Noosa District Landcare members with Phil Moran

Landcare – it’s all about nurturing and cherishing the land and making sure it’s in a fit state for our descendants. It began in Australia in 1989 as a collaboration between government, business and the community to tackle some serious environmental concerns – erosion, salinity, and loss of biodiversity to name just a few. Now there are over 4500 Landcare groups, with over 60,000 people involved in Landcare activities in Queensland alone.

The Noosa and District Landcare Group – based in Pomona in the Noosa hinterland – has been around since 1991 and has some impressive statistics of its own.

With 28 staff it’s the second largest employer in town, and it has well over 150 volunteers.

Their work seems to cover the spectrum of on-ground environmental repair work. Water quality monitoring, revegetation, weed control, Greenhouse abatement measures, coastal rehabilitation, nurseries for propagating native plants (120,000 last year) and education – Noosa Landcare does it all and more.

Phil Moran is the Natural Resource Manager and is passionate about the bush as well as involving the community in its protection.

One current project is running a Green Army programme, under the auspices of the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation. It provides work in local National Parks for 14 unemployed people, repairing flood damage and removing weeds.

Phil sees much value in this type of project.

“There’s the obvious environmental benefit,” said Phil.

“Not only that, it’s better for the community to have more people in work, and the value for individuals is enormous.

“Long term unemployed people develop more confidence and better self-esteem. Younger people gain a work ethic. For all, there’s an opportunity to acquire valuable skills.”

Contracting services out to landholders is another part of Noosa Landcare operations.

There is a consultancy service, and an experienced crew who deal with weeds, plant the trees and make sure they keep growing.

“These are the guys and girls who do the hard work,” said Phil. “They’re out there in the heat and rain helping property owners repair the land.”

Phil himself began with Noosa Landcare as a volunteer in 2000. He lives on a 13 hectare bush block, where he’s done much revegetation and pulled lots of weeds. He was the first in the old Noosa Shire to have his property covered by a Voluntary Conservation Agreement, thus protecting it in perpetuity.

Noosa Landcare has water care firmly in its sights too.

With financial help from the Federal Government and Sunshine Coast Council, they’re running the Cootharaba Community Erosion Awareness Project – this is a detailed study of sediment, water and nutrients in Lake Cootharaba, Kin Kin Creek and the Upper Noosa River.

Solid data about threats to the waterways is essential to guarantee their long term protection.

The project has a multi-disciplinary team with people from universities, government bodies and community groups all contributing their energy and expertise. They’ll be using the latest technology to pinpoint sources of pollution, and relying on a lot of well-trained and well-supported volunteers.

Then there’ll be workshops to inform the community, look at the research and help prioritise management issues.

Projects like this are all part of Noosa Landcare’s multi-faceted approach to caring for our patch of country.

They offer education programmes – learning the difference between native and exotic plant species is popular – and run talks and walks for schoolchildren, even the tiny pre-schoolers, as well as presenting at universities, State Government agencies and community group meetings.

Noosa Landcare coordinates the Community Nature Conservation Programme. Residents from the coast to the hinterland gather each weekend at their local bushland reserve for a working bee, learning much about local plants and animals in the process.

The group has won many awards, and in 2010 were themselves sponsors for the Conservation for Biodiversity Award at SCEC’s Froggies, the Sunshine Coast Environment Awards. (The winner was Beverley Hand for the Bunya Dreaming Festival.)

The Sunshine Coast Environmental Council (SCEC) is the umbrella organisation of more than 50 community groups. In this issue of ECO, we feature the Lake Baroon Catchment Care Group and its role in supplying a vital asset – clean water.

Caring for the Catchment

“Water water everywhere  …” – not in Australia unfortunately, this is the dry continent, water worries are predicted to worsen with climate change and managing this most precious of resources is a must.

Much of the Sunshine Coast relies on Lake Baroon, also known as the Baroon Pocket Dam, for its water supply.

The dam, with a catchment area of 74 sq kilometres, was built on Obi Obi Creek in 1988. Big problems soon surfaced. Excessive clearing had removed protective vegetation from the banks of many streams and gullies in the catchment. As a result, large quantities of sediment and nutrients from built up areas as well as farmland found their way into the lake with dire consequences for water quality – an outbreak of the potentially toxic blue green algae in 1990.

Lake Baroon

Another outbreak in 1991 prompted action, and community members got together to set up the Lake Baroon Catchment Care Group (LBCCG) in the following year – one of the first catchment care groups in Queensland.

Only a small percentage of land in the catchment is “locked up” for conservation, so not much can be done to restore the environmental health of the catchment unless farmers and other private land owners are on side.

Developing good relationships with landholders is crucial, according to LBCCG President Peter Stevens.

