Open Writing

In Victoria, one of 'our' greatest mistakes was to open up for settlement the Great Forest of South Gippsland in response to the cry, 'Unlock the Land' raised by gold miners who had flocked to the diggings but were out of luck. Maps of the area, hurriedly drawn, showed a regular grid of access roads to 320 acre blocks open for selection in 'The Scrub'.

The settlers were expected to pay a shilling an acre each year until the going price for a freehold title was reached. The maps showed nothing of the steep hills of the Strzelecki Range, and did not indicate that the 'weeds' which had to be cleared away included many Mountain Ash eucalypts as much as 100 metres or more tall and some giants three metres in diameter at the base. Much of the clearing was by hand tools only until enough feed could be grown to support a horse or a team of bullocks, and first class hardwood, now scarce, burned.

After clearing and burning, settlers had to make a living from the land, much of it too steep for tillage and still too littered with tree stumps and roots to permit large area cropping. Some tried running sheep, but were frustrated by outbreaks of footrot in the damp soils and blamed dingoes and native wedge-tailed eagles for the loss of lambs. The only alternative, it seemed, was dairying, a very labour-intensive system of which few had prior experience.

Now let us move to Scene 2, a move in space from South Gippsland to the south-west of Western Australia and in time from 1870 to 2006, when we visited the Eagle Farm dedicated to protecting and saving the Wedge-tailed Eagle, now a threatened species owing to the persistent shooting of this 'pest' by landholders.

These magnificent birds, with wing spans of some two metres, demonstrated eyesight far superior to ours by swooping down and catching small pellets of food thrown into the air. It was explained to us that, similarly, the eagles could see the movement of small animals, such as mice and young rabbits and the kittens of feral cats, on which they could have preyed and so prevented the introduced animals from reaching pest numbers. Instead, their numbers had been depleted, not only by guns but also by baiting with poisoned pellets.

It was claimed by the commentator that investigation has showed that the eagles rarely took lambs, and that those they did take were mainly those already 'unthrifty' owing to disease.

More generally, it was suggested that we were also greatly mistaken in treating our native dog, the dingo, as a pest. It, too, could have kept in check the animal pests we have introduced either intentionally or accidentally, such as foxes and cats. Is it now too late to make that change, or is there still time?

© Ken Sillcock

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Ken writes for Bonzer! magazine. Please visit www.bonzer.org.au