Almost singlehandedly the policies and actions of the NSW O'Farrell-Baird-Berejiklian-Perrottet coalition governments have brought the Koala to the brink of extinction

https://youtu.be/w8LiyaMs0xU

This century started with celebrations across the state. 

Twenty-two years in and there is little to celebrate in New South Wales.

The state is at the sharp end of climate change impacts, the sharp end of a pandemic and, the sharp end of the Koala extinction crisis.

In 2019-20 alone over 17 million hectares were burnt or impacted and more than 61,000 koalas killed, injured or impacted by fire in the east coast mega bushfire season.

More than than 5.3 million hectares were burnt or impacted in NSW, including 2.7 million hectares of national parks.

In NSW more koala have also been lost to widespread flooding and the stress of habitat loss as the NSW Government continues to allow an unsustainable level of land clearing.

A total of 646,418 hectares have been approved for land clearing in the state between 9 March 2018 and 1 April 2022. The rate at which native vegetation was being cleared was over 61,00 hectares a year.

In 2020-21 the state-owned forestry corporation logged an est. 13,500 hectares of native forest and, as in the past, repeatedly logged in protected areas or known koala habitat.

Currently it is estimated that Australia-wide there may be as few as 43,000 koala left of the est. 7-10 million koala population calculated to exist in 1788. Almost certainly less than 80,000 koala.

In NSW there is some suggestion that the current number of koala left in the wild could be as low as <11,000 individuals in increasingly isolated colonies. Since the 2019-20 devastation of national parks, many of these koalas are now found on private land.

It should be noted that the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison federal coalition governments' support of the continued logging of New South Wales native forests between September 2013 to May 2022 had exacerbated the rate of land clearing/loss of native tree cover and the environmental impacts which flow from the removal of so many mature trees.

Prime Minister Albanese & Environment Minister Plibersek need to urgently re-evaluate the former Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government policy as it pertains to native forestry agreements along the 100km wide & 1,973km long NSW mainland coastal zone

 

The EPA has fined the Forestry Corporation over a Coffs Coast logging operation. IMAGE: ABC News, 13 November 2013

The Forestry Corporation of NSW is a state-owned corporation which has been 'managing' state forests for the last 106 years. Amongst other names, it has conducted business as Forestry Commission of New South Wales, State Forests (NSW) and Forests NSW.

Currently this corporation appears to control approximately two million hectares of forested land (including est. 270,000 hectares set aside for commercial soft & hardwood plantations) and produces approximately 14 per cent of Australia's annual wood product. 

Marching hand in hand with the growth of Forestry Corporation of NSW has been a loss of native animals due to logging. 

Australia-wide such native forestry logging was calculated by the World Wildlife Fund as averaging 1.5 million native animal deaths a year between 1998-99 to 2005-06 and 2 million a year between 2006-07 to 2014-15. According to NSW EPA State of the Environment Report; As at 2020–21, 1,043 species and 115 ecological communities are listed as threatened under NSW legislation including 78 species declared extinct.

Much of the current business and operational practices put in place by Forestry Corporation of NSW rely on the three NSW Regional Forestry Agreements (RFAs) signed by the State of New South Wales and the Commonwealth of Australia between 1999 and 2001 and amended/extended by successive federal Coalition governments with little thought to either the Commonwealth's existing legislated obligations or changing levels of risk to individual species or local/state-wide habitat range.

Many residents in Northern NSW consider the North East RFA which covers logging in the coastal area between Sydney and the Queensland border as particularly egregious. In part because it exempts logging in native forests from federal biodiversity law.

In my opinion the state-owned forestry corporation is a bad actor across the board. If one looks closely at how the NSW Government deals with its infractions, it is clear that the government of the day, a number of government agencies and Forestry Corporation of NSW have developed a bureaucratic and legal dance. A dance which allows the Corporation to ignore both its legislatively imposed restrictions and its social obligations to communities within the state's extensive coastal zone, in order to continue pursuing its commercial objectives by cavalierly logging native forests for maximum wood extraction and what looks suspiciously like frequently contrived minimum penalties.

