The Adélie penguin is a the smallest of the Antarctic penguins and the most numerous, being widely distributed around the fringe of the Antarctic continent, its conservation status is of least concern. However, life on the frozen continent depends on food produced in the Southern Ocean and climate change and fishing for krill are key threats to penguin survival. Australia is responsible for managing 42% of the Antarctic continent and the adjacent waters. Penguin conservation is a concern of the Australian government.
This woodblock print made in an edition of 100 on Awagami kozo using Holbein gauche colours. It’s traditional Chuban-sized; 25 x 19 cm. Signed and sealed with the double dagger. Available through Saru Gallery
photo credits 1-9 Tom Kristensen (often with Steve Anyon-Smith) 10-11 Mel Clarke
Introduction
There is a well-documented, widespread koala population in Sutherland LGA with 190 individually identified animals, roughly equivalent to the estimated population of koalas in Campbelltown LGA. The Macarthur district also has a bushfire management plan currently on exhibition, but there is a major difference… Macarthur identifies koala habitat as a focus area but Sutherland doesn’t.
Both federal and state governments list koalas as an endangered species in NSW. Key threats to koalas include drought, fire and habitat fragmentation. The management of fire in the landscape will be crucial to the survival of koalas as climate change drives extreme conditions in the bush. Managing fire risk has seen an increasing demand for more hazard reduction burns, but setting widespread frequent fires in koala habitat between the unavoidable fire seasons might be contributing to adverse ecological outcomes.
GovernmentTargets
The pressure from government to achieve large hazard reduction burn targets has put koalas in the way of unnecessary harm. While large-scale burning in remote bushland does deliver large HR targets it does little to protect housing. Indeed, frequent fire might be altering plant communities, decreasing the stock of koala feed trees and increasing the flammability of bushland. Frequent fire may suppress the cyclical recovery of koala populations, koalas need years to recover numbers after a bushfire. As a consequence, broad scale extinction may occur as a result of increasing local extinctions.
The koalas in the Sutherland shire belong to a larger population that extends west into Holsworthy military range and on to Campbelltown. These koalas are free of the chlamydial disease that affects other populations north and south. The close proximity of koalas to metropolitan Sydney should provide extra political incentive to manage their wellbeing. As the public becomes increasingly aware of the existence of nearby koalas more pressure will be placed on fire management to deliver strategies that work to protect koalas.
Fire Impacts on koalas
To be clear on the impacts of fires on koalas, it’s worth understanding how koalas have evolved to cope with bushfires. Koalas have excellent territorial awareness and may seek shelter near water and in caves. If the fire is approaching from one direction koalas are capable of moving ahead of a slow moving fire front. When overtaken by fire a koala is likely to climb a tall tree and attempt to sit it out. After a fire, surviving koalas will abandon burnt forest and attempt to resettle in unburnt habitat. Displaced koalas will be competing with other koalas and coping with the stress of surviving in unfamiliar territory.
To summarise, koalas can die directly from being burnt, from heat stress, from smoke inhalation or from longer-term decline from burns or airways injuries. Displaced koalas can then die from thirst, starvation, road strike or dog attack in attempting to establish new territory. The decline may take weeks or months to play out as koalas try to cope with the aftermath of the fire.
RFS Response
Sutherland RFS are concerned about koalas and have told the public about “having koalas top of mind in planning burns”. Unfortunately that concern is not yet developed in the draft bushfire risk management plan for Sutherland which only refers to the existence of an Area of Regional Koala Significance without defining where that area might be and how it might relate to fire planning. There are no specific measures for koala conservation mentioned in the draft plan
RFS recently delivered a set of assurances in announcing an extensive burn in Holsworthy Military Range. As reported by Kelly Fuller, Friday 8th September, on ABC Illawarra, the following promises were made regarding koalas:
“Koalas at forefront of planning for major hazard reduction burn in Sydney’s south west, RFS says” “Illawarra/Sutherland RFS acting manager David Barnett (sic) said a lot of planning had gone into preparing for the burn and it would be conducted along guidelines developed for threatened species. … So that means having a fire [with] a half to one- metre flame height and trying to keep … the upper canopy out of the fire. … The burn will be conducted from the northern edge of the identified area, southwards down each side. … What that does is it allows the koalas and other wildlife … to move out of the path of the fire – hopefully without getting burnt or anything – giving them the opportunity to get into refuge areas as well. … The RFS will use an aircraft with an infra-red camera to conduct a thermal heat survey. Firefighters on the ground will also use the cameras to conduct visual inspections. So if they see any koalas, their objective is to hold the burn until the koalas are able to move on – we won’t burn them out – we have got them front of mind.”
Such promises may be well-meaning but they are unrealistic and impossible to deliver. RFS are incapable of finding any meaningful fraction of koalas living in a burn area of 27 square kilometres. (See Figure 2) RFS volunteers have no training in finding koalas and have their hands full controlling an active fire. The proposal to deal with koalas on the day of the burn is equivalent to doing nothing.
Unfortunately RFS are also challenged in delivering a fire with a flame height between half and one metre. The intensity of fires delivered this season has exceeded the prescriptions in dramatic terms; with widespread heavy use of aerial incendiaries and thick black smoke plumes indicating intense fire. Post fire surveys also confirm that prescriptions were exceeded (see Appendix A & Figure 1)
Figure 1 Holsworthy HR burn smoke plumes
Bushfire Management Committee Response
I have previously been approached by RFS and Sutherland Shire Council to provide advice on koalas, and over the last two years I have offered numerous verbal briefings and written suggestions, and recent koala mapping information, to Sutherland RFS Hazard Reduction Burn Planning Team. This current submission should hopefully serve as a reminder of information already put before RFS and other members of the Bushfire Management Committee. The major landholders have all been made aware that they have koalas under their protection. Anyone is free to obtain information on the management of koalas from the NSW DCCEW koala team. Mapping of the known distribution of koalas in Sutherland is freely accessible on the Bionet database (See Figure 2)
Recommendations
Bionet records of koalas should be examined and included in burn plans
Burns in koala habitat should include surveys for koalas before and after burns
Bushfire Risk Management Committees should include an ecologist, or Technical Advisor Wildlife, able to advise the RFS Incident Management Team. That person should engage with the community on koala surveys.
Each burn in koala habitat should trigger a site report to inform future plans
Figure 2 Bionet koala records and Holsworthy HR burn
Appendix A
Koala Survey of Deepwater, Woronora Heights Before and after Hazard Reduction Burn of 15/7/23 Tom Kristensen for Sutherland Shire Council and others. 12/9/23
Introduction
This report presents evidence of koalas in the hazard reduction burn area known as Deepwater at Woronora Heights in Sutherland shire. The shire is home to a large population of koalas as established by broad survey work across a range of sites conducted in the last two years. Each site containing core koala habitat is an important piece in the map of koala occupancy with koala movements recorded between sites. The Deepwater site represents the end of koala distribution along the Woronora River and a staging area for population expansion into the Forbes Creek catchment to the southeast and Bangor to the northeast. See Map 1.
At least three koalas are known to use the Deepwater area. Recent sightings are of the large male, named Sydney Water. In February there was a sighting of a small sub-adult named Theo. It is assumed there is also a female using the area, mother to Theo.
Council inspections confirmed that koalas did occur in the area before and after the hazard reduction burn. Koalas have survived the burn but may now have moved away from the burn area. While the burn was generally of low intensity, important koala feed trees have also been killed in this burn. See Fig 3
Burn Area
Deepwater burn area covers the west facing slope below Woronora Heights down to the Deepwater Estate on the flats of Woronora River. The area within containment lines set out by formal fire trails covers 27 ha.
Following approaches from council and RFS in early July Tom Kristensen was asked to advise on koalas in the proposed burn area. Before the burn two site inspections were made with Kevin and Graham. Information was relayed to Phillip Rook, an RFS HR burn plan manager and member of Sutherland Bushfire Management Committee. Given feedback on koala occupancy the RFS burn plan was reduced in area from 27 ha to 20 ha. The burn was carried out by RFS on the weekend of July 15-16 with the lower section of the site where koalas were previously seen excluded from burning. See Map 1.
Map 1 Deepwater HR burn area Green base layer is extent of Grey gum forest, preferred feed tree for koalas Orange layer is the initial proposed Hazard Reduction burn areas for 2023 Grey layer is the Deepwater HR area that was actually burnt.
Research Team
Koalas are listed as endangered species under both the current state Biodiversity Conservation Act 2019 and federal EPBC Act 1999. Responsibility for managing koalas affects all land managers. Local koala conservation efforts are coordinated by Joe Stammers of the Southern Sydney Koala Management Team, DCCEEW. Photographs of koalas in the area were provided to council by Steve Anyon-Smith and Tom Kristensen (BSc ecology USyd) both active Bushcare volunteers at Sutherland Shire Council. Steve and Tom have been surveying koalas in Sutherland shire for last two years, building an ID guide for 180 individual koalas based on nostril patterns. Steve has been briefly contracted by council to find koalas.
Site inspections for council were conducted by Kevin Seymour, head of Bushcare, member of Bushfire Management Committee, now retired, and Graham Avery who is the Natural Areas Aboriginal Heritage Officer from the Bushland Unit under Open Space Operations at Sutherland Shire Council.
This survey of the Deepwater koala population is part of the Sutherland Shire Council’s Open Space Strategy 2021, and Delivery Program and Operational Plan 2022-2026. It falls to the Natural Areas Aboriginal Heritage Officer to help ensure that any of the threatened species including koalas and their habitats are protected during hazard reduction burns. Kevin has been the chief instigator of this report.
Bionet Records
Sighting records for two koalas at Deepwater have been entered onto Bionet. While it is assumed that Bionet is a primary tool for RFS and ecologists preparing burn plans, it is evident that Bionet cannot provide sufficient and timely detail to effectively manage koalas, cryptic creatures able to travel large distances. Knowledge of occupancy and the extent of core habitat requires additional survey work
Three council inspections at Deepwater occurred between July and September 2023. On each occasion koala scat was found which could have been used to file a Bionet record, however the cumbersome nature of Bionet outweighs the benefit derived from entering multiple scat records. Previous survey work in Deepwater had been carried out by Steve Anyon-Smith and Tom Kristensen who provide koala sighting data to the Koala Management Team, Jodie McGill at NPWS, and to Sutherland Shire Council. Each of these agencies has taken shared responsibility for entering some of the 465 sightings collected by Steve and Tom, with data for Deepwater bundled into this backlog. It seems that the work of entering data onto bionet is exceeding capacity and few entries appear in Sutherland for the year 2023.
