I spent 40 years as a field-based forester and firefighter in rural Victoria, mostly around the Powelltown and Central Gippsland forests.
And while it had its ups and downs, like any job, I mostly enjoyed my career.
But one of the things that upset me the most, were the small number of people (bogans I shall call them), who deliberately set out to trash the bush.
It’s been a problem for as long as I can remember, and it comes in many forms.
- Rubbish dumpers. Things got worse after asbestos rules were introduced and when councils stopped issuing free tip tickets.
- People who shoot holes in things, particularly new signs.
- Those that get enjoyment smashing toilet facilities and setting fire to picnic tables.
- Graffiti that was never clever or witty.
- Hoons that threatened and intimated other visitors, scaring them away.
- Trail bike and mini bike damage in the 1970s was bad enough, but heavy 4WDs, and now cheap quad bikes and ATVs has raised environmental mayhem to a new level.
- Ripping up roads and tracks, or off road, for the fun of it.
- Smashing down or stealing gates as trophies.
- Setting out to deliberately get bogged, or do burnouts, and then leaving a muddy mess in their wake.
- Pyromaniacs and arsonists.
- Firewood cutters that indiscriminately cut down living trees.
All good fun…eh…
As a forest manager, I spent a large amount of time and effort developing facilities for visitor enjoyment.
It broke my heart, and made me angry, to go back after a long weekend to see them trashed.
And all this cost money… public money… your money… my money… money that could have been better used to maintain and upgrade facilities.
Weekend patrols were only part of the answer, but it chewed into our meagre State forest recreation budget.
Gathering evidence and prosecutions were difficult. And it’s not possible to be everywhere, all the time, in a 7-million-hectare estate.
Hardening up facilities to look like an ugly fortress, or secret cameras weren’t a 100% effective solution either.
There were some successful education programs like Camp Host and other things, but they seemed to have little long-term impact on bogans.
But probably the lowest point was when a new picnic table at Peterson’s Lookout in Tyers Park, north of Traralgon, was stolen.
The table was put there by the staff and crew and dedicated to the memory of colleague and friend Peter “Crackers” Cramer who died in 2013 while on deployment to a bushfire in Tasmania.
I know it’s only a fraction of the visitors… but I don’t have an answer to this widespread problem.
Victoria’s Forests & Bushfire Heritage 