It's good news week (for the marine environment)

Courtesy of Jim Grainger

Yesterday a friend complimented me on UNESCO to the rescue of the Reef (June 2012). She added, however, that I should report on some good environmental news in Australia. This got me thinking. It would be difficult, not necessarily because there isn't any, but because my idea of good news – Environmental Impact Statements having to be overseen by independent agencies rather than the mining companies themselves; more controlled tourist access to the Great Barrier Reef and Fraser Island; greater and lasting protection of nature reserves and refuges in the National Reserve System – wouldn't be the same as the mining industry's, or Tourism Queensland's, or those of many Australians who are conned into equating 'greenie' policy with fewer jobs.


But on Tuesday came environmental news you would expect, on the face of it, most people to welcome. Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke announced a network of marine parks around the coast of Australia that will be the largest in the world. The network consists of five main zones, each of which is subdivided into a complex patchwork including marine national parks, habitat protection zones, recreational use zones, special purpose zones and multiple use zones: 2.3 million sq km will be preserved in one form of reserve or another, and 85 million sq km fully protected in sanctuaries, the marine equivalent of national parks. Certain areas will be off-limits to oil and gas exploration and commercial fishing, and the protection of reefs in the Coral Sea will be extended.


For detailed maps of the marine reserves see http://www.abc.net.au/
news/2012-06-14/australian-marine-reserves-maps/4069666


Despite a whiff of conspiracy theory on ABC Brisbane – this legislation is intended to thwart the new Queensland government's economic recovery plans for the state – such a policy has been in the making for years. Discussions about marine reserves first started under Paul Keating's government in the 1990s, continued under John Howard, and have come to fruition since Kevin Rudd's election in 2007. There has been much lobbying along the way by environmental groups who combined and co-ordinated expertise and effort in 'a shared vision of an Australia that is still wild and free' (The Wilderness Society).


There is no doubt in my mind that this announcement is good news for one of this nation's greatest natural assets and it sets a fine example globally. There are other marine areas that could and should be included, but this is an enormous first step. Fairly inevitably, there are those who are disgruntled, doom-and-gloomist and downright outraged. Step up fishers, commercial and recreational. According to the Prime Minister, who's been in Brisbane this week talking up Australian business prospects and was interviewed on local radio, only one per cent of commercial fishing will be affected, and about $100 million will be made available to assist those whose businesses are badly affected.


But this from Queensland National Party Senator Ron Boswell, on Tony Burke's plans:

'He will be leaving a devastated commercial fishing industry, charter boat industry and 5 million recreational fishermen in his wake... If these marine parks proceed the financial fallout will be widespread and will not only affect commercial and recreational fishermen, but the charter boat industry, tourism and on shore businesses like processors and bait and tackle shops.'

And from Federal Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott: 

'I am instinctively against anything that damages the rights of recreational fishing.'

There will now be 60 days of consultation. I daresay they will be filled with propaganda and misinformation from a variety of sources. As we all struggle over the next few decades to make our way of life sustainable and protect ecosystems from harm, there will be far worse: deprivation and hardship and the curtailment of creature comforts, hedonism and, ultimately, freedom. 


Fish populations are crashing, not just in far-away oceans but all around Australia. You would never know it, to stand in line at the fishmonger's and listen to the orders for the weekend. If we don't of our own accord temper our appetite for, say, bottom-trawled prawns from the Gulf of Carpentaria, or limit our recreational pursuits to low-impact activities, or reduce our expectation of continuous economic growth, gradually but with urgency, then when drastic measures are finally required, debate and consultation will be largely a thing of the past. So, let's all welcome Australia's leadership in addressing the serious threat to our oceans.

UNESCO to the rescue of the Reef

A lady who is trying to Keep the Scenic Rim Scenic told me a few months back about a man who was so concerned about Australia's inadequate protection of its precious environment and its irresponsibility as steward of one of the world's greatest natural wonders, he found the number of UNESCO's Director of the World Heritage Centre (WHC) in Paris, and rang up to warn him of the great risk to the Great Barrier Reef, inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1981. 

