The recent tourist season on the Sunshine Coast provides a snapshot of what a resident population of over 500,000 people may look and feel like. The influx of hundreds of thousands of tourists vividly demonstrates the impacts on the liveability and natural values of the Sunshine Coast region already under acute stress from rapidly expanding urbanisation.

In this special HT feature, Narelle McCarthy, Manager of the Sunshine Coast Environment Council looks at the practicalities and the politics of uncontrolled growth.

THE SUNSHINE Coast region is experiencing declining health in its waterways and biodiversity, traffic congestion due to lack of public transport and car dependency, loss of open space, high visitation of our coastal and hinterland recreational areas, depletion of natural resources and shortfalls in health and social services.

Tipping points have been reached with cracks in our social, economic and environmental foundations. As a region identified as being particularly vulnerable to climate change, these compounding impacts

are set to irrevocably destroy the quality of life and essential ecological integrity so valued by the Sunshine Coast community.

The population figures cited in the South-east Queensland Regional Plan predict a 2.1% annual population growth rate - a plan blindly seeking to accommodate growth greater than any third world country, and one that is currently the highest in the developed world. It directs an additional 98,500 homes for about 250, 000 people in the next 20-30 years on the Sunshine Coast.

The projections include up to 37 000 homes to be provided by ‘infill’. While higher density through infill has the potential to reduce car dependence, improve access to public transport, and restrict urban sprawl, this concept only goes so far.

Densification will alter the current feel to one of a more urbanised, high rise aesthetic, eroding essential backyard biodiversity and habitat.

The SE Queensland Regional Plan ignores carrying capacity which recognises the economic ability of the region to support the maintenance of our human, social, built and natural capital. Nor does it address the risks of climate change, such as sea level rise, which is likely to be 1.2m or higher by 2100.

A recurring community sentiment has been borne out time and again – “We do not want to be another Gold Coast”

Such a future is clearly at odds with the sustainability platform which gave Mayor Bob Abbot his landslide electoral victory in March 2008. That community mandate translated into the vision now embodied in our Corporate Plan - “To become Australia’s most sustainable region, vibrant, green and diverse.”

Alarmingly, the core elements of Council’s plan to restrain overpopulation with its associated excessive development, and to protect environmental and liveability values, are rejected in the SEQ Regional Plan and subsequent legislation in favour of short-sighted, vested interests.

Research reveals that more than 60% of Queenslanders want government to take steps to limit south-east Queensland’s population growth - a growth that has been aided and abetted by the lack of federal and state action on a sustainable population policy.

It was in their submission to the Draft SEQ Regional Plan in April 2009 that the Council conveyed to the state government that the Sunshine Coast community opposed

arbitrary dwelling and population targets. Indeed, its planning scheme requires significant community consultation at the local level to co-create and define future communities.

The clear nexus between the development lobby and the state government has revealed pro development and pro growth is at odds with the Sunshine Coast council vision. But as a creature of the state, how would the council resist such regulatory directives?

The greenfield developments of Caloundra South and Palmview were fast tracked under the guise of addressing housing affordability for around 65, 000 people. With the addition of the Maroochydore town centre, 80,000 people are to be accommodated without any analysis of sustainable carrying capacity in these developments alone. At 50,000 residents, Caloundra South represents a city the size of Gladstone. Other slated developments take the region on a population trajectory exceeding half a million people by 2031. Initiatives undertaken to reduce the ecological footprint will be negated by this burgeoning population.

The new urban sites mentioned have now been declared master-planned areas by the Minister for Infrastructure and Planning, Stirling Hinchliffe. Such declarations lock in development rights over a 20-30 year planning horizon, denying future generations the choice in how the region

should or shouldn’t develop. Despite council’s development brinkmanship with the

state, an unprecedented level of population growth will proceed, and council’s intent on retaining its rather tenuous planning powers through its structure plans for these sites is really only a salve on a somewhat angry wound.

Nevertheless, it is critical that council’s sustainability principles and development constraints are upheld. These constraints recognise emerging global challenges, notably climate change, peak oil, emissions trading, water and food security and ecological rehabilitation.

Closer to home, water and sewerage systems, affordable housing, public transport including CAMCOS, open space recreation opportunities , renewable energy and efficiencies, community services and facilities, diversified employment supporting a ‘green economy’ and enhanced biodiversity are significant local constraints.

Bob Abbot’s reassuring position in promoting the region’s values and triple bottom line, and publicly promising to

“draw a line in the sand”, must continue to be supported and driven by the community at all levels.

