Mothers of children all around the world care deeply for their childrens’ future. Mothers protect and teach their children. In this uncertain world, protecting and teaching our young requires, amongst other things, continuity of educational basics within a safe teaching environment. Environmental concerns and fears do not always seem immediate to our lives, if we live in Australia – particularly within the cities and towns along the eastern coast..
We hear about these dreadful things that are happening in our world – fires, floods, droughts, earthquakes, war, oil / gas disasters, species extinction, habitat loss, increasing pollutions and nuclear threat, but often, we are so busy in our own little world, that all these things seem far away from the safety of our homes here. Living safely in our homes, we also forget that there are many homeless families and individuals in Australia.
Homeless Persons’ Legal Service .
youhaveafriend.org.au – sign the petition here to help the Tweed get a drop in centre for homeless people. The Tweed district has the highest per capita homeless rate in NSW, Australia. “homeless forced to camp on the street” article in Tweed Shire Echo 7th October 2010
The ACE Study – “Bridging the gap between childhood trauma and negative consequences later in life” Adverse Childhood Experiences Study & Score
Public Interest Advocacy Centre :- “The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) is an independent, non-profit law and policy organisation that works for a fair, just and democratic society, empowering citizens, consumers and communities by taking strategic action on public interest issues. “
Below is a poem about a mother and her young son. In the poem, the mother is looking after her son with love and care, teaching him all she knows…..but harsh circumstances prevail upon her and and, uprooted from her home, she endeavours to find a new place to live with her son….
I will protect you and teach you……..
(an environmental advocacy poem )
“For you, little young one, as you sleep with your dreams
cradled in arms of protection, it seems
that your future on earth faces heat, drought and less
than the past futures made by “them” leaving this mess.”
“I cry for your children, your hopes dreams and cares
As mysterious moneymen count ill gotten fares.
The userers wallow in time stole from you
Masked wasters of life , toxic moneys accrued.”
“You stir as the night owl glides from its tree
And the howling of dogs surrounds you and me
My arms close about you, ancestral strength
I’ll protect you and feed you, I’ll teach you at length”
“Now waken my dear one, the night closes in
And it’s time that we moved through this forest -so thin
We’ll find a tall tree where the shelter is safe
To keep us till morn – ”
They moved on in good faith.
Following tracks, the mother showed son
what she’d learnt and had followed when she had been young
But tracks, trees and wetlands – were now tarred concrete
It went on for miles, it hurt their bare feet.
“For you, my dear young one, hold fast on my back
I promised to lead you, but I’ve lost my old track
The morning approaches, dogs bark - so near
My darling – please waken – I smell a great fear”
The mother and child then ran for their lives
straddling a fence and cut by the wires.
The fierce dogs chased them and hounded them hard
as a tall tree loomed up – unfenced in its yard
Scrambling treeward they climbed, then looked down
three dogs barked out loudly with dark dogged frown
Up in the tree, confused, bleary eyed
Mother cradled her child - with full strength of the wild.
. … …. …. . …. …. … .
It was a crisp winter’s morning……..a young child woke up and looked out of her window.
(She had woken suddenly from a nightmare, where, as she played in a faery glade, large fierce dogs came to attack her. In her dream, she had run into a tall building where smiling business suited men , dripping with oil and tar, offered her suitcases filled with plastic money . )
The young child cried out to her mother, “Oh Mother – look see – a Koala is in our tree!! Oh, Mama, I think it has a baby with it!!!”
Concreting the Coastal 2003 : Clearing and Development Pressures on the NSW Coast 2003 Total Environment Centre PDF – this compiled resource by the TOTAL ENVIRONMENT CENTRE show problematic development, land clearing activity, approvals and proposals in coastal nsw 2002 -2003. It looks at the larger, more controversial, uncompleted developments at that time – (not the smaller, under the radar ones, nor the already completed ones). This is an excellent recent historic resource.
“I will Jail you and Feed you” – Balance of Faeries article at bluecray.wordpress.com – includes links to help you understand SEPP’s for NSW Koala Plan of Management.
Clearing the habit of Habitat Clearing .
“Koala warning ignored in assessment” article at Tweed Shire Echo 30th September 2010 which states:- “A draft habitat study which warned about the plight of the Tweed’s dwindling koala population had been kept secret by Tweed Council while the state government assessed the controversial township of Kings Forest which it recently approved”
SEPP 44 koala plan of management – search results bluecray environmental search
State Environmental Planning Policy 44 - Koala Plan of Management – NSW Consolidated Regulations
Below is some Koala Legislation, policy, koala advocacy, habitat management information for NE NSW and SE QLD, Australia:-
(not exhaustive, but includes links to some current (2010) ways in which the governments of Australia steer people and their industries to save the Koala on the east coast of Australia from increasingly localised Extinction - habitat clearing and koala corridor destruction- death and illness.)
