colongbulletin

Monthly General Meetings will be held at our office on Level 2, Fortuna House, 332 Pitt Street, at 5.00pm on Mondays June 6, July 11, August 8 and Sept 12, 2016. Members and visitors welcome.

No. 263 | May 2016

Giving Wilderness its due  •  1

The Baird Government’s war against Nature   •  2

Pells report on coal mining and swamp damage  •  3

Kosciuszko National Park – the heat’s on  •  4

Federal and NSW Governments approve National Park logging  •  4

Featured wilderness… Curracabundi   •  5

Book Review… Wild Swimming  •  6

Thank you for your support  •  6

New Flora Reserves for the Far South Coast  •  7

No Western Sydney Airport… campaign update  •  7

How Photography Can Save Wilderness  •  7

Giving Wilderness its dueby geoff mosley

IN spite of the importance of wilderness both in the history of conservation and as an ongoing resource of the highest value to all

life, there is an unfortunate gap in the recognition of it in the World Heritage system. Fortunately this could easily be fixed.

Wilderness is one of seven categories of protected area in the IUCN’s Guidelines for Applying Protected Area Management Categories. The category description for ‘Category 1b - Wilderness Area’ states that the primary objective is to protect areas “where natural forces and processes predominate so that current and future generations have the opportunity to experience such areas”. Obviously such

an experience is unlike any other and care has been taken in setting aside wilderness areas in Australia to make sure that they are both wild enough in condition and large enough to offer such a distinctive experience.

The problem with wilderness and World Heritage recognition comes when we turn to the list of criteria for World Heritage Area selection. The closest reference to it in the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention is in category vii – “contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance”. The result of there being no specific reference to wilderness in any of the ten criteria is that there is a strong tendency to regard it only as a

factor contributing to integrity.Clearly, while wilderness is certainly

a very important integrity factor, it is also much more. Indeed, if we took the step of making it an explicit Outstanding Universal Value it is likely that we could avoid the kind of debate we had in 2015 over the appropriateness of the terms ‘wilderness’ and ‘wilderness zone’ in the revised Management Plan for the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Amending the definition of criterion vii to read – “contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance including wilderness” could do this. ■

Below: Mt Windsor wilderness, Cape York. Photo: I. Brown

2 colong bulletin May 2016 #263

The Baird Government’s war against Nature by janine kitson and keith muir

NSW may soon wake in fright if the horrors of the impending biodiversity legislation now on public exhibition and review are adopted. Instead of protecting NSW’s wildlife, the proposed new legislation that purports to protect wildlife will do the opposite and set the timetable for a devastating war on nature.

The NSW Government’s draft legislation was recently released for public comment and review. It proposes a weaker Biodiversity Conservation Bill that repeals the Native Vegetation Act, 2003 and the Threatened Species Act, 1995.

The Bill abolishes the current land regulatory system, where the clearing impacts of development proposals are assessed (and where unacceptable impacts can be refused, modified and/or challenged in court). The Bill installs a bushland offset system, where clearing impacts of developments are approved so long as compensatory habitat is provided or funds are paid to protect and restore biodiversity elsewhere (with no effective refusal or challenge in court).

The NSW Government wants to wind back the clock, so that in 2016 we act as if it were 1916, when the land had not long recovered from a horribly long drought and been flogged to death by overgrazing, ring barking, soil erosion and the rabbit plague. You would hope some wisdom had been learnt over the preceding century and our leaders could now better appreciate the importance native tree and vegetation

cover, not just for the wildlife that depends on it, but for the other essential services provided such as storing carbon, soil conservation and water quality. Land clearing just makes land sterile: hotter, saltier and more vulnerable to bushfire and dangerous floods. In the face of climate change, this is a mad retreat from realities bearing down fast upon us.

Under the Bill, developments will no longer need to consider indirect impacts on climate, creation of water pollution, the potential introduction of pests or other indirect impacts on endangered biodiversity. Instead, a payment for compensatory habitat can be made to secure a future offset for direct clearing impacts only.

One of the easiest and most sensible ways to stop extinction is to halt the mowing down of existing native habitat. Wildlife

cannot survive without habitat. Once bushland goes so too do quolls, koalas, gliders and other native animals. Yet it seems that a vocal minority of unreasonable farmers and salivating developers refuse accommodate wildlife. To them habitat means commercial obstacles. They prefer short-term profits even if it brings long-term devastation.

The Native Vegetation Act’s land-clearing controls which have saved hundreds of thousands of hectares from the bulldozer and chainsaw are based on good science. More than 1 million animal deaths over 10 years have been avoided according to expert ecologists. That’s more than 100,000 native animals who have escaped death each year thanks to the Native Vegetation Act.

Under the proposed legislation thousands of possums, quolls, koalas and

gliders will be killed, at a time when so much wildlife is under pressure. Already Australia has one of the highest rates of species extinction in the world. Almost 1,000 plant and animal species are at risk. NSW’s population of koalas has declined by 40% in the last 20 years alone.

