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Spring 2011 Newsletter

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Spring 2011 Newsletter BUSH HERITAGE Thank you for 20 years of conservation Special edition Spring 2011 www.bushheritage.org.au Bob Brown Founder of Bush Heritage Australia Bob Brown at Oura Oura Photograph by Peter Morris I walked through a gully dense with Thanks to you, Bush Heritage has “I’ve supported Bush rainforest and carpeted by ferns. weathered the seasons along the Heritage for 20 years” A small creek bubbled away nearby. road to today, our 20th anniversary. I found some hand-worked shards of I’d like to invite you to celebrate your stone – a reminder of the Aboriginal part in those 20 years. In this newsletter, “I was walking in Tasmania’s Liffey Valley people who’d been going there for you’ll see stories of others who love our on a sunny day in 1990 when I made a thousands of years, to enjoy the morning bush just like you do.” decision that began the journey we now sun. I felt a connection with humanity that know as Bush Heritage Australia. stretched back to generations past, and “These are your stories – forward to generations yet to come. I often walked in the bush to collect my I couldn’t stand by and watch that spirit the stories of our bush, thoughts – I still do. On that day, I was die. With encouragement and support walking high above two beautiful bush our creatures and our people, from a group of like-minded friends, blocks that had come up for sale and I decided to go into debt to buy this from 20 years of conservation.” that logging companies were keen to natural part of the Australian bush. buy. I thought about what might happen Happy 20th anniversary, Bush Heritage if someone didn’t protect that land. It was the beginning of something very I imagined a scene of grey tree skeletons special, something that you, as a Bush and burning stumps. Heritage supporter, are now part of. “Supporting Bush Heritage is my way of helping to ensure that my grandchildren can enjoy the natural environment of Australia, its fauna and flora, as I have come to love it.” Margrit Lack, Friend of the Bush Coochiemudlo Island, Queensland Alistair Dermer Thanks to Margrit and all our wonderful supporters who filled out our survey in July and shared Reserve Manager their stories of the Australian bush. Read more of your stories at: I imagined an old Aboriginal man, his spirit www.bushheritage.org.au/ “I’ve supported Bush watching me, a custodian of the land. supporter-survey.html Heritage for 8 years” My life with Bush Heritage has taken me to many places and recently it has brought us back to Ethabuka, after five “I still remember the day I first arrived years away. Now we are a family of five. at Ethabuka Reserve with my wife Karen The kids understand what we are there in 2004. We rolled up in our ute and all for – they know Mum and Dad are looking around us we could see the sparse and after the plants and animals. Asha learnt stunted spinifex, the coolabah trees, to walk in the desert sands of Ethabuka standing with their roots exposed a foot and now our youngest, Zavier, is taking his above the earth, where the grazing, the first steps with his toes in the red dust too. wind and the rain had eroded the soil. Now we look around us at Ethabuka and We felt a huge sense of responsibility the coolabahs are healthier. The land has – we were the first reserve managers at seen rain recently, but when the drought Ethabuka and it was by far the largest comes, as it always does in the Simpson property we had ever owned – but also Desert, it will be more resilient. There are a huge sense of possibility. That was honeysuckle in flower and other grevillia. a big step for Bush Heritage. We used to get excited when we saw a few flowering shrubs at Ethabuka but now I’ve always had a connection with the land, there are so many of them they overtake but at Ethabuka, the land become our life. the track. The spinifex seedheads are so Our first daughter, Asha, was born while tall in places, that they’re higher than the we were there. She spent the first year of roof of the car.” her life absorbing the spirit of Ethabuka. The energy of the desert is with you, all Ethabuka Reserve was acquired in 2004 with the Top: Alistair Dermer at Ethabuka around you. Often at night, under the stars, assistance of the Australian Government’s National Photograph by Karen Dermer I felt a presence around me, of the people Reserve System program, The Nature Conservancy Above: Coolabahs at Ethabuka Reserve that had cared for this land before me. and Diversicon Environmental Foundation. Bush Heritage Australia