Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 00:26
May I ask where you live Parthy?
You may surprise me and it may turn out that you aren't from the city. If you aren't I'll apologise, but as a former high country local, whose parents are still there, and who didn't grow up on a
farm I'm a bit sick of all the cityslickers and would be drizabone wearers who have a romantic notion about cows and cattlemen. I laughed when I saw them all bring their horses in from their agisted paddocks in Werribee and on the Yarra Flats to join the real high country horsemen protesting against the loss of their taxpayer
farm subsidy program.
The scientific evidence is there to justify removal of cattle from the high country & it is difficult to contest. Study areas where cattle were fenced out for many many years have demonstrated that plant species and wildflower species which are not evident in areas grazed by cattle will grow back quite quickly if the cattle are kept off. The sphagnum moss beds that regulate and filter the flow of water off the high country when the snow melts and rain falls will take much much longer & some will never recover. The cattle love the sphagnum beds and make an absolute bog of them - particularly after the fires when they were the only greenery left in some of the damper cooler gullies.
The cattle are selective grazers too, and don't reduce bushfire fuel loads as alleged by the bumper sticker. They don't eat the dry fuel undergrowth choosing instead the greener grasses as first preference. Of the 250,000 hectares or so that burnt in the 2003 Alpine Fire Complex can you tell me how much of that country is grazed? Probably not. Not very much is the answer. You may have even seen the cattleman on the front page of the Border Morning Mail standing next to a cattle pad where in a cooler moment the fire had burnt up to the edge on one side and the other side only a foot or so away was untouched - the cattleman stating that the cattle pad had saved the country on the other side from destruction. Pity they used the close up - but they had to - if they'd zoomed out at that very spot you would have seen that that small cool spot was saved but within 20' either side the fire had jumped the cattle pad and kept on burning. That didn't suit the argument though did it? Where's Media Watch when you need them?
The high country in Victoria could have a wildflower tourism business to rival the Western Australian and Western Victorian equivalents. Ecotourism, like it or not, is the future for the high country - and if people want to get up and see it then they need tracks and access and that's good for us. I'm no greeny. The greenies have been wanting us out for years and many in the city wouldn't have the faintest just how far out they want us - have a look here at the Snowy-Pilot Area Report for the Colong Wilderness Foundation - go and do a text search for "threats" or "4wd"..
I'm just interested in a sustainable high country for all who want to travel and visit, they can spend their money in the fuel stations. Stock up in the shops and stay in the parks and other accommodation if they don't want to be camped near me.
The families and businesses in the North East in towns like Mount Beauty need it. First the SEC shut down, the banks started to pull out, the timbermill closed and the town started to go backwards. There's more money in the high country, and a more equitable spread of money in those communities in ecotourism than cattle.
The existing system of high country cattle leases supports a very select few with cheap leases on government land, providing them with the ability to run more cattle than their farms can support. Not to mention it's also a system providing a very cheap agistment program to grow
farm wealth sponsored by you and I the tax payer. The weed eradication programs required as a result of the trafficking of seed of things like English Broom up on to the high plains, cost hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to try and stop infestations before they are out of control. Aerial photography shows yellow trails of flowers when in season of the English Broom marching up the muster routes, and in large patches where herds rest overnight on the muster. It's hard to dispute.
So what's it to be. Tourism that benefits whole communities? Or cattle leases that benefit a few at taxpayers expense? Or the worst alternative of all. No access for anyone except the backpackers. If the cattle stay eventually the lock us all out brigade may get their way!
I grew up with, schooled with and live amongst high country cattle families in
Mansfield and Mount Beauty. I have seen them riding through the snowgums, dogs at the ready, oilskins, chaps and Akubra on and I tell you it near brings tears to my eyes. It's a fantastic piece of Australian History and culture, not to mention folklore. But it needs to change. I will be very sorry for the kids of the ones I went to school with that their family history is changed, but it's not lost. The fact that their families were there and did it can never be taken away, and there will always be the history of
places like the Wonnangatta, the huts and the high country cattlemen. One would hope the huts would remain protected by their
heritage listings and maintained as they are by the bushwalking & 4wd clubs that already do this in many cases. To lose them would be to lose a link with what is being phased out.
