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(((pulse))) inside today why wood works Denis Brown is carving a future for native timber ahead of a major forestry conference on the Border and if his instincts for spotting a new product for the market prove correct, then blue gum may become a furniture timber of the future. pages 4-5 paradise found The good news about fi shing on Fraser Island is you rarely have to exaggerate. Talk to a group of fi shermen who line up along Seventy Mile Beach and they describe the fi shing in one word: awesome. The world’s largest sand island, is also a nature lover’s paradise, with loads of attractions from ancient rainforests, mighty sand dunes, pristine saltwater lakes and streams to an abundance of birds and wildlife. page 7 usual suspects travel........................... 6-7 puzzles ............................9 comics ......................... 10 TV guide ....................... 11 full stop ........................ 12 roll the credits editor: jodie o’sullivan writer: sue wallace subeditors: jennifer grant, john conroy, natasha sherwood layout & design: john charlton, daniel dulhunty phone: (02) 6024 0581 email: features@bordermail.com.au on the cover: design: daniel dulhunty picture: kylie goldsmith 2 cover saving the ALLAN Scammell used to enjoy calling in to a drover’s camp late in the afternoon where the billy would be boiling and you were sure to get an invite for a cup of tea. “You would talk about where they’d been and catch up on the news,” says the Hume ranger who knows the droving paths like the back of his hand. “They seem to have their own bush telegraph; you could fi nd out where every other drover was for a 100 miles around. “If you were going out to visit a drover, you took a spare copy of the The Border Mail with you or a loaf of bread, it was a traditional thing and they were always very appreciative. “I’ve met a lot of drovers, (but) unfortunately most of the old-time drovers have either retired or passed on.” The well-worn paths they tread are called travelling stock routes, thin tracts of land along roadways that blossom into bigger, wider paddocks every 10km or so. Drovers use them to move stock, resting in the bigger paddock overnight. Drover Rob Strachan, from Gerogery East, is one of the last working this region and he loves the life the stock routes offer. Mr Strachan has been working the NSW routes for 14 years, ditching his life as a shearer for the open road, which he shares with partner Lara and daughter Billieann, 2. “It’s a good way of life,” he says. “You’re your own boss and you fi nd that drovers are pretty easy-going sort of fellas that just like the bush.” “If we lose them we’ll be losing a part of our heritage.” Australian poet Banjo Paterson often told stories of the routes, also known as the Long Paddock. In Saltbush Bill he writes: Now Saltbush Bill was a drover tough as ever the country knew, He had fought his way on the Great Stock Routes from the sea to the big Barcoo. The routes were developed in the 1830s by pastoralists wanting to move domestic stock to cities and goldfi elds. ‘ ‘ john conroy Our forefathers set them up 100 odd years ago and it would be a terrible loss. They were surveyed by the governments in the 1870s and formalised as offi cial droving pathways. But their real age and heritage value could be much greater. Research now suggests the routes were based on Aboriginal walking tracks that have crossed the continent for up to 40,000 years. But, much like Aboriginal heritage, they are under threat. Unfortunately for drovers, ecologists, graziers, the region’s Wiradjuri people and all the others who love the stock routes, a number now threatens their existence — three million. An independent report commissioned by the NSW Government revealed stock routes have run at a loss of $3 million during the past few years and the Rural Lands Protection Boards that manage them have been told to make a business case for keeping the routes — or cede them to the Lands Department. NSW Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald has promised not to sell the routes but there are fears they are going to be more easily permanently leased, or even sold with a change of government personnel. Mr Strachan is worried about his livelihood. “I can see there is not going to be a big future in droving,” he says. “Once they (TSRs) are leased, you don’t seem to get them back.” The drover fears powerful farmers are trying to gain control of some of the precious lands. “I think they’re closing them for different reasons,” he says. “It’s about cockies feathering their own nests. They should give everybody a fair go, these are travelling stock routes not just there for agistment stock. “They use arguments like the reserve is getting fl ogged bare or the travelling stock are pushing on their fences.” Stock routes litter the Border region, running along the Murray River, up, in and around everywhere. One of the most famous reserves