Back in June 2011 the World Heritage Committee had 'noted with extreme concern the approval of Liquefied Natural Gas processing and port facilities on Curtis Island within the World Heritage property'. They requested a 'reactive monitoring mission' to the GBR 'to assess the overall state of conservation of the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the Great Barrier Reef'. 

Under the terms of its World Heritage status, Australia should have informed the UNESCO committee of its plans for Curtis Island, which is part of the port of Gladstone and within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. As well as existing coal ports along the Queensland coast (Abbot Point, Hay Point, Gladstone and Brisbane), at least six CSG exporting points are in the pipeline. There are currently about 4,000 CSG wells in Queensland but there are proposals for 40,000. Hence talk of up to ten times the current number of large carriers ploughing through numerous channels between the coral islands of the Reef.

The Federal government didn't tell the WHC about Curtis Island until after the plans were approved. Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke admitted the mistake, but that doesn't detract from Australia's seemingly nonchalant attitude towards its global responsibility for the Reef. The Queensland government's view of the Reef is principally as a source of tourism revenue.

A joint international expert mission by the WHC and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) took place between the 5th and the 14th of March 2012. They visited the Reef itself and adjacent urban, industrial and port facilities; state and federal authorities; leading Australian scientists who contribute to the management of the Reef and surrounding areas; and key 'stakeholders' such as local governments, traditional owners, environmental groups and industry representatives.

Their recently released State of Conservation Report makes uneasy reading for the GBR's carers. The WHC are not yet going to declare the Reef 'at risk', but Australia has eight months to convince them that they have put the brakes on further coastal development approval while they improve protection of the Reef's Outstanding Universal Value.

Not many people will be surprised to learn that Queensland State Premier Campbell Newman wasn't happy with UNESCO's conclusions:

'We are not going to see the economic future of Queensland shut down... We are in the coal business. If you want decent hospitals, schools and police on the beat we all need to understand that.'

Queensland's voters probably thought he was in the business of running their state up until then. 

And this was typical of comments accompanying the Courier Mail's coverage of the UNESCO report, and the gist of what many people were saying on radio phone-ins.

'stuff the UN. This is OUR country & WE decide what & how it's run!! [sic]'

You can't have it both ways, however. You can gratefully accept your World Heritage status and use it to attract at least 1.5 million visitors a year, and make lots of money as a result. But if you don't protect it carefully enough and the people who gave you that privilege threaten to take it back, you can't then argue petulantly that it's none of their business.

In February the Federal government announced a strategic assessment of the GBR. It will take 18 months and involve both federal and state levels. Hopefully, they will co-operate better than they are doing at the moment, as a war of words escalates between the two over the Queensland Co-ordinator General's conditional approval of the Alpha coal mine, the first of nine mega-mines-to-be in the Galilee Basin in Central West Queensland. And I wonder at the qualifications of, for example, the Deputy Leader of the Queensland government, Jeff Seeney. In his capacity as Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning, he was interviewed on ABC local radio not long after the LNP was swept to power in the State elections in March. Asked about the ill-health of fish in Gladstone harbour and the possible effects of dredging and pollution on the Reef, this not particularly personable man glibly replied that the Reef was hundreds of kilometres away from Gladstone. Wrong. There are coral cays within 50km.

Associate Professor Jon Brodie, a Water Quality Scientist at James Cook University, based in Cairns and Townsville, explained to ABC's Four Corners (Great Barrier Grief aired last November) that live coral cover is one of the best indicators of the GBR's health. Fifty to sixty years ago, live coral cover was about 50%: now it's in the low 20s. I think it is probably time someone stepped in.

Off road: Fraser for a day

The prospect of returning to Fraser was an exciting one. The largest sand island in the world, Fraser is World Heritage Listed (since 1992) for its outstanding beauty and ecological significance. It was at least ten years since I'd been and my memory was hazy. I don't even recall how I got there, except being driven from Noosa on a guided 4WD tour. Since living in Queensland, I may have become slightly blasé about driving along fabulous beaches, but back then it was a truly awe-inspiring experience.