Nature Conservation Council (NSW), media release, 20 June 2022:

Forestry Corp pinged for logging environmentally significant forests after the Black Summer bushfires

Just days after being fined $135,000 for destroying koala habitat on the mid-north coast, Forestry Corporation now faces charges it illegally logged a Category 1 Environmentally Significant Area in the Yambulla State Forest after the Black Summer Bushfires. [1]

“While the charges are yet to be proven, the fact the EPA launched this prosecution rings alarm bells,” Nature Conservation Council Chief Executive Chris Gambian said.

“On Friday, Forestry Corp was fined for wiping out significant koala habitat. [2] On Monday they are being prosecute for logging forests that were ruled out of bounds after the fires.

“What more evidence does the government need before it orders a comprehensive independent review of Forestry Corporation to ensure it acts lawfully and sustainably?”

In this latest action, the EPA alleges Forestry Corp breached conditions imposed to aid the recovery of the Yambulla State Forest near Eden after the 2019-20 bushfires.

The EPA says that between March and July 2020, Forestry Corp contractors logged 53 trees in a Category 1 Environmentally Significant Area in the Yambulla State Forest.

EPA Acting Executive Director Regulatory Operations Greg Sheehy said the EPA imposed these Site-Specific Operating Conditions to protect areas in forests of environmental importance that were less affected by the fires.

Mr Sheehy said in a statement released by the EPA:

“Bushland along our South Coast was severely damaged by the devastating fires, and the EPA established additional protections for bushfire affected forests like the Yambulla State Forest in order to limit further harm

“These conditions were imposed to prevent FCNSW harvesting trees in areas considered environmentally significant that were less damaged or completely untouched by the fires.

“The additional protections, applied to certain forests in NSW were designed to help wildlife and biodiversity recover in key regions.

“These laws protect areas in our forests that may be home to important shelters and food resources for local wildlife or unique native plants.”

Last Friday, Forestry Corp was fined $135,600 fine for destroying koala habitat and ordered to pay $150,000 of the EPA’s legal cost.

As Forestry Corp is a company owned wholly by the NSW Government, the fines will ultimately be paid by NSW taxpayers.

REFERENCES

[1] FCNSW in court for alleged breaches of 2019/20 bushfire harvest rules, EPA, 20 June 2022

[2] Fines will never replace critical koala habitat destroyed by Forestry Corporation, 16-6-22, NCC

In 2018 Forestry Corporation NSW committed a series of offences between April and November of that year.

Prosecution of these offences did not begin until 2020 and culminated in a two day hearing in June 2022.

NSW Environmental Protection Agency (NSW EPA), media release, 16 June 2022:

Forestry Corporation NSW fined for forestry activities near Coffs Harbour

Fines and costs totalling $285,600 have been levelled against Forestry Corporation NSW (FCNSW) after the Land and Environment Court found tree felling in exclusion zones had done “actual harm” to koala habitat in Wild Cattle Creek Forest near Coffs Harbour.

The Land and Environment Court handed down a fine of $135,600 and ordered FCNSW to pay the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA)’s legal and investigation costs of $150,000 after FCNSW pleaded guilty to four charges brought by the EPA.

EPA Executive Director Regulatory Operations Carmen Dwyer said the prosecution sent a clear message to the forestry industry and operators.

“All forestry operators have a responsibility to protect the environment and comply with the law when carrying out tree harvesting activities,” Ms Dwyer said.

“Breaches of the forestry laws will be investigated and those responsible will be held to account.”

The felling was carried out by FCNSW contractors in 2018.

Two charges were for the felling of trees in protected rainforest areas, a third charge was for the felling of two trees in an exclusion zone around warm temperate rainforest, and the fourth was for felling four trees and other forestry activities in a Koala Exclusion Zone.

