By modern standards, my grandfather would probably be considered an environmental criminal. To clear land for his farmhouse in northeast Victoria — and for his milking sheds, pig pens, chicken sheds, blacksmith shop and other outbuildings — he cleared hundreds of trees. And he cleared thousands more for his wheat fields, cattle paddocks and shearing sheds.
Old man Hobbs would probably be found guilty of cultural appropriation too, because he adopted the Aboriginal method of land-clearing. He burnt all of those trees. He also established fire-delaying dirt paths through surrounding bushland.
This was once standard practice throughout rural Australia, where the pre-settlement indigenous population had long conducted controlled burns of overgrown flora — known as ‘fuel’.
As those fires roared through Australia’s eastern coast, killing residents and volunteer firefighters and destroying hundreds of houses, a not-unrelated court report appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald. It told the story of 71-year-old John David Chia, who in 2014 paid contractors to cut down and remove 74 trees on and around his property.
The judge in this case noted that Chia’s primary motivation for the tree removal was ‘his concern about the risk of fire at his property’, but found also the Sydney pensioner’s actions had caused ‘substantial harm’ to the environment. Chia ended up copping a $40,000 fine — more than $500 for each tree.
Similar legal rulings have become frequent in Australia, as a kind of ecological religious fundamentalism has taken the place of common sense. In 2004, Liam Sheahan was charged $100,000 in fines and legal expenses after clearing land around his hilltop property in Reedy Creek, Victoria. Five years later, that property was the only structure left standing in the area following the state’s deadly Black Saturday fires.
In 2001, electricity transmitter TransGrid sensibly bulldozed a 60-metre clearing beneath high-voltage power lines in the Snowy Mountains. The company took the view that high voltages and close-proximity combustible material is not the best combination, but duly lost $500,000 in fines and settlements paid to the New South Wales state government, which described the actions as ‘environmental vandalism’. Two years later, the journalist Miranda Devine reported that the TransGrid clearing became sanctuary for kangaroos, wallabies and three TransGrid staffers who were desperately attempting to create a wider firebreak against that year’s bushfires.
Gee, do you think there’s any chance that Australia’s farm organizations have sold their memberships down the Green River like their Canadian counterparts have?
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sometimes the animals fight back…
“Death by Angry Poultry… seems about right“
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Seems to me,each of the law makers who passed those acts and each of these judges who penalized the property owners,need their turn playing “Wickerman”.
Ozzies have a fine sense of humour and justice,time for the serially wrong,arrogant and powermad to share the rewards of their policies.
Wickerman.
Ive seen both versions of the movie.
yep. all that wildlife, a billion they claim? ALL PART OF THE FCUKING ENVIRONMENT of ‘uppermost’ concern.
a burnt offering to the gods of greenie leftoidal thinking.
2 to 1 odds they STILL and *never will* ‘get’ it.
Mother nature has no sense of humour when it comes to standing up to the child-like measures of green theocracies.
I recall how the National Park Service declared it … “natural” … that half of Yellowstone should burn to the ground with little or no intervention by firefighters. We were lectured about how certain species of trees seeds will only germinate after fire releases the cotyledon.
So why aren’t the experts cheering the “natural” fires in Australia (well, those not deliberately started by eco terrorists)? Are there no Australian cotyledons in need of release ?
I remain highly skeptical about every single pronouncement of “experts”. Be they National Park Service Pyros … or Global Warmists assigning blame. Show me your research, along with legitimate peer review comments … and I’ll make up my own mind about the veracity of claims. I certainly will NOT take the media’s copy and paste articles praising the “inerrant” scientists.
” I certainly will NOT take the media’s copy and paste articles praising the “inerrant” scientists.”
But the brain dead Social Scientists have sold the Social brain dead children of Satan a shit sandwich… The only option is elimination of both…..
Modern Greens are anti-human.
Every environmental decision / judgement now made is at the expense of people, property, and freedom.
Northern Alberta has the same stupidity. We lost big chunks of Slave lake and Fort McMurray yet fires can still blow into most northern towns fueled by drought stricken coniferous forests. Mind you I am doubting the Conservatives are stupid enough to cancel the water bomber contracts two days before Fort McMurray burns. That was the retarded Bolshevik, Rachel Notley.
I’m of the belief that she did that with the hope that the oil sands plants would burn down and the companies leave as a result.
Instead, a lot of people lost their homes. Red Rachel, strategic genius.
“You must burn the flora and fauna to save the flora and fauna”
The problem, of course, is that urban activists, with the full support of the urban chattering class, lobby the urban political class to enact laws in rural areas… but urban people do not understand rural issues. Think of it this way : Urban people telling rural people to not make fire breaks and burn undergrowth is like rural people telling city people to get rid of fire hydrants and fire alarms. It’s dangerous and ridiculous to outlaw fire protection.
The Australian victims who were denied the right to protect themselves from those fires should be allowed to sue governments for gross negligence and wrongful death.
Environmentalists, by and large, are self-satisfied, smirking morons so dumb they can’t even grasp the concept of first order effects, let alone second order effects. They’re garbage, the whole lot of them. Useless mouth breathers who are more destructive to the environment than the rest of us. The next enviro-cretin I meet who does more for the environment than I do will be the first.
Unfortunately, you cannot fix stupid.
…and this, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly why I don’t give a rat’s ass about the wildfires in Australia…
well, I just mailed the entire article to the australian consulate in toront-owe, with the following page in 48 point:
Congratulations Aussieland,
YOU DID IT TO YOURSELVES.
fcuking clucking primping strutting urbanites.
Back in the day fire happened as a matter if course. Forests regenerate and life goes on. Game thrives in the new growth.
The first occupants understood this and typically started fires in both the forest and prairie.
Today advice from professional foresters is largely ignored. The science becomes political science and politicians make the call. They hope a fire wont occur on their watch.
How much property damage and how many lives need to be lost before we start to pay attention to simple logic? Forests need to be managed. Fire is the logical tool. We know it works but as long as we can run around and blame a boogeyman like climate change well nothing will happen.
Australia is burning and its all the fault of the Eco-Freaks its only fair they be sent there to help douse those fires