Premier: Stop logging and start legislating our promised parks - Victorian National Parks AssociationVictorian National Parks Association

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Dear Premier Andrews, Environment Minister Ingrid Stitt and Member for Macedon, Mary-Anne Thomas

I welcomed your government’s 2021 commitment to create new national parks in the central west area.  After such a long and in-depth consultation with stakeholders and the Victorian community it was a relief to see nature conservation given the attention it so desperately needs.

I am however, very disappointed that the Victorian Labor Government has approved both planned logging and salvage logging operations within the accepted Wombat-Lerderderg National Park, a jewel in the central west landscape.

Victoria is the most cleared state in Australia, with close to two-thousand plants and animals listed as threatened and endangered. Worryingly, this list continues to expand as pressures mount from land clearing, logging and the impacts of climate change.

It's well-known that salvage logging is one of the most damaging forms of logging. The current works will lead to the loss of the conservation and habitat values of the future Wombat-Lerderderg National Park, leaving the Victorian community poorer for these works being conducted.

While we expected some clean up of the area, this can’t be done with standard logging practices – such as thirty tonne machines rolling around the forest, reducing its ability to recover and regenerate. A lighter and more ecologically sensitive approach that focuses on ecosystem recovery (not timber extraction) is needed.

It's been a decade since the last major additions to our protected areas and national parks system in our state, even though Victoria’s plants, animals and ecosystems have continued to decline and collapse in some areas.

New national parks in our state’s central west could be an impressive Andrews Government legacy for future generations of Victorians, but they must be managed for their national park values and legislated as soon as possible.

We need to legislate, not log, the recommended parks and reserves if we are to begin reversing ecosystem decline in Victoria.

I urge you and your government to legislate the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council's  recommended central west national parks – the Wombat-Lerderderg National Park, the Mount Buangor National Park, the Pyrenees National Park and the other reserves including the additions to the Bendigo Regional Park – as soon as possible.

I also call on you to proactively manage the parks for their natural and cultural values and fund a proper parks establishment package. Such a package should include a comprehensive and collaborative rehabilitation and restoration plan informed by science, traditional knowledge and innovative land management practices.

The reserve system has been carefully planned with a mix of parks including almost 20,000 hectares of regional parks to allow almost all recreation activities and firewood collection.

National parks are great for both people and nature, as the Victorian parks estate contributes $2.1 billion annually to the Victorian economy through park tourism and supports over 20,000 jobs.

These forests have incredible natural value. They will protect our water supply, including seven significant headwaters of important rivers including the Moorabool, Werribee, Lerderderg, Maribyrnong, and Wimmera rivers, and over 370 threatened species, such as the Powerful Owl and the Greater Glider.

I strongly encourage the Andrews Government to go forward and implement these much-needed new parks, an impressive legacy for our state, as soon as possible.

The end of native forest logging in Victoria is beyond overdue. Australia’s last machine to rely on pulping threatened wildlife habitat for white paper will soon shut down, for good.

In the most cleared state in Australia, every piece of habitat is important. Endangered critters like the Greater Glider simply can’t wait until 2030 for an end to logging. Every hollow-bearing tree matters.

To properly care for our remaining gliders, forests, wildlife and woodlands, Victoria needs new national parks. Parks are not created until they are legislated.

We can have a future where we protect native wildlife habitat, not smash it up for pulp, paper, pallets and firewood.

Send your elected leaders a message today – tell them you want Wombat Forest to be a national park, not a wasteland.

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Video: Premier Andrews talking about the state-funded destruction of wildlife habitat.