IT is generally agreed that the worst dust storms since European settlement were during the 1944-1945 period. In his book Out of the West: A Historical Perspective of the Western Division of NSW, former Western Lands Commissioner, Dick Condon, says there were 34 severe dust storms at Wagga Wagga during the period 1944-45, many so […]
AS I look outside the sky is orange with dust. It irritates the nose and eyes, tickles the throats and sits heavily on the chest. And I am inside. According to all the news reports visibility is 10 metres at Broken Hill to the far west and 100 metres in Sydney just 150 kilometres east […]
WHILE some armchair environmentalists believe that burning bush is bad for biodiversity, there is a growing body of evidence suggesting otherwise. Ongoing research at Sydney University by a group lead by Rick Shine suggests Australia’s most endangered snake would benefit from more controlled burns. Researcher David Pike, at his Sydney University home page, goes as far […]
The rangelands cover some 81% of Australia and are popularly known as 'the outback'. A new report, 'Rangelands 2008 — Taking the pulse', is the first time that disparate datasets have been brought together at a national and regional scale to report change in Australia's rangelands. The hard copy version of Rangelands 2008 — Taking […]
There are claims that the presence of too many sheep, cattle and kangaroos are damaging Australia’s rangelands and that commercial shooting of kangaroos will reduce overall grazing pressure. In an article published today at On Line Opinion entitled 'Kangaroo: Designed for our Times' by Executive Officer of the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia, John Kelly, […]
"It had been the previous [Australian] coalition governments intention and by default the Rudd governments plan to meet it’s commitments to limit the nation’s Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2008-2012 to the Kyoto Target of an 8% increase above the levels achieved in 1990, by using these accumulated credits [from bans on landclearing] without paying […]
In the Federal Court of Australia in Sydney on Thursday 20th December 2007, the Court rejected the Commonwealth's application to strike out a Statement of Claim entered into the Court by Monaro District farmer Mr Peter Spencer. Mr Spencer has claimed that Intergovernmental Agreements between the Commonwealth and the States and Territories, along with the […]
A new report The Nature of Northern Australia** advocates responsible conservation and development of one of the world’s great ecological treasures – the northern Australian tropical savanna. This vast area represents some 25% of the world’s remaining tropical savanna woodlands and is still in good ecological condition, some 1.5 million km2 extending from Cairns and […]
The latest satellite (SLATS) data on Queensland clearing is now available and it provides an interesting insight into how data can be presented in a way that is quite remote from the truth on the ground. The report, Landcover Change in Queensland 2004-2005 can be seen at www.nrw.qld.gov.au/slats The annual average area cleared in the […]
