Category Archives: Cape York Peninsula
Qld Labor Party hands out more meaningless land titles to Aborigines
Filed by Jim O’Toole, Townsville Bureau traveling Cape York since Tuesday
The Queensland Labor Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, was in the Northern Peninsula Area on Wednesday to give away 362,000 hectares of Cape York to Aboriginal and Islander groups in a bid to create a separate Aboriginal state.
The vast areas of granted land will be jointly managed by Queensland Parks and Wildlife and traditional owner groups but the disingenuous Labor Party is the worst of Indian Givers, knowing well the carefully crafted title deeds do not allow for any meaningful economic activities such as cattle production, commercial fishing or farming.
Australia’s political party duopoly is intent on forcing indigenous communities to rely on welfare, or ‘sit down money’ as it is colloquially known, this being the best method of control.
The apparent generosity of the Queensland Labor Party has not gone down well with rival Aboriginal groups, who say the land has been returned to the wrong people.
Self-proclaimed traditional owners have taken centre stage through stand over tactics against other corporation members and inserting themselves into clans without presenting any accurate genealogy.
Several claimants of the Tip of Cape York, known as Pajinka who had title deeds handed to them nearly three years ago were not legitimate owners and did not belong to the mainland.
“One claimant who has assumed ownership has no family ties to the Australian mainland; his family came from the Solomon Islands,” a source said.
Similarly in Wednesday’s handover at Injinoo, the main protagonist, being driven by Cape York Land Council, claimed to be a traditional owner but comes from the Torres Strait and had no early family ties to the mainland.
The source said this self-proclaimed traditional owner was quoted by the Cairns Post newspaper but should not have been allowed to speak for local people.
“This fella is a bully and stands over weaker community members and is under investigation by Thursday Island CIB for fraud and assault, so how come the Cairns Post always gets it wrong?” the source asked in the wake of numerous other erroneous publications.
The ALP intends to re-write history by dropping any references to original white settlers the Jardine Brothers also by renaming the Denham Group (islands) National Park.
Meanwhile Northern Peninsula Area communities and Torres Strait residents who are almost totally reliant on getting the majority of their food supplies on regular Sea Swift barges from Cairns are feeling the brunt of high fuel and grocery prices.
Although freight costs for some goods are subsidised by government, nearly every item in the three mainland supermarkets is on average 30 per cent higher than Cairns.
Particularly after Sea Swift, a company wholly owned by Queensland Investment Corporation, a subsidiary of the State Labor Government, announced a 14.5 per cent hike in freight charges last week.
Usually fruit and vegetables are inedible after 14 days travel from Atherton Tablelands growers to Rocklea Markets in Brisbane and back to Cairns then three days at sea on a barge to Peninsula supermarkets.
Bread suffers a similar fate. Fuel delivered by Sea Swift is $2.85 a litre and rising.
“So much for the Labor Party claiming to care about Aborigines and Islanders,” said a local builder whose freight costs have gone from $500 per pallet of material to more than $750.
A number of community members have left the Northern Peninsula Area in search of work and a more affordable existence since the Covid plandemic ran its course.
The Queensland Labor Party is intent on removing all white pastoralists and all cattle from Cape York under a ten year plan agreed to by the federally-funded Natural Resource Management group which does not have any of the remaining Peninsula cattle producers on its far northern board.
Peninsula cattle producers have accused NRM of a sell-out because Cairns News has discovered that all cattle are to be removed from the Peninsula within ten years, hence the continuous cattle eradication by Mareeba helicopter pilot Des Butler and at least one shooter, Graham Woods supplied by Australian Wildlife Conservancy at Piccaninny Plains south of Weipa.
Cape York Land Council, a supposedly representative native title body has its grubby fingers all over Peninsula land claims ensuring heavily mineralised areas such as the Shelburne Bay silica deposit were included in Aboriginal freehold land grants.
It seems the only people it represents are the elite blackfellas of the $33 billion Aboriginal industry.
The CYLC and its business arm, Balkanu, have had their hands in the pockets of multinational mining companies for decades ensuring they will collect their dues after the depopulation of the Peninsula and the mining starts.
Geological surveys have found silica, ilmenite, rutile, zircon, diamonds, rare earth, gold, coal, bauxite, tin and natural gas in abundance which is why these vast areas are locked up at the behest of the state’s principal mortgagee, Rothschild Bank to which it owes some $90 billion.
The ALP is developing a land bank of immense value from which it will receive massive royalties from multinational quarrying operations. Indigenous corporations will receive a pittance and eventually be left with a big hole in the ground and little to eat.
The City of London bankers have ensured their puppet regimes will never allow downstream mineral refining or smelting, let alone any manufacturing.
A company search of indigenous spokesman Noel Pearson’s Cape York Partnerships reveals several retired or active bank CEO’s and other industry notables on the board.
These CYP board members have bank connections including Westpac, National Bank of Australia, various merchant banks, a Secretary of the Department of Treasury, Macquarie Bank, a former private Secretary to the infamous PM Bob Hawke, P&O Cruiseships, Bank of Melbourne (owned by the Jewish fraternity), ANZ, an advisor to the nearby ALP sanctuary of Wattle Hills holding, mining contractors, a Wik representative, Aboriginal company Bama Services and not forgetting the lawyers.
