Newsletter – Spring 2020 CLARENCE ENVIRONMENT CENTRE 87-89 Skinner St, South Grafton 2460 Phone / Fax 66 43 4611 Email: [email protected] Website www.cec.org.au Edited by John Edwards What is Swamp Sclerophyll Forest?

One very recognisable floodplain forest community, commonly referred to as Paperbark Swamp, is more scientifically known as Swamp Sclerophyll Forest.

Since European settlement, this community has been decimated, much of it was drained for agriculture, particularly sugar cane in this region, and for urban expansion. As a result it has been listed as endangered, and given the complicated title of “Swamp Sclerophyll Forest on Coastal Floodplains of the NSW North Coast, Basin and South East Corner bioregions”.

That complication does not stop with the name. The term “floodplain” adds another layer of confusion by bringing in the question of what constitutes a floodplain. For example, in making its determination of the endangered status, the NSW Scientific Committee describes the endangered community as occurring on “peripheral parts of floodplains on soils that are usually waterlogged, stained black or dark grey with humus, and show little influence of saline ground water”, specifically, “where they adjoin lithic substrates or coastal sandplains”.

This specific wording means that significant areas of Swamp Sclerophyll forest that occur on ‘coastal sandplains’, such as West Yamba, are not considered to be that endangered community.

Floristically identical paperbark forests also occur in swamps that are fed from seepage areas, or soaks, which are associated with Kangaroo Creek Sandstone outcrops in the valley. These are similarly excluded from the protection provided to true floodplain communities, even though they are often permanently wet, or regularly subjected to flooding.

Some good news though for the latter, with the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust recognising the significance of these sandstone swamp communities by funding a three year program to eliminate weeds, mainly Lantana and Camphor Laurel, from two wetland areas south of Grafton.

The first year's work has seen primary weed eradication work undertaken by our experienced bush regeneration team across both sites, with plots being monitored by volunteers to measure the recovery of biodiversity following the Lantana removal. The funding will allow us to undertake follow-up works and extension of weed free buffer zones to ensure full recovery of these rare ecological communities into the future.

More news from our bush regen team

For the past 3 years, our bush regeneration team has been working under contract to the Department of Planning Industry and Environment (that's what successive coalition governments have reduced our Environment Department to), under their Saving our Species (SOS) program. Specifically, we have been removing weeds from around populations the endangered Bush Sauropus at Trenayr and Shannon Creek.

Then 2 years ago, we obtained a 5-year grant from the Biodiversity Conservation Trust to protect dry rainforest remnants at Chambigne and Shannon Creek, which is also linked to SOS, so to let you know more about what that program is all about, here is the latest SOS blurb.

Saving our Species takes the best practice approach in conservation science activities, with 400+ on- ground projects.

Over 80 staff across the state use their expertise in botany, zoology, and ecology to support more than 300 threatened species. Additional staff in the SoS Development team bring innovative new approaches to large- scale conservation across the state.

In 2019-20, we published about 30 scientific papers, supported over 20 external research projects and partnered with 22 university and lab-based researchers - all with the goal of securing a future for threatened species in NSW.

This month, you can explore the various ways you can do your bit for threatened NSW species by taking a tour of our new Citizen Science Hub, find out about how science and technology are helping to conserve a critically endangered turtle and listen to our new SoS podcast, which delves into the business of biodiversity.

* * * Koala protection becomes political How can that possibly be?

In mid-October, I received an email with the attention-grabbing opening line: “The future of koalas is being decided NOW”. The author of that line, Dailan Pugh OAM, spokesperson for the North East Forests Alliance, was referring to the political 'spat' sparked by our own state government representative, Chris Gulaptis. Incredibly, he threatened to plunge the coalition government into crisis by quitting over proposed legislation to protect Australia's koalas. Other National Party members vowed to follow his lead, while their leader, John Barralaro has referred to Koalas as “tree rats”, effectively relegating them to the status of vermin: So what is this about?

