-x PRIME MINISTER
FOR MEDIA MONDAY, 27 SEPTEMBER 1982
GREENING OF AUS'I2RALIA, SYDNEY
For a long while the new settlers came to Austalia when they
found a good bit of land one of the first things they did was
to cut all the trees down or to ringbark them and seek to ieave
some open space. They had the view hich they thought wzac;
right then, but which ve now know is very misguided. They
thought cutting the trees down made the land more productive,
you could carry more sheep or carry more cattle or grow
more wheat and they did not realise that in part at least,
they could be doing very great damage to the land which they
then thought they were improving. You can still see in many
parts of Australia forests of dead trees which result because
of those earlier bad farming or pastoral practices.
There are other things of course which have reduced tree cover in
Australia, repetitive drought and that is one of the things
that we are experiencing now, again there is the question of
disease. Over large parts of Australia native red-gums are suffering
very greatly from a disease which nobody really knows
what to do about. If they do know what to do about it, the
cost would be something that farmers certainly would not be
able to support at the present time. One of the good things
that has come out of the last five, ten, fifteen years is a
much greater awareness of the need to preserve Australia's
natural environment, of the need to preserve the value of our
soil and of our countryside. We know that this is not
just a question of making sure that the beauty of the landscape
is preserved for future generations, that it does other things
such as improving the quality of air in cities and adds generally
to the quality of Australia and of Australian life.
So there is much to be done. The Decade of the Tree, supported
by the United Nations is something which Australia is involved
in and will be increasingly over the next few years. There is
a much greater awareness that those early farming practices
in case my farming friends attack me for criticising them, they
are practices which I think went out many, many years ago, but
the results of bad practices sometimes flow through long after
the practice has ceased. In more recent years of course, there
are many people who live in the countryside and who have
themselves initiated quite significant tree planting programs
on their own properties. They realise the damage that was
done in earlier times and have as individuals, and sometimes
as communities done a great deal to put the matter right. / 2
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It is not something that can be left to just individuals.
A national tree planting program I hope very much will be
part of the bicentennial activities and as a pilot program,
some funds have been made available through this year, around
$ 500,000 so that we can work out better what we will want
to be doing as part of the bicentennial program. I would
personally'like to see a situation in which in the two or three
years before the Bicentenary you could have one or more trees
planted for every person in the community. That would be
something which would leave a legacy of great value for future
generations. It would need a great deal of work, it wou. 13
need a great deal of planning because the Australian countryside
is also littered with the examples of local government bodies
having planted avenues of one form or another, but then those
avenues don't come to very much because the tree selection
was not right for the particular soil or the climate or the
8 conditions and mayb2c lbecause care ftcr those trees was not
adequate in the early stages.
So there is much to be done. If there is to be a nzational. treeplanting
program, it is not going to be just a question of
having enough plants available to mn. a sense cover Aust ralia,
people are going to have to know which is the right kind of
tree to plant in their particular area, in their particular
piece of soil or along a particular stretch of road. A great
deal of very careful planning-would need to go into all of
that. The program's objectives are obviously going to b e to pr~ omote
conservation, to promote the regeneration and to promote
tree planting and to increase the public awareness of the
need for trees and to increase the public awareness of the role
that trees themselves play in improving the quality of the
atmosphere and the quality of life in Au-stralia. It is not
just a matter of beauty, it is a practical matter J. n addition.
S A lot is being done. It is being co--ordinated with the Un~ ited
Nations Year of the Tree and a valuabl~ e contribution. is being
made by the United Nations Australia Association and there
is government support for that. There is co-ordination with
the United Nations Australia l~ ssoci-lon. Decade of Trees Greenin~ g
Australia and we do want the whole community to be involved.
There is a Greening Australia Marketing Company designed to
generate funds to help again pursue these objectives in the
few years ahead of us.
The Commonwealth, as I think you know, made $ 500,000 available
through this year for a pilot program as indicated, but to mark
the Decade of the Tree in Australia and I have got a cheque
of $ 55,000 to the United Nations Australia Committee to support
that Committee's efforts in this particula* r objective and
we hope also that there will be private contribution~ s as time
passes. I hope very much over the next two or three years
we will be able to see the initiation of programs which will
if not reverse tree decline in Australia, at least make a
very great contribution to reversing the decline of trees in
Australia. I have very great pleasure indeed in launching
the Greening Australia Marketing Company and in handing over
the cheque for $ 55,000. 000-