Observations
Freshly burnt areas represent a unique opportunity to easily observe scat on a black background, with a clear timeline An inspection made on September 5 after the burn revealed extensive koala scat dropped in burnt areas, vindicating the decision to treat the area as occupied by koalas regardless of whether they were observed by RFS on the day of the burn. The scat was from at least two different animals given clusters of different sized scat. Besides koala scat the burnt areas revealed scat dropped by wallabies, brushtail and ringtail possums. See Figure 2
Sutherland koalas are most often seen occupying grey gums, Eucalyptus punctata, and these trees reveal the most claw scratches having a soft smooth bark. Based on sighting records the second most favoured trees are the Sydney peppermint, Eucalyptus piperita, which has a fibrous bark that is more difficult to read for scratches. After the burn clearly evident scat fields indicate that koalas, large and small, were favouring peppermints over grey gums in the burnt area. No fresh green scat was found, all scat was copper-coloured and estimated to be a month old.
Section of the burnt area reveal high canopy scorching and the collapse of large peppermints fully consumed by fire. Peppermints are particularly vulnerable to repeated fires due to their low branching trunk structure, which is easily “piped” by fire at the base. Given the preference by koalas for these trees future burn plans might take this susceptibility into account.
Photographs of a young sub-adult koala named Theo provide a good match with a public sighting of a koala found in the grounds of Woronora public school on August 30, six weeks after the burn. Theo was first seen sheltering in the turpentine grove at the northwestern corner of the site. To reach the school Theo may have used footbridge to cross the Woronora River, the only crossing available, or he may have swam over. Koalas are known to seek out new territory after a burn has affected the quality of habitat. The disruption of koalas after burning may take months to play out as koalas compete and explore for new territory.
Theo before burn sheltering in Cheese tree, Glochidian ferdinandi, a rainforest species inside the turpentine grove that stands in the western gully of Deepwater. Turpentine forest is classified as TEC, Threatened Ecological CommunityTheo at school. After burn in an Angohora costata across the river in the school grounds of Woronora Public – picture from school facebook page
Conclusions
This report is best understood if read together with the RFS burn plan which speaks to fire intensity and the Review of Environmental Factors regarding koalas. Fire intensity should be planned with a view to preserving koala habitat as well as avoiding immediate harm to koalas. The REF suggests burns will be held off if koalas are observed on site, this is clearly an inadequate precaution given that koalas are not easily observed. Koalas should be assumed to be present where there are clear signs and recent sightings.
More inspections and mapping will add to our understanding of koalas living in the area and help shape fire planning. It is hoped future surveys across the shire will be conducted before and after burning to build a broader knowledge base. Ideally knowledge of koalas would be easily accessible to be shared amongst land managers and others with an interest in conserving koalas.
There is a clear need for staff trained in ecology to co-ordinate further surveys and provide advise to land managers. It is also likely that increasing community awareness of koalas will drive a need for more community engagement by managing agencies.
Figure 2 Scat observed in burnt area, small sub-adult (top) and larger adult (below) Note leaf drop post-fire and seedling germination (top)Figure 3 Fire damage to koala- favoured peppermint trees
The danger of water inrush has increased over the life of the Dendrobium coal mining operation, reaching a crisis during the flooding rains of 2022 when the board dropped plans to mine Area 5. This surprising decision was justified on commercial grounds in a climate of buoyant metallurgical coal prices. The retreat also followed a political attack and legal challenge to the Independent Planning to Commission, who had refused planning consent to mine Area 5 and 6, based on issues of water ingress. South32 had managed to convince parliament to disregard the IPC and proceed with an extension regardless, and now … nope, not happening.
South32 Chief Executive Graham Kerr explained the decision as “directing capital towards other opportunities” while “confident South32 can squeeze more coal out of the existing mine and Nearby Appin colliery for years to come”. No mention made of water issues with the mine, the problem blocking mine progress since it’s inception. Financial analysts pushing for renewables took the South32 decision to retreat as a sign of the demise of coal, while investors confident in a future for metallurgical coal reported “wet weather” as an explanation for South32 walking away from lucrative returns. [REF D]
Wet weather in the case of a “wet mine” like Dendrobium leads to flooding which can slow coal production and endanger the lives of miners. Mining disasters represent massive financial risk. Where the government is politically sensitive to loss of life a disaster can spell the termination of a mining operation. In 2017 Planning minister Stokes had signalled an urgent interest in mine safety on the Dendrobium lease by establishing an expert panel and later an IPC inquiry that collected negative assessments offered by other agencies. Terms of reference for the initial inquiry concentrated on “the height of cracking” at Dendrobium, underlining concern about mine flooding. Loss of water from reservoirs and dam safety were flagged as possiblities where “unconventional” cracking penetrates from surface to seam. The IPC was concerned that a leaking mine could drain the catchment in perpetuity, with water flooding out of the mine entrance sited lower than the reservoir.
After the IPC delivered South32 an unfavourable decision the Department of Planning and Environment, who favoured development, helped construct a mine-friendly campaign around BlueScope steelworks. Serial Planning minister Anthony Roberts, a close friend to the mining lobby, joined the political coup organised by then deputy premier John Barillaro to deliver Dendrobium the status of State Significant Infrastructure, deposing Stokes and regaining control of planning. Factions intent on pushing through planning approval may have lost sight of the dangers of ignoring the risk of disaster. After demolishing the independent review process, established to guard against corrupt conduct in the granting of coal leases, South32 seemed to have lost the will to capitalise on political advantage. Cold feet perhaps, or a reassessment of risk?
With the change in state government there was no change in fortune for South32, no political reason to drop expansion ambitions. In the event of disaster on the Dendrobium lease, Labor Planning minister Paul Scully now has the job of explaining why he also chose to ignore red flags raised by the IPC and others. In a Zoom meeting Scully explained that longwall mining, though more environmentally destructive than traditional bord and pillar, was safer for mine workers. Such an assurance ignoring the fact that the mine was leaking like a sieve due to subsidence cracking.
By failing to predict or explain the extent of mine flooding during the rainfall of 2022 hydrogeologists employed by South32 helped build the empirical case that the Dendrobium mine is operating under dangerous conditions. For a time the volume of water flooding the mine exceeded the capacity to pump it out. The link between rainfall and mine inflow is undeniably correlated yet there is a persistent denial that the mine is draining surface water. Admit nothing.
The further risk of damaging reservoir infrastructure was flagged by the Dam Safety Committee who had to argue for increased set-back limits. Such demonstrated uncertainty might be considered a safety issue. The risk previously divested by BHP is now in the lap of South32 who may repeat history and look to find an even smaller operator who will deal with the responsibility of mitigating risk and paying for rehabilitation. “South32 has hinted in recent times that BlueScope was the natural owner of the Illawarra mines, rather than a Perth-based company that was increasingly focused on the metals needed for decarbonisation.” [REF D]
Background
Longwall coal mining in the Illawarra has a long history of disasters; gas outbursts, fire, water inflows and tunnel collapse contributing to death of miners and jeopardising coal production. Operators weigh the risk of disaster and reputational damage against potential profits. Regulators will shut down mining operations after disasters; Wongawilli mine adjoining the Dendrobium lease is currently shut due to fire and collapse of the mine roof. Breaching safe operating practice is the primary trigger for mine closure by government. Entering the Dendrobium project BHP Billiton as parent company to Australian Iron and Steel Ltd, now Bluescope, was linked to the Appin mine disaster where a gas explosion in 1979 killed 14 people. Further gas outbursts in the Appin mine have seen long closures while gas is drained.
Feasibility studies for the Dendrobium project begun in 2000 assessed the safety risks of the mine project and whether those risks were acceptable to BHP. The Dendrobium project extending underneath three previous mines and jammed between Avon and Cordeaux reservoirs, with a driveway passing beneath Cordeaux reservoir, carried a high risk of water inflow that would be both expensive and dangerous to deal with. “The restricted mining areas has meant that geophysical parameters such as stress direction, roof strength variability and coal quality variations, have, for all intents and purposes, had to be dealt with as outcomes of the chosen mine layout rather than drivers of it.” [REF A pg. 25]. By 2015 the BHP board decided to drop the risks of coal mining in the Illawarra by creating another company South32 to transfer these risky mining assets.
Previous mines in grey, reservoirs in blue
In order to reach the larger untapped coal measures the mine progressed through Area1 with 2 longwall panels and Area 2 with 3 panels to establish a 6 km long underground driveway to begin transporting coal from the 14 panels comprising Areas 3A and 3B. As mining advanced with another 5 km of additional driveway, water inflows from the previous mines and collapsed panels in Areas 1 & 2 added to water collecting in Area 3 until pumping was unable to clear Area 3. “During March-April, very high rainfall resulted in high inflows to Area 2. Pumping from Area 3B was limited to prioritise pumping from Area 2 during that time.” [REF B pg. 15]
The prolonged period of flooding in 2022 preceded the decision to drop plans for the extension into Area 5; plans which would have added yet another 5km to the underground driveway, placing a flood-prone mine under further pressure to pump out an unpredictable volume of water while sending miners deeper into remote territory.
Consultants Advice
In April 2022 hydrogeology consultants HEC predicted groundwater inflows for Area 2 of Dendrobium mine to be stable at approx 1.1 ML/day. The total groundwater inflows of all mined areas were predicted to be 9.9 ML/day. Unfortunately wet weather intervened and the HEC predictions did not reflect the real situation, as can be seen in the report prepared by another consultant HGEO in September 2022. Area 2 inflows correlate closely with rainfall, and pumping from Area 3 was limited to prioritise Area 2 during this time. South32 had maintained that surface water hydrology was not directly related to groundwater discharge in the mine. Longer lag times and a low level of Tritium isotopes had been presented as evidence of an isolated groundwater balance. The rains of 2022 put a question mark to such assurances and it became imperative to understand why and where the increased inflow was coming from. In January of 2022 water ingress into Area 3 spiked at 16.21 ML/day as seen in Table2, section 3 of the Hgeo report, excerpt below. By September 2022 the daily inflow had climbed as high as 19 ML/day – nearly double the predictions offered in the previous HEC report.