Excessive population will impact on the entire region, not just the areas of infill and greenfield development. What level of change is acceptable? High rise, more motorways, crowded beaches, reduced access to expensive water? Are desalination plants and a region stripped of its biodiversity an acceptable result of continually trying to absorb more and more people?

The platform on which the council was elected remains no less valid today than it was in March 2008, so we need state and federal governments that fully examine the carrying capacity of our region and its inherent community values. Meaningful sustainability indicators must be incorporated to determine an ecologically sustainable future together with the political will to implement them.

A suite of data now demonstrates a region under extreme pressure. Currently, all the indicators defined in the Queensland Government’s own State of the Region report are in decline. The science and

the practicalities of inadequate infrastructure alone dictate a much more conservative approach. The growth rate must be slowed and strenuously addressed as a fundamental cause of ecological and sustainability collapse.

The Sunshine Coast Environment Council calls for a sustainable population strategy that stabilises population, works with federal and other state jurisdictions on national policy and ensures all urban centres can provide a clean, healthy and sustainable lifestyle.

Population growth does not equal economic growth. Statistically, those societies which adopt population policies and family planning are economically better off. Wealthier nations, in economic and social terms, are generally those with stable populations.

To live sustainably we must reduce our consumption patterns and our trajectory of exponential growth. We cannot continue with unfettered population growth without dramatic consequences to the ecological services on which we rely.

A constantly increasing population is NOT sustainable and is avoidable. Population growth is for the benefit of few people, but reduces the liveability of most.

As a passionate, engaged community concerned for the survival of the natural world, this message must be actively communicated to those who continue to shape our future.

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So, it was with interest that the Hinterland Times saw the latest edition of the Griffith REVIEW which is devoted to the global food chain.

It includes essays and reportage about the skewed policies of growing, marketing and distributing food.

REVIEW editor, Julianne Schultz says that “the disconnection between food production and consumption, between the food available to the rich and the rest is now a matter of global anxiety.”

On these pages we have published extracts from several REVIEW articles and recommend readers to go on line to read them in full. It is a remarkable read for those devoting their energies to a rebirth of ‘slow’, ‘natural’ and ‘local’ food initiatives.

The Hinterland Times gratefully acknowledges Griffith REVIEW (Text Publishing) for permission to publish extracts from Edition 27: Food Chain. For access to the complete REVIEW articles go to: www.griffithreview.com or to obtain a print copy email: griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

If you want to comment about what you have read about food chain issues also log on to: www.hinterlandtimes.com.au

SUBSCRIPTION PACKAGE

Enjoy a special subscription offer from Griffith REVIEW: subscribe online at www.griffithreview.com with the promo code HT2010 and receive a FREE copy of Griffith REVIEW 25: After the Crisis, plus save 20% or more on a one or two year subscription. You will receive Edition 27: Food Chain as your first edition.

We are what we eat

Julianne Schultz

EVEN IN Australia, a country with abundant supplies of quality food, anxiety is growing. Talk about water allocations and licences masks the truth of

a diminishing harvest from much of the Murray‐Darling. Senator Bill Heffernan’s advocacy of the deeply embedded dream

of a northern food bowl is less the reassertion of a national fantasy than a farmer’s intimate understanding of the connection between production and

consumption. The ambitious plan to make Tasmania the new national food bowl is the product of original thinking not constrained by established verities…

If we are what we eat, Australia is profoundly different to the country of my ’60s childhood. These days we eat food that is grown here, much of it processed by large transnational companies with headquarters in Japan, Europe and America. We buy it from supermarkets and grizzle about the prices, and wonder if this is sustainable and flock to farmers’ markets. We book out the best restaurants and churn through a global village of ethnic cafés. Schoolchildren follow Michelle Obama’s and Stephanie Alexander’s example and plant organic gardens. Cookbooks sell in extraordinary numbers, and cooking programs win the television ratings.

Now we are on the path to another major transformation – one that reintegrates the production and consumption of fresh local food into much longer food chains. The major chains have started organic food shops, a glamorous reworking of the local greengrocer.