‘Biodiversity offsets’ are to become the new ‘accounting’ solution to environmental loss and degradation. However offsets are just another ‘weasel’ mechanism to allow environmental vandalism.

Through the extensive use of Ministerial power, the Bill removes almost all grounds for appealing land clearing impacts of a development in court. The Minister for Environment is given broad discretionary power to regulate offset processes. This removes avenues for court appeal when environmental assessments ignore endangered species,

and removes avenues for appeal against the merits of proposals.

Of course the Bill proposes appeal rights for developers and farmers, including for those caught doing the wrong thing, such as appeals for illegal clearing, failure to meet conservation offset actions or if you are refused a licence to harm a protected species.

The Bill proposes that Minister for the Environment can determine government developments as he sees fit and in the unlikely event the Minister refuses a proposal of another government Department, then that Department can submit it to the Premier to resolve (quoting the Bill) ‘as the premier thinks fit’.

And why would we want to risk NSW going back to the destructive days of land clearing where tens of thousands of hectares of native bushland were bulldozed every year? Land-clearing controls are also vital to ensure Australia keeps its international promise to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The Federal Opposition thinks so too, and has proposed to intervene to prevent land clearing being proposed in NSW. Trees and vegetation are critical carbon sinks and air cleansers. It is sheer madness for the NSW Government to allow land clearing to return on a massive scale.

The Biodiversity Conserv-ation Bill is so bad that offset sites are not always in perpetuity but can be cleared by simply ‘offsetting the offset’. Mining rights and mining

THE COLONG FOUNDATION FOR WILDERNESS LTD2/332 Pitt Street Sydney NSW 2000 (AbN 84 001 112 143)

TELEPHONE: (02) 9261 2400 FAX: (02) 9261 2144 EMAIL: foundation@colongwilderness.org.au WEbSITE: www.colongwilderness.org.au

PATRON: The Hon. Bob Carr, BA (Hons), Hon. LittD. • DIRECTORS: John Robens (Chair); Ian Tanner (Hon. Secretary);  Janine Kitson (Vice-Chair); Henry Gold, O.A.M. (Hon. Photographer); Albert Renshaw (Hon. Treasurer); Alex Allchin; 

Sierra Classen, BA (Hons); Alan Dixon; Fiona McCrossin, B.Sc., Dip.Ed., PGDip.Env.Stud;  Pat Thompson, L.C.P.; Haydn Washington, B.A., M.Sc., PhD; Kevin Jiang.

DIRECTOR: Keith Muir, O.A.M., B. Nat. Res. Hons. • HON. MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY: Alan Dixon HON. FIRE OFFICER: Ian Brown, O.A.M., BSc. • HON. BULLETIN DESIGN & TYPESETTING: Jenni Gormley 

The Colong bulletin • Editor: Pat Thompson; Asst. Editor: bruce Diekman

ISSN 1325-3336 • Printed by SpotPrint, Marrickville

Aerial of land clearing in western NSW making a potential desert land, before the clearing bans.

cont’d on p.3

3 colong bulletin May 2016 #263

Pells report on coal mining and swamp damageIN October last year Pells Consulting was commissioned by the Colong Foundation and the Blue Mountains Conservation Society to review evidence of near surface groundwater impacts on Newnes Plateau swamps from longwall mining at Springvale Mine. The report, which is on the Colong Foundation website, followed planning approval in September 2015 to extend the longwall mining area by 1,860 hectares.

The report confirms that dramatic swamp impacts from future mining will be irreparable. Pells Consulting concluded that the mining extension will slowly desiccate more Newnes Plateau swamps, changing their ecology forever. The report’s findings are consistent with longwall mining being a key threatening process for swamps and directly contradict the negligible impact claims made by Centennial Coal in its environmental assessments. A

Department of Planning and Environment draft swamp offset policy apparently relies on Centennial’s viewpoint.

Springvale’s extension consent allows 29 nationally endangered swamps to be undermined because impacts (endorsed by the Planning Assessment Commission) are expected to be ‘negligible’.

The Pells report also found that Centennial Coal’s groundwater monitoring is inconclusive because past baseline monitoring of swamps records data over too short a timeframe. Further, the report states that Centennial’s theory to justify its claim of minor swamp impacts is based on assumptions that are not supported by any evidence.

False and misleading claims of negligible swamp impacts

Centennial claimed in the extension’s 2014 environmental impact statement (EIS) that there would be negligible swamp

impacts from its longwall mining and that there had been no past swamp impacts attributable to longwall mining. Conservationists who have witnessed the dry swamps on Newnes Plateau associated with undermined areas know that the company’s swamp claims are false and misleading.

