Apr 122014
 

Original story by Pip Courtney, ABC News

A team of CSIRO scientists has cracked the holy grail of aquaculture by developing the world’s first fish-free prawn food.

Prawns for sale, prawns have been found to grow up to 40 per cent faster on Novaq. Photo: Matt Brann

Prawns for sale, prawns have been found to grow up to 40 per cent faster on Novaq. Photo: Matt Brann

The royalties from worldwide licensing deals for the Novaq product will earn the CSIRO tens of millions of dollars.

“The research cost about $10 million. We are very confident that this will generate a return on investment back to Australian taxpayers of many, many times the initial investment,” CSIRO’s Dr Nigel Preston said.

There is intense global interest in Novaq because it solves one of the farmed prawn industry’s biggest problems – its reliance on wild fisheries as a core ingredient in prawn food.

But aquaculture has reached “peak fish”, where demand for wild harvested fish meal now outstrips supply.

Without a solution, soaring world demand cannot be met.

“It is absolutely a critical issue for the global aquaculture industry. There’s no more room to get more wild harvest fish, so we’ve got to find alternatives,” Dr Preston said.

This is really a game-changer. There’s nothing like this that I’ve seen in my career and I may see nothing like this again.
CSIRO scientist Dr Nigel Preston

“A justifiable criticism about aquaculture is the continuation of catching wild fish, grinding them up and feeding to farm fish.”

News of Novaq’s development has caused huge excitement around the world, as many thought a fish-free food was impossible.

“It’s the first really viable solution to not having to use wild harvest fish meal,” Dr Preston said.

Australia’s only producer of prawn food, Ridley, has the licence to make Novaq, and aims to have it on the market by the end of next year.

Industry set to grow with Novaq

Ridley’s Bob Harvey says the industry will be able to flourish when it is no longer reliant on fish caught in the wild.

Ridley is aiming to sell the product to the world’s biggest producer of prawns, Asia.

“There is a world shortage of prawns, there’s an insatiable demand in South-East Asia for them,” he said.

“Once you start getting into South-East Asia, you’re talking millions of tonnes.”

Mr Harvey says the opportunity is worth millions of dollars to the company.

“It’s a long journey now to start to commercialise this, but the prize is significant,” he said.

The Novaq formula is a closely guarded secret, but it is known that the product is based on microscopic marine organisms.

“They are so abundant one would have thought that the world would have paid more attention to them, but their misfortune is to be so small,” Dr Preston said.

Novaq in use at an aquaculture facility. The industry is expected to grow without its reliance on fish caught in the wild. Photo: Landline

Novaq in use at an aquaculture facility. The industry is expected to grow without its reliance on fish caught in the wild. Photo: Landline 

“The eureka moment [was] that we should be able to use their abundance, and the fact they are a significant component of the natural diet of prawns at every stage of their life history.”

Marine microbes are at the bottom of the ocean food chain and a decade ago scientists knew little about them.

The CSIRO team’s first breakthrough was working out how to feed and then farm them.

“They are harvested when they are 40 days old. We then de-water the product. We drain it down and filter it and then we harvest the product as sludge or … a mud,” said CSIRO’s Dr Brett Glencross.

“That product is dried before it gets milled and then included in a prawn feed.”

Novaq speeds up prawn’s growth

Novaq has delivered a second breakthrough, with scientists discovering prawns grow up to 40 per cent faster on the fish-free food.

“If you think of that in terrestrial terms, it’s very rare to see,” Dr Preston said.

“If you’ve got a chicken growing 40 per cent faster you’d think something was wrong. It was a surprise.

“This is really a game-changer, there’s nothing like this that I’ve seen in my career, and I may see nothing like this again.”

With farmers able to get more tonnes of prawns per hectare of pond space with the same input costs, the new feed will have a huge impact on profits and productivity.

It’s going to make the animals grow better and bigger … it sounds like the magic cure.
Prawn farmer Matt West

“Farmers can either get their prawns to market 30 per cent faster or they could have a prawn that’s 30 per cent bigger,” Dr Preston said.

Novaq offered more surprises by proving more nutritious than traditional fish-based feeds. Prawns fed the new diet were healthier and more robust.

“There’s opportunities to start lifting carrying capacities in ponds and start to push more animals out, but the thing that excites us more is that growth potential,” said the manager of Australian Prawn Farms Matt West.

Australian Prawn Farms at Ilbilbie, south of Mackay, has 33 hectares of ponds, and hopes to triple production by digging more on adjacent caneland.

Its plans have been hampered by a lack of access to power and tough environmental rules, but Mr West hopes Novaq can deliver an increase in yields without the need to push ahead with the extra ponds.

“It’s going to make the animals grow better and bigger and stronger and more healthier … it sounds like the magic cure,” he said.

Novaq’s arrival is perfectly timed, as supermarkets and customers increasingly demand seafood that is certified as sustainable.