Sustaining a nation

Margaret Simons

WHEN WE visited the Forbes saleyards last year – when lambs were being sold for four dollars a kilogram, dressed weight – lamb forequarter chops in Woolworths and Coles cost around eleven dollars a kilo. In between was transport, slaughter, more transport, butchering, the packing into plastic trays and all that is involved in maintaining the bright lights and cold cabinets of the modern supermarket. The profits on any one piece of meat are not big. The two big supermarket chains, Coles and Woolworths, make big money, but largely because of the volume of stuff they sell, rather than enormous mark‐ups. The industry relies on volume…

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC)reported on the competitiveness of the grocery industry in 2008. It examined whether the rising price

of food was reflected in the prices paid to farmers, whether the supermarkets were taking unfair advantage. The resulting report was almost five hundred pages long. The supply chains for food are almost impossibly complex and various. ‘There is no

single story that can be told about the grocery supply chain in Australia,’ the report said…

The ACCC concluded that the big two supermarket chains, Coles and Woolworths, accounted for about half of all the fresh produce sold in Australia, and nearly three‐quarters of packaged goods, yet the industry was still ‘workably competitive’. There was keen price competition on the three hundred or so products the supermarkets knew customers used to assess value – including lamb chops and bread. Sometimes that meant these products were sold below cost to bring customers in. Sometimes the sheer volume of their purchases meant the big two were able to squeeze farmers on price. But the ACCC found no consistent evidence that farmers were being taken advantage of. Generally, higher prices in the supermarket were reflected in higher prices at the farm gate, it said. Despite the Horticulture Australia Council saying that 85 per cent of its members felt that growers were unwilling to raise concerns with major retailers for fear of retribution,

the ACCC found that the numerous anecdotes and allegations about standover tactics and threats by the big supermarket chains were not reflected in hard, actionable evidence…

The federal government sent the ACCC’s recommendations to an industry committee for assessment, but the committee members could not agree. Farmers worried that the changes would mean merchants would offer only very low prices so they would be more able to manage the risk of the market. Premium prices for growers would become a thing of the past. On 1 November 2009, the industry committee’s report was put aside for yet more consideration. There is no sign of speedy resolution. Meanwhile, the Minister for Agriculture, Tony Burke, acknowledged that at every link on the supply chain connecting growers to eaters, there are ‘considerable tensions’…

If we were to use water in the most economically rational fashion, we would grow vegetables ($1800 for each megalitre of water used), fruit ($1500) and grapes ($900). Such a decision would wipe out large communities – the cotton growers of Queensland, the rice growers of New South Wales, the dairy farmers of Victoria – with all the dislocation that entails.

If Australia were governed by wise dictatorship, there would be huge forced land‐use changes in the Murray‐Darling Basin. Some crops would not be grown. Some communities would be relocated. State governments would be forced to comply. Instead, the effort to save the basin is a matter of slow and uncertain negotiation, limited by our awkward federation. It is also a matter of the imperfect instrument of market forces.

Creating sustainably productive cities

Virginia Balfour

I if you like. ‘Oh, you can’t do that!’ she says in horror. ‘It’s illegal.’ Now, I’m not an anarchist, but when someone tells me that I can’t do what I want with a piece of land outside my front door, I get a bit indignant. I protest, but am told in no uncertain terms that, although I must look after it, that patch of grass is council land and the council wants it kept as grass. Another neighbour sidles up to me and whispers, ‘Do you want to buy some eggs?’ His tone is conspiratorial, as though he is trying to sell me an illicit drug. ‘Of course, if anyone ever asks, you’ll have to say you didn’t pay for them.’ He winks.

‘Just say you were given them and you paid a donation for the chickens’ upkeep.’ It seems that council policy doesn’t allow locals to sell their eggs to each other. You can give them away, but you can’t sell them. This is part of the problem. We need to create a green revolution within our urban areas, promoting the idea of organic‐vegetable growing and urban agriculture, but bureaucracy is thwarting us. Brisbane City Council has a vision for creating ‘Food in the City’, promoting ‘healthy and active lifestyles’ and providing grants for new community gardens across the city. And it is developing a new policy on street trees; they can be productive food trees, so long as your neighbours agree and the trees don’t cause a mess or a pest hazard. It’s a start, but it is still a way behind cities in other parts of the world…

Some great things are happening here with our kids, at least. My local primary school, Bulimba State School, is the Queensland showcase for the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program. The program, started in Victoria, teaches primary‐school students how to grow and use vegetables. In 2009 it went nationwide, starting in thirty‐seven schools around Australia and attracting $12.8 million in federal assistance. Each week schoolchildren spend at least forty‐five minutes maintaining a vegetable garden they helped to design and build on the school grounds. The program revolves around growing and harvesting, preparing and sharing, and aims to provide enjoyable food education to young people.

