NSW WILDERNESS RED INDEX
Published by the Colong Foundation for Wilderness Ltd
(September 1999)
2/332 Pitt Street Sydney NSW 2000 ph 02 9261 2400; fax 02 9261 2144
email keith@colongwilderness.org.au web site
colongwilderness.org.au
| NAME: | New England |
| NOMINATED BY: | The Wilderness Society, Armidale Branch on 6 February 1992. Addition nominated by Colong Foundation, Confederation of Bushwalking Clubs and TWS 23/10/96 |
| LOCATION: | 75 km east of Armidale and 65 km south west of Coffs Harbour. |
| SIZE: | 65,591 ha (nominated) 59,605 ha (identified) 408 ha (1996 nomination under assessment) 65,999 ha (total of 1992 and 1996 nominations) |
| TENURE: | Nominated Identified NPWS Estate (Oct. 1993) New England National Park 29,596 ha 29,962 ha New NPWS estate (Oct. 93 - Sept. 99) Former State Forest 27,911 ha 25,903 ha Former State Forest (1996 nom.) 315 ha under assessment Former freehold land 123 ha 123 ha Other Tenure State Forest 3,784 ha 1,401 ha State Forest (1996 nom.) 93 ha under assessment Vacant and Reserved Crown Land 73 ha 52 ha Crown Leasehold land 244 ha 48 ha Freehold land 3,860 ha 2,116 ha |
Wilderness Declared:
New England National Park;
| Size: | 50,600 |
| Percentage of 1992 and 1996 nominations: | 77% |
Wilderness Not Declared:
New England National Park;
| Size: | 5,595 ha |
| Percentage of 1992 and 1996 nominations: | 8% |
Cunnawarra National Park;
| Size: | 1,750 ha |
| Percentage of 1992 and 1996 nominations: | 3% |
State Forests;
| Size: | 3,877 ha |
| Percentage of 1992 and 1996 nominations: | 6% |
Vacant and Reserved Crown land;
| Size: | 73 ha |
| Percentage of 1992 and 1996 nominations: | <1% |
Crown Leasehold land;
| Size: | 244 ha |
| Percentage of 1992 and 1996 nominations: | <1% |
Freehold land;
| Size: | 3,860 ha |
| Percentage of 1992 and 1996 nominations: | 6% |
DESCRIPTION:
Located on the abrupt escarpment edge east of the undulating plateau of the New England Tableland, the wilderness consists of impressive cliffs, rugged ridges, spurs and streams. The streams converge on two major river valleys; the Bellinger and the Macleay. The bulk of the wilderness is composed of tightly folded Palaeozoic sedimentary and metamorphic rocks - slate, phyllite and Greywacke. On the plateau, these are overlain by an extensive sheet of tertiary volcanics - basalt, trachyte and tuff .
The altitudinal range of over 1,450m, from the peaks of the escarpment rim to the Macleay and Bellinger Rivers, is only surpassed in NSW by Kosciusko National Park.
The topographic, altitudinal and geological diversity is reflected in the vegetation of the wilderness. New England National Park is known to contain over 500 plant species distributed among eleven main vegetation types The most widespread and abundant communities are the interknitted rainforest and wet sclerophyll forests. Sub-tropical rainforest occupies the valley gullies above 1,000m. These grade into cool temperate rainforests of Southern Beech (Nothofagus moorei) at about 1,200m on the escarpment. Occupying the complex of ridges below, and in places traversing, the escarpment are wet sclerophyll forests. There is a demarcation of species composition at about 1,200m. The lower forest is dominated by taller eucalypt species while the upper is dominated by cold adapted species. Other plant communities have a more limited distribution in the wilderness, related to soil type, topography and climate. These include dry sclerophyll forest, sub-alpine woodland, heathland, mallee and sedgeland.