The legislation in question involves changes to the 20-year-old State Environmental Planning Policy 44 (SEPP 44), where large numbers of tree species have been added to the description of what constitutes core koala habitat.

Since its inception, the SEPP has been roundly criticised for its overly simplistic and narrow definition of core habitat. It has never properly protected koalas, and their numbers were already in free-fall even before last year's bushfires decimated populations across the state. Therefore, if Koalas are to survive in Australia, the strengthening of legislation to protect their habitat is imperative. So why the political furore? Surely nobody wants koalas to disappear from the landscape. The problem stems from the fact that Koalas prefer drier sclerophyll forests, relatively little of which is protected in National Parks or areas protected from logging in state forests which are more focussed on rainforests. So, the vast majority of the remaining koala habitat lies in state forests and privately owned land, and farmers and loggers are up in arms because the government has dared to place some restrictions on what they see as their inalienable right to chop down or bulldoze whatever they want. That doctrine has always been supported by the National Party, hence the current stand.

The SEPP 44 changes should have happened years ago, and finally the NSW Government has acted, so Mr Gullaptis' suggestion that the changes are "a knee-jerk reaction”, is ridiculous.

I believe an overwhelming number of country NSW residents would prefer less land clearing, and certainly an extremely high proportion of them want koalas to thrive. Therefore, Mr Gulaptis was way off the mark when announcing that, by taking the stand against koala protection, he was representing his community.

There was an initial standoff between the Liberals and Nationals over the issue, but unfortunately the former finally caved in to the Nationals' demands, and not only have farmers been excluded from any legal requirement to protect Koala habitat, the Local Land Services Amendment (Miscellaneous) Bill 2020, has since been passed through the NSW lower house. That Bill allows farmers to clear land for a whole range of purposes, over and above those RAMAs (routine agricultural management actions) that already 6th November, protest action outside Gulaptis' office exist, all without seeking approval, and private native logging licences have been extended from 15 years to 30 years. So much for the Environment Minister's promise to double the number of Koalas in NSW by 2050.

The whole disaster led to a series of protest actions across the state on 6th November, one of which was held outside Mr Gulaptis' office, but the little weasel wasn't there – surprise, surprise!

* * *

Upper House Inquiry into the building of new dams

In response to the Covid 19 pandemic, governments across Australia have been working on packages to stimulate the economy. One proposal that has gained some traction, claims to provide the economic stimulus, and at the same time solve Australia's water problems – build more dams!

As a three word slogan, our pollies love three word slogans, it's bound to strike a chord with many, but in reality the idea falls in a heap with the realisation that building dams is one thing, filling them is something else again. The northwest slopes of NSW are dotted with mega-dams, the result of past ill-considered knee-jerk solutions. Keepit, Glen Lyon, and Copeton, to name a few. All those dams spend decades at a time with barely any water in them through lack of rain, mere 'puddles' surrounded by tens of thousands of hectares of weed-infested wastelands rather than stored water. Despite this, every decade or so one government or another will seek to make political mileage by announcing a scheme that will ensure out-back NSW will be drought-proofed as a result. The Mole River dam scheme south of Tenterfield, is one of those proposed under a $1 billion agreement between the State and Federal Governments, starting with a proposed $24m expenditure on a “Final Business Case” for building a dam there. One would think that $100,000 to prepare a business case would be inordinately expensive; what they would get for $24m is hard to imagine. Perhaps that is what it would take to find a consulting firm that is prepared to put together a dodgy business case that supports the government's agenda.

Water NSW has prepared a fact sheet, which is Key benefits suitably non-specific, claiming the dam would deliver between 100Gl and 200Gl at an • Enables sustained on-farm productivity as a result of more reliable and secure water supply estimated cost of $355m. Of course, they claim the usual benefits (see at right): • Increases reliability for agricultural production and will help secure existing About ten years ago, we were told by jobs and create new opportunities

Tenterfield Council, that any water from the • Improves security of town water supply and Mole will likely be unfit for human provides flood mitigation consumption, because of pollution from an • Supports the downstream Barwon-Darling historic arsenic mine. system through increased flow reliability and associated environmental health outcomes The arguments used to support its building are questionable, and the final 3 words hidden in the 2nd dot point, “create new opportunities”, will ensure that any extra stored water will simply be gobbled up by commercial interests.