The non-compliant activities carried out in the Koala Exclusion Zone attracted the largest fine of $60,000.

Justice Robson accepted there had been harm to Koala habitat as a result of the non-compliant activities.

“The felling of the large Eucalyptus trees and the construction or operation of snig tracks were highly likely to have had an adverse impact by reducing the size and the quality of the habitat available to the breeding female and offspring,” Justice Robson said.

“As such, I accept the position adopted by the prosecutor and find that there has been actual harm.”

The EPA commenced the prosecution in 2020 after a long investigation into FCNSW’s activities in Wild Cattle Creek State Forest in 2018.

“Strict operating rules are in place to protect precious wildlife, such as the Koala. Exclusion Zones, which are a critical part of preserving the habitat of koalas to ensure their survival in this forest.

“Disregarding the rules and harvesting trees in these areas can put animals under increased stress,” Ms Dwyer said.

The offence relating to Koala Exclusion Zones carries a maximum penalty of $440,000, while the other three offences carry a maximum penalty of $110,000 each.

SEE Environment Protection Authority v Forestry Corporation of New South Wales [2022] NSWLEC 70 (9 June 2022)

Some other instances (updated)

EPA fines FCNSW $15,000 for allegedly failing to comply with post-fire conditions South Brooman State Forest, media release, 23 June 2022– launch of prosecution

Forestry Corporation fo NSW fined by EPA for destroying native animal habitat, media release,11 April 2022 – total fines $45,000

Forestry Corporation of NSW fined by EPA for failing to mark out a prohibited logging zone, media release, 18 February 2021 – fine $15,000

Forestry Corporation fined for failing to mark out a prohibited logging zone, media release, 26 February 2021 – fine $30,000 plus a warning

Environment Protection Authority v John Michelin & Son Pty Ltd [2019] NSWLEC 88 (19 June 2019) – sub-licensee of Forestry NSW, penalty $43,550 plus costs

Environment Protection Authority v Forestry Commission of New South Wales [2013] NSWLEC 101 (10 July 2013) – $35,000 penalty plus costs

Director-General, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water v Forestry Commission of New South Wales [2011] NSWLEC 102 (8 June 2011) – $5,600 penalty plus costs.

NSW Perrottet Government in full election mode 9 months out from the state election and its hypocrisy is showing beneath a cloak of environmental concern

ARR News, 20 June 2022:

Australian Rural & Regional News has asked a few questions for the Ministers, set out below the release.

Matt Kean, NSW Treasurer, Minister for Energy (NSW), James Griffin, Minister for Environment and Heritage (NSW), Dugald Saunders, Minister for Agriculture, Minister for Western New South Wales (NSW), Joint Media Release, 19 June 2022

Farmers around the State will be supported to adopt additional sustainable practices through a groundbreaking $206 million program delivered in the NSW Budget.

Treasurer Matt Kean said this landmark investment will reward farmers who voluntarily reduce their carbon emissions and protect biodiversity.

“This is great news for farmers and the environment. This funding will help improve biodiversity and lower emissions across NSW, and our farmers will receive tangible benefits for sustainable land management practices,” Mr Kean said.

Mr Kean said NSW has an early mover advantage to secure a leading position in the emerging global marketplace for low carbon food and fibre from producers who are also improving our biodiversity.

“This new era of natural capital could unlock up to $10 billion of ‘Environment, Social and Governance’ financing in Australia,” Mr Kean said.

“Natural capital will reduce farmers’ risks from climate change and biodiversity loss while improving long-term farm productivity.”

Minister for Environment James Griffin said the Sustainable Farming Program will help to shore up the long-term health of the environment and the agricultural sector.

“This $206 million new program is completely voluntary. We’re proposing to develop an accreditation scheme for farmers who manage their land for biodiversity and carbon, while enhancing their productivity,” Mr Griffin said.

“Just as we know what the Forestry Stewardship Council certification system represents, this is about developing an easily recognisable accreditation for sustainable farms.