The Colong Foundation recently wrote to NSW Planning Minister, the Hon. Rob Stokes about Centennial’s inconsistent swamp damage evidence. Our letter quoted a Centennial consultant who  admitted  that  Junction Swamp was damaged by longwall mining in 2005. Nine years later, Centennial’s EIS consultants asserted in the extension EIS that no damage had occurred to the same swamp.  Junction  Swamp  is now a barren ‘moonscape’ compared to what it once was.

The V-notch weir that used to measure flows from Junction swamp was removed when flows ceased. Yet according to Centennial Coal EIS, “no water level changes that can be attributed to longwall mining have been observed.”

Weak swamp offsetsThe Springvale mine

extension may be one of the last major developments in NSW to receive a separate approval by the Federal Minister for the Environment. The Federal Government has moved to hand over its approval powers

to the states but the legislative changes are currently held up in the Senate.

The Federal approval for Springvale reveals problems with the proposed handover. The Federal approval contains a number of conditions to protect swamps and threatened species that are absent from the weaker NSW consent.

Under the draft NSW swamp offset policy, these nationally threatened environments that are damaged by coal mining can be traded for the protection of other less threatened environments. Offset funds can even be spent on mine rehabilitation. The draft NSW swamp offset policy ignores avoidance measures, the only measures that really protect swamps. ■

STOP PRESS

In the six months since Springvale mine extension was approved, shallow groundwater aquifers have collapsed under Sunnyside East and Carne West Swamps, and the Carne West Waterfall has stopped flowing. Impacts on waterfalls were not considered in the Springvale EIS. The next swamps at risk are the Gang Gang swamps, which have a spectacular waterfall below them. The NSW Government must act! No more waterfalls, streams or swamps should be lost to Centennial’s Coal’s environmental abuse and lack of care.

Due to longwall mining, Carne West Waterfall has ceased flowing.

The waterfall below the Gang Gang Swamps will be lost if longwall mining under swamps is not stopped. Photo: K. Muir

prospecting override offset sites and their landowners. Offset sites can be developed with consent from the Minister for Environment for ‘a purpose of special significance to the state’.

And no need to have offsets available, a development can proceed by payment into a Biodiversity Conservation Fund. Shortages of offsets are likely to be frequent - a current example is the Badgerys Creek Airport development which refuses to pay to secure offsets for endangered Marsdenia viridiflora.

NSW needs stronger biodiversity laws–not the weaker ones proposed. We need a new vision to protect, restore and ensure resilience for our precious biodiversity, so that our future generations can enjoy a walk through the bush and be delighted by its precious wildlife.

Please do what you can to support a New Deal for Nature. Visit the Nature Conservation Council of NSW website on nature laws where you can send a message to Premier Baird demanding he protects nature. Follow conservation group websites, which will soon have a submission guides to stop this legislation. ■

War Against Naturecont’d from p.2

4 colong bulletin May 2016 #263

Kosciuszko National Park – the heat’s on

CLIMATE scientists estimate that by 2050 rainfall in south-east Australia will reduce

by a quarter, and bushfires will dramatically increase in frequency and intensity. Associated increases in night time minimum temperatures will also mean a decline in snow cover and contraction of the alpine region to above 1850 metres for Kosciuszko, our largest national park.

Australia’s alpine region once covered just 250 km2 or 0.003% of the continent–it’s now shrinking and becoming even more fragmented.

There are rays of hope. The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) believe outbreaks of hawkweed can be controlled using sniffer dogs to detect it. This exciting re-purposing of sniffer dogs will enable isolated occurrences of the weed to be found and eradicated.

The Man from Snowy River abuses Kosciuszko National Park

Climate adaptation programs require that pest species management be intensified to relieve pressure on threatened species, such as the Mountain Pygmy Possum, which are being challenged by climate change.

The feral horse policy of trapping and domestication is an expensive failure. Despite 2,000 feral horses being removed from the park in the last five years, horse numbers

increased from 4,200 in 2009 to 6,000 in 2014 (Australian Alps Liaison Committee, 2014). The NPWS re-released large numbers of captured horses into the park because the animals, including pregnant mares, were unfit for transport. As a result, only 135 horses were removed from the park in 2015.

Feral horses increase soil erosion and fill water reservoirs with sediment. The dirty run-off increases maintenance costs on Snowy-hydro infrastructure. Catchment monitoring is reporting that many alpine catchments are in a poor or moderate condition due to feral horses (R. Good 2015) and over a third of wetlands in the Australian Alps are degraded by these pests (Porfirio et al, 2014). Disturbed wetlands dry out more quickly, so less water flows to irrigators downstream and the swamps are then prone to burning from more frequent fires, accelerating the damage.

Irrational ‘Man from Snowy River’ attitudes have demanded horse trapping that is ineffective, costly, inhumane and environmentally damaging. Aerial culling is the most effective and humane method of removing large numbers of horses. The ban on aerial culling was recently confirmed by the NSW Government as part of the current feral horse policy review, condemning our largest park to further degradation.

Other developmentsManagement reviews

underway for Kosciuszko advance a ‘vision’ for the national park not only as a horse ranch, but also cheap real estate for resort development.

