Government fails to protect dozens of WA threatened ecological communities
The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) has made little progress in monitoring or protecting 72 per cent of TECs, according to the report by Auditor General Caroline Spencer.
Recovery plans were either interim or outdated, with none approved by the environment minister.
The report also found it would take more than a century, at the current rate, to assess 390 at-risk communities identified as potentially threatened.
It said 60 of the communities awaiting assessment were in the Kimberley.
Ms Spencer said DCBA lacked the resources and planning to meet its obligations.
She found the department did not have a TEC strategy, and it was unclear if current activities aligned with long-term conservation goals.
The WA Biodiversity Conservation Act was passed in 2016, coming into effect with regulations in 2019.
It allowed the environment minister to list a species or ecological community as threatened.
There have been 65 threatened ecological communities listed across the state.
Environs Kimberley executive director Martin Pritchard said the government was not prioritising the environment.
"It's so disappointing the government is choosing not to fund the proper management of these threatened ecological communities to make sure they survive," he said.
"This means we don't know what's happening to these environments.
"Are they being severely impacted by cattle? Is climate change impacting them? Is the extraction of ground water a major threat to them?"
Mr Pritchard said he was "shocked" part of the $2.4 billion operating surplus for 2024-25 could not be used to fund ecological protection.
The Montane Heath and Thicket of the Eastern Stirling Range are listed as critically endangered on the state's south coast.
University of Western Australia botanist Stephen Hopper said it was time to protect "wonderful natural heritage assets".
"It's simply going to decline and get worse, and that is not just a local problem, it's a national and international challenge," Professor Hopper said.
He blamed low state and federal government funding, in part, for limiting the DCBA's ability to effectively do its job.
"There are well-meaning people in the department trying to do the best they can," he said.
"They're in this invidious position of not even having the resources to be able to monitor whether the conservation status was going up or down with threatened communities."
The DCBA did not confirm whether it had made a formal case for increased funding to implement the Biodiversity Conservation Act.
In a statement, a department spokesperson said it welcomed the auditor general's review.
"Recovery actions for TECs and threatened species are built into broader conservation programs by DBCA and supported by State, Commonwealth, and non-government funding," they said.
"Regional conservation planning is being finalised across all nine DBCA regions, ensuring a consistent, prioritised approach to addressing threats to threatened species and ecological communities."
The spokesperson said recovery plans were prioritised when significant complexities in conservation planning arose.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
4 hours ago
- ABC News
Gwalia resident works to save century-old home in 'living ghost town'
Vanessa Williams feels lucky to call Gwalia home. She has lived in the ghost town, 800 kilometres north-east of Perth in WA's northern Goldfields, for just over a year. But her family's connection to the community goes back generations. "I think that's probably been the main factor for me coming home," she said. "But it's also just a really amazing place to live, there's no road rage, there's no traffic lights — very calm." She said she was pitching in to help preserve her historic neighbourhood after a freak microburst storm sent tin sheets flying earlier this year. The storm, which rolled through the town and nearby Leonora in a matter of minutes, caused significant damage to several of the near-century-old buildings. While Leonora Shire remains committed to rebuilding the historical precinct, one of the former miner's cottages was so badly damaged it was earmarked for demolition. With the shire's budget limited, Ms Williams and her father, Norm, saw an opportunity to help, offering $2,000 for a 99-year lease on the cottage. "But my dad and I thought we may as well approach the shire [and see] if we can slow down the plans to demolish it," she said. "Let's see what we can do." Leonora's councillors unanimously accepted the offer, and the pair got to work. Despite securing what is likely one of the cheapest rents in Australia, Ms Williams and her father have a big job ahead of them. The storm tore off most of the roof. "We had to do a bit of work getting out the insulation that fell on the floor." The town site grew alongside the Sons of Gwalia gold mine from 1897. It was the home of former US President Herbert Hoover, who took up a position as the mine's first manager. A once-thriving community of 1200 residents became largely abandoned in just weeks, when the mine closed in 1963. Almost a decade later, it was the vision of a Goldfields couple to preserve the town as a museum precinct. But despite its "ghost town" label, Gwalia still has a handful of residents. "It's actually really exciting, I've had a couple of neighbours move in recently at the street I live on," Ms Williams said. Historian Chris Harris has been developing a database of Western Australia's ghost towns in the lead-up to the state's bicentennial in 2029. She said a ghost town was one with a population of less than 10 per cent of what its population was in its heyday. She said a ghost town might have been formed for a specific purpose, and when that purpose ended, the community dissolved. "A ghost town can cease to exist right up until the current day," she said. "The most recent one that everyone knows about, of course, is Wittenoom." Ms Harris said the label could also be a tourist drawcard. She said the list of towns in the project was ever-growing as records and family histories uncovered previously undiscovered ghost towns. The project has grown from a list of 251 towns to more than 500. Sections of the Williams's cottage's seemingly untouched charm can be found among the rubble of the storm damage. Ms Williams said there were sections of pressed tin a previous resident had painted over in the shape of flower petals. "We'll see what we can do to make it solid, but also respect it's history." "Once it's gone, it's gone." Ms Williams said the restoration had given her and her father a chance to bond, saying she was fortunate to have his help. "There's not much he can't fix," she said. The town's small number of permanent residents have plenty of visitors for company. Ms Williams said people occasionally wandered into the wrong houses. "I think sometimes they're just so enamoured with the place that they're head down, walking around, looking at everything," she said. "And they actually forget sometimes when they stumble into people's yards." But she said there was plenty of room for everyone. "It's a unique opportunity that we've got tourism, we've got the community that live here, and we've also got mining," Ms Williams said. Another cottage sits empty at the other end of Ms Williams' street. She said she hoped someone else would join in the work to preserve Gwalia's living history.