QPWS Minister Meaghan Scanlon refuses to acknowledge a secret 10 year plan to eradicate all cattle on Cape York
by Jim O’Toole, Townsville Bureau
The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service continues its wanton shooting of extremely valuable straying cattle on unfenced Cape York national parks and Aboriginal land in most cases without the knowledge or authority of Traditional Owners and pastoralists.
The Queensland Labor Party Corporation is denying an alternative, cheap supply of protein to Peninsula Aboriginal communities by shooting and not allowing indigenous mustering teams to catch and slaughter these cattle for consumption in communities where the price of beef imported from Cairns or elsewhere averages $25 for one slice of beef steak at supermarkets.
There are three licenced slaughter houses on Cape York Peninsula where cattle could be processed.
Presently local communities have to resort to catching and consuming dwindling dugong and turtle populations for just a minimum protein intake.
On June 26, in response to complaints from Traditional Owners and local pastoralists we sent the below media inquiry to Minister Scanlon to which we have not received a reply.
The aerial culling by supposedly trained shooters who “shoot only unbranded stock” is laughable according to independent aerial shooter and nearby veteran cattle producer Mr John Witherspoon who shot many thousands of his own stock during the BTEC eradication campaign during the 1980’s.
He said is it impossible to distinguish between branded and unbranded cattle that are crashing through scrub at 40 – 50 klms per hour or galloping in high-grassed open forest being chased by a noisy helicopter.
Last year the QPWS claimed branded stock were not being shot or being wounded or maimed by QPWS employed shooters using 7.62 mm semi-auto rifles.
The QPS stated cattle were being killed by head shots only. Eye witness reports given to Cairns News were that many cattle, branded and unbranded were left to die with gut shots or broken limbs.
Recently commercial aircraft passengers witnessed a number of dead cattle on the ground at Heathlands National Park north east of Weipa, causing them anger and distress.
The media inquiry below was not replied to by Minister Scanlon, a former Gold Coast solicitor. Cape York residents have told Cairns News they would be starting a class action against the QPWS which would be filed in the Federal Court, Cairns.
QPWS Cairns manager Chris Kinnaird would be a respondent it was claimed:
Minister Meaghan Scanlon
Environment Dept
Brisbane
June 26, 2022
Media Inquiry
Dear Minister,
We have been made aware of an official Cape York Peninsula 10 year plan to eradicate all cattle from national parks, government nature reserves, private nature reserves, aboriginal-held land, DOGIT leases, Katter leases or any other land not held under a Pastoral Holding lease.
This in itself is a monumentally erroneous mission when few if any national parks are fenced.
CSIRO, in conjunction with Aboriginal-owned Normanby Station last year started a funded research project to electronically track the movements of cattle on Cape York Peninsula.
CSIRO refuses to release any information to us about this project.
Could you please confirm this ten year plan because as we write your officers are illegally shooting quite valuable cattle on national parks and Aboriginal land.
We have seen legal advice that these cattle do not belong to NPWS or the State Government in any shape or form.
Take note that when the State purchases Cape York properties, most of them former cattle stations, they are bought unstocked, eg, Dixie Station, Bramwell Station, Mt Kroll.
The only exception we are aware of is when Premier Beattie forced then lessees of Shelburne Bay Station to exit the property after refusing to renew their lease. In this case the State purchased the in situ cattle circa 2003.
Since then almost all of these Shelburne cattle have been either caught by local pastoralists or shot by NPWS.
Take note we have spoken directly to very experienced and professional aerial shooters who state that cattle or horses shot from the air cannot be differentiated between feral or domestic, branded or unbranded.
Indeed contributors to this news service have direct aerial shooting experience and confirm this fact.
It is legal malfeasance to suggest that cattle being shot have been abandoned by their owners after any period of time.
You should take cognizance of the fact that the entire Peninsula was officially declared stock-free by the DPI circa 1989 after the BTEC shoot out.
All cattle including their progeny re-introduced there since then have been purchased by pastoralists.
Can you please confirm that the long term plan for the Peninsula is to hand over the entire land mass to Aboriginal PBC’s and or other indigenous entities.
When does NPWS intend to shoot on Bromley NP, Batavia NP, Wenlock River and Wattle Hills?
Will the NPWS resume shooting along the Archer and Coen Rivers and when?
We are aware that pastoralists can apply for permits to enter national parks to recover their cattle but the process and conditions are so lengthy and onerous they either don’t apply or do so rarely receiving a ;permit.
Your early advice on all questions would be appreciated.#
Foot and mouth disease on our doorstep
Australian vets in Indonesia help to contain a FMD outbreak affecting 200,000 cattle,
calls to ban Bali holidays.
by Clint Jasper, ABC
In the winter of 2001, acrid plumes of smoke rose from the British countryside as millions of cows, sheep and pigs were incinerated in a desperate war against foot-and-mouth disease.
As authorities scrambled to contain the devastating outbreak, people’s movements were restricted and rural areas became no-go zones for city dwellers.
International trade in UK livestock meat and dairy products was suspended, a general election was delayed for the first time since World War II and major events in the countryside were cancelled.
The disease swung a wrecking ball through the UK economy, costing it around $13 billion and the loss of more than 6 million animals.
Australia has been free of the viral disease since the late 1800s, but it remains the livestock industry’s most feared — and potentially most costly — biosecurity threat.
Now the recent discovery of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Indonesian cattle has the livestock industry on high alert, with Australian vets working tirelessly to help Indonesian authorities try to contain the outbreak.
But some producers have raised concerns about how Australia will cope if the highly contagious disease gets a foothold here, warning every household in the country would be affected.