Feeding the world

Cameron Muir

THE GOAL of feeding the world is an admirable one, but it does not reflect the reality of Australian farming. Most of Australia’s wheat and meat are exported, and this has become the basis for a national myth, a comforting narrative that sees golden harvests and choice cuts being shipped and distributed to hungry mouths across the world. In 1925, the leading Australian meat‐industry figure John Cramsie declared that the development of the ‘unoccupied northern areas’ presented an opportunity to ‘feed the world with beef’. The prominent doctor and journalist Edward Gault gave an address in 1943 arguing that Australia should not only feed India and China, but ‘it should be a permanent measure for us to feed the world as a whole.’ After the sale of Toorale Station in 2008, the Nationals’ leader, Warren Truss, told parliament: ‘We cannot keep taking properties out of production and expect to meet our obligations to provide food to the world.’ Paul Myers, a former editor of The Land, wrote an editorial about agriculture and Toorale for the Sydney Morning Herald, asserting that Australian farmers ‘contribute significantly to global nutrition’.

In fact, Australia contributes less than 2 per cent of global food production. In 2004, Australian‐grown wheat and other cereals accounted for just 1.39 per cent of the world’s grain production…

We need to be honest about the role agriculture plays in Australia and start developing support for a fairer system for Australian farmers, the environment and farmers in developing nations. Trying to force a productionist culture of farming isn’t benefiting many people…

Australian farmers are among the least‐subsidised farmers in the OECD, but they compete against highly subsidised commodities on international markets. They benefit from access to machinery and research, but the inputs are high and the profits marginal.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for 2006/07 show nearly one quarter of Australian farms had an annual production value of less than $22,500, and nearly half brought in less than the average male full‐time wage of $57,000.

Food in the age of unsettlement

Tony Fry

BY 2009, according to United Nations figures, more than a billion people were hungry – more than ever before – with greater than two‐thirds of them living in the Asia‐Pacific. Despite epidemics of obesity in many countries, the annual global percapita intake of food is decreasing. The more agriculture is ‘liberalised’ in a ‘freemarket’ system, the more ‘high‐return’ crops are grown, the more food prices rise and the more people go hungry. When you ‘live’ on one dollar a day or less, as most of these hungry people do, even a small price increase can make the difference between a meal a day and a meal every other day…

During World War II, food grown in backyards, public parks and urban wastelands provided much of the food for the population at home in Britain, the US, Australia and other countries. If that method were applied today, it would drive an enormous amount of land use toward horticultural innovation. Vertical farming, which combines intensive methods such as hydroponics with the surface area cultivation of certain crops on multi‐storey buildings, is already underway.

Initiatives like this could make cities better, healthier and more sustainable places to live and work. Intensive urban agriculture is environmentally more sustainable, and can lead to positive urban development: it can generate small and large businesses, contribute to urban design, assist waste management, consolidate and build community, provide training and work opportunities for the unemployed, and improve health through increased exercise and better diet. It can also aid climate‐change adaptation – green roofs reduce the heating of thermal mass, and a cooler city means a smaller energy load.

Fishing like there’s no tomorrow

David Ritter

UNDER the euphemism of fishing, in pursuit of seafood, we are exterminating animals from the oceans: wiping out the larger predators, altering food webs and destroying habitats at a staggering rate and on a confounding scale, in an epic slaughter of life beneath the waves. The truth taints the palate. Starting in the fresh waters, in rivers and lakes, spreading to the coastal shallows and now rampant in the high and deep seas, we have stalked the stocks to the point of catastrophe. It is a darkly grand story of the reduction of our collective inheritance, and one little apprehended under the glaring lights of the fish‐market floor.

Worldwide, stocks of the great fish have been reduced by 90 per cent from 1950s levels. King cod is gone from the Grand Banks. Bluefin tuna is on the brink in the Mediterranean. The great billfish, such as marlin and swordfish, have been radically reduced in numbers. Sharks have become more hunted than hunter. Smaller species are in trouble, too: around two‐thirds of all fisheries exploited since the 1950s have collapsed. The overall global catch of all fish has now been in decline for two decades. One reputable, if not uncontroversial, study has forecast the disintegration of all presently exploited commercial fisheries before 2050…

The world’s fishing fleet is two and a half times larger than the oceans can sustainably support. Yet, more than a third of the global fishing industry’ revenues come from subsidies, which are currently estimated at around US$34 billion a year. We are funding the fishing industry to systematically destroy our shared inheritance. Japan is the world’s single largest seafood importer, eating far more fish than remain within its territorial waters. Australia’s fisheries are among the better managed, but the country is still a net importer of seafood. Europe’s shortfall has to be made up from somewhere. In the coastal waters of developing countries, trawlers sweep through, retaining the most lucrative fish for first‐world tables, but smashing and killing much else in their path, depriving developing populations of critical food resources. Stocks off the west coast of Africa are thought to have halved since 1945…

How many miles?

