Footloose - High Plains Injustice (August 2005)

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The battle mightn’t be over but the Bracks’ Government in Victoria has almost certainly sounded the death knell for one of the icons of the Australian bush.

Just recently the Labour Government declared that the mountain cattlemen were to be no more and that all the existing 61 licenses, which are due to expire by June 2006, will not be renewed.

In Victoria approximately 8000 head of cattle currently graze the licensed areas in the Victorian Alpine National Park, between December and March each year. These areas include the Bogong and Dargo High Plains, the Holmes and Wellington Plains and the Cobberas area.

The Alpine Grazing Taskforce (AGT), a committee set up by the State Government, has been on the case for some time and with its report released to the Government, the Government had the ammunition to ban the cattlemen from the High Country. It should not have come as a surprise!

While the greenies, led by the rabid Victorian National Parks Association (VNPA), have always been rampant in their desire to rid the region of the cattlemen and their legacy of care over 150 years of history, their language is pretty colourful and hardly scientific, as the following example indicates:

‘It (cattle grazing) degrades the rich and beautiful alpine grasslands to chewed cow paddocks …’

Well, unless these areas have been reduced to ‘cow paddocks’ in the past three months since I was last there – the statement is a complete lie!

Of course the management practices of the cattlemen have been attacked and maligned by the VNPA, other green groups and the Government, but after 150 years most commentators consider the High Country ‘pristine’ so they can’t have been doing too bad a job.

So ‘bad’ is the area the Government ran an advertising campaign stating their case. The problem was they not only had the photo of cows in the ‘High Country’ doctored to make it look worse than it was, but the photo was of a dam, situated just off a 4WD track below the snowline and outside the alpine plains area. The dam had been established to collect run-off and any silt from the road and as a ready source of water, cows had used it. But, apart from muddy footprints in the silt at the very edge of the dam the rest of the area around the dam shows no sign of damage or trampling of the bush by cattle.

This is just typical of the lies and misinformation the government and the green groups have been portraying in their campaign to get rid of the cattlemen. But we should expect truth to be lost – especially when its politicians and green groups stating their case!

Make no mistake about it. Bracks and his team made many promises to the Greens before the last election – the Greens are now demanding their pound of flesh for their support!

Then again if we can measure the performance of Parks Victoria – the land manager of vast areas of Victoria – in the important criteria of fire control, fuel reduction, weed invasion and feral animal control (is there any other important criteria left?) the department would be found to be wanting in all areas, if not completely inept in one or two! But that is, and will be, another problem.

As we go to press the Victorian Government remains under attack about its advertising campaign while the Victorian Farmers Federation have appealed to the Federal Government to protect the cattlemen as a ‘heritage icon’. It’s ‘last straw’ sort of stuff that has been the culmination of a long running battle.

I hope they win, but whether they win a reprieve is anyone’s guess. What I do know is that with the cattlemen gone pressure will be exerted by the VNPA and other green groups to close tracks in the region. Like the forest workers, miners and cattlemen before us four wheel drivers will be vilified, maligned, lies will be told about us and we will have to fight like never before, for our rights of access!

If you'd like to help support the mountain cattlemen and learn about the Alpine Grazing Heritage Trail, then check out their web site at: http://www.mcav.com.au/

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