Big Spotty has been the subject of calls for a flora reserve in the hope of ensuring its protection. Photo: Andrew Kaineder.
Concerns about “globalist ideologies” and potential restrictions on forest access have prompted a coastal council to put its opposition on the record.
Big Spotty is believed to be the world’s tallest spotted gum (standing at 72 metres) and has a 12 m circumference.
Its home is within North Brooman State Forest, in the southern Shoalhaven region.
At a recent meeting, there were claps as Shoalhaven City Council (SCC) voted to support a motion that called for protection of public access into the forest, as well as job security for forestry workers.
Councillor Brett Steele said the region’s logging industry was “being sacrificed at the altar of globalist ideologies”, with this process risking closed and unmaintained forests.
He had initally put his motion up for debate earlier this year, but it was referred to the May meeting.
“We need to look closely at the broader policy agenda driving these decisions … What the majority of us don’t realise is that we have not just put our name to protecting Big Spotty,” Cr Steele said.
“What your signature is actually required for is so that organisers can gain what they call a social licence to create the Great Southern Forest National Park.”
Should it go ahead, the new national park would span from the Illawarra region down to the Victorian border.
Cr Steele’s motion saw the council flag its opposition to the creation of a flora reserve as part of a push to ensure public access to the outdoors.
Cr Steele said the calls for a flora reserve didn’t stack up.
He pointed to the 60 m exclusion zone around Big Spotty, which prevents logging near it.
“To those calling on the State Government and signing petitions to create a Big Spotty Flora Reserve, if you’re serious about protecting Big Spotty, guess what?
“Your wish was granted 50 years ago by the Forestry Corporation.”
He said those calls had led to “continued targeting” of the Shoalhaven’s logging industry by “activist groups”, while landowners faced uncertainty about access to their properties.
He also wanted NSW Forestry Corporation to consider funding tourism infrastructure at the high-profile tree and camping to continue at its current levels in the nearby forest.
Should logging finish in NSW, the motion also called for ongoing access and maintenance of forest road networks, as well as support for unemployed forestry workers.
However, Cr Gillian Boyd said there was no “concrete proposal” to create a Great Southern Forest National Park before the NSW Government.
She also said that, should a flora reserve be created in Brooman State Forest, it would still be managed by the NSW Forestry Corporation.
“It doesn’t affect the people around it … Any suggestion that a declared flora reserve around Big Spotty will restrict horse riding and four-wheel driving or mountain biking in Broman State Forest generally is completely unfounded.”
Cr Jemma Tribe sought to have Cr Steele remove the part of his motion that called for the council to explicitly reject any rezoning to Brooman State Forest for environmental conservation reasons.
When he refused, she said it left her speaking against his proposal.
“[Its inclusion] ties the hands of future decision-makers … Ruling out any future changes would not be appropriate on those grounds.”
Earlier this year, Cr Debbie Killian sought to have SCC add its voice to calls for the forest to be declared the Big Spotty Flora Reserve, but the motion was narrowly defeated.
She labelled Cr Steele’s motion as divisive and hit out at his suggestion there was a larger motive behind the calls to protect Big Spotty.
“The people who signed petitions about Big Spotty and the Brooman Forest … [are] not stupid. They’re not signing things that they don’t know they’re signing.”
She also said that the end of logging had long been on the horizon, with the NSW Government needing to manage the transition period.
“It’s been coming for 20 years,” she said.
An argument that the future of the wider logging industry was out of the council’s hands was echoed by Cr Ben Krikstolaitis.
“If you’re running a restaurant and the clothing shop across the road is going to shut down, do you volunteer your time and money to rehabilitate those people?
“In fact, that will come through the shutdown process [of native logging] … We don’t have a department of rehabilitating businesses that have been shut down.”
Crs Killian, Boyd, Tribe, Krikstolaitis and Matthew Norris voted against the proposal.