“We as an industry do want to be clean and green, we want to go down more of the sustainability path and this is just one of the little ventures that we can do … it has a sustainability tick,” Mr West said.

Fish next on the CSIRO’s agenda

Dr Preston hopes some of the millions of dollars the CSIRO earns from Novaq royalties will be spent finding the same solution for farmed fish. It is a much bigger market, but it is also more challenging.

“Because prawn feeds have about 25 per cent wild harvest fish meal in their formulation, with fish it’s 40 to 50 per cent, but we do have the germ of an idea as we had for Novaq 10 years ago,” he said.

CSIRO-developed Novaq is the world's first fish-free prawn food. Photo: Landline

CSIRO-developed Novaq is the world’s first fish-free prawn food. Photo: Landline

“We assume it’ll probably take 10 years but will be pleasantly surprised if it only takes five.”

Dr Preston says it is crucial the work is done, as the aquaculture industry cannot grow unless it finds an alternative to current feed containing wild caught fish.

“One in two fish that everybody eats around the world is farmed so if we’re going to continue to eat more fish, if we’re going to meet those demands for the world’s ever growing population, then it’s going to be farmed seafood,” he said.

“And if it’s going to be farmed seafood it absolutely needs to be sustainable.

“We need to double fish production in the next 50 years … so we need to come up with some innovation and I think providing Novaq for fish is probably the next step.’ Dr Glencross said.

Landline’s story on the Novaq breakthrough is on Landline on ABC1 on Sunday at noon.
Apr 092014
 

Original story by Tom Arup and Peter Hannam, Sydney Morning Herald

At least half the world’s energy supply will have to come from low-carbon sources, such as renewables and nuclear, by 2050 as part of the drastic global action needed to cut greenhouse gases to relatively safe levels, a major United Nations climate change assessment will say.

The emission reductions pledged by nations for 2020 are found to fall short of the action needed. Photo: Graham Tidy

The emission reductions pledged by nations for 2020 are found to fall short of the action needed. Photo: Graham Tidy

A leaked draft of the next report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, obtained by Fairfax Media, also warns the world is fast running out of time to make the cuts to emissions required to keep global warming to an average of two degrees – a goal countries, including Australia, have pledged to meet through the UN.

The draft comes as Lord Nicholas Stern, the author of a 2006 landmark review of the economics of climate change, chastised Australia for being ”flaky” on global warming. In an interview with Fairfax he said each country had to be ambitious in its approach to cutting emissions and developing a low-carbon economy because climate change was a such as serious and global problem.

Australia’s target of cutting emissions by 5 per cent of 2000 levels by 2020 “looks very small” and Abbott government policy changes such as the scrapping the carbon tax and its “tone of discussion” suggested it was “not very serious” about climate change.

The final version of the latest IPCC report – the third part of its fifth major assessment of climate change – will be released in Berlin on Sunday. It focuses on ways human-caused emissions can be mitigated.

The draft of the third section warns if the world puts off deep cuts to emissions until 2030 it will make the two-degree task significantly harder to achieve, and limit the options for mitigation.

The world has already warmed 0.85 degrees since 1880.

The emission reductions pledged by nations for 2020 are found to fall short of the action needed to have the best chance of keeping to two degrees, meaning deeper cuts will be required later, with higher costs and probably the need to develop technologies to draw significant amounts of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

The draft finds greenhouse gas emissions rose faster between 2000-10 than in previous decades, driven largely by economic and population growth.It says the majority of scenarios studied that ensure just a two-degree rise in warming include a trebling, to a near quadrupling, of the share of clean energy in the global supply by mid-century.

That would require the share of renewable technologies, nuclear and fossil fuels using carbon capture and storage, to rise from about 17 per cent in 2010 to at least 51 per cent by 2050.

The draft also stresses climate change is a global problem requiring international co-operation. It warns the problems will not be solved if individual countries and companies advance their own interests independently of others.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt did not respond to a request for comment by deadline.

Apr 092014
 

Transcript from Landline 6/4/2014, reporter Pete Lewis

Rivers of Dreams

Rivers of Dreams

PIP COURTNEY, PRESENTER: For some, northern Australia is farming’s final frontier. A field of irrigated dreams just waiting for the right people and the right projects to unleash its full potential.

Yet others are cautious about triggering an unsustainable land and water grab that tramples over the natural and cultural significance of some of the world’s largest unspoilt tropical savannah country.

The ABC’s rural and regional reporter Pete Lewis headed to Queensland’s Gulf, where one single project has brought both sides of this agricultural development debate into sharp focus.

(Graeme Connors “A Little Further North”)

SONG: I head a little further north each year. Leave the cities behind, out of sight, out of mind. Up where my troubles all disappear I head a little further north each year.

