Car Racing in the Home of the Koala

The koala calls the North Coast forests of NSW its home. Coastal sprawl and deforestation fragment and thin their habitat. The path to the next yummy canopy becomes ever longer and more dangerous. Settlers and their industry demand roads that bulldoze their way through forests 'dripping with koalas'. Many animals are injured and killed by motorists in this process. Their packs of roaming dogs hunt and maul the threatened species. Record-breaking temperatures, "extreme weather events, such as killer heat waves, devastating droughts and intense, flooding rains" unleashed by us will not enhance the life of the koala or any other being.

This weekend it is time again to roar racing cars through Coffs Coast subtropical hinterland. The wonder of 'sustainable' motor racing will take place on forest roads between the Nambucca and the Orara river valleys. Motor 'sport' "is a glorious, lovely thing, all noise and violence and sliding sideways between trees at 100 mph." (source) Dust and noise pollution is generated in abundance.

1400 people donate their free labour to showcase this motor spectacle over four days. Wardens "will use airhorns to scare" the marsupials up the trees. "The numbers of animals that get run over are very low" we are told. (source)

"Population numbers on the East Coast fell by 40% between 1990 and 2010, and in other areas like the Pilliga Forest, the population has crashed by 70% in 10 years." (source)

According to the criteria of the Office of Environment and Heritage, NSW this event does not seem to constitute an 'activity to assist a threatened species'.


Koala, threatened species profile 

Car ploughs into spectators at Rally Championship
 
Staging Car Races in Nine State Forests of NSW 2014

Celebrating Fossil Fuel Culture on Forest Roads  2013 

Update:
Racing drivers generated a lot of dust in a landscape cracked by drought. They complained that Valla was too hard “to navigate due to excessive dust and inadequate lighting.” Maybe they will refrain from driving with ‘impaired vision’. 16.09.2015

WRC on collision course in forest habitat : Norwegian rally driver, Mads Østberg was admitted to hospital after a collision with a logging truck. FOUR crashes during September's World Rally Championships have sparked calls for a re-think of next year's event. 17.10.2015 coffs coast advocate

Image:
Koala, Brehm's Life of Animals

Staging Car Races in Nine State Forests of NSW

200 kilometres of NSW forest roads will be used for a three-day car race on 11-14 September. The public is being denied access to various state owned forests.

Nine State Forests are effectively privatised:
Bagawa,
Lower Bucca,
Nana Creek,
Newry,
Orara East,
Pine Creek,
Tarkeeth,
Tuckers Nob and
Wedding Bells State Forests.

The racing cars will shoot at high speed through 'dirt roadways'. The "roads are lined by trees close to the edge in many places... they will travel through dense rainforest." These forests are the habitat for a rich biodiversity. Flora, fauna and fungi mingle in this refuge. To stage a high speed fossil fuel orgy amongst this diverse habitat and 'boost' greenhouse gases will leave all living beings with an inhospitable home. Australia is well known for working hard on making its unique species rapidly extinct.

The roaring noise pollution can be heard over kilometres, the dust generation is a hazard. Housing adjoining the State Forest are already challenged by ongoing logging pollution and breaking mining trucks. As well as the acoustic pollution on the land, the air space is filled with hovering air craft noise. The house-shaking sounds of the helicopter/s ( in the age of uavs ) over 'lifestyle' properties make any creature want to flee the area. To add such a combustion event probably will flood the market with 4sale signs and dissuade visitors that might 'boost the local economy' in the long run in a sustainable way.

Youth on (unregistered) trailbikes and bombs already doing wheelies in forests and residential areas take it as a go ahead. Such mass spectacles demonstrates to them, that it is ok to speed.

The price is too high to be 'put on the map' in such a way.


See also
Celebrating Fossil Fuel Culture on Forest Roads, 2013
Noise Pollution and Vibration in the Bellingen Shire, 2015


Images
Australian fauna, Brockhaus encyclopedia
Large frogmouth, (Batrachostomus auritus), Brehm's Life of Animals

Coffs Harbour: A place for whales and birds?

