Latest news with #GreenTriangle
ABC News
a day ago
- Business
- ABC News
Forestry companies shift focus to pine to meet demand for housing timber
An increasing demand for timber to meet Australia's housing targets is set to drive a change in focus for one of Australia's largest forestry regions. The Green Triangle, situated across the southern South Australia-Victorian border, has about 334,000 hectares of plantations, representing 17 per cent of Australia's forestry industry. The region grows a mix of softwood timber, primarily used in domestic construction, and hardwood, which is often exported as wood chips and used in paper manufacturing. But as Australia looks to meet its goal of building 1.2 million new homes by 2029, investment in softwood is growing fast. "Both the state and the federal governments have incentives in place for industry and private investors to grow radiata pine," University of Melbourne forest ecologist Rod Keenan said. "We are seeing an increasing area of pine being established now, and that's aimed at meeting that future need for timber for housing construction." On Wednesday, Mount Gambier-based OneFortyOne announced it had purchased about 15,000ha of existing plantations in the Green Triangle and Western Australia. The land was previously owned by investment management firm New Forests. Hardwood blue gum plantations make up about 75 per cent of that new purchase. OneFortyOne chief executive Wendy Norris said the company planned to convert the majority into softwood radiata pine within the next five years. "The sawlog timber we're growing from our radiata pine is really high quality and the domestic market wants it," she said. OneFortyOne also owns one of the largest timber processing mills in the region, which processes softwood for construction timber. While housing demand is driving public and private investment in softwoods, Ms Norris said carbon credits played a role in planting more pine. "Bluegum grows for about seven years and when you convert to radiata pine you grow your growing cycle to about 30 years," she said. "You store a lot more carbon in the tree when you grow it for that long and you earn more carbon credits. "That's part of the economic decision when you convert from blue gum to long-term renewable pine plantations." Professor Keenan said climate change and drying conditions would play a role in forestry's future. "The blue gums are typically quite water-hungry and some of the sites they were planted on are probably not that suitable for blue gum these days and becoming less suitable as the climate becomes drier," he said. "The radiata pine is more tolerant of those dry conditions, so by replacing blue gum with pine, we're likely to see more resilient plantations to climate change." South Australian Forest Products Association chief executive Nathan Paine said OneFortyOne's purchase bucked a recent trend. "Over the past decade, when there have been large sales, we've seen that land revert to general agriculture and we've lost those forests," he said. "It's a shot in the arm for these 21,300 South Australians who work directly and indirectly in forest industries in Australia." Despite an industry trend towards timber for housing, Mr Paine said there was a future for blue gum in Australia. "There has been a view more generally that hardwood or blue gum doesn't yield the same job multiplier in terms of the jobs that go to processing the trees and producing the products we need," he said. "What industry is doing, though, is actually investing heavily in the alternatives to using blue gum domestically. "I don't think we should underestimate the importance of bluegum fibre in a lot of products we use."
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
That sinking feeling: Australia's Limestone Coast is drying up
Graham Kilsby, a fourth-generation farmer, is surveying the Kilsby sinkhole, a popular freshwater diving site on his property south of Mount Gambier. The gin-clear waters provide visibility of up to 65 metres. But, as he inspects the sinkhole when Guardian Australia visits, alarm bells ring. Water levels dropped 1.5 metres between January and March 2025. Lake George at Beachport. The drainage system that cuts through the region ends here, with flood water released into the sea. Here the drainage system is bone dry It's a long-term decline, made worse by South Australia experiencing one of the driest years on record since 1900. And it's not confined to Kilsby's property: the entire vast groundwater network in the limestone crust that straddles the border between South Australia and Victoria – an area of such agricultural richness that it has been dubbed the Green Triangle – is in decline, thanks to decades of over-extraction and declining rainfalls. Monitoring of 181 groundwater wells by SA authorities shows a consistent decline since 1993, with some, particularly in areas of intensive irrigation and forestry developments, dropping by several metres. We're here to explore the sinkhole alongside a group of experienced freedivers. And, as Kilsby says, to 'see it before it's gone'. It's reckoned to be one of the best dive sites in the world to descend on a single breath. By day, divers move through brilliant shafts of light piercing the cave. By night, glow sticks are their only markers, 25 metres below. Free divers join a rare night dive at Kilsby sinkhole It's a remarkable experience – one Kilsby wants protected. 'We need an independent review of currently available [water use] data, as well as a moratorium on any new bores,' he says. A free diver at Kilsby 'It's not something we can look at in three years and everything will be OK. If we don't change what we're doing, I think we've destroyed it and it won't be coming back.' One month before diving at Kilsby sinkhole, we're at Little Blue Lake, a large freshwater sinkhole a 15-minute drive south of Mount Gambier. It's a 35C day in January and the lake is buzzing with swimmers seeking relief in waters that remain 14C year-round. People wait to leap into Little Blue Lake, a freshwater sinkhole on the Limestone Coast The once crystal-clear lake now often appears steel-grey or green, its water quality compromised by persistent algae blooms caused by excess nutrients in the water from agricultural runoff and wastewater. Waste from the lake's thousands of visitors also built up, with some guests reporting seeing human faeces littering its perimeter before a portable toilet was installed in January. Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Teenagers gather at the rim, waiting to take the 'leap of faith' – a 12-metre drop that's a local rite of passage. The crack and thud of awkward landings echoes off the deep walls. The leap has grown riskier as water levels hit historic lows. 'See that ledge the kids are sitting on? That's new,' one local remarks. A young boy dives deep at Little Blue Lake An underwater view of the aquatic plants lining Ewens Ponds, open for a brief period in January before being closed due to low flows Closer to the coast are a series of karst rising springs, wetlands formed by groundwater rising to the service under pressure, creating a permanently saturated peat soil. That water then feeds the region's most well-known sinkholes, the Piccaninnie and Ewens ponds. But both are now closed due to low flows and algae outbreaks. Piccaninnie Ponds, a Ramsar-listed wetland of international importance, has been closed since 2022 and snorkelling and diving at Ewens Ponds was suspended in February. Piccaninnie Ponds, a Ramsar-listed site of international importance that has been closed since 2022 Mount Gambier residents Maddy and Hamish share a moment during a swim in a runoff channel at Piccanninie Ponds The ponds rely on constant, fast-moving groundwater flow. Claire Harding, a conservation ecologist at the SA National Parks and Wildlife Service, says water flows at Piccaninnie and Ewens have reduced by 62% and 25% respectively since the 1970s. 'Anything that affects groundwater is going to also impact Piccaninnie and Ewens,' Harding says. In 2020 both Picanninie and Ewens were listed as nationally endangered ecosystems. Uncle Ken Jones, a Boandik community elder, dives deep at Ewens Ponds In January the SA lieutenant governor, Dr Richard Harris, an anaesthetist and experienced cave diver who received international acclaim for the crucial role he played in the rescue of schoolchildren trapped in a cave in Thailand, conducted a dive at Piccaninnie with the National Parks and Wildlife Service to help guide any potential reopening. 'What I saw earlier this year when I did that dive was shocking,' Harris says. 'It's a real disaster unfolding.' The lush pastures and usually high rainfall of the Green Triangle make it a highly productive agricultural region. The Limestone Coast produces a third of SA's agricultural output, despite being just 2% of its landmass. Across the border in Victoria there are 1,000 dairy farms in the south-west alone, producing 2bn litres of milk – 23% of all national production – each year. The South Australian Dairyfarmers Association chief executive, Andrew Curtis, says any cuts to water allocations could impact dairy businesses. The less-successful dairy farms are slowly being bought up by forestry interests, increasing an already vast expanse of blue gum and radiata pine plantations. The fast-growing trees drink up the groundwater and absorb runoff, causing aquifer levels to plummet. A 2009 report by the SA Department of Water, Land and Biodiversity Conservation found that hardwood and softwood forests cut water recharge to the aquifer by 78% and 83% respectively, when compared with dryland agriculture. An aerial view of Hell's Hole, part of the network of sinkholes and caves on the Limestone Coast Since the mid-1990s, groundwater levels in heavily irrigated areas have also declined. Conservation advice provided in 2020 to the federal government on the karst springs' endangered listing under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act linked that decline in part to the use of centre-pivot irrigation, which consumes much more water than other forms of irrigation. There are now 3,000 water licences allowing irrigators and landowners to draw groundwater from the region for non-domestic use. About 100km north of Mount Gambier are the Bool and Hacks lagoons. The seasonal, interconnected wetlands earned Ramsar status in 1985 and were once famous for flocks of migratory birds. Marion Patterson with some of the 600 taxidermised birds collected by her father 'Dad used to say Bool in flood was better than Kakadu,' says Marion Patterson, a fourth-generation Bool local. Patterson is speaking from the bird room, a collection of 600 taxidermised birds and 350 fauna specimens put together by her father, the duck hunter turned conservationist and master taxidermist, Jack Bourne. It's open to the public via appointment. Many of the birds here were once regular visitors to the lagoon. There's a brolga that hit a power line and started a fire, several birds of prey, smaller wrens and a little grebe. Bool and Hacks are fed by Mosquito Creek, a once-permanent source of water which is now dry. Dr Matt Gribbs, a CSIRO hydrologist, says the creek