This last week a landowner, Trent Hindman, from Wyandra in Qld was fined $110,000 plus court costs not for broadacre clearing but for selectively removing an invasive woody weed called turkey bush. Trent’s aim was to by mechanical means return the land to its natural state of semi-open grassland. Left alone the land would have remained a near complete loss of to any productive values and in a sub-standard state if measured in terms of fauna & flora bio-diversity.

To gain a good background of the situation that Trent finds himself in, please take the time to follow this link to an article at the online site Beef Central –Cattleman to appeal $110,000 clearing fine  [click here]

Below is a media release from Property Rights Australia and following that a youtube made by Trent Hindman that helps you understand the prior state of the landscape and reasons why Trent believed he needed to manage the land via mechanical intervention.  

Media Release 

9^th December 2011

Chairman of Property Rights Australia, Joanne Rea has claimed that the recent fine of $110,000 plus costs imposed on South West landowner Trent Hindman for renovating country degraded by Turkey Bush (Eremophila Gilesii) so that the native grasses could be allowed to regrow shows the unacceptable activism of some government officers.

Remarks in court by Andrew Franks of the Queensland herbarium that if native grasses were allowed to grow, livestock would be run on the country and livestock cause erosion, are extraordinary.

Under the law as it stands not only are livestock not illegal, but the growing of livestock is the very purpose for which leasehold land rental is paid to the State Government in Queensland by leaseholders including Mr. Hindman.

Much was also made of the fact that Mr. Hindman admitted that he had attempted to plant Buffel grass, a non-native grass which is excellent for preventing erosion but proved unsuitable for his area.  Buffel grass is also not illegal in Queensland but leaseholders are being discriminated against for having this productive grass in their paddocks.  This discrimination is unacceptable.  To paraphrase one of the Justices in a previous Vegetation Management case “DERM (with apologies to the original author) may have said this but the parliament did not.”

According to Mr. Franks the clearing of native vegetation tends towards “landscape fragmentation, habitat loss, weed invasion, soil loss, loss of nutrient cycling increased greenhouse gases and a range of other effects.”

Property Rights Australia Chairman, Joanne Rea said that it is very important to understand that this very general list of Mr Franks was in fact evident before clearing because of land degradation caused by the invasive nature of Turkey Bush and many of these effects would have been vastly improved by Mr. Hindman’s treatment as can be seen from the pre-treatment photograph.

Mr. Hindman bought the property intending to return it as closely as possible to its pre-settlement state of semi-open grassland with predominately scattered box trees.  As seen in this second photograph the area taken at the time of clearing and before the native grasses regenerated, the area in question was not broad-acre cleared but rather cleared very selectively to return it to a more natural state.

Joanne Rea said that it is of great concern to Property Rights Australia that DERM has taken the path of prosecution for clearing invasive species against the landowner  Trent Hindman and that it has allowed some officers decision making to be influenced by unprofessional activism. 

It must be remembered that the green Turkey Bush at Mr. Hindman’s property today was not part of the original landscape and has totally degraded the productive capacity of the affected land.

Property Rights Australia advocates that this degraded land be returned to its original pre-European floristic vegetation mix and tree density,if the landowner so desires .

UPDATE #1

NATIVE VEGETATION FIELD DAY: Trent Hindman will host a native vegetation field day at Alpha Station, 12km east of Wyandra on the Elimina Road, on March 14, from 10am-12pmfollowed by lunch. The field day will include a before and after paddock walk showing an area of turkey bush infestation followed by open grassy woodland. A stick raking demonstration will also be included on a thinning-permit area. A meeting of the Mulga Fighting Fund will follow in the Wyandra Hotel at 7pm.