Twelve plant species found in the area have been classified as rare and two are vulnerable. Rare plants found in the area include: the mountain laurel (Cryptocarya nova-anglica), mountain shield fern (Lastreopsis silvestris), New England astelia (Neoastelia spectabilis), an orchid (Schistotylus purpuratus), mountain angelica (Gingidia montana), (Acacia tesselata) and the eyebright (Euphrasia ramulosa). The heath at Barren Mountain, within the nomination, contains two rare species, Barren Mountain paperbark (Melaleuca tortifolia) and Barren Mountain mallee (Eucalyptus approximans), which are known only from this site. The tallest known specimen of Hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii), at 62 metres tall, is found within the wilderness area, in the former Nulla-Five Day State Forest (added to New England National Park in 1996).
The wilderness is part of a broad, virtually unbroken belt of mostly undisturbed forested land extending north to south along the eastern escarpment and plateau margins from north of Dorrigo, through national parks and state forests to the Hastings Valley. Together with the Macleay Gorges and Werrikimbe wilderness areas, it forms one of the largest significant refuges for forest dependent fauna in the north-east part of the state.
The area contains rich fauna communities. With its largely undisturbed forests, the area supports many species of arboreal mammals, while 113 birds have been so far recorded from the area, including 24 of the 36 rainforest-dependent species found in NSW. The area is a stronghold for the Sphagnum Frog (Philoria sphagnicolus), known only from a small number of sites in NSW.
Sixteen animal species listed as threatened in the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 are found in the area. These include eight marsupials, three bats, four birds, and one amphibian. Several more threatened species are expected to be found within the area, including the Hastings River Mouse, considered to be in imminent danger of extinction, the Eastern Bristlebird, three bats, four frogs and two reptiles.
The New England Wilderness includes one identified wild and scenic river system - the upper reaches of the Bellinger River.
LAND USE HISTORY:
| Aboriginal | The wilderness was originally part of the territory or the Dangaddi (Thungutti), Gumbainggari, Anaiwan and Baanbai Aboriginal tribes. |
Most of the country between Point Lookout and the coast along the Macleay River is within the traditional territory of the Dangaddi tribe. The Nambucca River provides the boundary between the Dangaddi and the Gumbainggari coastal people. The escarpment formed the boundary between the land of the Anaiwan and the coastal tribes, with several sites on the edge of the plateau common to both people. Several sites of significance surround the wilderness area.
European Settlement
| 1856 | The Kemps Line stock route was established along Tellygram Range and the Upper Five Day Creek valley. |
Another route was established along Botumburra Range, linking Petroi plateau with Lagoon Creek valley and was used sporadically in the 1870's.
The grazing land on the plateau edge was originally part of the Serpentine River pastoral run which was selected into smaller holdings and settled at the turn of the century.
Squatter stations were established on Nulla Nulla and Five Day Creeks in the early 1840's.
