SUMMER 2012-13

The newsletter of the

Bundaberg and Fraser Coast Branches,

Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland MEMBERS AND FRIENDS

Wambaliman, since July 1967 In the language of the Kabi Tribe which occupied the land from Maleny to Howard, including Fraser Island and all the territory drained by the Mary, Burrum, Mooloo-

lah, Maroochy and Noosa River systems, “wambaliman” means simply “carry”.

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WPSQ

WILDLIFE PRESERVATION SOCIETY OF QUEENSLAND

BUNDABERG BRANCH PO Box 1215 Bundaberg, 4670

President: Rick Haywood 4159 4000 Vice President: Pam Soper 4159 1919 Secretary: Ann Jarman 4159 1931 Treasurer: Phil Jarman 4159 1931

FRASER COAST BRANCH

PO Box 7396 Urangan, 4655

President: Carol Bussey 4129 5979 Vice President: Diane Christensen 4128 3992 Secretary: George Seymour 0409 614 148 Treasurer: Tina Raveneau 41942417.

Equipment officer: Tony Bussey 4129 5979

WAMBALIMAN Editor: Jenny Watts Typesetting and design: Jenny Watts Additional writing: Carol Bussey and Jenny Watts Proofreading: Andrea van Kampen

DATE CLAIMERS

Love Mary Day (Postponed from 17 Feb)

NOW Sunday 12 MAY 11am- 3pm Entry via 34 Van Doorn Rd, Tiaro near Petrie Park.

Love Mary Day will be a celebration of the Mary River and the creatures that call her home. Special attractions on the day will include the Gecko Man, with all his me-nagerie, a self–guided walk along the riparian zone of

the lower Mary River and Cats Claw weaving.

If you would like to get involved, either by having a stall or contributing in some other way, please contact Glenda on 0401 307 110 or Tanzi on 0405 848 375

Wildlife Care Training Workshops

When: March 23 & 24, 2013. Where: Aldershot Scout Camp

Workshop 1. Saturday, March 23, 9:30am - 3:30 pm. The subject is Wildlife First Aid. The trainer is Gail Gipp, manager of the RSPCA Hospital at Wacol. Gail has 30 years experience in wildlife care. Cost: $10 for workshop notes and a contribution of approximately $5-$10 for the fuel costs for Gail from Cooloola to Aldershot. Bring: Lunch and Morning tea. NOTE: We wish to discourage participants from bringing children as some of the images will be distressing and children will also be a distraction for participants.

Workshops 2 & 3. Sunday, March 24 commencing at 9:00 am and finishing at 3:30 pm. The two workshops will overlap. Introduction to care of orphaned animals. Introduction to care of possums. The trainer is Rachel Lyons, a trainer and coordinator with Wildcare. Rachel has 15 years experience in looking after orphaned and in-jured wildlife. Cost: $20 for two sets of workshop notes and a contribution of $5-10 for fuel costs. Bring: Morning tea and lunch.

Tea, coffee and cold water will be provided. If you are a carer, you may bring any animals in care with you. The setting of the Scout Camp is in the bush.

To book: Email FCWPSQ bussey.tony@westnet.com.au

Or phone 4129 5979 (Carol) or 41295789 (Sara)

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Summer 2012-13

Contents

REPORTS Local Environmental issues Bundaberg WPSQ ACTIVITIES FCWPSQ ACTIVITIES Battle to Save Moolyyir Creek FCRC CEP ARTICLES

Mistletoe and biodiversity Protected Areas and Local Communities - a partnership Bundaberg’s Reef Guardian Schools Volunteer profile Uplift 2012 Festival

We welcome contributions from WPSQ members and supporters. Send contributions by email to duckz@bigpond.net.au or post to The Editor, WAM-BALIMAN, PO BOX 7396 URANGAN 4655

Submissions for the next WAMBALIMAN are due by mid MAY 2013

Opinions expressed in WAMBALIMAN are not necessarily those endorsed by the Wildlife Preservation Society Queensland, Bundaberg and Fraser Coast Branches unless specifically attributed to them.

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Lessons from nature

Local conservation efforts have experi-enced their fair share of problems re-cently. It has been upsetting and very discouraging to watch many years of commitment and hard work, willingly destroyed by others, and knowledge and expert advice ignored. In nature, there are destructive forces, and yet nature is resilient enough to deal with these. How can we gain inspiration and encouragement from this? One of my observations from the storm is that healthy and diverse plant com-munities stood fast. Even if their tops were blown off, many trees are still standing, and will no-doubt reshoot. They now provide wonderful habitat through exposed hollows and fallen logs, and with increased light, some younger trees will now get their chance to grow tall. Some species unable to grow previously now have enough light to grow. In areas where the vegetation has been flattened, seeds lying dormant in the ground will germinate and fill the now empty spaces. Nature doesn’t give up – it just keeps on going. It might have to change a little, but it has many strategies for bouncing-back. I’m sure we can do the same! Bend with the wind, hold strong with your roots, and if you lose a branch, send out a heap of shoots to replace it. Sow seeds everywhere, and when conditions are right, they’ll grow. Most of all, be part of a “community” and support each other. “Storms make oaks take roots” (Proverb)

Tina Raveneau

EDITOR’S NOTE… WAMBALIMAN is kept at 24 pages or less because of postage costs. Apologies if your article/photos are not in this issue.

