Author: AWPC

Share this page Regional city invites back nature: birds, frogs, turtles, kangaroos, to wetland habitat They transformed the clay pits of a historic brickworks in the centre of Goulburn NSW into a wetland sanctuary next to the Mulwaree River. New homes for hundreds of birds, frogs, fresh-water turtles, Rakali the water rat and other wildlife, including tourist-attracting kangaroos.   The site was closed after WWII and had become overgrown with box hawthorn, blackberry and invasive grasses.    * One story on the transformation placed it this way: “Halfway between the Big Merino, which stands like a sentinel on the Hume Highway, and a supermax prison is a place known only by few.”  Not so unknown anymore – the wetlands were just filmed for a segment of Gardening Australia.   The restored “ponds”, and their riparian and woodland environment are there today thanks to a super successful grassroots project to bring back and enhance biodiversity to something like it was 200 years ago. A fortuitous turn in the weather in recent years from drought to plentiful rain also helped, filling the old clay pits. Maintaining the restored habitat as well as demonstration plantings of native flora, a landcare group of local residents gather as FROGS (Friends and Residents of Goulburn Swamplands). I met with Heather West, a retired primary school teacher and the President of FROGS, for a little photo tour that we’re sharing here. She told me how an inspiring community effort came about. In 2010, the abandoned brickworks were recognised by civic advocates as an opportunity to revitalise a neglected area at the foot of Rocky Hill, a landmark close to the city centre. Local environmental groups soon joined, lobbying both council and other community groups and the project gained grants from the NSW Government and local council. The transformation started with placing rock berms in the old clay pit pond, slowing the flow of water, so it could filter before re-entering the river. Walking and cycling tracks were established around the perimeter of the ponds. Goulburn Mulwaree Council engaged an archaeologist to prepare a report on the historic value of the abandoned brickworks which operated from the 1860s – 1945. As a result, the heritage industrial site has been preserved and replanted with grasses with signage telling the story. I asked Heather about the professional assistance that the community volunteers got on re-establishing the indigenous flora and fauna. She said the workforce knowledge and resources that some volunteers brought with them was invaluable For example, the contribution of the Southern Tablelands Branch of the Australian Plant Society [APS] that identified old-growth remnant riparian areas in the district for seed collection. APS has supplied almost all the tube-stock planted on the wetland site. “Some of these people were high school science teachers, some farmers and graziers.”  A local high school teacher Rodney Falconer (also a FROGS and APS member), prepared a comprehensive planting guide for the wetlands site. Some plants needed to withstand strong flood water movements, others around the ponds might remain inundated for longer periods, while steep areas dried out very quickly. Plants needed to attract birds, both seed and nectar eaters, as well as providing protection from larger birds. Water birds needed safe nesting cover.  Rodney had previously worked with the ACT Government and could identify every remnant native grass in the ACT area. Two FROGS members worked with the Sydney Water Catchment Authority, with expertise in plants, management of waterways and filtration of sediment and safe use of herbicides in riverside locations. Another ground-breaking volunteer was Peter Mowle, retired council engineer, who used his expertise in directing the survey of levels for the rock berms in the ponds, creating channels for road stormwater entering the site and ensuring floodwaters could return quickly to the river. A retired surveyor had also joined FROGS. Heather said many of the FROGS members are there because of an interest in bird-watching, bushwalking, biodiversity and sustainable ecosystems or gardening with native plants – or all of the above.  They all care about the natural environment “Our active volunteers are people who like outdoor work, enjoy mixing socially with like-minded people while working on a joint endeavour. We all have an interest in native vegetation, animals and reptiles. Some had interests in gardening, with a focus on permaculture to improve soil microbes and plant to minimise on-going maintenance. All volunteers learn skills from each other.” I asked Heather what rewards she personally has gained from this project. “I enjoy the friendships made with other volunteers who have similar interests. I have learned names of plants and birds and lead guided tours of the wetlands site to share my new knowledge. The lessons I have learned in methods for long-term weed suppression, to reduce on-going maintenance have been invaluable,” (and applied in her volunteer work maintaining two local historic cemeteries). Proud city ownership, promotion and tourism Goulburn Council that owns the site was supportive from the outset. Council provided a $25,000 donation for the initial infrastructure and provides truck-loads of mulch when requested. Heather said the Goulburn wetlands are now used in promotions for the city and the Visitor’s Information Centre sends tourists to walk the paths to observe the resident mob of kangaroos. Photographers and bird watchers from across the state and elsewhere visit thanks to regular up-dates on online web site e-bird https://ebird.org  showing that the wetlands attract much birdlife. A direct link to the data for Goulburn Wetlands is https://ebird.org/hotspot/L2557641 Local people exercise here or take a leisurely stroll, bird-watch and walk their dogs (on lead). Nature has been returned and is appreciated. Says Heather: “During Covid lockdown, when children were being home-schooled, we saw a huge increase in families walking or riding bikes around the wetland paths. People using the paths while the FROGS volunteers are at work, always call out ‘thank you, you’re doing a great job!’ which is appreciated by the regular volunteer workers.”  Garden clubs, schools and social groups as well as retirement village residents

