The station buy-ups by NSW National Parks are a waste of money and will further damage Western NSW

Few people are aware of the NSW Government's buy-ups (last year) of station land to add to its collection of (neglected) national parks.  The purchases (undertaken when Matt Kean was state environment minister) included Avenel at Broken Hill (121,390 hectares), Langidoon-Metford also near Broken Hill (60,468ha), Koonaburra at Ivanhoe (45,534 ha), Brindingabba-Bindra at Bourke (33,000 ha), and Narriearra at Tibooburra (153,415 ha).  The purchases in total exceed 400,000 hectares (i.e. over a million acres), all in the low rainfall Western Division of the state.

Many observers regard the purchases as an expensive stunt, that buys lots of acres for a low cost per acre (often under $100) but due to the large acreages, still cost tens of millions of dollars plus ongoing running costs.

The locals are not pleased.

It has been reported that the NSW government paid well over market value to acquire the properties, so that the taxpayer got poor value for money.  It is also unlikely, due to remote location, semi arid topography, and very hot summers, that the properties will be attractive to visitors.  Remote Western properties represent a hazard for the unwary, as it is easy for visitors to get lost or stranded in inhospitable areas far from help.

There is also likely to be wholesale destruction of station infrastructure, as millions of dollars of fences and yards are likely to be bulldozed, water infrastructure decommissioned, and many remaining property assets neglected.  Valuable woolsheds are destined to become museum pieces.

Rate-payers and local businesses will suffer because millions will be cut from local economies due to the loss of agricultural production, and because national parks are exempt from rates (so that the revenue lost must be raised from others).  Bear in mind that the Western Division is very sparsely populated and has limited employment opportunities as it is and can't afford to have key assets taken out of production.

Neighbouring graziers are fearful and don't relish having a national park on their doorstep.

The decommissioning of water resources (e.g. the mass removal or neglect of water tanks, troughs and pumps) on the bought up land will force pest species and native wildlife onto surrounding stations in search of water.

Graziers also know full well that national park managers have little interest in maintaining boundary fences.

Official policy states that "NPWS's assistance with fencing will be subject to the availability of funding and staff resources, and to meeting its other responsibilities under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974". They also have a poor record in controlling weeds and feral animals (feral goats exist in large numbers in the Western Division).  Pests (goats, pigs, wild dogs and cats), as well as kangaroos, are expected to breed up in the new park areas in the absence of livestock.  Neighbours fear that mass intrusion by such animals will reduce available feed, and that their livelihoods will suffer.

The purchases last year are on top of the high profile purchase for a reported $23.75 million just over a decade ago of Toorale (by the NSW and Commonwealth governments).  The station was a noted 91,000 hectare crop irrigation (mainly cotton) and sheep property atthe confluence of the Darling and Warrego rivers near Bourke.  That purchase was driven by the Rudd government, which wished to "save" the Darling River by acquiring the station's 14 billion litre water entitlement.

The purchase did not achieve its objective, as the station's levee banks continued to divert water from the river system when it rained upstream.  The Darling and Warrego are not permanent rivers anyway, and stopping irrigation or banning water storages won't make these rivers flow during the regular prolonged droughts out west.

Toorale Station had reportedly provided about 10 per centof Bourke's business and 4 per cent of the shire rates.  The National Park now covers 30,800 ha, approximately one third of the property’s former area.  The remaining two-thirds has become the Toorale State Conservation Area.

When Toorale was purchased, the NSW and Australian Governments agreed to "demolish, remove, modify or decommission" water infrastructure to improve water flows for environmental purposes.  They never really got around to doing this because, just as the station's levee banks and other water infrastructure had cost millions (at today's prices) to install, they also would be very expensive to decommission.  The Toorale Water Infrastructure Project is now being undertaken to achieve this.  In 2012, the Commonwealth provided NSW's Office of Environment and Heritage with $4mto "decommission and modify" the levees. It upped its funding to $9m in 2019, after OEH requested more cash.

The recent NSW Government buy-ups of pastoral leases in Western NSW mimic policies under Labor and Bob Carr in the 1990s, when state forests and vacant crown lands (especially near the coast) were converted on an industrial scale into national parks.  Today the total area of the state controlled by the National Parks and Wildlife Service is more than 9 per cent.  While the area of national parks has roughly doubled, the resources deployed to manage them have not, and staffing levels are widely recognised as inadequate for proper management.  Nobody expects the additional parks in Western NSW to be properly staffed.

Prior to the 1990s much of the coastal bushland and forest, now locked up within national parks, was sensibly managed state forest, where fuel loads were kept down by logging, regular thinning, hazard reduction burning, and in some cases livestock grazing.  In the subsequent era, lack of vegetation management has resulted in a greater incidence of bushfires, with mega-fires now happening in a roughly 20 year cycle.

There is a huge gulf in mentality between those who make their living off the land, and the green/conservation lobby, which mostly believes that the environment is best protected largely by leaving nature to cope by itself.  Professional farmers and foresters in contrast strongly believe in active management, particularly of undesirable animals, weeds, and fuel loads.

What is particularly puzzling about the latest spending spree on Western stations is that it was undertaken by a supposedly conservative (Coalition) state government.  Rural media have been scathingin their reaction.  The explanation of the spending spree of course reflects the dominance of the "moderate" faction within the NSW Liberal Party, and the impotence of the National Party.

There may well be repercussions from all this at the next NSW state election, due in March next year.