This map shows the Strzelecki DFA (centre of map) in light green.
RFA's are a kind of 20 year plan for the parts of Australia where there is commercial harvesting of native forest on public land, worked out between the state and federal gevernments. These areas were divided up into 15 regions, 4 of which were on the eastern side of Victoria. These are: The North-East; East Gippsland; Gippsland and the Central Highlands. The process is supposed to find a balance between the desires of the timber industry and conservation values........... All RFA agreements were supposed to be signed by the end of 1999.
The Strzelecki State Forest lies within the Gippsland RFA region. The RFA process for Gippsland started late and has always run late. Signing of the final agreement is due on the 31st of March 2000.
Back in 1995, while the RFAs were still getting going, one of the first major projects of the RFA process was to identify six million hectares of publicly owned native forest which had the potential to be made reserves. These "deferred forest areas" were given temporary reserve status in something known as the Interim Forest Agreement, (IFA) in place until the proper RFA's were finished.
Click here for the 1995 Govt. press release giving a brief rundown of the function and background of the DFA's
Some 25,000 ha. of public forest in the Strzeleckis was declared a deferred forest area.
This map shows the Strzelecki DFA (centre of map) in light green.
Soon after the DFA's came out, the State Government moved to exempt the Strzelecki State Forest from the Interim forest agreement, even though an area of some 25,000 ha. was declared a deferred forest area, and in 1996 convinced the Commonwealth Government to exclude it from the RFA process. As far as the RFA's are concerned, the Strzelecki State Forest fell down a corporate black hole and is now treated as if it is private land, destroying any chance of creating an enlarged reserve under the RFA process. From that point onward, the Gippsland RFA has been of no assistance to the Strzelecki community, except for the fact that it has provided a forum in which many people could highlight the gross injustices dished out to this State Forest.
There were some public meetings held around Gippsland
South Gippslanders attended the meetings held in Yarram.
The Strzeleckis were the main topic of debate each time
As a result of some of these meetings and workshops, the RFA released the Gippsland Social Assessment report in February 2000. It stated "another vision was the desire to see a major National Park in the Strzelecki Ranges. A proposed reserve has been designed by a local conservation group covering 30,000 hectares."
In 1998, the Federal upper house held a special senate inquiry which toured the capital cities. It spent 2 days in Melbourne, recieving submissions and hearing presentations from a wide variety of people and organisations. It was a very odd affair, held in the Victorian Parliament house, with logging trucks and conservationists outside...
Click here to view our Senate Inquiry submission
The Gippsland CRA was released by the RFA team in 1999. It is supposed to be one of the major reports associated with the RFA's, but in our opinion it was heavily padded and often innaccurate. The public had a few weeks to comment on the document so we submitted our comments.
Click here to view our CRA submission
The CRA report included many maps, including the Ecological Vegetation Class (EVC) map. We penned a letter to Sherryl Garbutt complaining that the EVC's for the Strzeleckis was seriously flawed
Click here to see the Strzelecki EVC map and our letter
Next came the Gippsland RFA Consultation Papers
It contained some data which corrected some of the CRA paper's mistakes, included some public comment and also contained the map that showed the proposed additions to the Gippsland reserve system. The proposed "Comprehensive, Representative and Adequate" (CAR) reserve system map and supporting data is worth a look on the RFA website
The South Gippsland section of this map looks like this:
Click here to understand more about this map
When Sherryl Garbutt replaced Marie Tehan as Environment Minister, she appointed an independent panel who would recieve public submissions for the two unfinished RFA's for Victoria: Gippsland and the West. Gippsland recieved a hundred or so submissions. So once again we wrote a submission and did a presentation in the Yarram Regent theatre. Our last chance for a big RFA whinge.
Click here to view our Independent Panel submission
The RFA's Main page is at:
http://www.rfa.gov.au