- Land Clearing -

Queensland Government will push ahead with controversial legislation to ban large scale tree clearing (Ludlow M 'Beattie to push tree ban in Qld', FR, 16/3/04)

The cost of repairing Queensland's farm lands will exceed $6bn if land clearing is not stopped - according to ecologists (O'Malley B 'Ecologists predict huge land repair bill', CM, 25/11/03)

Australia is clearing land at near world record rates - with Queensland leading the process. Statistics show that clearing increased by 21% from 1999-2000, and that 75% of all clearing was in Queensland. The only countries with comparable rates of land clearing were: Indonesia; Brazil; Congo and Bolivia ('Queensland trees cleared at one of the fastest rates', CM, 25/1/03).

Farmers have to get tree-by-tree government approval for felling trees beyond small number - and consider issues such as: slope; species; hollows; what feeds off tree etc. The rights of free-holders are progressively being reduced (Hoggett J., 'Can't see the trees for the law', CM, 18/1/03)

Queensland's land clearing rates have increased by 78% in two years - prompting calls by the Premier for federal help (Hodge A 'Beattie seeks help on land clearing', A, 23/1/03).

History and science warn of calamity if rural landowners do not stop denuding the landscape. Panic clearing followed the Beattie Government's Vegetation Management Act - though there was probably nothing in the Act to stop it. At the same time that some farmers were clearing trees others were planting them under Landcare. Scientific reports suggest that ending land-clearing and putting water back into rivers are Australia's most urgent priorities - with a legacy of dustbowls and drains being the alternative. The PM's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council has argued that it is 10-100 times cheaper to prevent such damage than to repair its consequences. Only four third world countries clear more bushland annually than Australia, and 2/3 - 3/4 of that is in Queensland. The Wentworth Group suggests that the problem is not farmers - but poor politics and poor management. While Canberra and Brisbane blame each other for the problem, there was initially about $100m of federal money available (the amount estimated initially as what was required to stop the bulldozers) which went un-used for the want of any workable scheme for using it. Queensland wanted federal cash without conditions. But it lacked means to stop extremist landowners from taking the cash - and continuing clearing. Queensland claims to have legislation for both freehold and leasehold land and that the problem is is federal policy incoherence. - because of problems in getting National Party acceptance. It is now 10 years since panic clearing was first provoked by the Goss Governments announcement of an intention to do something about the issue. This should not have surprised anyone as SA, Victoria and WA had previously had to apply draconian controls to stop clearing. Queensland's way has been to cause maximum alarm to landowners without reigning in their excesses. The Goss Government consulted interminably - but then failed to proclaim the relevant provisions law. The Borbidge Government proclaimed the legislation - with permits that could be handed out by public servants with backgrounds in rural extension. The Beattie Government found the state on fire - but its tough talk did not last long. The Queensland system is now a complex legislative and regulatory framework. Vegetation cover is now less than 3% of the original (and 10% on freehold land). Guidelines for assessing clearing permits have improved - but still leads to stuff-ups. Clearing permits exist over large areas where no clearing as yet occurred. Is Queensland's approach now starting to work? It has so far provoked more clearing than it prevented. Information about clearing may only be released slowly. Already released data shows a huge increase in clearing before the Vegetation Management Act - and a huge decrease after. Regional vegetation management plans are now starting to flow - which farm groups complain have not been adequately resourced and which environmentalists believe will provoke another round of panic clearing. Canberra wants a dramatic reduction in clearing for greenhouse reasons. A new federal package is being prepared - but the politicians are still fighting, the farmers still clearing and the damages bill is still mounting (Dickie P., 'The chain gang', CM, 14/12/02).

Queensland could be headed for the dust-bowl conditions of the American mid-west in the 1930s. Trees have been cleared - and the land cultivated. In US 'Okies' lost the topsoil from their cleared and cultivated land to the wind - and were forced to move. A University of Queensland professor suggested following dust-storms that land in Australia should never have been cleared. Trees have been undervalued. Yet would the wind erosion have happened anyway? Keeping a vegetation cover on land is important - not only to prevent erosion but also to encourage deposition. Tree clearing has been seen as not too much of an issue yet in Queensland - being far more serious in southern states, where there are no trees over large areas. (Smith W Drought bleeds the land, CM, 26/10/02) (see  'Blowing in the wind')

Australia might save $4bn future environmental repair bills by paying Queensland farmers $200m now to reduce land clearing - according to a report from PM's Science Engineering and Innovation Council (Hodge A. '$200m plan to cut land clearing', A, 5/6/02)

The true scale of land clearing in Queensland over the past 5 years was hidden by the state government and bureaucrats while trying to resolve the impasse between conservationists and landholders. Documents reveal that bureaucrats had warned that bulldozers were everywhere as landholders cleared ahead of a crackdown but that detailed reports were repeatedly delayed because Government had no firm policy (O’Malley B and McKinnon M ‘Permit delay sparked rampant land clearing’, CM. 23/2/02)

One third of land-clearing permits in Queensland are issued for freehold land containing threatened ecosystems, and the rate of approvals is increasing. Land clearing laws are unlikely to produce practical outcomes, because conservation groups have withdrawn from key committees - because they want money before participating in the development of regional vegetation management plans (McKinnon M. 'Permits threat to ecosystems', Courier mail, 24/12/01)