| 1878 | The first telegraph station was established at "Nulla Nulla". |
| Mining | Due to the mineralisation in the Palaeozoic
rocks in the central area of wilderness, a number of small antimony mines were opened in
the first half of the twentieth century, with the most intense activity taking place
between 1936 and the closure of the mines in 1954. At one stage 40 miners worked the
deposits, housed on cleared slopes above Platypus Creek. The area still contains the
remnants of mine workings, buildings, machinery and a tramway. The 1991 Plan of
Management has outlined plans to use the old mine on Platypus Creek for visitors
"in a way which promotes wilderness values". This mine is now being used as a
roosting cave of the bent-wing and little bent-wing bats. No mining is currently taking place in the wilderness, and the Department of Mineral Resources, in a submission to the NPWS Assessment Report stated that it had no objections to wilderness declaration. |
| Logging | The timber industry in the area was originally
based on the selective logging of rainforest timbers. The rainforests in many of the
gullies, especially in the south of the wilderness area, were heavily logged. The largest
recorded red cedar grew near Nulla Nulla Creek and was felled in 1883. In order to fund the development of roads and buildings associated with a national park, the Park Trust issued licences in the 1950s to a number of timber getters for the selective logging of Red Cedar. Due to the rugged nature of much of the park this has been the extent of logging within the park. Major hardwood logging of the state forests in the wilderness began in the 1960's. This logging continues today. |
| 1969 | Rainforest logging commences on Petroi Plateau. |
| Early 1970's | Wildfire and salvage logging in Five Day Creek State Forest No 601 and Oakes State Forest No 609 reduce wilderness values east of Horseshoe Road and in Hades Creek. |
| 1992 | Logging commences in Sunday and Scraggy Creeks
(Compartments 168, 169 and 170) in Oakes State Forest in an area within the wilderness
nominated and proposed for addition to New England National Park. Steep tracks cause
scarring and soil erosion over many kilometres of habitat, including rainforest A report
by Dr John McGarity, soils lecturer at the University of New England, stated that
"the potential hazard of stream pollution created by roading in this area is one of
the worst examples I have seen in the North Coast forest". March: Timber Industry (Interim Protection) Act 1992 allows logging to continue in the Urunga Forest Management Area within the nominated wilderness without prior environmental assessment and review under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. Only those parts of the New England Wilderness within the Styx River Management Area are protected by a logging moratorium under the Act until a logging Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is completed and logging operations approved. Logging can continue in those parts of the wilderness within the Urunga Kempsey Management Areas. |
| 1994 | 11 February: EIS Determination report by the
Director of Planning, Ms G. Kibble, recommends logging in the Kempsy/Wauchope Management
Area within the New England Wilderness. March: Minister for Planning, Robert Webster, allows logging in the identified New England Wilderness. Old growth forest in Nulla Five Day, Oakes, Styx River and Lower Creek State Forests is targeted for logging. |
HISTORY OF CONSERVATION MEASURES:
| Late 1920s | Philip Wright, who later became Chancellor of the University of New England, conceives idea of protecting the area. |
| 1931 | As a result of the support of politicians such as Earle Page and D H Drummond, Wright obtains Reserve Status for 17,000 acres. A Park Trust is established and Rangers appointed. This reserve consists of the most inaccessible parts of the area’s state forests. |
| 1933 | The reserve is named New England National Park. |
| 1935 | Area dedicated as a Public Recreational Reserve. Later additions to the park, in particular the escarpment south of Snowy Range, increase the area to 23,000 hectares. |
| 1937 | Official opening of New England National Park takes place at Point Lookout. |
| 1986 | New England National Park incorporated in the World Heritage List as one of the Sub-Tropical and Warm Temperate Rainforest Parks of Eastern Australia. Park has been expanded to 29,985 ha after addition of the Black Scrub area of Bellinger River State Forest subsequent to the rainforest decision.. |
| 1991 | National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) Plan of Management indicates that 28,000 ha of the Park will be declared as wilderness under the provisions of the Wilderness Act 1987. |
| 1992 | 6 February: Armidale Branch of the Wilderness
Society submits a proposal for a 73,000 ha New England Wilderness. |
| March: 14,800 ha of old growth forests within
parts of Nulla-Five Day and Styx River State Forests and all of Pee Dee State Forest are
identified in the Government's old growth forest moratorium on logging. They are further
identified in Schedule 1 of the Timber Industry (Interim Protection) Act 1992, as
substantial areas of old growth forests in which no logging can occur without preparation
of an environmental impact statement. This moratorium only covers those forests within the