The Colong Foundation is concerned that Kosciuszko resorts are now large enough to dictate changes to park management that ensure four-season operation for greater profit.

The global trend to four-season development in ski resorts is a twisted form of climate change adaptation. In Kosciuszko this trend is being expressed in greater numbers of bike and horse riding adventures, as well as events unrelated to park values, such

as using resorts for concerts and conferences.

In responding to these pressures the NPWS must take a strong stand to maximise the protection of our unique alpine and subalpine ecosystems. The review of resort carrying capacity must retain existing bed numbers in the plan of management and limit carpark space numbers to curb the growth in day visitors to resorts. These limits would push development of public transport and off-park resorts, benefiting local communities.

The draft cycling strategy also places an emphasis on track construction, while consideration of nature-based family cycling on existing

management roads outside wilderness, say around Tantangara Dam, has been largely ignored. There is also a push for more commercial bike tours in the Jagungal and Pilot wilderness.

There is much that should be done to enhance both visitation and enjoyment through improved promotion of Kosciuszko, including the provision of more information on the geology, flora and fauna of the parks, and reasons for their protection. Instead of spending money on building mountain bike trails or horse riding in wilderness, the NPWS should promote park values and appropriate, low-impact visitor

Four season recreation to support seven multistorey apartment blocks proposed for Perisher in a twisted form of climate change adaption. Photo: F. McCrossin

Federal and NSW Governments approve National Park loggingIn February, Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt sanctioned logging in Murray Valley National Park after it had been approved by the NSW Government. Disguised as a scientific trial, the logging is a sop to the local community who can use the felled trees for firewood. Forty-four sites totalling over 400 hectares have been selected for logging this year. These sites will then be monitored for five years.

The dense stands of red gums in the national park do not need thinning – they are a natural

response to flooding and thin themselves over a number of years. A real ecological problem requiring further management intervention is the low frequency and insufficient volume of environmental flows causing dieback.

Approval by the Federal Environment Minister was required because the area to be logged is also part of an internationally significant Ramsar-listed wetland. Morgana Russell, co-ordinator for the Friends of the Earth believes the ‘scientific’ trial shows that the

Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act is ‘flawed and weak’.

NSW Environment Minister Mark Speakman declares that the logging is not commercial, but it is a small step from approved free firewood collection to commercial firewood harvesting.

River red gums sprout when there is a flood and a mass of seedlings is a natural response to inundation after decades of livestock grazing, timber harvesting and river-flow regulation has opened up the forest canopy.

Friends of the Earth’s Ms Russell, though, says there is no way to guarantee that cutting down trees in an internationally recognised wetland “will not disturb, degrade and destroy habitat and species’ homes”.

References: Hannam, P., 29/2/2016, Perverse’ science: Greg Hunt gives nod to logging in new red gum national park, SMH; and Morgana Russell, 28/2/2016, http://www.melbourne.foe.org.au/logging_national_parks, Friends of the Earth, Melbourne.

cont’d on p.5

5 colong bulletin May 2016 #263

Featured WilderNeSS

Curracabundi

CU R R A C A B U N D I Wilderness north-west of Gloucester in the upper Manning

River catchment contains a broad range of vegetation types from dry rainforest to rare grassy-box gum woodlands. More than 400 species of trees, shrubs, ferns, herbs and grasses provide habitat for threatened wildlife including forest owls, the Yellow-bellied Glider, Spotted-tailed Quolls, the Hastings River Mouse and Koalas. Its creeks are home to platypus and Mernot Ridge west of Monkeycot Bluff is a haven for the endangered Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby.

Curracabundi,was declared in February 2011, and remains the state’s newest wilderness. Its 34,000 hectares were ‘built’ from five separate reserves through a series of strategic acquisitions, mostly with the Dunphy Wilderness Fund, supplemented by property gifted to the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife.

Like many national parks, Curracabundi’s distribution of rare flora and fauna is poorly known, creating problems for pest and fire management. Wild dog baits and fire management in the wrong places can increase weed infestation, kill Spotted-tail Quolls or expose Brush-tailed Rock Wallabies to predation.

Doing nothing is not an option. This wilderness requires constant management to restore balance to its dynamic natural systems. This is particularly true for the 700 hectares of previously grazed grasslands on valley flats, logged areas and the widespread infestations of lantana, mistflower and Crofton weed. These problems are significant but manageable, provided tensions over visitor use do not lead to mismanagement.

Most visitor use issues are resolved comfortably. There are three camp grounds with Jacky Bakers and Myall Creek accessed from Thunderbolts Way and Woko on the Manning River accessed from Curricabark Road. There is

also a walk-in camp ground on Myall Creek and these facilities satisfy most people.

