New South Wales - State News - May 2007
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Climate National 31/05/07 $80m for Central Coast dam pipeline, AAP Interstate
Bodalla anti-logging protest surprises Forests NSW ABC ON-line New South Wales, May 07
Council stays on sidelines of forest dispute ABC On-line New South Wales, May 07
Clashes continue over Bodalla forest logging ABC News Online New South Wales, May 07
Conservationists bark up wrong tree: claim ABC News Online New South Wales, May 07
Protesters march over Bodalla logging ABC News On-line New South Wales, May 07
Forest closed as logging protest continues ABC News On-line New South Wales, May 07
Lake Eucumbene is down, but the fish are still jumping New South Wales, May 07
Climate National 31/05/07 $80m for Central Coast dam pipeline, AAP Interstate
Posted Thu May 24, 2007 9:01am AEST ABC ON-line
Forests New South Wales says it is surprised that the anti-logging movement had not flagged a far south coast forest as a "hot spot" before harvesting began this month.
More than 12 protesters have been arrested in connection with demonstrations in the Bodalla State Forest, near Tilba, over the past fortnight.
Protesters are claiming the logging is illegal because a promised review of Regional Forest Agreements has not begun and that the operations are encroaching onto Aboriginal ceremonial land on Mount Dromodery.
However, forestry spokesman Bill Frew says anti-loggers had never asked for the area to be excluded from harvesting.
"There is nothing particular to distinguish this harvesting operation from the other I referred to. There have been areas that have been listed by some groups as icon areas to go into the reserves system under the Regional Forest Agreement and a great many of those did and there were subsequent areas that were listed for potential addition," he said.
"As it happened this wasn't one of them."
Yesterday, Forests Minister Ian Macdonald ruled out a halt to the logging operations in the Bodalla forest, saying that talks on the review are expected to begin next month and the review process does not involve a re-negotiation of the southern forests agreement.
Tags:
forestry, timber, bega-2550, bodalla-2545
Posted Wed May 23, 2007 7:22am AEST ABC On-line
Eurobodalla Shire Council says it is not going to take sides in a far south coast forest dispute.
The council yesterday backed away from a recommendation that it call in police to move on protesters who are camping on council reserves near where controversial harvesting is under way in the Bodalla State Forest, near Tilba.
Councillors instead referred the matter to the general manager who they were told has statutory powers to prosecute people for illegal camping.
Mayor Neil Mumme says the New South Wales Government has a responsibility to review overdue Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs).
"The difficult thing for council is this is a State Government issue," he said.
"What did come out of the day was there was quite a lot of passion in the public gallery and I guess the message we sent to the State Government was 'for God's sake, review your RFAs', it's part of your obligations and you are supposed to do that.
"There was a call to cease the logging to those RFAs [they] have been reviewed.
"Pretty much we are sympathetic to both causes. It is like a dollar each way for the council."
Tags:
forests, local-government, forestry, bega-2550
Posted Tue May 22, 2007 12:50pm AEST ABC News Online
Anti-logging protests and police have clashed in the latest disputed forest of the south-east of New South Wales.
Seven people were arrested this morning after they refused to observe police orders to leave the section of Bodalla forest, near Tilba.
They were taken to the Narooma police station and have been charged with refusing to leave a prohibited area.
Meanwhile, the Eurobodalla Greens councillor, Chris Kowal, has accused the State Forests department of using his council as a pawn to control logging protesters in the Bodalla forest.
He claims that State Forests is behind a recommendation to tomorrow's council meeting that would allow police to remove anyone camping on council reserves and roadsides.
Cr Kowal says the recommendation may have an unforseen impact on tourism and paints council as the bad guys, taking the heat off State Forests.
But Cr Kowal's claims have not impressed the local MP.
Andrew Constance says most of the protesters are from outside the local area.
Tags:
conservation, forests, land-clearing, local-government, bega-2550, central-tilba-2546
Posted Tue May 22, 2007 12:48pm AEST ABC News Online
There is a claim on the New South Wales far south coast that conservationists trying to stop logging of a forest near an important Aboriginal cultural site may be barking up the wrong tree.