Note: Units used in graphs are not consistent, changing from ML/year to ML/day
Timeline of Advice
1st April 2022 Appendix C HEC Surface Water Assessment for ICH Pty Ltd [REF C]
•23rd August South32 announces end of expansion plans for Area 5
•9th Sept 2022 South32 withdraws SSI application to mine Area 5
•15th Sept 2022 HGEO End of Panel Groundwater Assessment for Longwall 18 (Area 3B) Dendrobium
DENDROBIUM MINE End of Panel Groundwater Assessment For Longwall18
[REF B Pg. 15] “During March-April [2022] very high rainfall resulted in high inflows to Area 2.” Graph maps progress of each Longwall panel with panel 18 extending through 2022
Excerpts
An Olympic swimming pool containing 2.5 ML of water. During 2022 no less than 3 and sometimes 7 Olympic pools of water were pumped daily out of Dendrobium mine.
References
[REF A]
P. Whittall, Dendrobium Mine: From Paper to Production, in Naj Aziz and Bob Kininmonth (eds.), Proceedings of the 2004 Coal Operators’ Conference, Mining Engineering, University of Wollongong, 18-20 February 2019 https://ro.uow.edu.au/coal/125
[REF B]
DENDROBIUM MINE End of Panel Groundwater Assessment For Longwall18
[REF C]
Appendix C HEC Surface Water Assessment for ICH Pty Ltd
This written submission presents additional material to that put before the IPC via the electronic public hearing. I spoke about frogs and the need for independent scientific studies.
I am writing to oppose the proposal for expanding operations at the Russell Vale colliery. I am concerned that mining subsidence will continue to impact the ecology of the lease area through the draining of surface water and drawdown of groundwater in the upper slopes. These changes will have an adverse effect on Endangered Ecological Communities and raise the risk of catastrophic fire. I am further concerned that the planning process does not allow for adequate investigation of these impacts and that a Special Area set aside for the protection of water quality has now become a place where mining damage is concealed from independent scientific scrutiny.
I am aware that this proposal before the commission is for bordand pillar extraction rather than longwall mining, and that the predicted subsidence and ecological effects are said to be negligible. I have two concerns about the prediction of “negligible effects”. First, it is made despite the acknowledgment that there is more settlement yet to come from the previous longwall mining operations. Second, despite recording subsidence of 1.7 metres under upland swamps, the proponents have been unable to identify ANY previous effect on swamp ecology, guessing instead that changes observed are within natural variation. An alternative interpretation is that the monitoring methodology was insufficient to detect effects.
I have studied the recommendations of the IEPMC and I am not satisfied that the DPIE have paid sufficient regard to ecological issues as addressed in the Planning Secretary’s Final Assessment Report. I am not convinced the Revised UEP will result in only “imperceptible subsidence” as the Department assures us. Nonetheless the department has also recommended an increase in groundwater monitoring with the drilling of extra bores and placement of extra piezometers, recognising an inadequacy of past sampling. This engineering solution is but a single blunt tool to measure ecological outcomes, and it has failed in the past. The pattern of drying after subsidence covers the broader landscape and selective monitoring of sites will only tell a fraction of the story. The proponent has a poor history of identifying changes in the environment and there is no reason to expect a change in outlook; coal-miningcompanies are not in the business of identifying ecological problems.
There are various ways of investigating ecological change in the landscape. I have a belief in field research; carefully tracking the abundance and distribution of plants and animals while noting environmental changes.
I live in Maianbar inside the Royal National Park south of Sydney, on Dharawal country. I have a degree in ecology from the University of Sydney. I work on a citizen science project,studying frogs by pooling data from recordings made using a smart phone app. Two endangered frogs grab my attention most, the giant burrowing frog and the red-crowned toadlet. One is as large as an apple and the other is as small as a grape. One is a solitary creature filling an entire valley with a wailing trill on a rainy night, while the other is gregarious and chatty whenever there is water to enjoy. The giant burrowing frog has a larger southern range and is listed by both State and Federalgovernments as a threatened species, while the red-crowned toadlet exists in greater numbers; its range is tightly constricted to Sydney sandstone country and it has a State listing as a threatened species. Both frogs are dependent on upland water supplies; but both live principally outside of swamps, both also live within the lease area of the Russell Vale colliery. There is a possible third endangered frog, Littlejohn’s tree frog and a large faunal assemblage including the Giant dragonfly – also a threatened species, but for now I will concentrate on the one frog.
The red crowned toadlet, Psuedophryne australis is a tough little frog that might help us monitor the drying of the environment. It doesn’t cope with urbanization, but left alone, it does very well, coping with the adversity of drought and fire. Similar to the iconic alpine Corroboree frog, also in the genus Psuedophryne, a small dark frog with vivid yellow marking resembling body paint, the red-crowned toadlet wears striking red markings most obvious on the top of head.
After the recent drought ended, the local frogs started calling again, and some have been calling ever since. Red-crowns call day and night, continually advertising the presence of free water. As that water disappears, the calls dial down. The calling is done by the mature males, alerting widely dispersed females and sub adults to the availability of water, essential for reproduction.
The life cycle of a frog begins in water with an egg mass and then tadpoles start a race against time to produce legs and venture onto land. Red-crowns live in rudimentary burrows, which makes them a little cocky; unlike other more common frogs that fall silent as you approach, the red-crowns keep calling. Living in a burrow affords protection from predators and also protects them from desiccation. They also lay their eggs under shelter, giving their tadpoles that same protection. This ability to inhabit a burrow means these frogs can live in drier conditions, but it also means they need to site the breeding nests in a place that will be occasionally wet, so the common location is upstream where the water flow is not too heavy after rain. Red crowns are mostly found in the drainage lines that go on to form the creeks downstream.
If you were thirsty and looking for water you could do worse than listen out for red-crowns calling; the more reliable the water hole, the louder and more animated the calling will be. Ina large group, each frog takes a slightly different part and helpsbuild a distinct orchestral piece. As the water dries out after rain, only the most enduring water holes remain audible in the landscape. Usually these water holes will have a solid rock bottom; and often they are covered over with fallen debris and quite hidden from view.
Because they croak so readily, red-crowns are easily surveyed.Their changing calling patterns may provide valuable insight into the availability of water to a wider range of animals. Other frogs, small mammals, birds and reptiles will also drink and hunt from these hidden water holes. While the sound of frogs calling might reveal hidden water in the landscape, the lack of calls may reveal missing water. If frogs are unable to complete their breeding cycle due to insufficient surface water they will no longer be able to persist in the long-term. Mining related cracking depletes surface water and increases the rate at which ponds go dry. If rainfall no longer brings on the croaking of toadlets, that might reveal something of the condition of a landscape that is no longer periodically wet enough to support these hardy frogs.
Mining-induced cracking may be simulating drought conditions for our Endangered Ecological Communities; we may be running an unmonitored experiment. Cracking in upland sections of bush is off the radar compared to cracking of open creek beds. Cracking under the soil can go unnoticed. Disruptions in upland drainage lines may not be obvious sincewater is not normally visible in this environment. Monitoring of groundwater in swamps will miss effects that are felt in the drier slopes surrounding the swamps. The lack of water is not just a problem for the persistence of threatened species; it is an existential problem for people.
As a member of the Rural Fire Service I have seen the consequences of uncontrolled wildfire first hand. These extreme fire events, as witnessed only last summer, are not of the same class as bushfires; crown fires exceed tree canopy heights by multiples, fire propagates in unforeseen directions, and unique cloud formations draw winds in that feed the conflagration. After the fire has finished, the recovery response of vegetation is often crippled; stands of gum trees that would once have sprouted with vivid epi-cormic growth remain dead, shrubs that would have re-sprouted from the base remain dead, and seeds that would have germinated have been incinerated. Animals are likewise obliterated. This catastrophic damage does not account for the entire fire ground, there are still islands of green and larger burnt areas that will fully recover, but there are also the dead zones. The extent of these areas is determined by fuel factors and weather conditions. Where there is sufficient groundwater the vegetation will hold higher moisture content and burn with less intensity. Water retained in the environment is the best preventative for fire damage.
There are important questions to be answered about ecology and the disruption of water supply by coal mining in the protected Special Areas. I would ask the Panel to consider facilitating access to this lease area by ecologists other than those hired by the proponent. I propose further study of red-crowned toadlets as an indicator species for the drying environment. The protection afforded by Special Area status should not be used to shield mining operators who can make the unimpeachable claim that they are having a “negligible effect” on the environment. If we don’t look we wont see, and if we don’t listen for the frogs we wont hear them either.
Dharawal National Park was declared in March 2012 by the newly elected Liberal-National state government led by Barry O’Farrell who had campaigned on the promise of ending mining in the water catchment. “no ifs, no buts”. Today Dharwal remains a place of wild beauty with deep tree-filled valleys sloping down to glittering creeks and pools, all part of the intact geology remaining after millions of years of sedimentation and erosion. Inside the Dharawal story, is a new chapter, a small handkerchief dropped into the plot of deep time. On the map the park is uniformly green except for oddly shaped pale patches that remain under the care and control of other parties, at the bottom a coffin-shaped section denotes a firing range. Another conspicuous remnant sits in the very middle of the park with its own access road. On this land, behind a cyclone wire fence and signs warning of explosive gas is the entrance to the defunct North Cliff colliery, the rusting gantry tower looming over a large concrete slab that seals the mine like a tomb. From under the edge of the slab the unceasing hissing of sulphurous escaping methane gas can be heard.
North Cliff gantry site in the middle of Dharawal National park, circled, is part of the West Cliff mine
SPECIAL AREAS
In the late nineteenth century large ‘Special Areas’ of bushland had been set aside to secure clean water for the growing cities of Sydney and Wollongong. Dharawal covers the O’Hares Creek and Stokes Creek catchments and sits between the Woronora Special Area and the larger Metropolitan Special Area. In 1927 this area was declared a water catchment, but by 1978 it was decided no more dams would be built and the protected catchment status was no longer needed, the land might be excised from the Special Areas and better used for mining and recreation. Underground coal mining was already underway in Dharawal but ongoing mining would now occur in an area known as State Conservation Area, while the area not yet mined was known as Nature Reserve. The juggling of permissible land use was glossing over the fact that mining inside the Special Area water catchments had always been illegal, Special Area status prohibits any activity that results in damage to the catchment. The change in planning priorities from protecting water to protecting mining is explained by the increasing wealth and influence of the coal lobby in politics.