“We know that investors and consumers are increasingly looking for sustainably produced products, and this program will support our producers to meet that demand.”

Many farmers are already undertaking sustainable practices as part of their day to day operations and this program represents an opportunity for diversified income, with the program offering farmers payments to secure and maintain accreditation.

In turn, the accreditation has potential to increase their market access globally, helping farmers sell their products at a premium and access emerging environmental markets. The accreditation will not impact existing accreditation schemes such as those used to access the European beef markets.

Accreditation could be achieved by actions such as restoring habitat, fencing for dam and riparian areas, rotating crops, and using best-practice feed and fertiliser practices.

Minister for Agriculture and Western NSW Dugald Saunders said the program will be developed in close consultation with farmers and landowners.

“The NSW Government will work with farmers and landholders on options to tap into the emerging natural capital market,” Mr Saunders said.

“Farmers in NSW are already natural capital specialists and should be rewarded for the productive and environmental outcomes they generate.

“This announcement will give farmers and other landholders more options to diversify their income while maintaining ultimate decision making power on how to sustainably and productively manage their property.”

Farmers will receive a payment for reaching milestones on agreed sustainable practices under an accreditation framework.

The accreditation program will be developed in consultation with stakeholders, and complements existing private land conservation programs offered by the NSW Government.

Learn more: www.environment.nsw.gov.au/sustainable-farming

Questions

Australian Rural & Regional News asked a few questions of the Ministers. Their response will be included here once received.

1. When do you expect the programme to actually start?

2. Who will be the 'stakeholders' to be consulted in regard to the accreditation process?

3. Have there been any community meetings in rural & regional communities to discuss this programme? If not, are they planned as part of the consultation process?

A question not yet being asked is 'How does this media release fit with a Perrottet Government farm forestry policy which encourages farmers to log native timber stands on their land for additional income and to support the dying timber industry, thereby further threatening extinction of the NSW Koala population by 2050?'

With less than 50 per cent of native forests on private land in Northern NSW and a deliberately weakened private native forestry code, that’s a clear threat to what biodiversity and undisturbed habitat remains on local farmland.

And for what? For a very few years worth of construction timber, power poles, flooring, furniture and firewood.

Native forest logging contracts extended across north east New South Wales by Perrottet Coalition Government

ABC News, 9 June 2022:

The NSW Agriculture Minister has signalled the government has no plans to phase out logging of native hardwood in state forests.

Key points:

• All North Coast Wood Supply Agreements have been extended until 2028

• The Agriculture Minister says selective harvesting of native forests is a renewable industry and does not plan to phase out the practice

• Critics say the contracts are 'reckless' and unsustainable post-bushfires and further threaten the habitats of endangered animals

• The state government announced a five-year extension of North Coast Wood Supply Agreements last week.

Minister Dugald Saunders said all agreements due to end next year had been renewed in order to provide "certainty" for the industry to "invest in their businesses".

The agreements cover the area spanning from the Mid North Coast to the Queensland border, and include state forests in Dorrigo, Wauchope, Kempsey, Grafton, Coffs Harbour, Taree, Wingham, Gloucester, Glenn Innes and Casino.

Mr Saunders confirmed the main terms were unchanged, meaning Forestry Corporation would continue to supply existing quantities and species to timber companies in exchange for payment…..

North East Forest Alliance, media release, 9 April 2022:

The NSW Government’s Koala Strategy released today will do little to turn around their extinction trajectory as it is not stopping logging and clearing of Koala habitat which, along with climate heating, are the main drivers of their demise.

“The Strategy proposes nothing to redress the logging of Koala habitat on public lands where at best 5-10 small potential Koala feed trees per hectare need to be protected in core Koala habitat, with the only other requirement being to wait for a Koala to leave before cutting down its tree” NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh said.

“We know that Koalas preferentially choose larger individuals of a limited variety of tree species for feeding, and losses of these trees will reduce populations. So protecting and restoring feed and roost trees is a prerequisite for allowing populations to grow on public lands.