Forests New South Wales has begun logging in the Bodalla forest, near the base of Guluga Mountain, which the State Government last year handed back to the traditional owners.
Up to 60 protesters have been trying to stop the logging, claiming sacred sites will be damaged.
But Noelene Leha, co-ordinator of the Merriman's Lands Council, has no problem with the harvesting.
"Gulaga is a mountain, they're not logging on the mountain," she said.
"They're logging on the sides of a road leading to the mountain."
Yesterday, seven protesters were arrested at the logging site.
Tags:
land-rights, conservation, forests, land-clearing, bega-2550
Posted Thu May 17, 2007 11:03am AEST ABC News On-line
About 80 anti-logging protesters took to the streets of Batemans Bay yesterday to highlight their fight against harvesting logging operations in the Bodalla State Forest, near Tilba.
The anti-logging protesters held their demonstration in Batemans Bay in order to target the Forest New South Wales office that is located there.
After rallying just south of the bridge at 11:30am AEST, they marched along the main street to the Forests NSW office to put their case for an end to timber harvesting in Bodalla State Forest.
Police say the protest march went off without incident, and they have denied taking a soft stance towards the demonstrators.
However, pro-logging group Timber Communities Australia is blaming lenient police action for the latest round of protests in the Eurobodalla.
Tags:
forests, activism-and-lobbying, timber, batemans-bay-2536
Posted Tue May 15, 2007 11:50am AEST
A disputed forest on the NSW far south coast has been closed to the public as the row over logging work continues.
Police were called yesterday to the Bodalla forest, near Tilba, after protesters tried to block access to logging contractors who were due to begin harvesting in the area.
It is understood one person was arrested, although police have not confirmed this.
About 30 people were involved in the protest, which has been prompted by the proximity of the logging work to Mount Dromedery, which is an important Aboriginal cultural site.
Protest spokeswoman Virginia York says the protest is likely to continue.
Forests New South Wales says the closure of the Bodalla forest is a workplace safety issue and it warns people protesting there could now be fined up to $2,200.
A spokesman says the section of the Bodalla forest being logged will supply sawmills at Narooma and Eden as agreed to by both the industry and conservationists under the Regional Forests Agreement.
Tags:
forests, states-and-territories, activism-and-lobbying, timber , bega-2550, central-tilba-254
Lake Eucumbene is down, but the fish are still jumping
Dying pastime? Local fisherman Colin Sinclair casts a line on a much reduced Lake Eucumbene.
Photo: Angela Wylie
May 9, 2007
After the rain stopped and their dam dropped, the people of Adaminaby adjusted - and found new lures for tourists, writes Gabriella Coslovich.
LAKE Eucumbene, in the ruggedly beautiful high country of south-eastern NSW, is a dramatic symbol of the ingenuity of humankind.
The artificial lake is the central storage dam of one of the world's greatest engineering feats the Snowy Mountains hydro-electricity scheme.
As the locals will tell you, when the lake is full, it holds about nine times the water of Sydney Harbour. They will also tell you that it is has dropped to one Sydney Harbour.
Drought has left Snowy Hydro with so little water that the company's managing director, Terry Charlton, last week told the annual conference of the NSW Country Women's Association, held in the Snowy Mountains, that it was crunch time.
To survive climate change, the company would need to be privatised so it could diversify its power generation and better serve irrigators' needs, he said.
He was a brave man to raise the spectre of privatisation in such company. The last time the government-owned company tried to go private it failed because of public opposition and among the most vocal opponents was the CWA.
From the air, the effects of prolonged drought are starkly evident the exposed banks of Lake Eucumbene are deeply scarred with concentric circles of mud and stippled with the trunks of dead gums that look like bent silver toothpicks.