An outbreak here would shut down Australia’s meat export industry for at least one year, instantly wiping off $25 billion of export value, according to the Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment.
Studies have estimated $50 billion in economic losses over 10 years if a medium-to-large-scale FMD outbreak were to occur in Australia.
Australia’s Chief Veterinary Officer, Dr Mark Schipp, said the national impact of an outbreak would be devastating.
“If foot-and-mouth disease were to enter anywhere in Australia, all of Australia’s market access for all products of beef cattle, dairy cattle, sheep, goats and pigs would be lost,” he said.
“It would be suspended initially, because we would not be able to meet the certification requirements of our trading partners.”
Dr Schipp recently summed up how devastating a local outbreak would be when he told Landline:
“Foot-and-mouth disease is the most frightening animal agriculture biosecurity threat to Australia.
“And for that reason, we’ve been preparing for this eventuality for many years.”
Every household would be affected
The effects of an outbreak in Australia would be felt across industries, from the cities to the regions, in every household in the country.
In 2002, a Productivity Commission report on the impact of a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak found consumers would change their eating habits and turn away from domestic red meat.
“The volume of meat products consumed [with the exception of chicken meat] is initially likely to fall,” it said.
In regional communities, authorities expect significant social disruption and major mental health issues.
“At the individual and family level, the social impacts could range from emotional strains on family relationships to severe mental disorders,” according to Agriculture Victoria.
“Normal community activities may be affected by movement and biosecurity restriction and longer-term community cohesion may be impacted.”
What is foot-and-mouth disease?
Foot-and-mouth disease does not pose a risk to human health, and it is a different virus from hand, foot and mouth disease, which can easily spread among children.
People can become infected with FMD, but only under “extremely rare” circumstances, and they would only experience mild symptoms, including blisters and a fever, according to the NSW Department of Primary Industries.
Livestock infected with the disease develop blisters around their noses, mouths and on their hooves, and while many animals recover from the sickness, their productivity can decline.
FMD spreads between animals on their breath, through contact with the blisters, and via infected milk, semen, faeces and urine.
However, the virus can also live on vehicle tyres, clothing and footwear, which is why concerns have been raised about travellers returning from parts of Indonesia to Australia recently.
The CSIRO’s group leader in disease mitigation technologies in health and biosecurity, Wilna Vosloo, said biosecurity authorities had to keep a constant eye on how the virus was mutating.
“Foot-and-mouth disease has seven different serotypes, and each serotype can be seen as a separate foot-and-mouth disease, and each of those can have different variants,” Dr Vosloo said. P/2
Qld Labor Party gives 9.5 million acres of Cape York to Aboriginal groups then shoots more cattle
by staff writers
The Queensland Labor Party has allocated an extra $20 million for voluntary land purchase to be jointly managed by traditional owners as new national parks and Aboriginal freehold on Cape York, as part of a $38.5 million package.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the funding follows the recent purchase by the government of two of the state’s northernmost cattle properties – Bramwell Station and Richardson Station (adjoining leases) – to link existing national parks into a one-million-hectare protection zone (2,470,000 acres)
Local cattle producers say this vast tract of mostly inaccessible, overgrown land incorporating the former Shelburne Bay cattle station is completely unmanageable with regard to feral animals and fires and handing it over to aboriginal groups ultimately will destroy the natural environment.
The Queensland Parks Service caused a furor recently when thousands of cattle were shot on national parks and reserves.
The QPS has added more fuel to the fire by shooting many hundreds of cattle on Heathlands National Park over the past week.
The service now shoots so many stock which do not belong to them, they have employed a permanent shooter who charters helicopters for aerial shooting to kill branded and unbranded cattle.
Cairns News knows the identities of the pilots and shooters which will be published in an article, ‘Cape York Peninsula the new Aboriginal state’ in coming weeks.
Katters Australian Party Member for Hill, Shane Knuth has called out Minister Scanlon, a former Gold Coast solicitor, for killing cattle belonging to park neighbours.
Mr Knuth said the cattle were quite valuable on today’s market and were an untapped resource that could provide employment for Peninsula Aborigines by catching them on parks.
In 2021 wildfires consumed vast tracts of Heathlands national park causing permanent damage to many thousands of acres of natural herbage leaving much of the land sterile due to a lack of annual fires and detritus build-up generating intense heat.
According to local inhabitants, the fires were suspected to have been lit by Aborigines traveling through the park along the main road.
“By returning this land to traditional custodians, we can work together to conserve the significant natural and cultural treasures of Cape York,” the Premier said.
“It will also create jobs and opportunities for locals into the future.”
Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon said more than 3.85 million hectares (9,500,000 acres) of Cape York Peninsula land has been transferred to Traditional Owners by the Cape York Peninsula Tenure Resolution Program, with another 1.5 million acres yet to be handed over.
“This is about land justice,’’ Minister Scanlon said.
“We share an ugly and uncomfortable history in this country.
“And our First Nations communities have waited generations to have their land back.”
Such disinformation is like “water on a duck’s back” to northern Australians who have seen countless cattle properties handed over to Aboriginal organisations only to find nearly every one mismanaged, stripped bare, burnt out and become non-operational in a short time.
“It is a terrible injustice,” said a Cape York cattle producer who wished to remain unidentified because of government retaliation against those who speak the truth about the degeneration of Cape York.