Tony Barrell

AT THE delicatessen counter of my local Woolworths supermarket – which promotes itself as ‘the fresh food people’ – in the inner‐Sydney suburb of Balmain, I saw some fillets of firm white‐fleshed fish for sale. They were, said the caption on the tray, ‘Nile perch’ imported ‘frozen’ from Uganda. I found this hard to believe, but the counter‐hand confirmed it. Yes, they were ‘fully imported’. Well, at least Woolworths says where its food comes from.

A week later I visited a small fish shop in the same suburb that sells a few fillets and shellfish. I asked for a handful of scallops, not noticing the caption. The man

at the counter told me with some pride that they were ‘Japanese’.

‘Japanese scallops?’ I said. ‘We are importing scallops from Japan?’

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Why?’ I asked. ‘Because they’re cheaper,’ said he…

I investigated what else was on offer in my part of Sydney. At a bigger Woolworths, in Leichhardt Market Place, I found more Nile perch fillets, priced at $11.98 (‘from Lake Victoria imp frzn produce of Uganda / Tanzania / Kenya’). There was also ‘basa’ from Vietnam, prawns from Thailand and China, barramundi from Taiwan and smoked cod from South Africa – all of which would have arrived here frozen, even though the permanent signage above the section says ‘Fresh Seafood’.

In the same centre, Aldi was offering a variety of frozen ‘white fish’ in packets, imported from New Zealand. Closer examination revealed these to be ‘red cod’ (skinless or with ‘skin on’) and ‘hoki’ (blue grenadier)…

I wrote to Woolworths and asked them why they still imported Nile perch from East Africa. The answers I got were, to say the least, opaque. Yes, they were aware that the fish was in short supply – although there was no acknowledgement that as a species it was ‘threatened’ – but that was due to the European trade, and in response Woolworths is no longer promoting the product. In the words of its media department: ‘As much of the Nile perch stock is heading to Europe we have therefore decided to stop advertising Nile perch to reduce demand for it through our stores. But while there is still a consumer demand for it we will continue to stock it.’

I couldn’t tell whether this meant Woolworths was running down stock and stopping imports, so I asked again. ‘Forgive me for seeming obtuse but is Woolworths running down existing stocks or still ordering supplies from Africa? Hope the question is clear.’

But answer came there none. Nile perch fillets are still on display, and were $16.49 when last spotted.

Quisqualis indica (Rangoon creeper)

One of four species of climbing shrubs from the south pacific. Over time the shrub grows into a woody vine 10 - 12m long. The pale green leaves are oval - oblong and about 12 cm long. The attractive flowers are tubular and grow in clusters, starting with white petals that gradually turn a striking red. Flowering most of summer it makes an attractive feature in most sub-tropical to tropical gardens. An extra bonus is it’s sweet fruity fragrance so consider planting close to a window or favorite resting spot in your garden. Ideal for trellises, arbours etc with strong support.

With very few pests and diseases, the Rangoon creeper grows best in part shade in rich moist soils. Prune after flowering to control size and shape.

LoorsLandscaping
GARDEN DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND CONSULTANCY
Phone: 5445 7615
Mobile: 0412 680 801

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The Festival of the Walks 2010, will include over 24 guided walks aimed at specific interest groups. These will include guided rainforest walks, bird and wildlife walks, longer bush walks, a speed dating walk, land care walk, garden walks, artist studio walk, village music walks, market walks and a children’s story walk. The photographic competition will be launched again attracting entrants from a range of age groups and levels of experience.

Walks will vary in duration from short one hour walks to three to four hour walks and possibly a four day walk.

A major driver for the festival will be a larger scale community fundraising walk. This will raise funds for a local charity group and act as the opening walk for the festival. A community reference group has been formed to help guide and shape this year’s festival.

Anyone who would like to offer a guided walk, a cultural event or assist with the festival please contact the festival organisers by emailing: cu@festivalofthewalks.com.au. Submissions for this year’s program need to be received by 31 March 2010.

The Nursery and Garden Industry Australia, NGIA, has been developing the Grow Me Instead program and has published guides for each state and territory. With input from many sources, thirty invasive plants have been identified for the subtropics along with a range of suggested superior alternatives. The invasive plant lists are basically a starting point as many other plants are being monitored for their invasive potential. Don’t expect to find your well known weedy vines on the list as it focusses on currently used garden plants.

