From Kimberley to the Cape
The North
Traditional lands
Extinctions beginning
A different approach for the north
A new vision for northern Australia
CASE STUDIES
Daly River at risk from clearing
Shelburne Bay under threat
Disappearing species
Species profile
The Northern Quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus)
Across northern Australia lies a vast arc of forests, woodlands, wild rivers and monsoonal wetlands. Stretching from the Kimberley region in Western Australia to Cape York Peninsula, this is one of the world’s last great wild frontiers.
Until recent times it has largely been spared the destructive impacts associated with landclearing, intensive agriculture and dam building that have so affected southern Australia. Now a multitude of new threats to this great northern WildCountry have ignited a call to action by the Australian environment movement.
In May 2001, representatives from national, state based and regional environment groups, including The Wilderness Society, came together for a four- day planning meeting that led to the creation of the Northern Australia Environment Alliance (NAEA). A key outcome was the creation of a 20-year vision for northern Australia that would reconcile the protection of this magnificent environmental treasure with genuinely sustainable development. It is critical that we avoid the disastrous land management mistakes that have blighted much of southern Australia – in other words, it must be the foundation for a secure and visionary future for ‘the north’.
This vision and a commentary upon it are detailed here, along with case studies of threats to some of the icons of the north and the extraordinary wildlife that lives there.
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The North
The lands and seas of tropical northern Australia, an area encompassing Cape York Peninsula, the Gulf region, the Top End and the Kimberley, are universally recognised for their natural and cultural heritage significance.
Covering an immense region of approximately 100 million hectares, northern Australia is one of the last great wild regions on the planet. It has the Earth’s largest remaining tropical woodland. Home to a stunning array of plants and animals, plus abundant marine life, the north includes a variety of different environments that have evolved in response to the vagrancies of the Wet/Dry monsoonal climate.
Northern Australia has four connected regions, each ecologically distinct but connected as a whole to form a coherent bioregion.
Travelling eastward from the pristine northern section of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area are the wilderness rainforests, woodlands, heathlands and seasonal wetlands of Cape York Peninsula. The close proximity and prehistoric land bridges to New Guinea have led to great biological diversity, with rainforest species such as Cuscus that are found nowhere else in Australia.
Further westward, the Gulf Country of north-western Queensland is characterised by extensive woodlands, natural grasslands, massive floodplains and one of Australia’s largest wetlands, the incredible two-million hectare Southern Gulf Wetlands. Numerous wild rivers flow into the Gulf of Carpentaria, which is home to a variety of marine animal species such as the Dugong and the Saltwater Crocodile.
Further west is the Top End of the Northern Territory. Home to Australia’s best known National Park, Kakadu, much of the Top End is characterised by spectacular escarpment country, extensive wetlands and tropical woodlands. Its aquatic environment is home to massive crocodiles and abundant marine life.
Further west still, is the Kimberley region. Conservation icons of the Kimberley include Purnululu (Bungle Bungles), the rugged coastline of the far north-west, the Mitchell Plateau and the mighty Fitzroy River.
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Traditional lands
The north has one of the most extreme seasonal climates in the world. The monsoonal climate of the north has led to the development of a unique life cycle of boom and bust. As the wet season approaches, massive storm clouds gather across the north and begin to dump an ‘ocean’ of water across the vast, parched northern plains. Rivers that have dwindled to a trickle during the long Dry become swollen and soon burst their banks, creating massive but ephemeral wetlands that are soon covered with breeding waterbirds.
This country has been managed over the millennia by its traditional owners. It is Aboriginal country and connections to traditional places remain strong.
The ancient cycles of wet and dry have been well documented by the north’s traditional owners who, over countless generations, adapted to this harsh landscape. Their skills and experience in managing these lands will be critical to the future protection of the northern WildCountry. In many parts of the north, traditional owners are significant land holders and have strong aspirations to both live on and to manage the country.
Working with traditional owners will be a key ingredient in protecting this WildCountry.
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Extinctions beginning
Incredibly, the building blocks of life in northern Australia — extensive forests and woodlands, wild unregulated rivers and groundwater flows — remain intact across much of the region. Globally, it is one of the few tropical regions where this remains the case.
It is an area that has been largely spared the worst impacts of land clearing and over development. Its diverse land and sea environs remain interconnected and largely intact. However, this complex environment is facing increasing development pressures and urgent conservation challenges.
The fragile cycles of life in the climatic extremes of the north make some species susceptible to even small changes in land management.
Already there are two distinct waves of extinctions happening in northern Australia. Recent research has shown that at least 16 bird species, nearly all of them grass-seed eaters, have declined greatly in range. Some, such as the stunning Gouldian Finch and Golden-shouldered Parrot are now highly endangered. In addition there is a continuing trend of regional extinctions of small mammals such as quolls, bettongs, tree-rats and bandicoots across the north.