“We need a proactive approach in catchment protection. Our current policy is to identify the most pressing problem areas and target landholders accordingly.

“We supply funding and resources to help landholders with on ground projects such as revegetating riparian areas, weed removal, fencing waterways to keep cattle away, helping with dairy effluent disposal, and hardening stock laneways and dairy aprons.

“Many of the farmers in the catchment operate on slim profit margins, they recognise how their land can become degraded, but need financial help for the remedial work which we promote.”

Funding is a perennial problem for community groups. SEQ water, the government body which manages catchments and water storage areas, saw the advantages of working closely with a well supported community group such as LBCCG, and in 2007 agreed to fund a ten year programme enabling the group to employ a full-time Catchment Coordinator and to subsidise on ground projects.

“Sometimes we can fully fund a project, “said Mr Stevens.

“We’ve found that once farmers become involved in a particular project, they tend to continue with other projects which are also beneficial for catchment health.

“More and more farmers realise the value of a partnership with LBCCG – as well as good environmental outcomes, our on ground projects help farmers become more efficient, thus more profitable.

“For example, clean watering points for dairy cattle reduce stream bank erosion as well as reduce contamination of milk from mud.”

“While we target particular farmers, we also find that others are voluntarily approaching us as the benefits of catchment care become clear.

“We make it easy for land owners by minimising paperwork for project funding and looking after documentation and accountability.”

LBCCG has completed almost 100 individual water quality improvement projects over the years.

The group also helps land owners develop property plans.

President Peter Stevens (left) with Catchment Coordinator Mark Amos. Photo by John Burrows

“We advocate a whole-farm approach to managing the business, taking into account economic, social and environmental factors. We’re committed to supporting large landholders who want to keep their soil and nutrients in the paddocks where they belong,” said Mr Stevens.

Controlling weeds in the catchment is important too – LBCCG is working with the CSIRO in developing a biological control programme to deal with mistflower, potentially a major threat in riparian areas.

Community involvement is also part of business for LBCCG, operating a Green Jobs Corp programme which provides local unemployed youth with work that gives them bush regeneration skills and helps them gain a Diploma in Conservation and Land Management. They’re done environmental work on three properties so far.

LBCCG operate from offices in a refurbished house on a 40 hectare property adjoining Lake Baroon. The property was purchased by Seqwater, who provided the house as well as guaranteeing funding for the group – the sort of partnership which LBCCG hopes will be a template for the public utility to work with other community catchment care groups.

For more information about LBCCG, contact  Catchment Coordinator Mark Amos on 5494 3775 or visit the Lake Baroon Catchment Care Group website.

Decisions in the 80s gave the green light to high rise development

Survey after survey has confirmed the sentiment of most Sunshine Coast residents — “We don’t want another Gold Coast.

With some predictions that the population here may reach a half a million by 2030, restraining the aspirations of developers and property marketeers is important for residents, and there are many examples of how the community has worked to prevent the urbanisation of the Coast from top to bottom.

One group of Coolum residents gathered in 2004 and set up Development Watch Inc, its spur to action being an inappropriate development proposed for Mount Coolum. They were perhaps inspired by the bulk of Mt Coolum overlooking this coastal suburb. The prominent peak is now protected as National Park instead of hosting a major development involving chairlifts and restaurants – this was an odious proposal of the late 80s defeated by an irate and determined community.

Coolum itself is far from being the sleepy village that attracted so many who live there. It suffers the ignominy of high rise on the beach as a result of shoddy decision-making by Maroochy Council in the 80s. Now it’s faced with fast-growing industrial and commercial precincts and expanding suburbia.

Development Watch fights to keep it all at bay by making sure that the community is well informed and has a strong voice in making its views known.

The group has about 50 members, they meet in Coolum bi-monthly and take a close look at any applications for development that are inappropriate not just for the Coolum area but also for the wider Sunshine Coast.

Careful monitoring of development proposals is very important, to make sure that they’re in line with the various State Acts and Policies and the planning schemes of the Sunshine Coast Regional Council, and also compatible with community aspirations. Members are adept at reading and understanding the fine print and negotiating the bureaucratic maze.

They keep a keen eye on Council’s website and PD Online – the Council’s self-help service – and pick up development applications of interest at the application stage.  They then monitor the application’s progress through the system and will usually know when the white signs go up.? The group involves the wider community with letter box drops, by getting petitions signed and holding public meetings. They formulate detailed submissions to local and state government to make sure that community views are represented.
Their involvement may not end even when Council rejects an application. Developers will often appeal the decision to the Planning and Environment Court.  Development Watch may then elect to co-respond with Council to provide them with support and to reinforce the community view.  Current applications now before the court range from an application for commercial offices in a residential area at Coolum Beach to a 950 dwelling residential development at Pacific Paradise.

