PARK WATCH Article March 2025 |

Jordan Crook, Parks and Nature Campaigner, says the Environment Minister’s intervention with illegal tracks left a national park in worse shape

When Parks Victoria rangers in Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park were alerted to kilometres of illegal tracks created by fossickers and off-road enthusiasts, they duly followed the law and closed the tracks. But a small number of loud users managed to convince the Environment Minister, Steve Dimopoulos, to intervene and force rangers to reopen the destructive illegal tracks.

The creation of illegal track networks through natural areas by mountain bikes, trail bikes and 4WDs is a growing issue across many national parks and reserves. Over 50 km of tracks have been created in Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park, more than 30 km in Dandenong Ranges National Park and over 600 km in the Great Otway National Park and Otway Forest Park.

The cumulative impact on nature is severe. The tracks don’t seem overly destructive to those creating and using them. But they impact wildlife and water quality. They cause habitat destruction, soil erosion and facilitate the spread of invasive species. These impacts accumulate to degrade the parks and add pressure to wildlife in places where they should be safe.

The closure of illegally created tracks is a standard management action for park rangers. It protects wildlife and habitats, discourages illegal and damaging behaviour, maintains compliance with laws, and is in line with park management plans.

Fossicking at Reedy Creek

The illegal track network around Reedy Creek in the Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park has expanded over the last decade. A vast area of native habitat has been cleared within the park so vehicles can directly access the river or camp alongside the creek edge. The tracks are leading to issues with erosion, sedimentation and pollution of the creek, impacting local wildlife like Platypuses.

The park’s management plan outlines the importance of Reedy Creek as a hot spot for large old trees (rare in Box-Ironbark ecosystems), a refuge for wildlife and an important site of Aboriginal heritage values.

In September 2024, park rangers closed and revegetated the illegal tracks. However, a small group took to social media to complain about the closure. These complaints were reported by local media. The following week, the Environment Minister ordered the illegal tracks reopened via social media.

This is an insult to the public servants who were upholding state and federal laws by closing the illegal tracks, and the volunteers who spend countless hours caring for the park. And of course, it’s hugely detrimental to wildlife, habitats and river health.

No, Minister!

To have a Minister intervene to such an extent, to approve illegal activities in a national park via social media, with no public consultation or due process, is extraordinary. It highlights the conflict in the Minister’s portfolios of Environment vs Outdoor Recreation. And it shows a terrible lack of care for his staff, and for the parks he’s been entrusted to protect for current and future generations.

By December 2024, Parks Victoria had begun reopening the illegal track network as ordered by the Minister.

In late December, I went with the Friends of Chiltern–Mt Pilot National Park to inspect the closure of the illegal track networks. I’ve seen a lot of damaging impacts on parks, but these tracks were some of the worst I’ve ever seen.

The tracks run right up into the creek, causing erosion. They lead to massive, cleared areas where people have cut down trees and destroyed other native plants, set up camps and built campfires.

These illegal tracks must be kept closed and visitors educated on the impact these networks have on water quality, wildlife and other park values.

Ordering them to be reopened doesn’t just threaten this park. It threatens all national parks and conservation reserves across the state, by encouraging, and even condoning damaging illegal behaviour.

Box-Ironbark beauty

Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park is a truly special place, home to the highest number of mammals, birds and reptiles of any Box-Ironbark site in Victoria. It’s home to the largest protected population of Black Cypress-pine (Callitris endlicheri) in Victoria and many other wildflowers, including orchids endemic to the park.

It’s a truly remarkable place, cared for by the park rangers and Friends of Chiltern-Mt Pilot National Park. An absolute living treasure of our national parks estate that deserves to be managed with care, not with recklessness.