“These misled groups have been given back land where they will never be allowed to run cattle or have a viable commercial business-like tourism,” the producer said.
“Just look what happened at Dixie Station (350 klms to the south west of Shelbourne Bay) after it was handed back.
“It used to run 5000 breeders and employ a few ringers, now nearly all the water points have been destroyed and all infrastructure, including fences and cattle yards except the house have been burnt to the ground.
“The national parks service hates water bores and dams and now they wonder where the wildlife has gone after the water disappears.
“The Olkola Corporation will never be able to run cattle there.
“Living off carbon credits is counter-productive to indigenous people.”
Minister Scanlon said an extra $38.5 million over the next four years had been allocated to continue the CYPTR Program and to manage certain Cape York lands.
Since the Goss-led Labor Party, successive governments had united more than one million hectares of protected areas and Aboriginal land, according to Minister Scanlon.
But there remains about 400,000 hectares of national park and reserves and more than 200,000 hectares of other State land yet to be transferred.
“Last month, I announced the largest land acquisition in the Cape in more than a decade when the famous tourist resort Bramwell Station was purchased for $11.5M,” she said.
“This new funding brings us ever closer to righting the wrongs of the past.’’
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Minister Craig Crawford said land tenure was the way forward for First Nations people on Cape York.
“This is where we can draw a line in the sand and work jointly with the traditional custodians,’’ Mr Crawford said.
Balkanu Cape York Development Executive Director Gerhardt Pearson said the CYPTR program also recognises the importance of economic development to Traditional Owners.
“Revenue is generated through activities such gravel extraction, grazing, tourism, carbon offsets contracts, and ‘fee for service’ land management activities,’’ Mr Pearson said.
“There are social, cultural, health and wellbeing benefits that flow from Traditional Owners owning and managing their homelands.”
The extra funding includes:
- $31.9 million for the continuation of the Cape York Peninsula Tenure Resolution Program including acquisition funds
- $4 million for joint management of existing 32 National Parks (Cape York Peninsula Aboriginal Land), and
- $2.6 million for the management of Springvale Station Nature Refuge, being 56,000 hectares of the former grazing property, 40 km south-west of Cooktown, purchased by the Queensland Government in 2016, (which has been a disaster in the making).
Further information on the Cape York Peninsula Tenure Resolution Program is available at https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/management/programs/joint-management-cape-york.
Further information on Springvale Nature Refuge is available at www.qld.gov.au/environment/coasts-waterways/plans/catchment-management/springvale-station.
Culling of cattle herd and cattle stations on Cape York Peninsula
Part of the depopulation plan by disrupting food supplies
Shoot to kill cattle operations in Cape York must stop now, Member for Hill Shane Knuth said.
Mr Knuth said for years parks and wildlife had been performing shoot-to-kill operations, indiscriminately killing unbranded and branded cattle, often without any, or little notice to surrounding landowners who own most of the cattle.
“The department needs to communicate with landowners, who are rarely notified and often held up by government bureaucracy, sometimes waiting up to 50 days before they can obtain a permit to collect their branded cattle from national parks,” Mr Knuth said.
“Cattle are continually shot before landowners are given permission to enter parks to muster their cattle, which is a huge economic loss to the region.”
He said over the past three years more than 5,000 cattle, which could be worth more than $6m on today’s market, have been shot on orders from the Department of Environment.
“The question is, why are neighbouring properties to Cape York National Parks given only one week’s notice, or no notice before the killing of cattle occurs?” he said.
“And when adequate notice is given, it’s always during the wet season when it is far too difficult and dangerous to muster cattle.
“It is quite obvious that this Government wants to drive pastoralists out of the region, so they can lock it up to meet their environmental agenda.”
“I call on the Minister to fix this long-standing issue, streamline the permit process, instruct the department to give adequate notice and work with landowners to muster valuable cattle, instead of destroying this income stream.”
Sally Witherspoon, who has been involved in the cattle industry on Cape York for more than 50 years, (and still runs cattle on a northern Peninsula sublease) says, that National Parks are putting the final nail in the coffin of the beef industry in North Queensland.
“There is a ridiculous rule that you must contact Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service 40 days before submitting a Permit to Muster application,” Mrs Witherspoon said.
“The application takes time to be assessed and could then be denied for some reason. For example, too late in the season for a muster.
“National Parks should not be purchased unless there are funds to fully fence and maintain the Park.
“They are the worst neighbours one could wish for with little to no weed control, no fences, nobody living on the property, little firefighting capability, and a propensity to shoot cattle.
“Shooting from a helicopter is often not humane and it is distressing to think our cattle are being cruelly “hunted” and maybe left to die a slow death.
“It is very telling that graziers on Cape York Peninsula and the north-eastern coast of Queensland are being forced out of business in the only areas of Queensland that have guaranteed rainfall.
“It is my belief that this is part of a state government drive to disrupt food production. A plan that is also evidenced by the recent slashing of the Queensland Mackerel quota.”#
Editor: The State Labor Party has just set aside $20m to purchase more cattle properties on Cape York. Since its recent $11.5m acquisition of Bramwell Station and Resort, there are few cattle stations left.
The Labor Party is intent on removing all of 15 remaining white pastoralists then turning Cape York Peninsula into a vast, unmanageable slab of impenetrable scrub. This has already occurred over much of the sterilised land area handed to Aborigines without a secure title.
It will become a potential firebomb of nuclear proportion already home to more than one million feral pigs and tens of thousands of wild dogs.