Styx River Management Area. 6 March: New England wilderness of 28,000 ha declared under the Wilderness Act. April: Terry Metherell MLA (Ind) (former Liberal Member for Davidson), holding joint balance of power in NSW with non-aligned independents, announces on 13/2/92 his Wilderness (Declaration of New Areas) Bill 1992 which includes New England, less any freehold or Crown leasehold land, for protection as wilderness under existing legislation. Metherell's Bill is a crucial factor in triggering the decision by the Minister for Environment, Tim Moore, to announce on 9/4/92 a public exhibition and submission process from 18/12/92 to 19/4/93 for an NPWS assessment report of the nominated wilderness (and similarly with different dates for twenty two other wilderness areas in NSW). The Metherell Bill is shelved at the close of 1992 following Metherell's resignation from Parliament but the wilderness assessment reports were eventually published in a manner similar to the timetable laid out by Mr Moore. Also in April: The North East Forest Alliance conducts protests at Mt Killiekrankie in Oakes State Forest, resulting in the Forestry Commission announcing a suspension of logging in the area pending the outcome of soil conservation reports and a koala survey. |
|
| 14 August: The Wilderness Society revises the
boundaries of its proposed wilderness to exclude cleared grazing land, reducing the area
to 65,591 ha. November: NPWS releases the Assessment Report on the New England Wilderness Area. This report identifies 57,492 ha as meeting the criteria for wilderness laid out in the Wilderness Act 1987, and recommends its declaration of all the identified area. It also recommends that the rainforests in the state forests be further protected by inclusion on the World Heritage Listing of Temperate and Subtropical Rainforests of Eastern Australia. Additionally, the Bellingen River system within the identified wilderness is proposed to be dedicated as a Wild and Scenic River under Section 61 of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974. The Prime Minister and the Premiers of all Australian states, except Tasmania, sign National Forest Policy Statement. This Statement declares "until the assessments (of forests for conservation values) are completed, forest management agencies will avoid activities that may significantly affect those areas of old growth forest or wilderness that are likely to have high conservation value". |
|
| 1995 | 10 March : ALP announces its Wilderness Policy
to secure 6 new areas and 9 additions to existing wilderness areas, including additions to
New England. May: Labor Government ceases logging in all identified wilderness. |
| 1996 | September: The Government announces additions of State Forests covering 22,600 hectares to the New England Wilderness and 2,100 of Oakes State Forest to the National Park. The Government also announces the Dunphy Wilderness Fund of 1 million dollars per year over 5 years for the acquisition of freehold and leasehold lands identified as wilderness. |
| October: Nomination under section 7 of the
Wilderness Act submitted by Colong Foundation, Confederation of Bushwalking Clubs and TWS
for 19 wilderness additions or new areas, provisionally identified through the Foresty
Interim Assessment Process (IAP), including a 408 ha addition to New England Wilderness in
Thumb Creek State Forest. November: The Forestry Revocation Act 1996 is passed by State Parliament adding 25,820 ha to the New England National Park. |
|
| 1998 | 20 November: New England wilderness additions
of 22,600 ha declared under the Wilderness Act. December: The Forestry and National Park Estate Act 1998 (F&NPE Act) is passed by State Parliament. This adds 6,870 ha of TWS nominated wilderness to New England National Park and 1,750 ha to the new Cunnawarra National Park. These additions also include 315 ha of the 1996 nominated wilderness addition in Thumb Creek State Forest. |
| 1999 | 19 March: The Carr Government presents its
wilderness policy to environment groups. The Government commits to complete the assessment
of the New England addition by the end of 1999 and determine an area for declaration by
the end of 2000 If Forest Approvals have not been signed in advance, or if wilderness
assessment areas were quarantined from it, then the identification would not be
constrained by the F&NPE Act to existing park areas. 20 March: The Carr Government commits to fund the Dunphy Wilderness Fund beyond its anticipated expiry in 2001 and maintains a logging moratorium over wilderness leasehold lands, including leasehold State Forest areas. 23 March: The office of Premier Bob Carr gives undertakings to the Total Environment Centre that leasehold state forest under further consideration for reservation as wilderness will not be logged. |
| THREATS: | A number of threats are associated with management of the wilderness area, but the largest single threat to the wilderness is the logging of the state forests within the remaining unprotected compartments and informal reserve. |
| Logging | The following nominated areas remain
unprotected: Nulla Five Day State Forest - compartments 406, 407, 408 and 409 (part);
Lower Creek State Forest - compartments 11, 16, 27, 29 and 30; Pee Dee State Forest -
