With months still to go in 2022, this year’s remaining calendars, featuring those great photos of our Bimblebox creatures, will be only $5 each! ( plus P&P)

Apart from fundraising, our calendars serve to spread the word about Bimblebox and our ongoing legal fight to save it from becoming a coal mine for Clive Palmer’s Waratah Coal.

So why not buy a few calendars and use as info-gifts for friends?

We will also be adding a free calendar to any purchase from our online shop!

So Buy for Bimblebox!

Update from TBA President Paola Cassoni, sent to The Bimblebox Alliance Members 2nd October 2021

Apologies for my silence, but it has been a year where some notable action was hoped for but little has occurred until recently.

First, our court case. There have been a number of procedural hearings before President Kingham in the Land Court. Many of these revolved around witness nominations and timing for depositions etc. Recently Waratah Coal (WC) lodged an unexpected amendment to its mine plan whereby it proposed to forego open cut mining on the Bimblebox Nature Reserve (BNR) and maintain only underground mining in the area of the BNR.

We see this change as likely to have major, if different, adverse impacts, but it lacks detail and important information and we don’t believe these impacts have been fully assessed as yet. At time of writing it is unclear if this change will be determined by President Kingham to be within the Land Court’s jurisdiction and, if so, whether additional information and assessment processes will be required. We’re anticipating a decision on Tuesday 7th October and I will let you know when we receive it.

The actual court case is still currently scheduled for next February.I am sure you all have seen or been made aware of the 7.30 Report on WC’s proposed coal fired power station. The fact that such a development is to be determined by Barcaldine Shire Council is, in many people’s minds, a travesty. A number of organisations have campaigns underway encouraging people to register their opposition to both the power station and the way it is being determined. I encourage you all to join this campaign if you have not already done so. We have posted the Qld Conservation Council’s approach on our Facebook page.

For those of you who don’t already know, I have had to return to Italy to take care of my mother. Interestingly the internet between here and Australia works better than at my Desert Uplands home! So I am still very much in touch and look forward to seeing as many of you (virtually) as possible at our coming AGM. 

Ian Hoch considers how all the aspects of Nature work together at Bimblebox…

This stunning image taken by Greg Harm of the Brown Falcon with its small dragon lizard catch could be the emblem of Bimblebox, as it’s a familiar sight in this land of raptors and reptiles. Both flourish here; one, you might think, at the expense of the other, until you realise… there’s aplenty and a place for all.

That spartan aerial triad of tree, lizard and bird contrasts starkly with the clutter and bustle directly beneath. In wet season these arid woodlands will rival rainforest for terrestrial activity and diversity. While nothing jumps out at you, closer attention divulges a hive of enterprise.

Bugs and grubs and spiders galore, hoppers and butterflies and beetles swarm in a dense variegated carpet of vegetation, and lizards of all sorts harvest the full range of arthropods and also the ubiquitous nevertire termites whose astonishing microbial digestion extracts the last skerricks of energy from long dead grass and bark. With their relentless 24/7 gnawing, they’ve eaten half my life’s share of wood work, and fire the other half; any creature adopting a white ant diet in OZ is on a winner…!

Photo by Greg Harm

In looking down and skyward again some bygone high school biology springs to mind, with vague understated phrases like “food chain” and “web of life” and you begin to get a sense of their true meaning and full function… of how everything in nature fits chaotically together, of how it self-regulates and perpetuates, of how tree, lizard and bird are but three of a conglomeration of organisms and physical forces that create, transport and recycle nutrients otherwise lacking in these timeworn and depleted sandy soils.

Unlike heavy cracking clays of the open “downs” to the east and west, the desert uplands (akin to rainforest) are dependent on organic matter and activity for replenishment. One way to view fertility in the light porous soils of this region is literally – “you’re looking at it” – tied up in the biota. 

Photo by Peter Kuestler

A simple proof is to grab a handful and shake it in a glass of water. Happily on top you’ll find a finger width of debris, then a thin slither of clay particles, and the rest… beach sand.  Any gardener worth his broccoli knows you need to feed sandy soil for it to retain water and release minerals. To manage sustainably we’d need to think of this place like a big organic garden, complete with compost regime and crop rotation.

Of course we can slash and burn and concertina eons of growth and decomposition into a couple of human lifespans. 

We can go one jump further. Call the living earth overburden, strip it altogether, excavate the black substrate accumulated over millions of years from those same ecological processes.