Water is not an unlimited resource. No matter how many dams are built, it will not increase the amount of water, they merely reduce the amount of water flowing naturally down river systems, and instead make that water available for other purposes.

As world populations explode, water has become a scarcer, and more valuable commodity, and in an age where economic considerations exceed all else (aka greed), water has become tradeable, and is fast becoming un-affordable as wealthy entities, very often non-users, buy up licences and water rights to sell at a profit.

Weak regulations, and even weaker compliance monitoring and enforcement have added to Australia's water woes, and in NSW this has led to water theft, in a variety of forms, and even corruption. This is particularly so in the Murray – Darling Basin, which is always the focus of water infrastructure provision in this state.

However, behind all of these grandiose, taxpayer funded schemes, there are invariably those that stand to make a great deal of money.

As far as the Murray-Darling Basin is concerned, it needs to be understood that no matter how much water is made available, current economic drivers will ensure that no additional water will end up as environmental flow, or even reach the mouth of the river. We desperately need change, so perhaps we can take heart from some of the following statements that have been made by people of stature over the past 25 years:

• “It is apparent that any proposal to divert substantial quantities of water from the Clarence would present significant risks to the health of riverine ecosystems, and those activities and values dependent on them. (Commissioner Peter J. Crawford, Healthy Rivers Commission: Final Report, November 1999 (page 156)).

• It is important to note that freshwater flows through catchments or into the ocean are not wasted. It is an essential element of downstream ecosystems.” (The Hon Malcolm Turnbull, as Minister for the Environment and Water resources, 2007).

• "...we move beyond last century's solutions. Building a dam... would be an expensive, ineffective response - it would take years to build and even longer to fill, not to mention the damage done to the surrounding farmland and natural areas.” (Premier of NSW, the Hon. Bob Carr. 1999).

• “In environmental terms, the no dam option would be highly desirable and beneficial” (Recommendation of the World Commission on Dams)

* * * Report on Clarence Catchment Alliance (CCA) (The Alliance is a sub-committee of the Clarence Environment Centre Inc).

Recent CCA meetings have been held at the Lawrence Hall, the October gathering an informal affair in the Hall grounds to comply with Covid 19 regulations, the November meeting a more structured meeting facilitated by ex-Lismore Councillor and Lock the Gate Simon Clough. The convener has been Shae Flemming, who has been one of our team of volunteer campaigners since this mining exploration matter raised its ugly head two and a half years ago. A schoolteacher in Sydney, Shae is currently taking a sabbatical, and shows no sign of wishing to return to the city. She is passionate about stopping mining in the Clarence Valley hinterland, so proving to be a great asset.

One of those you addressed the earlier gathering was Terry Robertson from the Baryugil area, and associated with the West Bundjalung Land Council His country lies pretty much in the centre of the area Shae Flemming being targeted by the exploration companies.

Currently those companies are Castillo Copper at Cangai, the company the CEC reported for breaching the licence conditions, causing those licences to be suspended at a reported cost to them, in penalties and clean-up, amounting to some $240k. They have been very quiet recently and appear to be focusing on a Queensland venture. However, an old grazier friend of mine told me the guy who owned the Cangai Mine property has sold out. He was unsure who the new owner was, but assumed it to be a mining company.

Then there is Corazon Mining, drilling about in an area west of Copmanhurst and Mount Gilmore near the Clarence River Gorge. A recently released statement by Terry Robertson that company has sparked concerns, a 22 page 'glossy', clearly designed to impress investors, the quoted $0.003/share price also attractive to speculators.

The fact that the company claims to have purchased a property, and to have a signed “Native Title Access Agreement” (see screen-shot of page 4 below), gives a clear impression that they have the local Land Council on board.