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Local Environmental Issues By Emma-Kate Currie

Hello there fellow conservation minded friends. As always it’s been an interesting few months on the environment front. The close of 2012 saw the Environment Coun-cil go into hibernation owing to a two month long period in which we were with-out operating funding but fortunately that was rectified and we received our funding within a week of Christmas which was a lovely gift. Regional Conservation Councils are in their last year of funding under a contract created by the former Labour Govern-ment which is set to expire on June 30. Environment Minister Andrew Powell has indicated that he wishes to extend the funding round for a further period however this will have to be passed by the Cabinet..

In January WBBEC lodged submis-sions into two separate Federal Senate Inquiries; The ‘Environment Protection and Conservation Act Amendment Bill 2012- Retaining Federal Approval Pow-ers’ and ‘Effectiveness of threatened Spe-cies and Ecological Communities’ Protec-tion in Australia’. The submission on the latter detailing the issues with Lungfish protection at Paradise Dam and WBBEC has now been asked to give evidence at a Public Hearing into the inquiry on 22nd February in Brisbane.

Australia Day saw ex-cyclone Oswald visit the Wide Bay Burnett during which time he delivered multiple tornadoes and record breaking rainfall which severely impacted upon our region in both an envi-ronmental and social context. Bargara and Burrum Heads sustained very signifi-cant damage from the tornadoes both to property and to the foreshore. Mon Repos estimates that they’ve lost 59% of clutch-es which equates to approximately 46,000 hatchlings, however they are re-suming tours this week.

The Burnett and Mary River catchments experienced unprecedented rainfall re-sulting in a record flood for Bundaberg and the most significant flood in Maryborough since the 1950’s. Ironically in Maryborough, the mangroves hugging the river that have become so controver-sial have been ‘naturally’ thinned resulting in the creation of the ‘views’ that so many people argued for. However it ought to be noted that generally, the banks in which the mangroves have ‘taken over’, sus-tained the least bank erosion during the floods. The environmental impacts from these flood events will not be truly known for up to two years in some areas. It is anticipat-ed that turtle nesting areas along the banks of the Mary south of the barrage will have been impacted along with ripari-an losses and bank slumping. However, the positive in the instance of riparian losses is that large woody debris that ends up in the river as a result of flooding provides for fish habitat for the Mary River Cod and other fish species and will even-

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tually assist in bank stabilisation as it changes direction of flow and protects certain areas form erosion. It can be assumed that the situation for Lungfish in the Burnett River is grim as we still are unaware of the numbers of fish lost in the January 2011 flood. Anecdotal reports at the time indicate that the num-bers could have been in the 1000’s and that there were sightings of deceased Lungfish in the Burnett estuary. It can only be assumed that significant numbers were washed downstream in the flood as the water level at the dam peaked within 1m of the top of the dam structure with ap-proximately 10m of water flowing over the spillway or in volume terms 1.5 million megalitres per day. WBBEC was involved in a Technical Working Group set up by the State Government last year to investi-gate alternative fish passage options after the 5 year monitoring reports for the dam, released in 2012, indicated that the fish passage devices, in particular the down-stream component, were failing to provide any fish passage for Lungfish. During this process we discovered that the dam had been inoperable since January 2011 ow-ing to flood damage, which basically means that up until the time of the most recent flood, the dam was unable to re-lease water in any capacity. This means that the dam was close to full capacity when the weather system arrived and subsequently filled to a point where the water level came very close to breaching the entire structure. It is becoming clear that this dam is incapable of serving any positive purpose for the environment, agri-culture, economy or society and therefore the question of whether or not the dam should be decommissioned ought to be investigated by the government. I recently attended a Ministerial Roundtable at the Department of Envi-ronment and Heritage Protection in Bris-bane with the other Conservation Sector representatives from across the state. We

met together prior to the Roundtable to discuss our joint campaign positions and identify where the priorities are for cam-paigning in the next year given that there will be a Federal Election later this year. The sector identified the three priority areas as: Climate Change The Great Barrier Reef

Mining and Coal Seam Gas Many groups are already collaborating on these campaigns and will continue to join forces to allocate resources to ensure that these issues are prominent in the lead up to the Federal Election. The Ministerial Roundtable saw the agency present to us on a number of proposed legislative amendments including reviews of the Bio-diversity Strategy, Waste Strategy, Biodi-versity Offsets Policy, changes to the State Planning Policies and Regulatory Provisions under the Coastal Plan (which will be replaced with a single State Plan-ning Policy), multiple amendments to the Water Act 2000 and amendments to the Environmental Regulation framework within the agency along with a general overhaul of the agency’s focus which is now centred on the rationale of “Strong environmental management to support sustainable economic development”. The agency markets itself as being a ‘firm but friendly regulator’ and believes ‘it will be-come an agency in which other agencies (env) will look to as a benchmark (in envi-ronmental regulation)’. The sector raised issues with the Minister relating to mining and water releases, offsets, Cape York tenure, flood related planning issues, ac-cess to data, wildlife (flying foxes), Great Barrier Reef and the Strategic Risk As-sessment and Climate Change. The Regional Conservation Groups get the opportunity to raise issues with the Minister in a separate session. I asked the Minister about the current status of the application for an Environmental Authority (EA) for the Colton Coal Project, raised issues about future flood planning in the context of assessing mining applications

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Emma-Kate Currie is the coordinator of the Maryborough based Wide Bay Burnett Envi-ronment Council Inc. She can be contacted on 0423932431 or via email wbbec@optusnet.com.au. The WBBEC has a website wbbec.wordpress.com for further information.

