January 18th, 2022Three new national parks

n our July 5, 2021 edition we reported on new national parks for the region.

THREE new national parks will be created either side of Ballarat, and north-east of Bendigo, adding 65,106 hectares to Australia’s national park register.

In a decisive move, the state government announced the new parks which includes the merging of the Wombat State Forest and the Lerderderg State Park.
Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio said the government had listened to the community.
“The new national parks will be created by linking existing state forests, parks and reserves. The largest will bring together Lerderderg State Park and much of the existing Wombat State Forest to create a new national park covering more than 44,000 hectares between Daylesford and Bacchus Marsh,” she said.
“We’re listening to the communities that use and care for these areas and balancing the needs of public land users, industry and the environment.”
The Central West Investigation was undertaken by the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council after a request from Minister D’Ambrosio in March 2017.
The state government delayed the announcement for more than two years after more than 3000 members of the public, community groups and residents made submissions to VEAC.
For some groups, like Wombat Forestcare, the news is welcomed. Spokesperson Gayle Osborne said it was a great result.
“Areas with high conservation values will be included in the national park and areas around townships will be designated regional parks to enable recreation, dog walking, horse riding, fossicking and domestic firewood collection,” she said.
“The Wombat Forest is home to many threatened species, including the endearing greater glider, powerful owls and brush-tailed phascogales. A leafless bossiaea, bossiaea vombata, is endemic to the Wombat Forest. All these species will finally have the protection they need to assist with their survival,” she said.
However, Bush User Groups United, a Facebook page created to advocate against the initial proposal for national parks, called the decision devastating.
Co-founder Bill Schulz said there was a massive number of people who vehemently disagreed with the decision.
Creswick’s Dr Kevin Tolhurst, regarded across the world as one of Australia’s most respected fire ecology and management experts, said a major concern was the “reservation equals preservation” philosophy many people give to national parks.
He said few if any national parks in Australia had the necessary workforce and resources to deal with critical issues including prescribed burning, introduced predators, feral animals and weed management.