Page 4 of the Corazon Mining Report Terry is, to quote his words, “pretty pissed-off” to read on Facebook that the Land Council has signed off on Corazon's exploration plans, and says he knew nothing of such a document. At the same time, he made it clear that the Land Council has no say on what private landowners do on their own properties.

I have to say I'm not clear as to what is going on here, and obviously that was the case with Terry himself, and also Al Oshlack, who has worked as legal adviser to indigenous groups for years. He had contacted the CCA, and was invited to attend the meeting, and has promised to get to the bottom of it.

Another claim made by Corazon on page 4, is that they have: “A co-funding agreement with the NSW Government”. It seems to me that the use of the phrase “co-funding agreement”, is cheeky to say the least. That comment is subtended by a bracketed explanation that it refers to a “Cooperative Drilling Grant”. I looked into that process, and I could be wrong, but those grants appear to be from money made available by State Government to encourage exploration, for which minerals exploration companies can apply. A little like the Small Business Equipment Grants, which the CEC has received funding through in the past. Either way, these claims have stirred up and a lot of interest and a lot of people have joined the CCA on-line as a result.

A third active minerals explorer, Sons of Bavaria, is trying to gain a foothold in the Ewingar area. They are calling themselves “green miners”, and gossip has it they are talking about an underground operation that will have minimal environmental impact. However, as they have yet to do any exploration, talk of mining seems very premature. Clearly, they want to nullify any talk of potential pollution of the nearby Clarence River and its tributaries.

Both Corazon and Sons of Bavaria are pushing the whole “green-wash agenda”, the need for copper, cobalt etc to power a world of electric vehicles. Therefore if we are to launch any sort of campaign, we will have to focus on what we see as natural landscape and ecological values that make any sort of mining, by an industry renowned for environmental disasters, just too risky.

Finally, two new exploration licence applications have been lodged by a company called CHRISTOPHER WILSON INVESTMENTS PTY LTD, ACN: 108968314. An article published in the Daily Telegraph on the 4 September, alerted us to these proposals. One of the exploration areas is small, situated only 25km south west of Grafton near Doboy. Frankly, it’s hard to get excited about that area, even though it is relatively close to the lower Nymboida River, as an open cut mine couldn't do much more damage than the locals have done, through grazing, logging and burning, since their forebears arrived 180 years ago.

The second however, is something else again, a swathe of country from the Nymboi Binderay National Park in the west, through Wild Cattle Creek and Twelve Sixty areas to Nana Glen, Glenreagh to Sherwood Nature Reserve.

The image at left is all we have at the moment but plotting the two latitude – longitude figures provided, shows the western extremity of that lease lying along the boundary of the Nymboi Binderay National Park, stretching to Sherwood Nature reserve in the east. The western section of the lease lies across mountainous country, lying directly between the Nymboida and Little Nymboida Rivers, the two waterways that deliver all water to the Nymboida Weir, the source of all drinking water for people living in the Coffs Clarence region. Any sort of mining accident there could have catastrophic impacts on that supply source

* * * Why does Council appear so unconcerned about its drinking water source?

Following on from the above story, and the CEC has written to Council asking why it is seemingly ambivalent about the security of the region’s water source, the Nymboida River catchment area. While it does undertake regular water quality testing at various sites in the catchment, Council appears blithely unconcerned about what is happening there. Mining is not the only threat to water quality. Climate Change of course, and the up surge in intensive horticulture, which is highly water intensive and dependent, is leading to widespread water theft, are also threats. Modern industrial style logging, and intensive clear-felling of pine plantations at Clouds Creek and elsewhere, are a constant threat through erosion which ads to turbidity levels in the river following heavy rain.

We first raised these issues in a submission several months earlier to Council's water Efficiency Strategy and Plan, in which only the delivery side of the water cycle is mentioned. The editor of the “Independent” picked up on Council’s response to those concerns, which basically was “not our problem”, it is a state government responsibility, and published an opinion piece on the matter on 30th September 2020.