The Special Areas set aside for the collection of clean drinking water. Mining damage goes unnoticed when entry by foot attracts a $44,000 fine.
MOUNTAINS OF COAL
In the 1970’s longwall coal mining technology allowed for a tripling of underground coal extraction over traditional tunneling methods. Up to 90 percent of an entire coal seam could be bought to the surface. One downside was a dramatic increase in subsidence damage above the enormous subterranean voids, up to 4km long and 300 m wide. These panels ranked side by side undermining the entire landscape. The new money to be made from mountains of coal called for new deals done between coal companies, planning regulators and politicians, but the scale of the surface damage would prove a challenge to gaining approval as community groups sprang up to oppose the scale of the destruction. Unpaid activists attempted to battle corporate interests with unlimited capital.
The lure of easy money quickly set up a rolling series of corruption scandals that engulfed successive Labor state governments and paved the way for the O’Farrell opposition. Once in power O’Farrell would need to differentiate his government from the outgoing Labor power-brokers heading into court and into gaol. Coal had become suspect political property. Dharawal was offered to the wider electorate as a token of good faith. Environmentalists had fought hard to protect the area and the promise to declare Dharawal had helped deliver local Liberal candidates record large swings in marginal seats. But after Dharawal was delivered, the promise of no further mining in the catchment (no if’s no buts) evaporated. A tacit arrangement emerged between Labor and Liberal-Nationals that meant no future coal project would achieve prominence by parliamentary debate. The production of coal accelerated, approvals ticked over.. In June of 2020 the Greens would be gagged from addressing a petition of 10600 signatures presented to parliament protesting mining under the Woronora reservoir. All speakers spoke in favour of mining including Lee Evans the local Liberal who had campaigned with O’Farrell on the issue. Also keen to allow mining under the reservoir was the water minister and her Labor shadow. By 2022 mining consent become the exclusive domain of the planning minister.
Coal mining leases in the Special Areas. Dharawal is pockmarked with exploratory holes, indicating intense investigation .
DEPARTMENTAL RESTRUCTURING
In the decade following the Dharawal declaration the Liberal-National government moved to restructure the planning process. The Independent Commision Against Corruption, the ICAC, that was largely responsible for uncovering coal corruption was set on a path of downsizing and underfunding. The Sydney Catchment Authority was disbanded with key proponents sidelined. The Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water was abolished. The Office of Environment and Heritage was disbanded. The Ministry of Environment was subsumed into an expanded Department of Planning Industry and Environment with ultimate control resting with the senior Planning minister. The Minister of the Environment no longer had a department to minister over. Environmental protections would be morphed into an offset methodology that put a price on everything and protected nothing. Dharawal was a turning point of sorts, but by no means a rejection of mining in the water catchment.
North Cliff portal with surrounding exploration drilling sites indicated by outlined circles. Like a game of battleships more misses than hits might indicate a losing game.
GAS OUTBURSTS
The history of mining in Dharawal illustrates an example of regulatory capture by mining interests; land set aside for water was reclaimed for mining, then used as a political offset to conceal other large mining operations in the Special Areas. The pivot over Dharawal may have also added to the bottom line of the miner. Mining leases are a gamble, not all operations are profitable. The profitability of the mining operation was in question while large compensation was demanded to relinquish the mining lease. The declaration of Dharawal National Park followed 30 years of stop-start longwall mining in the area that produced erratic volumes of coal under hazardous conditions, ongoing underground gas outbursts resulting in long recurring periods of evacuation of the mine while dangerous gases were ventilated. Making gassy mines safe requires expensive drilling to install gas ranges to tap off the gas. Dealing with that gas presents another problem, large vent towers with fans are needed. The gas itself represent a carbon emissions liability.
Mining disasters with large loss of life are not unprecedented, in 1979 14 miners were killed in a gas explosion in the nearby Appin mine owned by the same corporation. Another death in 1994 had occurred at NorthCliff illustrating the grim possibilities of continuing to work a gassy mine. The Dharawal coal reserves were problematic, gas outbursts threatened smooth production and hazards to life threatened regulatory oversight. When the Dharawal reserves were “sterilised” the coal companies had secured a route to planning approval to extend the operation of other less problematic mines inside the Special Areas. As well as an assured future in other parts of the Special Areas the relinquishment set out undisclosed compensation payments for unrealised economic potential and return on exploration costs and lease fees.
Coal is part of the steel-making supply chain. Land undermined and de-watered for coal is also core habitat for koalas
HIDDEN LIABILITIES
Coal leases grow over time as mines expand and permissions are negotiated. Adjoining leases can be consolidated and regularly change ownership. With each change in legal status can come rebranding and commercial arrangements that are held in-confidence for new and extended periods. Past liabilities for remediation or compensation can easily pass into the nether world of buried mining deals.
The economic gains from coal mining in the Illawarra are largely realised as corporate profits on export sales. 90% of the coal leaves on ships loaded from Port Kembla. Transportation costs mean that the closest coal to the port is also the most profitable. The cost of road infrastructure required to transport Dharawal coal was another problem for the miners to weigh up when deciding on whether to strike a deal and relinquish this lease area. Other leases owned by the same corporation would easily meet market needs.
The commercial value of the Dharawal lease was known only to the miner. Factors including the extent and quality of the coal that could be recovered, the cost of recovery and the cost of transportation of coal and disposal of waste, would all weight into the compensation cost incurred by the incoming Premier. Given that the miner was able to set the price, it would be reasonable to assume the compensation package was sufficient. The final cost of compensation remains hidden, but elements were laid out in publicly available documents. By responding to the premiers request to declare a national park the miner was able to produce a list of 9.5 million dollars worth of exploration costs, adjusted for inflation. Added to this are the refunded lease fees and loss of projected earnings.
SECRECY
Mining projects are subject to assessment by government through a “planning approval” process. To gain approval the miner is required to submit an Environmental Assessment Report which answers a set criteria laid out by the Departmental Secretary, who enacts the will of the Minister. So long as such questions are answered, approval might be expected. Answers might be modified if need be, but approval is the desired end point of the approval process. The negotiations take place between the miner and the department and out of the public eye.
Special Areas list of prohibitions does include bushwalking but does not include coal mining. Everything that happens within the Special Area is a secret from the public view.
TRANSPARENCY
One part of planning approval is designed to appear transparent; the process of public inquiry that is conducted to answer the suspicion of secret deals made against the public interest.
In order to gain planning permission to mine a larger parcel of land the miner was eventually subject to an inquiry in 2010 under a Planning Assessment Commission, or PAC, formed within the Department of Planning. The proposed project was known as the Bulli Seam Operation and would see the extraction of coal over 30 years from 136 longwall panels. As well as natural bushland areas, 222 swamps of natural significance, water catchment for Cataract dam, and large tracts of housing and public roads would be impacted. The PAC process would be a turning point for a range of reasons.
The BSO PAC inquiry was open to public submissions, but met in private with various interested government agencies. Also included in the process were a small number of unpaid community voices selected under the banner of a Community Consultative Committee, or CCC. This group would become specialised advocates to counter the almost inevitable planning approval. The public inquiry process devolved to a battle of expertise that soon became a game played behind closed doors. As it transpired the BSO was overturned, but whether this was a result of grassroots opposition or pressure from other quarters is unclear. Given the weight of submissions against the proposal and reading the political tea leaves the PAC ruled that the proponent’s evidence was misleading, unreliable, untrustworthy, and of insufficient rigor to grant approval. None were more surprised than members of the CCC who had assumed they had just been registering a protest to the inevitable progress of mining. The finding of the PAC gave Barry O’Farrell the trigger to declare Dharawal.
DIVESTMENT
In 2012 the Big Australian BHP/Billiton were the largest miner in the Southern coalfields, they had recently divested the steel mill in Port Kemblaand BHP operating through its subsidiary Illawarra Coal chose this time to divest from coal assets. An increasing tide of investor concern about coal emissions and climate change had meant that coal assets were damaging the brand. BHP had to avoid the appearance of a major corporation denying climate change and holding onto the risk of stranded assets. A new specialised company South32 was created to take on the BHP coal assets and weather whatever public disapproval might arise. In this way the Big Australian was able to wash its hands of a problematic coal operation while at the same time reaping a corporate profit. South32 continue to mine inside the Special Areas and operate the Appin and Dendrobium mines. South32 are skilled in putting in aggressive plans for coal extraction that discounts all opposition.
Mining under protected wilderness area has a huge impact on biodiversity. The Giant Dragonfly lived in the upland swamps that are drained by coal mining.
REMEDIATION
When the Dharawal park was declared in 2012 it carried the promise that protection extended to the core of the earth, this concealed the fact that mining activity had already nibbled into the area. Longwalls have been carved out under a large northeast section of the park. Large driveways lead from the Northcliff mine to other parts. Despite the win in saving Dharawal the land bears the scars of extensive mining activity. Coal mining begins with exploration leases which permit the building of roads, drilling of holes and seismic blasting. Before coal can be removed infrastructure must be built. Large areas are cleared at the pithead for storing bulk coal and processing. Mine waste and coal wash might make up as much as 20% of the ‘run of mill’ material coming to the surface. All this material has to be stored or transported. Settling ponds and waste heaps further extend the land claimed by the mine. Some surface impacts are subject to remediation requirements enforced by the regulator to varying degrees of success. There are other impacts that can never be reversed, the cracks that can never be filled, the aquifers that will never recharge and the gas that will continue to hiss out of the fractured ground. By on-selling problematic assets corporations also pass on the liabilities to smaller aggressive operators who have no public image to protect. BHP gave birth to South32 who were able to connect with Bluescope, another BHP offshoot, to overthrow the Independent Planning Commission. By lining up all major party politicians the Dendrobium mine was declared State Significant Infrastructure, and all objections overlooked. Such is the legacy of BHP decarbonising; coal mines are now synonymous with infrastructure and miners take open control of planning approval. The bright green future beckons.
What’s a koala worth? Just suppose you were responsible for looking after koala habitat, but you decided to gather royalties from the land by leasing it out to mine coal, koalas would be moved on. Is there a price you could charge the mine operator to compensate for the death of the dispossessed koalas? As it so happens there is such a scheme in New South Wales and prices start as low as $345. Bargain! This is the ‘spot price’ of a single ‘species credit’, an IOU for a dead koala, or part there-of. It’s a win-win, the miner makes money from coal and the government picks up a little extra cash for dead koalas. And where do you go to get your dead koala dispensation? The DPIE – Department of Planning, Industry and Environment. Note that ‘Environment’ is subordinate to Planning and Industry. There is a senior planning minister and there is a junior environment minister but only the senior minister has control of a department. (EDIT: DPIE was changed to DPE under Matt Kean and then DCCEEW under Penny Sharpe)
The price of threatened species on the biobank spot market.
