Letters & responses

Letter to the Editor: Budget dilemmas

Contributor, ARR.News - 8 May 2025

Ken Grundy, Naracoorte. To suggest we have not sufficient money for the economy is like saying we cannot measure a piece of timber because we haven’t sufficient feet or inches. The economists, financial advisers and Treasurers all offer advice. Usually, the recommendations from one will be criticised by others.

Disturbance and fire risks: the science clearly shows logging and burning makes forests more flammable: David Lindenmayer, Philip Zylstra

Contributor, ARR.News - 15 April 2025

Professor David Lindenmayer AO and Associate-Professor Philip Zylstra. Dr Tony Bartlett's recent article contains serious flaws in logic and misrepresents scientific evidence. Understanding the empirical data is critical for safeguarding communities and preserving native species.

Research outputs – Talk about logging but don’t talk about national parks: SETA

Contributor, ARR.News - 1 April 2025

Peter Rutherford, SETA. It is difficult to know how to respond to Professor Lindenmayer’s most recent comments, when he continues to focus on areas subject to timber harvesting and appears to ignore the fact that 855,310 hectares of the iconic Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area was burnt by bushfires in 2019-20. This is over 16 per cent of the total area burnt in NSW in 2019-20.

David Lindenmayer fails to engage with real-world fire dynamics: Robert Onfray

Robert Onfray - 1 April 2025

Rather than engaging with the complexities of fire dynamics, Professor Lindenmayer relies on statistical modelling that confuses correlation with causation, ignores field-based studies that contradict his claims, and overgeneralises the impact of logging without considering key variables such as fuel management and fire suppression efforts.

Time for some fact checks on Pioneer article

Murray Pioneer - 26 March 2025

Jason Perrin. I refer to Andrew Weeks’ article in last week’s Murray Pioneer ... The article is negative, does a disservice to growers, and has glaring inaccuracies, and unless corrected, adds confusion to things we are lobbying for on behalf of growers.

Robert Onfray’s response misses core scientific realities – logging makes forests more flammable for many decades: David Lindenmayer

Contributor, ARR.News - 19 March 2025

Robert Onfray completely confuses fire intensity (the amount of heat generated) with fire severity (damage to vegetation and soil). He also misunderstands the difference between empirical studies (based on evidence and real-world data) and modelling (theoretical simulations). Additionally, he fails to understand the difference between a literature review and an empirical study.

SETA’s claims ignore established science and economic realities: David Lindenmayer

Contributor, ARR.News - 19 March 2025

SETA suggests that my research on the relationship between logging and fire is merely “opinion”. It is anything but ... SETA makes an absurd comparison between the flammability of national parks and state forests. The proper scientific comparison is between logged and unlogged state forests ...

Megafires thrive on high per hectare fine fuel loads across the forest landscape, regardless of land tenure: SETA’s further response to David Lindenmayer

Contributor, ARR.News - 11 March 2025

One of the key drivers of fire behaviour that Professor Lindenmayer seems to pay little attention to is the ground fine fuel load across the forest landscape. The key driver of fire intensity, with a given fuel moisture content, wind speed, air temperature and relative humidity, on the day, is fine fuels.

David Lindenmayer ignores core points and key questions: Robert Onfray’s further response

Robert Onfray - 4 March 2025

David Lindenmayer's response to my rebuttal still fails to address the core points I raised in my original blog and overlooks the straightforward questions I posed in my response to his critique ... If Professor Lindenmayer believes his theories reflect reality, he should test them in the field.

Fire severity is always greater in areas that have been logged: David Lindenmayer responds to Robert Onfray

Contributor, ARR.News - 20 February 2025

In a recent article in Australian Rural & Regional News, I highlighted the overwhelming body of scientific evidence showing that logging does indeed increase the risk of high-severity wildfire. Mr Onfray wants evidence of this effect of logging on wildfire – and there is plenty of it.

Bushfire risk and native forest logging: David Lindenmayer responds to South East Timber Association

Contributor, ARR.News - 20 February 2025

In response to the South East Timber Association’s (SETA) critique, I want to clarify the scientific evidence and address the inaccuracies in their claims. SETA disputes the well-documented link between logging and increased fire severity, but the scientific consensus is clear: logging fundamentally alters forests in ways that make them more flammable.

Mis-Bee-Haviour?

Murray Pioneer - 19 February 2025

Hugh Schuitemaker. A well-known Loxton man is the second Riverland beekeeper to recently claim his bees died due to poisoning by PIRSA. Loxton-based apiarist Ian Cass claims 12 of his beehives were killed due to adverse impacts from PIRSA’s spraying program, aimed at eradicating fruit fly from the Riverland.

