tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25637657.post5835023551009139504..comments2024-02-17T19:03:04.824+11:00Comments on New England, Australia: Background briefing – New England’s environment wars 1: the Liverpool Plains and Watermark CoalJim Belshawhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10075614280789984767noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25637657.post-76733184137448258172020-10-03T17:35:36.327+10:002020-10-03T17:35:36.327+10:00What an interesting comment. I totally agree with ...What an interesting comment. I totally agree with you about mining the soil and that ag can be worse than mining. I am a little younger than you, but I read a book in the Dem library - for the life of me I cannot the name nor have I been able to find it since - about a farmer who turned his place around via contour ploughing, erosion control and better water management. It was a kids book.<br /><br />One of the things that I have looked at in my research on the history of the broader New England (Tablelands and the surrounding river valleys to the north, south, west and east) is the emergence of new farming practices with people like White from Bald Blair. There was a whole group of them who were conscious of the importance of soil etc very early. And I do remember Noel Beadle quite well. He was a friend of my father. <br /><br />Jim Belshawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10075614280789984767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25637657.post-15622964461536509742020-08-03T01:09:14.190+10:002020-08-03T01:09:14.190+10:00As a working hypothesis I would state mining does ...As a working hypothesis I would state mining does far less environmental damage than does agriculture.<br />While the environmental costs of mining have been estimated and tallied repeatedly,agriculture has been very fortunate in that it has escaped any detailed scrutiny of its environmental costs.<br />In my excursions in the field in the Top End of the NT ,southern part of the Gulf Country and areas west of the Darling,there were many so-called agriculturists who should not have allowed within 100km of a patch of dirt.<br />How come you are required to obtain a permit for just about anything ,but not to what could be in effect -"mining " the soil.<br />To illustrate :In the mid-1960's I attended a lecture in Canberra given by a rural sociologist from the Queensland Department of Agriculture on why wheat yields were low in an area of the Darling Downs.When he went out to the area and observed the farmers at work and play ,to his amazement he found one farmer was not employing contour plowing .Instead he was ploughing up and down the hill.(I learned about contour plowing and its relation to soil erosion in a lesson on soil erosion at the Armidale Demonstration School in the late 1940's .)<br />And another farmer thought the top soil was 2m deep when in actual fact it was a matter of centimetres.Did he never dig a pit? <br /><br />And more:One night in one of the Tiboburra pubs(there were two at that time)a young grazier tried to tell me that overgrazing did not matter because the "pick" -the country- would came back once it rained.Fortunately for me the regional soil conservatioist was in the bar at that time .Later the soil conservatioist told me that when the young grazier had taken up the lease there were five eathern dams ,now there were three.Two had silted up. <br />That trip was also instructive in seeing the damage that sheep did to the vegetation and soil on the NSW side of the boundary fence compared to markedly far less damage cattle did on the Queensland side.<br />A friend who was a soil conservationist on the Emerald project in Queensland was told by one of the farmers that "he was going to make his money by flogging the land to death" .<br />An approach taken by at least one cattleman on the Barley Tablelands in recent memory and by Lord Vestes in the distant past.<br />N.C.W.Bealde ,who was professor of Botany UNE,wrote in 1949 or thereabouts,based on of his study of the soils and soil erosion that there should be no grazing west of the Darling . There has been continuous grazing ever since,and the grazing properties continue to be uneconomic.<br /><br />Meanwhile the saltbush deceases and the scalds become larger.<br /><br />Agriculture is not benign.It may be idyllic and conjure up visions of the bronzed Anzac but it is not benign .Ross Pengilleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01514532758154608067noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25637657.post-37965004912725933452015-02-03T19:43:41.666+11:002015-02-03T19:43:41.666+11:00Good lord, Rod, and just when we need them!Good lord, Rod, and just when we need them!Jim Belshawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10075614280789984767noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25637657.post-37498760733889839562015-02-03T19:05:08.117+11:002015-02-03T19:05:08.117+11:00Oh dear. That is where I did some of my undergradu...Oh dear. That is where I did some of my undergraduate Honours study. It was only relating to coal and gas geology !!!! Last time I moved I threw out all my honours notes since I know that I'll probably never need them again.Rodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10962789743908134314noreply@blogger.com