Almost the entire Basin had been explored and occupied by Europeans within 50 years of the crossing of the Great Dividing Range. The development of a European way of life resulted in
unintentional degradation of many of the Basin’s natural resources. There have been warnings of impending disaster for the Murray–Darling Basin for more than a decade, but here near the mouth it is suddenly real and shockingly rapid. Inflows to the Murray system remain at record lows. The removal of water for last summer’s irrigation, coupled with evaporation, has seen lake levels plummet. The search for another food bowl is on!

The mining company Cape Alumina has lodged a request to strip mine over 12,000 hectares in the western part of Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve for bauxite. This reserve is home to six highly vulnerable plant species. The nearby Wenlock River is the richest in freshwater fish diversity of any Australian river, including speartooth sharks, sawfish and the estuarine crocodile. Of the 32 ecosystems found on the reserve, 21 are threatened.

What you can do: If you are a Queensland resident, please sign the e-petition on the Parliamentary web-site (see text below), The petition is open until 17 May 2009. If you live outside of Queensland, please sign the petition on the Save Steve's Place. (www.savestevesplace.com) web site.

Both the NSW and Australian Government have upgraded Cumberland Plain Woodland from Endangered to Critically Endangered. You would assume any development that proposed to clear over 200 ha of critically endangered bushland would be struggling to get approval. We can assume nothing these days in Australia. Here is another focus where Australians need to unite to help each other get back democracy and protect fauna and flora from the growth lobby. The community has fought to save this area for nearly 20 years.See also related articles.

[Video inside article] The recent Auditor General's Report on the incompetence of the Victorian Government's wildlife statistics collection and maintenance mean that the Victorian government could not logically have the authority to make decisions about sustainable forestry where local fauna habitat is affected, in the opinion of this candobetter.org writer and environmental sociologist. It seems to me that Environment East Gippsland has clearly won its case in advance. But we have to get the information out there so that it cannot be ignored. See also: Damning Auditor General Report on Fauna protection for Victoria

The author responds to news of some so-called 'Green groups' preventing discussion of population numbers as a factor in carbon emissions. "Women should have the right not to have children. But they have no right, in the context of overshoot, to have as many children as they or their husbands want. The “right to choose” cannot be the right to abuse. Even the most jealously guarded right must be measured against equally fundamental rights, most especially the right of our species, and others, to live."

The role of biodiversity in climate change adaptation a report for the Office of the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment, August 2009, finds that maintaining biodiversity, notably kangaroos, reduces fire danger and makes the landscape more resilient. It criticises the culling of kangaroos in Canberra and notes the oddness of referring to them as if they are outside the eco-system, when talking about restoring damaged land. The report also suggests that kangaroos have their own ways of managing their numbers and that 'management' of kangaroo numbers, by interfering with them, is likely to cause population problems. The report contradicts policies defended by Dr Fletcher, ACT government zoologist, although Fletcher's own PHD thesis would support this report's findings, but his department doesn't.

Mr Rudd has set his reckless course and will not be diverted. See also "Normalising endless immigration and coupling it to nuclear power in Oz"

Venue: Belmore Park, Eddie Avenue end, opposite Central Railway; Date: Saturday, 24th October
Time: 11.30am to set up, 12.00pm - 2.00pm for the rally
"In the last decade, permits have been issued to allow the commercial slaughter of 49.6 million kangaroos primarily to give household pets a bit of variety in their diet. That is but one instance of a set of behaviours that suggests that, with a population of 22 million people, we haven’t managed to find accommodation with our environment. Our record has been poor and in my view we are not well placed to deal effectively with the environmental challenges posed by a population of 35 million." (Australian Secretary of Treasury, Ken Henry)

Koalas risk extinction within 7 years through government policy of human population growth and development in Queensland.
Is Premier Anna Bligh happy to create, manipulate and profit from a human population explosion that presents a greater threat to Queensland wildlife than cane toads?

What you can do: Contact Premier Anna Bligh and let her know how you object to her Government making the plight of our endangered koala worse. Please send us any copies of correspondence to or from the Premier.

More detail has come to light in the matter of costs that might be imposed on parties. It seems that the judge, whose name is actually Jack Forrest, recognises biodiversity preservation - which this injunction application is about - to be a matter of public interest, which would mean that the complainants are unlikely to be made to wear harsh costs. This is a development on this story, "Brown Mountain: What price justice?" where it seemed to me that the costs would be high for the complainants. That was probably an error. Let's hope for a very good result here.

