Bundarrah Days

Two of Victoria's leading bushfire experts say visitors to Wonnangatta would be be lucky to survive a bushfire in the remote valley.

Former CSIRO scientist, David Packham OAM, now a rural fire consultant and Rod Incoll, Victoria’s former Chief Fire Officer, who visited Wonnangatta last week with Mountain Cattlemen say that fuel loads are at extreme levels.

According to Liberal Upper House MP, Graeme Stoney, the experts were appalled at the condition of the former cattle station which was closed to grazing in 1988 after being purchased by the State Government.

“In January the cattlemen highlighted the extreme fuel loads during their protest cattle drive into the valley," Mr Stoney said.

"They had trouble droving the cattle across the open Wonnangatta flats through the grass."

Another visitor, Alec Traill from Dargo, who worked on Wonnangatta Station for many years, was also in the visiting group and recalled that when the station was grazed the grass on the open valley floor was no more than four to six inches high and stayed green throughout the summer.

The picture is vastly different now. Grass last week was a metre high, tinder dry and has been since the New Year.

David Packham said the fire threat was among the worst that he had ever seen. He was amazed that land managers had not attempted to mitigate the threat or warn potential visitors of the extreme danger.

“The only survival locations (in the valley) are inside the existing traditional hut which would probably survive the head fire, but could later burn, and the elm forest if in a car with blankets,” he said.

“My conclusion is that the threat is extreme and urgent works are required to make the Valley safe. It would be very easy to burn and later mow, or better, graze the grass lands and undertake aerial prescribed burning on the forest slopes. The result would be a very safe haven in a forest that is otherwise extremely dangerous.”

Don't expect Parks Victoria to take any notice, though. They are already well and truly aware of the situation.

According to the folk at Save Our Snowy, DSE fire officer Ewan Waller said the parks were so big it was impossible to get burns done at the one time. "Its such a massive area, you have to weigh up the risk versus resources and a number of other factors," he said.

"You have to factor in a whole stack of things before an area can be burnt."

Now there's a statement from a DSE representative - the parks are so big... and "it's such a massive area...."

Yes, national parks are too big - way too big. It's a dangerous game that's being played by the Victorian Government and its green supporters. Vast areas of land, way too big to manage as national parks are being locked up and left. It's a danger to the bush and a danger to the lives of people who love to spend time there.

If anyone should think that the danger in Wonnangatta is being overstated they should consider that one of Victoria's oldest horse tour families who have been visiting Wonnangatta for decades will no longer take tours into the valley during February. They describe it as a death trap.

Perhaps there is a hidden green agenda at work. Maybe they would like to see a few tragedies to drum into people the dangers unmanaged bushland presents to the unwary and the inexperienced. Perhaps they think such tragedies might dissuade people from going there.

It's got to a point now where we really have to consider the possibility of such a hidden agenda or otherwise we have to admit that our land managers and those who formulate the policies are incredibly, almost unbelievably incompetent.

Does anyone truly believe that "the science" used to justify these crazy policies is legitimate science?

MY arguments against the manner in which Mountain Cattlemen have been evicted from our high plains runs received some support last year from a source that I would formerly have regarded as being firmly on the other side.

Dr Moss Cass was Australia's first Federal Minister for the Environment (1972-75) and is currently President of the Australian National Biocentre Inc and the convenor of the Scientists and Engineers Network for a Sustainable Environment.

Dr Cass responded to a letter I wrote to an online journal called Terra Publica and it's worth publishing his response in full. What he has suggested should happen in examining the issue of alpine grazing is no more than we ask - that is that the science used to justify our eviction be subjected to "open and public assessment."

Here is the letter:

Philip Maguire, in asserting his entitlement to graze his cattle on Crown land, as his forebears had done, raises some interesting
issues for us all (Terra Publica, July 2005). No doubt at the time when the practice started, the cattlemen were considered
to be doing society a favour, helping to control the bush-fire menace and in the process putting otherwise useless scrub and bush to some practical, productive use.

Thus there was a benefit to society as a whole, not just the cattlemen. Over time we have come to understand the situation
is not really what we thought it was. Many of the farm practices we all supported and encouraged, we now find are rendering the land less productive, indeed degenerating to real wasteland, even desert.

Studies have suggested 40% of the land should be native trees, bush, scrub, swamp (wetland) in order to ensure the long-term viability of the rest of the land on which we depend for our cattle grazing, our crop cultivation and other human social and
economic activities.

If this means our past practices must be curtailed or in some cases abandoned, then clearly those who have managed the land in this initially acceptable fashion, should not now have to bear the burden on their own as they change to sustainable practices. Any decision made on necessary changes should be based on full discussion and collaboration with those who will be directly affected.

This should include open and public assessment of the science purporting to justify the need for change.

If the science proves to be right, the process of public examination and assessment of the science will educate us all, including the cattlemen in this case, not only on the need to change, but would facilitate the evolution of optimum solutions which will
involve the otherwise dispossessed. On the other hand, if the science under scrutiny proves to be defective, it is as well we all
should know about it so that otherwise harmful social antagonisms can be allayed.
(Dr) Moss Cass
Carlton

SINCE we mountain cattlemen have been declared outlaws in our own country we've developed an even greater affinity with Ned Kelly. Nothing much changes does it? LIke Ned we've been kicked by the privileged class - our eviction courtesy of the silver spooned former Melbourne Grammar boy, Johnstone (Twitter) Thwaites. Anyway, this outlaw felt it appropriate to write and record a song as a tribute to Ned, Australia's greatest folk hero. It's called Such Is Life and you can hear it by clicking the link below.

http://bundarrahdays.blogspirit.com/files/02_such_is_life...

To make room for the song I've had to delete some picture files but you can see more pictures at http://maguire.blogspirit.com/