Coffs Harbour has been put on the map for watching whales and birds. Between June and November migrating humpback whales can be watched. The Solitary Islands Marine Park provides a refuge for them and many other marine species.

Also in August thousands of wedge-tailed shearwaters travel thousands of kilometres each year to return to the same burrows on Muttonbird Island Nature Reserve. It is the only easily-accessible place in NSW where the migratory wedge-tailed shearwaters nest.

Just when these migratory species dwell in the region, fossil fuel enthusiasts and the associated industries stage a 1000-horsepower speed boats race in the privatised 'natural amphitheatre' of Coffs Harbour. Rockets 'get airborne' and therefore are not supposed to shred any marine mammals. Sea creatures will simply get replaced by 'high horsepower marine monsters'. Local businesses are waving shopping bags and put up dysfunctional 'fairy lights' in trees to 'draw the crowds' to a run-of-the-mill town.

In a 100 % automobile dependent society with few footpaths and hardly any bike paths petrol runs in the veins of the population. Daily and recreational racing kill the dullness of a marginal existence. 'Boys with toys' are good consumers. They race the atmosphere-polluting machines on the Pacific Ocean and in the scenic hinterland of Coffs Harbour.

Having just thrown billions at the Pacific Highway one could have at least used this purpose-built road which is hacking its way through numerous wildlife habitats as a human-made race course 'amphitheatre'. Just privatise the space and let the benefiting industries pay for the usage. At the moment billboards along the highway appeal to motorists to reduce speed while the next billboards advertise car racing.

Staging such polluting and noisy events discourages visitors to come to the area for its natural aspects. Locals are deprived of a livable place and might move on or avoid shops sponsoring combustion festivals. It is the rapid conversion of a 'special place' to a non-place.

But in the country one just tolerates things ...

See also
Celebrating Fossil Fuel Culture on Forest Roads

Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals

Celebrating Fossil Fuel Culture on Forest Roads

The International Automobile Federation is showcasing car culture on forest roads in the Coffs Coast region. The spectacle of conspicuous consumption of fossil fuel will attract 10,000 motor enthusiasts arriving with their vehicles to enjoy the "quiet country roads and an endless network of forest trails, lush green hinterland roads, creeks and rainforest drives." They will encounter "a variety of beautiful bush settings and will find tranquil spots in the towns of Nana Glen, Glenreagh, Lowanna, Bellingen, Valla, Raleigh and Bowraville and Argents Hill." There will be the breath-taking landscapes of the Newry State Forest, Tuckers Nob State Forest and the Wedding Bells State Forest


The Mid North Coast of NSW, still has various protected refuges for Australian fauna and flora. The rich biodiversity of life is able to coexist in more or less fragmented habitats. Sprawl and the arteries of automobile dependency etch their way through 'the bush'". Logging, mining and speeding cars already encroach on the environment.

Residents living in little towns, rural dwellings or bush blocks seem to be used to the roar and dust of speeding vehicles and the local wildlife smeared across the roads. The noise pollution generated by racing cars might hardly outdo the daily chainsaws/slashers/mowers/whippersnippers/trail bikes etc.

One just tolerates things in the country...

Once the bushfire smoke from three hundred and fifty escaped hazard reductions has dissipated motorised business as usual can continue.

Traffic-Related Air Pollution, Particulate Matter, and Autism
Exposure to traffic-related air pollution, nitrogen dioxide, PM2.5, and PM10 during pregnancy and during the first year of life was associated with autism. Further epidemiological and toxicological examinations of likely biological pathways will help determine whether these associations are causal.

See also
Staging Car Races in Nine State Forests of NSW, 2014 

Noise Pollution and Vibration in the Bellingen Shire, 2015 

Update
One child dies and two other children injured in Rally Championship spectacle, the guardian 10.05.2015