By Callum Ludwig
The Warburton Environment (WE) group’s successful protection of the endangered species, the Tree Geebung, in a Supreme Court case against State Government logging agency VicForests has reached its final conclusion.
Proceedings in the Supreme Court of Victoria’s Court of Appeal were both struck out on 10 October 2023, meaning the 25 October 2022 judgement of Justice Gregory Garde stands.
The judgment has ruled that VicForests must perform 30 metre transects to detect potential Tree Geebung in coupes, and surveys must be conducted in any Wet Forest coupe within 5km of a Tree Geebung sighting.
Justice Gregory Garde presided over the original case and said in the judgement that the evidence is compelling and uncontested that the past practices of VicForests and its contractors have led to the loss of many Tree Geebungs in the harvestable areas of coupes.
“I accept Warburton’s submission that the provisions of the Special Management Plan (SMP) dealing with survey are inadequate and will not locate or identify many mature Tree Geebungs located within harvesting areas,” the judgement reads.
“They are likely to permit continuing environmental degradation of the Tree Geebung species when mature Tree Geebungs are not identified and located by survey.”
When Tree Geebungs are found, a 50 metre buffer must be established and the buffers must also be protected by a 10 metre firebreak before burns.
Logging of all native forest is set to cease from 1 January 2024, announced in this year’s Victorian Budget, while VicForests ceased operations following the original decision in November last year.
