Natives... no brainer

Aconcept

exploring how Australian native plants might or could be adapted into mainstream dryland farming in the Wimmera, see page 1, is both exciting and encouraging.

Regardless of whether it leads to a new industry or a relatively small-time project, the idea represents the type of creative thinking we need in our part of the world.

The pandemic is establishing all sorts of new socio-economic playing fields and across the Wimmera, Grampians fringe and southern Mallee, we must more than ever be prepared to take responsibility and control of our own destiny.

This starts with brainstorming about taking advantage of what we already do well and consider what else might work and what other paths we might be able to take.

To coin an expression, ‘there’s lots of ways to skin a cat’, and growth beyond simple recovery in our region might or should involve going through all the ‘cat-skinning’ reference books we can find. In a word, we’re talking about ‘innovation’.

Project leaders behind the bush-food production idea are right in describing the exploration of Indigenous plants that have sustained people for thousands of years as commercial food crops as a ‘no brainer’.

In fact it is surprising, considering the international industry generated from Australian native sub-tropical macadamia nuts for example, that we haven’t seen considerably more large-scale research in this area.

We know other native plants and-or their seeds are nutrient rich and we can also make boutique beverages using wattle seeds. From what Barengi Gadjin Land Council is telling us, there are also plenty of other high-value plants in the mix.

Project leaders are also right, as with any exploratory venture involving new ideas or products, that there is a pressing need to protect ‘intellectual property’. In this case, it involves Wimmera-mallee Wotjobaluk knowledge.

The other great aspects of the concept are that because it will most likely need a partnership with private landowners to develop in scale, it could, after working through necessary protocols and sensitivities, represent a bridge between cultures, farming and the environment.

SIR, – Thank you Bob Kirsopp, The Weekly Advertiser, June 24, 2020, for your staunch support for Natimuk Lake.

Sadly, the lake is a shadow of its former self – a dry wasteland of weeds in winter and dust in summer, untreated asbestos sites, rubbish along its shores, rabbit infestations and abandoned works such as stone beaching and the outlet weir. All this could have been avoided. Co-operation between authorities and the community could have achieved tremendous results for Natimuk Lake, as has happened through significant volunteer works at Mt Arapiles.

Instead, we have seen years of bickering and a neglected lake.

Now we see the Department of Environment,

Land, Water and Planning-parks Victoria attempting to get their hands on the Otto Spehr trust money behind the back of Natimuk Lake Foreshore Committee, and then attempting to silence any protest or independent voices by kicking them off the foreshore committee. Frankly it’s an outrage. The Supreme Court granted probate of the Otto Spehr estate to the foreshore committee, not to government coffers.

Beautification and development of Natimuk Lake can be achieved, as per Otto Spehr’s wishes and the wishes of all who know and love the lake, if the will – and goodwill – is there.

Until then, Natimuk Lake remains the Wimmera’s Cinderella lake, an indictment on all in authority and all entrusted with its management. Keith Lockwood Natimuk