Share this page RESPECT THE ANIMALS AND THE LAND Some of us at AWPC recently met Wahlubal/Bundjalong artist William Walker whose paintings speak to us on the themes ‘Respect Country’ ‘Respect the Land’ ‘Respect the Animals’.We asked William to please share more about this and about himself. Here, his words and paintings. Jingeela (Hello) Respect the Animals  The animals have roamed this country before we did. All animals are totems. When you hurt them, it hurts us. The animals are our best teachers, they are so in tune with the land. They warn us and teach us so much. Because of land clearing and greed, our animals lose their homes. This puts our eco systems out of balance. We need to respect the animals, only take what we need and allow them to breed. Our land needs to heal and rejuvenate.   Mother Gooramun Leading the Way Everything is connected through the circle of life. When we live in harmony with the animals and the land, caring and sharing, everything is kept in balance and is healthy. The animals teach us so much. The Gentle Mother Gooramun (Kangaroo), like all mothers, looks after her young joey so well and protects them from danger. She guides the joey till they are old enough to survive on their own. We need to Respect the animals and their homes.  I grew up on the Rocky River (Tabulam NSW). I started painting when I was 16. I paint landscapes. I always paint the country I come from, Wahlubal Country. When I paint, I feel Peaceful, Calm and Connected to my Ancestors. My paintings tell stories about what it was like back in the Dreaming, the Love of the Land, the Animals and the Culture. I hope my paintings will give people an understanding of what it was like back then and about looking after the country. The Best Classrooms “I love painting Wahlubal Country” “THE GWEARNJ (POSSUM) IS MY TOTEM PROTECTING ME. SHE COMES OUT AT NIGHT AND LETS MY FAMILY KNOW SHE IS THERE LOOKING OVER US” Garamah Bugelbah (Respect and Thankyou) Yarmboo (Later) William Learn more and contact William at   William Walker (williamwalkerrespectingcountry.com)  

Share this page COUPLE MOVE FOR SHARED LIFE WITH NATIVE ANIMALS We couldn’t have had a more auspicious start to our new life on a bush block in regional NSW near the national capital. Standing in front of our new house, facing us, was a small female kangaroo, as if to determine whether we were friend or foe. Perhaps she would communicate her impressions with her mob. We could hardly blame her if she was suspicious. Mistrust of humans is learned behaviour born of the worst of experiences. The reality is, she was one of the main reasons we bought this place, almost sight unseen. The other reasons included the predominantly forested 100 acres, the creek lined with wombat burrows, the marsupials, birds and reptiles that we were certain to discover. We are grateful to the previous human occupiers for not grazing livestock for at least 15 years or more, allowing the land to return as much as possible to its natural state for its original inhabitants – Australian wildlife. Having been caught up in the angst of wildlife advocacy for some years, we have found that this place has become our haven where we can co-exist with these unique and wonderful creatures. Only five months in, we are still unsure where this journey will lead us. For now, we know that sharing the Australian bush with the charming and benign native animals this continent has sustained for millions of years, has given us a sense of deep satisfaction. There is sweet joy in observing a kangaroo joey trying out his big feet perhaps for the first time – a little uncoordinated but going as fast as he can, returning to mum before dashing off again. …And waiting patiently on our driveway while a wombat decides whether to cross or not. And quietly watching as another keeps our lawn neatly mown. …And watching a myriad of birds – from wedge tailed eagles to weebills going about their business. We are thrilled by a wallaby coming close to the house to nibble on a bush in the garden, untroubled by our sticky-beaking…and enchanted by echidnas waddling along until they see us and instantly curl into a spiky ball. The kangaroos are getting used to us and seem to have concluded that we will not harm them. Harming them would be almost the last thing we could ever do. The plight of our wildlife can bring despair to those of us who love and appreciate how precious and unique our native animals are. Governments invariably fail them. Politicians side with the enemies of habitat, the enemies of wildlife. Money talks. Same old story. Our little patch of land, fortuitously surrounded by other people who seem to think like we do, is our sincere attempt to preserve safe space for our most endearing neighbours.