We followed that up with a letter to Council's General Manager, on 2nd October, expressing concern over Council's lack of action to protect the region's water quality, bearing in mind Grafton has no filtration plant, asking the General Manager if Council had any policy in regards to all of the identified threats, real and potential. Of course, our main focus was the mining threat, stating:

“We do not wish to divert from the issue of greatest concern, and that is the current minerals exploration that has been on-going for the past decade at least on the Dorrigo Plateau. This has been brought into focus by the latest minerals’ exploration licence application by Christopher Wilson Investments, involving two mining leases, totalling a massive 198 sq kms, one of which lies across the regional water supply catchment.

“We understand that Council only learned of this licence application through Facebook, and that certain council officers are exceptionally concerned that the council was not officially consulted. Therefore, I was somewhat surprised to see your reported claim that the issue of the potential impacts of mining had not been raised with you.

As we see it, the mining leases need to be re-mapped across the whole of Australia to identify sensitive areas, drinking water catchments, heritage sites, and places of environmental and social significance, where mining simply should not occur, and declare them off-limits.

Therefore can you, inform us as to Council's policy, if any, in regard to these potential threats, and could the issue be raised within Council with a view to eliminating those threats?”

So far, 6 weeks later, we have yet to receive a response, but we will be keeping on the case.

* * * However, there are so many other matters that Council is trying hard to ignore. Climate change, through warming and increased evaporation for example, has the potential to significantly reduce the amount of available water, but again potential reductions to the supply of water are not considered. We have learned through recent EPA investigations of the blueberry and horticulture industry, that water theft is rife, with 38 out of 41 properties investigated, found to be non- compliant with water laws. The industry is building dams on every available 1st and 2nd order stream, to the point where 3rd order streams are starved of in-flows altogether. All this results in less water flowing into the river systems, but Council refuses to require intensive horticulture to submit a DA or a water management plan.

* * * To lighten the mood! Obviously, someone in Covid isolation has too much time on their hands, and has rearranged the following anagrams!

PRESBYTERIAN: when rearranged, reads: BEST IN PRAYER; ASTRONOMER = MOON STARER DESPERATION = A ROPE ENDS IT - THE EYES = THEY SEE - GEORGE BUSH = HE BUGS GORE THE MORSE CODE = HERE COME DOTS – DORMITORY = DIRTY ROOM SLOT MACHINES = CASH LOST IN ME – ANIMOSITY = IS NO AMITY ELECTION RESULTS = LIES - LET'S RECOUNT - SNOOZE ALARMS = ALAS! NO MORE Z'S A DECIMAL POINT = I'M A DOT IN PLACE - THE EARTHQUAKES = THAT QUEER SHAKE ELEVEN PLUS TWO = TWELVE PLUS ONE - MOTHER-IN-LAW = WOMAN HITLER

Adam Marshal's response to CEC's report of land-clearing on Clarence Way

Who's Adam Marshall, I hear you ask? Well he apparently is the NSW Minister for Agriculture and Western , Member of the Legislative Assembly, Member for , and a member of The Nationals. I suppose that would explain the wording of the response we received in relation to our complaint about the dreadful case of land-clearing on Clarence Way, which was reported in the last newsletter. C Clarence Way under-scrubbing

How about that? How dare I report possible illegal land clearing without first fronting the land- owner! If a government inspector can be murdered for investigating illegal clearing, I wouldn't advise anyone to engage with landowners in those situations. The rest of the letter was taken up by explaining the current law, a complete waste of time, as our letter was trying to explain why those very laws were failing to protect vital biodiversity, and in this case, Koala habitat.

I did respond to the letter pointing out that members of the public are encouraged to report cases of suspected illegal clearing, or any other illegal act for that matter, to the relevant authorities. The fact that this clearing had actually been approved is something we had requested an explanation about, and still haven’t received an acceptable explanation. Some Local Land Services personnel appear equally perplexed. First we were told it was done to increase grazing, but this is a small property that can carry less than 10 bullocks even if cleared entirely. Then we were told it was some sort of bushfire hazard reduction effort, but the house has at least a hundred metres of cleared land around it and the reported underscrubbing is nowhere near it. In short, there is no way to justify it.