“The most important and extensive Koala habitat we know of in NSW is in the proposed Great Koala National Park, encompassing 175,000 hectares of State Forests south of Grafton and west of Coffs Harbour.

“Similarly on the Richmond River lowlands the most important and extensive area known is the proposed Sandy Creek Koala Park, encompassing 7,000 ha of State Forests south of Casino.

“These are public lands that we know are important Koala habitat that need to be protected from further degradation if we want to recover Koala populations. There are many other areas of important Koala habitat on State forests in need of identification and protection from logging.

“The centrepiece of the NSW Koala Strategy is to spend $71 million on private lands, buying properties and implementing conservation agreements over up to 22,000 hectares.

“This will not compensate for the Liberal’s promises to the Nationals, as peace terms in the 2020 Koala Wars, to remove the requirement to obtain permission before clearing core Koala habitat, to end the prohibition on logging core Koala habitat, to open up all environmental zones for logging, and to stop core Koala habitat being added to environmental zones.

“Throwing money at piecemeal protection of private land, while allowing some of the best Koala habitat to be cleared and logged will not save Koalas

“Similarly their strategy to spend $31.5 million to restore and plant new Koala habitat could help, but only if they first stopped clearing and logging existing Koala habitat.

“Rather than the proposed piecemeal approach, what we need for private lands is for the Government to fund Councils to prepare Comprehensive Koala Plans of Management that identify where the core Koala habitat and important linkages are, and then to direct funding to best protecting those lands.

“The NSW Koala Strategy is set to fail because it does not fulfill the most fundamental requirement of stopping existing Koala habitat from being cleared and degraded, and lacks a strategic approach to identify the highest priority lands for protection and revegetation” Mr. Pugh said.

Koala strategy: https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/topics/animals-and-plants/threatened-species/programs-legislation-and-framework/nsw-koala-strategy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBlLkEcG0Ew

NSW FORESTRY CORPORATION is salvage logging KOALA HABITAT in CLOUDS CREEK and ELLIS STATE FOREST AGAIN IN 2022. 

These wet sclerophyll public native forest compartments are within the proposed GREAT KOALA NATIONAL PARK and were extensively burnt during the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires in November 2019. 

This short video clip is a time series of satellite images taken from 16 September 2018 through to 9 June 2022, showing the impacts of logging and bushfire on the local landscape. 

The forests here on the Dorrigo Plateau adjoin the NYMBOI-BINDERAY NATIONAL PARK and surround the Clouds Creek Pine Plantations in the southern end of Clarence Valley in northern NSW. 

They are managed by the Grafton office of NSW Forestry Corporation, Hardwood Division. 

The NSW Office of Environment and Heritage (NSW OEH) has mapped the forests here as preferred koala habitat and the Clouds Creek state forest is recognised as a priority Koala Hub in need of protection to prevent NSW Koalas becoming extinct by 2050. 

The Chaelundi Bioregion is a higher elevation, biodiversity hotspot which lies within the north western bounds of the Great Koala National Park proposal and provides forest connectivity across the eastern ranges critical to providing climate adaptivity for a multitude of threatened species living in these old growth, subtropical and warm temperate rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest areas above 600 metres asl. 

Sign the Great Koala National Park Petition: https://www.koalapark.org.au/petition 

Save Our Oldgrowth Trees 

PLEASE WRITE TO THE NSW GOVERNMENT TO DEMAND THEY STOP CLEARING AND LOGGING ANIMAL'S HOMES AND START THE LONG PROCESS OF RESTORING THEM. 

https://www.nefa.org.au/hollow_housing_crisis

IF YOU ARE A NSW RESIDENT - SIGN THE NSW e-Petition: End Public Native Forest Logging

https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/la/Pages/ePetition-details.aspx?q=quge-8rdRlyn4PTcuMj_PA

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nightcap Oak (Eidothea hardeniana): seeds of hope being planted in the Nightcap & Jerusalem districts

 

#EXCLUSIVE: An endangered tree as ancient and rare as the Wollemi Pine is getting a second chance at survival.