President Brian Raison says that while the primary aim is preventing inappropriate development in the Coolum area, it’s important to have a regional perspective.

“Any major development proposal north of the Maroochy River could have an adverse impact on Coolum residents and businesses.  Even residential developments further afield can affect parking, traffic congestion and liveability in Coolum,” he said.

“Take for example the proposed Caloundra South development – the Coast’s population jumps by 50,000 if it goes ahead. Creating a city the size of Gladstone so close to existing towns will really have a serious effect on liveability along the coast and in the popular hinterland towns.”

Unsustainable population growth is the key threat, according to Mr Raison. With a State Government determined to accommodate huge population increases in South East Queensland, and much the same outlook at the national level (both the Federal Government and Opposition seem to favour a forecast population 60% increase by 2050, which outstrips all other industrialised nations) what’s the best way deal with this?

“For starters, the Federal Government has to be convinced to have a population policy,” said Mr Raison.

“It has given no indication as to how it will stop the ever-increasing tide once its absurd target of 35 million by 2050 is reached.  The country’s post-secondary education system needs serious overhaul so that skilled workers for Australia’s future needs are sourced from within, rather than relying on an unacceptable level of immigrants.

“This is an arid country and we will become a net importer of food unless the Federal Government can think beyond the ballot box and can also dampen the drivers of immigration.?“The Federal view is unlikely to change unless the States understand the problem.  I don’t have a positive view of that happening.  Development Watch is focussed on convincing our Council to maintain its publicly stated policy of determining carrying capacity before committing to development.  With the Department of Infrastructure and Planning having the power to impose development on our Council, this conflict may only be resolved in the courts. That is, if our Councillors have the courage to pursue this course of action.”?Development Watch also sees unrestrained tourism growth as a threat to community liveability and well-being.

“We must have tourism, of course, but there is a limit to the number that can be accommodated,” said Mr Raison.

“Tourist blight – the disease that sees the very things that attract tourists to an area destroyed – is a serious concern of ours.  As an example, Council plans to construct a new airport runway.  Accommodating and amusing the increased number of tourists that will be required to justify expenditure on this project will exacerbate this blight.

“Remember, the Queensland Government requires the Sunshine Coast to have, in 20 years time, the same population that the Gold Coast has now.”?We are keen to hear from residents in the Coolum area who would like to assist in ensuring Coolum remains a great place to live and visit.

Phone Brian on 5446 4493 if you would like more information.

More information about Development Watch

Noosa Landcare natural resources manager Phil Moran. Image: Brian Rickards

Phil Moran is so passionate about the environment that he admits to hugging every tree he can.

In his youth he had ideas of pursuing a career in the legal profession, but it wouldn’t have been as satisfying for this man who instead grew to love the bush.

Phil is the natural resource manager for Noosa and District Landcare Group which is based in the Sunshine Coast hinterland town of Pomona. And his personal journey to that point has been a long and winding one.

While he now oversees this not-for-profit organisation that works with the community to deliver hands-on environmental solutions, he sees it as a life blessing.

“I am very fortunate to be able to a job that I love,” he said as we talked on the verandah of the Futures Centre nursery where Phil and his team work.

This is a man who worked in the tourist industry starting at the Tangalooma resort on Moreton Island and later becoming a trainee manager at Brisbane’s biggest hotel at the time. At 21 he became catering manager and stayed there for another nine years in a role he enjoyed and which eventually inspired him to open his own catering business.

“But always I had the bush in the back of my mind I had,” Phil said.

He had a friend who owned a piece of land on the outer limits of Brisbane and he went there when he could to learn about the bush. Later they took a trip to Malaysia, Sumatra and Thailand where Phil got a thrill from looking at the jungle.

That trip took place while he was running his business at Ashgrove where he catered to the Brisbane glitterati and had begun planting trees in at the back of the premises, starting his own small jungle which exists to this day.

But it was the end of another nine-year cycle when his sister became ill and he decided  to sell and move up to Cooroy where he bought himself 5 acres.

His real passion for the bush and its fauna and flora was awoken as he established a small wholesale nursery. At the same time he joined the Landcare group as a volunteer and helped out in its riparian nursery.

It began to take over his life. At first he worked one day a week for Landcare, then two days until eventually he was given paid work.
Since then he has seen the twin nurseries of Landcare grow steadily; the riparian nursery now producing nearly 90,000 tubestock a year and the Futures Centre performing similarly.

Phil was picking up a lot of tree planting knowledge as well as learning about the bush. One of his mentors at Landcare was Dave Burrows who left to eventually work as a  senior manager for Land for Wildlife.