Yet feeble-minded city people keep voting for the ALP eco-fascists not even thinking about where their next beef steak will come from.
A sad ending for Cape York Peninsula
-contributed
In response to queries made last year about shooting valuable cattle on Cape York Peninsula the letter(below) was recently received by Member for Traeger Robbie Katter from Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon, a former Gold Coast solicitor.
Property owners asked the National Parks Service on what lawful basis did they shoot cattle running on unfenced national parks near their properties many of which are jointly managed with Aboriginal corporations.
At common law pastoralists can claim ownership of any cattle found on parts of the Peninsula. This stock simply did not appear from nowhere. Branded and unbranded cattle are the lawful chattels of pastoralists particularly after the entire Peninsula was officially declared stock free by the state government after a massive shoot out under the BTEC scheme completed in 1989. Pastoralists re-stocked their properties after the shootout. Only the Indigenous Land Corporation based in Canberra and pastoralists can lawfully claim cattle on Cape York today.
Unless pastoralists individually contracted with the NPWS allowing them to seize their stock, they cannot be lawfully killed.
The ILC controls several properties on the Peninsula which have been so poorly managed from afar the company is destocking these places and handing the land back to local Aborigines after the taxpayer spent many tens of millions of dollars buying these once viable cattle stations.
Local producers have slammed the ILC as a ‘bungling bureaucracy’ with no ability to manage these vast stations.
“They are destocking the Peninsula making way for a whopping big World Heritage wilderness zone to be jointly managed by NPWS and Aborigines,” said a pastoralist.
Permits and fees will be required from tourists or any others wanting access to places of interest on the vast Peninsula . The only access will be via the Peninsula Development Road. All tracks other than those servicing local communities will be closed to the public.
There are few pastoralists left on the Peninsula after the socialist state government whittled away private ownership over the past 25 years ostensibly handing properties to Aboriginal groups. Under Aboriginal freehold title these unfortunate Prescribed Body Corporations were conned by the Labor Party into believing they could again run stock and train their children to manage cattle.
The cruel Labor and Green bureaucrats dissected their new titles so intensively with environmental overlays and nature reserves there was insufficient land remaining on which to run cattle.
Instead they were left with more than half the land area of the 289,000 square klm Peninsula which they cannot utilise for any meaningful commercial pursuit. This vast area is home for an estimated one million feral pigs and many thousands of wild dogs.
On average 100,000 tourist vehicles visit the Cape every dry season. The Olkola Aboriginal Corporation based at former Dixie Station has the opportunity to introduce environmental tourism but were given little startup funding. Some rangers were allocated with federal funding however tourism hasn’t got off the ground in any meaningful way leaving the PBC to survive on limited government and private sponsorship and carbon credits.
This is the reply from the Minister received by MP Robbie Katter.
* Cattle are managed in accordance with Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service (s ) Operational Policy for the Removal and disposal of stock on QPWS Protected Areas (Nature Conservation Act 1992).
* QPWS has been progressing a stock removal program from National Parks (Cape York Peninsula Aboriginal Land (CYPAL)) since 2013.
* Neighbours were provided with the opportunity to claim any cattle remaining on CYPAL and were issued permits to remove their cattle during October to November 2018.
* Cattle remaining on CYPAL after prescribed dates are considered abandoned seized property and can be dealt with by the Chief Executive in line with the policy.
* Should it be required the final phase of all cattle management strategies is the humane destruction of any residual feral cattle to prevent them from building up numbers within the park.
* For CYPAL this humane control of cattle commenced in 2020 with the annual feral animal program enabling the targeting of cattle in addition to the other species routinely being managed – being pigs, cats and horses.
* Neighbours are advised of QPWS operations prior to commencement of aerial shoots.
* Neighbours are still able to access stock muster permits to retrieve their cattle from CYPAL should stock stray onto national park when fences are damaged.
* This policy was implemented in 2014 and formally recognises cattle as a pest on national parks, and enables a stepped out transparent and fair process to all neighbours to retrieve their stock from national parks while supporting the conservation values the lands are protected for.
* Individual cattle management strategies have been successfully implemented by QPWS&P on a number of jointly managed national parks (CYPAL) as well as elsewhere in Queensland.
* Following a number of neighbouring property stock relinquishments (to the State to enable control) on the park, QPWS also seized cattle on Oyala Thumotang National Park (CYPAL) in August 2018 as part of the agreed cattle management strategy.
Chief of Staff
Office of the Hon. Meaghan Scanlon MP
Minister for Environment and the Great Barrier Reef
National Parks Service soon to shoot branded cattle on Cape York Peninsula
-contributed
The Queensland National Parks Service is about to aerial shoot cattle belonging to the few remaining graziers on Cape York Peninsula.
Affected landowners on Cape York were emailed a week ago by the parks office in Cairns advising feral cattle would be shot along river courses and park boundaries starting on March 8.
Over the past three years more than 5000 cattle worth more than $6m on today’s market have been wantonly killed on the orders of the Queensland Labor Party Minister Meaghan Scanlon a young Gold Coast lawyer who has not ever held a real job.
https://meaghanscanlon.com/about/
Last year Coen residents saw dead cattle along a bush track that had been shot from a helicopter chartered by the parks.
A local resident told Cairns News several cows, calves and bulls had been indiscriminately gut-shot, shot in the legs and elsewhere and there would have been no one shot kills.