The last remaining Nightcap Oak Trees were discovered 20 years ago, and now their seedlings are being planted across four secret locations. @biancabalzer #9News pic.twitter.com/ecWhz5nkWx

— 9News Australia (@9NewsAUS) May 7, 2022

 

BACKGROUND

ABC News, 15 June 2020:

A stand of Gondwana-era trees ravaged by bushfire last year is showing what it takes to be one of nature's great survivors.

The critically endangered nightcap oak has survived in the rainforests of northern New South Wales since the Eocene epoch, about 40 million years ago. The species Eidothea hardeniana first emerged when Australia and Antarctica were a single land mass and it has thrived through climatic extremes and across the aeons as its habitat drifted slowly northwards. But late last year its damp forest home experienced something new. After a prolonged period without rain, lightning strikes set fire to the rainforest around Mount Nardi in the Nightcap National Park, eventually burning a total of more than 6,000 hectares.....

There are only 125 fully grown nightcap oaks, all located in a small area of rainforest in northern New South Wales......

Official numbers from the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service record less than a fifth of the total population was killed by the bushfire.....

Dr Kooyman said despite the positive signs, only time would tell whether Eidothea hardeniana's initial response to fire would result in its long-term future survival. 

He said a drying landscape and increased risks of fire were now the biggest threats to the trees.....

Tweet of the Week

 

In 2021 over 350 Koalas came into care at Friends of the Koalas. Every one deserves to be remembered.https://t.co/KIFTUS6hIx#friendsofthekoala @LinguIna20 @talkingkoala @ifawglobal

— Brad Mustow (@Bardlee1) April 30, 2022

 

Tweet of the Week

 

Breaking: Girard state forest defended!
A NSW blockade on Jukembal land today to prevent the logging of native forest. https://t.co/KGBFI2mtWd
Girard state forest is one of the last significant wildlife corridors between the Border Ranges NP and Bundjalung NP#worthmorestanding pic.twitter.com/JCPFxn09Xd

— Australian Forests and Climate Alliance (@AFCA_Forests) April 26, 2022

 

Help Slow The Rate of Mindless Land Clearing in NSW: there is an open e-Petition on the NSW Parliament website to End Public Native Forest Logging. If you are a NSW resident, please consider signing

 

Logging truck in the Brooman State Forest less than a year after NSW 2019-20 bushfires destroyed more than 80 per cent of the Shoalhaven's bush. IMAGE: The Bush Telegraph, 12 October 2020.

NSW PARLIAMENT, retrieved 25 February 2022:

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY - Signing ePetition - End Public Native Forest Logging

To sign the ePetition, confirm you are a resident of New South Wales and enter your title, first name and last name. Once you click ‘submit’ you will have signed the ePetition and will be re-directed to the Legislative Assembly’s ‘ePetitions open for signature’ page

End Public Native Forest Logging

To the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly,

Public native forest logging is pushing iconic species like the koala, swift parrot and greater glider towards extinction.

The 2019/20 Black Summer bushfires burnt over 5 million hectares of forest and have left them more vulnerable to the impacts of logging. The Natural Resources Commission (NRC) and the Environmental Protection Agency have recommended that in bushfire affected areas logging should cease entirely or face tighter restrictions, as current logging practices may cause irreversible damage to ecosystems and wildlife.

Logging of public native forests is tax-payer subsidised. Forestry Corporation’s Hardwood Division has been operating at a significant loss for the past decade. In 2020/21 it ran at a loss of $20 million, with predictions that it will face losses of $15 million until 2024.

Reports also show our state forests can generate far more income through their protection than from logging, through recreation, tourism and carbon abatement.

The Western Australian and Victorian Governments have already committed to ending this industry and have developed transition plans to support affected workers and businesses.