www.bushheritage.org.au Design by Icon.Inc ABN 78 053 639 115 [email protected] This publication uses 100% post-consumer Registered office Postal address waste recycled fibre, made with a carbon Level 5, 395 Collins Street PO Box 329 Flinders Lane neutral manufacturing process, using Melbourne VIC 3000 Melbourne VIC 8009 vegetable-based inks. (03) 8610 9100 or 1300 628 873 Follow Bush Heritage on: 2 Bush Heritage News | Spring 2011 Ellie Sobey Volunteer at Scottsdale was perched nearby, keeping guard, as “I’ve supported the female flew back and forth to the nest. Bush Heritage for Scottsdale is home to a lot of threatened two-and-a-half years” species. Near the old shearing shed you can see small flocks of diamond firetails and hear the calls of stubble quail. “When I was little, my mum gave me It makes you realise the potential of the a Bush Heritage t-shirt but it wasn’t place. In the early mornings, a rolling mist until I grew older that I came to know can settle on the valley floor. If you’re up what it meant. high, all you can see are the mountain Top: Ellie Sobey at Scottsdale peaks, the drifting clouds and the slanted, Photograph by Matthew Hollingworth The conservation ethos was threaded windswept trees. through my family, so when I was Above: Hooded robin looking for a practical way to put my Photograph by Jiri Lochman environmental science studies to use, “I’ll be celebrating the 20th / Lochman Transparencies Bush Heritage was a natural fit. anniversary by getting out When I first saw Scottsdale Reserve, there and enjoying it.” I thought Bush Heritage really had their work cut out for them. The valley floor was It’s fantastic to return to Scottsdale and dominated by weeds and where rabbits see new vegetation beginning to grow had dug their warrens, the ground looked over the warrens I worked on last year. like a moonscape. It’s the reason I choose Bush Heritage I mapped the locations of rabbit warrens to volunteer for – I know the hours I put on Scottsdale’s upper slopes. This in are backed up by a strategic, scientific involved covering every square metre on approach. I’m proud to say that in the last Douglas Broughton foot to find and plot all the warrens using year, rabbit numbers have dropped by 80 Friend of the Bush a GPS – so that others could come back per cent, especially since rabbit numbers later and treat them. You have to work very elsewhere in Australia are exploding as a “Medicine usually comes in slowly, so you see some amazing things. result of the recent wet years. That keeps a bottle, but medicine to me One particular day I was working along a me motivated to get out to the reserves is the lovely Australian bush.” creekline and noticed a hooded robin again and continue to contribute – building a nest. I stopped and watched I’ll be celebrating the 20th anniversary White Beach, Tasmania through my binoculars. The male robin by getting out there and enjoying it.” Bush Heritage News | Spring 2011 3 Right: Sylvester on Wunambal Gaambera country Photograph by Peter Morris Below: Photograph by Annette Ruzicka Sylvester Mangolomara Partner We approached Bush Heritage five years “I’ve supported Bush ago because we wanted someone to listen to what we wanted, and to make Heritage for 5 years” other people realise how much this country means to us. We wanted someone to help us to take care of our “I learned about my country from my land, so together we made a ten-year grandfather, my father and my aunties. Healthy Country Plan. They taught me and my brothers and We’ve now got native title over more sisters about dreaming and hunting than 26 000-square kilometres and and burning the land to keep it healthy. an Indigenous Protected Area of over My grandfather Wilfred Goonack was 340 000 hectares of beautiful beaches our strictest teacher. He used to give and gumtree country. Now our special me a jab in the guts with his stick and dreaming places are just for conservation. say, “You wanna listen while I’m telling Hopefully once we’re fully set up here, you this story”. our people will start to come back to their homeland. “We don’t want any of these These days I show young rangers from things to leave us, because the area how to look after their country. Elisabeth Buckley otherwise we’re lost.” I tell them the stories and teach them Friend of the Bush how to approach the rock art and the burial sites. I got hooked on the stories “As a child living in suburban My people are from Mitchell Plateau, my grandfather taught me, so I decided Melbourne I was delighted in trips to and my brothers and sisters still live this was what I wanted to do.
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