The history is dry but it is important; through the evolution of management structures patterns emerge; intractable environmental problems are smoothed over while the need for planning consent is promoted. One constant is the word ‘biodiversity’, it encompasses the idea of ‘nature’ – and all the drawers full of stuff in the natural history museum, the mineral specimens, the bugs and bird pelts, and all that footage in David Attenborough’s back room. There is the stuff we admire and there is the stuff we use to get rich by turning into other stuff; koalas into coats, logs into timber, coal into steam, ore into metal. The trick is to protect the diversity of the natural world and simultaneously extract value from it. The problem is that all this stuff is tangled together; the birds need the bugs, and the koalas need the trees, and the trees need the rocks, and so on. Managing biodiversity might be seen as a project of ‘sustainability’, keeping things as they are, or it might be an exercise in accountancy, moving assets around to maximum advantage, like opening an offset savings account.
There develops a list of negatives that attach to offset methodology, ways in which offsets are inadequate and ways in which the offset process can be corrupted. These weaknesses could be addressed over time or they could develop further, in NSW the weaknesses have proliferated. The Nature Conservation Council released a report in 2016,
The idea of the biodiversity offset was developed in the USA in the 1970s as a way to recreate natural settings. One section of river could be dammed and developed for urban expansion after the river was diverted into nearby farmland. If the newly established river banks were properly replanted it would be an adequate offset for the missing original section of river. To the casual observer this is a marvellous trick, a sleight of hand where a coin can disappear from the hand to reappear behind your ear. With skill it seems possible to produce something new that is just as good as that which has disappeared. The reality is that the new river is an artifice, it is redirection, like the magic trick it relies on a lapse in attention, you may not notice that which has gone missing. Once large trees have been removed it may seem that the young saplings are a reasonable replacement. The assumption is that everqything important will be transported along with the conceptual urge to recreate. In NSW the recent decision to clear koala habitat to allow for an expanding quarry site is justified by providing nearby offset land, yet to be planted with koala feed trees.
2. The Unseen Losses
The example of redirecting a river is one type of active intervention where the water might heal the landscape. Aquatic plants and animals can move with the water to inhabit the new offset site. The water itself will draw life to relocate. Some features will be left behind, the stream bed, the roots of ancient trees, the animals that burrow in these roots perhaps an ideal habitat for particular rare species like a platypus. Other environmental factors might flow from diverting water, the turbidity and salinity might increase. It would take a particularly dedicated level of scrutiny to assess these possibilities and to monitor the changes over time. Perhaps the expense of close scrutiny is not the first priority of those seeking development consent. Mining destroys ancient underground rivers that are home to fragile undiscovered subterranean animals known as the stygofauna and troglofauna, it might be convenient to destroy these unseen life forms without first looking for them.
3. Switching Near and Far
Another scenario, besides the moveable river, common in NSW is the clearing of land for housing development. Here an offset site may be another block of land that is not adjacent to the development site. Koalas are victim to this type of offset planning, trees that are felled in an area with enough forest to support a viable koala colony cannot be offset by other trees that are not connected to that area. The ‘connectivity’ value of a particular site can’t be offset by a similar disconnected site. Fragmented landscapes occur over large scales and they die a death of a thousand cuts. Smaller blocks have greater edge effects . Koalas are nomadic and capable of crossing open ground to find fresh trees, but they are also extremely vulnerable to dog attack and car strike. Fragmented landscapes are criss-crossed with roads and fences, urbanisation brings disruption and danger.
4. The Liability of Responsibility
Offsetting is best defended where it is used to protect and remediate sites that have unrecognised biodiversity values that are very similar to the development site. This is the ‘like-for-like’ exchange. Taking the example of woodland forest, it’s possible for farmland to revert to woodland over time. Even though it had been cleared for grazing there exists a seed bank within the soil, rare and endangered plants may resume their place in the understory. Given the passage of decades large trees may grow, and the cleared farmland earmarked for housing may now have high biodiversity value. Clearing that land for a second time might be in breach of conservation laws, and the property speculator may feel aggrieved that a real estate investment had been thwarted by the unwanted regrowth. One solution for the wary landholder is to continually keep the land cleared so that it never attracts unwanted attention, another solution is to make revegetated land available as an offset to another development. This is the crux of recent squabbling within the NSW government, land gaining value for housing development is also land supporting koala populations.
5. Halving of Assets
Take a moment to recognise the planning paradox of awarding offset credits to landholders with valuable biodiversity assets; that value is only realised if there is a market demand for the credits, meaning a similar area of land with similar assets will be cleared. This is the mathematics of decline, one block is saved when another is cleared. In accounting terms this is known as a net loss. Notice how easily the economic parlance of assets and values becomes attached to environmental attributes, and appreciate how the apprehension of damage can drive those values; increasing scarcity creates value. The concept of biobanking incentivises scarcity. When koalas are relatively common there is no incentive to protect them, by the time they are endangered their value as a tradable commodity will not protect them.
6. Temporary Perpetual Stewardship
Stepping back again, let’s also recognise the inevitable question, what happens when the offset block is required for another housing estate? In theory the ‘stewardship’ of offset land is a responsibility carried ‘in perpetuity’, – for ever and ever. In practice the offset steward is given a modest upfront payment that shortly dwindles to a pittance. Perhaps there is money to build a fence to protect a koala colony, but that fence will not be maintained. Small stewardship fees will disappear while the profits offered by development will remain a continual lure to alter the stewardship agreement. We can guess that ‘perpetual’ stewardship is highly unlikely and is more accurately described as ‘temporary’. The use and abuse of language to support the illusory benefits of offset methodology is revealing; positive outcomes are assumed to flow from positive language.
7. Avoidance of Avoidance
Offsetting is presented as a measure of last resort. The planning mantra is that offsetting should only be used as the last resort after reasonable attempts have been made to avoid doing damage, or repairing any damage done. Avoid, Mitigate, Offset. In reality the temptation to slip through to the offset mechanism is irresistible. If avoiding an adverse impact is seen to affect the profitability of a project that alone is reason to skip the avoidance requirement. Mitigation of damage is only considered necessary where it can be demonstrated to be cost effective, and making good irreparable damage is a fruitless promise best put to one side. Some effort will be made towards cosmetic remediation – a strip of trees along a roadside or ridge line to create the appearance of forest, or cracks filled in a stream bed to give the impression of an intact watercourse. These measures are designed for the corporate prestige rather than environmental benefit. By far the cheapest approach to gaining consent is to promise offsets. Offsets are preferred because they deliver the highest profits, the only reason to abandon offsets is again where the cost becomes prohibitive, but where the proponent controls the assessment process the costs are also managed.
8. The Cost of Consulting
The BAM – Biodiversity Assessment Methodology is entirely transparent, all the information is online. It has been designed so that any landholder can engage. Like a tax return the integrity of homework may be subject to audit, or not. For those developers seeking a smooth path to development consent there are offset consultants who will work to drive down your biodiversity assessment costs. Like any accountant there are fees to be paid for handling the paperwork and delivering the lowest return. Like taxation law, the BOP – Biodiversity Offset Policy is full of detail that can be used to the advantage of the developer and against the environment. These consultancies employ ecologists, people who may have hoped to protect biodiversity are now paid by clients to reduce that responsibility.
9. Compliance and Corporate Culture
Offset planning provides a theoretical pathway for responsible development, but it can be instructive to see how the planning process plays out in reality. Large corporations have the political and financial resources to extract maximum advantage by ‘gaming the system”. With a coal mining project the timeline begins with establishing a mining lease., either on crown land or private property. This initial step carries the potential for corruption with the windfall profits to be made from assigning mining rights. With exploration begins the flow of revenue to the government and also begins the environmental destruction; roads are built, holes are drilled, explosions set off underground. The commercial arrangement develops where the mining company pays the DPIE to accept its own assessment of the damage to be done. The unseemly haggling to minimise the declared damage and drive down the cost of offsets will carry on for years up until such time as the mine is no longer profitable. When the flow of money dries up the cost of the damage becomes an unfunded problem for the future.
10. Adaptive Management
Planning approval to proceed with a mining project is subject to conditions of consent including a negotiated offset package. Each threatened species and threatened community will have an individual tally of required species credits based on formulas that have been assessed and calculated by offset consultants working for the proponent. The ‘retirement’ of those offsets may be decided in time on review of ‘performance criteria’ subject to ongoing monitoring and ‘adaptive management’. For instance, a drained upland swamp may be deemed to retain some biodiversity value and only subject to partial offsets. A Koala may be found wandering the carpark looking for missing trees and taken as proof that impacts are not so bad after all.
11. Capture of Conservationists
When site-based offsets are recognised as an impossible task in a finite world of dwindling biodiversity assetts the time comes to offer up cash to the Biodiversity Consevation Fund. The species credits have a dollar value for this precise purpose; to provide developers an escape from the real world of conservation. Those conservation biologists not working in the offset consultancy industry are now caught in the net of seeking funding that derives from development. Naturally the discretion of funding approval may be linked to the interests of the source of that funding.
12. Buying Bureaucrats
The arcane intricacies of Biodiversity Offset Policy BOP gives power to a small number of closely involved players with sufficient knowledge to navigate the system. The career path of those involved may begin within government and proceed to contracts outside government in consultancy work or other business positions in land development. In truth it is never clear on whose behalf the public servant is working while seeking to smooth the planning process. Legislative obstacles that are impediments to cash flow affect the motivation of government employees and enterprise, the issue of conflict of interest becomes very murky as consultants re-enter the employ of government while also working in the private sector. The distinction between service in the public and private sectors is lost.
13. Limitless Power
By exerting control and capture of all parts of the planning process; removing antithetical government agencies, replacing legislation, defunding political opposition – the planning minister has control of a monolithic structure that yields only to political instruction. The entire organisation is entirely transparent, except when it isn’t. The appointment of experts onto panels of Enquiry, the appointment of Commissioners onto public panels, the appointment of judges into the Land and Environment Court – all these political decisions direct the process and the outcome.
