HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Member Index
House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-06-01 Daily Xml
Contents
Xml

Natural Resources Committee: Belair National Park Fact-Finding Visit

Adjourned debate on motion of Hon. C.J. Picton:

That the third report of the committee, entitled Belair National Park Fact-Finding Visit, 2 March 2023, be noted.

(Continued from 18 May 2023.)

Ms HUTCHESSON (Waite) (11:08): I would like to thank the Minister for Health for moving this report last sitting day and the member for Elizabeth for adjourning the debate to allow me to speak to it today.

On 2 March, the Natural Resources Committee conducted a fact-finding visit to the Belair National Park. This is the committee's report of that visit. The purpose of this trip was to hear about how introduced plant species, such as pest olive trees, are managed in the national park and to hear about innovative projects taking place to support biodiversity, such as the Bandicoot Superhighway.

Belair is the oldest national park in South Australia and the second oldest in the country. My colleagues the member for Mawson and the member for Finniss and I were joined by representatives of National Parks and Wildlife, Friends of Belair National Park, the Sturt Upper Reaches Landcare Group, and the City of Mitcham.

Our day opened with a presentation by Mr Craig Baulderstone, Vice President and Bushcare Coordinator from Friends of Belair National Park. Mr Baulderstone was joined by the President of the Friends of Belair National Park, Mr David French, and the immediate past Bushcare coordinator, Ms Barb Raine. The Friends are a volunteer group of around 200 members, and the work that they do to support maintenance and conservation efforts in this park is immense.

Mr Baulderstone estimated that the group contributes around 5,400 hours of volunteer work per year, whether that be through regular working bees, weeding and revegetation work, hosting school groups or conducting guided walks for the public and passing on specialised knowledge on topics like fungi and native orchids.

The work of these volunteers is invaluable and this, along with their passion and dedication towards the park, is to be commended. The Friends work in conjunction with national park staff to keep introduced flora under control. Mr Baulderstone explained that weeding and revegetation is a long process and that proper follow-up is crucial. He pointed out that the recruitment of native species occurs when you hold back the weed canopy, which introduces or maintains robustness in the system, enabling habitat for fungi and insects.

We were able to see the fruits of their labour as we were taken around the park by national park staff. Our first stop was a patch of federally listed grey box grassy woodlands, where the national park's district ranger, Jen Pitman, explained that the lack of weeds in the area is testament to the thorough weeding processes carried out by the Friends. We then visited a section of the park that is a leafy greenhood orchid stronghold. Ecologist Anthony Abley explained that the park hosts the largest population of these native orchids in the state.

The biodiversity work in the park also stretches to native fauna. Dr John Halsey of the Sturt Upper Reaches Landcare Group joined us to discuss the Bandicoot Superhighway, which was established in 2016. This is a five-kilometre stretch of public and private bushland carefully tended and monitored to allow bandicoots safe travel between Belair National Park and Mark Oliphant Conservation Park. This project fosters interbreeding between the southern brown bandicoot populations in the two parks and has been a great success.

Dealing with introduced plant species in this instance is complex. Dr Halsey pointed out that Melville Gully is such an important stretch of the superhighway due to the density and protection of vegetation. The proliferation of blackberries in this area—usually considered a weed—provides both sustenance and shelter for the bandicoots. In parts of this landscape, these weeds need to be retained, or at least slowly managed out, to allow for alternative food, shelter and protection to be established.

On the weekend, I heard more about the Bandicoot Superhighway Project when the President of the Sturt Upper Reaches Landcare Group, Danny Rohrlach, was so generous with his time as to present to members of the SACWA Heysen Group. It was most informative to learn about the full scope of the work being undertaken to create a corridor and also interesting to learn a little bit more about our very special furry friends. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Danny for all the work he and his team do to restore the biodiversity of the area, supporting landholders and educating us as well. Danny was not able to join us for the committee visit due to illness, so I was glad to be able to catch up with him over the weekend.

The committee found the trip to Belair informative and comprehensive and was impressed by how the volunteers, National Parks and Wildlife staff and the council worked together. Their hard work does not go unappreciated. Without dedicated volunteers such as the Friends of Parks groups, Landcare groups and others, we would not be able to manage the fauna and flora of our beautiful parks and reserves.

