Late on Sunday 13th August, a bushfire started on a property south of Dilkoon Creek. Hundreds of hectares of Glossy Black-Cockatoo feed habitat destroyed with that habitat unlikely to recover for at least 7 or 8 years. The resident Koalas will have been impacted, and while animals that managed to find a tall tree could have survived this fire, the scorching of leaves is likely to make feed unpalatable for weeks to come.
This is the latest in a series of pictorial reports documenting the destruction of koala and other fauna habitat in the Gibberagee State Forest, north of Grafton. These reports have been prompted by the failure of ministers, their departments, and regulatory authorities, to respond to pleas to protect this significant ecological asset.
The Clarence Environment Centre has been lobbying State and Federal Governments to protect resident Koalas in the above forest from planned logging operations for over 5 months. Again, the Clarence Environment Centre calls for an immediate halt to the destruction of koala habitat at Gibberagee, and an end to all logging in public forests as a matter of urgency.
The biggest concern now is that another fire will impact the site before natural regeneration takes place. Bushfire is the greatest threat currently facing the environment, and must be avoided if at all possible. In my opinion, we stand to lose it all if we don’t, so this is where our country wide focus needs to be.
What could be impacted in the Clarence Valley if a catastrophic tailings dam failure were to occur? Pollution throughout the Valley and the death of key industries our community replies on.