KEITH DE LACY, I-FED: We believe that this is groundbreaking. This is going to change the way agriculture is carried out in Australia. For the last 50 years we’ve been talking about developing the north, the food bowl of Asia. We’ve had white papers and green papers. We’ve found a way of actually doing it. And the great thing about it, it’s absolutely sustainable.

PETE LEWIS, REPORTER: The grand plan is to harness the power of this river in Queensland’s Gulf Country for irrigated agriculture on an unprecedented scale.

CSIRO’s scientists spent two years and $10 million looking into the land, the water and the climate in the Flinders and Gilbert river catchments and they’re not quite so bullish, which some say is just as well.

GAVAN MCFADZEAN, WILDERNESS SOCIETY: We don’t want to see the mistakes of the past now characterise future development in northern Australia and we urge decision makers around this project, but also the Federal Government’s northern development inquiry, to look at sustainable long-term development options for this region, not the legacy of a failed business and development model of the past.

PETE LEWIS: Over the course of the next year, authorities both state and federal will assess the arguments for and against agricultural developments in northern Australia. Whether to opt for the CSIRO’s more precautionary approach to opening up more irrigated projects or a complete game changer, that might not just change the course of mighty rivers up here, but how the water in them is allocated.

So the first line in the sand between those for and against substantially more irrigated agriculture has been drawn here, where a private consortium, Integrated Food and Energy Developments, is seeking Federal Government imprimatur and formal State Government approval for its $2 billion project – and yes, in this case, size does matter.

I-FED is factoring in 65,000 hectares of irrigated crops, mostly sugarcane, fed by two large off-river dams. That justifies investment in a sugar mill, whose by-products in turn would be used to both generate electricity and ethanol to power the mill, as well as stockfeed for beef cattle that will also be processed onsite.

KEITH DE LACY: The message we’ve got to get across and this is really the breakthrough, is that you’ve got to have the scale to make this work. The scale that can – so that we can create all of the processing architecture that enables us to grow agriculture in this isolated part of the world. If they allocate water so that we can develop projects to this scale, then you will get enormous times more economic benefit or jobs, if you like, per megalitre.

(Speaking to audience) We’ll have 12 months supply of stock, then that justifies…

PETE LEWIS: Keith De Lacy, a former Queensland Labor Treasurer, told the recent ABARES Outlook conference that this project brings him full circle, back to where he grew up, but with a keener sense now of what’s possible, honed after careers in state politics and the corporate world.

KEITH DE LACY: (Speaking to audience) I’d just really like to see, as we say, bringing government policy to life. You just have to do it differently than you did it before. Analyse everything that’s been done, find out why it didn’t work and say, ‘Well, is there a way to make it work?’ and we believe we’ve found it.

PETE LEWIS: Someone with a more cautious outlook is CSIRO scientist Dr Peter Stone.

DR PETER STONE, CSIRO: History’s shown that capitalising on the north’s advantages has its challenges and uncertainties. And this erodes confidence, which in turn can deter investment. So unlocking significant new investment in the north’s agriculture requires confidence about the scale of opportunities and the risks that attend them.

(Speaking to audience) A high-level view of what we did and the sorts of results that we found as part of the Flinders Gilbert Agricultural Resource Assessment. I’m a kind sort of person, so I’m not going to take you through 4,000 pages. If you’re wanting a little bit more detail, there’s the 15 or 16-pager that you’re either sitting on or have in your hands. That’s where I probably prefer to start myself. It gives a nice high-level overview but also enough information to really wrap your head around what we did.

DR PETER STONE: In the Gilbert catchment, we found over 2 million hectares of soil that is at least moderately suited to irrigated agriculture production. That’s a lot of soil. We found sufficient water resources to irrigate 20,000 to 30,000 hectares of that 2 million. To some people, 20,000 or 30,000 hectares sounds like an awful lot of land and to others it doesn’t sound like much.

So just to put it into perspective, the Ord River irrigation area currently irrigates about 14,000 to 15,000 hectares. So the 20,000 to 30,000 hectares that we’ve identified in the Gilbert could increase all of the irrigation area in northern Australia – so, north of the Tropic of Capricorn – by 15 to 20 per cent – that’s a big increase.

PETE LEWIS: Any comparisons with the Ord River scheme in Western Australia’s east Kimberley tends to stir some sceptics into campaign mode. The Wilderness Society has made a detailed submission to the northern Australian development white paper, arguing less is more.

GAVAN MCFADZEAN: There’s two projects already on the drawing board in this catchment which far exceed what CSIRO say is possible. One project, the I-FED project, wants to, at a minimum, take out three times more water and use twice as much land as what CSIRO was suggesting is possible. And that’s just one project.

There’s another project which has already started land-clearing in the Gilbert and wants to clear up to 100,000 hectares of land.

So both of these projects together result in almost 200,000 hectares of land-clearing and vast extraction of water, far beyond what CSIRO say is possible.