ABC News
a day ago
- ABC News
Foul fatbergs on the rise in Perth's sewers as wrong waste flushed
Sewer blockages caused by mounds of grease, oils and wet wipes called fatbergs have exploded in frequency in Perth, as authorities try to stop people putting foreign objects down sinks and toilets. WA's Water Corporation says it responded to 1,329 preventable wastewater blockages in the 2023-24 financial year — a significant increase on previous years. It says most of those issues were caused by fats, oils and grease poured down kitchen sinks. But almost 400 of those blockages were caused by people flushing items like wet wipes, paper towels, cotton buds and sanitary products. Fatbergs are congealed masses of oils, grease and sanitary items that bind together in the sewer system — costing WA taxpayers at least $1 million every year to unclog. "Fatbergs are solid, foul-smelling masses that clog pipes, damage pumps and trigger wastewater spills," Water Minister Don Punch said. "It is a stark and very public reminder of what happens when we do not dispose of waste properly." Water Corp crews need to regularly carry out 'de-ragging' of their wastewater systems, where solid materials like rags and wipes are manually removed from pump stations. "It is dirty, difficult work — entirely avoidable," said Mr Punch. "I thank the people who are involved in that because someone has to do it and it is not the easiest of jobs to do, but they are doing a service to us all." Earlier this year, a massive fatberg forced the cancellation of US singer Bryan Adams's concert at Perth Arena. The blockage could not be cleared before the concert was due to go ahead and the decision was made to cancel it due to the public health risk. In March, the biggest fatberg ever found in WA was hauled from a sewer in Perth's south. It weighed 30 tonnes and took workers two days to carve it up with an excavator. A new coating for pipes being trialled in Melbourne has been shown to reduce the formation of fatbergs by up to 30 per cent. Mr Punch said it was a simple ask — think before you flush. The message from authorities is only three things go in the toilet — "pee, poo and toilet paper". "When it comes to cooking, let fats and oils cool before scraping them into a jar or a bin — do not put them down the sink," he said. "Those small actions make a big difference. It is a shared responsibility."
News.com.au
a day ago
- News.com.au
‘Fatbergs' wreak havoc on WA's sewer network, costing $1m annually
A rising tide of so-called 'fatbergs' is choking Western Australia's wastewater system, costing the state more than $1m each year. Water Corporation has revealed 1329 of the blockages – large, foul-smelling clumps of fat, oil, grease, and other non-flushable waste – have been reported in the past year alone. The water supplier says the number of 'fatbergs' – also referred to as 'pipe monsters' – increased sharply from 1152 in 2022 and 918 in 2021. Costing near $1m each year to remove, most were caused by kitchen fats, oils, and grease being poured down sinks, combined with items such as wet wipes and paper towels being flushed down toilets. In one high-profile incident, a sold-out Bryan Adams concert at Perth's RAC Arena was cancelled just hours before its scheduled start in February due to a fatberg blockage in the sewer line outside the venue. Emergency crews were dispatched to clear the smelly mass of grease and rags clogging the Wellington Street system in the CBD. Water Minister Don Punch said 850 of the reported blockages were caused by fats, oils, and grease being poured down sinks. 'Another 379 were caused by non-flushable items like wet wipes, cotton buds, sanitary products and paper towels,' he said. Water Corporation head of treatment and resource recovery Rino Trolio said the removal process was time-consuming, costly, and unpleasant for workers. 'The issue is non-flushable material doesn't disintegrate properly and gets matted with fats, oils and grease mistakenly put down the sink. None of this material should be in the sewer network,' he said. 'As a reminder, only the three Ps – pee, poo and toilet paper – should go down the toilet.' In March, crews spent two days removing WA's largest recorded fatberg – a 30,000kg mass found during routine maintenance in Perth. While fatbergs are a global problem for sewer networks, Water Corporation officials said new standards in Australia and New Zealand now define what can legally be labelled as 'flushable'. 'Despite being labelled as such, not all products labelled as 'flushable' can be flushed down the loo. Most wet wipes, for example, don't disintegrate like toilet paper,' Mr Trolio said. 'Unfortunately, wastewater blockages are a reality faced by every water utility in the world but they are entirely preventable.'
