By JESSE GRAHAM
YARRA Ranges Council’s report into the Great Forest National Park (GFNP) proposal has raised questions about its impact on the region, following its release earlier this month.
But environmental groups have said the report is ‘biased’, and that experts in favour of the park were not consulted in the process.
In the report, commissioned by the Yarra Ranges Council last year, Dench McClean Carlson Corporate Advisory and K2 Planning assessed the ‘economic, social and environmental impact’ of the proposed GFNP.
Released to the public on 21 April, after copies were leaked to the media, the report questions the employment that would come from converting existing state forest areas to a national park, and how initiatives would be funded, citing a lack of data from proponents.
The report also states that a new national park may limit some activities, such as dog walking, and that ending logging in the forests would result in a direct loss of 109 jobs, with a total nett loss of 264 jobs.
But MyEnvironment’s Sarah Rees said that data about the park’s potential for visitation and employment was “omitted” from the report, and that experts whose details were passed on to comment for the report were not contacted.
In the report, it states that information about the park was gathered from a promotional website, a document, Great Forest National Park: Tenure, Values and Reserve Design Methodology, and from a discussion with “a representative of the working group”.
“If they’re (Yarra Ranges Council) going to fight to get an economic review up, then the least we can expect is a balanced review against the infrastructure proposals, the conservation potential and celebrating our unique region,” she said.
“It’s a very sad situation and we are now beholden to a report that is poor at best.”
The report notes in its conclusion that the park would have a “positive impact” on council’s Environment Strategy, “with regard to the protection of native flora and fauna”.
Yarra Ranges councillor Jim Child, who has been vocal against the GFNP proposal in the past, said the report was independent, and “confirms what I believe I already knew”.
“We get great outcomes from our existing national parks and our state forest system – this (the GFNP) is nothing more than a political tool, to gain traction to wind back the timber industry,” he said.
He said that his ward, O’Shannassy, had a “high” amount of socio-economically disadvantaged people, and that “a lot” of them worked in sawmills, in areas such as Powelltown.
“Now, I’ll do whatever I can to retain those jobs in the Upper Yarra, because I can’t see anything in this proposal that gives them jobs,” Cr Child said.
He said that the matter of whether a park should be established should be left with the Victorian Government’s Industry Taskforce, which is due to deliver recommendations in the middle of the year.
“At this point in time … I couldn’t draw any more a conclusion than what that report has – it really says to us, it supports the status quo and says ‘Wait until the Industry Taskforce does its job’,” he said.
Yarra Ranges mayor Jason Callanan said the report “doesn’t give us a lot of answers”.
“It’s still very much up in the air,” he said.
“You can compare to other like-national parks, but how is this one actually going to be managed? Is it going to allow things that other parks don’t?
“Clearly, the one thing it doesn’t allow for is the timber industry.”
The Leadbeater’s possum, whose habitat the park was proposed to protect, is mentioned six times in the report, with one of these references being the name of the Friends of-group.
Cr Callanan said the scope of the report was to focus more on the park’s potential impact to townships, rather than the environmental impact.
“The brief is, I guess, somewhat brief, and still has a lot of questions, but now it’s public – we want people to see it,” he said.
He said that council would use the report in its discussions with the State Government, in the aftermath of the Industry Taskforce discussions.
To read the full report, visit www.yarraranges.vic.gov.au