The problems with horse riding

The Bicentennial National Trail (BNT) is much more contentious. It currently passes to the north of Curracabundi. Adjoining landowners have not permitted access through the park as recreational riders are an insurance risk and have spread  St  John’s Wort  onto  at least one property. This weed is present around horse yards in Curracabundi National Park at Karamea homestead and on the Curricabark River. These yards will be used by riders, raising reasonable fears of an outbreak of this noxious weed.

Even more contentious is a proposed wilderness horse riding trial that is in the draft plan of management and will be conducted using yards where St  John’s  Wort  has  been  a problem. This trial is in addition to horse riding trials underway in other wilderness areas. The trial is proposed to loop around Mernot Creek using Karamea Homestead as its base. The homestead has had a million dollar renovation and offers flat screen TV, a dishwasher, a kitchen to die for and an outdoor entertainment area. As the area is remote, riders may head into the wilderness to destinations like Monkeycot on the Barnard River, as well as use the trial route, spreading St John’s Wort as they go.

The draft plan of management has flagged the development of a feral horse management plan. Instead, a comprehensive pest management plan must be developed in partnership with neighbours and local community members sympathetic to the management of park values through effective pest control. A repeat of feral horse mismanagement in the Alps would be a disaster.

Future additions Instead of funding

wilderness degradation

through horse riding, Curracabundi should be consolidated by the acquisition of Crown leases in Mernot and Tuggolo State Forests. The wedge of steep escarpment land in Mernot State Forest is reserved from logging and should be added as a priority – its addition would eliminate a major incursion into the declared wilderness and better connect Watchimbark Nature Reserve with Curracabundi National Park.

To the west is the 3,700 hectares of diverse woodlands straddling the Barnard River to Curracabundi National Park gifted through the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife. This large block should be linked with the rest of the wilderness, by adding part of Tuggolo State Forest and leasehold land with no timber production value when it becomes available for acquisition.

To secure these future additions, Crown lease forests should be placed under Part 11 provisions of the National Parks and Wildlife Act. One other lease in Tuggolo State Forest along Myall Creek is already vested with the Minister for the Environment and will one day be added to the wilderness.

The adjoining State Conservation Area should be converted to national park status and also declared wilderness. Through all these actions Curracabundi Wilderness can be expanded up to 40,000 hectares. Such an enlarged wilderness is less impacted by ‘edge effects’. Wilderness offers the best survival chance for essentially static habitats. Most of Curracabundi’s threatened plants and animals are habitat specialists and those habitats are unlikely to move quickly enough to respond to accelerated climate change.

In an expanded wilderness

it is more likely there will be places where interconnected habitat survives undamaged following, for example, a series of climate change induced wildfires. Given effective management, these undamaged parts can ‘rewild’ the affected but connected habitat areas with wildlife. That is the real beauty of wilderness.

You can help by making a submission to the Curracabundi National Park draft plan of management, which is on public exhibition until 30 May 2016. The draft plan can be found on the Office of Environment and Heritage website. ■

A major stretch of the Barnard River was protected on both banks by a land purchase negotiated by the Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife but the owners wish to reserve it in the wilderness is yet to be fulfilled. Photo: L. Gale

use. This will encourage more visitors who share these values to use the park, instead of the providing more facilities for the ‘thrills and spills’ downhill, mountain bike users and Man from Snowy River types that do not.

The NPWS must build political strength for its mission of reducing environmental damage and restoring heritage values through effective management. Kosciuszko National Park is now suffering because the NPWS has

appeased those who do not care about park values.

The future of our alpine regions is grim. Kosciuszko National Park is crucial for the survival of many native plant and animal species which, already under threat, are now grappling with climate change. Rather than exacerbating these threats by increasing development and high impact visitor use, support for no more development in Kosciuszko National Park must be strengthened through encouraging friends of national parks. ■

Kosciusko Nat Parkcont’d from p.4

6 colong bulletin May 2016 #263

thank you for your supportOur campaigns are not possible without your financial support which enables us to resource our office to help protect wilderness areas. The following members and supporters made a donation to the Colong Foundation in 2015:

Christopher Armstrong, Valerie Atkinson, Wendy Au, Suzanne Aubrun, Cath Barcan, Marg Beal, Bruce Bellingham, Tim Bidder, Rosemary Bilton, Kaye Birch, John Blanche, Rod Blundell, Anne Bond, Anthony Bond, Martin Bouman, Ian Brown, Richard Brymora, The Bush Club, John Butler, Dennis Byrne, Susan Caffin, Jafar Calley, Anne Carey, Janet Cavanaugh, E Chapman-Wade, Warwick Chate, Sophie Clausen, Valerie Clews, Catherine Cloran, The Coast and Mountain Walkers of NSW, Garth Coghlan, Frances Colley, Charles Colman, Peter Cook, Anna Coote, James Cordukes, Ross Coster, Andrew Cox & Philippa Walsh, Les Coyne, Mandy Creighton, Emlyn Crockett, Sharyn Cullis, Graham Daly, Dave Dash, John Davoren, Denise Dent, Alan Dixon, Ian Edwards, Michael