By the way, Marshall has an office at Moree, and it only took him, or his staff, 10 weeks to respond.

* * *

LAND FOR WILDLIFE NEWS Clarence Valley Branch - to 30 Nov 2020 (by Pat)

Last quarter I mentioned that a number of properties were already on the books for the 2020-21 financial year. Others have since been added, and so we continue to grow. We officially welcome and congratulate these landowners for joining our expanding program across the Clarence Valley. No 126 (right) - Rod Sheppard's wet sclerophyll forest with warm temperate rainforest elements in the steep catchment abutting the Sherwood Creek Nature Reserve. Rod has removed large quantities of Lantana from the creek, which is showing a great recovery, with numerous small rainforest plants returning. This property is being considered for an in-perpetuity Conservation Agreement

No 127 (left) - Stephen Parry-Jones' & Jayne Bergiel's Wildlife Refuge registered property on Kangaroo Creek, Coutts Crossing, with varying riverine, wet and dry sclerophyll forests adds an important connective link to the Koukandowie Nature Reserve. In drought at the time of assessment the creek was still providing a stable permanent water source for wildlife among healthy riparian habitat. An ongoing Lantana monitoring and removal program by the landowners keeps the property clear of the weed.

No 128 (left) - Kent and Alicia Mayor's dry heath; swamplands, and wet and dry sclerophyll forests on the Chaffin Creek floodplain adds another important link to the Pillar Valley Land for Wildlife community. Generally the Valley survives each summer without escaped fires, so the properties remain refreshingly green and lush No 129 - Patrick Vacciano's Kerry Street sandstone property with its significant coastal cypress pine community and remnant riparian habitat at Maclean was selected specifically by Patrick with the security of flying-foxes in mind. Heartfelt thanks to Patrick for making this important purchase.

No 130 (right) - Like so many others Malcolm Legg's beautifully tended Jackybulbin Flat swamplands, coastal floodplain forest, moist gully veg and dry shrubby open forest adjoining the Bundjalung SCA, suffered badly in last year's bushfires with loss of many old growth hollow-bearing trees. Many others survived however and the place is making a good recovery. Mal and son Jason are working hard to replant and restore the most badly damaged parts of the property and are also considering an in-perpetuity conservation agreement (CA)

No 131 (left) - Gary & Heather Waddell's seasonal floodplain swamp forest and remnant woodland habitat in peri-urban Lawrence forms part of the extensive Little Broadwater/Everlasting Swamp system into Sportsman's Creek to the Clarence River. Although small it adds corridor linkage to Crown bushland and SCAs, and retains many original flora values that provide good refuge for wildlife displaced from urban development including koalas.

No 132 (below) - Peter & Belinda Le Breton's important largely intact shrubby wet sclerophyll with rainforest elements; occasionally inundated floodplains, and frequently moist transitional forest with heath type elements along Amos Creek, Pillar Valley, increases a broad-ranging habitat corridor to Yuraygir NP, and adds to the chain of many other Land for Wildlife properties across the local area. Lantana here is being regularly monitored and removed, while purposely planted Teda pines are also being systematically removed. Finally, a compliance blitz on blueberry farms exposes years of failure. But vested interests are fighting back.

The Clarence Environment Centre (CEC), among others, has long held concerns about the unregulated nature of farming operations in general, and the burgeoning intensive horticultural industry, particularly on the NSW north coast. In the past we have highlighted four main issues, land clearing, water use, plastic pollution and pesticide run-off. Now, trade unions are raising other concerns about the industry, including workplace safety and ill-treatment of workers.

As far back as 2007 the CEC began expressing concerns about practices being perpetrated by some intensive horticultural enterprises, and over the following 12 months wrote letters to The Environment Protection Authority, Water NSW, Local Land Services, Clarence Valley Council and various State Government Ministers. We begged those agencies to impose regulations that would require landowners to present a development application, which would include an environmental impact assessment and a water management plan, before operations could proceed. Illegal clearing at Halfway Creek in 2007, reported by the CEC

None of those agencies or departments supported the introduction of any such regulatory measures, although individuals within those agencies were happy to admit, unofficially, that there was a problem. The official reasons given included the nonsensical comment from the Minister for Primary Industry at the time, who stated he was not in favour of regulations, because their imposition “might encourage non-compliance”!