(Sound of heavy machinery)

PETE LEWIS: Third generation Gulf grazier Greg Ryan isn’t a fan of I-FED or its super farm either. Indeed, he’s not cleaning up land for crops. He’s weeding chinee apple out of his floodplain pastures that sprouted after the first decent rainfall here after fires and a long drought.

GREG RYAN, GREEN HILLS STATION: You’d hope we’re just at the bottom of the cycle and things will sort of pick up if the weather’s kind to us and the markets are kind to us and everything else sort of turns around, well, yes, we’ll hopefully start working our way up the cycle to the boom end.

PETE LEWIS: While he’s not opposed per se to increased irrigated agriculture here on the Gilbert River floodplain, Greg Ryan says the huge I-FED proposal simply hasn’t had the due diligence it deserves and that’s split the community.

GREG RYAN: It does concern me. I think everyone would like to see a successful project in the district for the benefit of everyone within the district. But we’ll only get one shot at this and we have to get it right, so I think the split clearly indicates that there’s not enough information and enough research being done to tell us whether it’s a viable sort of project or not.

PETE LEWIS: On neighbouring Forest Home Station, cropping helped get Ken Fry and his family through the big dry. They grew stockfeed for hungry cattle. The family moved up from Queensland’s Burdekin region, the engine room of Australia’s sugarcane industry, for a crack at irrigated cropping Gulf savannah style.

KEN FRY, FOREST HOME STATION: This was the perfect spot for us at the end. It had irrigation potential, a 400-hectare irrigation licence, farmland, irrigators… Essentially we’re cattle people, but I figured we had to be able to diversify and for the last couple of years, it’s been keeping us going, being able to grow crops on our country with irrigation.

PETE LEWIS: Today he’s checking his emerging guar crop; a legume that’s sometimes referred to as poor man’s soybean. Guar gum is a thickening agent used in everything from fast food and toothpaste to coal seam gas fracking.

Forest Home Station’s rich alluvial soil profile is around 4m deep. They grow everything from cavalcade hay to peanuts and corn and are hopeful they’ll get not only approval to clear more scrub, but a crack at more water on the open market against I-FED and others.

Do you think there’s enough for all of you?

KEN FRY: Ah… Yes, I wouldn’t like to say. I don’t really actually know what water, what percentage of water will be released. I don’t have those figures. We need a considerable amount. The Gilbert River precinct needs a considerable amount. I-FED’s proposal, they’re asking for a considerable amount. A lot.

If we’re all equal, if we’ve got to go and put our tenders in for the water or go to auction and bid on it, it will all be fair, but if anything else besides that happens, they get granted water, they will be the biggest water holders and they will hold and they will organise the markets around that.

Saying that, I hope there is enough water here that we can survive and they can survive and it will be so much better for the area if we can both go in tandem.

PETE LEWIS: Huenfels Station was a soldier settler block that’s been in John Bethel’s family since the 1920s, mainly running cattle. But thanks to an agreement he signed with I-FED, it may eventually boast an expansive water feature, a header dam for the irrigated farm.

JOHN BETHEL, HUENFELS STATION: What is attractive about it is they’ll lease it back to us for a peppercorn rental for three years and then you’ve got the option to lease it back after all the development’s done, whatever’s left, so probably a godsend really for a lot of people that are under pretty stiff financial circumstances.

PETE LEWIS: And for John Bethel, that’s the rub. There just simply aren’t a host of development alternatives in this part of the country that could underpin economic growth quite like the super farm.

JOHN BETHEL: One of the things that holds the shire back is it has a very small rate base and projects like these are the only opportunity they’ve got to grow their rate base, but from my perspective I’m more concerned about the next generation that want to stay on the land and be involved in the area and I think that without these sort of projects, the future looks pretty grim really.

PETE LEWIS: Perhaps not surprising the local council is pretty excited about the potential windfall too. The population projections alone would result in a tenfold increase in Georgetown’s 250 residents.

WILL ATTWOOD, ETHERIDGE SHIRE MAYOR: I see that it’s going to be good for a town, to grow the economics of our town, the economics of our area. It’s going to make a lot of opportunity for people to have businesses around. But we’re doing it really tough just at the moment. I mean this is an absolutely huge boost, but really any boost to us at the moment would be great.

(John Denver “A Little Further North”)

SONG: Up where there’s silence and the night sky is clear I head a little further north each year.

PETE LEWIS: So where is that boost likely to come from?

KEITH DE LACY: Well let me say, we would go to the Australian capital markets first. We would prefer to get the money from Australia. Nevertheless, getting money from offshore is good for Australia anyway.

We expect there will probably be a mix of it, but we’ve had enormous interest from the United States, from North America, enormous interest, probably the most interest from there, I’ve got to say that. But, no – we’re ecumenical about that. We want to develop this project and we’ll raise the funds where we’ve got to raise the funds.