The causes of these losses in intact landscapes are still not completely clear. It appears that the major changes in traditional burning practices of the savanna woodlands, combined with the effects of cattle grazing, introduced weeds and feral animals, are causing subtle changes to the habitat of many species.
This wave of extinctions in seemingly healthy country underlines the fragility of life in the boom/bust cycles of the monsoonal tropics, plus the need for an entirely new pattern of economic development and conservation management that works in harmony with these cycles.
Added to this is the great new threat of broad-scale clearing across the north. It is now well documented that the clearing of our forests and woodlands, agricultural irrigation, and the construction of dams and weirs on rivers — all have disastrous impacts on our natural environment. As rivers are degraded and precious plants and animals are hastened on the path to extinction across southern Australia, it is imperative that the same mistakes are not made across northern Australia.
Unfortunately, it would appear that the warnings from the salt encrusted lands of the Murray Darling and south-west Western Australia continue to go unheeded in the centres of power across northern Australia. In the West Kimberley, a grandiose plan to dam the Fitzroy River and send its water south is still on the books despite fierce resistance from local people. In the East Kimberley, plans to expand the existing Ord Irrigation Scheme have only been temporarily shelved.
In the Top End, some districts have clearing rates that are coming close to matching the worst clearing hotspots of central Queensland. Irrigation schemes and associated clearing are now being persistently pushed in the Gulf country and in the southern part of Cape York Peninsula.
Cotton trials have begun in the Gulf country near the Flinders River. Irrigated agricultural industries, including cotton, have identified the Gulf country for future expansion, bringing with them the immediate threat of land clearing and dams.
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A different approach for the north
The future protection and management of the region requires a consistent and coordinated approach.
If we are to protect and manage the fragile ecology of northern Australia, it is imperative that all layers of government decision-making are well coordinated and simplified. At present, decision-making about land management and environmental planning is fragmented between State and Territory Governments, the Commonwealth Government and its various agencies, and a plethora of often under resourced local governments.
We need a new system of decision-making and coordination that ignores state and territory boundaries and the consequent interstate rivalries that have plagued effective environmental management in southern Australia — for example, in the Murray-Darling River Basin.
The first steps toward this approach can be seen through the work of the Cooperative Research Centre for Tropical Savannas; and the formation of the Northern Australia Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance, which coordinates the efforts of indigenous groups involved in natural resource and environmental management across the north.
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A new vision for northern Australia
Northern Australia provides all of us with an opportunity to learn from the experiences of land management in southern Australia. It is the responsibility of all Australians to ensure a path of development that delivers a diverse, prosperous, sustainable and equitable future for the region.
This will involve recognition that future development must take into account the need to protect and manage values across land and sea, irrespective of tenure. It will require the restoration and maintenance of the natural integrity of the environment in its totality.
Northern Australia provides the Australian community with an opportunity to develop new and visionary approaches – approaches that will both protect the immense conservation values of the north and promote new forms of economic development that are not based upon clearing forests or destroying rivers.
We need a conservation strategy that ignores artificial boundaries and that applies as equally to protected areas, such as Conservation Reserves and National Parks, as to cattle properties, indigenous owned and managed lands, and to all manner of different land tenures.
Simply creating some new National Parks will not suffice. Increasingly, it has become apparent that National Parks alone will not deliver ecological outcomes that can sustain the vast ecosystems of the north. National Parks and Conservation Reserves are required. However, such protected areas can only secure the future of our natural environment if created in unison with complementary management ‘off reserve’. This is the fundamental principle of the Wilderness Society’s WildCountry project. Northern Australia provides us with the perfect opportunity to turn the vision of the WildCountry project into a reality.
Changes to the way we manage the land and seas of northern Australia will not happen overnight. It will require strong public advocacy and support, careful and considerate negotiation, and it will need to be driven by a commitment to find new and innovative approaches to the challenges ahead.
Yet we are a rich and politically stable country compared to the dismal realities that confront the monsoonal tropical woodlands that survive elsewhere in the world – for example, in such places as East Africa, India, Central and South America. We are fortunate to have well-established and respected educational institutions and dedicated members of the scientific community who share a desire to see a new approach in the north. If we can do it right in northern Australia, the international implications will be enormous.
The northern Australia WildCountry campaign will seek to harness the skills and knowledge of the best brains in the country and will work with all interests to promote a WildCountry future for northern Australia.
The realisation of this vision will rely upon the commitment, knowledge and participation of local people, backed by the support of the wider Australian community, and will result in healthy communities and a healthy country. Its ultimate success will depend upon the willingness of local people and organisations to come together with the rest of the Australian community to overcome the challenges ahead.
The co-authors of the ground-breaking Cape York Statement of Natural Heritage Significance (Henry Nix, Brendan Mackey and Peter Hitchcock) last year proposed these two rhetorical questions that encompass the challenges we face in northern Australia:
“Is it possible to generate economic wealth in ways that are environmentally and socially responsible? Can development occur that protects rather than destroys nature and respects rather than degrades indigenous rights and values? These are the fundamental questions of our time, and are of global as well as national significance.”
