On the 18th and 19th of May, Anthony Amis from SKAT (Friends of the Earth Melbourne's koala collective) visited Budj Bim National Park, the site of Victoria's largest mass koala shooting and probably the first ever conducted from helicopter. Budj Bim was opened to visitors last week after the helicopter shooting had stopped. At least 14 km was walked on the first day, with another 10km walked on the second day. The area of the most shooting was located in the south west corner of the park and is quite difficult to access.
There is no doubt that the recent shooting activities in the park were complete 'overkill'. Budj Bim has faced many issues with koalas over the years. Sterilisation programs began in the park 25 years ago, with thousands of animals receiving hormone implants and thousands being translocated out of the park. One should ask the question whether the koala management issues at Budj Bim have proved to be too costly and ineffective over the years. Was a decision recently made on supposed animal welfare concerns that rather than deal with the costs associated with capturing animals, sterilising and translocating them, it would be cheaper to shoot as many as possible? Who made this decision and why? It is also clear from the site visit that it is highly likely that animals could have been shot in forests that were not burnt at all. FoE witnessed no evidence of the 1100 dead koalas, apparently the Government has collected as many of the bodies as possible and they have been buried in a property nearby. There are also concerns that the fires may have been deliberately lit.
A larger bushfire in 2020, three times the size of the recent fire did not mean that helicopter shooting was employed. Why the change in five years? Have hundreds of koalas descended onto Budj Bim after recent bluegum plantation logging? Does this incident low set a 'low bar' ethical precedent where other land owners will also now embark on shooting of koalas and do so because they Victorian Government has now 'green-lighted' it.
Oh the irony!!! Sign at Budj Bim from the south western side.
In terms of walking the fire area, the park was gridded on a topographical map at 500 meter intervals with some of the intervals visited by Anthony over 9 hours. Due to the terrain, almost all walking was conducted on tracks within the parks. Sites off the tracks are difficult to access due to the amount of basalt rocks in the landscape. Friends of the Earth also got access to helicopter flight path information which showed low points where the helicopters had travelled during the shooting episodes. However this data was only given to FoE on the second day.
Fifteen sites were visited during the two afternoon visits to Budj Bim. 85 sites (all the sites marked on the map) at 500 meter intervals would probably take 9-10 days to cover. The orange shows the boundary of the fires as listed on the Parks Victoria website.
The blue pins represent low helicopter flight locations over a section of the park when the shooting was being carried out. It is assumed that a large percentage of these pins would approximate where the shootings took place. From this map it appears that West Seismic Track was a prime focus.
What became evident early on entering the fire zone, was that the there was alot of vegetation that was not impacted by the fire. Many Manna Gums had their crowns scorched but there were also many trees whose canopies were not burnt at all. In some places the burns were very mild, perhaps a result of back burning.
Approximate locations assessed from GPS. Two sites should be excluded due to being non-forested areas. Of the remaining 13 sites, 2 (15%) had severe canopy scorch, 4 (31%) had 50% canopy scorch and 7 (54%) had minimal canopy scorch. Flight records reveal that there were plenty of low helicopter flights in areas that were barely burnt at all.
It was also evident from the visit that although older koala scats were found all over tracks inside the park, only three koalas were actually seen. The Victorian Government was saying that 1100 animals were shot and another 1000 assessed were not shot. Where were the 1000 koalas that weren't shot? Does the government have records of where the shootings took place and where spared animals were left to live?
One of three koalas seen during FoE's short visit. This shot was taken on East West Seismic Track. Note zero canopy scorch.
Signs of use of Phoschek Flame Retardant along East West Seismic Track
This location near Nelsons Road was harder hit by fire
West Seismic Track. Many of the dead trees in this image were not killed in the recent fire and could possibly have been killed during the much bigger fire that occurred in 2020.
Although West Seismic Track had areas of crown scorch, other areas were barely impacted at all.
The southern end of Murphy Track was near the ignition points but in places was not burnt. No koalas were seen in this area.
An area near Nelsons Road, 50%+ canopy scorch.
Leaves are already growing back after the fire on thousands of trees.
West Seismic Track
North Boundary Track. Strange that this older tree burnt when there was evidence of a mild fire occurring in this location.
Nelsons Track where some of the hottest burns apparently occurred. No crown fires at this specific location and no koalas either.
Portland harbour. Radiata Pine and Bluegum woodchips ready to be exported to Asia.