Visiting this time under our own steam, we had to research tide times, estimate journey times on beach and inland tracks, and work out what it was feasible to see in a limited amount of time. We were staying at Rainbow Beach over Labour Day long weekend and crossed on the barge ferry from Inskip Point to the southernmost part of Fraser, Hook Point. It was futile making an early start: you can only drive on the beach for two hours either side of low tide, which, on the day we'd chosen, was at about 13.30. But we could take the 20 kilometres of inland track running parallel to Seventy Five Mile Beach* which extends up the eastern side of the 120-km-long island **. Then we'd have to continue north along the beach, but it would be possible, tidally, by late morning.


There was a bit of a 4WD rush as the barge landed; but we all had to wait in places for waves to recede as the tide was still quite high. We hung back a bit, uncertain like newbies. We observed that no one continued along the beach round Hook Point: they all turned on to the inland track. We followed when they were out of the way. A narrow sandy track through coastal woodland soon gave way to a wide gravel road. We passed through a variety of vegetation zones between the Point and the beach: wallum woodland includes Paperbarks, Scribbly Gums and She-oaks, with an understorey of grasses, sedges and shrubs such as Banksias; there was coastal heath, swamp, and pioneer vegetation that colonises and stabilises sand dunes, is more tolerant of salt- and sand-laden winds and helps establish soil development.

Half a million people visit Fraser each year. This was technically out of season, but it was a holiday weekend. I'd expected many more 4x4s hurtling along the beach, but we were surprisingly and joyously alone for the most part. We took the creeks cautiously, but the sand was hard and the driving easy. As we neared civilisation – Eurong Beach Resort, 32km from Hook Point – there were increasing amounts of rubbish at the top of the beach, including sizeable metal canisters and plastic containers as well as multicoloured plastic remnants. Just how much of this is washed up by the ocean or left behind by empty-headed idiots I have no idea, but it made me angry, and then a little depressed. I was reminded of a visit to Cape Tribulation a couple of years ago, a place I'd wanted to visit for decades. As I walked along supremely beautiful beaches in Queensland's far north and came across plastic bottle after plastic bottle, even tyres, discarded among the bleached broken coral pieces on the pale sand, I was perplexed; distraught even. 

At Eurong, we turned inland heading for Lake McKenzie. Now we were on sandy one-way tracks through dense rainforest. Fraser is the only place on earth where rainforest grows on sand dunes at elevations of more than 200 metres. The trees are magnificent despite the detrimental affects of nearly 130 years of logging: species include Hoop Pine, Brush Box, Tallowood, Kauri Pine and Blackbutt. At Pile Valley – so named because the Satinay pines were logged for wharf piles, some of them destined for London's docks – we had to stop and admire. There were Piccabeen Palms amidst 40-metre-high Satinay and Brush Box.

 

Fraser has more than a hundred lakes, some of them in depressions perched on top of hardened sand known as coffee rock which prevents fresh water draining away. Lake McKenzie is reputed to be the most beautiful. Its stunning white sands and indescribably coloured waters are breathtaking. I knew the lake was popular and included on most if not all guided tour itineraries. Unfortunately, because of the tides, we had no choice but to arrive around about lunchtime. You have to consume food in fenced, dingo-proof areas. The idea of dingos watching us in our cage appealed to me. I was aware of a loud hubbub but still wasn't prepared for the numbers of people on the sand and in the water. It was noisier than Lang Park, but you'd never know it looking at these.

We weren't on Fraser Island for long enough to see many animals, and our chances would have probably been greater if we'd walked the Great Walk rather than sitting in a 4WD for hours. We saw only one dingo: it was thin and skulking around the car park at Lake McKenzie rather than roaming the dunes. The birds we saw were old acquaintances, with the exception of a smart Bar-Shouldered Dove, who shared our cage as we ate our lunch.

From Lake McKenzie, we completed a circuit round to Central Station and back to Eurong. We were determined to return to Hook Point along the beach rather than the inland track. The shadows were long and we were beyond the two-hour low-tide window. As we neared the Point, the firm sand was suddenly pitted with water-filled hollows. We had been hurrying a little, but avoiding this new phenomenon and the incoming waves meant we had to reduce speed, which only added to the will-we-won't-we-make-it excitement! It was nice to relax in the sun while waiting for the barge to take us back over the water.

I enjoyed my day on Fraser enormously, but I had to conclude that human activity should be severely restrictedª and the wildlife left alone. This is based principally on what I learned about dingoes, Fraser's population being the purest strain in Eastern Australia. The DERM office at Rainbow Beach told me that there are about 200 dingoes on Fraser, a sustainable number. There are tracking cameras all over the island and the animals are tagged: females in their right ear, males in their left. A dingo would only be destroyed if it was top-of-the-scale dangerous; that is, it had attacked someone. I return to a familiar argument (see Croc or dog, May 2012). Dingoes are naturally fearful of humans and will only approach if there are food possibilities, which they equate with numbskulls picnicking where they shouldn't and campers. Dingoes may have learned to open eskies, but that doesn't make them culpable for crimes resulting from human stupidity. Attracting a dingo's attention so you can see it better is daft, in anybody's book. 

Talking of which, Vanishing Icon: the Fraser Island Dingo, by wildlife artist and photographer Jennifer Parkhurstªª, has some wonderful images of this iconic creature. There are those who argue that there are fewer dingoes left on Fraser than claimed by DERM, who are accused of heavy-handedness when it comes to 'protecting' these animals – by keeping them away from their natural food sources near beaches, for example. If this extraordinary place wasn't under such great pressure from tourism, neither animal nor human behaviour would be an issue.

* contrary to Australian naming norms, the beach is only 58 miles/92 kilometres long
** and 22 kilometres across at its widest point
ª Fraser Island is protected as part of the Great Sandy National Park. You need a current RAM (Recreation Areas Management) vehicle permit to take you car to the Island. If you want to camp, you'll need a booking number for the nights you plan to stay. See https://www.derm.qld.gov.au/parks/iaparks/gds/IAGDS010.jsp
ªª  see http://www.fraserislandfootprints.com

Bimblebox 3: May update

Bimblebox, courtesy of National Parks Association of Queensland

On Friday evening 11 May I was sitting watching the ABC News at 7 when it was announced that Waratah Coal's China First Project no longer had part of its financing in place ($40 billion to supply a Swiss energy trading company with coal, to be exact). Waratah chairman Clive Palmer later claimed this would have no impact on the project since it still has a $60 billion commitment from China Power International. 


In subsequent days there was much speculation in the press about Palmer, his money and the future for coal in Australia. The Age was not the only media outlet to highlight the disparity between Palmer's tendency for bold statements and what he actually achieves. For potential investors in the mines proposed for the Galilee Basin, it can't have made reassuring reading. Rather than me paraphrasing, it's better if you read for yourselves:
https://theconversation.edu.au/king-coal-dethroned-6977
http://www.smh.com.au/business/tracing-palmers-wealth--a-titanic-undertaking-20120511-1yi2w.html


The man who loves to litigate threatened to sue the Sydney Morning Herald for their initial reporting of the deal's demise which he claimed was 'false and misleading'. Yet this is just how I would describe his summary of Bimblebox Nature Refuge (BNF) in an interview with ABC Brisbane's Steve Austin on 1 May (see It's a mad mad mad mad week, environmentally, May 2012). Palmer's lawyers are going to be busy since he's also taking Queensland Rail to court for misleading him over the planned rail link from the Galilee Basin to coal-exporting facilities on the central Queensland coast.


Of course, even if Waratah Coal don't develop mines that will devastate BNF, there are other companies that might. They will need deep pockets, however, as Premier 'Can-do' (but won't do) Newman's austerity measures mean that this week the new Queensland government announced they were abandoning plans to expand the Abbot Point coal-exporting port. According to Queensland Resources Council* CEO Michael Roche, plans for six new terminals represented a 'big bang' approach to growing the multi-cargo facility rather than incremental expansion as it was needed. The feedback from the industry was that big bangs don't work: increasing the port's capacity from 50 million tonnes to 385 million tonnes was unrealistic. (Rio Tinto recently pulled out of the project.) Will the three terminals currently in operation at Abbot Point be able to cope with output from the Galilee's new mines? There are other coal ports near Mackay, but other mines in development are competing for tonnage, and China First had been planning to use the new terminals at Abbot Point. Some of its competitors in the region, such as Hancock Coal's Alpha project, have already bagged port capacity.