When Phil was given a day a week killing off camphor laurel and privet on one of the council reserves at Yellowbelly hole he found he really enjoyed it – no mobile phone reception and he just got on with it, working in the wild.

He was also involved in some funded land projects such as Corridors of Green which linking riparian zones.

“I was paid as a labourer and I loved it,” said Phil.

One thing led to another. The group went through many changes and as more work became available Phil climbed up the ladder and was offered more work where eventually he was able to employ his past business acumen.

Burrows, who was the project officer for the Corridors of Green, moved on to a council position and it left a hole at Landcare which Phil was able to fill and get work for five days a week with them. Now Phil has climbed his personal tree to become the natural resources manager, responsible for 31 staff of which 24 are employed full-time. Of those 10 are the Green Army – a state government employment project.

“In fact, we are now the second biggest employer in Pomona,” said Phil.

He said another thrill he gets is to see kids he has trained move on and perform brilliantly at places such as the Sunshine Coast Regional Council. At a school talk about the environment two of his former ‘students’ who had made the big leap forward joined him.

“They were there in their council uniforms and stood out front with me, teaching that second generation of kids what they had been taught by the old bloke. I though it was a lovely circle and happy that I had infected them with that passion for the environment.

“That keeps me going as well as keeping me grounded.”

Phil says he certainly doesn’t do it for the money, saying it’s really caring about how we all live.

“I now live on 33 acres of land on the far west of the old Noosa council region. It was the first refuge to be declared in the shire. So my heart is there,” he said.

At first he lived in a tin shed on that property, but it was more than your ordinary tin shed. It was part of his continuing education.
“My place is rough country – quite steep, spotted gum country with basalt and phyllite. But I think of it as a university without the sandstone. You never stop learning – if I go for a walk I’ll see a plant I haven’t seen before,” he said.

“I have already identified 240 different species on my place so far.”

Phil’s attachment to the environment has led him to also be appointed as a board member for the UNESCO-recognised Noosa Biosphere. In 2007, the old Noosa Shire boundary was designated as a biosphere region – a first for Queensland.

A biosphere reserve is an international conservation listing awarded to an area with innovative approaches to conservation and sustainable development. Biosphere reserves promote a balanced relationship between humans and the biosphere.

Phil is also hands-on with the biosphere project, organising the Landcare team to help maintain and environmentally improve parts of the area with weed removal and tree plantings. He also does a blog for the biosphere.

Then Phil gets philosophical.

“Our biggest problem these days is the disconnect between day to day life and the environment,” he said.

“When I lived in the city, you’d get out of bed, have brekkie on the run, jump into air-conditioned car, join others in a traffic jam, get into a lift. You don’t even get to walk on grass. The only nature you see is a token one, on a computer screensaver.

“So it’s really hard to teach people about biodiversity — because they don’t get to experience it. But if I can give them little stories about how the way these things are all inter-related, hopefully the lights will come on.

“When I was a kid I’d be squatting down on the ground playing with ants and little lizards and things, but then you’d grow up and start going out to nightclubs and meeting girls. Then things like the environment might take a back seat.”

So Phil’s idea is to instill such a passion for the environment into kids, that they will never forget it and retain that connection.

“I have son who is almost 18. He grew up with me in my shed. Because I lived in it for 12 years out there with no power for four of those years, no TV or anything, we’d go out in the bush and we’d make cubbies, kill weeds and do stuff,” he said.

“My son can still walk around now and tell me that that’s a white-headed pigeon or that plant is looking sick, It’s amazing what ticks in kids’ minds. When his mates come up from Brisbane now, I hear him talking to them – he even told one not to whack a white ants nest. He’d say ‘no, leave them alone – that’s not the type that eats the house, it’s the one that cleans up the bush’.

“I never tried to force this environment stuff down his throat, It’s a symbiosis thing – kids tend to pick it up from you if you have that passion.”

He said Landcare likes to work with the schools.

“I go out to them to talk about weeds and I’ll help them with tree planting,” he said.

While Phil is encouraged by the kids, there are many things in the adult world of developers and governments that upset him – especially in his own region. The Cooroy-Curra bypass was a project he fought against as was the Traveston dam.
But successful or not, Phil has a belief that when the fight is over, it’s over. His way is ‘to work like hell’ in the initial stages to persuade authorities not to go ahead with a bad project and to try to get the best outcome for the environment.

“I’ll always work with people to get the best result. If I fail, I fail but I’ll give it a good shot. Once the law is passed I am not going to stand in front of a bulldozer – that’s not my area. I prefer to do the work beforehand.”

