Comments on: ‘Chain gang’ or holiday gaol time: a crucial question for our parks

By: kathy

kathy — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 06:26:08 +0000

Maybe we all should look back at the past fifty years, at the weather patterns and the land in this area.
There have always been floods, fires and drought in the Red Centre.
If there is no rain (water) no plants grow, not even the natives.
The couch at least keeps the top soil grounded as the September winds come through.
Native plants only flower after rain, not in the spring as most other areas do.
Cattle on the parks will help keep the couch short and less likely to cause bush fires.

By: Steve Brown

Steve Brown — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 09:00:56 +0000

If I were asked to further define the mentality that is both destroying our parks, the rights of our people and our nation wealth, small closed minds of an inept academia, I would simply point to the comments of Ian and Bob where that mentality is so aptly demonstrated.
World heritage, hey, Ian? What do you think that achieves that’s good for us, our town, our economy? And please spare us the propaganda.
World heritage listing would simply further embroil us in bureaucracy and red tape, further exclude ordinary people from enjoying their beautiful surrounds. Surrounds that your lot would isolate and leave open to ever increasing amounts of mismanagement from city born, city educated blow-ins with absolutely no knowledge of country, what makes it tick and more importantly, what makes it live!
My knowledge comes from a lifetime of working on and with the Land extracting a sustainable living from the land and landscape, working alongside friends, family and acquaintances who created, pioneered our community. We didn’t hear about it, we didn’t read about it, we lived on it, with it, grew up on it, we know this land, its plants its animals its beauty its moods, what it will give and what it won’t.
Lifetimes of observation, that’s my knowledge base. I know that it’s difficult to understand when your only knowledge base is the book in your hand but as any good coach or teacher will tell you, nothing is ever really learnt until you do it.
It is a tragedy that over the years parks, the environment in general and, yes, even the astounding newly discovered [by the above] biodiversity have all become the play things, the buzz words of smaller a smaller group of activists and academia who have created an exclusive snobbish club around the subjects, to the general exclusion of all others. This is the group I refer to as Ferals, those that have given parks, conservation, the environment and the biodiversity an increasingly bad name, developing an us and them mentality which in the end will do their stated cause immense harm.
If you want people to love and protect the environment, and our parks, you don’t develop that love by locking them out! You develop it by putting them in, giving them access. This way they get to know the value. Isolate the parks for long enough and eventually people won’t care what happens to them. As for the grazing of parks, that seems just too much for Ian, it is a practice that is carried out in many places around the world simply because it is by far and away the least damaging way to manage pasture, particularly in difficult terrains. You might want to keep in mind that the area known as the West Macs has been heavily stocked for over a hundred years. Whatever damage that was going to do is already done.
When cattle were finally removed from the valleys and ranges, pet food shooters also took out somewhere around ten thousand head of horses and donkeys over and above the numbers of cattle.
This occurred before the nuffel was established. What does all that mean? It means that the amount of grass, food, energy and if left unused “fuel” produced by this area is quite vast.
In order to maintain some sort of control, that prevents continual destructive burning which certainly does threaten the biodiversity, the whole area would sustain quite a large number of cattle or other grazing animals – another wealth earning industry that might actually pay a few ranger wages without doing any damage at all, if properly managed.

By: Ian Sharp

Ian Sharp — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 02:57:53 +0000

Thanks Bob, not everyone may be aware the Western Macs National Park (which includes Simpsons Gap) has been nominated by the NT Govt for World Heritage listing. What a big step that would be for us, a lot of informed tourists take that into account when planning their itineraries. For those interested in further info check out this website and the links it contains (apologies Steve, much of which written by experts): http://www.nretas.nt.gov.au/?a=1179

By: Bob Durnan

Bob Durnan — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 23:36:01 +0000

Ian (Posted September 25, 2012 at 10:48 pm): yes, our mate the anti-scientific oracle has vented again, and as usual he will rest safe in his delphic ignorance by virtue of the fact that those who are most highly qualified to deal with his bilge are forbidden from so doing because of their vows of silence to their employers (the governments).
All we can say to the innocent reader is this: don’t be fooled by false prophets.

By: Ian Sharp

Ian Sharp — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 13:18:15 +0000

Crikey, Steve is not shy about demonstrating his ignorance on national parks and biodiversity. His solution to the problems posed by invading grasses seems to be twofold:
1. dump a bucket on scientists and rangers
2. turn the parks into grazing lands
Not much point in having national parks if that’s what we do.

By: Steve Brown

Steve Brown — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 08:45:14 +0000

I would love to see further work and development of the Larapinta Trail as it is an can be of much greater benefit as a tourist attraction.
In conjunction with its development however, we also need to see development of much greater vehicle access and camping grounds into the same areas. Walking trails only cater to a very small section of the population, we must make sure we are keeping our sights set on also attracting the biggest portion of the tourist market, those that drive or ride as opposed to those that walk.
The comments by Mr Latz and rangers re buffel grass can only leave you shaking your head. It’s not the buffel that’s the biggest threat to our National Parks. It is bloody poor management! In short “they – the so called experts”, are the threat! Stop the burning!
Fire is most often started by those who are supposedly preventing it That is the direct cause of the loss of trees and the increased domination of buffel in the landscape. Good graded or mowed fire breaks at regular interval, grazing and rapidly extinguishing any fires is the answer.
Good for soil fertility, good for the economy, good for trees, good for the beauty of the country.
Too many uni-educated “ex spurts” with no grasp, no handle on whom and what pays their wages.
Buffel is a pasture plant. It lifts the food productivity of the land by a massive amount.
Even to discuss, let alone carry out the development of a fungi or other method that threatens our pasture grasses could and should be seen as an act of bio terrorism threatening the nation’s wealth and food security.
Some of our bureaucrats need to understand: no grass, no food production, no money, no pay!
Which means no park management, no experts, no rangers and no bloody tourists because starving people don’t walk.
So instead of delivering a continual stream of propaganda based on the personal dislikes of a few individuals it’s time to sit down and map out a management plan for our parks which should include shepherded herds grazing our parks under licence.
Not only will they produce food and protect our parks, but will add an interesting attraction for our tourists [now fed] by developing dude ranch type activities.
It’s time to bush the experts and get some commonsense back on the ground. Take the parks from the ferals and give them back to the people!