The website www.growmeinstead.com.au has a map to identify the bioregions, and prompts for the invasive plants and their recommended non-invasive alternatives. Photos are included and some readers may be surprised at what is now known to be invasive.

Not all recommended alternatives are native plants and some may be undesirable for reasons other than weed potential. The Council publication “Take Another Look…Our Locals are Beauties” is another useful source of information. Barung has copies and can help with professional advice. While Barung’s main focus has always been on revegetation, local plants suited to the garden are stocked. Soil type, rainfall, the presence of a pollinator and many other factors can influence the weed potential of a particular plant. It is always worth consulting local people with local experience. Barung for example, would not recommend Queensland Maple, Flindersia brayleyana, as its winged seeds can certainly spread. An alternative large tree would be the Pepperberry Tree, Cryptocarya obovata, with its rusty hairy foliage. It is flowering now.

We are fortunate to have national parks and state forests in our area and need to be aware that birds and other animals can distribute seeds into nearby bushland and rainforest fringes. There is much more information available than in the past, giving us the opportunity to avoid costly, time consuming, weedy mistakes.

BARUNG NATIVE PLANT NURSERY

Nursery opening times: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday - 9am -3pm

Riverside Centre office hours: 9am to 4pm (Re-opens January 11). Next to Maleny Post Office, Riverside Centre

Phone 5494 3151

In the past, when I’ve worked in retail nurseries, on an almost daily basis we would get a customer request for plants that were good for attracting birds. Unfortunately most people’s exposure to native plants that are good for bringing in our feathered friends is from mainstream Australian native gardening books or TV shows which push the same small list of cultivar grevilleas, bottlebrushes and banksias. These plants are recommended whether you live in Hobart or Darwin, Sydney or Perth - which may be great in making a book marketable nation-wide, but takes little account of the diversity of our big country and its innumerable unique ecosystems – and let’s face it, can get a little boring after a while!

Up here on the Range, from Bellthorpe to Maleny and then north to Mapleton, we are in what was mainly rainforest and tall eucalypt country. Many of the birds of the Blackall Range are fruit eaters. Fleshy fruit being a major means of dispersal by many of our rainforest plants. We can help these often uncommon birds to be able to move through the landscape again by using local native plants in our gardens to recreate habitat and food sources.

Fortunately for the gardener and plant lover in general, many of these local fruit bearing plants also look great in the garden, so not only do the local wildlife get a good feed and are able to move through the landscape – but you get to choose from a great diversity of beautiful local native plants. For example Silky Myrtle (Decaspermum humille), Rose Myrtle (Archirhodomyrtus beckleri), Native Guava (Rhodomyrtus psidioides) Ironwood (Gossia acmenoides) Blue Lillypilly (Syzygium oleosum) are all fantastic shrubby hedge plants with beautiful foliage and flowers and fruit for the birds. They are all naturally bushy and need very little in the way of pruning to shape.

Quick growing, guaranteed bird attracters include the Koda (Ehretia acuminata), Native Elderberry (Sambucus australasica), Celerywood (Polyscias elegans) and Native Mulberry (Pipturus argenteus).

The few plants listed above are but a small sample of the hundreds of local beauties that could be listed if we had space and time…

Some of the birds you can expect to see in your garden with the addition of local natives include Catbirds, Bower Birds, Lewin’s Honeyeaters, Brown Cuckoo Doves, Emerald Doves, Wonga Pidgeons, Silvereyes and if you plant a few figs maybe even the rare Coxens Fig parrot! Unfortunately the Coxens Fig Parrot appears to be on the brink of extinction due to habitat loss. So get busy planting local natives in your gardens and creating habitat corridors on your properties so we don’t lose any more local birds.

Ph 0428 130 769 spencer.shaw@brushturkey.com.au www.brushturkey.com.au

HINTERLAND AUTHOR, Steven Lang this month launches his published book, “a strong brown god - the mary river diary”. To research and write this book, Steven chose to walk the length of the Mary River from its source in Maleny to the coast at Maryborough. Along the way he was both confronted and delighted with what he found, and the characters he met. Here we publish an extract from Steven’s book which will be launched by research ecologist and environmental consultant, Barry Traill on Wednesday February 10 at 6pm in the Maleny Community Centre. The Centre bar will be open and all proceeds will go towards the renovation of the hall.

WHERE Little Yabba Creek comes in I swim in the clear water that flows out of the forest. Over by the other bank a school of mullet drift and turn in tight formation.

