Vital areas of Gippsland's Strzelecki Ranges, known as the 'Cores and Links' were supposed to be removed from the threat of logging to protect nationally significant rainforest sites, secure habitat for endangered species and protect the headwaters of waterways which provide drinking water for townships. Although fragmented, it covered some 8000 ha. of important rainforest.
Trust for Nature became involved because of the importance of this vegetation as a major landscape-scale project for South and West Gippsland. It presented an opportunity to achieve the single most important outcome for the protection of biodiversity in the region.
The Victorian Government thrashed out a deal with the community, the logging company - Hancock Victorian Plantations (owned by the US John Hancock insurance group) and Friends of the Earth - to buy back the land for $7 million and hand it over to be managed for the public by the Trust for Nature.
Now we have a new Minister and its looks as though the deal has collapsed - because his own Department didn't like the outcome. Politicians make a lot of noise saying they make policy but in this case the Government policy is being ignored and re-written by department staff. Someone needs to resign or be sacked!