Once occupying 14% of Victoria, in an area of approximately 3,000,000 ha between the inland slopes of the Great Divide and the drier western Mallee country [Environment Conservation Council 1997], the diverse Box-Ironbark ecosystem is now highly stressed and fragmented.

Protecting Box-Ironbark Forests

Until recently Box-Ironbark forests were overlooked in conservation debates. Now they are recognised as one of Victoria's most important environmental assets, and there is increasing public appreciation of their beauty and value.

For ten years the VNPA has been running a community-focussed campaign to protect Box-Ironbark Forests and Woodlands. Their goal is to protect these precious areas in conservation reserves.

A canopy of Box trees and rugged Ironbarks graces many forests and woodlands in northern and central Victoria. At Killawarra, near Wangaratta, for example, a shrub layer of Cat's Claws Grevillea, wattles and smaller flowering plants provides a striking contrast to the hard black trunks of Mugga Ironbarks. Around Bendigo and Maryborough, open grassy woodlands of Grey Box and Yellow Gum fringe shrubby forests of Red Ironbark. Honeyeaters, lorikeets and other birds flit through the nectar-rich shelter provided by these Victorian forests.

ECC investigation and final report

In 1995, the Liberal Government acknowledged the plight of Box-Ironbark forests (72% of which are on public land), calling for an investigation into the use of public land in the Box-Ironbark country by the ECC.

The ECC produced a draft report in mid-2000, which contained provisional recommendations and called for submissions. Thirteen hundred interested parties, including the VNPA, responded with submissions. Of these, more than 650 supported conservation. Of the others, 207 came from prospectors, 33 from full miners, and 51 from the timber industry. Many of the rest were 'single issue' submissions on topics of specific interest to their writers. What's clear is that the majority of respondents recognised the necessity of Box-Ironbark conservation.

The government released the ECC's final report and recommendations in August 2001.

Expanded Box-Ironbark parks system created in October 2002

The government and opposition combined to vote the expanded Box-Ironbark parks system into reality in October 2002, and the new and extended parks were proclaimed in November. For more information see the VNPA's Box-Ironbark Campaign page or click here for our Box-Ironbark Campaign Page. Also see "Final Stages in Parliament" in the text box below. The new parks were a major step forward in pursuit of Box-Ironbark protection, but there remains much to be done.

Threatened species

A brief history of the region

Before European settlement, Large Old Trees - as many as 30 per hectare (DNRE 1999), - provided nesting and feeding for species as diverse as the Powerful Owl and small vertebrates like the Striped Legless Lizard. The big dominant trees and the larger fauna were only part of this complex system. Located at the junction of the Eastern Bassian and Western Eyreian biogeographic regions inland of the Great Divide, Box-Ironbark country combines elements of both regions, and hosts an enormous range of plant species. These in turn provided habitat and microhabitat for an extraordinary range of invertebrate fauna - the base of the food chain and the driver of many ecosystem functions.

Unfortunately, Box-Ironbark woodlands were not highly valued historically, and most of their former range has been cleared. Originally this was a result of the gold rush. Later, land was cleared for settlements and agriculture. Today only 17% of the original extent of the Box-Ironbark woodlands is left, 72% of it on public land. The remnants range from 30,000 ha of the Whroo-Costerfield State Forest down to small roadside or farm patches. Recently, several new or expanded national parks, as well as state parks and nature conservation reserves, were created to provide protection to some of the forests. Unfortunately, 121,000 ha remained as state forest, suffering from a range of threats such as mining (above left), timber extraction (right) and grazing.

Why a National Park was needed.

Box-Ironbark threats and solutions (from the VNPA webpage )

Every day precious Box-Ironbark forests and woodlands are being damaged by activities of marginal economic value for which there are viable alternatives. Read on for details of these threats along with some solutions.

• Mining
• Fossicking
• Eucalyptus oil
• Woodcutting
• A better future

Surface mining, which is based around the removal of native vegetation and quantities of soil and rock from the surface, can be destructive, whether it is carried out on a large or small scale. All forms of surface mining obliterate environmental values where they occur.

'Doze and detect' mines use metal detectors to find a prospective site of around five hectares. A bulldozer is then used to scrape away the vegetation and soil to a depth of a couple of metres. Sometimes cyanide is used to separate out mineral deposits.

