Wongungarra Win - Victoria's last unprotected wilderness area to become national park

The Wilderness Society has been working for many years to protect Wongungarra, until now Victoria's last unprotected wilderness.  That work has now come to fruition As part of the Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) for the north-east of the State, the Commonwealth and State Governments have agreed to protect the core of the Wongungarra wilderness as a 2,700ha addition to the Alpine National Park.  The remaining 15,000ha of the wilderness area are protected from logging and mining under a less secure form of protected tenure.

(Tree Ferns along the Wongungarra River.   Photo: Jean Marc Hero)

Wongungarra is a wilderness valley, lined with ancient snow gums and surrounded on three sides by the Alpine National Park. The valley plunges 800 metres through alpine heathland, old growth alpine ash forests and an extraordinary range of vegetation communities. The area is home to the endangered Spotted Tree Frog, which is one of Australia's most endangered species.  Wongungarra is the only place the frog can be found in an undisturbed habitat.  Other rare animals living in the area include the Peregrine Falcon, White-footed Dunnart and the Smokey Mouse.

(Spotted Tree Frog - Litoria Spenceri.   Photo: Jean Marc Hero)

The campaign successfully stopped the biggest single threat to the Wongungarra wilderness - logging.   It prevented a devastating road being pushed through the steep, pristine, upper headwaters of the Wongungarra River and thus prevented the one intact stand of old growth Alpine Ash left unprotected in the Victorian Alps being opened up for clearfell logging.

Strong public pressure on the State and Federal Governments, including thousands of postcards, letters, and submissions and active support in local communities, as well as well-researched alternative sources of timber for sawmills has meant that vigorous lobbying by sawmills, the Forest Protection Society, the Victorian Association of Forest Industries, the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, and Federal Forests Minister Wilson Tuckey to open the area up to logging has failed.

The remaining 15,000 ha of the Wongungarra wilderness, whilst not protected as either wilderness or National Park, is reasonably secure.  The Wilderness Society will continue to keep a close eye on its status to ensure it remains so.