(Colton site and areas that Tiaro Energy and Intercoal at Kolan all inundated dur-ing floods) and local governments lack of flood mapping and adequate preparation for communities. The Minister informed me that the current status of the applica-tion for an EA for Colton has not changed as the proponent still has not provided updated data to the agency in terms of its Site Water Management Plan. The agen-cy has requested further data as it is not satisfied with the already updated infor-mation that the proponent has provided. At this stage, it is simply a waiting game and we are pleased that the agency is continuing to thoroughly assess the project. Intercoal is currently focusing on explora-tion in EPCs 2194 and 2196. Both EPCs cover areas of the Kolan River and in particular, EPC 2196 that sits over an area very close to the mouth of the river, is almost completely covered by areas protected under the Strategic Cropping Lands legislation and yet the company plans to continue to conduct exploration in the area. There is also talk of the compa-ny already purchasing private land within the EPCs. This clearly shows the com-plete lack of respect for government legis-lation and process that is demonstrated by the resources sector in general. As far as we are aware, there has been no such application for a mining lease for either EPCs and therefore it is very audacious of the company to begin the process of re-sumption of land prior to entering into the necessary legislative process. Blue Energy has indicated it plans to commence further exploration for Coal Seam and Shale Gas in the Maryborough Basin in the near future. CSG is on its way. On that note, we are pleased to announce that WBBEC has purchased copies of the documentary film GASLAND which de-tails the issues surrounding the mass extraction of Shale Gas in America. The copies will be available to individuals and

groups for private and public screenings. Please get in contact with us if you wish to borrow a copy. This service will be of-fered free of charge with the exception of the return postage. We also have a range of WBBEC merchandise that can now be purchased including polo shirts, bucket hats, drink coolers, stickers, magnets and biodegradable balloons. These items can be purchased individually or in gift packs. Community Cabinet is coming to Maryborough on the 24th February. WBBEC is hoping to secure meetings with Ministers Powell, Cripps, McArdle, Crisafulli, along with the Premier and Deputy Premier. We will be raising issues associated with Mining, CSG, threatened species and flood related matters. Cr Stuart Taylor is putting a motion to the Fraser Coast Regional Council at their next ordinary meeting to investigate the introduction of a ban on single use plas-tic bags in our local government area. WBBEC has contacted Cr Stuart and indi-cated that we support the motion and would be very keen to participate in a working group to implement the ban, should the motion be endorsed.

We are also hoping to secure funding for a project to undertake a waste survey of the Fraser Coast Regional Council area to identify current constraints in terms of waste disposal and recovery and aim to devise strategies which will assist in deal-ing with waste in a more progressive and sustainable manner in our region. WBBEC is always on the lookout for new members so please feel free to contact us for more information and a membership form. Until next time, remember, every bit counts.

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The AGM planned for 3 February has been delayed until 3 March, due to the severe damage caused by ex-tropical cyclone Oswald, which saw a mini tornado leave a trail of destruc-tion as it ripped through the Bargara CBD, and adjacent coastal communi-ties, on Australia Day, followed by severe flooding of Bundaberg when the Burnett River peaked at a record 9.5 metres in the early hours of 29 January 2013. Paradise Dam: Sunwater has been quick to refute suggestions that Paradise Dam could have averted the extent of flooding if the dam had been fully operable and water had been released in a controlled manner. (Courier Mail 12.02.13) Signifi-cant damage to the infrastructure in the 2011 floods has not yet been repaired, and the dam was full to overflowing be-fore the low dumped millions of megali-tres of water over the whole catchment. If the dam had been operating properly controlled releases prior to the flood could have created some capacity for storage, reducing the impact of the peak of the flood. Politicians and Local Government are strangely quiet about Paradise Dam. Seems to be a subject they prefer not to talk about. In early January Bundaberg canegrowers were complaining about having to irrigate – funny that – given they claimed Para-dise Dam was essential for security of cane production, and the dam was full. Seems they did not want access to the available water after all. Sea Turtles: Severe erosion has de-stroyed many turtle nests at local beach-es including Mon Repos Turtle Rookery. Flood waters from the Burnett have strewn the beaches with an enormous

amount of tree trunks, logs, cane trash, smashed remains of yachts, and other garbage. This has created a hazard for turtles, particularly those hatchlings that survived. Residents in some areas start-ed the clean-up, and Council has used a small tracked vehicle to remove the heavy timbers. It is likely to be some time before we know the extent of damage to the in-shore reefs, and loss of sea grass. The Kolan River has changed course in the estuarine reach, creating a new is-land, and has broken through the long eastern sand spit in three places. It will be interesting to see what changes have been made to the tidal wetlands located to the north of the Sylvan Sands subdivi-sion at Moore Park. Coal Mining: Test drilling is well under way just to the north of Bundaberg. Gina Rinehart’s joint venture partner, Interna-tional Coal, has revealed that one test hole near Bundaberg, in the Maryborough Basin, had returned an extremely high quality coking coal. (Bundaberg News Mail 8,02,13) Concerned residents from the Yandaran area called a meeting on Saturday, 9 February. About 60 people attended. A Lock the Gates campaign video was shown plus the Bimblebox Nature Refuge documentary. One of the organisers men-tioned she had been in touch with Roger Currie. The organisers planned to meet on Sunday morning to set up a formal group of interested persons. Bundaberg Regional Council Mayor, Mal Forman, has appeared on Channel 7 twice saying how great coal mining will be for the economic growth of Bundaberg, and that many jobs will be created.