The petitioners ask the Legislative Assembly to:

1. Develop a plan to transition the native forestry industry to 100% sustainable plantations by 2024.

2. In the interim, place a moratorium on public native forest logging until the regulatory framework reflects the recommendations of the leaked NRC report.

3. Immediately protect high-conservation value forests through gazettal in the National Parks estate.

4. Ban use of native forest materials as biomass fuel.

The petitioner of record is Ms Takesa Frank.

To sign the petition go to https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/la/pages/epetition-details.aspx?q=quge-8rdRlyn4PTcuMj_PA

This petition closes on 2 August 2022.

Please consider signing if you are a NSW resident.

And the tale of Rous County Council decision making under new pro-dam majority continues......

Echo, 21 February 2022: 

During last week’s Rous County Council (RCC) meeting, Cr Big Rob spoke of contact he had with Professor Stuart White regarding the proposed Dunoon Dam. 

 Professor White is the Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures at UTS in Sydney where he leads a team of researchers who create change towards sustainable futures through independent, project-based research. 

 With over twenty years experience in sustainability research, Professor White’s work focuses on achieving sustainability outcomes at least cost for a range of government, industry and community clients across Australia and internationally. 

The Echo spoke to Professor White who made a late video submission to Rous that missed the deadline. A representative of Rous said it was too late to be screened in public access and was ‘forwarded to all Councillors on the morning of the Council meeting for their info’. The rep also mistakingly thought the video was a submission from the Northern Rivers Water Alliance who already had a space in Public Access. 

Rous County Council meeting 

During the meeting Cr Rob did not give Councillors all of the information he received from Professor White. 

At the meeting, Cr Rob said: ‘I circulated an email overnight relating to the experts that have been relied on – Professor Stuart White for example. You know, his position was the cost and when I made inquiries with Professor White, he finally agreed that yes, that dam should be considered. So if you take the cost out of it, then his position [is] all options on the table, the dam must be considered because that is one of the options.’ 

The Echo asked Professor White about his conversation with Cr Rob because Cr Rob’s comments seemed to be at odds with the information Professor White has been giving other interested parties. 

‘I have not spoken to Cr Big Rob,’ said Professor White. ‘I only had email correspondence. 

‘My position on the Dunoon Dam is clear and I’ve been public about it: it is too expensive, too risky, not useful for the purpose it is intended for, and not needed within the planning horizon. This is before considering the environmental and Aboriginal heritage risks.’ 

Time to rule out dam 

Professor White said that this does not mean the Dunoon Dam, or any supply option should not be considered and investigated alongside other options. ‘It is just that under any reasonable analysis it would be rejected. The proponents have already had a chance to make their case, at great public expense, and my view is that this case has not been made, so it is now reasonable to rule the Dunoon Dam option out.’ 

‘My understanding of the decision by Rous last year was to reject it primarily due to the Aboriginal heritage considerations, which are of course very important and remain very important.’ 

The Echo does not know if any Rous Councillors saw this submission before they voted 6 to 2 to put the dam back on the table.  [my yellow highlighting]

BACKGROUND

NORTH COAST VOICES, FRIDAY, 18 FEBRUARY 2022 

Rous County Council and that Dunoon Dam proposal now risen from the dead

Rous County Council and that Dunoon Dam proposal now risen from the dead

 

In 2014 Rous County Council (RCC) adopted its Future Water Strategy which recommended detailed investigations to assess the suitability of increased use of groundwater as a new water source, and if groundwater was not suitable, investigate complementary options such as water reuse and desalination.

After completion of this investigation Rous produced the original Future Water Project 2060 which did not prioritise groundwater use, reuse of already available water or building a desalination plant/s.

Instead it chose another option – the 50 gigalitre Dunoon Dam, with the concept design indicating an initial capital cost of approx. $220 million.

“In considering options for the future, Rous County Council conducted extensive assessments to weigh up environment, social and economic impacts. The result of these assessments indicate the Dunoon Dam is the preferred long-term water supply option when compared to demand management and water conservation, groundwater sources and water re-use”.