Statistics tell an equally graphic story: 10 years ago, the lake was 85 per cent full, now it is 13.2 per cent full. Most alarming is the rate at which the water is falling. In January last year, the lake was 54.2 per cent full, by January this year, it was down to 22 per cent and it has taken just four months to fall to its current level.
Fifty years ago, the old town of Adaminaby disappeared like the mythical city of Atlantis under the waters of Lake Eucumbene, flooded to make way for the Snowy Hydro scheme and relocated nine kilometres north-east.
The dramatically receding waters of the lake have caused parts of the old town to resurface and old wounds and resentments too. Those who lived in the old town and had to uproot their lives retain a lingering suspicion about the Snowy Hydro company and the cause of the lake's falling water level. "That's not the drought, there's no drought here!" insists Ann Kennedy, who was 12 when old Adaminaby was flooded. Her father fought the development all the way.
"They tried to sell Snowy Hydro, we jumped up and down and stopped them, so they sold the water that's it, the water's all been sold, goes down into the Riverina to the rice paddies and the cotton," Mrs Kennedy says.
Her friend, Jan Leckstrom, chairman of Lake Eucumbene Chamber of Commerce, who gets about in neat jeans and Blundstones, is more forgiving.
"Snowy Hydro's a business and we don't have the water, and the problem is the drought and we all should go to church it's on at four o'clock, now there's one step we can all take," she says.
Mrs Kennedy replies: "I went to church and church didn't help me one bit."
After their town was flooded, the people of Adaminaby adapted, moving from agriculture to tourism. Trout fishing and skiing have become the economic mainstays but the drought and last year's poor snow season have cut into the tourism dollar.
"My business is basically non-existent," says Colin Sinclair, who runs a fishing business, the Adaminaby Angler.
"That's my real job over there at the moment," he says, pointing across the road, "I'm the greens keeper of the bowls club."
In the typically resilient style of the town's people, Mr Sinclair keeps his shop in pristine condition. Beneath his glass-topped counter is a kaleidoscope of lures. Above the counter are mounted trout prize specimens caught in the lake by Mr Sinclair himself and the flattened fur skin of a Kosciuszko dingo. As far as Mr Sinclair is concerned, there's no good reason for fishermen to stay away.
"The only thing that's not normal is the lack of fishermen basically they're thinking that Lake Eucumbene's empty," he says.
"Well, you flew over it, it's far from full, but it's far from empty."
Lake Eucumbene has become a symbol of the finely balanced relationship between humankind and nature.
In technological ingenuity lie the seeds of environmental damage.
As the waters of the dam recede, the original landscape is coming to the fore, and attracting tourism and sport of a different kind.
The drought-ravaged lake has a stark beauty of its own long-dead pine trees spear the surface of the water, pine cones still attached, nature eerily reasserting itself.
At Anglers Reach, local youths find the cracked bed of the dam is perfect rally-bike terrain. Others pick up 10-centimetre thick mud blocks and hurl them into the re-emerged Eucumbene river it too vanished under the waters of the dam.
Snowballs have been superseded by mud balls, snowboarding by rally-bike riding.
Near the site of old Adaminaby, the exposed lake bed is like an archaeological dig, scattered with people fossicking for everything from old bottles and cans to drays.
"People have been bringing trucks in," says Mrs Leckstrom, who is having an interim heritage order put on the lake bed.
"They are regarding it like abandoned flotsam and jetsam down on the seashore and are ignorant of its true significance," she says.
The lake may be at its lowest level on record, but the town's not giving up. It recently spent a $10,000 shire grant getting its other centrepiece a 10-metre-high sculpture of a trout, the world's largest, they say restored.
"It's an icon, it's one of Australia's big things, and you've got to keep your big things looking good," Mrs Leckstrom says.
The shiny giant trout is a fitting symbol like the town, it's a fish out of water. A sign warns tourists: "Do not shake or climb on tail of fish, offenders will be prosecuted."
"The number of people we have chased off that fish, we're thinking of electrifying it," Mrs Leckstrom says. Dare we suggest, a job for Snowy Hydro?