PETE LEWIS: First they’ll need to raise $15 million to get the project to the next stage, and undertake the environmental impact and detailed engineering assessments, before pitching for a half a million megalitres in water entitlements and tree-clearing permits. To say nothing about winning over all the locals.

JOHN BETHEL: I don’t think there’s ever been a community born where there wasn’t polarised views. This community – if I’m any judge of the community sentiment – I’d say there’s a small number that are strongly opposed. There’s a small number like myself that are very pro. And everyone else is sitting a leg on either side of the fence. And if you’re a business owner, you’re hoping like hell it’s going to go ahead but probably thinking that it’s too good to be true. And that’s where I think most of the community sit. I’m pretty sure of it actually.

 

Apr 072014
 

Original story by Alister Doyle, Reuters

World powers are running out of time to slash their use of high-polluting fossil fuels and stay below agreed limits on global warming, a draft U.N. study to be approved this week shows.

Smoke rises from chimneys of a thermal power plant near Shanghai March 26, 2014. Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters

Smoke rises from chimneys of a thermal power plant near Shanghai March 26, 2014. Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters

Government officials and top climate scientists will meet in Berlin from April 7-12 to review the 29-page draft that also estimates the needed shift to low-carbon energies would cost between two and six percent of world output by 2050.

It says nations will have to impose drastic curbs on their still rising greenhouse gas emissions to keep a promise made by almost 200 countries in 2010 to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times.

Temperatures have already risen by about 0.8 C (1.4F) since 1900 and are set to breach the 2 C ceiling on current trends in coming decades, U.N. reports show.

“The window is shutting very rapidly on the 2 degrees target,” said Johan Rockstrom, head of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, and an expert on risks to the planet from heatwaves, floods, droughts and rising seas.

“The debate is drifting to ‘maybe we can adapt to 2 degrees, maybe 3 or even 4’,” Rockstrom, who was not among authors of the draft, told Reuters.

Such rises would sharply raise risks to food and water supplies and could trigger irreversible damage, such as a meltdown of Greenland’s ice, according to U.N. reports.

The draft, seen by Reuters, outlines ways to cut emissions and boost low-carbon energy, which includes renewables such as wind, hydro- and solar power, nuclear power and “clean” fossil fuels, whose carbon emissions are captured and buried.

It said such low-carbon sources accounted for 17 percent of the world’s total energy supplies in 2010 and their share would have to triple – to 51 percent – or quadruple by 2050, according to most scenarios reviewed.

That would displace high polluting fossil fuels as the world’s main energy source by mid-century.

CARBON CAPTURE

Saskatchewan Power in Canada will open a $1.35 billion coal-fired electricity generating plant this year that will extract a million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year from its exhaust gases – the first carbon capture and storage plant of its type.

Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the group meeting in Berlin, will help governments, which aim to agree a deal to slow climate change at a Paris summit in December 2015. Few nations have outlined plans consistent with staying below 2 degrees C.

Another report by the IPCC last week in Japan showed warming already affects every continent and would damage food and water supplies and slow economic growth. It may already be having irreversible impacts on the Arctic and coral reefs.

The new draft shows that getting on track to meet the 2C goal would mean limiting greenhouse gas emissions to between 30 and 50 billion tonnes in 2030, a radical shift after a surge to 49 billion tonnes in 2010 from 38 billion in 1990.

The shift would reduce economic output by between 2-6 percent by 2050, because of the costs of building a cleaner energy system based on low-carbon energies that are more expensive than abundant coal, the IPCC said. Capturing carbon dioxide is also expensive, it added.

China and the United States are the top emitters.

One option is to let temperatures overshoot the 2C target while developing technology to cool the planet by extracting greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, the draft says. The draft that would add to risks of warming and push up costs.

Extracting carbon from nature includes simple measures such as planting more trees, which soak up carbon as they grow, or capturing and burying greenhouse gases from electricity-generating plants that burn wood or other plant matter.

A problem is that markets for trading carbon dioxide focus on cuts in emissions at power plants and factories burning fossil fuels, not renewable energies which are viewed as green.

“In Europe there is no incentive” said Jonas Helseth, director of environmental group Bellona Europe who chairs a group of scientists and industry experts looking at burying emissions from renewable energy.

The IPCC draft report is the third and final study in a U.N. series about climate change, updating findings from 2007, after the Japan report about the impacts and one in September in Sweden about climate science.

The September report raised the probability that human actions, led by the use of fossil fuels, are the main cause of climate change since 1950 to at least 95 percent from 90. But opinion polls show voters are unpersuaded, with many believing that natural variations are the main cause.

Apr 042014
 

ABC NewsOriginal story by Rachel Carbonell, ABC News 

The Queensland Government is under fire from conservationists over the granting of new land clearing permits in the north of the state.

The Wilderness Society says weakening of vegetation management laws last year has led to large-scale clearing applications.

