Having only recently conveyed a message of hope through describing a successful rainforest regeneration project, a recent bushwalk has brought me crashing back down to earth.

That walk, more of a slide really, took me into a deep ravine where the high surrounding ridges serve to provide the shady conditions which allow the rainforest to flourish.

I had first discovered this hidden gem more than 25 years ago, which was later found to support a population of a rare shrub, and I have fought ever since to have it protected.

In 2016, the endangered shrubs were placed under management as part of the Department of Environment’s Saving our Species program, and significant funding was provided to remove Lantana, an invasive weed that was threatening to overrun the shrub’s habitat. However, four years later, disaster struck in the form of the 2019-20 bushfires.

Rainforests, and riparian areas along creek lines which contain rainforest elements, are nature’s firebreaks, and these fire-resistant ecosystems can effectively stop a bushfire’s progress in all but extreme conditions. However, while most rainforest species are fire-resistant, they are not fire-tolerant, meaning they are easily killed by fire, with even a low-intensity burn known to cause serious damage to rainforest margins.

The damage caused to this rainforest was significant, and would take decades to recover, but then, a year ago, at the end of another intense drought, the Nymboida bushfire erupted.

Until now, I’d been unaware that this latest inferno had reached the remnant, so imagine my horror when discovering the destruction it had wrought.

The mainly Brush Box canopy has been more than halved in places, with the steep rocky gully clogged with fallen trees and the slowly recovering understorey now completely decimated.

To compound the problem, even after 12 months of perfect growing conditions, the ground’s surface on the surrounding slopes still consists of bare dirt between sparse clumps of native grasses, allowing stormwater run-off to race down the gullies, causing enormous erosion.

It’s no wonder that “too frequent fire” is listed as a key threatening process.

John Edwards