Great news! Logging machines have left Mount Baw Baw near where the endangered Spot-tailed Quoll was found. Congratulations to Minister Lily D’Ambrosio MP for taking action. Send the Minister an email in your own words thanking her for acting and encouraging her to ensure the protections stop further logging that is planned nearby.
You can write your own email here >>> https://www.melbournefoe.org.au/email_minister_d_ambrosio
Residents in Noojee, in Gippsland, have been running a campaign to stop logging adjacent to their township. This is emblematic of a growing resistance in the logging country across eastern Victoria, were normally conservative towns are rising up against the impacts of broad acre logging. Tin the case of Noojee, some residents claim that a population of the threatened greater glider will be impacted by the logging.
Now, the ABC reports that the Federal Court has granted an injunction to stop any logging by VicForests in the area until February when a three-week trial is due to start. This temporary reprieve has been welcomed by the Friends of Noojee Trees. Spokeswoman Gaye Trevan said “It gives us some breathing space until the trial but the battle goes on to try to protect the forest next to the town”.
The Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum group is challenging VicForests’ compliance with the regional forest agreement (RFA) for the Central Highlands.
IMAGE: Justin Cally. https://twitter.com/Jcal1
With the arctic blast that is currently hitting the alps and (hopefully) heralding the approach of winter, Lake Mountain Ski Patrol (LMSP) has launched a timely drive for volunteer patrollers for the 2018 snow season.
The patrol is looking for people who can cross country ski, have basic first aid training, love to work outdoors and are keen to join the weekend roster for volunteers over the winter.
The southern winter edition of SnowAction (‘Australia’s #1 magazine for snow sports and mountain culture’) has some great stories from Tasmania.
There are excellent stories from a big roadtrip to NZ/Aotearoa, great powder images from Hotham, a piece on the more serious side country terrain at Mt Buller, and skiing in Chile, plus profiles on Chumpy Pallin and film maker Warren Miller. There is also substantial coverage of Tassie’s two resorts.
Nat and Anna Segal have announced the Australian launch of their long awaited film, Finding the Line. The premiere will be in Melbourne on May 29th at the Astor Theatre, and be followed by shows in Canberra (May 30), and Sydney (May 31) and then a final show in Melbourne (June 1).
The film runs for an hour with a Q&A with Anna and Nat after the film with SnowsBest.com founder, Rachael Oakes-Ash, for the first three screenings in Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney.
Continue reading “‘Finding the Line’ screenings happening in Australia”
The Olympus Range is in central Tasmania in the southern end of the Cradle Mountain Lake St Clair National Park. It is the range that runs along the western shore of Lake St Clair and stands high above the surrounding plains and poses quite a challenge to approach.
The range has two key summits (Mt Olympus north and south, of similar height), some beautiful lakes and stands of deciduous beech, and should be on the list for any serious mountain enthusiast who enjoys a challenging walk.
There are some track notes for the traverse available here.
Mountain Journal reported recently that Parks Victoria had released its final Master Plan for the Falls to Hotham Alpine Crossing: a five day serviced hiking opportunity in the Alpine National Park. In the state budget for 2018/19, there was an allocation of funds to help make the project a reality.
The proposal has been widely criticised because it will help open up previously undeveloped areas near Mt Feathertop and allow private development within the Alpine National Park.
Continue reading “state budget allocation to Falls to Hotham Crossing”
The community campaign against the cable car that has been proposed for kunayi/ Mt Wellington in Hobart is going from strength to strength.
Here is a summary of what’s happened in the past week.
Continue reading “Opposition to Mt Wellington cable car keeps growing”
The Mt Hotham Alpine Resort Management Board, the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) and Zoos Victoria have recently completed a tunnel under the Great Alpine Road, which aims to provide safe passage between two groups of critically endangered Mountain Pygmy-possums. The populations are separated by the road and this reduces the chances of the species remaining viable in the Mt Little Higginbotham area.
Continue reading “Tunnel re-connects Mountain Pygmy Possum populations”
There is ever growing evidence of the impacts of climate change on natural ecosystems. We know that, without meaningful action now, the future of alpine vegetation in Australia doesn’t look good. This is true around the world. For instance, research shows that, in many instances, forests in the western part of the USA are not growing back after wildfire, and warmer temperatures are being blamed.
Here in Australia, longer and hotter summers are increasing the risk of longer fire seasons. Some parts of the Alps have been burnt three times in the space of a decade or so, with resulting impacts on what species grow back.
It’s happening tonight!
Wed May 9. 7pm – 9.30pm.
Co-hosted with RMIT Outdoors Club.
Storey Hall (RMIT), 342-344 Swanston St, Melbourne.
Suggested donation:
$8 conc & students/ $15 waged/ $20 solidarity.
Tickets at the door. There will be plenty of room. All funds raised go to the Friends of the Earth climate campaign
There will be a bar run by the RMIT Outdoors Club before the films start (from about 6.15pm).
THE PROGRAM
6.15ish – Bar opens
7pm sharp – 1st films – local films plus first half of the Winter Wildlands program (6 films)
8pm – ish: intermission
8.25 – 2nd batch of films (3 films)
8.45 ish – end of program
In addition to the BCFF program (eight great films – check here for full details), we will be showing:
Mount Townsend 2209 – Australian Freeride Story (3 mins 53 sec)
In keeping with our tradition of showing an Australian backcountry film at the start of the program, this year we have a great short production about a late season mission in 2016 to ski Mt Townsend on the Main Range of the Snowy Mountains.
Film maker Lachlan Humphreys says
With the Australian ski season coming to the end, I joined Australian sisters and pro skiers, Anna and Nat Segal, for one last push for the hills. Filmed in October last year, Mount Townsend 2209 follows Anna and Nat as they spend five days camping and touring together under the peak of Mount Townsend, together with their American/Canadian skier friend, Holly Walker.
Ski touring is undergoing a rebirth; a new form of free skiing, attracting people to the great outdoors and encouraging people to venture beyond the boundaries of ski resorts. There is no better way to explore the vast terrain Australia has tucked away than to camp out under the stars and experience the magic of the sunset on the western faces.
The sisters’ mission was to nut out a plan for their upcoming ski film, Finding the Line and they felt Mount Townsend was no better place to do so.
Produced by Clean Line Productions
I first learnt of Peter through his Ngarak Press, which published a wide range of books on local issues and had a real bioregional feel to it’s approach. His regional histories and materials on indigenous peoples in Gippsland and what we would now call the Frontier Wars changed the way many people look at the occupation of the east of the state and the mountains above Gippsland. His bookstores in Ensay and Swifts Creek were real institutions. While now mostly focused on climate change, he continues to be a significant historian for the region, having lifted the lid on the many massacres which happened during and after occupation.
You can read the profile here.
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