SPLENDOUR IN THE FOREST:
The only remaining wildlife corridor from the sea to the rainforest mountains in far north-eastern New South Wales, between the cities of south east Queensland and the town of Byron Bay, exists at Yelgun. The forested corridor runs along Marshall's Ridge and Jones Road, through private properties such as North Byron Park lands and the Billinudgel and Wooyung nature reserves. The splendour of colourful flowers and birds, remarkable animals such as the koala, the majesty of magnificent trees, the recycling of energy, the musical calls of the birds, wind in the trees, roar of the ocean and the beginning of ancient Australian culture all exist here.
Bundjalung tradition teaches that the Dreaming began at the Wandarahn
ceremonial site within the Billinudgel Nature Reserve at the eastern end of the
Jones Road Marshall's Ridge wildlife corridor. For forty thousand year or more the Dreaming Song Line was
sung along this corridor from the most sacred of all
Australian Aboriginal Bundjalung sites to the west and the rest of the
continent. It was here that the very first pair of Wandarahn or bora rings were
built, and they are the only pair to survive today, and in their natural
environment. It was here that the very first Wandaral ceremony was undertaken.
It was here that Yarbirri first made the law. It was from here that the law traveled north, south and west with Yarbirri and his brothers, Birrung and
Mamoon.
The United Nations World Heritage listed "Gondwana Rainforests of Australia" include some of the few remaining stands of old growth (undisturbed) forest in NSW. Independently evaluated by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the nomination was presented to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), by the Australian Commonwealth Government in 1985.
ReplyDeleteIt was accepted for inclusion on the World Heritage List in November of 1986, as the Australian East Coast Temperate and Subtropical Rainforest Parks World Heritage Listing. The nomination was formalized in 1994, and renamed the "Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves of Australia", or CERRA. In June 2007, CERRA was officially renamed "Gondwana Rainforests of Australia" at the 31st session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting in New Zealand.
On June 15th 2008, the Wollumbin Mt Warning Caldera was named on a list of 8 iconic sites across Australia under the National Landscapes Program and is to be known as “Australia’s Green Cauldron”.
ReplyDeleteThe wildlife corridor at Yelgun is in the middle of a high conservation area that has been protected for decades by local and state governments and is adjacent to the Billinudgel Nature Reserve that the government worked hard to establish. During the 1997 Cleland Commission of Inquiry, numerous communities and local and regional environment groups supported Byron Shire Council, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and other government agencies, in the protection of this significant wildlife corridor. Commissioner Cleland acknowledged the vast amount of scientific data, records etc. presented to the Inquiry and recommended stronger environmental zoning than proposed by Council.
“The conservation of biological diversity necessitates the maintenance of wildlife corridors to promote genetic exchange between populations of native species and to enhance species survival in the long term.” (Comm. Cleland 1997)
The majority of land in the wildlife corridor is now zoned for environmental protection i.e. 7 (k) Habitat, and as Prime Agricultural Land 1(bl). The NSW government has spent approximately 15 million dollars on the purchase of land, Commissions of Inquiry and other legal matters concerning this area.