Ellwood, Erik Eriksson, Margaret Esson, Arnold Ewald, Joy Fleming, Gavin Fox, Colin Gibson, Howard Gilmore, Henry Gold, David Harmer, Gary Hayes, David Henson, Dilshara Hill, John Holliday, Amanda Holohan, Mary Holt, Jocelyn Howell, Patricia Huang, Ron Hume, Simon Hunter, Lani Imhof & Michael Smith, Christopher Jewell, Anthony Kay, Michael Keats, Agnes Keen, David & Judy Kelly, Christina Kirsch, Judy Kowalski, Peter Krinks & Vera Yee, Errol Kruger, Meg Kwon, Phil Laird, Anne Lanyon, James Lawler, Jane Lemann, Manfred Lenzen, A Keith Lethlean, Tjoan Lie, Sue Lightfoot, Patrick Longfield, Akos Lumnitzer, Simon Lynch, Robert Mackenzie, Andrew Macqueen, Betty Mason, Anne McKenzie, Karen McLaughlin, Dennis McManus, Peter Medbury, John Menyhart, Jason

Middleweek, Bevan Miller, Hodaka Morita, David Mossop, Keith Muir, Brendan Murphy, Ted Nixon, David Noble, Elizabeth Oates, Oatley Flora and Fauna Conservation Society, Robert & Sally O’Neill, Chuin Nee Ooi, Kenneth Parkhouse, William Pixton, Brendon Plaza McCune, Ralph Pliner, Sybil Pliner, Robin Plumb, Edwin Plummer, Anne Reeves, Albert Renshaw, Lesley Revell, Diana Rich, James Rivers, Emma Rooksby, Gabriele Rummel, Alan Sauran, Lynne Saville, Matthew Scott, ShareGift Australia, Troy Shiels, Ian Smith & Sandra Berry, Mark Smith, Leone Snowden, John Stephenson, Susan Stevens, Richard Stiles, Celia Symonds, Nathan Szalanski, Bob Taffel, Ian Tanner, Ruth Toop, Alexa Troedson, Lenka Uvirova, Leta van der Wal, Geri Vaughan, Glenn Vickery, Dierk von Behrens, Ingrid Voorneveld Morley, Mailis Wakeham, Timothy Walsh, Margery White, John Whitehouse, Craig Whitford, Tommy Wiedmann, Kevin

Williams, Ian R & C M Williamson, Philip Worledge, Sonia Wray, John Wrigley and Andrew Zelnik.

SUPPORTING OUR FUTURE

Leaving a lasting legacy or making a gift in memory of a loved one can be easily done, and whatever you chose to give will make a difference.

Lloyd Jones a long serving member of the Colong Foundation, keen bushwalker and environmentalist was recently remembered in this way by his niece Christine Gatehouse. Lloyd, a friend of Alex Colley, was an artist who enjoyed crafting pen and ink drawings to illustrate articles in the Colong Bulletin from the early 1970s till the late 1990s. If everyone who enjoyed wilderness left a small legacy or bequest or was remembered with a gift, then wilderness protection would be assured.

BOOK reVieW

Wild SwimmingSydney Australia: 250 Best Rock Pools, Beaches, Rivers & Waterholes by Sally Tertini and Steve Pollard Wild Things Publishing, bath, UK , RRP $25.48

review by john robens

WILD Swimming in the words of Keith Muir, director of the Colong Foundation for Wilderness, shows that “NSW has everything”. I have always loved swimming and with two small boys I am in need of more swimming options. My friends were talking about the book and it had the word ‘wild’ in the title. So I bought it.

Wild Swimming shows off our wonderful country at its best–the photography is stunning and creative with no fuzzy phone photos to be seen.

Some grumble about the apparent ‘gender imbalance’ in the photos selected. Applying our rigorous statistical skills to the book’s first 40 pages, we found 13 landscapes enhanced with the female form and 5 with the male. These are almost exclusively shots of the author by photographer Steve Pollard, so this quibble can be blown right out of the water!

Others have unfairly re-

titled the book ‘Skinny-dipping near Sydney’. Again in the first 40 pages there are only 3 shots featuring this natural style of bathing, and all are artistic. Who hasn’t skinny-dipped occasionally? It’s free and easy and saves you getting

your pack gear wet. Kids might change this, even a couple skinny-dipping at the bottom of Wentworth Falls, who were happy to frolic in front of a coach load of tourists with cameras, put their gear on when they saw us with our children. At a wonderful pool near Lawson I recently witnessed a ‘linen-clad’ group kick out naturists in some sort of Blue Mountains-scale culture war! Wild Swimming describes this little pool near Lawson, taking the opportunity to mention its environment has been cleaned up thanks to years of Blue Mountains’ sewerage and storm water containment.

