foresters

Forester’s unique legacy in Queensland

4 April 2025 / 2 Comments

Queensland’s national parks are a testament to the foresight and dedication of its early foresters. What set forest management apart in Queensland from the other states was the role of foresters in managing national parks. While their counterparts in other states focused primarily on timber and the sustainable utilisation of the timber resource, Queensland’s foresters were pioneers in balancing conservation with economic interests.

A fable about land management in the tropics

2 February 2024 / 4 Comments

This is a story to illustrate an instructive lesson on active land management. It involves animals including humans, plants and forces of nature.

My story is a call to arms to highlight that our land management issues are not straightforward and the solutions require the fortitude to go against elitist and misguided orthodoxy.

The 1939 fires – a blame game

5 January 2024 / 4 Comments

“And of course there were ignitions by the fistful. Lightning kindled some fires, but most emanated from a register of casual incendiarists that reads like a roster of rural Australia: settlers, graziers, prospectors, splitters, mineworkers, arsonists, loggers and mill bushmen, hunters looking to drive game, fishermen hoping to open up the scrub around the streams, foresters unable to contain controlled burns, bush residents seeking to ward off wildfire by protective fire, travellers and transients of all kinds.

Celebrating Wattle Day

1 September 2023 / 3 Comments

Today is the first day of spring in Australia, a day we celebrate nationally as Wattle Day. It is the time of the year when some wattles flower producing an abundance of yellow inflorescence. One of the 1,070 wattle species is our floral emblem – the golden wattle (Acacia pycantha).… Read more

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Rifles, rainforests and rhetorical exuberance

2 December 2022 / Leave a Comment

Introduction

The first Federal battalion of Australian soldiers sailed to South Africa in 1901 to fight the Boer War. They joined colonial troops already serving there. One of the lessons learnt by the Commonwealth forces during that campaign was the need to develop an armament that was a happy medium between a long rifle and a carbine.… Read more

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Wooden gold

2 September 2022 / 2 Comments

Introduction

Sandalwood is a highly aromatic timber that has been harvested in Asia over centuries for many uses. The main one has been burning powder from the tree in joss sticks as incense and forms a significant part of religious ceremonies. In Australia, Aborigines had many cultural uses for sandalwood. Some species can be carved into delicate products such as inlaid boxes, ornaments and incense holders.… Read more

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The McGowan logic – sustainable native forest logging is not acceptable for the environment, but the widespread clearing of jarrah for bauxite is

6 May 2022 / 12 Comments

Introduction

In September 2021, the Premier of Western Australia, Mark McGowan, made a shock announcement that all native forest logging would cease in 2024, at the end of the current 10-year Forest Management Plan. The decision was made without consultation with the timber industry, public, or government agencies. The reasons for the decision were to save the forests and preserve the carbon stocks.… Read more

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Who are the real forest saviours in Western Australia?

1 April 2022 / 9 Comments

“Surely there can be no greater cathedral as forests such as those of the karri.” Vincent Serventy

“If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools” Rudyard Kipling

The “defenders of the South West forests” are celebrating the recent announcement by the Western Australian Premier to cease native forest logging by January 2024.… Read more

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70 years of bushfires – have the lessons learnt been ignored ?

6 August 2021 / 2 Comments

This blog focuses on two Victorian bush fire disasters 70 years apart. It highlights a failure of governance, a failure to heed fire expert advice, a preoccupation with an emergency response model that has failed in North America and is failing forests and residents in Australia, and an arrogant contempt towards previous bushfire inquiries.… Read more

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