Logging and bushfire risk: Robert Onfray responds to David Lindenmayer

Robert Onfray - 18 February 2025

Professor David Lindenmayer’s response fails to engage with the key points I raised. The core argument in my piece is that the peer-reviewed studies claiming logging increases fire severity often rely on unknown or poorly defined methodologies, selective data, weak correlations, or literature reviews rather than empirical fire behaviour analysis.

An alternative perspective to David Lindenmayer: South East Timber Association

Contributor, ARR.News - 14 February 2025

Members of the South East Timber Association respectfully disagree with many of the assertions made by David Lindenmayer and have a few observations and questions relating to Professor Lindenmayer’s opinion. Kosciuszko State Park was established in 1944. Areas of the original dedication, now in Kosciuszko National Park (KNP), were either never harvested or last harvested more than 80 years ago ...

Logging does indeed increase fire risks!: David Lindenmayer

Contributor, ARR.News - 12 February 2025

Professor Lindenmayer responds to Robert Onfray's article, "Debunking false claims about bushfire risk and native logging in Australia" by contending that logging does indeed increase the risk of high severity wildfires, and the evidence for this worrying narrative comes from work by many scientists across Australia and in fact around the world.

Time to turn Service WA into the Cloud Service WA

Trevor Whittington, CEO WAFarmers - 22 January 2025

Open letter to the Premier of WA. Dear Premier, I am writing to express a mixture of exasperation and incredulity at the state of Western Australia’s Department of Transport (DoT) vehicle registration and licensing system. It’s a system that forces citizens to reenact scenes from the 1985 film Brazil ...

Koala queries – DPIRD, Vic Jurskis, Deborah Tabart and the Australian Koala Foundation

The Editor - 20 August 2024

In view of the Australian Koala Foundation's march in Canberra planned for 1 September 2024, and its advocacy for a federal "Koala Protection Act", Australian Rural & Regional News felt it timely to ask some questions on koala matters and maybe even start up a useful, and very probably robust discussion ... ARR.News approached Dr Brad Law, Vic Jurskis and then Deborah Tabart OAM and the AKF for their response to questions ...

Health system must find more funding

Contributor, The Buloke Times - 26 July 2024

John Malham, patient. Recently I spent two weeks in a semi-major regional hospital that caters for its town population of twenty thousand and the surrounding areas 70 thousand population. I had no intention of writing this article but having witnessed the forceful nature of the hospital’s discharge team, I began taking notes and interviewing people involved in all aspects of the hospital’s running.

Enough is enough says Murrumbidgee Council Mayor

Narrandera Argus - 18 July 2024

Councillor Ruth McRae OAM, Murrumbidgee Council Mayor. Enough is enough...things you all should know. Crippling water buybacks will see many communities, currently with their back to the wall, disappear, and the shiny trinkets offered by the Federal Government as compensation are $300 million. The Federal Government plans to buy back up to 450GL of water which, at our estimates, will cost them $8 billion. No surprises, there is an undisclosed amount in the Federal Budget to buy water ...

Open letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese: NFF

Contributor, ARR.News - 22 May 2024

Last week, for the first time in 39 years, farmers from across Australia determined that they no longer have confidence in your government to represent their interests. This vote followed an unprecedented walk-out by farmers on your Agriculture Minister’s budget address. This is not how we usually operate at the National Farmers’ Federation ... But decision by decision, your government is pushing farmers away and eroding their trust. Frankly they’ve had enough.

Letter to The Riverine Grazier editor

Contributor, The Riverine Grazier - 10 April 2024

... Upon discovering the ovens on his property Mick Cattanach along with local Waradgery man, John ‘Gubba’ Woods decided to fence off approximately six acres of land to protect it from stock degradation and to make it a private reserve for the generations to come ... What happened next is an example of how everyday Australians can voluntarily help the ‘Close the Gap’ initiative with practical and sustainable outcomes, with the use of volunteer labour.

Letter from a sheep farmer to Senator Ghosh

Trevor Whittington, CEO WAFarmers - 20 March 2024

Hugo Bombora. Dear Senator Varun Ghosh, Congratulations on your recent appointment to the Australian Senate. Nice to bump into you at a wedding last Saturday night. Thanks for the insightful questions. As acknowledged, it’s hard to put together one’s thoughts with Taylor Swift playing in the background. But as promised, here they are via email.

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