Conclusion
Some of the preceding guff may help explain the decision by the DPIE to sanction mining in the Sydney water catchment, while justifying the destruction as a net benefit to both water and biodiversity resources. The 39 species credits that attach specifically to koalas – from the clearing of 28 hectares and the de-watering of 940 hectares of koala habitat – will bring in the princely sum of $29,055, payable after further challenge by the proponent South 32. None of this reflects on the good standing of BHP, the Big Australian who acquired the mining lease, secured planning permission and then divested the assert to offset damage to their corporate reputation. Green washing and aspirational offsetting allow the semblance of conservation, while the reality is that the destruction continues unabated. Time to call a spade a spade and offload an offset methodology built and maintained by developers. Offsetting does contain the germ of a good idea, to make the best of a bad situation, but it is now no more than having your cake and eating it too.
the price of a koala species credit from the NSW biobank
Afterword
The IPC, Independent Planning Commission, were required to review the DPIE sponsored plan by South32 to expand the Dendrobium coal mine, and they rejected the proposal. The use of offsets had finally exceeded the capacity of forgiveness for bullshit. Until… Mark Latham conspired with Labor to wedge the planning minister, but that’s another story.
Bushfire may be the most extreme ecological change we can witness, it is destructive, it is inevitable, and it is necessary. Fire is essential to the ecology of most plant communities in the Royal National Park. Our flora is largely adapted to fire with strategies to regrow and reproduce after a fire event. Many plants depend on this fire response to complete the life cycle. Some marsupial reproduction may also be geared to take advantage of the green pick that flourishes after fire. In past millennia under aboriginal care there have been seasonal fires lit with the purpose of increasing accessibility and the productivity of the country. There is good reason to assume that our notion of an ideal natural environment should include more fire, but there are limits:
Damaging Fires
Too hot. Fire that escapes into the canopy of the trees will kill a range of plants and the animals that take refuge in treetops. When the landscape is renewed there will be a suite of plant and animal species missing, diversity will suffer.
Too extensive. Fire that is uncontrolled will burn longer and further, the sheer scale of destruction will produce additional destructive effects. Where fires are controlled and restricted to a small scale there is a mosaic pattern of burnt and unburnt land, this allows for movement of animals between different areas and recolonisation after fire. Likewise, plant species that are burnt in smaller patches will be more likely to re-establish after fire. In a parcel of bushland surrounded by a cleared landscape there can be little re-colonisation from the surrounding area.
Too frequent. The re-establishment of life after the fire takes time. Plants that regrow from seed take time to mature and set new seed, animals also take time to recolonise after the plant life rebounds. The fire alters the physical landscape too, soil and rocks are baked, beds of ash cover the hills and move into the creek beds, all this takes time to return to stasis.
Fire management
Controlled ecological burns do take place in the Royal under the National Park and Wildlife Services. These fires are infrequent and subject to limited staff numbers and equipment, by comparison the Rural Fire Service is well resourced. The RFS is given the responsibility to conduct hazard reduction burns to protect housing adjoining bushland. When fire in the park is out of control command is given over to the RFS and while the NPWS will continue to assist, the task of managing risk and taking strategic decisions rest with the RFS. The priority of the RFS is to protect human life, of the public and of the firefighters, then to protect property. Risking life to protect the bush is perhaps a low priority. Putting out the fire is the objective and this should be done safely and as easily as possible. Ecological objectives are not forgotten but they are weighed up somewhere in the mix. There are a raft of issues that create a tension between good ecological management and effective fire control, remembering that poor fire control can lead to disastrous ecological outcomes:
Back burning. One way to stop a fire is to remove fuel in its path. If there is sufficient time, and the wind feeding the fire is favourable, and if there is good access, it is then easy to set a line of controlled fire that will advance towards the oncoming wildfire. When the two fires meet they will subside having burnt everything on the fire ground. The back burn will usually be set where there is vehicular access to allow for water tankers to protect the fire fighters and guard against the possibility that the back burn will itself go out of control. This strategy means that a large area of land may be burnt between the back burn and the wildfire and fleeing wildlife will be trapped between the two fires. The back burn may be set on land that would not necessarily burn if left alone. Perhaps a gully with moist vegetation that would not necessarily set fire by normal ember attack, and this artificial fire will be burn with greater speed, uphill rather than down, again trapping escaping wildlife. Again the cost of doing nothing must be weighed against the cost of taking practical action. There may be alternative strategies, like proceeding into the bush away from the protection of the tankers, but this carries greater risk, again an exercise in balancing costs.
Water. Another way to put out a fire is to douse it with water, if that water comes from the ocean it will contain salt that will stay in the soil and prevent plants from growing. The bare landscape will then be open to erosion and soil will be lost and watercourses will be choked with increased sediment. The tankers refill from fresh water sources, weirs and hydrants, but the choppers are able to scoop water from the beaches, and where the ocean is close it may save valuable flying time. An Erickson skycrane was filmed taking seawater from Garrie beach for the Curra Moors fire and there was some minority social media comment made about the damage to the environment. The public appetite seemed to be extinguish at any cost, but it was reassuring that RFS Sutherland fire control were quick to post other clips and shots of choppers taking water from freshwater sources. Using saltwater is a known problem and should be an option of last resort. It may be that the RFS fire control is more open to ecological concerns than the general public. When it comes to the fear of fire the bush becomes an enemy and those who are concerned for the bush become caught in an ideological war where lives and houses are seen to trump all other concerns, no matter how distant the fire threat may be.
Fire retardant. The most expensive way to deal with fire is to use a chemical retardant. In this fire retardant was spread by use of a Very Large Air Tanker, a modified DC8, with a reputed cost of $40000 per drop of bright pink retardant. While not as damaging as salt water the retardant does contain high levels of ammonia which will alter the growing conditions for plants, especially in or near the waterways. Here are some extracts from an RFS factsheet on fire retardants:
The NSW RFS drops fire suppressant retardants and gels such as Phos-Check®, Blazetamer and Thermo-Gel from aircraft during firefighting operations to help slow the spread of a fire.
Long-term fire suppressants such as retardants are essentially fertilisers (ammonium and diammonium sulphate and ammonium phosphate), with thickeners (guar gum) and corrosion inhibitors (for aircraft safety).
Sometimes a red coloured pigment, made from iron oxide, is added so that those spraying can see where they have released the fire retardant. Examples are Phos-Chek MVP-fx and Phos-Chek 259-F.
Short-term fire suppressant foams are made of a combination of wetting agents and foaming chemicals, mixed with water. This allows the water to penetrate surfaces more easily. Their usefulness is limited against high-intensity fires, where long-term retardants have proven more successful. Examples are Angus ForExpan S, and Phos-Chek WD-881.
Containment. When the fire is surrounded by burnt out land the fire will subside and eventually die out. After the flames die there will be trees and logs that continue to smoulder and gusty winds can restart new fires. This protracted period of danger can be shortened if all land within the containment lines is burnt out quickly. The burning can be accelerated by the use of aerial incendiaries. This need to bring the fire to a quick end may run counter to good ecological management, it may be better if the fire ground retained patchy areas of burnt and unburnt vegetation.
Clean Up. After the fire there is further work to be done that may have environmental consequences. Burnt trees are sometimes unstable and may represent a risk to the public if they were to fall on the roadway; black tree, black road – an accident waiting to happen. These burnt trees also have habitat value for wildlife, many birds, bats and possums nest or roost inside the shelter created by the sculpting effect of fire. Many species are entirely dependent on these hollows to reproduce. It would be good if tree felling after the fire was sensitive to these ecological values.
Contaminants will arise from the destruction of infrastructure. There was a time when all the “hardware” in the park was made of timber or steel, but now the use of plastics has gained a foothold. Roadside markers are now made of plastic and these wilt in the radiant heat, but more worrying are the kilometres of fibreglass footpaths that turn into fine filaments that will remain as permanent detritus in the park. The walk to Wedding Cake rock was unaffected by this fire but the section of new track north of Garrie beach has been burnt out. Clean up will involve careful raking and removal of all affected topsoil.
Meet Elvis the deer in his prime, antlers aloft, coat shiny and sleek. This photo was taken back in the winter breeding season when good looks are important. In the heat of summer the antlers have been shed and the fur is looking mangy. Deer herds are now congregating under the shade of safe houses where they have easy access to water and a daily feed of vegetable scraps and treats. Older males and younger bucks seem to get along at this time of year. When the sun goes down the deer are up and about trimming the grassy lawns down to a perfect stubble. The urban deer will take refuge in the bush if they are threatened, but it seems they have reached an arrangement in Maianbar of live and let live. Of course they are an ecological nightmare, but that’s another story.
Trigger warning, a few pictures of a dead animal follow, also some material of a sexual nature, but be assured no cruelty or misadventure is indicated.
Out on my daily walk I came across a little dead mammal on a bush track. Strange. Dead animals are not usually left animals alone for long making a handy meal for the many scavengers of the bush; rats, monitors, owls, foxes. I bent down and had a sniff, it smelt a little, maybe it and been dead for a day or two. The eyes were receding. I noticed it had a pointy snout and little serrated teeth like a steak knife. It was an Antichinus, a small carnivorous marsupial “mouse”. I took a couple of photos in the fading light and wandered on thinking about how and why the animal came to be lying there. Dead as a doornail.
For the sake of comparison here below are two skulls, a Brown Antechinus (a) on the left and a mouse on the right (b). Notice the large protruding incisors of the rodent compared to the long row of teeth in the antechinus. Note also the pointed arrangement of toes on the feet of the antechinus and the toes of the antechinus are separated while they are fused in the mouse.
Some way down the track I stopped and turned back to check for testicles. Sure enough, bold as brass, a huge scrotal sac, indicating a dead male antechinus. The cause of death now obvious, over-exertion during breeding season. Facts furnished here by the Australian Museum “Males live for approximately 11 months and have a short breeding cycle of about 2 weeks in winter, after which they die as a result of stress and exhaustion. Females give birth to undeveloped naked young that latch onto teats in the pouch for up to 50 days. The pouch is an open slit found on the belly.”
