Land & environment

Releases from Hume Dam have today increased to 75 gigalitres (GL) per day, up from 50 GL per day yesterday in response to overnight inflows that peaked at 100 GL a day. Further increases are likely with a renewed inflow peak expected later today. Combined with inflows from the Kiewa River – downstream of Hume Dam – the Murray River is expected to approach or possibly exceed the major flood level at Albury in coming days.

The NSW Government will support an Aboriginal-led working group to develop an Aboriginal cultural fire management strategy ... Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Ben Franklin said that cultural burning is an important practice to Aboriginal communities and wider communities across the State.

The mapped fire histories of the southwestern forests show that bushfires have been most frequent in forests with dense understoreys promoted by previous burns, and far less common in areas that have not been burned for several decades, allowing the understorey to naturally thin. Two new voices have entered the discussion on this here and made numerous claims, but their ill-informed comments have distracted from the point.

Tough new measures to allow authorities to better monitor the movements of convicted bushfire offenders during the fire danger season will be introduced to State Parliament this week. The Bill delivers on an election commitment to help keep the community safe from firebugs.

More than 8,200 hectares of former sheep station in Queensland’s south west will become a protected area, the Palaszczuk Government has announced. Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon said in an agreement struck between the Palaszczuk Government and Paniri Ventures, the addition of Ardgour Station Nature Refuge, 120km south of Charleville would protect important wetlands and ecosystems that form part of the Wyandra-Cunnamulla Claypans Aggregation.

A major miscalculation has put the Archer River bridge project back a year and there are fears that Cape residents could face at least two more wet seasons without it. What’s worse, there is also some concern that unfinished civil works on the roads around the Archer River Roadhouse could cut off motorists for months when the rain arrives.

Cook Shire Council is pleased to announce that with repairs to the approach ramps of the Marton Swing Bridge coming to completion, the bridge is scheduled to reopen in coming days – ahead of the approaching wet season.

The Hartley District Progress Association (HDPA) and the community of Hartley welcome the Federal Government’s decision to pause funding on the NSW State Government’s proposed Great Western Highway “upgrade” from Katoomba to Lithgow. Stopping the “upgrade” provides a critical opportunity to reconsider how best to improve travel times across the Blue Mountains and how best to direct infrastructure funding.

Lismore City Mayor Steve Krieg and Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Premier Gurmesh Singh have opened the new Keerrong Road Bridge ... specialist Bridge Crew replaced the damaged culvert with a new 16.1m x 7.2m single span concrete structure. This new structure founded on steel driven piles has been designed and constructed to achieve a 100-year design life while improving its flood immunity and safety for local farmers and truck drivers.

A trial will soon begin to see if a technique never before seen on the Sunshine Coast could be used to help replenish Maroochydore Beach ... It involves importing sand from Moreton Bay and placing it in the water, about 300m off the beach. Waves, currents and tides will then deposit the sand onto our beaches providing an additional buffer against future storms and coastal erosion.

This month something particularly exciting washed up on Lagoon beach in the Lord Howe Island Marine Park (LHIMP) – a small cuttlefish which had died in recent storms. It was found by visiting researcher Sally Montgomery, and represents the first animal of a Lord Howe Island cuttlefish ever studied.

RVOTDS. Game Management Authority (GMA) (Vic) arranged a first-ever count of Stubble Quails in Victoria early this year, and the resultant report it assisted in drafting, has recently been published. The report’s authors have admitted only 101 birds were counted, yet the figure was extrapolated via complex methodologies up to an extraordinary estimate of 3.1 million.

In our immediate area, we are lucky: the floods have been and gone while others across the State and beyond are still living with the uncertainty and dangers of rising river levels. For our region, it’s on to the recovery stage.  The Times visited the Baringhup Caravan Park last weekend to view the damage following a massive release of water from Cairn Curran reservoir.

Sometimes, the good things happening in our region have the smallest of beginnings. In this case, it was a letter that Maldon resident Lee Mead sent to her local State Member Maree Edwards.  “It started during the first year of the pandemic when I did a lot more walking around the Maldon Historic Reserve,” Lee said.

Dear Editor, I am compelled to respond to the naïve and dangerous comments by Professor Phillip Zylstra on forest bushfire management in Western Australia, in your most recent edition. I agree with the Bradshaw critique of Zylstra et al’s paper and I found Professor Zylstra’s defence to be unconvincing.

Following the critique of a research paper by Zylstra, Bradshaw and Lindenmayer “Self-thinning forest understoreys reduce wildfire risk, even in a warming climate,” by Jack Bradshaw, readers might be interested in some broader analysis of Mr Zylstra’s fire research work ... His research appears to be the base to advocate for what might be described as a wilderness approach to fire management across the broad Australian landscape.

Elders of Australian forestry temporarily reinstated sustainable fire management more than half a century ago, before a new generation of ecologists dismantled it. These new experts employ the Climate Cop-Out to explain the inevitable resurgence of pestilence and megafires. Now Forestry Australia is collaborating with them to ‘reimagine’ our future. To achieve this, they have to reinvent our past.

Murdoch University sustainability lecturer Nicole Hodgson describes the central core of Mt Hallowell reserve as precious unlogged, long unburnt forest. This was mostly karri, jarrah, marri, sheoak, and more than 100 other plant species. Home to many animals and more than 70 bird species, some in the reserve were critically endangered like the Carnaby’s and Baudain’s cockatoos.

Somebody better tell mother nature to get with the program as Koondrook-Barham’s peak was exceeded seven days early. The expected peak for Koondrook-Barham remains unchanged on official channels at an expected 6.2m. Mother nature had other ideas with a rainfall event on Monday, October 24 pushing the river to an eye watering 6.210m just one centimetre short of the highest recorded on NSW Water, the 1917 flood reaching 6.223m.

Farmers in the Darling Downs have had to contend with four floods in six months from November 2021 to May 2022 while elsewhere in Queensland and northern New South Wales the damage has been widespread and devastating. Following flooding down south in recent weeks, Rural Aid’s team of counsellors are conducting welfare checks on Rural Aid’s registered farmers.

More than three times the average October rainfall has already fallen in Narrandera this month with more than 100mm drenching Narrandera in the first three weeks of October. The deluge has caused chaos with many roads being closed.