Campaigner Gavan McFadzean says the biggest example is a permit granted to Strathmore Station, a big cattle station in the gulf savannah country near Georgetown.

Queensland land clearing legislation, the Government says the legislation changes are part of its vision to expand Queensland's agricultural economy. Photo: ABC News

Queensland land clearing legislation, the Government says the legislation changes are part of its vision to expand Queensland’s agricultural economy. Photo: ABC News

“We’ve discovered through a tip-off that [land clearing] is now broadscale and at an alarming rate,” he said.

“One of the biggest examples of that we’ve discovered is in the Gilbert catchment at Strathmore, where an application for 30,000 hectares of clearing – that’s about 134 Brisbane CBDs of clearing – has been granted.”

Mr McFadzean says the legislative amendments are undermining the land clearing legislation introduced in Queensland nearly 20 years ago.

“During the 1980s and 1990s Queensland was clearing at an alarming rate, it was actually an emerging environmental crisis,” he said.

“If Queensland was a country, in the early 90s it would have been one of the worst land clearers in the world, on par with Brazil, the Congo Basin, Borneo and Indonesia.

“It was through the 1996 native Vegetation Act introduced by the Beattie government that land clearing was brought under control.”

Queensland Minister for Natural Resources and Mines Andrew Cripps says the legislation changes are part of the Government’s vision to expand the state’s agricultural economy.

“What the amendments to the vegetation framework that the Queensland Parliament passed last year are doing is providing opportunities for the sustainable expansion of agriculture in Queensland,” he said.

“The Queensland Government went to the last state election with a commitment to build a four pillar economy here in this state and that included agriculture, and we’re changing the regulatory environment to provide for those opportunities.”

Mr Cripps says it is this kind of agricultural development the Queensland Government is keen to support.

“I think the opportunities for Strathmore Station to undertake an expansion of their existing grazing enterprise by taking into account some cropping agriculture on their property, is a great example of the opportunity that the Queensland Government is providing to grow sustainable communities in Cape York Peninsula,” he said.

“Strathmore Station is in fact growing sorghum at the moment under the high value agriculture framework to improve the sustainability of the existing grazing operations, and I think that is going to be a tremendous thing for communities in Cape York Peninsula.”

Land clearing will create opportunities, says station owner

Strathmore Station owner Scott Harris says his permit to clear 28,000 hectares is aimed at improving the environmental health of the land, as well as making it more productive.

He says it will be done in an environmentally sensitive manner.

“The environmental aspects of Strathmore Station, the land there, historically has been very degraded,” he said.

“It is chock-a-block full of weeds, rubber vine, there’s feral animals there.

“This is more about not clearing pristine wilderness that everyone thinks this is about, trying to return the environment back to somewhere like before white man settled there.”

Mr Harris says the application is part of a plan to expand his operation, that will create up to 200 jobs, and economic opportunities for others in the region, including Indigenous communities further north.

“With it there is a big opportunity for the landholders in Cape York to be able to become a person that can purchase cattle, which is a great help to the Indigenous communities up there, because at the moment they’re quite hamstrung in the respect that they’ve got nowhere to sell their cattle.”

But Mr McFadzean questions the economic argument behind the proposal.

“The so-called high value agriculture that’s allowed at Strathmore is for fodder cropping which even the CSIRO has stated, earlier this year in its report, would only be viable in two to three years out of every 10,” he said.

“So if the bar is set so low for high value agriculture agriculture in Queensland, we’re very concerned that rampant land clearing will return to this state.”

He says there is no public scrutiny of permit applications or approvals.

“We fall on those incidents of land clearing by accident but god only knows how much land clearing is happening in Queensland, and at an increasing rate, and that’s what we’re extremely concerned about.”

The Queensland Government says all applications for land clearing must meet strict environmental and economic criteria.

Apr 022014
 
Back From the Brink: Issue 6Back from the brink is a periodical publication produced by EHP’s (the Department of Environment and Heitage Protection) Threatened Species Unit.

The publication provides information about what is happening in threatened species recovery around Queensland.

In this issue

  • Concern for Raine Island turtles
  • Counting koalas and creating habitat in South East Queensland
  • Family fun day at Daisy Hill
  • Woongarra Coast turtle conservation work
  • Keeping track of flatback turtles
  • Spring has sprung: launch of a new species database
  • Summer loving: monitoring little tern breeding success
  • Science or Art? A jump in the mistfrog population
  • Find your calling: the search for the rufous scrub-bird
  • Forestry and threatened species: guiding practices for species conservation

 

Apr 022014
 

Original story by , Queensland Times

A SEVERE marine pollutant that may have been released into Gladstone Harbour during the Western Basin dredging project went unassessed before dredging began, due to failures in the sediment testing program for the project.

The Gladstone Ports Corporation failed to test for the pollutant despite recommendations provided in 2009 that harbour sediments be “immediately” tested for the substance.