compartment 151. The environmental impacts of logging are well documented. Logging results: in soil compaction and erosion; escaped regeneration burns and excessive production of carbon dioxide; introduction of noxious weeds and dieback; destruction of flora and fauna; loss of biodiversity; and choking streams with silt and suspended sediment. Recommendations: Logging operations should cease in the state forest compartments identified above to: adequately protect significant habitats and forest ecosystems; and ensure catchment integrity of the northerly headwaters of the Macleay River adjoining the national park. These state forests should be incorporated into the New England National Park. Previously logged areas should be revegetated and rehabilitated so that these disturbed areas may eventually recover to a wilderness condition. |
| Fire trails | Fire trails create an opportunity for weed
establishment through exposure of cleared terrain to sunlight and dispersal on the wheels
of NPWS and other vehicles. Service trails provide access for arsonists to light fires in sensitive areas deep within the wilderness. Trails also encourage unauthorised horse riding, which can lead to further weed infestation through germinating from horse manure, and clearing associated with pickets and corrals. The maintenance of the Snowy Range/Robinsons Knob fire trail is a major intrusion into the wilderness, bisecting it entirely. This trail traverses very steep terrain, which may not provide rapid movement in the case of a fire. Much of the park contains moist hardwood forest and rainforest. Only under extreme conditions does fire threaten such communities and in such circumstances is almost impossible to stop. In all other fire conditions these moist forests are effective in reducing fire intensity and can be used to advantage in fire suppression operations. Wilderness areas declared under Section 59 of the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 are also subject to the provisions of the Wilderness Act 1987 (Section 8, subsection 5). Section 9 of the Wilderness Act specifies the management principles for wilderness areas. This provision requires wilderness areas to be managed so as to restore and to protect the unmodified state of the area and its plant and animal communities. |
| Recommendations: Maintenance
(especially widening and upgrading) of management trails in wilderness areas does not
comply with the principles laid down in the Wilderness Act Except for fire trails
in perimeter areas, trails constructed during fire fighting operations should be closed
and rehabilitated immediately following the operation. The park is currently surrounded by
perimeter service trails and these should be adequate for fire management. The best
prescription to avoid fires in wilderness areas is to confine management trails to the
edge of the national park, to prevent the spread of fire into the wilderness Where
absolutely necessary, helicopter landing areas could be cleared for fire control. Fuel-reduction burns should be undertaken where they are most effective, that is close to the assets being protected (e.g. state forests and rural districts). Most wildfires burn into parks, not the other way around, and broad-area control burns of wilderness are ineffective in controlling such external fires. The protection of wilderness values in fire management plans needs to be a priority. Decisions on damaging suppression practices should be addressed during management planning, not in a fire crisis. During fire emergencies, bulldozers should not be allowed to scar the scenery by cutting fire control lines on steep slopes. All too often these measures fail to contain a wildfire. |
|
| Freehold property | A freehold property at the Crater, just north east of the Crescent, is an inholding which should be acquired to improve the wilderness boundary around this important landscape feature. Another property downstream and adjoining the park on Five Day Creek should also be acquired to improve the integrity of the southern part of the wilderness. The Crown lands on either side of Five Day Creek could then be incorporated into the wilderness area. Without these additions, access requirements for these property holders will adversely affect this part of the wilderness. |
| The Petroi Plateau lands form a key link between the identified wilderness and lands in the Cunnawarra National Park which were recognised as having high wilderness values in the New England Assessment Report. | |
| The continuing clearing of native woodland on the Ebor Plateau is of particular concern. An extensive area of open snow gum forest, within the wilderness, was poisoned in 1992. In one area, management practices, such as clearing and burning, have been implemented to the edge of the escarpment, encroaching on the plateau area of the national park. |
Recommendations: The presence of blocks of private land within national parks or at critical locations on the perimeter of national parks which are used or managed in such a way as to compromise or threaten the values of the park is not tenable. Crown Leases within the wilderness should not be renewed on expiry and the subject lands added to the national park. The clearing activities on private lands could significantly affect the values of this World Heritage quality wilderness and should be stopped by: mapping environmentally sensitive areas as Protected Lands under the provisions of the Soil Conservation Act; use of a tree preservation order or an environmental planning instrument under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act or; as a last resort, the acquisition of the land.