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CASE STUDIES
Daly River at risk from clearing
Incredibly, the Northern Territory Government is an active proponent of huge clearing proposals in the Daly River catchment, a river and catchment of exceptional natural values in the Top End. Flowing into the Timor Sea to the west of Darwin, the Daly River in unusual in having very high Dry season flows, fed by high levels of groundwater from its catchment. The Daly is one of the premium recreational barramundi fisheries in northern Australia. It is home to extraordinary native species, such as the Pig-nosed Turtle, Freshwater Sawfish and a freshwater shark — the Speartooth Shark. Read more…
Parts of the Daly now resemble the horrendous clearing hotspots of central Queensland, with tropical woodland bulldozed to the horizon. Irrigation developments in the Daly are using groundwater — without any assessment of the subsequent impact on the ground water volumes entering the river. Flooding events in the Wet are also likely to become more extreme as the bushland is cleared and run-off increases.
It is vital that the Northern Territory Government reverse its plans to encourage clearing and that the Daly catchment be protected. The Wilderness Society is working with the Environment Centre of the Northern Territory in seeking new pathways for development in the Daly that will not simply repeat the mistakes of southern Australia.
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Shelburne Bay under threat
It is a disgrace that the white sand country of Shelburne Bay, in north-eastern Cape York Peninsula, remains under threat from sand mining. It has been almost 20 years since traditional owners and the environment movement first alerted the Australian community to the threats posed to the magnificent lakes, forests and dunefields of Shelburne Bay.
A WildCountry approach to northern Australia would ensure that special places such as Shelburne Bay are securely protected from the threats of sand mining and other destructive developments. The lands need to be protected and cooperatively managed by traditional owners and government.
The first step to ensure this outcome is for the Queensland Government to permanently ban mineral exploration and mining activity at Shelburne Bay. Read more…
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Disappearing species
Since 1981, wildlife photographers Jiri and Marie Lochman have regularly visited the Northwest Kimberley and the Mitchell Plateau area. Over the years they have become increasingly concerned about the disappearance of native species. The following is an excerpt from an open letter sent to the WA conservation and scientific community:
In one of our favourite small rainforest patches we were, in 1992, able to observe and photograph:
Northern Quolls (Dasyurus hallucatus)
Scaly-tailed Possums (Wyulda sqamicaudata)
Golden-backed Tree-rats (Mesembriomys macrurus)
Kimberley Rock-rats (Zyzomys woodwardi)
Common Rock-rats (Zyzomys argurus)
Sugar Gliders (Petaurus breviceps)
During our visit in 1999 we spent several nights in this place and could not locate any of the above listed species, except the Northern Quoll. We returned again in 2001 and spent there four subsequent nights. I barely slept, as I was incredibly eager to disprove the sad observation from our previous visit. This time even the Northern Quolls were gone; we did not see a single one. The nights were eerily silent, no rustling in dry leaves, no movements in the trees, nothing but dead silence.
Jiri Lochman, February 22, 2002
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Species profile
The Northern Quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus)
Appearance:
Smallest of Australia’s four quoll species, with white spots on the body but none on the tail. Special pads on the hind feet help provide a grip on smooth rock surfaces.
Habitat:
Northern Australia, from the Kimberley through the Top End to the tip of Cape York, plus the Atherton Tableland and Carnarvon Range. Being both arboreal and terrestrial, Northern Quolls occupy a wide range of habitats, generally preferring rocky terrain or eucalpyt forests near the coast.
Nest:
The den is almost always in a hollow tree trunk or log, with eucalypts preferred.
Breeding habits:
Mating occurs in late June and up to eight young are born in July. Lacking a pouch, the female develops a flap of skin around the nipples at breeding time. The young cling to her body for eight to ten weeks, then are suckled in the den until about five months old.
Diet:
Greatly varied, the diet includes small mammals, such as rock-rats, and reptiles, beetles, ants, termites, grasshoppers, moths, worms, as well as honey and soft fruits such as figs. Northern Quolls sometimes forage at campsites and will even enter houses in search of food.
Disposition:
Early travellers in northern Australia made special note of this Quoll’s “pugnacious disposition”. Males become especially aggressive and quarrelsome at breeding time.
Persecution:
Once widely distributed, now becoming increasingly restricted. The exact cause is not known, but the current rate of land clearing is suspected – which means that the Northern Quoll will directly benefit from a WildCountry approach to landscape conservation.
For more information, please contact:
Lyndon Schneiders
Cape York and Far-North Australia Campaigner
Email Lyndon Schneiders
Workphone: 07 3846 1420
Mobile:
Created: 28 Jan 2003 | Last updated: 28 Jan 2003