Meanwhile, a Hong Kong bulk carrier narrowly escaped running aground on Shark Reef northeast of Cairns after losing power.


Recent figures out of China over the last couple of months, showing economic growth slowing, have made investors jittery. The Washington Post today even talks of 'China's economic crisis'. A growth rate of at least nine per cent per annum was maintained for three decades, but has been slowing since 2010, largely as a result of fewer exports to a post-GFC world in which there is less demand, and tighter lending and investments curbs intended to take heat out of the Chinese economy and slow inflation. The Guardian, reporting today on the delay of (Chinese) Hanlong Mining's takeover of (Australian) Sundance Resources, describes China's increasing reluctance to fund 'risky resources projects' offshore. And The Washington Post predicts trouble ahead for those countries that have been buoyed by the boom in China as demand for raw materials now drops.


Amid events in economic markets and speculation in the financial press, what of Bimblebox this month? If you visit the Queensland Co-ordinator General's website, you will see, under Current EIS projects/China First Coal Project, Environmental impact statement (EIS) process, Date, that is says 'Pending'; and Activity, 'Co-ordinator-General's report on EIS'.
http://www.deedi.qld.gov.au/cg/galilee-coal-project-northern-export-facility.html
Then look on the same website under Current EIS projects, Completed EIS projects/China First Coal, EIS current status, and you will see 'Supplementary EIS being prepared by proponent'.
http://www.deedi.qld.gov.au/cg/coordinator-general-projects.html


These 'statuses' are not at odds either with each other or with what I was told last month by the CG's office (see Bimblebox 2: April update). If you want to know what happens next in the process, go to:
http://www.deedi.qld.gov.au/cg/supplementary-report-eis.html
http://www.deedi.qld.gov.au/cg/australian-government-approval-decision.html


The China First EIS process is being conducted under a bilateral agreement between the Queensland State and Federal governments. What this means is that the Queensland government does the work of processing the EIS while informing the Federal government. Should the Co-ordinator General approve China First, a 'significant project', the final go-head has to be given by the Minister for Environment in Canberra. In the light of the processes outlined above, therefore, it is imperative that all those concerned for the survival of Bimblebox Nature Reserve lobby environment ministers at both State and Federal levels so that neither can be in any doubt about public opinion.


Having completed a report, the Co-ordinator General can recommend a project is approved, denied or approved with conditions. Federal ministers have been known to overturn 'approved' decisions, as in the case of the Traveston Crossing Dam in 2009**. This project south of Gympie would have involved the damming of the Mary River and threatened many vulnerable or endangered species. 


A key issue in decision making in this case is going to be that of biodiversity offsets. Under Queensland's biodiversity offsets policyª, a mining company has obligations when clearing vegetation of significant environmental value. Offsetting is a contentious issue, and a complex one. I have never been convinced by offsetting. When booking your holiday flights, paying money for trees to be planted in no way lets you off the hook in terms of augmenting your carbon emissions. How can a remnant ecosystem be replicated just down the road from the mine that destroyed it, by definition? I have many questions about biodiversity offset policy in Queensland and intend to address this issue in the next Bimblebox update.


A few weeks ago, the National Parks Association of Queensland spent two days at Bimblebox Nature Refuge doing a survey of flora. They found at least 220 different plant species; rich tree (Ironbark, top of page), shrub and understorey layers; and a thick grass layer. Ninety-five per cent of the 8000-hectare property is covered with vegetation described as a picture of health. NPAQ concluded that Bimblebox is a superb example of grazing for conversation. Its destruction would send a disheartening message to the stewardship efforts of private landowners and graziers, whose role is seen as increasingly important in a state where only 4.78 per cent of land is protected in National Parks (compared with 16 per cent of Victoria and 20 per cent of South Australia) and 74 per cent is subject to mining permits.