Bundaberg Branch WPSQ Activities by Pam Soper

Continued back page

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Fraser Coast Branch WPSQ Activities by Sara Gerdsen

Christmas Lunch More than 30 people attended our end of year lunch at Muddy Waters which is apt-ly named. Joan, our branch patron pre-sented Ruby and Coryn with a special award to acknowledge all their hard work at Fay Smith Wetlands. It is hoped that a patron’s award will become a feature at each end of year function. School Visit to Fay Smith Wetlands On 6th December, 37 year 1 students visited Fay Smith Reserve. It was an extremely hot afternoon and the wetlands were bone dry. Carol and I had planned two activities but there was only time for one. After a brief introduction and expla-nation about what to do, we all set off for a walk around the reserve. The children’s task was to complete a nature bingo sheet and collect leaves from five tree species which grow in the area. We had included a dragonfly as one of the bingo features but only one was seen by a cou-ple of children – it was just too dry. On our return to the shady spot the leaves were used to make a shared collage of the trees observed – paper bark, gum tree, fig, wattle and she-oak. A media release was published by the Herald with photos about this event; good publicity for our group. The second activity about wa-ter quality is prepared for another time. For one little girl this activity was a real adventure. She confided to me “This is the first time I have had a walk in the bush”. Many thanks to Juanita and Bill who helped on the day. Community Radio Each month before our monthly meeting a specific topic is presented. Carol spoke

about the branch and frogs, John Parsons presented information about flying foxes and John Williams informed the listeners about Indian Mynas. On- going Issues The battle about the foreshore clearing continues. There have been many more letters to the papers after the storms on the Australia Day weekend. More survey forms will be collected and several busi-nesses have offered to display the survey for the branch. Carol and I are still pursuing the Cheelii Lagoon saga. I am happy to report that little damage occurred from the mini tor-nado. The rain has helped water the Melaleuca cheelii seedlings and already more the half the replacement number have been planted. No doubt the recent rains have helped regeneration at Fay Smith as well and the burnt areas are looking greener. Workshops for 2013 * On March 23 and 24, the branch has organized a wildlife carers training week-end so hopefully there will be more peo-ple available to care for injured wildlife. The contact number for help for injured wildlife has now been changed on the branch blog to the RSPCA number. With the bad weather the need for rescue has increased. As Jenny mentioned in the last edition the RSPCA receives little gov-ernment funding and relies on the com-munity for support. Recently a charity shop has opened in Richmond Street Maryborough so please give them your support. They have a wide range of the usual merchandise and also RSPCA en-dorsed products. I bought a great puzzle book for my granddaughter who is “animal mad”. * Three Koala workshops are in the plan-

Photos of branch activities page 10&11

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I received an invitation from FCRC to speak at the new Dis-covery Sphere in Main St, Hervey Bay on January 28 which I gladly accepted. The day started very slowly due to the cyclone making access to Hervey Bay roads rather difficult. But still, after 11am people started to come in. One of the big hotels from Urangan phoned to see if they could bring in 12 guests from Europe to view the Dis-covery Sphere. The Manager, Vanida asked them to come straight away and then came to give me the good news. The guests arrived at about 11.45 and all settled down in the theatre except for one lady who approached me to say all people were from Europe and don't speak English and she would act as translator which was a good solution. As usual I started my ten minute talk on Flying Foxes and the Australi-an environment which ended up lasting 40 minutes. All were very pleased to have learnt something about the Australian environment and the Flying Foxes and all end-ed with rousing applause and handshakes. This showed me they had enjoyed the talk and were interested in the Australian environment and the Flying Foxes. As the day continued many repeated their comments and some wrote comments in the visitors book (this guy is brilliant.....) John Parsons

Still Parson’ on the good news about bats…

ning stage. We have applied to Council to fund these events and a new group “Friends of the Koalas” will be one of the potential outcomes as well as tree plant-ing in several areas to establish better corridors. * Instead of a Cycle for Climate Change event a Walk for Climate Change is being planned for later in the year. Speakers at our General Meetings We had invited Cr James Hansen as our guest speaker but he was unable to come as he had a meeting with the State mem-ber about funding assistance for land holders who were flooded during the re-cent storms. Once the strategic plan is available we will be inviting someone from council to address members. Carol and I did wonder why this plan goes to State government first before it is available for public consultation. Submissions and Presentations * Despite the branch’s presentations to Council along with many other parties the Council has given approval for the devel-opment at Moolyyir Creek. (see page 12&13) * The branch sent a submission to the EPBC urging them not to hand responsi-

bility for environmental matters to the states. We await an outcome. * The branch has congratulated Cr Taylor on his motion to set up a committee to investigate banning single use plastic bags on the Fraser Coast. We have offered to arrange a speaker from QCC and also inquired about the composition of the task force who will discuss this matter; not sure if this will be just shopping bags but we can hope the bait bags may be included. Sara Gerdsen

S T O P P R E S S 20/02/13 - FCRC votes against (7-4)

setting up a committee to investigate banning single use plastic bags.

FCWPSQ president, Carol Bussey, in-formed council in public participation time about the destruction of marine wildlife by plastic debris.

Council later voted on a motion by Cr. Taylor that a subcommittee be formed to investigate possibility of banning plastic bags. It was defeated 7-4.

Diane Christensen is investigating launch-ing a community campaign using speak-ers and material from the Queensland Conservation Council in April this year.

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A field excursion at Fay Smith reserve for 36 year 1 students from St Helens State School was on December 6. Children learnt the difference between a gum tree, a she-oak, a wattle, a fig, a cabbage palm and a pa-perbark playing "Nature Bingo" and constructing a collage. Clockwise from top; Sara on the boardwalk; Bill helping students; the completed tree collage; Bill sharing in the kid’s fun; Juanita.

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FCWPSQ Christmas Breakup - from top; Joan presents Ruby and Coryn with the patron’s award; Les, Tina and Glenda; Juanita and Denise; group; Joan and Gwen; Sol and Tim; Glenise and Chris; and right Lee and daughter.