For a short distance on the western side the river has been fenced off from cattle. The farmer is above, up on the steep side of the hill, spraying thistles and castor oil plants. After we have passed the time of day for a while I ask him about the fencing.

‘It’s nothing but common sense,’ he says. ‘I have arguments with the bloke across the way because come the dry he lets his animals over my side. I says to him, “That fence is there for my cows, not yourn. Build your own.”

He don’t listen.’ The opposite bank is bare of almost any kind of vegetation. There is supposed to be a Bora Ring over there, but I can see no sign of it. The farmer has never heard of such a thing. ‘It’s all been ploughed up over there for years.’ he says. He directs me to the top of the hill to see my way to Kenilworth.

This is it then, Hinka Booman; the Larger Bunya Country! The Mary comes out of the neck in the hills behind me and meanders across extensive flats, with the Obi Obi coming in from the East and Kenilworth Bluff, Brooloo, proud in the North, the town spread out in the centre.

While buying supplies in the main street I am addressed by Les Moreland, a thin wiry man with a sharp jawline and an abrupt manner. He is unshaven, and the grey stubble on his chin gives him a derelict air. He notes my pack.

‘Where are you going then?’ he says.‘Maryborough.’ ‘You’ve got a way to go then, haven’t you? Oh, I know, you’re the chap who’s walking the Mary.’ ‘That’s right,’ I say, and introduce myself. ‘I know your name,’ he says in that curt way he has, ‘You’re one of my wife’s fathers.’

This remark is too difficult for me. I can make no sense of it. I stand confounded in the milk bar, wondering if I have stumbled on some obscure kinship ritual. He does not explain, just continues with the business of buying Champion Ruby Unrubbed. Then the name Moreland sinks in – this is the husband of my daughter’s schoolteacher.

‘Bring that with you,’ he says, indicating my sandwich. ‘I’ll make us a cup of tea.’

Les has a wealth of information on local history. Straight away he clears up a mystery from Simpson’s diary: he had constantly referred to a road in the valley. ‘It was an Aboriginal road, of course. The Blacks had been living here for thousands of years, they had their own routes along the River. They were as good as roads.’ ‘This is the trouble with history,’ he says, ‘I mean with drawing conclusions from what people wrote at the time. People can’t see outside of their own times. The white people who lived here in the 1800s, even those ones sympathetic to the aboriginal cause, couldn’t help but see them as savages. We’re the same, we have our own misunderstandings that we don’t even know about. You’d be a fool to think people in a hundred years will still think the same as us about the world.’ ‘Yes,’ I say, ‘but sometimes you feel you can’t blame them; what about the way the Aboriginals treated women? You get these consistent reports of brutality.’ He nods. He rubs the tobacco on the palm ofhis hand and rolls it into a thin cigarette. ‘The Aboriginals treated their women badly,’ he says. ‘But no worse than the Whites. You know where we get the expression “Rule of Thumb?” Until the early 1900s it was British Crown Law you could beat your wife with a stick no thicker than your thumb. And that was just the beginning of it. So, some Aboriginals hit their women with nulla nullas. Where’s the difference?’

Interestingly, Inga Clendinnen, in her book Dancing With Strangers, both confirms and expands on this opinion. But then one of Australia’s major historians is not here, in Kenilworth, to support Les. He was born here, his family have places named after them. He remains, full of a crusty and cynical bitterness. ‘It’s true,’ he says. ‘I don’t like people very much. They don’t see things, they don’t value what’s important. You could take them out into the forest and all they’d see was a bunch of trees. It’ll be a generation before anyone values the river again. It’s not like it was when I was a child. There were swimming holes then, and I mean swimming holes. We spent our summers jumping out of trees into deep clear water. Now it’s a shallow drain.’

North of Kenilworth the water quality is poor enough to make me suspicious of swimming, even though from high on the banks I can see turtles paddling and mullet surfacing. On the Western side someone has taken a bulldozer to a hill. Giant electricity cables haunt the sky, their pylons marching across the valley, locating me exactly on the map. The smell of dead animals hangs in the air.

I push on through thistles and dead grass, grumbling at the ways in which the land is being misused, and what needs to be done to make it right. As the day lengthens I clamber over a series of horse fences populating a spur of land caught in one of the river’s meanders (what they locally call a ‘pocket’) and with each obstacle my mood becomes ever more sour. It is only after another half and hour of this sort of struggle that it comes to me that my outrage does not serve me. What I mean is that, even though this part of the River appears patently, wilfully damaged, getting angry about it here, now, isn’t actually helping.