The Friends of Belair National Park members work so hard in their efforts to control the weeds but also re-establish native vegetation. I have seen them in action several times, and I am always impressed by their passion and enthusiasm for the work that they do. This year, the group launched a new initiative by awarding the Emerging Environmental Steward Award. It is specifically designed to acknowledge someone who has completed study in conservation and ecosystem management at Urrbrae TAFE, has demonstrated a commitment to the conservation industry and holds a conservation ethic, passion and enthusiasm for environmental issues.

This year, the inaugural winner of the award was Maisie Brown. Unsurprisingly, Maisie is an Upper Sturt local who has completed her diploma and done volunteer work with the Native Orchid Society of South Australia and the SA Seed Conservation Centre. Maisie was presented with her award by the President of the Friends group, David French, at the TAFE graduation ceremony on 4 May.

Such is Maisie's dedication to the environment, she is going to use the award prize money for the purchase of equipment for a vegetation survey of Mound Springs in the northern regions of South Australia. I would like to say congratulations to Maisie, and I am sure that we will be seeing more of you as your work in the environment continues. I thank these volunteers for their work and dedication to our natural environment.

Our trip to Belair was insightful, and I especially want to thank those who guided us on our visit and were so generous with their time and in sharing their knowledge and expertise. I also thank members of the committee and the committee staff for their time on this site visit. I particularly thank them for heading my way and spending time in one of Waite's most idyllic spots: the oldest national park in South Australia.

Before I finish, I want to take this opportunity to thank Dr Amy Mead for her work with the Natural Resources Committee over the past 10 months. Her work and support have not gone unnoticed, and we wish her well as she moves to support another parliamentary committee. I commend the report to the house.

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (11:15): I rise briefly to commend the Natural Resources Committee for its recent work, as reported in the third report of the Natural Resources Committee for this session and arising from a fact-finding visit to Belair National Park that I am pleased to observe took in a presentation about progress on the Bandicoot Superhighway. There is a very good photograph of Dr John Halsey on page 13 of the report.

I take on the observations of the member for Waite about the excellent work that Danny Rohrlach has been doing for a sustained period of time in leading the Sturt Upper Reaches Landcare Group. The Bandicoot Superhighway, linking country all the way through Upper Sturt and through that part of the Hills, is really increasingly famous and a demonstration of what can be done when community gets together.

Whenever these things are mentioned, what comes to mind for me most particularly is a gathering that took place at the Upper Sturt Soldiers Memorial Hall a couple of years ago, led by the then minister for the environment, the Hon. David Speirs. He did a wonderful thing in this regard in bringing together a range of different stakeholders to contribute towards ensuring that the conservation of natural heritage in the area can really draw upon the strengths of everybody involved. It is what Danny Rohrlach has been so good at, and Dr John Halsey as well.

What we have seen is that, through private land conservation measures, we have a situation where there are neighbours throughout the stretch of the Bandicoot Superhighway and the surrounding area who proudly want to put it up on their front gate that they are participating in private land conservation and that they are connected to projects, including the Sturt Upper Reaches Landcare Group and the Bandicoot Superhighway, and they are seeing a community of interest that is developing off the back of participation in that kind of endeavour. It is even feeding into improved land value and attraction for those who want to come to live in our part of the Hills for precisely that reason.

While I am sure the visit to Belair National Park was productive in all sorts of ways—and I have no doubt that Craig Baulderstone has presented, in a range of different ways, about the tremendous value of Belair National Park—I want to shine a particular light on the complexity of community response in the Sturt Upper Reaches Landcare Group, on the Bandicoot Superhighway and on the great value of the private land conservation work that really has brought community together over the last several years. So I commend the report and that aspect in particular.

Ms HUTCHESSON (Waite) (11:18): I would like to thank the member for Heysen for his words and acknowledge that meeting that happened in Upper Sturt a couple of years back. I was there myself with a slightly different hat on—my Upper Sturt CWA hat—and we served morning tea, actually, to the leader. So I know that the group have done some great things with that grant money. I stand to close debate.

Motion carried.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT