The environment minister, Murray Watt, has given the green light for the bulldozing of nearly 3,000 hectares of tropical savanna in the Northern Territory without an assessment under Australia’s nature laws.
Top End Pastoral Company’s development would clear 2,723 hectares of woodland – an area 10 times the size of Sydney’s CBD – on Claravale farm and station in the Daly River region for crops, including sorghum and cotton.
The region is home to threatened species such as the vulnerable ghost bat, Australia’s largest predatory bat.
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Environment groups and a scientific expert on tropical savanna have expressed dismay at the minister’s decision to declare the development is not a controlled action – meaning it can proceed without an assessment under Australia’s laws for its potential impact on threatened species and ecosystems. It follows longstanding concerns that pastoral land-clearing has rarely been assessed under the national laws.
The government said after “careful examination” a delegate for the minister had formed the view the project was unlikely to have a significant environmental impact.
The decision was published by the federal environment department last Wednesday, as Watt announced the US mining company Alcoa would receive a national interest exemption to continue clearing for its bauxite mining operations in Western Australia’s northern jarrah forest.
The Environment Centre of the NT (ECNT) said the decision “effectively green lights the destruction of likely habitat for 13 threatened species, including Gouldian finches, freshwater sawfish, pig-nosed turtles, red goshawks and ghost bats”.
“We’re absolutely gobsmacked by this decision, which makes a mockery of Labor’s promise to fix our broken nature laws,” the ECNT executive director, Kirsty Howey, said.
“If plans of this scale – to bulldoze thousands of hectares of Australia’s great savanna and the homes for 13 threatened species – don’t trigger federal assessment, what does?
“We’re considering all legal avenues around how national nature laws are being applied in the Northern Territory.”
Top End Pastoral Company has proposed a three-stage development of its properties covering an area of more than 7,000 hectares.
The plans it referred to the federal government were for the second stage, covering an area of about 4,585 hectares. The total area that can be cleared for this stage was revised down in last week’s decision to 2,723 hectares to avoid some wildlife corridors and habitat.
The company has also undertaken clearing under a separate permit from the NT government for stage one of the development, which covers an area of about 1,200 hectares.
A spokesperson for the federal environment department said the minister’s decision had considered the combined impact of the proposed clearing stages, including the clearing that had already occurred at the site as part of stage one.
Factors considered in the assessment included the design of the proposed clearing areas, the extent of clearing within the total development envelope, the availability of intact habitat across the broader project area, and measures proposed by Top End Pastoral Company to avoid and mitigate impacts on habitat.
Claravale Station has caves that are known roosting sites for a large colony of ghost bats and is one of only six known maternity roosts for the species in the NT.
The known roosting habitat sits outside the development zone, but the ECNT said it still held concerns because surveys had only been done over a small area. Howey said advice from the NT environment department suggested the development would come within two kilometres of the known roosting sites, which supported about 18% of the known NT ghost bat population. She said the group was also worried about the impact of the proposal on foraging habitat.
Scientists are still learning about the ghost bat’s foraging habits but the animals are known to fly for kilometres in search of food.
Prof Euan Ritchie, an expert on tropical savannas from Deakin University, said Australians had “inherited one of the largest intact and biodiverse savanna ecosystems left on Earth”.
“Once Australia’s tropical savannas are cleared by bulldozers and chains, at industrial scale, they will not return in our lifetime,” he said.
The department’s spokesperson said “not all referrals under the EPBC Act are expected to result in significant impacts on nationally protected matters or require further assessment and approval before proceeding”.
“By refining the project design, the proponent has avoided clearing key areas of habitat and reduced potential impacts.”
The spokesperson said the developer’s referral of the project for assessment and the “careful consideration” by the minister “shows how reforms to the EPBC Act mean agricultural land clearing must comply with the same rules and standards as other industries”.
Top End Pastoral Company declined to comment.
