The Liverpool plains were a place of loss long before Shenhua's coal mine
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Version 0 of 1. The giant coal mine set to destroy rich croplands on the Liverpool Plains has convinced agriculture minister Barnaby Joyce that “the world has world gone mad”. But these plains had gained a name as a place of loss long before the Shenua mine was proposed. Related: Battle for Liverpool Plains: Chinese coal project tears at fabric of rural NSW During his 18 months in Australia famed naturalist John Gould had a delightful time on the Liverpool Plains, spending almost two months in the summer of 1839-40 marvelling at their wonders, often in the company of Indigenous Australian hunters. The plains gave Gould a glimpse of the largely unknown and mysterious interior, brought within reach because his brother-in-law had a remote cattle station nearby. The natural world seen by Gould vanished soon after. One of the species he discovered was the bridled nailtail wallaby, “one of the most graceful objects that can be conceived”. Its demise was decisive. A century later it was written off as extinct, until in 1967 a small population was found lingering in brigalow scrub in central Queensland, 800km to the north. It is an endangered species today, and is likely to stay that way. As for the most plentiful wallaby Gould saw, the black-striped, he expected it would be esteemed in future for the excellent flavour of its flesh. It has instead become an endangered species in New South Wales, a victim of foxes and habitat loss. The western quolls acquired by Gould from the Liverpool Plains were the first and last ever seen by a European in NSW. One of Australia’s most widespread mammals in the past, found in every mainland state, these marsupial carnivores survive today only in south-western Australia, 3,000km away. The brush-tailed bettongs seen by Gould are also confined today to the far south-west, where they also languish as an endangered species. Gould’s mouse and the eastern hare-wallaby fared much worse. Both are completely extinct. Birds were part of this rapid loss. One of the species discovered by Gould on the plains, the star finch, vanished from temperate Australia long ago, to survive only in the far north. The flock pigeon has retreated far into the interior. One species that did not succumb dramatically – the budgerigar – deserves mention for another reason. It was at Brezi, the very location of the proposed mine, that Gould encountered these small parrots “in flocks of thousands”. He took some back to Europe, where they proved a hit as cage birds, to his great satisfaction. “Budgerigar” is a word that came to us from the Indigenous people of the Liverpool Plains. Today’s controversy is about farming versus mining, but a long view of history reveals this other side to the Liverpool Plains, a story of profound wildlife loss – as well as dispossessed Indigenous people. What happened to the fauna shouldn’t be blamed on crop farming. The real culprits were foxes and cats, and rabbits and livestock removing vegetation, operating long before the plough took over. Diseases and changes to fire regimes may have contributed. Cropping threatens what remains. The native grasslands that teemed with marsupials and birds are now an endangered plant community. About 3% remain, and expanded cropping as well as coal mining are listed by the federal environment department as threats to their future. The government now wants northern Australia to become an “agricultural powerhouse”. Its white paper on the north talks of opening up land equivalent to half the size of New South Wales to intense development. This document acknowledges biodiversity declines in northern Australia, mentioning there are 301 threatened species in the region. Mass extinctions have not yet occurred, but that could be about to change. A threatened species summit was recently held in Canberra in a push to reverse Australia’s sorry record of animal declines. This has come much too late for the lost wildlife of the Liverpool Plains, but northern Australia has much worth saving. |