For the past few years I have been campaigning, with many others, to stop the WA government from deliberately destroying the SW of WA with its 'prescribed' burning program. Recently we had a small win.
Thanks to a forest blockade in Walpole, Mt Clare - the home of some of the relatively few remaining Tingle trees - was taken off the burn list for this season. I remember one of my campaign friends saying to me one day: the Tingles are the hill I'm prepared to die on. We think the government had little appetite for a full blown showdown with 'greenies' who were prepared to occupy a forest to protect it, so they acquiesced - temporarily anyway.
I only had a small role in this mercifully short campaign. I posted on social media via my partner's account (Facebook cancelled me midway through 2025). One of my posts had 15,000 views, which indicated how mainstream the issue of burning the Tingles is.
We know this department very well. They are an old enemy - a very, very old enemy for some who have been fighting them for more than 50 years. We haven't won. DBCA* will carry on their destruction somewhere else - most probably some other forest ecosystem they know we are very keen to protect like peats or granite outcrops. That's how they work. They will not be happy their power has been challenged so successfully, so God knows what they are planning.
It is so very wrong that citizens are forced into constant vigilance, and must work so hard for no pay, to protect what our well paid government officers should be managing responsibly for the future of the environment and humans. Where is the government's 'duty of care'?
*DBCA refers to the Western Australian Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions
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