Amazing account of how a tiny wallaby joey was rescued within minutes of death by a motorist on the way to see his wife in hospital. A heart-warming short story of the good in people responding to helpless orphaned wildlife and the lengths they will go to to save them.

Tweed Shire Council is fast approaching the most complained about council in NSW. The only green councillor trying to implement sustainability into council policies is treated like an idiot when the councillors should be following her!

The recent Repco Rally was so bad it turned Tweed Valley banana farmer/GP into a No Rally Group member. Here is her submission for the Review of the Motor Sports (WRC) Bill 2009. Anyone who accuses protestors of being 'green, hippie tree-huggers' should read this highly intelligent and shocking account of what happened on her street during the rally. Many anti-rally protesters are professionals just like her (teachers, writers, business people, film makers, artists, farmers, politicians) and their voices need to be heard.

In the aftermath of the Black Saturday Victorian bushfires of 2008, Stella and Alan Reid picked themselves up from the ashes of everything they had lost - especially the native animals they had rehabilitated and released on their property. Almost a year has passed and they are beginning to heal and rebuild their lives and starting over with a new better Wildhaven. The photos clearly show that the animals who somehow survived are deeply grateful for their second chance....

Tweed Valley Community levied for unwanted and disastrous development in region's main koala habitat.
Koalas are in danger of extinction within two years in Queensland and NSW cannot be far behind. No state is keeping proper wildlife statistics and development is ruining their habitat and ours. See where to send objections inside article.

An old age pensioner tells his heartbreaking story of Josie, the little possum joey who he and his wife lovingly raised but was unable to release due to human imprinting. After 6 years of being part of Raoul Harvey's family, suddenly the RSPCA tried to confiscate her and another possum they were rehabbing. That's when all hell broke loose! It's time some new laws were made in the best interests of the animal, not the law. Read what this courageous man did to outwit the system.

Is it any wonder people who care about the world feel disempowered and ineffective when they wait months for a reply from a politician and, if they get one at all, find it is a form letter that fails to address the concerns they raised?

How can you and I make a difference when our leaders aren't listening to us? Do we become apathetic and give up or do we try new tactics?

This is an ongoing blog that I invite you to contribute to by way of reply. Perhaps together we can find what does work, if anything. It's our future - if we let the corporations and leaders who are corrupted by them call the shots, we won't have one.

Anyone who has been in awe at the beauty of nature, its perfection of form and the delights it brings to the heart, the soothing of 21st century stress and upliftment of the soul would most likely have had the same response that I had while observing outrageously loud and wrecklessly fast racing cars shatter the silence as they ripped through the most pristine rainforests of Australia ....

See also: "After six days of anti-Rally protestor vilification, rock throwing allegations admitted to be false" of 11 Sep 09

I took a leisurely long drive along most of the rally route and was amazed at how many native animals appeared either on the road or beside the road. It was very hard to imagine that in just one week, these animals would be either struck by insanely fast airborne cars, flying sideways around corners, or terrorised and die of stress myopathy. If only people had the foresight to realise the disaster that is about to be visited upon us....

See also: URGENT! Contact Peter Garrett re Injunction to stop Repco Rally of 26 Aug 09.

Urgent action is required! International pressure valued. Please take 5 minutes to email or phone Peter Garrett's office letting him know that you want this rally stopped. It's insane to have any rally in such an extremely biodiverse area as Tweed/Kyogle Shire, NSW, going through national parks, koala colonies, endangered species habitat and World Heritage areas with nationally listed threatened species let alone in breeding season, let alone for the next 10-20 years, let alone four of them at once (Speed on Tweed, Repco Rally International, Classic Outback Trial Rally and Australian Tarmac Challenge) converging on Father's Day! SIGN INTERNATIONAL PETITION TO SAVE AUSTRALIA'S ENVIRONMENT AGAINST RALLY NOW

Please attend protest rallies on Sat 29 August, Fri 4, Sat 5 and Sun 5 September.

See also: Repco Rally route - the calm before the storm of 26 Aug 09, REPCO Rally injunction raced through court up blind alley of 31 Aug 09.