Today, Monday 14th September, the Victorian Supreme Court found grounds for an injunction to stop the Victorian Government from logging old-growth Brown Mountain forest. In an appalling trend, however, the court asked for the complainant to deposit a huge sum of money as an indemnity for VicForests before it applies the law. The complainant is the small but incredibly brave group of volunteers - Environment East Gippsland (EEG). EEG is all that stands between the reduction of Victoria's remaining old growth forest - our Eden - to below 8 %, heading towards zero. See also: Related articles The Government should be defending our forests, yet we have to defend them against our rogue Victorian government. Please dig deeply into your pockets for EEG and for justice and for Mother Nature.

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

Among many frightening problems posed by the scale of industrialisation and mass production in the world is "bee colony collapse" syndrome (BCC). This condition where bee populations suddenly die off in massive numbers, endangers a large part of world food production, both large and small-scale. As such it literally threatens 'life as we know it'. A bee-less planet would be nearly unrecognisable, with the disappearance from the earth of many familiar kinds of trees, fruits, flowers and vegetables and the birds and other animals that depend on them. Now there is a new film out, made by apiarists, the humans first in line to suffer when bees do. The syndrome has been linked to particular pesticides. There is a comprehensive trailer available here.

See also :
"Trouble with bees", ABC Radio National's Background Briefing of 29 Jul 07, including transcript and link to 22Mb MP3 file.

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.

This is what we are used to reading about Borneo and the Amazon. Now we can read it about Victoria. In fact, it is happening all over the world. Bad governments are simply going ahead doing awful things in a place near by. What makes you think your government is any different? Are you watching them? Are you helping to protect your forests?

"There is no reasonable prospect that Australia will reduce its total level of greenhouse emissions, while our population grows by 1 million every four years, as is presently the case. Population stabilisation must be part of the plan to contain greenhouse emissions, not merely for Australia, but for the rest of the world as well." See also: more by Kelvin Thomson Interview at 10.30 ACT time Radio 2UE.

HELLLPPPP!
The news just in is that the Brown Mountain decision will be made in a week or so and the loggers will go in immediately afterwards! Brumby is not planning to protect it! Be there Tomorrow at 10.30am on the steps of Parliament House Victoria. We want everyone who can come along - young and old. The more old growth we cut down the more drying of the land, reduced rainfall, increased temperatures and risk of more and hotter bushfires. Bushfires dominate in managed and thinned forest, not in old growth! Logging Brown Forest will cause more bad bushfires in Victoria. Campervan, 4WDS and cars needed. Contact 0413927044

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.

Our primary concern should not be about how people in our lifeboat treat each other, where they are from or how they look, but how many damn passengers the boat can carry sustainably past the tumultuous storms of peak oil, peak water and peak everything that loom over the horizon.

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.

NSW Primary Industries Minister, Ian Macdonald, the Police Minister, Tony Kelly, and the Treasurer, Eric Roozendaal, want Shooters Party members to replace Government agencies but other members of Cabinet resist the bloody push to turn our national parks into safari machines or worse

“There is only one problem. There are too many of us,” says former Environment Minister, Andrew McNamara. “Every day, the front pages of our papers are covered in variations on the same problem. Whether the issue is traffic congestion, overcrowding on trains, waiting lists for hospitals, skills shortages, social alienation in urban sprawl, food security, water security or global warming." And, despite all this 'robust growth' in Queensland - and the rest of the Australia and the third world - business isn't doing very well.

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 ....

Radiocarbon-testing has confirmed that a giant rare old-growth eucalypt located in its natural forest habitat on East Gippsland's Brown Mountain has been chainsawed by VicForests, despite it being scientifically confirmed to be at least 500 years old.

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.

Kristina Keneally, NSW Planning Minister, sells out public land and the environment to Delfin Lend Lease. Now many gentle wild creatures will die the most abject deaths and 1000s of trees will give up their carbon to the atmosphere. How much more nature to be destroyed for narrow corporate interests in a dead-in-the-water economy for the grasping few? See also "Council bastardry..."

Just in via the bush telegraph, more on woodchip sales downturn

In Victoria in 1992 some bureaucrat got the idea of changing the name (and focus) of the Department of Conservation and Environment to a Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, then in 1996 to a Department of Natural Resources and Environment, then in 2003 a split to (1) a Victorian Department of Primary Industries and (2) a Department of Sustainability and Environment.

Source: http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/asaw/biogs/A002037b.htm

Currently its known by its obscure acronym DSE...(Don't Support Environment, or Department of Sparks and Embers).

On 13th February, the fire on Wilson's Promontory was almost extinguished. However, Victoria's Country Fire Authority, seemingly unconcerned with preserving the dwindling remnants of our natural bushland where human lives and property are not threatened, failed to act to extinguish the blaze. As a result, almost 50% of our precious Prom has been burnt out.

See also: "Crews unable to slow Wilsons Promontory blaze" on ABC online on 17 Feb 09, "Huge blaze threatens the very heart of the Prom" in the Age of 19 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.