Bundarrah Days

Not content with allowing the high country to burn its way to destruction Parks Victoria is now trying to set rural communities ablaze by promoting discord and dissension and conducting activities that could lead to serious confrontations, Push For The Bush Organiser, Bob Richardson, said today.

Mr Richardson said the news that parks authorities had recruited a local man in the Benambra district to muster cattle whose desperate owners have allowed them to roam in the bush was a disgrace.

"Paddocks are bare, stock are dying and grass in the bush is abundant," Mr Richardson said.

"The temptation to save their stock has led to some people allowing their cattle to roam and instead of accepting the extentuating circumstances of a terrible drought Parks Victoria has sought to divide and conquer by trying to entice local people to betray their communities.

"To put it in plain terms this is not on. The drought is difficult enough without further stressing communities by creating the conditions for confrontation and discord."

"We were aware earlier in the summer that parks representatives had been haunting cattle sales trying to hire people to remove cattle from the Alpine National Park. Initially those who were hired believed they would be mustering stolen cattle. When they discovered the real agenda they refused to participate."

Mr Richardson said he believed that in the recent incident near Benambra 17 cattle had been mustered and impounded.

"The parks people know what they're risking which is why they requested police attendance for their operation near Benambra. People and communities are stressed and this sort of action can often be the last straw."

Mountain Cattleman Philip Maguire who returned his cattle to the Bogong High Plains in January said Parks Victoria had not targeted his cattle.

"We've been working with parks representatives who were well aware of the legal dispute over my right to graze this summer," he said.

"We've had a successful grazing season and managed to avoid any serious problems."

But Mr Maguire said he was appalled by the decision to recruit contract musterers from within local communities.

"They must realise the potential that has to cause some pretty serious social conflict," he said.

"If managing a national park has to disrupt the life of country communities it's time to ask whether the park is worth it's cost in social terms. A peaceful and cooperative community is vastly more important than the issue of a few cows running in the bush."

Mr Maguire said that Environment Minister John Thwaites was a social and environmental vandal who didn't deserve to be a Member Of Parliament.

"He was incompetent from the start, now he's irresponsible and negligent. He should stick to Albert Park where he's appreciated and stay out of the bush where he's not,' Mr Maguire said.

WE just arrived home this morning from a great weekend at the Mountain Cattlemen's Get Together at Glenfalloch.

We got there on Saturday morning in time to listen to a few speakers at the People's Bushfire Review and the stories some told of their experiences this summer were harrowing to say the least. Having been burnt by the fires of 2003 we were able to empathise.

State Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu was there and made the point strongly that the mega-fires of this summer did not have to happen. They were not an inevitability. They could have been prevented. He was right.

Apparently I appeared on the Channel Seven News on Saturday night but that was completely by accident. I happened to be walking one way and reporter Norm Beaman was right in my path looking for someone to interview. It ended up being me.

I made the point again that managed grazing on the high plains helps mitigate the threat of wildfire, especially if it is used in conjunction with a comprehensive program of fuel reduction burning in the forested valleys.

We had a bit of a win when one of the girls who came on our droving trip to the high plains in January took first prize in the photo competition for a picture she took at our hut.

She's got more than 200 pictures of the drove on CD which she's going to send us. That's a bonus because we didn't take anywhere near as many as we wanted due to flat batteries in the camera.

TO those who monitor this blog here's have a word of advice.

Don't expect that those who contribute to Bundarrah Days will be silenced by any external pressure you might try to levy. We guarantee it will have the opposite effect.

Australians have the freedom to speak the truth and we will continue to publish the truth in defence of rural communities without fear or favour.

The famous Frank (The Poet) McNamara once introduced himself with these words; "sworn to be a tyrant's foe and while I live, I'll crow."

We echo those sentiments and we live by them, too!

More propaganda from The Spencer St Soviet, also known as The Melbourne Age.

These two pictures are of Steamer Plain in the Barmah Forest wetland, the one on the left taken in December 2005 and the other last week after two years of drought.

Cattle, traditionally grazed in the forest, are accused of destroying a magnificent environment, transforming it from the picture of ecological beauty on the left to the trampled picture of destruction on the right.

No mention of the fact that the area has been grazed for more than a hundred years and that it has looked like it does at right more than once in previous droughts and returned to its pristine state with normal water levels.

The fact is that the apparently trampled area is usually under water and the drought is responsible for the lack of it.

If you want the truth you won't hear it from the greens nor read it in any newspaper published by their flunkys at Spencer St.

I HAVE to apologise for neglecting Bundarrah Days since around mid February. The combination of a multiple broken wrist and having to constantly supervise cattle in the bush conspired to keep me off the job.

Another reason is that we're in the process of selling our Narbethong property on the grounds that it is too far from Mt Bundarrah and buying a farm at Eskdale in the Mitta Valley, one of the most beautiful and productive regions in Australia.

However, the time hasn't been completely unproductive in terms of blogging. I have a lot of new material to post including copious notes from former NSW Commissioner for Western lands, Dick Condon, who was one of those responsible for ending grazing in The Snowy Mountains and now thinks it was a mistake.

I've also spoken to a number of senior and respected scientists who are unanimous in their judgment that the combined fires of 2003 and the past summer represent the greatest environmental disaster in Victoria's history.

Interestingly, I've been following the debate on global warming and I've noticed that internationally respected Colorado State University climatologist, Dr Roger Pielke, has been widely quoted in the Australian media as being critical of Al Gore.

Bundarrah Days was ahead of the crowd in bringing attention to Dr Pielke and his work on fire and precipitation in the Amazon rainforest.

Stay tuned.