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Battle to save creek lost FCWPSQ plus local residents and elders of the Butchalla Tribe put the case to Council on the need to preserve and rehabilitate the small degraded Moolyyir Creek at Urangan. The Fraser Coast Regional Council abrogated their own planning guidelines in allowing the creek to be converted to a rock lined drain and in allowing development right to the edge of the creek bank. The large block of land already had a permit to allow low density residential development (9 houses per hectare or over 20 blocks) but the de-veloper felt he could not make enough money from the current approval and Fraser Coast Regional Council agreed with him. One needs to ask: Is it the business of council to maintain developers’ profit margins or is it the business of council to respond to the needs of the community and the en-vironment?

On December 12 Carol gave a wonderful, well researched submission to council on behalf of WPSQ and those at the meeting gave her a great ovation half way through. She begged them to stop so she could finish her 5 minutes on time. Here is a tran-script of her speech:

Moolyyir Creek

Urangan Boat Harbour

Pulgul Creek

Great Sandy Strait

Urangan

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Councillors, Ladies and Gentlemen, Fraser Coast Branch of Wildlife Queens-land is opposing the approval of this appli-cation for Material Change of Use for 158-164 Pulgul Street, Urangan, on environ-mental grounds. 1.In the immediate coastal zone, develop-ment should be kept at its current level and not intensified due to risks of erosion and tidal surges, particularly on this prop-erty with only one access point. The Wide Bay Burnett Regional Plan states, “The position of HB in relation to the coastline will restrict expansion due to the area’s inherent locational vulnerability to the projected implications of climate change.” Don’t increase population density right on the coast. There is already approval for low density development - which is what? 10 houses per hectare? 2. Increased density of development, in-creased hard spaces, parking for 130 cars will mean more pollution going into the Great Sandy Marine Park. As you will be aware Hervey Bay is already so turbid that most days in summer snorkelling is im-possible because visibility is about a me-tre if that! 3. Lastly the integrity of Moolyyir Creek should be re-established. Even the map in the telephone book shows Moolyyir Creek as a creek. Hervey Bay has very few creeks. Tooan Tooan Creek is a con-crete drain. Why should we let Moolyyir Creek become a rock lined drain?? Council’s own Waterways Code states that: “Development retains, enhances and maintains the environmental values of waterways.” “Degraded waterways should be rehabilitated.” “Provision of buffers in the form of riparian vegetation and separation by distance between the development and the waterway.” We ask, “What is so important that council

disregards its very own codes?” By the way, rehabilitation of streams is very easy and rewarding and should be done. The Southeast Queensland Healthy Wa-terways Strategy says: Waterways ..have conservation signifi-cance and/or make important contribu-tions to aquatic ecosystem health (read Hervey Bay here) and should be protected. – including restoration and rehabilitation.” Australian Guidelines for Stormwater Management state: The quality of urban open space has often been compromised by the loss of natural urban streams to restricted hard engineer-ing drainage structures. The loss of natu-ral urban streams can adversely affect the amenity of surrounding areas, ecological health and water quality. Every source of advice is to rehabilitate and conserve Moolyyir Creek. So unless you go back to the middle of last century, when most of you weren’t even born, the advice is to not turn creeks into drains! Even Council’s own policies say that. Sustainable planning policy insists on the triple bottom line: economic, social and environmental. Well, environment at the moment is more like a hyphen than a line isn’t it? So we ask you to please get out your sustainability bank statements and look at the environmental bottom line and give it a bit of help. Do not increase coastal population density right on the coast. And also please do not humiliate one of our few creeks by converting it to a drain. Make Moolyyir Creek a place where you can take your grandchildren or great grandchildren in 10 years and say if it wasn’t for me, that lovely creek would be just another drain.

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Fraser Coast Regional Council’s Community Environment Program

News by Tina Raveneau

The Summer months generally mean a break from working bees for CEP groups, as it

is just too hot, and we all have family commitments over Christmas and New Year. Amazingly, no CEP sites were severely impacted by the recent storm events.

The 2012 CEP Christmas party was held at Woo-Koo Hall, and was attended by about 40 volunteers. We shared lunch and it was rewarding to hear from various groups, and view a slideshow of the year’s achievements. In 2012 the volunteers hours contributed to the Community Environment Program were in excess of 6000 hours.

This month we welcome the Birdwatchers of Hervey Bay to the Community Envi-ronment Program. This active and autonomous group have been observing our local birds for years, and they have compiled comprehensive records of species found here. I’m looking forward to supporting and working with the group to raise community awareness of and appreciation for the amazing birds of the Fraser Coast.

Tooan Tooan Creek Tree Day site Lee Carter has been coordinating this site and has been busy with follow-up weeding and watering since the National Tree Day planting last July. The site is progressing well, with very few losses, and many of the trees and shrubs are now well-established. We are planning to hold NTD here again this year, and fill the site with native grasses, additional shrubs, as well as beautify the outside edges so it is aes-thetically pleasing as well as functional. It has been amazing to see this former dump site begin transformation into a beautiful area of native bushland.

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Xavier students helped with watering and planting at the Tooan Tooan creek area as a community service project.

This hollow log was placed on site by Council’s Arbour crew to provide habitat.

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Glendyne students install a sleeper edge for garden at the nursery.