How extremely convenient for us, in each case, to separate the components of immediate utility and disregard the rest. Both practices are proven to be short-sighted extravagance with disastrous consequences. But still they persist.

On Bimblebox we’re resolved to retain falcon and dragon, as indicative of healthy environment, already hard pressed in cattle country.

You’ll find neither in the bottom of a coal pit.

On seeing this Frogs Friday infographic of the rare Squirrel Glider, Ian Hoch, at the ‘coalface’ caring for Nature at Bimblebox, penned these thoughts about the fauna invaders he has to deal with… especially the cats, which have ‘evolved into pumas and devastate what’s left of all those wee dainty bopping bundles of fluff that live out there in the spinifex’.

Enigmatic, this little fella; don’t think he’s supposed to be here. I found one dead up on the netting and pretty sure it was Sonya (Duus) who sent it away to be identified as a Squirrel. Didn’t have the white tip which distinguishes him from the Sugar Glider.

From what I read and understand, these more delicate and vulnerable mammals were doomed from the day Cook claimed possession and liberated his pigs on Cape York and explains why Nature Conservancy and Bush Heritage go to all the trouble with exclusion fencing.

I’m as sick of finding bird feathers around water troughs as I am tired of shooting and trapping cats. All my efforts only create a temporary void for another tabby. After 150 years, predator and prey must have established an equilibrium of sorts with the native species either cat- savvy or exterminated, and populations of both being sustained by availability of food and refuge. 

I don’t know what to do about it but do know (as child of a cat lover mum) that top of menu for moggies is small birds and gliders. The rarer the tastier. A fluffy tail usually the only reminder of the delicacy that was. 

Pumas indeed! A feral cat carrying a sand goanna in its mouth. Photo: Emma Spencer

I have to fence roos and rabbits from this native plant nursery to tackle the same problem in the floral realm. The sweetest species don’t get a chance to reproduce. Especially those already on the edge of their range and resilience.

You might say hardly makes any difference, we’ve never really noticed their presence nor lament their loss and that’s true until you’re holding a Sugar baby or watching them glide in the moonlight between tall ghost gums, and it’s then you know what you’re missing.

 I’ve seen 3 or 4 other elusive marsupials that I don’t think are listed on those sham EIS. And whether they’re listed or not is hardly the point. As the designate implies – we’re a nature refuge. The idea is to maintain habitat for wildlife for it’s own sake, not just for the things we happen to notice.

At the same time we wouldn’t kid ourselves these ephemeral or vulnerable species will be here for much longer. Or not without our concerted efforts to cater for them. 

Huge counter influences are at play out there now (at sister property Kerand) in the wake of the regional scale, near complete transition to full-on production.  We’re in that shake down period and in 20 years we’ll know what’s been able to cope, and so far it doesn’t look too promising.  At Kerand, it’s likely to have been 90% reduction in 50 years. I think that’s called decimation.  

Can’t see how we can avoid the same from happening here. Or not at this rate. Not without ridding the place (or select parts) of pigs and cats and rabbits, buffel and secca. Ironically and cruelly those highly adaptive foreign species, unburdened by co-evolutionary checks and balances, are just way too strong for the unique niche and specialist natives.

Great hiding places for birds, small mammals and reptiles… and cats.

It’s been that way the world over for centuries. Just so happens the tail end of the colonial frontier has swept through the central west in our lifetime.  The eco dynamics are in continuous flux, goes on by the minute – and much we never know. Foxes and deer and goats and hares and cane toads have all come and gone from here but pigs and cats and rabbits found a perfect home and pick the eyes out of the local smorgasbord. 

As I understand, cats are at their most populous and gigantuan right across the arid zone. They’ve evolved into pumas and devastate what’s left of all those wee dainty bopping bundles of fluff that live out there in the spinifex.

We might yet get to appreciate the bunny and the tabby, and not torment ourselves with reminders of squirrel gliders.

Trying to protect the fauna at Bimblebox takes an enormous amount of work. Please consider going there and giving a hand for a time. Think of such amazing and beautiful creatures as that Glider… and Volunteer!

From the carer’s point of view…

Bimblebox Nature Refuge occupies 8,000 hectares. Not huge by western Queensland measures, but to many minds almost inconceivably vast.

