VicForests plans to commence logging on the southwestern slopes of Mt Bullfight as early as November 2018.  This group of coupes is only 2km from the northern end of the Lake Mountain part of the Yarra Ranges National Park and will wreck the middleground views from Panorama Lookout and the Boundary Hut run for years to come. (See views from Panorama Lookout.)

In 2003 a successful campaign was run by The Central Highlands Alliance (TCHA) to prevent the logging of this same area now enlarged via the addition of another 38ha coupe.  The total coupe area involved is now 122ha with VicForests’ current Timber Release Plan indicating that around half that expected to be clearfelled.  The scenic impact of the proposed logging at that time is well described in the TCHA report.  The death of snow gums surrounding the lookouts in the 2009 fire has further opened the view making the impact of the proposed logging even starker.

To our knowledge, there has been no consultation with either the Lake Mountain Resort or Parks Victoria, both of which have an interest in protecting these views.  The coupes in question are Mogwai (287-519-0016), Machine (287-519-0014), Gizmo (287-519-0015) and Gadget (287-519-0011); see map.

As well as the visual impact, the impact on this richly biodiverse area will be just as terrible.  See biodiversity map prepared by VicForests (here) highlighting the extent of old-growth forest in these coupes, but the damage to this area will extend well beyond these coupes.  The logging will release the blackberries enabling them to further extend their reach into the Mt Bullfight Conservation Reserve.

The logging of these coups will contravene key provisions of the Code of Practice for Timber Production including the requirement to safeguard areas of landscape sensitivity, the requirement to apply the precautionary principle in relation to biodiversity and the requirement not to exacerbate the spread of weeds (details of impending breaches here).

The log trucks will need to traverse a long and narrow forest road winding through a large area of cool temperate rainforest which survived the 2009 fire, unlike much of this forest type on the western side of Lake Mountain.  With the once stunningly beautiful Lady Talbot Drive near Marysville ruined by the fire, an equally magnificent new forest drive could be created running from Marysville via Cambarville and the Royston River headwaters and the Rubicon Historic Area to Thornton.  But if these coupes are logged that prospect can be forgotten.

Likewise a walking track through remnant old-growth alpine ash on the Royston Gap to link the Lake Mountain part of the Yarra Ranges national Park with Mt Bullfight and beyond would be a wonderful idea and one that Parks Victoria should be keen to develop.  The proposed logging would ruin the prospect of such a walk.

These ideas are just the start of what could be a new future for this area which is slowly recovering from the devastation of the 2009 fires.   At its Board meeting in August, Parks Victoria acknowledged that nature-based tourism represents an untapped competitive advantage for the State but if VicForests’ logging plans proceed, there will be no untapped potential left in this area.

The Rubicon Forest Protection Group has written to Minister D'Ambrosio and to the Department of Lands, Water and Planning urging cancellation of these plans.  

VicForests has been allowed to destroy the tourist values of the Royston Range at the northern end of the Rubicon Forest.  There is still time to prevent a similar desecration on the slopes of Mount Bullfight.