Share this page ABOVE: from a hunting website in Queensland a year ago. As in Queensland, the NSW government is actively calling for ‘volunteers’  to shoot the wildlife – “to help the farmers” they say. Apart from basic ethical and usefulness issues, in both states there is no evidence of oversight on capacity to shoot accurately; take care of joeys; or manage any welfare questions. by Maria Taylor – 27/06/2018 Taken from: https://districtbulletin.com.au/us-end-game/ THE FOLLOWING IS an excerpted chapter from book Injustice, the War on Australian Wildlife by Maria Taylor. The subject is Australia’s fraught relationship with much of its wildlife since colonial times and how certain values and beliefs have stuck with many of us in this country. The kangaroo species that are hunted and unjustly treated as pests is the standout case study. The mainstream version of our relationship to this unique marsupial is told every day as with one voice by graziers and some farmers, major political parties, some applied ecologists, mass media and in most cases, the kangaroo ‘harvesting’ industry. Together they support the world’s biggest terrestrial wildlife slaughter. The countless millions of kangaroos people believe are bounding across the landscape are in large part a mathematical figment that has received well-deserved deconstruction. In this chapter Taylor talks to two former ‘roo shooters who tell a different story – not from a desktop, but from ground-level. They reveal the horrors that are going on right now in south west Queensland in the name of drought relief and to prop up hopes for revival of a sheep industry there. And the same ideas and proposed solution to blame kangaroos are seeping into NSW. “I rang the federal member for Roma the other day and said: have you been into parliament to tell them to change the coat of arms for Australia? She says why? I said because you’ve shot the kangaroo and emu out. She slammed the phone down on me. “Between the drought and the cluster fencing; the poisoning (of waterholes) and the shooting; the kangaroo is wiped out in western Queensland.” — Tom King Snr, Cunnamulla “We’ve been driving through (Central Queensland) for seven years. Except for one very wet year we have seen (and smelt) lots of dead animals. One year we saw the bodies of kangaroos and other wildlife every five metres around Longreach. We’ve seen dingoes killed and scalped and hung from posts and large poison bait (1080) signs. The region has an all-out assault on wildlife. These ways of treating wildlife are very traditional; but what about the desire in these areas to increase tourism?” — Dr Arian Wallach, University of Technology Sydney,conducting dingo research in Central Queensland LYN GYNTHER TELLS me that she lives next door to an abattoir. She recounts a recent experience with a load of cattle. They had been left there by the owner over the weekend with no feed and as much water as a dog would drink in a day. She got on the phone to the owner and told him that if he didn’t come around with some feed and water, she’d do it and bill him. He came. I had gone to Central Queensland to interview Lyn Gynther and Tom King about their first-hand experiences. Lyn, from around Warwick, is a fighter for animals but she was also a killer of animals as a former roo shooter. Tom King from Cunnamulla is also outspoken for wildlife these days while still a licensed and sometimes practicing roo shooter. To be accurate, he’d like to be a roo shooter who can still make some income in an arena the kangaroo industry and state and national governments insist is sustainable wildlife management. Given his unusual outspokenness he’s also been pushed off properties and called crazy; or lying for breaking the tradition that demands conformity and silence towards outsiders – characteristic of many communities, particularly rural communities, in Australia as elsewhere. But with an intractable drought pitting domestic stock graziers against the commercial kangaroo ‘harvesting’ business, let alone wildlife welfare advocates, things have been breaking out into the news. From the kangaroo industry’s perspective the wildlife ‘resource’ is being wiped out.  