For the love of Queensland, this land clearing has got to stop

Queensland is again back in the news for all the wrong reasons. Coal capital, One Nation on the rise and now once again a world beater at clearing the bush.

‘A report by CSIRO estimated that 50 million mammals,
 birds and reptiles are killed every year due to
deforestation in Queensland and New South Wales.’ 

For 30 years, Queensland was my home. I left for love and to start a family but my heart stayed in the state. 

The beauty of the rainforests, the splendour of the reef, the vast forested wildness of Cape York and the expanses of the outback all left an indelible impact. I also miss the honesty, directness and the no nonsense approach of Queenslanders.

For a generation, Queenslanders from all walks of life sought to create a new and vibrant Queensland after the repressive nothingness of the long Bjelke-Petersen era.

We were sick to death of being called the police state, of being the place where creativity was mocked, where race relations resembled apartheid-era South Africa and where the natural environment was under constant siege from all manner of state-sanctioned exploitation.

Read the opinion piece by Lyndon Schneiders on The Guardian - “For the love of Queensland, this land clearing has got to stop.”