Residents say a 'corrosive' trend to sell fertile farmland to make way for foreign-owned wood plantations is ruining communities and threatening Australia's food security.
Driving around the gravel back roads of Corangamite Shire, councillor Jamie Vogels surveys the landscape where once-green, cattle-grazing pastures have been sprayed and cut into uniform windrows ready for blue gum seedlings.
Corangamite Shire is now the nation's richest milk-producing local government area, worth $455.7 million in 2020 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.But over the past year, Cr Vogels has watched as multi-billion-dollar German company Munich Re has snapped up 12 local farms — totalling an area of 2,100 hectares — for new blue gum plantations.
With rich soil, bountiful rainfall and a temperate climate, it was a vast forest that was cleared for agriculture in the 1960s and divided up for soldiers returning from WWII.Cr Vogels and his brother run dairy cattle on 600 hectares in Scotts Creek, 30 kilometres inland from the Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road.
President of the club Bree Jones grew up in nearby Princetown, where the football-netball team folded in the 1990s."Now, you wouldn't say there was a Princetown community.Ms Jones said the footy club was the heart of Simpson. They said plantation managers would look after various estates across the region, but would not live onsite."There has been extensive and ongoing consultation with the local community, including local councils and parliamentarians, regarding the establishment of eucalyptus globulus plantings," the spokesperson said.
"The tree people are good to deal with, they come and do an inspection, do the numbers on your property, and then tell you what they're willing to pay, there's no argy-bargy." More than $500 million in state and federal government funding and subsidies has since been allocated to the forestry industry, both to increase timber output and to meet national emission targets through carbon sequestration.These changes have seen plantations push into high-rainfall areas such as Heytesbury, and there are now nine plantation projects in the region registered to earn Australian Carbon Credit Units , which companies can buy to offset their carbon emissions.
Dairy Carbon Climate Plantations Bluegums Trees Agroforestry Carbon Offsets Carbon Trading Munich Re Midway Timber Timber Plantation Simpson Footy Netball Community Population Rural Community
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
South Australia leads in POTS research, but Australia is behind in diagnosing the disorderTess Hansen is among an increasing number of people being diagnosed with POTS — a condition associated with long COVID — but experts say doctors are not being taught enough about it, leading to long periods of confusion and under-treatment.
Read more »
Australia news LIVE: Australia’s largest solar farm approved; ‘Ghost colleges’ shut in tertiary education blitzKeep up to date with today’s news.
Read more »
Australia news LIVE: Australia’s largest solar farm approved; ‘Ghost colleges’ shut in tertiary education blitzKeep up to date with today’s news.
Read more »
Australia news LIVE: Australia’s largest solar farm approved; ‘Ghost colleges’ shut in tertiary education blitzKeep up to date with today’s news.
Read more »
Australia inflation: Reserve Bank of Australia says growth resurgence to keep interest rates higher for longerThe RBA said it considered lifting the cash rate to 4.6 per cent this month amid concerns of a forecast lift in economic growth and persistently high inflation.
Read more »
Australia news LIVE: London stabbing victim from Australia; Dutton defends Gaza stanceRead the national news headlines for Thursday, August 15.
Read more »