The carcasses provide an easy food source for the thousands of feral pigs and wild dogs living unmolested on national parks.
The resident said some of the cattle were branded and were the property of local land owners. Local aborigines also complained they could have caught the cattle on national parks and along river courses giving them work in a jobless district and reuniting them with some self-respect rather than surviving on sit-down welfare money.
Cairns News doubts the Minister has ever been to Cape York or witnessed the alcohol and drug abuse among some communities.
Attempts to bring the issue to the notice of State Parliament in this sittings have failed as graziers who received emails from parks officer Chris Kinnairv in Cairns have been reluctant to publicise them in fear of retribution from the Labor Party Government or the parks.
Such is the atmosphere that has existed on Cape York for decades. Pastoralists, except for an outspoken few who care about the proper management of country, live in fear of having their leases taken from them by a bully-boy Labor Party and an out-of-control national parks service.
In response to inquiries made last year made by state Member for Traeger Robbie Katter an Environment Department spokesman said only the best shooters were employed to cull cattle and that no branded cattle were being shot.
Veteran Cape York cattle producer John Witherspoon begged to differ saying he has had his cattle shot by helicopter in the past and fears for his branded cattle he knows have been running on an unfenced, nearby national park for the past 12 months or longer.
“The parks have us over a barrel. They won’t let us go onto the park to muster our branded and unbranded cattle unless we jump through a lot of hoops,” Mr Witherspoon said.
“We have to apply for a permit which takes a minimum of 40 days before we get an answer.
“By then the cattle could go anywhere or be shot by the parks.
“”Any vehicle going onto the park has to be registered and roadworthy, insured and we need public liability of $20m, but there are few registered property vehicles on Cape York, because it simply costs too much and is unnecessary for day to day running.
Mr Witherspoon disputed the Environment Dept claim that only feral or unbranded cattle are shot.
“Firstly the parks do not own any cattle. When they take over a grazing property they are destocked and most of the properties are unfenced.
“Any cattle straying onto a national park belong to somebody, usually the adjoining landowner or the former cattle producer who owned the property.
“In the late 80’s the entire Cape York Peninsula cattle herd was shot out because of the BTEC (brucellosis tuberculosis eradication campaign) and declared by the government at the time as officially destocked.
“I shot many thousands of cattle from the air as a part of this campaign and it is impossible to tell if cattle are branded or not especially when most shooting is in thick scrub.
“It is not easy to do and one shot kills are rare.”
As a consequence of the government’s declaration that the entire Cape York Peninsula landmass was stock free in the early 90’s after the BTEC shoot out, any cattle that exist there now are descendants of cattle introduced by re-stocking pastoralists.
The National Parks have been contacted for comment.
‘Delicate daisies’ being created by socialist curricula in schools
Letter to the Editor
Magistrate Stuart Shearer (CM 27-5) correctly said “The younger generation is a bunch of ‘Fragile Princesses’ who can’t handle being called names”, as he sentenced a man who broke into his neighbours home stealing $9,000 worth of goods and doing $1,000 damage, because he was called a “junkie”.
Magistrate Shearer (below, reputedly one of the state’s harshest Magistrates) said his generation was taught “Sticks and stones may break bones, but names can never hurt you”. This was once written on the wall near the blackboard in every school and should be reinstated. How about it Education Minister, get these words back up on the wall near the blackboard in every school.
State Schools with socialist agendas are a causative factor for massive amounts of crime and unrest in the community by NOT teaching the above, resilience, self-discipline, and tolerance. Our teacher would challenge us to see who could hold their hand above their head the longest, who could hop the furthest on their left leg and many others, to teach us self-discipline.
Almost every problem in the community has a base factor caused by lack of Self-discipline and Tolerance. The Victorian Government threw $2 Billion at domestic violence to solve the problem, the usual stupidity of politicians with their mental aberration belief that throwing money solves problems, without any consideration of identifying causative factors and dealing with reality. There appear no identifiable changes to DV statistics in Victoria, just a lot of people having jobs on big wages that will achieve nothing other than generating self-adulating reports to ministers that are quoted in the press as some form of (failed) achievement.
The ‘Delicate Daisies’ being created in schools by similar ilk cannot handle reality, life is tough, you have to do things you don’t like, you have to clean the toilet — its your turn. You have to go to work and be productive, and you will be told firmly if your work is not up to standard — No, it is not bullying, or racial discrimination because your skin colour is different to the managers, it is not vilification when you are told several times to improve or be dismissed — your delicate sensitivities and attitude need serious improvement, get up to accepted standards — grow up.
We have industries based on servicing these failed products of school, children are taught to complain if spoken to a bit roughly. We have legislation that drags us down to the lowest level of those who you feel bullied, discriminated, or need counselling if they perceive a sexist word was used. The whole discrimination industry and legislation needs throwing out, and complainants told grow-up, toughen-up, and learn that “Sticks and stones may break bones, but names can never hurt you”, or seek mental health assistance.
from G J May
Forestdale
Editor Jim O’Toole: Is it any wonder the entire Queensland community in particular Townsville and Cairns are suffering the worst outbreak of juvenile crime in the history of the state. Older people are locking themselves in their homes, afraid to go shopping, can’t leave their cars anywhere in fear of being car-jacked or stolen and juvenile, mostly Aboriginal youths rule the streets with impunity.
Police are at their wits end. Courts have revolving doors through Maccas.
