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Wednesday, January 18, 2006
The Shame Of Wonnangatta Wonnangatta Station is a place of myth, legend and haunting beauty lying deep in a valley surrounded by the majestic mountains of Gippsland, Victoria. For more than a century it was a working cattle station despite its remoteness and isolation. But in 1988 the Victorian Government, specifically Joan Kirner, then Minister for Conservation, Forests and Lands, in a blatant act of revenge against Mountain Cattlemen managed to block the sale of the station to a new owner and found $500,000 to deliver it into the hands of the state. Why revenge? Because three years earlier Mountain Cattlemen had ridden on Melbourne to support the opposition in a re-election for the tied seat of Nunawading. Victory would have given Mrs Kirner's party, the ALP, control of Victoria's Upper House for the first time in the state's history. But it wasn't to be. The voters, supporting the right of the Mountain Cattlemen to graze their high country runs transformed the tied vote of the first election into a 10,000 vote majority for The Opposition. So, the purchase of Wonnangatta was Joan Kirner's vengeance. Wonnangatta had long been renowned as the heartland of the mountain cattlemen and stood right at the heart of our culture. No doubt Mrs Kirner was satisfied at the time but as a former Minister for Conservation she should now be ashamed. The famed Wonnangatta Valley is in a mess. In 18 years of government proprietorship a dirt road has been bulldozed through the station, and a few toilets and signs erected. Otherwise it has become derelict, smothered with long, rank grass and noxious weeds like St John's Wort, blackberry and sweet briar. It is a fire trap and according to a Country Fire Authority captain who measured the fuel load recently the danger is between 15 to 30 times above what is normally considered extreme. Tour operators are becoming wary. One well known bush family who take horse tours into the valley won't enter it during the danger month of February because of the extreme risk. This is how the Australian Labor Party treats both Australian heritage and the environment. Kill off the heritage, lock up the country and leave it to go to rack and ruin only to be burned beyond recognition and recovery by devastating wildfires when the conditions are right. When I rode into Wonnangatta 10 days ago it was with mixed feelings - a sense of delight at being back and a nagging sadness and anger at the state of the place. It carries a sense of abandonment. Thus, in at least one sense it is the fate of Wonnangatta that drives Mountain Cattlemen on in the fight to retain our high country gazing licences. The grand green dream of an Alpine National Park stretching from the Baw Baws in the south to Canberra in the north has become both a reality and a nightmare. The government lacks the resources to manage such a vast area and to lock out traditional land carers who can provide a valuable presence, experience and expertise in management of the country is sheer folly. When will government realise that a few short years of university and more years locked away in the offices and classrooms of academia, with the occasional field trip and study, does not equip anyone to manage or make recommendations on management for such a vast and diverse region? We keep hearing about "the science." The science says this and the science says that. The truth is that the science is so contradictory that there is no scientific consensus on how best to manage alpine Victoria, how to protect it from wildfire and conserve its beauty and grandeur for future generations. The management science of the Victorian government at present, urged on by lobby groups such as the Victorian National Parks Association, is to lock up the country, forget about it and let nature take its course. That is how they treat Victoria's cultural and environmental heritage. Nature will take its course, sooner or later, and when it does there will be precious little left of what used to be for future generations to enjoy. Blogger News Network is advertiser-supported, and your visits to our advertisers help BNN to meet its expenses. Help keep us afloat! posted by Great Divide at 1:03 PM |
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