began to dry up at the end of the 1990s and now 'there is only flow for 15-20% of the time'. Centre-pivot irrigation next to the Bool and Hacks lagoons The collapse of the lagoons is a slow-moving crisis, and the regulatory response has been even slower. A plan to reduce water allocations in high-risk areas, recommended in 2013, was put on hold in 2018 when Steven Marshall's Liberal state government blocked any changes, instead calling for an independent review of the science underpinning the proposed cuts. That review was published in 2019 and described ongoing 'catastrophic consequences' to Bool and Hacks lagoons, and to the karst springs farther south, due to intensive land use and historical drainage in both areas. That warning was consistent with the 2013 plan. The Landscape Board – a body set up in 2019 to manage SA's landscapes – told Guardian Australia the warnings have been around for 'decades'. In 2024 an extensive review of regulations noted: 'The overall scheme of management has not changed significantly since 2004.' The water allocation plan is not due to be updated until December 2027. A SA government spokesperson said decisions would be made on the best available science. A water-hungry blue gum plantation near Naracoorte Despite the acknowledged decline, there has been no official report to Ramsar on the Bool and Hacks lagoons since 1998, and no report on Piccaninnie Ponds since 2012. The Ramsar convention requires governments to make a report if the ecological character of a site changes or is likely to change due to human activities. A spokesperson for the SA government said the department was 'documenting information about the current status of Bool and Hacks lagoons and Piccaninnie Ponds, in line with the requirements of the EPBC Act and the Ramsar Convention'. Ewens Ponds was open for a few fleeting weeks early in the new year, before being closed in February. In that brief window, a Boandik (Bunganditj) man, Uncle Ken Jones, who runs a tourism business on the Limestone Coast, steps into the cool water, taking a deep breath before diving into blue. 'It's just magic,' he says, resurfacing with a grin. Jones snorkels at Ewens Ponds His joy is precarious, resting on the health of a dying ecosystem. 'If we don't do something about it in the next few years, it rests upon our soul,' he says. 'We really should have spoken up and influenced some people to care for it a bit better rather than just take, take, take.'
Irish Examiner
4 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Joesph O'Brien dominates in the Gowran Classic
Joseph O'Brien dominated the second running of the €200,000 Irish Stallion Farms EBF Gowran Classic in Gowran Park, saddling the first four home, the quartet spear-headed by 11/1 shot Green Triangle. Blinkered for the first time and ridden by Ronan Whelan, the Gleneagles gelding, in the familiar colours of Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, swooped late down the outside and, after a battle, denied stable-companion And So To Bed (Dylan Browne McMonagle) by a head, with a three-lengths gap back to top-weight Viking Invasion and Dignam rounding off the clean sweep for Carriganog in fourth. 'It's great prize money and a great result for us,' stated the delighted trainer. 'And I'm particularly happy for Ronan – he got injured off a filly of mine at the Curragh (Mveve on May 5) and this is his first day back riding. 'This is a talented horse, but a tricky customer. We've been riding him forward and we decided to try him in blinkers today. I told Ronan to take his time and give him a chance. And it all worked out well. 'I'd say we'll look at some of the nice three-year-old handicaps with him now. 'Before the race, I thought that, if And So To Bed came back to her Curragh form, she'd be the one to beat – and she did.' Green Triangle was bringing up a double for Carriganos following the success of 11/8 favourite Dancign Teapot, under stable-jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle, in the opening Today's Gate Sponsored By The INPBA Fillies Maiden. Soon handy from a high draw, the Camelot edged ahead early in the straight and stayed on to beat promising debutante by a length. 'She has a very good pedigree and has always been a good worker,' explained O'Brien. 'She's still rated low, but I think she might progress through the ranks and, hopefully, we might be thinking about black type later in the season.' Winner of her maiden on this track, the Fozzy Stack-trained Gotomylovely made a successful handicap debut in the valuable Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Handicap, dictating the pace and battling bravely for Joey Sheridan (his 13th win of the season) to beat top-weight Kayhana by a head, having been headed by the runner-up. 'She blew her chance at the start the last day and was better-behaved in the stalls today,' said Stack. 'I think she's better going right-handed and enjoys it here. She's won off 90 here, so she's entering the realms of listed class, so we'll have to look for some black type.' Shortest-priced favourite of the day, the Ger Lyons-trained Game Point was readily turned over by John Murphy's newcomer Maestro Mark, a morning gamble from big prices, in the Ladies Day July 26th Maiden, the performance prompting his rider Gary Carroll to comment 'John and George told me he was a nice horse. He was green when he hit the front. But he gave me a lovely feel and felt very smart – I think there's a lot more to come from him.' And trainer Gerry Keane has Galway in mind for Beauparc following her victory, under Jack Kearney, in the QuinnBet Handicap.