The valley is a complex interrelation- ship of billions of parts, from the smallest micro-organism to the men in their bulldozers, from the turtles to the pylons. How it works is way beyond my comprehension. As a walker passing through, it is best to attempt a witholding of judgement. My place, today, is to observe the way things are, to take all of it into my imagination, not just the bits that please me.

This is easier to talk about than to do.

Steven Lang

“ ... we have to ensure maintenance schedules are continued and improved, and infrastructure to cater for ongoing growth” - Jim Soorley

SUNSHINE COAST and Moreton Bay councils have launched their new water business - Unitywater. Unitywater will be one of three water supply and sewerage services distribution and retail businesses established in South East Queensland under the State Government’s water reform measures. It will be independently operated and governed by a board, but jointly owned by the Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay Regional Councils as shareholders.

Former Brisbane Lord Mayor, Jim Soorley, has been appointed as Unitywater’s inaugural chairman. The launch of Unitywater and appointment of its chairman means the two councils hand over the ongoing, day-to-day decision-making required to set up Unitywater and in due course, the two councils will become joint shareholders. Until 30 June this year, water supply and sewerage services will continue to be provided by the respective councils and charged through rates notices.

Jim Soorley’s knowledge and experience in south east Queensland local government and business are seen as invaluable assets for delivering a high quality of service. CEO of Unitywater, Jon Black says customers should expect no change to the services they receive. Water supply and sewerage services will continue to be provided by the same people, as existing staff in the two council water businesses will transfer to Unitywater. However, at the launch of Unitywater late last month Mr Soorley said the task of launching the new company was “huge” because the government announcement of new water companies was made even as amalgamated councils were struggling to standardise delivery and billing between the former councils.

“Unitywater will need to ensure it is capable of delivering accounts – which will be separate from rates invoices – to the correct 262,000 addresses by July 1. “At same time we have to ensure maintenance schedules are continued and improved, and infrastructure to cater for ongoing growth is delivered,” Mr Soorley said. “(The new CEO) Jon Black has a huge task, and I’ll have the whip in hand,” Mr Soorley added.

Peltophorum pterocarpum

From a small genus of about 15 species the Peltophorum is indigenous to a wide area of tropical Asia from Srilanka through Malaysia, Philipines to northern Australia. The tree has a dense crown of ferny foliage atop a massive grey trunk. It grows to a height of over 15m in an ideal environment. In cultivation 8-10m on average. Bipinnate leaves grow to 60cm long with dark green 12mm leaflets. Shedding of leaflets may occur in severe drought or cold. In late spring to autumn 60-75cm tall flower panicles which are orange-yellow with bronge coloured buds cover the crown of the tree.

In a similar class to Delonix regia (royal poinciana) Peltophorum is a beautiful shade tree, street tree or specimen tree. The luminous yellow petals contrasting against the orange tipped stamens ligt up in the sun making a dazzling display that is truly spectacular. Suitable for larger gardens in sub tripical and tropical environs. There is a great specimen in flower now in Lowe Street in Nambour.

At last it has rained, but whether we rely on tanks or town supplies, water is often a scarce and precious resource. There may be none to spare for watering young trees so it’s a good time to find out which are the true survivors. These become the key species in any future revegetation projects and will vary according to your particular environment and soil type. If your trees are predominantly from local sources they have a good chance of being sufficiently resilient to survive prolonged hot and dry periods such as the one we have just experienced.

The report card on the health of our rivers was released not long ago and unfortunately the news was not good. It appears that many of our rivers, particularly in the estuarine stretches, are no longer resilient enough to cope with the soil and nutrients being flushed into them during heavy rainfall events. It may be difficult to remember a really heavy rainfall event but it will happen again. The fresh water stretches of the Maroochy River still have a C rating, which is not brilliant on an A to F scorecard, but in the estuary the quality rating has dropped from C to D. We are in the headwaters of our coastal rivers and we need to aim for an A for the water flowing from the Range. That means very low silt levels and no fertiliser runoff. It can be challenging to prevent bank erosion on many of our fast flowing (when it does rain) headwater streams but we all need to do as much as we can.

Once soil moisture levels are again adequate it will be time to get out planting and to make sure the soil is well covered to prevent surface erosion. This can occur when water flows across bare soil and also from the direct impact of heavy rain. A good tree canopy helps to scatter large raindrops and leaf litter helps too.

BARUNG NATIVE PLANT NURSERY
Nursery opening times: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday - 9am -3pm
Riverside Centre office hours: 9am to 4pm (Re-opens January 11).
Next to Maleny Post Office, Riverside Centre
Phone 5494 3151