around here is Bells reserve, named A life grazing stock in the Long Paddock is under threat. Travelling stock routes may be heading down the path of extinction — and with it the livelihoods and ecosystems they help protect. after the pioneering Bell family of the area, at Thurgoona, about 4km north of the Kinross Hotel. Then there is the 12-Mile reserve running south along the Murray from Albury. There’s the route along the road between Daysdale and Corowa and literally thousands of hectares more across the Riverina — more than 600,000ha in NSW alone. In Victoria stock routes were never formalised but a similar system of Crown land networks exists. “The distinguishing feature of the stock reserve is that it generally hasn’t been cleared, hasn’t been cultivated, so it’ll have a good stand of native trees and a good swathe of native grasses on it plus other native plants,” Mr Scammell says. His Hume board manages 163km and 3880ha of routes that stretch from Howlong to Henty to Tumbarumba to Khancoban. Thurgoona ecologist Peter Spooner, from Charles Sturt University, says the nature corridors will save Australian plants and animals as climate change worsens. Selling the routes for grazing would be like selling “the Crown jewels in a garage sale”, he says. “These long corridors that connect up reserves through Queensland and NSW are critically important to keep species alive to allow for movements across the countryside as the climate changes.” “We’re already seeing it anecdotally now, there seems to be some movement of birds and other wildlife towards the south, or to higher altitudes. “Selling off segments of the TSR network could be perceived as a key threat to how we deal with the impacts of climate change in the future.” Already, Catchment Management Authorities have been paying RLPBs to lock up stock reserves to restore them to their natural state but those funds are starting to run dry and bigger bucks are needed. Dr Spooner has joined more than 500 scientists as a signatory to an open letter to NSW and Queensland premiers demanding routes be preserved for multiple uses, most importantly protecting endangered ecosystems and species, 46 — The Border Mail, Saturday, October 18, 2008 www.bordermail.com.au
drover’s run such as yellow box and white box woodlands. Dr Spooner points to the English experience with their hedgerow network. The iconic hedgerows, closely spaced shrubs and bushes planted and trained to form a barrier, had been developed over centuries. In the 1980s farmers, and others, decided to remove them to allow more agriculture production and eliminate vermin they believed sheltered there. “What they found is they lost a lot of their bird wildlife and now there is a lot of effort to return the hedgerows,” Dr Spooner says. A similar epiphany occurred in Spain when they sought to do away with their stock reserves. The fi nal point Dr Spooner makes in defence of the status quo is that TSRs are a seed source for re-vegetation activities. “If we put the stock in there we’re going to knock those plants out, meaning we can never re-vegetate those plants again,” he says. Mr Scammell backs the science. It’s actually diffi cult to fi nd people who don’t. Drovers have joined environmentalists, graziers and scientists to protest the move. Meanwhile the NSW Farmers’ Association supports some closures. “Although NSW Farmers’ doesn’t have a position about privatising stock routes, we do have a position about the need for RLPBs to review them and to close them if they are not genuinely used,” a spokeswoman told Pulse this week. However, the association is still sitting on the fence when it comes to commenting on recommendations stemming from the report. “We are seeking clarifi cation as to how the TSRs would be managed, particularly weeds and pest animals, if they were transferred to the Department of Lands,” she says. Henty farmer Grenville Coe, who last week was the only person in the Hume area using a reserve for agistment purposes, says the stock routes should stay as they are. “Our forefathers set them up 100-odd years ago and it would be a terrible loss,” he says. “It’s cheaper than prime movers and creates a job for the drovers.” Mr Coe says the stock routes also limit fi re risk in the district and control introduced grasses. All parties — rangers, farmers, drovers and academics — admit there are some “cowboys” who abuse the reserves but say they are few and far between. Mr Scammell says some boards, too, have leased areas to graziers for too long. “That’s a backward step,” he says. “A desperate move to try and get a bit of extra money but long-term it causes a lot of damage environmentally.” Dr Spooner says a compromise can be reached balancing the needs of graziers and conservationists. “Biodiversity can improve agricultural production and vice versa. “They can co-exist and that way the TSRs can be kept as a community resource forever.” Mr Scammell also holds out hope. “Now with the growth of