan in The Tarkine
Savage River Mine
Irrevocably carving out Tarkine wilderness, currently operated by Grange Resources Limited
American Robber Baron Robert Carl Sticht (1856-1922)
American metallurgist and General Manager of Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company
Elitist exploiter of copper mining and smelting from Mount Lyell on Tasmania’ wild west coast
Sticht’s Mining Legacy to Tasmania
– a denuded moonscape above Queenstown caused by sulphuric acid associated with the copper mining and smelting.
The people of Queenstown were not left wealthy after the copper mine closed – the company profits went offshore – sound familiar?
Tasmanian Baby Boomer politicians in 2012 with Indian chairman of Shree Minerals, Sanjay Loyalka
[Source: Tasmanian Minerals Council, ^http://www.tasmanianmining.com.au]
The Mine’s expected Heavy Metal products/tailings cocktail
Alex Schaap, Tasmanian EPA Director
Under fire over nondisclosure of a heavy metals spill from a tailings dam spill at Grange Resources Savage River mine into surrounding waterways in early 2013.
[Source: ‘Tasmania’s Environment Protection Agency is on notice’, 20130318, by Isla Macgregor, Tasmanian Public and Environmental Health Network, ^http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/tasmanias-environment-protection-agency-is-on-notice/]
National Secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union Paul Howes addressing a rally in Hobart,
with Tasmanian Premier Lara Giddings in the background.
[Source: ^http://www.tasmanianmining.com.au]
[Source: Kudelka’s view,
^http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2012/05/12/327401_tasmania-news.html]
Federal Environment Minister, Tony Burke in The Tarkine
Tony Burke considers a plan for world heritage listing during a visit to the Tarkine
[Source: Photo by Peter Mathew, ‘Labor accused of betraying Tarkine forests by favouring mining in heritage decision’, by Matthew Denholm, The Australian (with AAP), 20130208, ^http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/tony-burke-backs-away-from-tarkine-protection/story-fn59niix-1226573268457]
Different animal, same attitude
Federal Court of Australia
~ such an apt emblem
Circular Head mayor Daryl Quilliam
Same Baby Boomer age group, same Baby Boomer mindset
Tasmanian Eric Abetz MP
Same Baby Boomer age group, same Baby Boomer mindset
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An example of a purpose-built Wombat Gate
If one can afford property at exclusive Mount Wilson with average prices currently $750,000 [^