Eventually, the complaints from the public were so Subsequent heavy rain led to erosion of the loud and varied, that the government realised it had freshly cultivated land, causing major to act, to give the impression that it was doing pollution of Dundoo Creek something. This action came in the form of the Inter-agency Blueberry Advisory Committee, which was formed in about 2016.

By 2017 the committee had reported widespread illegal land-clearing, including repeat offenders, and the conclusion that “growers are prepared to pay fines as a business cost”. Complaints about water use, pesticide use and spray drift; poor worker accommodation and site safety, along with observations that erosion control was virtually non-existent, were also reported by the committee.

That committee was only able to support strategic planning and promote best practice, with no regulatory power to enforce it. That was apparently against government policy at the time, a fact supported by the Minister’s “regulation might encourage non-compliance” comment. Kororo, on the fringes of urban Coffs Harbour, with the Kororo Nature Reserve and Pacific Ocean as a backdrop. these eye-sores are popping up all along the of NSW.

In that same year, Water NSW, the then regulatory authority over water, was so determined that problems relating to water use by blueberry growers not be aired, that they employed a lawyer at tax-payers' expense to prevent the Clarence Environment Centre from giving evidence to a tribunal hearing over a water licence application.

It took a major exposé by the ABC's 4 Corners program in July 2017, to identify the extent of water theft, including the government's disbanding of an investigation team that dared report it. This hint of high-level corruption led in turn to an Upper House Inquiry and did result in a few fines being handed out to the occasional landholder for illegalities such as faulty or disconnected meters. Of course, metering of pumps is not generally required, particularly from farm dams, which can be large enough to hold the property's ‘harvestable rights’ amount.

This image near urban Sandy Beach, clearly illustrates the extent of the problem. There are close to 50 farm dams in this image, preventing water flow downstream except during flood events. These farm dams are often filled and emptied multiple times annually, thus taking far in-excess of the property's water entitlement. The proliferation of dams along virtually every available first and second order stream means third order streams cease to flow except during flood events, starving down-steam ecosystems of vital water flows.

In December 2016, the Clarence Environment Centre presented evidence of potential water theft to Water NSW's by way of' a graph from the department's own real time' water flow website. The site shows up to the minute water flows at gauges from all across NSW, and this graph shown below, was from the Bawden's Bridge gauge on the Lower Orara River.

The graph shows a dramatic saw-toothed flow line suggesting a regular 8 to 10Ml of water was being withdrawn daily. However, our request that Water NSW investigate was answered by the astounding claim that they were unaware of this massive withdrawal of water. Presumably, they were not even monitoring their own website.

Granted, there was no cease to pump declaration at the time, but there is only some 800Ml per year available for extraction under licence on the lower Orara, and we estimated that, over that summer alone, more than that 800Ml had been taken. Even more disappointing was their suggestion that if we knew of any illegal pumping, we could report it to them, and then they would investigate. How we were supposed to go about obtaining that evidence without trespassing was not explained.

In 2019-2020, responding to the deluge of complaints, Coffs Harbour City Council commissioned Southern Cross University to undertake a series of studies into water quality in local creeks. This move may also have been prompted by the Planning Department's reluctance to support council in their bid to introduce regulations through changes to their Local Environment Plan.

Ultimately the results, while concerning, really came as no surprise to those who have been observing what has been going on for years.

The reported findings highlighted the occurrence of exceptionally high nitrate and pesticide levels in the waterways tested. Those high levels, when trialled in laboratory experiments, showed they had a high potential to impact negatively on local fisheries.

