ABC report<\/a>\u00a0mentions the sale of Henbury Station to RMWAH and states that two thirds of the $13 million\u00a0purchase price is being paid\u00a0by the Federal Government –\u00a0funding for a ‘National Reserve’ received under the ‘Caring For Our Country’ Scheme\u00a0(very Gillard\/Rudd-sounding, isn’t it.)\u00a0 It is stated the 17,000 head of cattle (there were 10,000 listed\u00a0when it was up for sale a couple of years ago)\u00a0will be removed by December 2011 and the property ‘revegetated’, but it’s not clear what this means exactly.\u00a0 While I have not been to Henbury station I doubt very much that it has ever been cleared, in fact it is probably a typical central Australian property – some areas of\u00a0 scrubby trees (hardy species such as gidyea and desert oaks) and native vegetation that even in great seasons is not exactly profuse.\u00a0\u00a0 So what exactly would ‘revegetation’ mean?\u00a0 Planting spinifex or acres of bluegums?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 More puzzling and alarming is the statement:\u00a0 “The project is being touted as a pilot that could lead to other farms across the nation being similarly converted.”\u00a0 Converted to what?\u00a0 De-populated regions running feral camels instead of domesticated species destined to feed people?\u00a0 Converted to\u00a0‘parks’ whose chief aim is to help frequent flier greens sleep well at night because they ticked the ‘carbon offset’ box when booking their flight online, while tiny struggling communities shrink even further?<\/p>\nIt has to be said.\u00a0 Without any information to the contrary, the whole thing has the wiff of fashionable and speculative band-wagon jumping.<\/p>\n
The R.M. William’s Ag website states that there is an aim to build a conservation corridor between NT national parks and mention is made of the proximity of La Belle Downs and Welltree to other national parks, such as Litchfield.\u00a0 Given that the Territory would have the most intact biodiversity out of any state or territory in Australia due to the relatively low population (less acres of urban sprawl involving acres of cement and lawns across our narrow but biodiverse coastal fringe)\u00a0relative lack of farming (as in crop growing) and predominance of extensive grazing (in harmony with native plants and animals), it is unfortunate that RMWAH has chosen the Northern Territory for what would be a great idea, elsewhere.\u00a0 For example, Far North Queensland’s wet tropics region would be an infinitely more worthy cause for the building of a solid conservation corridor given the huge biodiversity contained within a relatively tiny\u00a0and increasingly\u00a0fragmented ecosystem.\u00a0 Rainforest regions are in real danger in future of being ‘loved to death’ –\u00a0under increasing pressure due to\u00a0urban encroachment (Mission Beach is a classic example of environmental vandalism), high voltage powerlines cutting swathes through narrow connecting corridors of rainforest, burgeoning weed incursions (especially problematic after cyclone Larry then Yasi)\u00a0and the\u00a0agriculture that exists in\u00a0Queensland’s wet tropics is mostly high-density\u00a0cropping – monocultures that involve the clearing of\u00a0the majority of native trees and other plants (i.e. the eviction of virtually all native wildlife, by necessity).\u00a0 Whereas the Northern Territory already has massive areas set aside as national parks, and millions of additional sparsely populated hectares that are not used to run domesticated animals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Late this afternoon a new page appeared on the ‘Henbury Conservation Project’ on the The Department of\u00a0 Sustainability, Environment,\u00a0Water, Population & Communities (yes, the title is that long) website.\u00a0 Just like the academic spoutings on the sanctimonious ‘saving’ of Cravens Peak station in south western Queensland by\u00a0‘Bush Heritage’, the Federal Government\u00a0DSEWPC waxes lyrical about the fabulous biodiversity on Henbury station then proceeds to say how great it is that it will now be conserved and the wildlife saved.<\/p>\n
Pastoral settlement on Henbury Station began in 1875.\u00a0 The DSEWPC even states that ‘ 70% of the huge property\u00a0remains largely in its natural condition’. \u00a0\u00a0If running domesticated livestock on Henbury for more than a century ruined the environment, then clearly there would be nothing left to ‘save’ by now?<\/strong><\/p>\nThe DSEWPC website also states:<\/p>\n
“R.M.Williams Agricultural Holdings will manage Henbury to enhance carbon sequestration. With cattle removed, the company will actively manage fire, water, weeds and feral animals to encourage natural revegetation. The process of natural revegetation will remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, storing carbon in the soil and native plants.<\/p>\n
The company plans to sequestrate up to 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year for the next 10-15 years. The aim is to establish a model for generating biodiverse carbon credits to fund ongoing conservation management and to generate new sustainable income streams.”<\/p>\n
I can’t think of anything to say to that, I’m speechless.\u00a0 All I can think of is the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes.\u00a0\u00a0The DSEWPC website even mentions offsetting carbon credits by ticking a box when booking airline travel (all because there’s a few more cotton bushes growing in central Australia).\u00a0 It’s utter, utter\u00a0madness, the whole scheme has been dreamt up by city-based investors and investment companies; brokers and futures traders etc, and promoted by an out-of-control federal government that the majority of Australians didn’t vote for.\u00a0 Just as we can’t eat coal, we can’t eat carbon credits either.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
R.M. Williams Agricultural Holdings (RMWAH) has apparently just purchased Henbury Station, on the Sturt Highway 125km south of Alice Springs.\u00a0 The 5,168 square kilometre station has an extensive creek and river system (including Finke and Palmer River frontage) and has 15 permanent waterholes.\u00a0 It was\u00a0for sale through Elders – after being passed in at auction […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,7,10,165],"tags":[100,158,161,166,176],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1645"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4216,"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1645\/revisions\/4216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fionalake.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}