Tom in particular has interested local journalists by fingering as a major culprit the kilometres of cluster fencing nominally aimed at stopping wild dogs that maul sheep. But the fences also cut across remaining wildlife corridors to water and to opportunistic forage. Both Lyn and Tom told me about the destruction being rained down on kangaroos and wallabies and, more quietly, emus, by a state government mitigation program to help the graziers. This entails generous open season permits to shoot macropods for three years being issued for 2017–2020. ‘Mitigation’ has in some places opened the door for recreational shooters being invited onto grazing properties to blast away at any wild-living animal unfortunate enough to be caught up by the fencing maze. This is happening on Mitchell Grass plains interspersed with mulga and Gidgee native tree belts where there has been conversion since the mid-1990s from sheep to frequently opportunistic cattle grazing – a situation that local and state politicians in 2018 herald as starting to reverse itself thanks to the fencing. They have hailed the move back to sheep as the newest saviour for outback communities like Cunnamulla. Back to tradition is a time-honoured Australian response to a challenging environment. Drought and now climate change WHAT SHOULD BE predictable drought, (it’s happened since colonial days), has been intensified and made less predictable by present-day climate change. Six-, seven-year or longer drought now frames a renewed war on wildlife as paddocks lie bare of forage. It reads like a 21st century replay of the colonial annihilation of the native inhabitants from ‘private property’ that new settlers claimed across the landscape. Talking to the current settlers, long-standing myths, demonization, and false facts soon emerge regarding remaining kangaroo mobs, complicated again by the activities of the commercial harvesters. For example, recent policies to target only male animals (to get around the bad public relations

Share this page What has AWPC been up to? Committee Report Hello friends and members of AWPC, Here’s what we’ve been doing in the past six months. Late in 2022 AWPC, partnering with Animals Australia, commissioned a national media advertising campaign on the theme ‘STOP the horror trade’, ‘World’s biggest land-based wildlife slaughter’ (what Australia does with kangaroos). In Canberra, in consultation with AWPC, Save Canberra’s Kangaroos are also using direct advertising messages in print and electronic media against the ACT government’s shameful kangaroo ‘cull’, while continuing to observe and record the activities of officials and shooters on the killing fields. The 2023 killing started again on the 12 June. Lend your voice via #savecanberraskangaroos on Facebook. We met with an adviser to federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek regarding their woeful management of Australian biodiversity in regard to the kangaroo species and indeed on the theme of protecting all not yet-endangered Australia wildlife. We hand-delivered some copies of our dossier on the kangaroo hunt: ‘Can you keep looking away?’, plus copies of Maria Taylor’s book ‘Injustice: hidden in plain sight, the war on Australian nature’. We think they heard us? The AWPC committee, with expertise from president Frankie Seymour, wrote submissions to federal and state authorities regarding the biodiversity tragedy, asking that the government use the EPBC act to protect ALL our native species. The submission to Minister Plibersek, in response to her call-out for solutions to assist conservation of Australian biodiversity, outlines paths to action for biodiversity that are available to the federal Environment Minister. Australia has signed international treaties to conserve nature and biodiversity that are not being acted upon. Send your message of care for all wildlife and the critical role they play in biodiversity to the environment ministers, federal and state. AWPC is supporting protection of wildlife efforts at state level – ACT, NSW and Victoria – including in the Sydney metro area where koalas and threatened ecological communities are facing the bulldozer for housing developments. Here on this new site AWPC has made a helpful resource guide which you will find at the top of the page. Please use and share for questions of where you can tie in to conserve our native wildlife and its habitats. Best Wishes,The AWPC Committee, Frankie, Joanna, Maria We are interested in your stories of co-existence and sharing with wildlife. Do you have something you wish to share? Please let us know by sending a summary of your story to our contact page and we’ll work with you to post it.