One of Phil’s other major environmental roles, they seem to cling to him like lawyer vines, is as vice-president of the National Aquatic Weeds Management Group. It means he gets around Australia identifying the weeds and helping with action plans to get rid of them. But in his region there are significant water weed problems – cabomba, water hyacinth and salvinia being just a few examples.

However, it’s the education side of environmental matters that really gets his juices flowing. He loves to give advice to people who might have moved into the Sunshine Coast area and are looking how to best look after their properties.

“The year before last I did more than 90 property visits. I go out to their newly-acquired and identify the weeds and the native plants, erosion issues etcetera. It’s great to see the thrill they get when I say ‘Wow, look at this wonderful plant. Or even that’s bad, you need to get rid of that’.

“They’re really keen – they’ve actually reached out and sought advice – that’s encouraging. We’re even getting to real estate agents to get the message out there.”

Phil is also pleased that the local tourism industry is coming on board as many players are doing much to reduce their ecological footprint.

“They now recognise that they have a goose here with a golden egg that is the environment. I tell them they wouldn’t have their business without that healthy environment,” added Phil.

His message in this Year of Biodiversity is ‘to get out there and have a look. Go for a walk. Learn something that’s outside the square. Get involved with the Biosphere, your local catchment group, the local Landcare group, even a P&C group with school environment activities’.

“Go to the World Environment Day event at the Sunshine Coast university, go to the Festival of Water at Lake McDonald. Just get out to have a look at your environment and get a real feel for it,” he added.

And finally, some timely advice from this man who loves the land: ‘If you want to be involved in bush regeneration, it’s not neat and it will take a while. Nature’s the best –SHE is the teacher and we need to learn from her before it’s too late.

I first read the script of Elaine’s book while on holiday in Sydney and found myself having to read out passages of it to friends who could hardly believe what they were hearing. A fun park on Mount Coolum? Development on the Marcus Dunes?

While it sounds incredible today, these and other disasters almost happened, except for the efforts of our Sunshine Coast’s eco-activists — those indomitable pioneers of the environment movement who tirelessly fought to preserve our green heritage.

Green Legends is written in a charming personal style by environmentalist and former Maroochy Shire councillor, Elaine Green who was herself actively involved and so is speaking from experience.

Through her eyes we re-live the cronyism of the Bjelke-Petersen days of white-shoed atrocities and we share in the wins and the losses of the continual campaigns to reject unwanted and inappropriate development. Our precious wetlands, dunes, wallum, wildlife corridors, waterways and forests were and still are constantly under threat, and it is largely due to the watchfulness, diligence and just plain hard work of community groups and dedicated individuals as described in Green Legends that our Sunshine Coast has not become a repeat of the Gold Coast.

Green Legends also delights with many photographs of the coast as it once was, which will amaze recent residents, and with photo collages of activists past and present. I found it all a riveting read from Stan Tutt’s evocative and metaphoric imagining at the beginning, through the history of the local environment movement, and in particular following the stories of the campaigns, our ‘green legends.’

It is a timely reminder that these stories continue on today with the chronic push to increase our population at the expense of our native habitat. We can draw hope and courage from the green legends described and perhaps be inspired to not ever become complacent, but to maintain our vigilant watch and to continue to support our community groups that act on our behalf.

I highly recommend Green Legends to all residents of the Sunshine Coast and to anyone contemplating living here.

Green Legends is published by the Sunshine Coast Environment Council and was officially launched at the the Coolum Civic Centre on September 15.

Several hundred canoeists and supporters turned out to show their energy for battle was undiminished. Image Arkin Mackay stoppress.com.au

Three years to the day since Peter Beattie’s shock announcement of plans to build the dam, several hundred canoeists and supporters turned out to a “floatilla” to show their energy for battle was undiminished. Paddlers were shown lungfish breeding sites and turtle nesting beaches before taking part in ceremony, celebrations, speeches and entertainment.

“Today we’re celebrating the resilience of our community and the wider community,” said Save the Mary River Coordinating Group President Glenda Pickersgill.

“We’re celebrating that we have dug our heels in and mounted a very strong case against damming this river.”

“Peter Beattie may have called it ‘hardly pristine’, Anna Bligh may say it’s been damaged by farming, but the real test has to be what lives in there now and with a number of unique species, this is pretty impressive. International turtle experts are even coming to regard the Mary River as ‘ the turtle river’.

The truth is that the dam presently proposed is much smaller than Peter Beattie originally envisaged. When it became apparent that it would require federal EPBC (Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act) approval, the proposal was split into two stages. This means that the yield of the proposed Stage 1 is less than a third of the original proposal while the costs have more than doubled.