In identifying a plant one is often making a guess. An educated guess is still a guess and sometimes there is no correct answer. Many of the banksias belong to groups known as complexes. Members of the complex are seen as separate species but they can also hybridise – meaning that they may have intermediate forms. Any one plant may have a variety of different features, sometimes typical, sometimes weirdly different. Sometimes the scientific name serves to obscure the identity of a plant, take Banksia oblogifolia, it is supposed to have oblong shaped leaves, where the tip is blunt and the base of the leaf is relatively broad. As it happens the leaf shape is variable, and the most reliable identifying feature is a rusty coloured felt that covers the midrib and young branches. The scientific name may endure even if it is misleading because the history of the name is seen as important. The type specimens of banksia oblongifolia may have had particularly oblong leaves, but specimens from further afield may not fit in the box.
Behind the artfully decorated Maianbar bus stop there are half a dozen species of banksia within a short walk. To identify them it is handy to learn their names. The information within the name will jog the memory each time you try to identify a plant. Plants may have a common name and a scientific name, both names can be useful. The common name is least reliable, it will vary from place to place and can be pretty vague. The scientific name will slot the plant into the taxonomic hierarchy which will tell you much about the structure of the plant and how it relates to others. The scientific name can change when academics get busy, but it will lead back to the first scientific description of the plant. The scientific name is a double-barrelled binomial usually composed of latin or greek roots or a nod to a dignitary, explorer or a botanist. All of this is useful information.
In the photo below is Banksia spinulosa, the hairpin banksia. The old fashioned hairpin is now an uncommon object and so the common name is possibly not very useful. The generic name Banksia was conjured up in 1782 by Carl Linnaeus the younger, son of daddy Carl Linnaeus the swedish naturalist who invented the taxonomic system. The first half of the binomial honours Joseph Banks who collected the original type specimen in 1770 on Cooks “voyage of discovery”. The second part of the name refers to spines on the leaf tip.
Am liking the common name now that I see what an old fashioned hairpin from 1850 looks like. It has points on the end that would give you a little jab like little spines, whereas the modern bobby pin is not nearly so fearsome. But all jabbing aside the rounded end of either style of pin resembles the bent anthers of the rows of flowers.
May 15 2017
Tis the time of year when Banksia ericafolia is in full bloom. This shrub is common up on the heathland (the name erica refers to South African heath, which has a similar leaf shape). Other Banksias flower at different times providing honeyeaters with a reliable supply of food, but B, ericifolia is the most bountiful. Early settlers were shown how it was a source of bush tucker for aboriginal people. You can run your hand over the cone and lick off nectar or soak them in water for a sweet drink. So abundant is the nectar that you can see droplets glistening on the flowers and dripping from the branches, on the ground below there may be ants feeding. In the photo notice the damp patch at the base of the flower cone and droplets among the flowers.
Unlike social media the scientific literature does not repay the urge for instant gratification, the gems are buried deep.
Scan this text and follow the final link for a series of scientific papers on the natural history of the Royal National Park.
“The Linnean Society was founded in 1788 by botanist Sir James Edward Smith. The society derives its name from the Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus, the ‘father of taxonomy’, who systematised biological classification through his binomial nomenclature. He was known as Carl von Linné after his ennoblement, hence the spelling ‘Linnean’, rather than ‘Linnaean’. The society had a number of minor name variations before it gained its Royal Charter on 26 March 1802, when the name became fixed as “The Linnean Society of London”. In 1802, as a newly incorporated society, it comprised 228 fellows. It is the oldest extant natural history society in the world. Throughout its history the society has been a non-political and non-sectarian institution, existing solely for the furtherance of natural history” Gage A.T. and Stearn W.T. (1988) A Bicentenary History of the Linnean Society of London, Linnean Society of London, p. 148
The Linnean Society of NSW
FOUNDED 1874. INCORPORATED 1884. ‘NATURAL HISTORY IN ALL ITS BRANCHES.’
Natural History of the First National Park
A Symposium presented by the Linnean Society of NSW and National Parks & Wildlife Service was held in the Auditorium of the Visitor Centre, Kamay Botany Bay National Park 29 September – 1 October 2011.
Having the use of a photographic drone opens up possibilities for good not evil. What could be healthier than counting animals for the greater good? Can I just say no migratory birds were distressed in the making of these images and no people were given cause to panic. The shots were taken in the early morning light with the sun low in the east casting long shadows across the water. The tiny tadpole creatures you see in the picture are in fact fiddler rays which are usually under a metre in length. By comparing two photographs taken sequentially of the same spot it is easy to see them move about. No doubt there were some rays in this photo who were moving too slowly to be observed or still hidden in the seagrass. Would I be making a wild guess to suggest that there are dozens of fiddler rays in the larger context? Possible hundreds?
The sand flats of Deeban Spit resembles a lunar landscape pockmarked with craters. All agree that they are a sign of life, but there is some mystery as to which form of life is active here. There are the obvious human makers of holes who descend on a fine fishing day to pump bait from the sand. They carry a stainless steel cylinder to jab into the wet sand and extract a core of sand which is then dumped on the surface for inspection. The fisher person is only interested in finding nippers, the ghost shrimp Trypaea australiensis. The nipper is a bountiful little crustacean that is a natural food source for estuarine fish and makes good live bait. Research done here in 2004 estimated that 4500 nippers are extracted from the sand in Maianbar on a typical weekend day in summer. That is a lot of nippers and a lot of holes made in the sand. The good news is that despite the pumping less than 2% of the total stock of nippers are removed by bait pumping. (Rotherham 2004) And yet this does not explain the vast bulk of holes in the sand. The sand is like a whiteboard, each incoming tide goes some way to erasing the marks made before. Holes made last summer may be hard to find. Depending on the strength of the current and the action of the water all holes will be filled and levelled in time. Yet new holes appear, thousands of holes, even when there is no fishing and pumping for bait. Fresh holes appear in the winter when a fisher person is not seen for weeks. Other life is obviously at work.
Fishermans Bay looking south along Yenabilli Point
If I was to begin my life again as a student in search of serious study I could do worse than measure all the holes on Deeban Spit. Each imprint in the sand is a sign of life that communicates some activity. The sand reveals an interactive pattern of movement, of feeding, of hunting and hiding. The traces in the sand can be deciphered and the holes would be the basis of this study.
At the outset I would probably try to save myself some effort by finding a system to sample the holes, then I could avoid measuring every single hole and extrapolate answers from a limited study. This need to form an answer by sampling is central to scientific research of all kinds and is in itself a science, call it statistics. If the entire sandflat is one uniform canvas evenly covered in holes it would be easy to sample, a study of one small area could be scaled by multiplication to arrive at an answer for the whole area. This would be too simple and no fun at all. The real world is rarely uniform and patterns of all types are recognisable. Perhaps the most useful pattern in statistical studies is the idea of the random pattern, where there is no particular order in things. In physics this might be compared to entropy and the famous second law of thermodynamics in which the universe winds down to a bland nothing-much-happening-here lifeless energy-free state. Life itself is a system of order and living things are not often following random paths. And so we can use the random concept as a tool to measure living systems. By comparing measurements taken from the real world to random patterns we can assess whether there is some order that needs investigation. This is the basis of fundamental statistical models, is there a variation in the real numbers that differs from a hypothetical random set of numbers? If you can believe this then you can believe in science as it is practiced today.
Incoming tide erasing fresh holes. Whelks emerging to feed.
Back to the holes.
Some guesswork
1/ I think the holes would fall into size categories – there would not be a random pattern of holes from pinprick sized to the size of Fishermans bay itself. There would be clusters of holes that conform to different types of animals. The burrows of nippers would cluster around one range of sizes and the holes of soldier crabs would cluster around another range of sizes. All the animals that make an imprint in the sand would leave a set of holes that would form groups of numbers that are not random. There may be overlap between different animals, but there would be distinct size classes.
2/ The distribution of the holes across the landscape would not be random. Different animals have different ranges and so we would not expect to find evidence of all animals in all places. We would expect to find clusters of holes in different zones of the environment.
These two simple expectations form the basis of ecological study; the abundance and distribution of life. But a theoretical framework is complimented by the simple act of observation. I have seen animals make similar marks to these and so I believe that these marks are made in a similar way. A little faith is always necessary.
Holes of one size class are easy to count – 25 (give or take)
100 stingray-sized holes (but are they all made by stingrays?)
The sea slugs, or nudibranchs, include some beautifully frilled and coloured characters, Dolabella, the Sea Hare, is not one of them. Even when alive and looking at its best it has the mottled lumpy look of decay, they are well camouflaged for a life hidden in amongst the weed. It will make itself known if you accidentally stand on it and it releases a tell-tale reddish purple “ink”. When they wash up on the beach, after a storm perhaps, the dead Dolabella shrink and dry and their inner ear-shaped shell will split the body from within.
The beached carcass reveals the basic anatomical plan. At the anterior end there is a pair of tentacular feelers at the mouth and a pair of club-like chemosensory rhinophores set further back. No eyes as such. Sea slugs are hermaphrodites, with a long stalked penis housed inside the head and a female opening to the rear. The penis is seen here as a lump on the right hand side of the head, it connects by an exterior groove to the inhaling siphon, seen here with shell protruding. When mating the sperm travel up the groove to the penis. Water taken into the enclosed mantle cavity is expelled through another siphon in the middle of the basal disc. The gut also empties into this mantle cavity and excreta and ink are all expelled through the posterior siphon.
Dolabella can grow up to 400 mm in length and they make a living as browsing herbivores feeding mainly on macroscopic algae. Like all molluscs the sea slug has highly modified mouthparts, developed here as a radula, which resembles a tiny chainsaw. The diet of plant material is based on a preference for softer tissues, so the tougher calcareous seagrass blades will be stripped clean of softer filamentous algal growth. These sea slugs may be grooming the seagrass beds and restoring photosynthetic function in polluted waters where excess nitrogen has resulted in abundant algal growth.
If cleaning the seagrass is not enough to earn our admiration, it seems this species of sea slug can also cure cancer. From its varied diet the animal stores various anti-mitotic chemicals which are used to suppress tumour growth in cancer patients. And of course the Dolabella and its long filamentous egg mass are edible, apparently semi-cooked with vinegar. Hopefully they escape the notice of local gourmands.