If you are one of many thousands of juvenile crime victims tell socialist Education Minister Comrade Grace Grace (below) to shape up or get out. We can guarantee her car won’t be one of the several thousand stolen each year in Queensland
“We own this land so get out of my way” Aboriginal youth yell at pedestrians walking along footpaths. When they were visiting holiday hotspots such as Cairns, international tourists became horrified after being pushed onto the road by disrespectful black kids as happened many times in recent years.
This disgusting behaviour has been fostered by a generation of socialist teachers in Queensland State Schools who toe the United Nations’, Marxist land rights line driven into them by the comrades infesting universities.
As a result a great deal of Aboriginal kids claim they don’t have to go to school and they can do what they like because “we own everything,” which of course they don’t. Until these misguided, budding criminals, some as young as nine, who regard going to jail as a badge of honour, are taken to remote rehabilitation and training camps and taught how respect applies to every person and that they are responsible for their own actions, the race to the bottom will continue.
Trying to involve the majority of parents of these runaway kids is counter-productive, children’s advocates have discovered. Their mothers and fathers living on ‘sit-down-money’ in many cases are too addicted to drugs and alcohol to bother.
Unfortunately the many good parents get tarred with the same brush through no fault of their own.
The socialist Queensland Labor Party will change nothing and have included even more jaundiced ‘Aboriginal studies’ into the curriculum.
During this four year term of the Queensland Labor Party, it is mooted the socialists will usher in Cape York as a separate, independent Aboriginal state, supported by the Cape York Land Council, Balkanu, their business arm and the Northern Land Council.
Most of Cape York Peninsula has already been given to Aboriginal groups who have their own local government councils with a handful of white CEO’s. Lawless communities such as Aurukun, where two weeks ago another spate of drug and alcohol-fueled stabbings saw more houses burnt down was unreported by any media.
It is not hard to imagine the fate of the many decent inhabitants of remote Aboriginal communities when they gain statehood.
There is no Aboriginal industry on Cape York, less than 20 white pastoralists remain and resources giant Rio Tinto dominates the limited mining industry.
Investigators have discovered the Aboriginal member of parliament for the electorate taking in Cape York and Torres Strait, was one of a number of Labor candidates elected by voter fraud at the October 2020 state election.
Consequently, a lot of Far Northerners repeatedly tell Cairns News they will not bother voting again in the Dismal State. More hard Labor and don’t expect any help from the hopeless, languishing Liberals.#
Double whammy for Far Northern tourist resorts
Local News
Not to be outdone by illegitimate Traditional Owners and the Cairns Post newspaper, Far Northern tourist operators have been trumped by the Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council which has removed the car ferry from the Jardine River for maintenance.
The NPARC has removed the car ferry from the Jardine River until April 26 for overdue maintenance, causing the cancellation of many hundreds of tourist bookings.
Now in dry dock the only land link between the Top of Queensland and the Peninsula Development Road to the south is gone until April 26.
Holidaymakers who made bookings for the caravan parks and resorts north of the Jardine River have been forced to cancel causing struggling tourist operators to lose significant income desperately needed after last year’s unnecessary Covid disaster.
Popular tourist camping grounds such as Loyalty Beach, Seisia Camping Ground, Bamaga Resort and Punsand Bay resort will have to lay off staff.
Punsand Bay resort operator Rod Colquhoun said he has lost the remaining 100 bookings he had saved after assuring tourists the Tip was not closed following scurrilous reporting by the Cairns Post newspaper a week ago claiming the gates were closed to the Tip of Cape York.
“Apart from the fact there are no gates anywhere, the Tip could not be closed unless the council did it,” Mr Colquhoun said.
“I have just employed staff for an expected busy Easter. I have now sought legal advice to claim compensation for lost income.
“The council could have done maintenance on the ferry after the Easter holidays which would not have affected tourism and not caused a loss of income for the service stations, grocery shops, the pub, the baker and all the tourist operators.”
Thursday Island tourism and the island ferry operator would also suffer significant losses as the Easter break is the start of the tourist season.
NPARC Mayor Patricia Yusia said the council’s hands were tied because the car ferry had exceeded regulated hours for maintenance and did not meet safety standards.
Attempted closure of top of Cape York has decimated northern tourism
Local News
by Jim O’Toole
Tourists intending to visit the top of Cape York for the Easter holidays have been turned back by a fake news campaign emanating from the Cairns Post newspaper claiming the Tip is closed.
An islander from Bamaga, Michael Solomon, acting largely on his own according to Injinoo sources, has duped the newspaper into supporting his agenda of closing the Tip to garner state government funds to develop one of the Aboriginal freehold titles he was handed by the Department of Natural Resources in 2019.
Nearby Punsand Bay Resort owner and operator Rod Colquhoun has called out Mr Solomon for disrupting tourism and causing considerable economic loss on Cape York Peninsula including Mr Solomon’s community of Bamaga.
The closure of the Tip of Cape York has had significant economic consequences for Punsand Bay Resort, other camping grounds and communities across the Peninsula.
Mr Colquhoun said there had been hundreds of cancellations by tourists who had booked in at his camping ground and others across the Peninsula since the fake news was published.
“I ask Mr Solomon what right he has to speak for Pajinka when I have been reliably advised his grandfather is from St Pauls community of Pacific Islanders on Moa Island,” Mr Colquhoun said.
“Can he produce a certified copy of his genealogy?
“Every year I make major contributions and give my time to the local communities for school competitions, sporting events, rodeo and show.”