“This is why Premier Bligh was so keen not to make mention of the dam at her recent election launch.  The irony is that as soon as she was elected, she claimed a mandate to build it. Many in Brisbane remember her ‘delay’ announcement and think it’s on hold,” Ms Pickersgill said.

This was the third “floatilla” on the river, and was the biggest yet. After the first, in 2006, Greens Senator Bob Brown told opponents to be prepared for a long battle. When he visited the area in 2007, Roberto Epple of the European Rivers Network said to expect maybe a seven-year battle. From the looks of it, both pieces of advice have been well-heeded.

Dam opponents recently heard of a ‘milestone’ legal challenge to the Paradise Dam fishway which will be heard in the Federal Court in September. The case, mounted by the Wide Bay Burnett Conservation Council and a coalition of Environment groups is significant as the Paradise fishway is intended as the model for use on Traveston Dam should it go ahead.

“We’ve already won this on the science,” says Glenda,  “and it’s defeating itself on the economics. Sometime soon the penny will drop for this government and they’ll realise they can’t cry poor to nurses and teachers and public servants wanting better, fairer, conditions while they pour more money into the black hole that is the Traveston Crossing Dam proposal.”

The latest community group to become a member of SCEC, PAGE is fighting to protect community members and at the same time playing an active role in reducing carbon emissions on the Sunshine Coast.

PAGE – the useful acronym doubling for the Powerline Action Group Eumundi and People Advocating Green Energy – was formed in 2007 in response to a proposal which threatens the communities west of Eumundi with high voltage powerlines and pylons marching across an idyllic landscape.

What to expect - transmission towers, power lines and their easement cut a swathe through Beerburrum State Forest. Photograph: John Burrows

The proposal comes from Powerlink, the government agency responsible for Queensland’s power transmission network, and involves power lines connecting a present substation at Woolooga, up past Gympie, with a new substation close to Eumundi.

It’s all part of a larger scheme to extend new transmission lines on wide easements the length of the Sunshine Coast. Exact details aren’t readily available, but it’s clear that the scheme will lock the Coast into a carbon dependent future.

Most of the new line from Woolooga is planned to run alongside an existing easement, but it’s the final nine kilometres, running through Eerwah Vale, which will have a profound effect on community and environment.

PAGE has been fighting the proposal from the outset. They make the compelling point that it’s just another large-scale old-world engineering solution to current climate change challenges and argue strongly for alternatives.

Demand management could see power use by many businesses and households reduced by up to 30 per cent. During Brisbane’s water crisis, a public awareness campaign plus regulation resulted in water use being cut dramatically – up to 54 per cent in 18 months. Why not try the same approach with power?

Powerlink also seems to disregard renewable energy. PAGE promoted a plan by Sanctuary Energy Ltd to provide power on the Sunshine Coast using solar thermal generators, a plan which our Transmission Network Service Provider casually dismissed.

PAGE also supports SCEC’s 1000 Solar Roofs Project, a successful community initiative to provide solar panels to roofs on the Sunshine Coast – there are over 800 households signed up at the time of writing, demonstrating the huge potential for renewable energy.

Recognising that political support is vital, PAGE has met with the Minister for Mines & Energy and the Opposition. They also organised a State Election candidate’s forum, held at Eumundi which was very well attended. There was support from the former Noosa Council, and PAGE is planning a presentation to the Sunshine Coast Regional Council for its backing.

PAGE has an informative website, and has held community meetings and information days. Affected residents had the benefit of workshops to help them respond to documents required under the community consultation process – the draft Terms of Reference and recently the draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

The draft EIS was 1900 pages long and widely seen as being too complex, not to mention daunting in size, for most people to digest.

Community members got together with an environmental scientist and other specialists to respond to the draft EIS, and produced a comprehensive and hard hitting document, concluding that the assessment and the assessment process were fundamentally flawed.

“The draft EIS can be characterised as misleading, incorrect, inadequate and lacking in critical detail,” said PAGE coordinator Graham Smith.

“It clearly lacks any independence in its analysis, conclusions or recommendations.

“Unfortunately, this is consistent with the woeful consultation and poorly detailed studies undertaken by Powerlink and their paid consultants.”

In their response to the draft EIS, PAGE emphasised their desire to one day make clean, sustainable energies a reality in the power profile of the Sunshine Coast and Queensland.

Along with many other crucial issues, the assessment of environmental impacts was seen as totally inadequate.

The Richmond Birdwing Butterfly - a local colony faces extinction if Powerlink has its way. Photograph by Jennifer Broomhall

A case in point — the beautiful but endangered Richmond Birdwing Butterfly has only a few small pockets of suitable habitat remaining, and the most northern of these, right in the path of the proposed powerlines, could be compromised if Powerlink gets its way.