The book is invariably up-beat. There are a couple of warnings, including picking your time at Dargans to avoid ‘bogans’ and that Mermaid’s pool is not kid friendly. I’d add a few more, particularly about bad toilet habits common in some places and a few more ‘don’t poo near here’ tips, but perhaps I’m nit-picking. [I would add a warning against

blindly jumping into pools - Ed.]

Any guide book is likely to be controversial with conservationists or with locals who see a place as ‘their own’. Wild Swimming gives explicit co-ordinates and short but detailed directions to the swimming spots. It does contain a few pools where others have purposely avoided publishing locations but on balance there are so many already popular pools that it seems unlikely the book will direct hordes to sites of conservation significance.

‘Wild’ to the authors is any natural place to swim, not somewhere remote from human influence–the book features Bondi Icebergs and other Sydney harbourside pools. Other pools have probably always been popular and are naturally becoming more so. At Mermaid’s pool I counted 100 people, but missed the opportunity to survey them to see how many had looked it up in Wild Swimming.

Some areas mentioned, such as the upper Kowmung aren’t likely to be a quick dip destination with the family, regardless of publication. There are a few other odd inclusions, such as the Royal National Park’s Figure of 8 pool which requires care just to get into (the rock platform here is only safe at low tide, massive rogue waves recently injuring scores of visitors) and Grand Canyon, which would only be an attractive swimming destination to extremely photosensitive souls who like very cold water. My favourite swimming holes, the tunnel swim after Claustral Canyon, Bungleboori and one north of Bells line of Road aren’t mentioned which is fine with me! Exploring our bush is at least half the fun.

Wild Swimming took the authors five years of research–what a splendid and fun project! ■

7 colong bulletin May 2016 #263

No Western Sydney Airport campaign updateby ross coster

AN effective alliance has been forged from the Blue Mountains Conservation Society’s No Western Sydney Airport Sub-Committee (NWSA), No Badgerys Creek Airport (NoBCA) and Residents Against Western Sydney Airport (RAWSA) to oppose the Airport proposal.

These groups have met with Local Federal Member for Macquarie, Louise Markus, Blue Mountains’ Mayor, Mark Greenhill, State Member Trish Doyle, Senator Doug Cameron, Susan Templeman (Labor for Macquarie), Terry Morgan (Greens for Macquarie), Ed Husic (Labor Chifley), Michelle Rowland (Labor Greenway), and even Bill Shorten.

Paul Goleby (RAWSA)

engaged with Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull at a meeting in Glenbrook pushing for a aircraft curfew in the interests of equity.

NoBCA organised a well-attended Forum at Blacktown where Blacktown Mayor Stephen Bali expressed his strong opposition to an airport in Western Sydney.

Bob Treasure, a member of NWSA, organised a Greens High Speed Rail (HSR) Forum at Warrimoo, which was interesting and very well attended. David Ballantine from Beyond Zero presented their HSR plan.

Mark Greenhill has convened a Mayoral Reference Panel to pursue Council’s opposition to the Airport. Councillors and community members, including myself and Peter

Dollin (RAWSA President), are working together with this Panel. Councillors Myles, Van Der Kley and Bennett are strong opponents of the Airport.

RAWSA continues to demonstrate at multiple sites each month. They have printed hundreds of corflutes on recycled material and are also selling t-shirts to raise awareness. Our banner turns up at every demonstration and over twenty thousand flyers have been letterboxed into western Sydney’s marginal seats.

If you want to help, contact nwsa@bluemountains.org.au.

Below: Residents opposing a Western Sydney Airport were relegated to the other side of the highway when Malcolm Turnbull attended a morning tea in Glenbrook last March.

New Flora Reserves for the Far South CoastIN March, the NSW Government created four Flora Reserves totalling 12,000 hectares between Bermagui and Bega. The reserve additions unite Mimosa Rocks, Biamanga and Bermagui national parks creating a much larger connected conservation area protecting the habitat of the last koala colony on the NSW South Coast.

In addition to koalas, the habitat of 25 threatened species, including the long-nosed potoroo, the yellow-bellied glider and the powerful owl will benefit from these new Flora Reserves.

Conservationists welcomed

these reserves as another step towards a Great Southern Forest park stretching from Nowra to the Victorian border, which will benefit tourism and permit the reintroduction of threatened koalas into suitable forests in the Batemans Bay area to the north.

Some are concerned that these new Flora Reserves were the only option Minister Speakman could negotiate through Cabinet. Others fear that these reserves herald a step towards ‘tenure-blind land management’. At the same time logging has been mooted for the new Flora Reserves by the Member for Bega, Andrew

Constance in the not too distant future (ABC South East 16 March, 2016).

In another development, log haulage is to be subsidised by a $2.5 million grant from the Environmental Trust, permitting logging further north and ensuring sawlog supply for the Bega region is maintained.

This arrangement means more logging trucks on the Princes Highway, at least till the grant money runs out. A better use of Environmental Trust funds would be a partial buyout of the Bega sawlog quota, rather than a forest industry subsidy.