Share this page The Healing Power of Animals: Moon Bear Has a Place Source:  https://marcbekoff.com/ This guest essay was written by Kyle Warner, an accomplished artist, writer, and former student of Marc Bekoff in the Transitions program at the Boulder County Jail (Colorado).  My personal hero, teacher, and dear friend, Marc Bekoff, comes to the jail faithfully every Friday to facilitate just one of Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots groups. We engage in a lot of profound, meaningful discussions and he helps us to really understand just why animals matter. He also helps us to take part in many causes and worldwide issues between nonhuman animals and humans. With Marc’s help, we have had our voices heard within many discussions, court battles, online debates, and protests. Some of these include whether we should reintroduce wild wolves here in Colorado, how to stop the potential trophy hunting of grizzly bears in Wyoming, what to do about the mass killing of elephants, the injustice of rich people hunting majestic lions for sport, and other similar topics.2 One issue that stands out for me is the moon bear. Since learning about this beautiful crescent-stamped animal, I have felt drawn to them on a deep level. There is an industry in China where people keep them in small cages to harvest bile out of their gall bladders for Traditional Chinese Medicine. With the help of an organization called Animals Asia, these bears have hope. Animals Asia rescues these bears from coffin-like cages, attends to their medical and psychological needs, and provides them sanctuary in their very own paradise. In 2017, I drew a few of these beautiful animals. In one was Jasper, who passed away not long after I took on this project. Also in that drawing was Oscar and BeaRtrice, whom Marc named after his parents. He was happy to share my art with Animals Asia and many throughout the world. Since then, I have had an opportunity to share my art with Jane Goodall, probably one of the most fulfilling moments of the last three years for me. Recently, in one of the other amazing groups I get to attend here at Boulder County Jail, I embarked on a brief vision quest during a guided meditation. The gentle, soft-spoken instructions began with an ascent. Meeting my spirit animal I imagined my conscious awareness being granted liberty from the limitations and confinement of my body I first hovered above myself before floating up to the ceiling, above the jail, higher and higher, hoping to come back with an animal name. I was instructed to fly west toward the Rocky Mountains and to proceed past the foothills, deep into the jagged, snowcapped Rockies. I landed in a clearing, perhaps some sort of valley surrounded by mighty aspens on high mountains. It was an almost-familiar place, but nowhere I’ve been before. Everything was much bigger and the colors more vibrant. Most of the mountain peaks were hiding in the heavens, camouflaged by clouds. Read the full story here

Share this page Why do people expect to feed their dogs or cats on Australian wildlife, specifically kangaroo? Are they informed consumers? … aware of the unavoidable cruelty that goes with this trade and of the possible health risks to humans or pets that comes with eating bushmeat? Here are some realities that consumers might want to weigh up. KANGAROO, IS THE only Australian native animal hunted specifically for the petfood trade. Most meat in petfood comes from offcuts of domesticated animals bred and killed for human consumption. (Remember the shock and revulsion on hearing of racehorses taken to the knackery.) Australia’s national icon is hunted down in most cases by poorly-paid shooters with few employment choices, who slaughter dozens or hundreds a night at pennies-a-carcass on country properties and increasingly in the wildlife’s last refuges, national parks and reserves. To call this trade or it’s non-commercial version “humane” — as those who enable it like to tell the city folk — is just a self-serving fraud. No independent observers monitor the hunt, the motorised pursuit of terrified kangaroo families, the mis-shots and injuries, with animals at times lingering injured for days; no one helps the totally lost mother-dependent joeys. No one watches what happens next either. Partly butchered carcasses are hung in the trays of utes in all temperatures for a short or long trip to a chiller in a paddock, where basic sanitation has been questioned in some instances. Eventually the bodies are processed in a town — minced and stuffed into petfood cans, or sometimes butchered for overseas human consumption while the skins are exported as shoe