After determining his losses Mr Colquhoun said he would be seeking legal advice.
Cairnsnews has discovered Mr Solomon is a member of the Gudang Yadhaykenu Aboriginal Corporation which holds the Deed of Grant. This corporation is not recognised by the federal government and does not represent the traditional owners of Pajinka. A search of the Native Title register revealed the Impima Ikaya Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC (Registered Native Title Body Corporate) at Injinoo is the real native title holder of Pajinka.
The Ipima Ikaya PBC should clarify their qualifications for membership as Mr Solomon is unable to be a member of the Impima Ikaya under the Native Title Act.
Injinoo Native Title holders have said generally they do not support Mr Solomon.
The three Pajinka Aboriginal Freehold titles are held as Deed of Grant of Land under the Land Act 1994 and cannot ever be sold or leased for more than 30 years.
The boundaries of the Pajinka land can easily be identified by this map which clearly defines the gazetted road that finishes at the Pajinka land northern boundary in the car park at the base of the Tip. Mr Solomon cannot legally close this council controlled road.
An examination of the aerial map(above) with the Aboriginal Freehold title boundaries marked in yellow clearly shows a gazetted road (Pajinka Rd) bisecting the three titles heading to the north ending at the base of the Tip. This road comes under the control of Torres Strait Regional Council.
The Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council based at Bamaga controls this road on behalf of the TSRC south to where it joins the NPARC boundary where the council then assumes total control of the road.
It should be noted the 50 acres or more at the actual Tip of Cape York is not legally controlled by Mr Solomon. Nor is the foreshore esplanade which is controlled by the Commonwealth Government. This can be clearly seen on the map.
Mr Solomon cannot legally prevent any visitors from going to the Tip by road or sea. Cairns News has been informed the “You are standing at the Top of Australia” sign has been removed.
The collective media has been bluffed and has not done any due diligence instead accepting the untruthful story spun by Mr Solomon and is not at all concerned about the economic and cultural consequences of its blunder.
Traditional owners from other areas of the Peninsula have warned there is a deeper agenda in place with the attempted closure of the Tip of Cape York. They are suggesting the long-term plan is to totally close down Cape York Peninsula to visitors and create an independent Aboriginal State.
Hence the ongoing Cape York Land Council Number 1 claim which seeks to tie up all unallocated land and land not already subject to native title claim across the entire Peninsula approximately north from the 16 th Parallel.
According to extensive mining exploration surveys in recent years, Cape York Peninsula has some of the largest and most valuable mineral deposits in Australia and is ripe for development, however the State reserves the right to minerals and petroleum.
Existing mining operations on the Peninsula already pay royalties to native title holders, separate to government royalties.
The Cape York Land Council has its finger prints over this latest partial closure and some TO’s believe Mr Solomon has been projected as a forward scout to take the flak. Sources said he had been in Cairns recently and no doubt he would have met with the land council.
Cairns Post determined to divide communities and shut down Cape York tourism
Local News
The Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council is holding fast against a rogue traditional owner who has told the Cairns Post newspaper he will shut down Pajinka at the Tip of Cape York to tourists.
Mayor Patricia Yusia said today tourists should not listen to Michael Solomon who is claiming to be a traditional owner for Pajinka.
The only graffiti that can be seen at the Tip of Cape York Peninsula
is on these road signs or on the ruins of the Pajinka resort decrying the wreckage of the multi million dollar resort left in tatters by some local Aborigines
Nor should they take any notice of the paper claiming the Pajinka Road will be closed because “it will not happen,” said the Mayor.
“The road is open, nothing has changed and tourists are always welcome.
“The council is in charge of the Pajinka Road not Michael Solomon.”
The glaring headline on the front page of the Cairns Post claiming the gate will be locked on the Tip is more beating up and has no basis in fact because there is no gate there or at any other of the tourist hotspots mentioned in the article.
Cairns News has been told Mr Solomon is upset because the State Government had knocked back a funding application for works at the Pajinka site, hence the attack on tourists which impacts the NPARC community as a whole, not tourists or the state government.
It was just a year ago that other rogue Pajinka claimants from Sydney signed up for the sale of the Pajinka site to a Chinese company.
Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter raised the matter in Parliament at the time citing national security concerns and after several genuine traditional owners discovered the imminent sale it was stopped.
Bamaga sources, in a previous article in Cairns News, said that Michael Solomon was not a rightful traditional owner or claimant of Pajinka. The source said Mr Solomon is a Solomon Islander whose grandfather moved from the Pacific Islands settlement on Moa Island to the mainland.
Blackfella politics has always been part and parcel of life on Cape York Peninsula and in some cases it has become ‘dog eat dog’ over land claims and boundaries between competing groups.
Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke was a cunning operator and he knew the land rights bill he started would divide Aboriginal and Islander people forever. After Hawke was deposed by Paul Keating in 1991 the Native Title bill was enacted in 1993.
Allowing governments to patronise indigenous people by divide and conquer tactics means the government of the day stays in control of indigenous people leaving them entirely dependent on the government teat to exist.
White people too however have long been caught in this divisive net.
We ask readers to appreciate the damage being done to Far Northern tourism by The Cairns Post running fake news stories particularly after the Covid plandemic has left no option for the majority of Cairns tourist operators but to close down as soon as the federal Jobkeeper funding program finishes at the end of the month.
Where is Labor state member Cynthia Lui or Federal Liberal Member Warren Entsch?
Cairns News 