It is worth noting that the proposed Dunoon Dam would be the second dam on Rocky Creek thus further fragmenting this watercourse. The first water storage is Rocky Creek Dam which will continue to operate if the Dunoon Dam was built. Rocky Creek Dam does not have an outlet structure so it does not provide releases for downstream flows. [NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, 2020]

By 2020 this incredibly flawed second dam plan still relied on the widely discredited ‘offset’ scheme as a workaround for the widespread level of environmental destruction, significant biodiversity & species local population loss and, for the drowning of land sacred to the Widjabul Wia-bal People and the desecration of highly significant cultural sites.

Rous authorized preliminary investigation of the Dunoon Dam project in mid-2020 allocating a $100,000 operating budget.

However, the Widjabul Wia-bal, local residents in Lismore Shire and many people in the three other shires within Rous County Council (Byron, Ballina & Richmond Valley) remained concerned with Rous’ choice – the Future Water Project 2060 Public Exhibition Outcomes revealed that 90% of the 1,298 submissions received by 9 September 2020 expressed concerns about the Dunoon Dam proposal.

In March 2021 Rous was reconsidering its earlier Dunoon Dam decision and by 21 July it had voted 5 to 3 to remove the Dunoon Dam from its Future Water Project 2060. At that time a second public exhibition from 1 April to 24 May 2021, this time of the revised Future Water Project 2060, was put in place which resulted in an RCC digital file of supporting submissions 1,754 pages long and confirmed that voiced public opinion was still against building the Dunoon Dam.

By 16 December 2021 Rous County Council had authorised “the General Manager to cease all work on the Dunoon Dam and provide a report on the orderly exit from Dunoon Dam as an option in the future water project, including revocation of zoning entitlements and disposal of land held for the purpose of the proposed Dunoon Dam”.

There the matter should have rested, but after the December 2021 local government elections there was a changing of the guard at Rous Water and six of the eight current sitting RCC councillors are pro-dam.

This led to the unedifying sight on 16 February 2022, of Rous County Council by a vote of 6 to 2 vote reinserting the Dunoon Dam proposal into the revised Future Water Project 2060. No genuine forewarning of what that first RCC meeting of 2022 would contain, no prior consultation with Widjabul Wia-ba elders on the Item 12.1 motion, no community consultation.

The community scrambled to respond. So on the day RCC did hear objections to Item 12.1 from Hugh Nicholson, a previous Chair of Rous Country Council and Friends of the Koala representative Ros Irwin.

A young Widjabul Wia-ba woman, Skye Roberts, addressed the councillors as a “custodian” of the land. She spoke with conviction, determination and, clearly informed all present that: the proposed dam was sited within the large tract of land between three ancient mountains and that land was “sacred land” to all the Widjabul Wia-ba; this included Channon Gorge, the waters that ran through it and the wider dam site; the stone burial mounds which would be submerged by dam waters were part of the circle of cultural connection between land and people; men’s places & women’s places were on land to be flooded; and that land connects to living culture.

The message she carried for her grandmother and mother fell on predominately deaf ears and it was ‘ugly Australia’ which voted the dam back into future planning on that Wednesday in February.

Rous County Council already has before it the Ainsworth Heritage “Dunoon Dam: Preliminary Cultural Heritage Impact Assessment for Rous Water, May 2013” which can be read in digital form or downloaded from:

https://issuu.com/jwtpublishing/docs/ainsworth-heritage-preliminary-cultural-heritage-i.

It also has before it the SMEC “Dunoon Dam Terrestrial Ecology Impact Assessment, Prepared for Rous Water November 2011”. An assessment of which can be found at:

https://waternorthernrivers.org/ecological-impact/

For a brief summary of some of the technical flaws in the Dunoon Dam preliminary investigation:

Dunoon Dam: 4 Risks & Considerations by Water Expert Professor Stuart White - Feb 2022