The cessation of logging Victoria’s old growth forests on 1 January 2024 provides the opportunity to create the Great Forest National Park (GFNP) to permanently protect our magnificent forests and their endangered wildlife.
The GFNP would add 355,000 hectares of protected forests to the existing 170,000 hectares of parks and protected areas in Victoria’s Central Highlands region. Stretching from Kinglake to Mt Baw Baw and north-east to Eildon, the Park would be Victoria’s equivalent to the NSW Blue Mountains National Park which covers 268,000 hectares of forest and wetlands and is home to a wide variety of wildlife including a third of Australia’s bird species.
The Blue Mountains is a popular tourist destination with over three million visitors per annum spending around $250 million annually in the area (Blue Mountains Facts). The Great Forest National Park would have similar benefits for Victoria.
A 2017 study for The Wilderness Society on the establishment of the GFNP (Nous Group) found that it would generate $71 million in economic benefits per annum and create over 700 tourism jobs. This would be a major boon for regional economies in the area covered by the GFNP.
This compares with VicForests, the now abolished State logging agency, that lost $60 million in 2022–23 despite receiving $149 million in subsidies from the State Government. The 700 jobs created by the GNFP would also be greater than the 500 jobs directly involved in the entire native forest logging industry across Victoria (The Forest Wars, Professor David Lindenmayer, ANU 2024).
The GFNP would protect endangered wildlife and Melbourne’s water supply and would be a major boon for the Central Highlands tourism economy. Tourist infrastructure, such as walking tracks and huts, will need to be built and maintained. There will be jobs for tour guides and the opportunity to develop eco-lodges and other environmentally friendly tourist infrastructure such as treetop walks and ziplines. Visitors to the area will benefit from being able to enjoy pristine old growth forests and the sounds of the animals that live in them rather than the silence of a clear felled and burnt logging coupe where no animals exist.
Detractors of the Great Forest National Park say there should be no more ‘locked up’ forest. They overlook the fact that when logging occurs, the forest is not only locked up, but you can be fined up to $20,000 or face two years jail for trespassing in logging areas. The GFNP will not be ‘locked up’, but will allow activities like trail bike riding and hunting of feral animals.
If you value nature and would like to see the creation of the GFNP, email your local state MP in support of what would be an economic and environmental boon for the state.
