It’s wonderful to have all this fresh snow. With the national parks and resorts in Victoria closed, this is relevant for people from NSW and the ACT who are heading to the mountains this weekend.
If you are heading into the backcountry, be aware that there will be some tough weather and snow conditions.
Continue reading “Main Range backcountry conditions report 22/8”
I am keenly aware that no Aboriginal group or nation ever ceded it’s land to the colonisers. So those of us living in Australia are all living on stolen land. There is a lot of unfinished business that needs to be resolved, starting with negotiating a meaningful treaty between First Nations and the rest of the people living on this continent.
For a long time, indigenous people and traditions were white washed out of mainstream narratives about the mountains. As traditional owner groups reassert their connection to Country, that is slowly changing, and we can see it across the Alps. The first Aboriginal person I knew who had a strong connection to the mountains was Eddie Kneebone, who I met through our campaign work in north east Victoria in the 1990s. He had an astonishing depth of knowledge. He was instrumental in the campaign to have the Niggerheads on the Bogong High Plains renamed. It got me thinking about the power of language and names.
Continue reading “Traditional names for ‘Australian’ mountains”
The Major Projects legislation has been widely condemned by community, residents and environmental groups in Tasmania. Now the state government has confirmed they will table the Major Projects legislation this week in Parliament (possibly as early as August 18).
Community group Planning Matters Tasmania (PMT) is calling on Tasmanians to contact the ALP to urge them to oppose the legislation.
Continue reading “TAS Major Projects Assessment legislation in parliament this week?”
The Victorian government is required to prepare and rollout a climate strategy every five years out to 2050. However, because of the C-19 pandemic, it is well behind schedule, so the Friends of the Earth Act on Climate collective has launched a push to write a People’s Climate Strategy for Victoria and is seeking your Big Idea that Victoria could take to act on climate.
It can be something to rein in emissions or protect the community from climate impacts. What could be done in mountain areas and surrounding towns?
There has long been a plan for a wind turbine at Mt Hotham. There have been several bulk buy programs to get solar panels onto houses and businesses at Hotham and Dinner Plain. What about micro hydro power in ski resorts? Or protecting the carbon dense forests of the Victorian Central Highlands? Running ski resort lift operations on 100% renewable energy? Using electric rather than diesel buses in ski resorts. Or building bushfire refugees in mountain communities?
What’s your big idea that will be good for climate change and good for the mountains?
As the long debate over management of wild horse populations continues, the NSW deputy premier John Barilaro has launched an extraordinary attack on the state’s National Parks and Wildlife Service and NSW environment minister Matt Kean.
Campaign group Reclaim Kosci has condemned the comments and says that there is a risk that the public debate could be reduced to a ‘slanging match on talkback radio’ rather than a mature, policy focused conversation.
Continue reading “‘Deputy premier’s attack on NSW parks service condemned’”
The proposal to build Snowy Hydro 2.0 to strengthen capacity for energy storage seemed like a good idea at first. But as the details of the project emerged, especially the likely direct physical footprint of the project, more and more people and groups started to oppose it. (Background stories on the issue are available here).
After the release of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) the NSW National Parks Association said that the plan ‘proposes a completely unacceptable level of damage to Kosciusko National Park’.
However the federal government continues to pursue the proposal.
In response, it has been announced that the National Parks Association of NSW and ex-Energy Australia chair Ted Woodley are considering a legal challenge to the project, which they say will push back the transition to renewable energy and destroy thousands of hectares of national park.
A developer has long attempted to build a cable car up the face of kunanyi/ Mt Wellington, above Hobart (background information available here). It has been resisted for years by local residents, environmentalists, and many others who fear the visual impacts of the project.
The proponent, Mount Wellington Cable Way Company (MWCC), had been requested by Hobart City Council (HCC) to provide additional information before it could consider the development application (DA). MWCC has now provided extra details.
Continue reading “Cable car developer lodges extra information on proposal”
Due to the new COVID-19 restrictions, we are sad to announce that the Victorian Backcountry Festival has been cancelled for 2020.
However do not despair, as the VBCF organisers have two exciting dates for you to put into your calendars right now.
We are in the early stages of organising the program, and would love to hear from people about suggestions for potential speakers. If you have a great snow adventure story, a backcountry skill you can teach over Zoom, or want to suggest an author/ athlete/ mountaineer/ etc you want to hear speak, let us know: admin@backcountry-festival.com
Hope to see you all virtually at the online event next month – and in person next year up at Hotham.
Keep an eye on the website for updates.
The pandemic has thrown yet another spanner in the works for Victorian skiers and riders. With the authorities struggling to keep a lid on infections in metropolitan Melbourne, the premier has now announced stage 4 restrictions for the metro area, and stage 3 (stay at home) restrictions for the rest of the state until at least September 13.
This means that basically all resorts and mountain areas are closed.
Continue reading “Stage 3 and 4 lockdown impacts on VIC resorts”
Last September, outdoor and mountain communities joined the student’s strike for climate in unprecedented numbers. A highlight for me was the colourful gathering that happened at Mt Hotham, demanding action on climate change.
On September 25, school strike for climate are organising another day of nationwide actions and they would welcome your involvement.
Continue reading “SEPT 25: Join the School strike 4 climate”
Over June and July 2020, Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA) hosted Australia’s first virtual bushfire and climate change summit to coordinate a national response to the Australian climate and bushfire crises. The 2020 National Bushfire and Climate Summit brought together hundreds of participants from across the country, and the world, to share their experiences, and to formulate recommendations to address the worsening risk of devastating bushfires fueled by climate change. The Australian Bushfire and Climate Plan is the culmination of that effort.
The Plan provides a broad plan and practical ideas for governments, fire and land management agencies and communities to help us mitigate and adapt to worsening fire conditions. The plan’s 165 recommendations include many measures that can be implemented right now, to ensure communities are better protected. There are a range of proposals specifically around aerial support for fighting wild fire.
Continue reading “Increased air capacity needed to fight the fires of the future”
Community members from Warburton in the Upper Yarra Valley have been attempting to stop the proposed logging coupes on and surrounding Mt Bride.
They say that “logging this area will reduce water security as the proposed coupes are within water catchment areas and it has long been recognised that logging has a negative impact on water yield”.
They also say that the coupes will increase fire risk, “as the micro climatic conditions will dry out the understory and the regrowth saplings will create more fuel”.
Some locals have been holding an annual ‘Walking the Mountains of Home’ journey up the local peaks. The Upper Yarra is blessed with gorgeous forested hills that rise steeply from the River. This tradition is about deepening connection to place and been happening for half a decade: ‘On the morning of each pilgrimage, we began by visiting the Yarra where everyone collected a river stone. We each carried our small token to the summit. Over the years, we are very slowly shaping a cairn. This is a place we visit annually, to remember the long legacy of love of this place by the first peoples, and to renew our commitment to learning about and caring for this country into the future’.
This year, because of the threat posed by the logging, the walk climbed Kurrunganner /Mt Bride. Local Maya Ward reports:
Continue reading “Walking the Mountains of Home – Kurrunganner /Mt Bride”
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