Understanding the " Koala '' Issue !

There is no doubt that Gladys Berejiklian is a very tough lady.   When the NSW Nationals  threatened to walk out of the coalition and sit on the crossbenches she issued an ultimatum.   She gave them the weekend to think about it and made it clear that at 9 am on Monday she would relieve National ministers of their portfolios and appoint Liberals as their replacement unless that threat was ended.

National state leader, John Barilaro wisely accepted defeat and so ended the prospect of a divided government at a time when unity is essential to repair the damage this pandemic has done to the state economy.  How John Barilaro comes out of this encounter is the great unknown.  It was a humiliating backdown that leaves his leadership in doubt.

The issue that provoked this standoff - was Koalas.  They are now an endangered species and the state is passing legislation to protect their habitat.  The Nationals are protesting that this is too extreme and will stop farmers from managing their land.

The extreme bushfires that ravaged New South Wales last summer killed thousands of Koalas and there is the expectation that similar conditions caused by global warming will result in similar fire conditions in the future.  The relentless encroaching into the forests to house our ever growing population is shrinking Koala habitat and without change they will become extinct in the foreseeable future.

One experiment to create a Koala sanctuary involves eradicating cats, foxes and domestic dogs from a vast acreage and fencing the property to keep such predators from returning.  The obvious drawback is that the scheme will also prevent the captive Koalas from mating widely to increase their bloodlines and this bush oasis will not be immune to fire.  The majority of summer fires are caused by lightning strikes and a Koala sanctuary is as prone to those as the rest of the countryside.

The deciding factor is fire intensity.  Last summer was the aftermath of a long drought and the bush was tinder dry.  The fire fronts were enormous  and they were burning from ground level to the height of the tallest trees, and they were virtually unstoppable.  That sort of fire season usually happens at regular intervals unless we take the precaution of reducing the fuel load by controlled fires  when the conditions are right.

If we are going to save the Koalas we need to take a new approach to bushfires.  The Aboriginal people here before us were better fire managers because they regularly used fire to reduce the hazard and that was in their own interest.  A freshly burned area quickly rejuvenated and that fresh young grass attracted Kangaroos and Wallabies - which was their food source.

We need to use fire to tame fire.  We need a plan to regularly burn state forests when the conditions allow a controlled fire to eradicate ground base litter.  The fire services should start these fires from the air, with incendiary matter dropped from aircraft and we would need to get used to the smoke these clearing fires would generate.   There would be times when conditions changed and these fires got out of control, but it is the only way we will ever eliminate the destruction fires caused so widely last summer.

Bush Koalas can survive fires that move at ground level and the only. real hope of preventing their extinction is to create forest safety to prevent catastrophic bushfires.  A controlled fire is a safe fire. - and that is something that farmers understand.