leather. Victoria and South Australia returning to petfood trade Victoria, where kangaroo species were recovering after a moratorium on the commercial hunt starting in the 1980s, is now back in business with the kangaroo petfood trade enjoying the state government’s blessing along with applause from some farmers. The advantage of petfood is that any species, size, age or condition animal may do. RELATED ARTICLE: Victoria’s petfood plans grow and draw more protest, AWPC. The kangaroo ‘industry’ has switched focus to southern Australia from Queensland and NSW whose killing fields — after decades of commercial slaughter, drought, fire, flood, disease and landholder killing — have population counts flashing red warning signs underscored by poor “harvests” for years now. The South Australian government, where the iconic Red kangaroo has recovered to an extent, is working on a new removal/ ‘management’ plan. Reports are coming through of wallabies going into the mix too. Half-burned Kangaroo Island is not exempt from these plans we hear. Quite apart from the field hygiene conditions, kangaroos, being wild animals, harbour pathogens. Country people don’t often eat kangaroo, citing ‘worms’. The question of what consumers know arose with a recent ABC Rural story reporting on Victorian pet-owners, grief-stricken at the death of their dogs who were fed contaminated petfood linked to a Gippsland knackery.  A quoted pet-owner thought they were feeding ‘pure kangaroo.’ These are not the first dogs to die in a widening petfood scandal. The trail has led to outback supplies. Reportedly the toxic content came via cattle and horse carcasses allegedly mixed with kangaroo. Regulate the petfood industry Pet owners are calling for any kind of regulation of the petfood industry. That is long overdue on health and welfare grounds. At the Bulletin we are animal lovers and dog companions and our hearts go out to the bereaved dog owners caught up in this disaster. Nevertheless, the question remains: how did we and our governments come to consider as ‘normal’ slaughtering our national emblem for petfood, and export sausages and leather? How is this different from the extensive slaughter of koalas (and other marsupials) for skins to export up until the early 20th century? The fate of the koala is now plain to see. The disrespect shown to Australia’s national symbol and some other wildlife confuses overseas visitors. Their tourist list is often topped by a wish to see ‘Skippy’ in the flesh. What they don’t know is that all species of kangaroo, that includes wallabies, have (since colonial settlement) been removed from their habitat, killed on behalf of a European model of stock grazing that was to be grafted onto a misunderstood land. A bounty era of removal was followed by the commercial trade in body parts, starting with skins for export. It grew profitable and developed its own momentum. As readers of the Bulletin know the same attitude of disrespect and killing is a baffling annual event on the nature reserves of Canberra the national capital. City politicians and bureaucrats cite ‘scientific research’. This version of science now gives cover to national park killings elsewhere. Politician and media narratives describe the carnage as an essential Australian on- farm and export business. Australian pet owners and meat eaters therefore have had little encouragement to become informed consumers of their national icon. Time indeed for review of bushmeat sold for human and pet consumption, for regulation as needed, and, most important, a call for renewed respect and co-existence extended to our natural world and to our unique wildlife. More of the factual background to this editorial can be found and fully explored in Maria Taylor’s new documentary book Injustice, hidden in plain sight the war on Australian nature… > More at www.mariataylor.com.au TWO DOG FOODS GUARANTEED NOT TO CONTAIN KANGAROO While preparing this September issue of The District Bulletin, two dog food sources crossed our horizon guaranteed not to contain kangaroo and promising good nutrition too. We have made no independent examination of these food products and are not therefore directly recommending them. But they sound very promising as alternatives or additions in the marketplace so we leave it to you to check out if you want to. And the doggie yogurt press release came with not one but two cute photos that we couldn’t resist sharing below. Gully Road Australian-grown products for dogs. Small business mail order dog-food purveyor based in Victoria with an ethical value frame. See it here. Chobani Daily Dollop lactose-free and digestion boosting yogurt