 Anyone who has cared for land of any size will know how much work is involved in trying to keep an eye out for new invading plants and then to try to keep them in check, year after year. Weeding, weeding, weeding…

When there is no carer, we see, for example, paddocks full of buffel grass or fireweed, and Crofton weed and lantana in overwhelming amounts in national parks and state forests. As Archie Roach sang, ‘The Australian bush is losing its identity…’

For the 22 years since the gazettal of Bimblebox Nature Refuge, it’s been mainly Ian Hoch doing that neverending work on those 8000ha. Paola is often needed on their sister property, and since 2007, greatly occupied with the fight to save the place from the coal threat. Occasional volunteers have helped, but there have never been enough.

Many who visit have offered advice on how to run or improve Bimblebox, often with grand plans, especially since that coal threat reared its head higher in late 2019.

The following thoughts and words of Ian’s express extremely well the many and varied needs of caring for the Refuge there… and why at least one other person helping would make a big difference. As Ian says, these visiting people need to see:  ‘the Bimblebox paradox – it’s everything and it’s nothing’.

‘Change comes one step at a time.’ If people can ‘…see this situation from the resident’s perspective, or at least some of it, or at least to think more about the reasons for historical failure rather than the prospects of future success. I could then say to each as they departed – rather than all the fanfare, the best way you can help is look out for that one person. Now you know how it is here and what’s missing. It’s not at all the postcard depicted by the artists and for the media or government or EDO. 

‘The missing bit is out there somewhere in the suburbs and you might be in a position to fill the gap. One person who can handle this domestic situation, and has a similar interest and has nothing better to do – that’s all we need right now, so starting today we go systematically around the property and catch the coffee senna and parkinsonia and this latest ghastly interloper with thorns to puncture a bullock hide, before they shed their 20 years worth of seed, and of course the horrid harrisia can’t be far away and with the advantage of bird dispersal in this jungle we’ll have a veritable nightmare when it arrives. 

‘After that we might even get some fencing in, secure the hotspot boundaries to avoid more strife with the neighbours, and run electric wires along roads so we can graze to reduce fire, or control burn without having the stock flog the pasture in that critical recovery phase. We might manage to rabbit proof this nursery, and make a start of thinning the century of thickening and ultimately show results to make developers everywhere wish like hell they’d never cleared their land. That’s when we arrive at the irrefutable conclusion – conservation pays, i.e., we’re far better off working in conjunction with nature than fighting with it. It’s an obvious and oft recited axiom but almost meaningless. We don’t see it around us. 

‘You have either production land or recreation land. One stripped, one struggling. Already the health and vitality from retaining diversity is becoming apparent driving around the boundary, but that’s due to the neighbours’ actions, or you might say overaction, rather than our deliberate or constrained inaction.

Guess which side of the fence is cared for?

‘We haven’t done anything  yet, and that’s a big part of the aversion and resistance. Whereas with a few years of interaction, or what we now call regeneration, where we check the spread of exotics and enhance floral diversity (with controlled grazing) and redress the pasture/woody imbalance (with herbicide, because we’ve learnt that fire can’t and bulldozers make it worse) would turn everything around. In that regard one able bodied person with nothing but work clothes and willingness is worth more than a thousand novel proposals, as clever and well intended as they are. We could start our on the boundary where the contrast is most telling.

‘We’ve been here 22 years now, longer than anyone since the first people were turfed out, or at least I have, and in that time have actually come up with a few worthwhile undertakings myself and it’s amazing how many think you’re short of  ideas and direction. Art camp’s a case in point.’

It was built from ‘recovered and repaired materials’, mainly by Ian and son Karly. As TBA said in their Chuffed campaign, it needs an upgrade, and the funds are there, thanks to supporters’ generosity; COVID stopped one capable and keen helper from coming over the border when the weather was cool enough to start the work last year, and now it’s that time again.

Despite funds and advice, ‘nobody bends over and picks up the pieces.’ Ian is about to start the camp work, although he has so much to do already. He now urgently needs that helper. Weeds don’t wait while he is busy elsewhere! Then he could keep up the daily work of caring for Bimblebox andmake the camp fully functional again for September, when the rains have come and the heath is a mass of colour. Then artists or visitors who want to come and camp and be energised and inspired by Nature at Bimblebox can do so again.

So please all think hard about whether you know someone who might be able to fill that volunteer role very soon and help Ian with this camp and other work. Caring for Nature takes work!

If you do, or may be able to volunteer yourself, please email Paola on bimblebox@gmail.com or call her on (07) 4985 3474