Landcare, and younger members of (farming) families more interested in the environment, I think farmers see the routes as a real plus in their district rather than just an old reserve that probably should be cleared and ploughed up,” he says. The number of drovers in the district has diminished in recent decades, from about 14 travelling Hume in 1982 to just the one this week — Mr Strachan. Yet there are those who say that with fuel prices soaring, the old art may not yet be dead. Now this is the law of the Overland that all in the West obey — A man must cover with travelling sheep a six-mile stage a day; But this is the law which the drovers make, right easily understood, They travel their stage where the grass is bad, but they camp where the grass is good. (Saltbush Bill, 1917) cover 3 (((pulse))) OPPOSITE PAGE and ABOVE: It’s a travelling life for Gerogery drover Rob Strachan and his partner Lara. Pictures: KYLIE GOLDSMITH LEFT: CSU ecologist Dr Peter Spooner says travelling stock routes provide vital corridors for wildlife. Picture: RAY HUNT BELOW: Ranger Allan Scammell knows the region’s droving paths like the back of his hand. HUME TRAVELLING STOCK ROUTES ■ Size: 3880ha and 160km Balance sheet for “last few years”: ■ Management expenses: From $120,000 to $170,000 ■ Management income: From $100,000 to $130,000 ■ 68 TSRs are covered by the Biodiversity Restoration agreement with CMA (2100ha) ■ 2 TSRs are being rehabilitated as wetlands in the Upper Murray (58ha) Permits issued so far this year: ■ 70 apiary permits ■ 48 camping permits (free) ■ 97 short-term grazing permits for in excess of 2000 sheep and cattle ■ 73 walking permits to 33 stock owners and/or drovers (only four were moving stock for more than one day – thus utilising the stock route – others were moving stock a short distance from property to property) Source: Hume Rural Lands Protection Board Is this a case of cruel to be kind? FOR workers based on oil rigs in the Arabian Gulf, there is a part of their day some dread. First comes the smell, then come the fl oating sheep — some dead, some trying to swim. Some live export ship operators simply throw the sheep overboard because they would not pass an inspection by agents at their destination. Numerous stories — and pictures — like these have turned three quarters of Australians against the live export trade, according to the RSPCA. They have also provided ammunition for animal rights activists to fi re in their call for a ban on live export for slaughter. But the issue is complicated. The live trade brings in $1.8 billion a year, and supports thousands of farming communities. Farmers pay a levy to Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) every time they sell one of their animals. That levy helps fund research to improve welfare. Michael Finucan, manager of livestock exports for MLA, admits there have been — and continue to be — issues of animal welfare during journeys. But, he says, it is disappointing the public does not recognise industry improvements. “We’re now above 99 per cent, which means of all the sheep that walk on, 99 per cent walk off. With cattle, it’s above 99.9 per cent.” A one per cent mortality rate means 41,000 of the 4.1 million sheep exported from Australia last year didn’t survive the trip. The last federal budget put $7.6 million into a program to improve animal welfare in countries importing Australian livestock, and MLA has just pushed more than $500,000 into programs to manage salmonella and inanition (when animals go off their food during the trip). On board every sheep ship, by law there must now be an Australian vet and, preferably, an Australian-trained stockman. The chair of the World Society of the Protection of Animals (WSPA), Hugh Wirth, says there is only so much a vet can do because of the way stock is carried — jammed into pens — “even if a vet sees a problem, he can’t get to the animal”. Once the animals arrive at their destination, in Asia, Egypt or, predominantly, the Middle East, their welfare cannot be guaranteed, he says. Cue the images of sheep bound and shoved into car boots in a region where temperatures reach 50 degrees celsius in summer; of cattle having their throats cut while fully conscious; and of dying sheep fl oating at sea. The WSPA, through its Handle With Care campaign, is fi ghting for live exports bound for slaughter to be replaced over a fi ve-year period by chilled and frozen meat. If Australia did decide to halt its export trade, farmers would be faced with the momentous task of fi nding an alternative revenue stream, at one of the most challenging times for rural communities in our history. WSPA believes the answer is to reopen Australian abattoirs, which it claims would still allow Australian farmers to get the same value from their meat. Cue the images of sheep bound and shoved into car boots. www.bordermail.com.au The Border Mail, Saturday, October 18, 2008 — 47
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