Cattle's time up
Sunday Herald Sun, Editorial, 12 June 2005
THE Man from Snowy River has had a good run.
Grazing his cattle in the high country since the 1830s, mostly without
payment, in recent times for a token $5.50 per head for up to 20 weeks,
he has enjoyed a privileged position among rural Victorians.
He has had subsidised access to public land under a licensing system
that all but banned newcomers from muscling in on his territory.
While $35,000 a year came in to government coffers from licences, up to
$500,000 a year went out for the scheme's administration.
But money is not the big issue in the row that brought 500 mountain
cattlemen to Melbourne, where they were joined by a handful of possibly
well-meaning but ill-informed celebrities.
The real issue is our wild environment.
The Alpine National Park, with its herb fields and flowers, its moss
beds and native grasses, its streams and bogs, is no place for
hard-hoofed animals if it is to be nominated for World Heritage listing.
Up to 40,000 sheep shared the summer grazing with the cows many years
ago, but they were moved to more appropriate locations when it became
apparent they were damaging the biology of the mountains.
The time has come for the cows to follow suit.
The 61 remaining licence-holders, who send about 8000 cattle to the
park for the summer, are to be given $100 per beast to adjust their
businesses. Their supporters, who argue a noble bush tradition is being
killed off by city slickers, need only scan the facts to realise the
error of their ways.
The cattlemen are not to be booted out of the mountains – the
national park will be out of bounds but the adjoining state forests
will remain open for grazing. Huts and landmarks of the grazing era
will be retained and cattlemen will be an important part of the
national park's history.
Victoria riding high
There is no doubt the cattlemen care about the high country.
But even the best management strategies have failed to prevent damage
to the alpine environment, which is slow to recover from grazing and in
which some species of plants are under threat.
The State Government is not killing the Man from Snowy River, as the
more hysterical of the protesters have insisted. It is acting in the
best interests of all Victorians, from both bush and town, in moving
his cows to less fragile pastures.
The Federal Government's cynical threat to frustrate Victoria's grazing ban is a victory for emotions over substance.
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