BY OSCAR JUKES & RUTH RATCLIFFE
DARWIN — More than 100 people attended a public meeting organised by the Environment Centre of the Northern Territory on August 5. Speakers at the meeting agreed that the Daly River faces the same fate as the Murray-Darling and other devastated river systems if large-scale land clearing is not ceased immediately.
The Daly River is one of the best preserved river systems in Australia. Ninety per cent of its catchment area has not been cleared and its wetlands are listed as being of national importance. Aquifers below the river provide a constant flow, able to support a diversity of habitats and species, several of which are endangered. The river has been a part of the livelihood and culture of Indigenous people of the region for as long as people can remember. The river is also a popular tourist destination and hosts national barramundi fishing championships.
Land clearing and agricultural development in the area have increased in recent years. The resulting increased soil erosion, agrochemical run-off and irrigation schemes now threaten the Daly River ecosystem. In late 2002, the NT ALP government finally acted on an election promise to introduce controls on land clearing. An Interim Development Control Order was issued that requires all landholders beyond the Litchfield Shire to apply for consent in order to clear more than a hectare.
However, the government has liberally granted applications. The NT Environment Centre's May newsletter reported that some developers had been granted permission to clear more hectares than they had requested.
Minister for Tourism, Primary Industry and Fisheries and the Environment Chris Burns attended the August 5 meeting, but was unable to provide a firm date for when a Natural Resource Management Plan for the region would be available for public scrutiny. He refused to call for a moratorium on land clearing until such a document was available.
The Northern Land Council executive member for the Darwin-Daly-Waigat region, traditional owner John Sullivan, spoke of the importance of the river to him and his family and the impact that land clearing was already having. John Harrison of the Amateur Fisherman's Association highlighted the social and economic benefits of fishing in the region.
He spoke of the fate of the once abundant Murray cod, which is now on the endangered species list, and warned that the fate of the barramundi would be the same if the destruction of the Daly continued.
Ecologist Dr Naomi Rea, of the faculty of Indigenous Research and Education at the Northern Territory University, explained that the Daly River is home to eight of the Territory's nine turtle species, making it the most diverse river for turtles in Australia.
The meeting was also addressed by Peter McLeod of the Daly River Community Development Association, an association formed in the 1970s to promote land use that takes into account both the people and the land.
He claimed the current rate of land clearing had caused extensive damage and any increases would lead to "an environmental catastrophe". At the conclusion of the meeting, a motion was passed calling for an immediate moratorium on land clearing in the Daly region until the Natural Resource Management Plan is released.
Activists in Darwin are planning actions to save the Daly River. For more information contact <northernwoodlands@octa4.net.au> or phone (08) 8981 1984.
From Green Left Weekly, August 13, 2003.
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