For anyone interested in going down the rabbit hole of sea-slug taxonomy there is forum group seaslugforum.net. This is possibly the best organised forum group I have EVER seen. Photos, description, Q&A, lists of scientific references. Just for a laugh check out the extensive species list, our little seaslug Dolabella auricularia is placed partway down the list under FAMILY Aplysiidae, which is under SUPERFAMILY APLYSIOIDEA, which is under ORDER ANASPIDEA – Alternatively, rather than searching blindly, use the find function on your computer – command+F for macs, or control+F for PC. http://www.seaslugforum.net/specieslist.htm
In Maianbar there is an over-abundance of parrots, Sulphur crested Cockatoos, Rainbow Lorikeets, King Parrots and the odd Little Corella and Crimson Rosella. These are the species that have learned to exploit the kinder nature of nature-loving people, they beg and steal and sing for food handouts. The birds are adaptable and will take seed or bread or fruit or any unattended pet food. Cockatoos will try almost anything, even flying off with a greasy bone. The nectar feeding lorikeets will take seed perhaps doing damage to the fine bristles on the tongue that would normally brush the nectar from flowers. The King parrots take the last place in line as they have none of the unruly aggression of the others, but since they have the most beautiful plumage and melodious song the people will see that they are fed.
Where food is plentiful there is overcrowding and competition for nesting hollows. An unhealthy diet and cramped living leads to disease and many of the cockatoos show the symptoms of beak and feather disease, where the feathers fall away and the beak elongates into an awkward hook. Young birds are particularly susceptible to the disease and are often evicted from the nest with the onset of disease. The cockatoos are relatively recent arrivals to the coast, they have come from the inland in a migration following the resources we have made available. Birds that are common in cities and suburbs and in the rural landscape are often there because of the food and shelter we provide. Like people, the birds that thrive in our suburbs are also colonists. Operating in large social groups these birds are able to set up a co-operative arrangement where competition from other species is squashed.
Early in the Maianbar morning before the dawn, about the time of the first Kookaburra call there is a high pitched soft piping chorus of birds calling. These are the Noisy Miners, a native bird that has spread with the suburban garden and the popularity of the sticky nursery trade grevillea flowers. During the day the Noisy Miners give voice to a wide range of calls, keeping a buzzing social scene that is more about alarm than attraction. Other small birds are commonly chased out of the gardens, and the miners are given to violent territorial squabbles between themselves.
Each of these birds adapted to suburban life has a similar cousin who remains in the wild. The brash white Sulphur crested Cockatoo has a shy black twin, the Yellow tailed black Cockatoo, a bird that is less ebuliant and almost secretive. The Rainbow Lorikeet has perhaps taken the place of the Eastern Rosella a bird that was once common while suburban developments still had outskirts of scrub and meadows of seed bearing grasses. The Noisy Miner has interestingly pushed ahead of the introduced Indian Mynah that was once dominant in the Sydney suburbs. The Bell Miner is also on the upsurge and is thought to be responsible for the spread of Eucalypt die-back, through its displacement of pest controlling bird species.
One other pair of songbirds that should be more common inside the suburban setting of Maianbar is the Superb Fairy-wren and the Variegated Fairy-wren. These birds do well when a little of the low shrub lawyer is left intact and cats are not free-ranging. In these birds the family group work together as a small tribe eating insects. In both species all the birds are drab except for the adult males which stand out with an electric blue cap, nape and cheeks. In the Variegated Fairy-wren the blue of the mature male is augmented with little chestnut shoulders. The calls of both species are also very similar in structure but they are noticeably different.
And now for the racism. Birds of the the same species, that is birds that are able to produce fertile offspring, are often separated geographically, by a barrier or an area of unsuitable terrain, and since the separated groups are not interbreeding they develop slight genetic or cultural differences. These diverging groups are described as different races of the same species. Over time the drift in the differences between separated populations may ultimately lead to the development of separate species. One of the key drivers of this separation is the development of bird calls, a cultural shift that leads to speciation through sexual selection. There is a natural diversity in the song patterns that may be inherited, but song is also coloured by mimicry. Other birds may lend elements to the repertoire. The attraction of a newly developed call replaces the attraction of the old call. And so it is that the choice of a suitable candidate for reproduction is linked to the development of noisy racist tweets.
Here lies the remains of the last Fan shell on Deeban Spit.
Possibly.
Over the last two years the number of Fan shells poking out of the sea grass on Deeban Spit at low tide has plummeted. Where once there was a field of a thousand gaping shells, there are now almost none, and those that do remain are empty.
I miss them.
Empty shells on oyster beds
Fan shells are known locally by the more dramatic, but incorrect name of Razor clams. Yet another animal menace just waiting to extract human blood. They are popular in recipes of an Asian flavour, put “razor clam” in your search engine and cooking pops up first, but you will notice that true Razor clams look like old-school cut-throat razors, while our Fan shells look like fans, or perhaps the ear of a donkey. They are all edible regardless of name.
The big shells out on Deeban Spit are Pinna bicolour, bivalve molluscs in the genus Pinna, latin for ear. Pinna bicolour is a widely distributed species named for the bright iridescence of the inner shell. It is restricted to the sandy seagrass beds where the larvae are able to settle and feed. Research done in the warm waters of Malasia and the cooler waters of South Australia shows that they grow quickly and reach 20cm in length in the first year. By the second year they reach 26 cm and they are full size in the third year at 35 cm. Lucky Fan shells may go on to live well over a decade, the old ones gather epibiota, just like the hull of a boat. Eventually they get tired, weighed down and stop moving. Where the seagrass beds remain there is a good chance the Fan Shells will return.
Often claimed to be shark poo, these gelatinous croissants made of mucus and a sprinkle of sand are in fact masses of eggs laid by the Moon Shell, a carnivorous snail that feeds on other shelled molluscs. On the sand flats the molluscs include the oysters seen in the photo and the whelks that lie around casually waiting for the returning tide.
If you are a keen observer of sea shells on the sand you will have noticed that some types of empty shells have a tiny neat hole usually drilled at the apex, in the ideal place for threading a necklace. The molluscs that produce these shells have a pair of shells that come together to form a shelter for the soft innards, they are known as bi-valves. The mollusc that made the hole is another type entirely, a gastropod – like the garden snail. The class Gastropoda contains a vast total of named species, second only to the insects in overall number. Moon shell gastropods are able to travel along quite efficiently by extending a big muscular foot. These active mollusc are then able to hunt the less agile bi-valves and anything else that they come across. Moon shells can be carnivorous and they are also known to feed on soldier crabs.
Molluscs have a body plan that incorporates hardened elements, usually a shell, in the case of an octopus it is a horny beak, while gastropods have a shell and a radula, a tongue structure that looks like a miniature chainsaw composed of many tiny teeth on a band that will easily saw through plant material or drill holes into shells. The moon shell will grab hold of the prey with its foot and locate the precise spot to start drilling with the aid of an acid secretion, the muscle that clamps the two shells together is disabled and the shells can then be prised open and the contents removed.
The moon shell that is commonly found on the Deeban Spit is Polinices (Conuber) sordidus
There is an illegal market for shells collected in Port Hacking with specimens selling for $10 each.
Actinotus hellianthi, the larger of the two Flannel flowers. The larger flowers seem to require more light and are found in exposed positions on rock platforms and on the roadside, while the smaller flowers of Actinotus minor are more common and grow twining through other shrubs and ground cover.
Notice many small black beetles active in the middle of the flowers, probably feeding and acting as pollinators.
Flannel flowers are part of the Apiaceae family and are not daisies, but like daisies the flower structure is not straightforward. In Flannel flowers the centre of the flower is composed of many small florets while the outer rays are actually bracts not petals. The name Actinotus comes from the Greek aktin-/ακτιν, meaning “ray” or “spoke of a wheel” or “sunbeam”.
This group of flowers is growing on the bush track alongside Maianbar Drive overlooking the Basin.
Anyone interested in the geography of Port Hacking will enjoy reading this report on disc, available free at the reception desk at Sutherland Shire Council chambers. The disk contains a massive trove of historical photos and views of the natural features of Port Hacking and the catchment area, including the Royal National Park. Of particular interest is the thorough research into the movement of sand and the history of dredging on Deeban Spit.
To see the written section of the report click on this link:
The work was released in February 2014 and represents a synthesis of three decades of work by A/Prof Alberto Albani of UNSW and George Cotis, a long time activist and friend of the Hacking. Both authors have extensive experience in the management of coastal regions and estuaries. Highly recommended.
The Green Tree Snake is an occasional ground dweller, and when disturbed on the ground it seeks refuge by climbing. This little snake climbed up a broom handle only to find a dead end. Now seen back down onto a brick wall and seeking a better route to the treetops. The Green Tree Snake, Derendrelaphis punctulata,* is one of four species found in our backyard – all of them are harmless to people.
For the big picture click below.
*Dendra – latin for tree, Elaphe – are another genus of snake, punctulata – fine spotted
There are two distinctly coloured populations of Eastern water dragons living in this corner of Fisherman’s Bay. There are the clean dragons living in the back yard and then there are the dirty dragons that live down by the creek. Clean dragons are grey, flecked with black and white, and dominant males have a distinct red blush on the chest. The rusty dragons live in creek water which carries iron tinged algae. The colour is permanent, but because lizards shed shed their skin a dirty lizard will eventually become clean if it moves away from the creek. The change of colour will take a couple of years to be complete. Some lizards will carry a two-tone appearance for some time.
All dragons like to slumber on a warm patch of their territory. This group of three females and a larger male are taking advantage of a clearing in the ferns where the sun heats the dark soil by the creek. These lizards have been swimming and are now mostly dry, but there is wet patch where one female lizard has been lying on top of the male in the middle. The male can be identified by his large head. Males wrestle to gain dominance, so there is an advantage to having a large head, or rather, a larger set of jaws.
Which brings us to the latin name of the water dragon; Physignathus lesueurii, where the generic epithet (the first capitalised part of the binomial) refers to a large jaw. The specific epithet refers here to the French artist and naturalist Charles Alexandre Lesueur who traveled with Baudin to Australia in 1801. The Baudin expedition collected over 100000 specimens and many animals were described from this collection.
An Erickson skycrane was filmed taking seawater from Garrie beach for the Curra Moors fire and there was some minority social media comment made about the damage to the environment. The public appetite seemed to be extinguish at any cost, but it was reassuring that RFS Sutherland fire control were quick to post other clips and shots of choppers taking water from freshwater sources. Using saltwater is a known problem and should be an option of last resort. It may be that the RFS fire control is more open to ecological concerns than the general public. When it comes to the fear of fire the bush becomes an enemy and those who are concerned for the bush become caught in an ideological war where lives and houses are seen to trump all other concerns, no matter how distant the fire threat may be. 
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