I remember growing up on the Prom with cattle agisted on the
Airstrip, many of the Proms vistors now wouldn't ever have known they were there not even so long ago. I don't see anyone asking to bring them back. In the 1980's the National Parks service even had an agistment
ranger down there to manage it all. I'll bet the cattle families involved weren't paying his wages.
I don't see anyone crying out that we should bring back horse farming in
Wilpena Pound in South Australia - it was quite successful for many years on Wilpena Station, more successful than the 12 years they spent trying to grow wheat. Would South Australia's equivalent of Wilsons Promontory be a multi million dollar tourist industry in it's own right if it was still full of cattle and horses? Even the stations over there now can see the future and the dollars is in tourism - Willow Springs Skytrek,
Rawnsley Park Campgrounds and walking complex,
Arkaba 4wd
Treks as prime examples.
Not many people remember that NSW destocked their high plains around Kosciusko State Park in about 1950 - most people travelling that area wouldn't even know there had been high country grazing there apart from that which they can see on farms on the Monaro Hwy. (It's not often the New South Welsh are smarter than Victorians but they definately got the jump on us this time.)
I don't see anyone crying about it now. I don't see federal polly's trying to
heritage list it there and bring it back - Ian Campbell's not that brave! Though it's interesting that the Liberal/National coalition is usually big on user pays in almost every other policy - just not in this case.
The story most of the country knows about the High Country and cattle grazing is one emotionalised in the Australian psyche by the 80's movie "The Man from Snowy River". It's easy to play on that emotion. Don't be fooled. The only bit you see on TV is the story that sells the papers or gets you to watch the 6pm news. 30 second sound bites and grabs of footage designed to tug at the heart strings.
Graham Stoney and his mob are excelent at spinning it. Don't tell me that the only reason he is in state parliament is community spirit or to protect the
heritage of his and the other high country cattlemen. It's more like protecting the bottom line of the family business and the taxpayer subsidised high country paddocks. Losing them will cost him a packet.
I'm glad his family had their run at it, and we have
Bluff Hut as a result - and some genuine article extras in the muster scenes in the movie. But it's time that we
heritage listed the hut, remember why it was built and who by, and said no to their cattle ever again grazing around it.
Dave
Dave
AnswerID:
146719
Follow Up By: Vivid Adventures - Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 00:32
Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 00:32
nice post Dave.
FollowupID:
400190
Follow Up By: madcow - Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 09:02
Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 09:02
Good post Dave,
Tom Groggin have had to sell off half their herd to sustain whatever they can now they cannot get into the hills.
FollowupID:
400218
Follow Up By: Pajman Pete (SA) - Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 10:01
Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 10:01
Nicely put Dave. We have just been up there and loved the area.
Pete
FollowupID:
400228
Follow Up By: cuffs - Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 10:39
Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 10:39
Wow! have I been told to shut up and learn the facts before forming an opinion. Great educational post.
FollowupID:
400236
Follow Up By: parthy - Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 12:00
Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 12:00
NO I AM NOT FROM THE CITY !
I am from yarrawonga northen victoria and spent the first 25 years of my life on the edge of the barmah forest at times helping out with the cattel muster so i do know a bit of what i am talking obout
FollowupID:
400253
Follow Up By: Member - Bradley- Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 12:49
Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 12:49
fantastic response there Dave, very reasonable and
well thought out arguments. Yes our "european ways" have to change urgently in australia, not just this issue but most environmental aspects. - irrigation overuse, rice, cotton,
population densities and locations etc etc.
We all have to agree that we've managed to bugger this place up pretty
well in only a couple of hundred years, its gotta change.
Parthy - barmah forest eh?, you ever come across Jack Kilmister and his shorthorn cattle back then?
FollowupID:
400266
Follow Up By: Pterosaur - Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 21:44
Friday, Jan 06, 2006 at 21:44
Goodonyer Dave, for a
well reasoned and factual argument - sorely lacking in previous threads on this (emotive) topic, seems that the hysteria about the "tradition" has affected a lot of people.
Parthy, I know change is often difficult, but what would we be if we could not learn to modify our behaviour in response to past mistakes ?
regards
FollowupID:
400353