* QRC is a 'not-for-profit peak industry association representing the commercial developers of Queensland's mineral and energy resources'
** http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-11-11/garrett-rejects-traveston-dam/1138124
ª This morning the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection confirmed that the new LNP government has no plans as yet to amend this policy

Off road: Mt Superbus and the source of the Condamine

When we first visited Queensland's Granite Belt in Spring 2010, I wanted to return to Brisbane a different way from the outward journey (via Cunningham's Gap and Warwick). But the tourist information office in Stanthorpe was unable to confirm that the road from Killarney over the Main Range to Boonah was sealed all the way.


There was another reason for wanting to go that way. As I compiled my lists of Aussie place names, Mt Superbus was a favourite. I mean, where did that name come from? It is Queensland's third-highest peak (1375 metres) and the highest south of Innisfail (100 km south of Cairns), although unspectacular by all accounts and lacking a view from the summit – perhaps because the top consists of a plateau with several high points.


When you read the name of the mountain, did you pronounce it in your head as Super-bus, or Superb-us? I have always thought it was the former, but during my research for this post I have been disabused. I am rather disappointed, but I suspect it will always be Super-bus in my world.


A couple of months ago, we left Brisbane via the Cunningham Highway but soon turned off for Peak Crossing and Boonah down the 93, a quiet route through pleasant country. Boonah lies in the fertile and picturesque Fassifern Valley: the town has a friendly feel and a splendid horse. The Clydesdale heavy horse came to the region with squatters in the 1840s and assisted settlers and farmers for more than a hundred years. Local breeders have kept the Clydesdale alive and Andrew Scott's galvanised steel sculpture makes a big impression as you drive into town.

Fourteen kilometres down the Boonah-Rathdowney stretch of the 93, The Falls (Scenic) Drive, aka Carneys Creek Road, turns off right. It immediately felt far-from-the-madding, even before the road began to ascend the Main Range through a Bell Miner zone, grass trees and dingley-dell forest.

On the top of the Range was a good view, some impressive plunge falls (Teviot), and the border with New South Wales – which came close to Head Road although we never crossed over.

It isn't called Head Road for nothing, of course, and at Carrs Lookout we discovered why. Here are the headwaters of the Condamine River which starts out as a spring on the slopes of Mt Superbus and becomes a tributary of the mighty Murray-Darling. My old friend Ludwig Leichhardt followed the westward-flowing Condamine for a while in 1847 (see That man again, November 2011). And the river is also notable for having reached a record peak during the Queensland floods of 2010-11. From Killarney, it turns northwest, draining the northern Darling Downs: at Surat, 75 kilometres south of Roma, it turns southwest and becomes the Balonne. In total, it flows more than 1200 kilometres before it even reaches New South Wales*. Behind the bank of cloud below is Mt Superbus: I am beginning to think I will never see it. Behind us should have been Wilson's Peak but we couldn't see that either. The grey couldn't drain the lush valley of its colour, however.

Also unfortunate was the news that the 4WD track off Spring Creek Road that we had come here for was closed following heavy rainfall. (There's a lot of rain in these parts.) But at least now we had the answer to whether or not you can drive from Killarney to Boonah without a 4WD. Had everything gone according to plan, however, we would have missed Queen Mary Falls, a fine example of a retreating waterfall, with a 40-metre drop. The Falls are receding upstream as the water erodes the rock behind it: there was a major cliff fall in the 1880s, the debris from which lies at the foot of the Falls.

Not far away, just five kilometres east of Killarney, are Daggs Falls, very close to the road.

Only as we drove into Killarney did we realise it was St Patrick's Day. Of all the places we could have visited in Southeast Queensland that day, we chose this small township founded by Irish settlers who were reminded of home by the surrounding country. Many of the day's festivities were coming to an end and unfortunately the Killarney Hotel had stopped serving lunch. We were ravenous. Remarkably, a corned beef and salad doorstop of a sandwich went down a treat.

Still determined to drive off road, my friend tried to navigate us back to the Cunningham Highway across country from Killarney via Emu Vale and Yangan. We didn't join it as far up as we would have liked, and the gravel roads were hardly challenging, but we passed by some great fields and verges.

* the Murray-Darling river system flows 3,375 kilometres before entering the Spencer Gulf in South Australia

This post was last updated on 25 May