Among other matters, researchers from the University's National Marine Science Centre “demonstrated that imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid insecticide, can impact the feeding behaviour of prawns in a laboratory environment, leading to nutritional deficiency and reduced flesh quality”. Not good news for the local fishing industry. Lead author and PhD candidate Peter Butcherine whose study focused on adult black tiger prawns, warned: "The sobering thing with this study is that it shows that the exposure of prawns to high concentrations of neonicotinoids can have such a significant impact, If they are not well managed, these chemicals have the potential to affect the productivity and sustainability of cultured and capture prawn fisheries."

As a result of mounting pressure, the Government was forced to Act, and in 2019 a 'crack-down' was announced.

Eighteen months later, 21st September 2020, the Sydney Morning Herald ran a story, quoting statistics from the Natural Resources Access Regulator, that vindicated all claims that had been made by the Environment Centre's over the past 12 years. Out of the 31 farms inspected around the Coffs Harbour region during the first two stages of the clampdown, 28 of them were alleged to be non-compliant with water laws.

The problems didn't end there. In September 2020, the Australian Workers Union alleged workers were subjected to unacceptable accommodation and working conditions. Berries Australia vigorously rejected the accusations and claimed the union was making “unsubstantiated accusations”. However, with these very findings being recorded by the Inter-agency Blueberry Advisory Committee as early as 2017, those protestations have a hollow ring.

The local newspaper also came in for a roasting by Berries Australia, who accused it of conducting a 'relentlessly negative narrative' about the berry industry. But the complaints and the evidence keep mounting, so with nothing positive to report, negativity is all there is left to report on.

It is possible that the writing was on the wall much earlier as far as the intensive horticultural sector was concerned, and almost predictably the retiring National Party member for Coffs Harbour, Andrew Frazer, was replaced by Gurmesh Singh, an ex-blueberry grower at the 2020 election.

Then on 20th September 2020 the Sydney Morning Herald broke another story claiming: “The NSW Nationals have been accused of branch-stacking and then dissolving a rural branch after members raised questions about the preselection process of a state MP. The MP, Gurmesh Singh, was selected at a November 2018 meeting for the seat of Coffs Harbour. But office holders of one of the seat's two branches raised doubts about the voting process and his eligibility”.

In mid September 2020, Mr Singh was at the forefront of a National Party campaign to remove legislation aimed at protecting koalas which is reported on earlier on in this newsletter, legislation that would have forced some regulation of the blueberry industry.

It is clear that the blueberry saga is far from over, and with Covid 19 introducing a real crisis level shortage of backpackers to harvest their fruit, the final outcome of that will still have to play out.

However, there are looming peripheral issues, one being plastic pollution. The industry is highly plastics dependent and every hectare is layered with about 4km of 1.5 metre wide plastic sheeting, 4km of 2m wide weed matting, 4km of plastic drip hose, 10 thousand sq metres of netting or plastic igloos, and around 1,500 plastic pots every five years when the plants need replacing. Then there are plastic ropes, propagation trays, tubes and pipe fittings, not to mention the millions of throw- away plastic punnets, and trays that pass through supermarkets.

We have already reported on the emerging emergency with the largest blueberry operation in the district, which has seemingly run into trouble after ‘ramping up and covering over 200 hectares, of a planned 800ha, with plastic sheeting and irrigation pipe. Work stopped on that project almost 2 years ago. Right now, there are cattle grazing the weed infested landscape, their hooves tearing the plastic which is already almost invisible under the mess of weeds (see left). How are we expected to deal with this horror in the future? There is no bond system in place to ensure the land can be rehabilitated in the event of market failure.

A very small intensive orchard, a mere 3 hectares at Pillar Valley, gives us a glimpse into the future (see image below

We don't know how this mess was eventually disposed of. Certainly, it would likely be an expensive and time-consuming exercise. It could still be there, or more likely burned, but imagine what it will entail to clean up 200 hectares.

Stacks of plastic sheet and piping, ripped up and awaiting disposal, a glimpse of the ticking time bomb that awaits us in the future

Yes, the industry must be regulated. The tragedy is we have already wasted more than a decade through political and bureaucratic procrastination, and still we wait.