Koalas too are set to suffer – a loss of 20 hectares of koala habitat at a time when their numbers in SEQ are plummeting.

Both of these species have special interest for photographer Jennifer Broomhall and husband Fred who live on a property which will be affected if the powerlines come through.

Registered under the Land for Wildlife programme – along with 21 other properties which will be affected – the Broomhall’s block straddles a ridge which is a watershed for the Mary and Maroochy River catchments. There is high plant diversity with areas of riparian rain forest and remnant vine forest.

Koalas are seen (or heard) frequently, thanks in part to koala food trees planted since the couple moved there 32 years ago.

The Richmond Birdwing Butterfly occurs there as well, and like the koalas is much photographed. It only has one food source – the Richmond Birdwing Butterfly vine. There’s a fine specimen of the vine on the next door block, unfortunately right in the path of Powerlink’s easement.

The draft EIS recommends that this vine be translocated, even though scientific opinion is adamant that it doesn’t survive replanting. So the local population of the butterfly is doomed if the Powerlink proposal goes ahead.

PAGE has found many deficiencies like this in the draft EIS. With the final EIS due by the end of this year, the group plans to continue campaigning and gaining community support, and intends to lobby the Minister for Mines & Energy highlighting the many inadequacies in the process.

Michelle Gleeson

Do bugs bug you? Do weeds drive you mad? Do you have a weed you want identified? Maybe you would like to know some of the uses for our local plants?

For all the answers, a series of Practical Ecology workshops at the free World Environment Day Festival on June 28th may be just the thing for you and your family to explore the natural world together.

To be held at the University of the Sunshine Coast, the hands-on series is part of the huge festival program featuring land and water bugs, land and water weeds, Glossy Black Cockatoos and advice on native plants, all presented by local experts.

Among the topics, fire, ecology and human habitats, with Michael Reif from the Sunshine Coast Regional Council talking about fire and biodiversity and Lloyd Johnston from Emergency Management Queensland will discuss minimising the risk of fire on our human habitats.

Michelle Gleeson, also known as the Bug Lady, will show off her displays of mounted insects, live insects which can be handled, and activity bags for the bug enthusiasts. With Cerran Fawns of Maroochy Waterwatch you can explore the bugs in our waterways and find out what they can tell you about the water quality.

Hellen Haapakoski of Biosecurity Queensland will help identify the weeds that pose the greatest threats to our natural systems and to farmers, and how you can best manage them. From Noosa and District Landcare, Phil Moran’s passion is water weeds and you can bring along some weeds you want identified.

Simone O’Keefe from the Sunshine Coast Regional Council is part of the Glossy Black Cockatoo Conservancy. She has been working with schools and community to help save this magnificent bird by spotting it and planting the specific food trees.

Coast legend Stephanie Haslam will present a fascinating workshop Not Just a Pretty Face – our native plants and their many uses. This is all about our reasonably common native plants that most people would know, and how these plants have been and are being used by aboriginal people, early settlers and commercial enterprises today.

The World Environment Day Festival at the University will also feature displays from all the groups on the Sunshine Coast that care for land, water and native species. This is a great chance to make contacts and find out more about this amazing coastal landscape and its active community.

Australia's green future. Image: greghardwick.com.au

How many times do green groups need to shout if from the roof tops? Roof tops that could easily be covered in green, clean energy.

Clean energy and energy efficiency industries will create more than 28,000* new jobs by 2020, according to ground breaking economic modelling released today by the Clean Energy Council (CEC).

CEC Chief Executive, Matthew Warren, said the report demonstrates that renewable energy jobs are the key to Australia’s defence against ongoing global recession and the front line response to climate change.

“We have a burgeoning renewable energy industry in Australia that is ready to become an economic powerhouse when the parliament passes critical Renewable Energy Target legislation,” he said. ? ?“We now need politicians from all sides in Canberra to set aside cheap political point scoring and pass the RET bill now.”

Mr Warren said that immediate deployment of renewable energy projects has the clear support of most stakeholders and the community.

“Any political tricky manoeuvre to hold the legislation up now will simply end up being a remarkable own goal,” he said.
The report concludes that at least 50 percent of Australia’s energy will be derived from renewable sources by 2050 and this will require the creation of a new renewable energy workforce.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for employers, investors, education providers and jobseekers to reap the benefits of a green jobs revolution,” Mr Warren said.

The CEC is working with all levels of government, industry and educational institutions to make sure we get the RET legislation right and pave the way for the creation of this exciting new industry.

The report is now available for download at the clean energy council website.

*jobs – modelling does not account for jobs created under the $1.6bn Solar Flagships program nor does it include jobs created under the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS).

