Existing
Parks, Reserves and 'question-mark' areas
Existing
Parks
Morwell National Park
Mt Worth State Park
Tarra Bulga National Park
As well as being
biodiversity strongholds and great places to visit, all three have management
plans, friends groups, appear on maps and enjoy a level of appreciation from
the community and the Authorities. As Parks they are working very well.
Their major drawbacks are
that they are too small. Luckily, there is more than 50,000 ha. Of Native
forest on public land from which we can extend the formal reserve system into
something closer to the Government’s targets of an Adequate,
Comprehensive and Representative reserve system for the Strzelecki Bioregion.
We endorse the aim to
purchase or re-designate public land to incorporate into the reserve system and
enhance the conservation value of the parks as stated in the management plans
of all three parks
We
are concerned about current attitudes towards Sweet Pittosporum. The 1998
Morwell management plan and 1996 Tarra Bulga management plan refer to this
species as a pest plant. Please click here
for our paper regarding sweet pittosporum, which provides ample evidence that
it is a native, is desirable, and
that the species has been wrongly demonised.
Existing
Other reserves
Jeeralang Education Res
Traralgon South FF Res
Gormandale vicinity
Gunyah rainforest reserve
Because they are not firmly
classified as parks they often slip beneath the radar. For example, the Gunyah
reserve appeared on the Shire planning scheme a few years ago as a Rural Zone.
On the maps prepared by the RFA and presented to the Gippsland public during
the RFA process, the Gunyah reserve was marked in as available for timber
harvesting. There are many more examples of this sort of thing.
Other small reserves
re-emerge from forgotten paperwork. Latrobe shire discovered one, and so did
HVP.
Confusion as to who
currently manages these areas needs to be addressed.
These areas should be
managed by parks and receive appropriate attention.
Areas of confusion
Turtons Creek 'reserve'
It appears to be some sort of Historical reserve. Perhaps for this reason,
it disappears from conservation databases. Some maps show this as a reserve,
some don’t. On some maps it disappears completely.
Little Franklin 'reserve'
The Gippsland RFA has this marked in as SPZ state forest, but this
had been described as a reserve, and locals have been led to believe so. It
probably is.
It has been a proposed reserve
for 25 years . The
block near Boolarra wa gazetted as a timber reserve in 1886. Gippsland
RFA map shows it as a mixture of reserves and SPZ, GMZ and SMZ state forest.
Earlier maps, like the one below from 1986, show it, or most of it as a reserve
The map shows Public Land, Amcor's leased public land, Amcors private land, location of pine plantations, etc. The Yellow areas (other parks and reserves) in the upper left show Mt. Worth State Park and the Proposed Mirboo Regioal Park.