Small doze and detect mines in the ECC Box-Ironbark study area search for ever-decreasing surface deposits of gold. These small mines are never located on private land. Their existence is totally dependent on the outdated and regressive notion that public land has no value and therefore should be free to miners, regardless of the environmental costs and the marginal benefits mining brings.

Each year five mines produce 90% of the gold coming from the ECC Box-Ironbark study area. Over half the current production of gold in the area comes from one mine, the Stawell underground decline. Underground mines have by far the highest gold yield, and the greatest benefit per hectare disturbed. Entrance portals can be readily located on already-cleared private land, virtually eliminating any need to damage our precious Box-Ironbark forests and woodlands.

Fossicking

Environmental damage caused by shovels and rakes during fossicking is less severe than that caused by mining, but when multiplied by dozens or more fossickers the damage can still be locally serious, especially where sensitive values such as rare orchids or historical relics are found.

Eucalyptus oil industry

The eucalyptus oil industry in the ECC Box-Ironbark study area poses an uneconomic and environmentally disastrous threat to especially rare parts of the Box-Ironbark system. Eucalyptus oil operations cut areas of Blue Mallee trees (part of the Box-Ironbark system) within a few centimetres of the ground every two to three years, completely eliminating any environmental values. These areas could provide habitat for the survival of species such as the mallee fowl. Instead, these nationally endangered birds are being condemned to extinction.

Encouraging new investment on private land is the way to save a dying industry and create new jobs.

Woodcutting

Our environmental heritage is literally going up in smoke. Of the timber extracted from the ECC Box-Ironbark study area, 84% is burnt as firewood. Awareness of the damage being done is not great, perhaps because most logging and firewood removal happens incrementally rather than in large clearfelling operations. However, the cumulative effects of continuous wood removal are very similar to clearfelling. Not only that, the volume of timber being removed for firewood is just as great as for woodchips, and it is coming from a much smaller area of much slower-growing forests. Even now, after the new parks are in place, the cutting continues in state forests. Although the timber industry in the Box-Ironbark area is not huge, its environmental impact certainly is.

In areas where firewood removal is allowed, virtually all fallen timber is removed. Yet fallen timber provides habitat for insects and other invertebrates, reptiles and ground-feeding mammals and birds. It is not surprising that many of the threatened animals of Box-Ironbark forests and woodlands are ground-dwelling species.

Current Deparment of Natural Resources and Environment Forests Service regulations are insufficient to preserve environmental values. The main problem is that current prescriptions don't provide for the recruitment of any new large trees. There is absolutely nothing to stop a fallen tree from being targeted for logging just before it gets big enough to be preserved (above 60 cm diameter).

Present levels of firewood production from Box-Ironbark are compromising a potentially lucrative industry for enterprising farmers and investors. It has been clearly demonstrated that firewood agroforestry on (already cleared) private land could take over from public land firewood cutting. Although there has been some funding provided for firewood plantations on public land, the continued support of firewood harvesting on public land makes farmers very reluctant to plant trees for this purpose. Similarly, potential investors are also unlikely to make a 10-15 year commitment while the possibility of competition from public land remains.

The same situation applies to eucalyptus oil and fencepost harvesting as well. On environmental and economic grounds, these damaging, low value industries should be removed from all Box-Ironbark forests as quickly as possible.

Plantation-based industries would provide a means of reversing the decline of rural communities by providing investment opportunities, allowing diversification of farm enterprises and improving habitat quality and biodiversity conservation in forests and woodlands currently used for firewood extraction.

We can also divert some of the substantial timber 'waste' stream to energy production. According to Ecorecycle, about 23% of our Melbourne's municipal landfill is timber (excluding paper). There is also a potential firewood supply from existing plantations.

The bill to save Box-Ironbark had an amazingly rocky road through Parliament, despite an initial agreement of both sides to support the bill. The drama is hinted at here, in the VNPA news bulletin heralding its' passage. For more details you will need to sit around the fire with those who know one day when they are old and won all their campaigns?

For now there is much attention needing to be paid to the planning of this new Park!

The VNPA web-site has an over-view Page on Planning which will be useful for those wishing to participate in promoting and defending this park.