That failure was allowed to occur due to a weakness in the National Assessment Guidelines for Dredging; CSIRO scientist Dr Graeme Batley – a key contributor to the guidelines – has confirmed.

The pollutant, dibutyltin (DBT), is the breakdown product of the toxic chemical tributyltin (TBT), a key ingredient in anti-fouling paints that was banned in 2008, which was a known “contaminant of concern” in the harbour.

These substances were also overlooked during investigations into a 2011 fish disease outbreak in the harbour that coincided with the dredging project.

While a GPC spokeswoman said the dredged sediment was deemed suitable for “its intended disposal location”, she referred all questions to documents “available on the project website”.

Those documents show sediment was dredged from an area “of concern” for potential DBT contamination, near the RG Tanna coal terminal, in the months preceding the 2011 harbour closure.

But the documents did not specify where the sediment was dumped; an issue the port did not clarify.

A 2009 study on the chemicals’ effects on molluscs in the harbour found DBT was more prevalent than TBT and the “major effects to biota” were likely caused by butyltin compounds in the sediment, including DBT, rather than directly from vessels using the banned paint.

That study recommended “immediate” sediment testing for all such compounds “to ascertain potential for contamination and re-suspension”.

While the tests completed found little evidence of TBT, the port’s environmental impact statement shows no tests were completed for the key pollutants DBT or monobutyltin (MBT).

CSIRO chief research scientist Dr Graeme Batley, who contributed to the guidelines, said while TBT was more toxic, “normally if you were doing an investigation, you would test for all the breakdown substances”.

“The main reason for (testing for) TBT is it’s more toxic, DBT and MBT are still toxic, but not to the same extent,” he said.

“But DBT certainly lasts longer than TBT – in sediment you’ll see DBT and MBT present for many years after it’s broken down.

“The toxicity is probably the main reason why it’s not in the guidelines; but normally, the analytical labs will probably give you the information anyway.”

The federal Department of the Environment has to date declined to investigate the matter.The chemical:

Dibutyltin (DBT) is a “severe marine pollutant” and the initial breakdown product of a highly toxic chemical, tributyltin (TBT), an ingredient in anti-fouling paints that was banned worldwide in 2008.

TBT breaks down into DBT in sediments over several years, with DBT staying dormant in sediments, if left undisturbed, before it breaks down further into monobutyltin (MBT) and finally tin.GPC’s response:

“Material to be dredged for the Western Basin Dredging and Disposal Project (WBDDP) was extensively sampled and analysed prior to dredging and all material was assessed to be suitable for its intended disposal location.

“An extensive campaign of geotechnical testing within the dredging footprint was carried out as part of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

“The results of these sediment studies indicated that there were no exceedences of contaminants, with the exception of some metals, which were identified as naturally occurring within Port Curtis.

“Documents detailing the approved areas for onshore and offshore placement of dredge materials are available on the project website, www.westernbasinportdevelopment.com.au “

Apr 022014
 

Original story by , The Canberra Times

Australia is losing its influence over the future of Antarctica because when it comes to the icy continent, ”science is currency,” the Australian Academy of Science says.

The Knox Coast in the Australian Antarctic Territory. Photo: Torsten Blackwood

The Knox Coast in the Australian Antarctic Territory. Photo: Torsten Blackwood

In its submission to the federal government’s 20-year plan for the region the academy says that, while Australia lays claim to 42 per cent of Antarctica, the number of science projects being supported under its Antarctic program is less than half that of 1997.

Will Howard, deputy chairman of the National Committee for Antarctic Research, said Australia’s only ice-breaking ship, Aurora Australis, was more than 20 years old and would not be up to the job for much longer.

Meanwhile countries such as China, Russia and India were investing more in Antarctic research, including in mineral exploration, according to the submission.

Dr Howard said Antarctica offered a unique opportunity to see some of the first impacts of climate change and ocean acidification as they played out. ”That provides us with really important insights into how marine ecosystems closer to Australia might respond to climate change,” he said.

”Things like sea-level rise are driven in part by processes occurring in Antarctica because part of the driver is the fate of the large ice sheets in Antarctica, the degree to which they are melting.”

Dr Howard said there were also important strategic reasons to keep a strong Australian scientific presence in Antarctica, because many of the problems of Antarctic management are environmental.

Both Antarctica and surrounding ocean systems faced the impact of human activity and if Australia wanted a say in how to deal with the damage, it had to be backed by science.

”For us to have influence over those management issues we need to be seen to be, and have credibility on, the science. That’s an important link from science into more regional influence,” he said.

Dr Howard said those on both sides of the political spectrum recognised the importance of the research so he hoped the academy’s plea for more research funding, better and more reliable access to Antarctica and improved capabilities for data collection would be heeded.

Australian National University visiting fellow Harvey Marchant, who retired as head of Australian Antarctic Division’s biology program, said funding for research had been reasonable, but he was concerned about possible cuts in the expected tough federal budget. Dr Marchant said it was important for Australia to begin the process of buying a new ice-breaker to replace Aurora Australis, because it was likely to take years and cost many millions of dollars.