| The park's dramatic escarpment edge is vulnerable to land clearing and establishment of dwellings. Dedication of an escarpment protection zone, or preferably acquisition of escarpment lands through the Dunphy Fund, would remove the potential for inappropriate development. | |
| Foxes and Native dogs | Dingos within the wilderness area are being controlled by the 1080 poison baits. There is some evidence that Critical Body Weight Range (CWR) (200-5000g) macropods, such as the Parma Wallaby and Rufous Bettong, which are particularly at risk from fox predation, are able to persist in moist high quality forests in which dingos are present but foxes are absent. One theory suggests that CWR species persist where dingos are common and actively exclude foxes. Although dingos prey upon many macropod species, predation has not been shown to have a regulatory effect on these populations. Baiting reduces numbers of both foxes and dingos, but foxes may recover more rapidly and replace dingos in the ecosystem. Fox control should use pest specific techniques and under no circumstances should aerial baiting be undertaken. |
Recommendations: Native dogs should not be controlled by baiting in National Parks, as baits can kill other carnivores such as Tiger Quolls. Dingo control through the indiscriminate use of 1080 (sodium flouroacetate) baits, which cause death through internal bleeding, convulsions and nervous system collapse over a thirty minute-to two hour period, should be abandoned. Programs to control dingoes should only be undertaken on adjoining properties, only after there is substantial evidence that numbers of sheep are being taken and that other methods, such as removing lambing ewes, have not proved effective.
Similar conditions should apply to macropod populations within the NPWS estate and its surroundings.
CONTACT ORGANISATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS
North East Forest Alliance
Big Scrub Environment Centre
123 Keen Street
LISMORE NSW 2480
Contact: Susie Russell Ph: 02 6655 4481
Mob: 018 672 044
Fax: 02 6550 4433
e-mail gladneys@tpgi.com.auNational Parks Association
Three Valleys Branch
P O Box 28
STUARTS POINT NSW 2441
Contact: James Tedder Ph: 02 6569 0558
Fax: 02 6569 0802
email ncecsecr@nor.com.auThe Wilderness Society
Armidale contact
P O Box 1155
ARMIDALE NSW 2350
Contact: Cameron Way Ph: 02 6771 1155
RELEVANT CORRESPONDENCE:
| 11/11/88: | Colley to Evans, Superintendent NPWS Dorrigo, Submission re. New England National Park Draft Plan of Management. |
RELEVANT COLONG BULLETIN ARTICLES:
See Colong Bulletin Index under "National Parks".
Colong Bulletin, 131, March 1992, "Wilderness Window Dressing", p 2.
Colong Bulletin, 133, July 1992, "Support the Wilderness Nominations", p3-9.
Colong Bulletin 142 January 1994 p10, "Forest Minister Ignores Premier over Wilderness Logging".
Colong Bulletin 147, November 1994, p5, "The Fahey Government’s Wildernesses".
Colong Bulletin 151, July 1995 p6, "Labor’s Wilderness Moratorium".
Colong Bulletin 156, May 1996 p8, "Wilderness Protection - Navigating the way forward".
Colong Bulletin 157, July 1996 p3, "Wilderness Protection Scheme".
Colong Bulletin 159, November 1996 p7, "Major advances in Wilderness and Forest Protection".
Colong Bulletin 166, January 1998 p7-8, "Wilderness - The hard yards".
Colong Bulletin 172 January 1999 p7, "Forest Fandango".