© Edna Walling Collection, La Trobe Australian Manuscripts Collection, State Library of Victoria

Source: MS13048 box 3726

This natural reafforestation from mother trees makes all old and mature trees extremely valuable in this country - in any country for that matter - but particularly in the one where the percentage of forest is as low as two per cent. If we could only get THAT into people's heads, TWO PER CENT! The time might come when every sapling would receive due consideration before being cut down. At present the value set upon naturally-grown seedlings on some of the finest timber trees in the world is, to the average Australian, nil! In consequence, down come hundreds upon hundreds of saplings often through the sheer joy of clearing. 'Clearing' has been a national sport for so long that it is going to be hard to stop it now. 'Burning off' is another sport ...a most exciting one, but they are two most devastating practices. Some of it has been done in the interest of the community to prevent the spread of bushfires, but the damage which follows by the destruction of the most valuable thing in the country (yes, much more valuable than gold, which we can't eat!) - namely humus, which produces the soil, which in turn produces our food - makes it clear that these methods will have to be supplanted by more intelligent ones. Let us stop and think before cutting down trees (even the tiny ones) and burning off undergrowth. Sometimes we shall decide it need not be done.

Contact usabc onlineBack to Top