Fraser Coast Community Nursery is now the new name for the Propa-gators’ Nursery. We have come up with a new, fresh name, which reflects our focus on the Fraser Coast region, as well as highlighting that our goal is to serve the com-munity. We are exploring opportunities for selling of excess plants, as a way of raising funds to cover nursery costs, and ultimately save the community money, with the add-ed benefit of encouraging more people to grow local natives in their gardens. Glendyne Education and Training Centre’s K-Group are back at the nursery again, this time to install several garden beds at the nursery’s entrance. These beds will not only improve the appearance of the nursery area, but they will help with weed control and provide living examples of local natives plants in a garden setting.

Owlet nightjar in a nesting box at Kingfisher park. Photo courtesy Laurie Hunt

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Thanks again to our wonderful CEP volunteers who are working so hard to protect,

enhance and maintain our precious environment. Tina, 16 February 2013

Fire at Fay Smith Wetland. Photo courtesy Richard Joll

Friends of Fay Smith Wetland From bushfires to floods, Fay Smith Wet-land has experienced it all in the past few months. A fire swept through the site late last year, burning a large section of bush, but at the same time, destroying stubborn Desmodium that had taken over in some places. Volunteer Coryn Dennett has no-ticed that Clematicissus opaca (Forest Grape) has started popping up everywhere so it obviously doesn’t mind a fire! The impacts of the flood are yet to be seen…

Kingfisher Park CEP The Fraser Drive CEP have now renamed themselves Kingfisher Park CEP, to reflect the recent naming of the reserve by Council. Volunteers continue weeding and tidying up the area, as well as monitoring the numerous nestboxes installed. We were surprised to notice an Owlet nightjar watching over the group’s recent working bee.

Forest Grape regrowth after the fire. Photo courtesy Ruby and Coryn.

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Mistletoes are a diverse group of parasitic plants with a worldwide distribution. The wiry red or yellow mistletoe is easily recognisable in the bush and instead of roots, it extracts nutrients and water from host plants.

Mistletoes provide structural and nutritional resources within canopies, and their dis-proportionate pervasive influence on diversity has led to their designation as keystone resources.

There are two hallmarks of keystone species. Firstly, their presence is crucial in main-taining the organization and diversity of their ecological communities. Secondly, it is implicit that these species are exceptional in their importance, relative to the rest of the community.

Associate Professor David Watson from Charles Sturt University and fellow scientist Matthew Herring have spent many years studying the plant's effects in rural New South Wales and have illustrated mistletoe’s keystone resource status. Over a five year period, mistletoe was removed from woodlands on some farms near Holbrook, north of Albury. Changes on these farms were compared with other nearby proper-ties where mistletoe was left unmanaged.

The scientists found that within three years of doing nothing else except removing mistletoe plants from the canopy, more than a quarter of the woodland-dependent bird species were lost.

So, to do one small habitat manipulation and see such a dramatic and almost immediate effect is very strong evidence that mistletoe has a direct positive effect on biodiversity.

Rick Haywood

Mistletoe, a keystone resource, is critical for biodiversity

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The establishment of the first protected area (PA) in the world, Yellowstone, in 1872, was a response from the western civilisation to uncontrolled degradation of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Since then, the number of protected are-as around the world has increased expo-nentially. It has been estimated that by 2005, the world contained a total of

144,296 protected sites covering an area of 19,381,000 km2, or 12.9% of the earth’s land area. This is definitely an achievement, but establishing protected areas alone cannot safeguard perpetua-tion of biodiversity.

Many PAs have been established following the same conventional and exclusionary top-down approach applied at Yellow-stone in 1872. As such, many parks have failed to fully integrate the important fac-

tors, such as social, cultural and political issues. In some cases, this has triggered adverse social impacts on local communi-ties, disrupting their traditional ways of living and limiting their control of and access to natural resources.

The success of conservation strategies through protected areas may lie in the ability of the managers to reconcile biodi-versity conservation goals with social and economic issues and to promote greater

compliance of local communities with PA conservation strategies.

However, there are few quantitative stud-ies identifying what the key factors are that lead to better compliance with pro-tected areas conservation policies. To address this, we conducted a meta-analysis of 55 published case studies from 25 developing countries to determine

whether the level of compliance of local communities with protected area regula-tions were related to: (1) PA age, (2) PA area, (3) the existence of a buffer zone, (4) the level of protection and defined by IUCN categories (International Union for the Conservation of Nature), (5) gross domestic product per capita, (6) popula-tion density in the vicinity of PAs, and (7)

the level of community participation in PA management.

We have shown that one of the most im-portant general strategies for developing local community acceptance of PAs may be community participation in PA man-agement. Including locals in decision-making processes can potentially create a sense of stewardship, where local resi-dents collaborate with PA managers and act together to conserve biodiversity in

PAs and local livelihoods (Horowitz 1998). However, putting such concepts into prac-tice is not an easy task. There are no simple formulae for combining conserva-tion objectives with local community needs. What has worked in one PA may not have worked in another. Understand-ing the peculiarities of each PA and the people who live in and around them is paramount for the success of each PA’s conservation program. How we effectively manage today’s PAs will determine whether those areas will remain under protection, or whether we will continue to see their gradual degradation.

Full article published in Ecology and Soci-ety 17(4): 14. http//dx.doi.org/10.575/ES-05216-170414 Gus has recently finished his masters; this article is from that work. Gus works with Rick Haywood from Bundy WPSQ

Protected Areas and Local Communities: an Inevitable Partnership toward Successful Conservation Strategies?

Gustavo Andrade and Jonathan Rhodes

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More than 285 schools and over 113,000 students are helping build the resilience of the Great Barrier Reef through Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority's (GBRMPA) Reef Guardians Schools pro-gram. The program began in 2003 and sees students, teachers, their communi-ties and local environmental agencies make positive environmental changes for the marine environment.