Kangaroos are nationally denigrated as 'pests' and in plague proportions. But are they? This article finally reveals the critical ecological significance of kangaroos and compares them to feral livestock, who are conveniently ignored in the discussion of pests and plagues of pests.

At the last meeting of Tweed Shire council on 21 July, a raft of motions by Cr Katie Milne were unanimously approved by council. However, the question is will it be enough to save Tweed koalas when just over the border in SE Qld koalas are in fact critically endangered according to the Australian Koala Foundation? If Events NSW has their way this September Repco Rally will organise 100 competing cars tearing at top speed through koala colonies and rural habitat in breeding season destroying any chance of a meaningful Koala Recovery Plan being implemented in the future.

Does anyone else think that the 'F' word is actually a destructive word that has the power to increase negativity on the planet by affecting our consciousness? This article expresses why I think that mindfully choosing the words we use can help change human consciousness away from disrespect and violence towards patience, kindness and love, in spite of the chaos around us in a world that is going mad....

Humans have moved into native animals' backyards yet many of us get upset when there is a possum in our roof and go to all ends to remove it by having it relocated. Some farmers even shoot these hapless animals that are only looking for somewhere to sleep during the day and something to eat. We have a responsibility to them because we caused this situation and it's possible to not only share our space but give back some habitat to them. Here's what happened to a friend of mine recently when a possum moved into his house..... See the sequel to this story.

We live in pivotal times and it is getting harder to deny that this planet is in dire crisis. The UN produced a report titled 'Livestock's Long Shadow' about the devastating impact of the livestock industry on the environment. Why is the information contained in this report being tiptoed around for fear of upsetting people? Sir Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono are calling for 'Meat-Free Monday'. The first town in the world has gone meat-free one day a week. Yet an environmental activist is heavily censored for trying to get the word out on World Environment day....

Tweed Shire Mayor has been emailed information about three councils in Sydney who have rejected a similar rally to the Repco rally in the Sydney Olympic Park. A lengthy report from 20 years of analysing the so called 'economic benefits' of mega sport events was also sent. She has been apprised of efforts in W.A. to protect endangered species, much needed here with 2/3rds of our species at risk. Yet not a word of reply and three weeks has passed .... is biodiversity not an issue for her in spite of her support of eco tourism? What kind of tourist would want to do an eco tour of an area where all the species were extinct?

Our planet is on a precipice...humans are not living according to basic ecological principles (finite resources, biodiversity is ecological strength and interdependence of species). The root cause is our lack of ethical relationship to non-human animals. The challenge is to become BIOCENTRIC, not anthropocentric: otherwise, we too will perish in the 6th Mass Extinction. The Tweed Shire has the most biodiversity in Australia yet the Council is pro-development and barely addresses fauna protection in the biodiversity section of their management plan. Here is one local resident's speech to Tweed Shire Council at community access yesterday ....

It's time for some answers from the RSPCA regarding the 4,000 kangaroos that were killed by Defence at Majura Firing Range in the last few weeks. How humane was the 'cull' and were they really 'starving'? Too many questions are left answered - did Defence have an accurate count of the total number of kangaroos living at Majura to begin with? More red flags were raised when ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope tried to reverse the Injunction that forced them to stop killing - it's beginning to look suspiciously like another Belconnen cover-up .....

Tweed Shire residents packed the council chambers on May 5th, 2009 to hear the verdict on the Development Application for Nightcap Village (south of Uki, NSW) which has been strongly contested for the last 5 years. The results were nothing short of shocking for us all…one more bullet in the coffin of democracy.

See also: "Raceway through the Rainforest. Paradise lost!" of 19 Apr 09, "Kyogle residents fight World Rally motor race" of 7 Mar 09 and other articles about fight by Tweed and Kyogle residents against World Car Rally.

Defence Dept Secretary, Mike Kelly insists there are too many kangaroos at Majura Training Area in Canberra. He wants to kill up to 6,000. He says they are starving and degrading rare grasslands. But there is no proof of either claim and the stats are unreliable. This looks like the same ugly pattern as we saw in Belconnen May 2008...see also ABC video footage (5th one down) of protests today 15 April against Majura killing proposals and attend protest Thursday 16th April in front of Canberra Centre shopping complex at 12 noon.