How photography can save wildernessThe Colong Foundation’s honorary photographer, Henry Gold OAM, recently shared his insights at a well-attended National Parks Association/WEA course in March.

Henry recalled how as a teenager he was fascinated by a book his father owned called ‘Wonders of the World’. It had a chapter on Australia, featuring views of the Blue Mountains that were so different to the Austrian Alps he knew, with their valleys populated with chateaus and villages. Australia’s pristine mountain ranges motivated Henry to join the Sydney Bushwalkers after he arrived from Europe in 1955.

When bushwalker and photographer Alan Rigby unexpectedly died during the battle to save Colong caves from limestone mining, Henry stepped in and took up the role of the Colong Foundation’s honorary photographer, the role he continues to this day.

Henry recounted how saving the scenic Kanangra-Boyd wilderness in the southern Blue Mountains was in part due to a lobby book, lavishly illustrated with black and white images, that influenced NSW decision-makers to preserve this beautiful area. These photos and others from later campaigns were then compiled into the Blue Mountains World Heritage coffee table book.

Henry explained how the Blue Mountains became World Heritage listed. He told how the World Heritage Committee was “quite undecided up to the last moment” about whether to list the Greater Blue Mountains. One wonders if a book of Henry’s photographs helped persuade the Committee to unanimously support the World Heritage Listing of the Blue Mountains?

Henry has taken photographs of wilderness in Kakadu, the NSW rainforests, the Snowy Mountains and Central Australia. His photos were pivotal in the creation of the West MacDonnell National Park.

There will be an opportunity for the public to view some of Henry Gold’s outstanding wilderness photographs at the upcoming Gardens of Stone exhibition.

CELEBRATING

WILDERN

ESS 60.00 �

Edited by Ian Brown, this spectacularly illustrated book with 46 full-page colour wilderness photographs by Rob Jung, David Neilson, Rob Blakers and Ian Brown is essential reading for wilderness supporters (120pp)

WILD PLACES

27.50 �The meticulously researched, beautifully written book on wilderness by Peter Prineas with photographs by Henry Gold (285pp)

BLUE MO

UNTAIN

S WO

RLD HERITAGE

50.00 �Alex Colley and Henry Gold’s description of the 67 year campaign

culminating in World Heritage listing. (136pp)

SUSTAINABILITY

20.00 �Alex Colley provides his vision on a sustainable future. (90pp)

THE GARDEN

S OF STO

NE VISITO

RS MAP

7.50 �A full colour double sided touring map and guide to the attractions of the Gardens of Stone reserve proposal

THE BATTLE FOR THE BUSH

27.50 �Geoff Mosley’s account of the genesis of the nature conservation movement and saving of the Blue Mountains environment (174pp)

MYLES DUN

PHY (SELECTED W

RITING

S) 43.95 �CLASSIC BUSH

WALKIN

G M

APS by Myles Dunphy(Gangerang and Kowmung Maps)

6.00ea �

LIVING

WITH THE DIN

GO

19.00 �

by Adam O’Neill (107pp)

ALL PRICES INCLUDE PO

STAGE

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NDATIO

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THE CO

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UNDATION FO

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ILDERNESSLevel 2, 332 Pitt Street, Sydney NSW

2000

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ABOUT THE COLONG FOUNDATIONThe Colong Foundation, the successor to Myles Dunphy’s National Parks and Primitive Areas Council, is Australia’s longest-serving community advocate for wilderness. Its proposal for a Wilderness Act was accepted in 1987. To supplement this legislation, our Red Index, audits NSW

wilderness areas, identifies threats and formulates site specific protection remedies. There are now 2,100,000 ha of protected wilderness in NSW

. However, many beautiful and environmentally highly significant wilderness areas are not protected, such as the Pilliga and Goonoo on the north west slopes, the Deua Valley on the South Coast and the Tabletop and Main Range in the Snowy Mountains.The Colong Foundation for W

ilderness has had a long and successful history. From its foundation in 1968 until 1975 it was the fighting force that prevented limestone mining and the destruction of native forest for pine plantations in the southern Blue Mountains. The Foundation not only played a leading role in realising Myles Dunphy’s plan for a Greater Blue Mountains National Park, it pushed for its W

orld Heritage listing, as well as the reservation of a Border Ranges National Park and Kakadu National Park. It has initiated successful campaigns for the protection of over a million hectares of wilderness in NSW

.The realisation of Myles Dunply’s vision of a comprehensive system of national parks with protected wilderness areas remains the primary objective of the Colong Foundation.Now, more than ever, the Foundation needs your support. W

ell financed and powerful rural interests, miners, loggers, resort developers, as well as four wheel drive enthusiasts, horse

riders and others, have greatly increased the threats facing Australia’s wild places.Only with your help, through continued membership and donations, can the Foundation continue its campaigns for the preservation of the natural environment

and effective nature-based national park management, and by concentrating on wilderness, these rare areas can be kept safe from development and misuse.

Bulletin back page, 03/15