A key objective of the Reef Guardian Schools program is to create awareness, understanding and appreciation for the Reef and its connected ecosystems. This fosters stewardship and promotes a com-munity culture of custodianship for Reef protection. It empowers students and gives them a sense of involvement in the bigger picture and encourages them to make a positive difference. Students team

up with others in their community to ac-tively participate in activities aimed at improving catchments, water quality, sus-tainability, and Reef health. This includes environmental and sustainability projects within their classrooms, their school grounds and local areas such as native habitat re-vegetation, cleaning up beach-es and recycling.

Recently, more than 35 students from eight local Reef Guardian Schools took part in a day-long Future Leaders Eco Challenge (FLEC) run by GBRMPA, which included hands-on activities and a field trip. The participating schools included Moore Park, Kalkie, Bargara, Gooburrum, Burnett Heads, St Luke’s, Elliott Heads and St Joseph’s.

FLEC coordinator, Janet Barrett, said stu-dents learnt how the coastal, marine and Reef catchment areas are interconnected and reliant on one another to function. "Inshore ecosystems cover about 10 per cent of the Great Barrier Reef and are made up of a diverse range of habitats including seagrass meadows, salt marsh-es, mangroves, estuaries and beaches," she said. "Some of these habitats and species may not be part of the Great Bar-

rier Reef World Heritage Area but they are interconnected and vital to the health of the Reef. These areas are under a lot of pressure from a range of impacts in-cluding coastal development and declining water quality, so it's important students understand the need for long-term pro-tection of these habitats." Continued next page

Bundaberg’s Reef Guardian Schools

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Continued from page 20

The event was jointly hosted at Mon Repos Conservation Park and Bargara State School, with activities provided by GBRMPA, Burnett Mary Regional Group, Ocean Watch, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, and Burnett Regional Council. The Reef Guardian Schools program is expanding all the time in the Bundaberg region with several more local schools to take on the Reef stewardship mantle in 2013. Addi-tional information about GBRMPA's Reef Guardian Schools is available from http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/our-partners/reef-guardians/reef-guardian-schools.

Rick Haywood

The breynia bush outside my window attracts many birds who enjoy the berries. In early Janu-ary, this young koel was perched there eating berries, then calling a slightly mournful repetitive chirp. Its foster parent, a noisy friarbird, periodically responded and flew down and gave the chick a feed. The koel is the well known storm bird. The male is glossy black with a red eye and the female is the more beautiful with brown and white patterned feathers.

It was a very bird families day here, because, at the same time, a sacred kingfisher was diving onto the lawn every few minutes and retrieving grubs and bashing them for its insistent youngster (and itself). The young kingfisher also had a go at hunting. The neighbour reported that the yellow tailed black cockatoos that we frequently see

here also have a youngster. Carol Bussey

We noticed the two geckoes on the verandah and thought that it was one gecko shedding its skin. Howev-

er, I looked more closely and noticed that the skin moved! We realised it was two geckoes fighting and one was clamped onto the shoulder of the other. Being photographed dis-turbed the contest and they scamp-

ered away.The Busseys Ed. This is the Robust Velvet Gecko Oedura robusta.

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“Look out! That old lady wants to get through”. I stopped in my tracks along with those around me and looked around to let her pass. Then I realised, they were talking about ME! Swallowing my indigna-tion, I smiled and moved forward. Though I might look my 77 years, nobody seems to realize that a 40 year old is inside at the helm and at times, I feel a bit schizo-phrenic about dealing with what I look like and how I feel. (Though I would never want to go back to being 40 again.)

Another thing a bit different about me is that I was the only child of divorced par-ents and in my turn I had a late childless marriage so that when my mother Nell died aged 101, I had to scratch around among my far away cousins to request a Next of Kin. They obliged, but I had set myself up to be a loner.

I once had no early interest in wildlife, my early interest was spiritually centred and the only prize I ever won in my all too brief schooling was for knowing my catechism. Later growing my own food became im-portant and I joined the Brisbane Organic Group in the 1970s.

In the 1980s WPSQ became interested in my ex husband’s and my plans to start up

a gravel plant down in the Pocket. WPSQ led by Fay Smith joined with the Pocket cane farmers and Morex Meatworks in protest. We met a hostile reception which resulted in a court case to test our pro-posal, which we won. However, that was just the battle, we had not won the war. The State Parliament led by Joh Bjelke Petersen ordered that our permit to dredge the Mary River around the Pocket be cancelled. Now I have no regrets from that period.

In 1990s I helped start up the Maryborough Permaculture group and after that went into Biodynamic growing.

In 2000 I went travelling around Australia, primarily to WWOOF* on biodynamic farms to learn its mysteries and I discov-ered that Australian Elementals (nature spirits) didn’t like Biodynamics. I started to realize that this Spiritual Agriculture was created for the European continent and that by introducing it into the Australi-an landscape using European animals and plants for its formulas was not appro-priate. I believe that each of the Conti-nents is different, creating different flora, fauna and human expression and I lik-ened it to someone with a bowel problem going to a heart specialist for treatment.

By about 2006 and in my 70s I became interested and respectful of Australian flora and fauna. Living this concern, en-deavouring to live in harmony with my environment and helping others to be-come aware of these criteria have now become my life’s vocation.

written by Juanita Johnston, Feb 2013

*WWOOF - Willing Workers On Organic Farms. This is where you exchange working on a farm for your meals and accommodation.