See also: "Majura demonstration in Canberra" on www.canadianvoiceforanimals.org, "Another Slaughter of kangaroos planned" of 14 Apr 09 on Quaker Concern for Animals web site.

How can the FATE program, ironically acronymed as Future of Australia's Threatened Ecosystems (which is just a fancy way of getting shooters onto farmers' property to commercially shoot kangaroos because they are running out of kangaroos in other areas), have such sloppy population counting methods and expect it to be 'sustainable'?
An FOI report reveals how junk science is driving our national icon to the brink....

A lot of people have concerns about the General Manager of Tweed Shire Council, Mike Rayner, and his Director's role with the controversial World Rally Australia Pty Ltd, due to come screaming through Australia's hottest biodiversity spot, the Green Caldera, where 2/3rds of our species are endangered. Isn't it a conflict of interest to be serving local residents in his capacity at council and also serving a Pty Ltd business and accommodating them in a council building?

See also: "NSW spin doctors find another frog to save" by Alex Mitchell in Crikey of 11 Mar 09, "Kyogle residents fight World Rally motor race" of 7  Mar 09.

Could Peter Garrett be waking up to the fact that he has an ENVIRONMENT portfolio and FINALLY doing something to protect it? Yea, there is hope! I can't help but wonder if someone threatened to sue him under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 which he is compelled to enforce.

Originally published in the Sydney Morning Herald of 25 Feb 09

As the plight of Koalas injured and killed in Victoria's recent bushfires move people across the globe to act to save the Koala, now predicted to become extinct by 2020, a rare and relatively intact Koala colony in Northern New South Wales is threatened by a massive residential development. There are estimated to be less than 100,000 koalas remaining in Australia, considerably less due to the recent disastrous Victorian bush fires and Queensland floods.

See also: "Kings Forest Development threatens 21 Threatened Species of Fauna" on Blue Cray of 28 Feb 09.

There are far too many threats to our native animals' existence. The recent bushfires and floods have decimated wildlife in two states. It's time for our government to change its policy of giving licences to kill 'protected' wildlife and regarding them as 'renewable resources to harvest sustainably.' We call for a moratorium on the killing of ALL Australian native animals. Australia has the worst record in the world of wildlife extinctions. Time to change our attitude and our laws before we lose them all. Without biodiversity we will perish.

We were told that the 514 kangaroos at Belconnen Naval Transmission Station could not be relocated to other properties and had to be 'culled.' The reason given was that the kangaroos were a threat to certain endangered species - the Golden Sun Moth, Gininderra Peppergrass and Striped Legless Lizard. Yet cows were grazing in adjacent properties - were they not a threat to these species too? The RSPCA demanded the cull as relocation could risk their death. The RSPCA insisted the kangaroos were starving even though local activists said they looked in good condition throughout the year. So what was really going on....?

See also: "Defence kiboshes Belconnen grassland refuge plan" of 30 Sep 08, "Defence to clean up Belconnen site" of 30 Sep 08, Remediation of the Belconnen Naval Transmission Station" of 22 Oct 08, "Belconnen Kangaroo massacre" of 30 May 08.

UNSW is about to implement a program ironically called FATE whereby NSW farmers will be paid to allow kangaroo shooters to come on their land and shoot kangaroos. The last thing kangaroos need is less protection. Already they are copping it from every direction. With populations crashing across the country, this is the last thing they need. Professor Archer, take your FATE program and bury it!

Ever wonder how Native American Indians were able to bring rain in abundance? Here is a simple technique anyone can use to help bring rain and save millions of animals and their homes. The key is to have a strong wish and focus...

While people blame greenies, global warming and arsonists for the fires devastating Victoria, there is a more obvious cause that for some reason, people don't want to admit - European farming techniques are turning our country into a desert ..... time to change our diets, or we can expect more fires until there is nothing left!

If you don't think there is a health risk involved in kangaroo consumption (for yourself or your pets); think that the solution to livestock-caused greenhouse gases is eating kangaroo meat; haven't considered the reasons why in fact kangaroos could NEVER be farmed; still believe the myth that there are plagues of kangaroos out there that need to be 'culled'; and that it's a humane, well-regulated industry involving no suffering to kangaroos, you need to read this article.....