Cattle Grazing the the Vic High Country. Hmm

AFAIK there is one trial at the moment, in Wonnangatta Valley.

Refrigerator Gap is right on the border of the Alpine National Park, but the track and much to the south of it is in the state forest. Could be wandering cattle or they were in the south side I guess.

We of the Squad hear your call, even if it is a trial one .......

Well that certainly seems to be true in the high country.

The other issue was the local dung beetles were not up to the task of burying the cow pat. If you traveled out west years ago you could find cow pats that were 20 years old, all dessicated and sitting on the surface of the soil.

Beetles were imported that could actually cope with the cow dung, if they didn't we would be knee deep in the stuff by now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Dung_Beetle_Project

I know on my parents farm in a good year a cow pat or horse dung would be almost fully incorporated into the soil after 48 hrs. If it was a drought and the beetle population died off, then it would take significantly longer.

The program also talked about the huge success that was the Dung Beetle, but Boobook your experience is really interesting, thanks for sharing, hmmm Boobook, there's a property near Inverleigh of that name .......

Yes I forgot about the mud holes at the rivers. I would describe myself as anti greenie, but very much pro caring for the environment like yourself.

More and more I think we need to understand how fragile the environment is.

Anti greenie yet pro caring for the environment? Be careful, I see inner turmoil developing. :-) I live in greenie central and have a good deal of respect for them. They are usually above average in intelligence and they certainly leave a place better than they found it. The world would be a better place with more of them in my opinion. I'd be interested to hear what you think they do that is so bad. Please don't insult me by saying they lock tracks up. The owners of the tracks do that because they can't stand the expense of repairing damage.

My position is perfectly reasonable. I do care for the environment and place it as a high priority in general policy. However I am against people dictating policy and rules from their city apartments. Even non environment even related matters.

Obviously you have had nothing to do with Parks Victoria. It has been infiltrated by the national parks association who make policy by default within the department.

Caring for the environment and being a left wing greenie are two entirely different things Michael. In this case I am saying that I have sympathy for the views on the specific topic of Cattle int he high country.

Funny how all the Greenies describe it as a "pristine environment", even though the cattle have been there for over a hundred years!

Not just the Nullabor if you cannot carry a port-a-loo then try and hold it in, road side stops are getting ridiculous not to mention the possibility of spreading disease. The Gibb when last i travelled it and that was a fair while ago resembled a scene from a bomb blast.

Rod, we also travelled across the Nullabor in Septrmber 2013 and found the roadside stops to be disgusting. Any toilets that were available were either damaged or so revolting that they could not be used. As mentioned by Karl the Gibb was similar. The rubbish disposal sites on the Gibb were a sight to behold. Although there was an enclosure the masses of rubbish had migrated over the entire area. The quarantine dump ot the Halls Creek end of the Tanami was just awful. All the material that responsible people had left and not taken into WA was streaming out of overfilled 44 gallon drums. It would appear that the area had not been emptied for months.
Essentially if you ventured more than a few metres into the bush at any roadside stop there was generally toilet paper everywhere.
To their credit it appeared that the WA government was upgrading many overnight stops with composting toilets. Certainly not before time as there are so many travellers these days.

Please, these people that leave that mess behind are someone's children. you may offend them.

It isn't worth responding properly to stupid posts like that.

If you can't say something sensible then you look a lot smarter if you shut up.

It was said in jest but I guess you can't please all. Then again it shows what kind of people call others names.

You enjoy your day sunshine.

The common thread in all our problems are humans, everywhere they go they cause trouble. We bought the cattle, we bought the sheep, we crap anywhere and everywhere and we do the same with our rotting rubbish.

Very true Slow one...we will also be responsible for our own demise! I don't mind the greenies. Most are passionate about the environment. Politicians and corporations couldn't give a fig about the environment. Remember the Franklin River?

Haven't been to the high country in decades. Been many places and by far the most polluting, destructive varmits on the land are the two legged humans.

It's odd that some places suffer more than others. We went into the High Country starting with a night at Sheepyard Flat at the end of the Vic. Sch Hols as the NSW ones were about to begin. Expecting the worst as we descended with utes galore with track bikes and campers in tow churned up the dust coming the opposite way. We arrived about 4.30 pm and the last two campers were packing up before leaving the whole place to us. I couldn't believe there wasn't a scrap of rubbish to be seen after the public holiday weekend. It's a fairly big area and I'm sure if I tried hard enough I'd've found some mess but as far as I could see, the place was an absolute credit to the busy weekend campers that had just left. I hate to say this but maybe Victorians know how to behave. :) I'm sure there are bad ins everywhere but this really gave us a lovely surprise. Wish I could say the same elsewhere. Maybe we just need to adopt a "user pays" system and let the authorities provide sufficient facilities. I'd rather pay than witness the filth I've seen elsewhere. Trouble is, I've seen filth recently at Innamincka with good, clean toilets nearby. We carry a Porta potty and a spare bottom half (bought two potties - not expensive) in case we can't find a dump point.

Bigfish,

I guess some don't like the truth even when said in jest.

Boobook I would shut up but I don't know who died and made you god.

Settle down campers