Volunteer Profile—

Juanita Johnston Member - Fraser Coast Branch

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Since reading the Mayan forecast that at the end of their Long-Count Calendar, Earth would receive some benefit as we crossed over the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy and which Mayan calligraphy showed as a birthing, I have been going to a place where I believed I could meditate and call in this benefit all the more urgent-ly. For me, Planet Earth seemed to be heading for disaster with the general focus that our monetary system was more im-portant than the ecology, plus the general degradation of society that I saw around me. For the past twenty years, I’d read that we have been coming closer within this orbit and receiving some benefit and four years ago I began this yearly pilgrim-age. Then in 2012 a Californian group calling themselves The Shift began talking about a worldwide Uplift Festival designed to help raise awareness and celebrate the beginning of the new Long-Count. Later, Wonder of Wonders, one of the celebra-tions was to be at Byron Bay. I booked in like a shot. I wasn’t disappointed, far from it. Uplift 2012 Festival uplifted my spirits and gave me new hope for the future. So I am writing to share this with you.

The Economics of Happiness by Helena Norberg-Hodge Helena’s work in Third World countries awoke her to the fact that people of poorer economies, such as Tibetans, are happier than those in highly industrialized socie-ties. Industrialization is not making us a happier people; rather we need to simplify our lives to achieve a more stable bal-ance. Two issues Helena stressed for our achieving a life of harmony with others were: a) achieving localization of our food and b) stop using pesticides which are harming the environment.

The Power of Sacred Geometry by Jonathan Quintin Jonathan is a multi-media artist and cos-mologist, born and raised in New Zealand. The purpose of Jonathan’s art is to pro-vide various modalities that help attune human consciousness to the harmony of universal order.

Jonathan spoke of our changing world before moving into Sacred Geometry and its benefits. In Aug 1987 Earth started moving into a vast intergalactic energy field known as the Photon Belt. Photons are minute particles of light that act as carriers of electromagnetic energy called ‘torsion wave’ energy. The Photon Belt is a huge doughnut shaped band of light that extends all the way to the Milky Way and beyond. Since then the Sun’s magnetic field has vastly increased, Jupiter’s mag-netic field has more than doubled. The atmospheric density on Mars has in-creased by 200% and the atmospheric pressure on Pluto has increased by 300%. On Planet Earth there has been an in-crease in seismic activity with volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and extreme weather events.

For years the Earth’s ‘heartbeat’ known as the Schumann Resonance stood at 7.8 hertz (cycles per second). Since 1987 it has increased to measurements ranging up to 12.9 hertz. We are directly connected to the Earth and exist as part of her. We are like a baby in its mother’s womb, where anything that happens to the mother cre-ates an energetic imprint on the child.

To compound the problem, we are living out of sync with nature. As a result of this we have lost our connection to life’s vital energies and the rhythms and cycles of

At the End of the Mayan Calendar and Start of the Next Long-Count Calendar.

“Uplift 2012 Festival uplifted my spirits and gave me new hope for the fu-ture. So I am writing to share this with you.” - Juanita Johnston

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universal order. We have become dis-jointed from our soul connection to the World we live in.

The Maya described this cycle as ‘the triumph of materialism’ where there would be a time of forgetting, drifting away from our sense of Oneness with Nature. If we cannot live in nature, we can at least learn about its flow through the study of Sacred Geometry.

We are in the midst of an enormous change, the old world is dying and a new world is being born. A spiritual shift is occurring. Sacred geometry can help us move with the changes rather than be overwhelmed by them. When we con-sciously engage with the harmonic shapes, patterns and forms of sacred geometry our consciousness is imbued with the harmony of universal order.

See www.sacredgeometry.com.au for the full article.

The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton Cell biologist and bestselling author, Bruce H. Lipton PhD offered a ‘new’ biolo-gy that takes us beyond economic col-lapse, climate change and religious ex-tremes to reveal that such chaos is a nat-ural step in an unfolding process, rather than the tragic end to a broken planet.

The Biology of Belief is a journey that takes you into the world under a micro-scope, through the history of evolution and into the subtle realms of your own consciousness.

My notes add: There are 50 trillion cells in our body all working in harmony, none free to hoard more than 10% excess. Those cells that work hardest and earn more put their excess to the Common Fund. None can keep extra till all cells have their needs met.

Our evolution is taking us on to a New Humanity. We started off as amoeba, then advanced to multi cell organisms until finally human beings.

One speaker (it may have been Jonathan) told of how 25 million years ago, life on Planet Earth was almost destroyed by some gigantic disaster. Only 5% of the ecology survived. Out of this 5% a new ecology emerged which eventually pro-duced humanity.

With all the excellent speakers, the group work, the meditations and the organic food, I was able to return to Maryborough with a change of consciousness. I felt at peace to explore a process I cannot change and that previously I had ago-nized over. Then later with Jonathan’s information on the rise of the vibrations of the Schumann Resonance, I began to wonder, is this the gift that the Mayans had foretold that Planet Earth would re-ceive? The higher our vibrations, the more attuned is our consciousness. My hope is that children being born of caring, healthy parents will be influenced by Mother Earth’s rise in vibrations, who will not be as attracted to industrialized afflu-ence as so many are today, but more at-one with and in harmony with our ecology. Juanita Johnston

Bundaberg WPSQ report cont.. from p 7

Survival of Wildlife Branches Essential: The rapid changes made by the State Government to planning and environ-mental legislation, (to get rid of the green tape, so they say), and the whole hearted support for open cut coal, and coal seam gas mining, vo-calised by State and Local Govern-ments, makes it even more important that Wildlife Branches remain active and ever vigilant at the grass roots level in their efforts to ensure protec-tion of native wildlife and their essen-tial habitats. Pam Soper