”I would be just so deeply saddened, and I think it would be to Australia’s international detriment and our standing internationally, if we were to let our Antarctic science program wither,” he said.

In 1997 the Australian Antarctic Program supported 142 science programs, a number that has dropped to 62, according to the academy.

Apr 022014
 

ABC NewsOriginal story by Emilie Gramenz, ABC News

The Queensland Government says it is considering building up to eight new dams in the south-east.
Water pours from a floodgate at Wivenhoe Dam after the 2011 flood. Photo: Kerrin Binnie/ABC News

Water pours from a floodgate at Wivenhoe Dam after the 2011 flood. Photo: Kerrin Binnie/ABC News

The State Government’s flood plan was yesterday opened to public comment and proposes earlier water releases from Wivenhoe Dam, north-west of Brisbane, during major flood events.

Premier Campbell Newman is expected to announce further details of proposed new dam sites today.

Transport Minister Scott Emerson says the State Government is also investigating raising the Wivenhoe Dam wall by up to eight metres.

“It will be flooded in the future, but if we look at ways and means to mitigate the amount of flooding that will occur, we want to do that,” he said.

“What the Premier will be discussing today will be ways we can possibly do that, including changes to Wivenhoe and changing the walls at Wivenhoe.”

Mr Emerson says the Government is focused on preventing a repeat of the destruction of the 2011 floods.

“We’ll be going out there, making an announcement today and detailing it to the public, and getting their feedback,” he said.

“The announcement comes after the Government’s flood plan was yesterday opened to public comment.

“It proposes earlier water releases from Wivenhoe Dam during major flood events.”

Apr 012014
 

Original story by Emilie Gramenz, ABC News

A new flood plan for Brisbane may allow six bridges in south-east Queensland to be flooded by faster releases of water from Wivenhoe Dam during major rain events.

Wivenhoe Dam spillway, previously dam operators had to consider the six bridges before releasing water from Wivenhoe Dam. Photo: Giulio Saggin/ABC News

Wivenhoe Dam spillway, previously dam operators had to consider the six bridges before releasing water from Wivenhoe Dam. Photo: Giulio Saggin/ABC News

The plan includes the proposal to release millions of litres of water earlier from the dam, north-west of Brisbane.

Under the proposal, bridges at Mt Crosby weir, Colleges Crossing and Savages Crossing, as well as the Burton, Kholo and Twin bridges, west of Brisbane, would be allowed to flood faster and more often as millions of litres of water was released from Wivenhoe Dam.

Previously, dam operators had to consider the six bridges before releasing water from Wivenhoe.

Queensland Water Minister Mark McArdle says the move could prevent catastrophic flood events like the one in 2011.

“The bridges that normally go out will go out earlier and more frequent,” he said.

“The trade-off is from that better flood mitigation and maybe hundreds of thousands of buildings saved in the Brisbane region by doing so.

“We understand quite clearly the concern people will have, but at the other end of the spectrum we need to protect property and protect lives as well, and the trade-off here we believe is worthwhile looking at.”

Premier Campbell Newman says the plan will prevent heartbreak.

Mr Newman says the Government is determined to better manage future floods

“This strategy is designed to avoid a mass release of water as occurred during the 2011 flood event, to save businesses and homes from a repeat of the heartbreak,” he said.

Flooded Colleges Crossing in Brisbane's west on November 20, 2008. Photo: ABC TV News

Flooded Colleges Crossing in Brisbane’s west on November 20, 2008. Photo: ABC TV News

South-east Queensland councils have cautiously welcomed the plan.

The Ipswich City Council is calling on the State Government to allocate funds to flood-proof Colleges Crossing bridge.

Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale says many of the bridges, including Colleges Crossing, need urgent attention.

“It’s too low, it needs to be raised,” he said.

“This is a good start – at least we know what we’re going to do – now let’s fix the bridge.

“They’ve got to start lifting the height of it, that way we’re not dependent on Colleges Crossing and it won’t inconvenience people.”

The Somerset Regional Council has welcomed the plan even though it will flood several bridges.

Somerset Mayor Graeme Lehmann says the Council will not be pushing for compensation if the plan is enacted.

“We could always say that we want those bridges lifted above the flood level but the cost of doing that would be absolutely astronomical,” he said.

“I think people understand – nobody wants to see houses and businesses flooded – an early release of the dam will help.”

Councillor Lehmann says flooding the bridges is a necessary inconvenience.

“When those bridges are going to get taken out, have a contingency plan for the people who live on the other side of those bridges,” he said.

Mr McArdle says flood mitigation funds may be made available in the future.

“We are certainly looking at what we can in regard to those bridges,” he said.

The State Government’s flood plan is now open to public comment.