REMNANT VEGETATION

At last it appears that the main stream media in Australia seems to consider there could be a story in the hunger strike of Peter Spencer. There are to be a number of radio interviews today. See Peter Spencer.

It is my intention to continue writing daily posts and illustrating them with my photographs to discuss some of the State laws which have been imposed on country people in recent years. As an illustration, consider a frog dropped into hot water. It will immediately respond by jumping out. However, if you place a frog in tepid water and slowly increase the heat the poor thing will stay there until it can no longer jump.

Such has been the encroachment on the lives of country Australians by various State governments in the past twenty years. Each issue was hardly worth a fight until now when we suddenly find ourselves powerless in the courts of Australia. This is another issue that I’ll elaborate on at another time, but the courts of Australia do not have the power to over-rule State court decisions. It has been a hypocritical act by our Australian Federal Government to encourage State governments to introduce laws that then allow our Federal Prime Minister to claim the credit for meeting greenhouse gas emission targets, without the affected people having any right to claim restitution via the courts of Australia.

As many of you know we have a beautiful river frontage and that we have a license (another tax) to draw water from this river for irrigation purposes. I have not utilized this license to grow commercial crops. We have only drawn water for the garden and to irrigate the Remembrance Field of red Flanders poppies each spring.

Severn River

To draw water we have used small, petrol powered, Honda firefighting pumps, which rapidly wear out and have to be replaced. Such a pump was in position on the river bank when we purchased the farm in 1992. At that time Eberhard took charge of all farm work, but as he has aged it has fallen to me learn how to undertake oil changes and all other such work associated with pumping water, not to mention the time it takes me to walk to the river, fuel and prime the pump and pull-start the motor. As I am aging too and find this work increasingly difficult, our guests from the city ask me, “Why don’t you install an electric pump?”

To understand what was involved I consulted our local electrician. I asked if he could run a line from the house to the river?

River Trees

“Yes,” he said, “We could probably put an underground line between the rocks and through the trees, but you don’t have enough power at the house. You would firstly have to get that line upgraded by ERGON.”

Before consulting ERGON I went out to take illustrative photographs. As you will see, prior to the State vegetation act being introduced, we had already cleared firebreaks around our house. Our subsidiary power line comes into our land from the main transformer on a neighbouring farm to our south.

Southern electricity line

When we purchased the farm there was a three bedroom house drawing power from this line. We now have ten bedrooms and are licensed (another tax) to accommodate 18 guests. Our electrician said we could not draw additional power without upgrading the line. For city folk who don’t understand these things, we own and are responsible for replacement of power poles and the maintenance of this line on our land. It was the falling of such a power pole on another farm before a gale-force westerly wind that ignited the huge bushfire of 2002.

Glen Aplin bushfire

That fire raced before the strong wind, flaming in the tree canopy, jumped the highway and roared up the gorges and into the range destroying homes and the life of one woman. The reason I had such a good view of the fire was that the strong westerly wind was behind me and blowing all the smoke to the east. That night, as the wind died down, the fire approached us from the south.

Fire approaching grape vines

Due to our foresight when we purchased the property we had cleared fire trails through the forested region and we had cleared the area surrounding our house. While everyone on the farms to the south and west of us were evacuated we remained safely in our home. The Rural Fire Brigade came onto our land to burn back from our established firebreaks to contain the fire.

Electric power line

To return to my story – the above photo shows where the electric power line enters our property coming through the forested region now protected by Queensland State law preventing the clearing of any trees. ERGON told me that I would have to get permission to clear a wider path before they could install a more powerful line. They also estimated the cost to us of such a new line would be in excess of $20,000.00

I obtained the relevant Queensland State government papers pertaining to the vegetation on our land and realized I would have to pay for an Environmental Impact Statement to be prepared before I could apply for a permit to clear this strip of land. It just got too costly! I still walk to the river to pull-start my pump. When I was irrigating the Das Helwig Haus B&B garden and Remembrance Field it was costing us about $50.00 per week to buy petrol. It became economic madness.

As I’ll be 70 years of age next year and Eberhard is needing increasing care we decided we should try to sell our property, but the auction failed to attract a bid. As in the situation of Peter Spencer it is likely that any person buying our property would be unable to develop it as a viable farm. Our land is locked up by the State laws pertaining to vegetation for which we have received no compensation. I have a beautiful home and garden for which I am thankful, but feel our freedom has been taken from us.

To obtain my book Wildflowers, wilderness and wine – a story about life in the wine tourism district of the Granite Belt of southern Queensland you may contact me by email on helwig@halenet.com.au

Book cover