SCEC is the umbrella organisation of more than 50 community groups. In this issue of Eco, we look at a member group from the beleaguered Bribie Island.

Members of the Bribie Island Environmental Protection Association

Rampant development can be a juggernaut that crushes eco-systems in its path, but on Bribie Island a community group is managing to apply the brakes.

The Bribie Island Environmental Protection Association Inc (BIEPA) has been fighting to keep the island’s natural assets safe forever, and has notched up some impressive wins in its 30 year history.

Bribie Island is the only island in Queensland connected by bridge to the mainland, and being close to Brisbane, it is well in the firing line of creeping urbanisation. Housing estates and canal developments have had a huge ecological impact. Much of the interior is a monoculture of sterile pine forest, and a far cry from what artist Ian Fairweather described as Bribie’s “friendly bush” where he painted many masterpieces.

BIEPA’s role in protecting some of this friendly bush has been crucial.

A good example is the preservation of Lot 402. This 37 hectare block of untouched bushland in the island’s south had the highest conservation rating of any block in the Caboolture Shire. It’s a beautiful mosaic of eucalyptus, tea-tree and banksia forest and wallum heath. Then in 1998 a developer persuaded Council to rezone – to change its classification from Open Space to Urban Designation.

Galvanised by a strong community spirit and representing themselves in court, BIEPA lodged a successful appeal with the Planning and Environment Court. Lot 402 was saved from urbanisation, and this year, along with other parts of Bribie totalling 3690 hectares, was gazetted as national park. This took the total area of national park to nearly 10,000 hectares, or about half the area of the island.

Another notable victory involved Buckley’s Hole, a freshwater lake close to the ocean, and one of Queensland’s top birding sites with over 280 species recorded. Just the place for a marina, some thought, until BIEPA managed to have the Hole and surrounding area protected as a conservation park in 1992.

Strong community participation is the key to the BIEPA’s effectiveness, according to President Ian Bell.

“We have over 240 members who are passionate, determined and contribute all sorts of skills, such as technical expertise, which has given us credibility and some influence with government ministers and bureaucrats.

“We also link with other organisations including the Bribie Island Community Association and Friends of Woorim Beach on issues of common concern.

“BIEPA’s vision for Bribie is a special natural area where a vibrant and cohesive community can live in harmony with the wonders of our national parks and marine parks and Ramsar areas.

“A community-led approach to development and proper community consultation is essential if we are to achieve this.”

As part of community engagement, the group sponsors a wildlife carer on the island, as well as environmental awards to local schools.

BIEPA’s regular meetings often feature a guest speaker. Recently dugong authority Dr Janet Lanyon gave a talk on the plight of this threatened creature. Where Pumicestone Passage was once home to huge herds, now a mere dozen remain, and they may soon be as impossible to sight in the Passage as the mermaid, the legendary creature described by early European sailors when seeing a dugong from a distance.

Harassed by speeding boats and jet skis, dugongs face a major threat from the algae lyngbya majuscula, commonly known as fireweed or mermaid’s hair. It’s a toxin best avoided by swimmers, and can blanket sea grass beds, the dugong’s food source.

There was an unprecedented outbreak of the deadly algae in Pumicestone Passage last year, with Council harvesting 6000 tonnes and trucking it to landfill sites. It’s thought that high water temperatures combined with massive nutrient loads – phosphorous, nitrogen, iron and dissolved organic matter, are responsible.

Many more threats to Bribie’s environment keep BIEPA busy.

Coastal erosion, especially on the southern side of the ocean beach, is a significant issue, and likely to increase as climate change generates rising sea levels and more storm surges.

As part of the SEQ Water Grid Plan, Caboolture Council last year began the Bribie Bores project, which involves extracting fresh water from underground aquifers. Community consultation was zero and no environmental impact studies were done.  BIEPA has identified risks of seawater intrusion and lowering of the water table, with possible devastating consequences for plant communities and associated fauna of Bribie’s delicate wetlands.

Another disturbing proposal involves a desalination plant on the eastern shore. BIEPA is concerned with high tension power pylons creating an ugly blight on Bribie’s holiday skyline, and the effect of concentrated saline discharge on marine life.

Challenges for the future revolve around Moreton Council’s Town Plan, which doesn’t effectively recognise Bribie’s unique features, according to Ian Bell.

“Moreton’s growth rate of 3.3 per cent is a real concern. If maintained it will cause the population to double within 21 years,” he said.

“If environmental impacts double as well, how can we retain dugongs and other iconic marine species such as turtles in Pumicestone Passage?

“Exponential population growth must be curbed if we are to successfully manage environmental threats in the region,” said Mr Bell.