- Spatiotemporal dynamics of habitat use by koalas: the checkerboard model . William A.H. Ellis, Alistair Melzer, Fred B. Berkovitch Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology Volume 63, number 8,1181-1188, DOI: 10.1007/s00265-009-0761-2. find at http://cat.inist.fr/ or SpringerLink . Published online 31st March 2009 – the keywords are :- foraging strategies , koalas , phascolarctos, resource use, spatial ecology, home range.
- Bluecray now has a number of Koala Articles and LINKS to Koala info, and so searching the KEYWORDS and using the Bluecray Environmental Search Engine may turn up more info to help you understand.
joint submission prepared by the North Coast Environment Council and the NSW Nature Conservation Council:- Re: Phascolarctos cinereus (Koala) – Assessment of Koala’s eligibility for listing as a threatened species under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) EPBC Act nomination to list as a threatened species , ( link disappeared!.. like the Koala?) at Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage & the Arts. FIND the KOALA info the Australian Government makes available…..
by searching for KOALA listings at the Australian Government Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage & the Arts.
- Threatened Species Scientific Committee assessment of the koala – Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett Interview with Annie Gaffney ABC Sunshine and Cooloola Coasts 25 May 2010
NCC of NSW = Nature Conservation Council of NSW – their Assessment of Koala’s eligibility for listing as a threatened species under EPBC Act 16th June 2010
KOALA at Qld Government Department of Environment and Resource Management .
KOALA Response Strategy at Qld Government Department of Environment and Resource Management – this link has the following information, mostly in PDF format :-
There is also the following information:-
- The State Government Supported Community Infrastructure Koala Conservation Policy .
- Koala Habitat Mapping . This section deals with the 2009 SEQ Koala Habitat Values Assessment map & the GHD Report: SEQ Koala Habitat Assessment and Mapping Project .
- Koala Habitat Programs :- This Koala Habitat Program is focusing on the Koala Nature Refuges Program.
I am not sure as to what “on the ground IMMEDIATE SOLUTIONS ” to the plight of the Koala all these initiatives are creating.
The information about koala habitats and the capacity to create useful extension tools and outreach programs for KOALA GUARDIANS and koala future wellbeing has been about for decades. Whilst new techniques, scientific studies and all typesof “credentialled experts” and authentic Koala HABITAT guardians have contributed to this “new approach” from the Qld Government, the fact remains that Koalas are and HAVE disappeared from many KOALA HABITAT areas in SE QLD and NE NSW. KOALAS are, right NOW, and in the near forseeable future, GREATLY AT RISK
The above poem about habitat destruction and its consequences on wildlife mothers and their young shows us that the education of young wildlife by their parents can be very stressful in a constantly changing environment. This is especially so when the native fauna habitat is destroyed or altered dramatically. Non environmentally sustainable development and its related infrastructure nightmare in SE QLD and NE NSW are two of the many factors destroying habitat for native Australian wildlife.
BIODIVERSITY LINKS : - some useful links for Biodiversity, Flora, Fauna, Koalas, Ecology and Catchment Management (NE NSW and SE QLD – Mt Warning Caldera Region)
Animal Law Centre :- nice animal advocacy site – giving an overview of Animal Law in Australia – references and links to Australian and State legislation. Includes animal law and the Australian Constitution, enforcements and threatened species laws in Australian States
KOALA SCHOOL
Biodiversity Certification : enabling ” local government in areas with high development pressure to provide for the protection of biodiversity, including threatened species at the strategic planning stage. These are likely to be mainly urban and coastal areas.
Certification can switch off the need for threatened species assessment under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, providing more certainty for local government, development applicants and other stakeholders. Biodiversity must be improved or maintained for certification to be conferred. ” from environment.nsw.gov.au – biodiversity certification”
More plans, more paperwork, more “expert opinion” and re-hashing of studies, more re-arrangements of habitats and ecosystems to justify heavy machinery handling and toxic lifestyles???? hard to say, but more than likely it is going to be the same as it always is……. better to focus on education of our young in environmentally friendly ways of living… then, instead of regulations, paperworks, endless time and money spent on professional “spin”, people may just end up walking gently with the earth….
PLANNING GUIDELINES FOR KOALA CONSERVATION AND RECOVERY – C McAlpine – 2007:- search results bluecray environmental search engine
Advocacy for Animals at Encyclopaedia Britannica and Kangaroo Culling .
Wildife – Native Australian Wildlife Advocacy at (We) can do better .
Meanwhile, at Kingscliff,NE NSW:- large developments (that will further fragment our native wildlife habitats) are planned nearby (Kings Forest, Cobaki Lakes ) and the sea is moving inwards – “Hungry Mother Nature bares her teeth” - infrastructure damage at Kingscliff on the NSW North Coast - by coastal erosion (2010): SMH article by Saffron Howden
Kingscliff battles beach erosion (story 11th august 2010):- at ABC local + other local beach coastal erosion stories from NE NSW (Tweed and Byron shires)
the above environmental advocacy images by al at bluecray
Tread lightly, honour the earth – it is the only home we have.
.. and now,
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