Author Archives: SAVE Mt Canobolas SCA

Environmentalists have told Orange City Council to “go back to the drawing board” over a proposal to turn Mount Canobolas into a “mountain biking mecca”. On Tuesday, Council floated spending $500,000 from the 2020-21 budget to prepare a development application to place 10 trails covering more than 60km on the mountain. Canobolas Conservation Alliance spokespersonContinue reading “PRESS ARTICLE | Mount Canobolas mountain biking proposal rubbished by environmentalists”

TWO years of work following the Mount Canobolas bushfire have lead to the discovery of 79 additional recorded species, from fungi to mammals.   National Parks and Wildlife Service ranger Steve Woodhall said staff and volunteers from the Orange Field Naturalist and Conservation Society captured the results across several surveys after the 2018 fire burnedContinue reading “MEDIA REPORT|National Parks, volunteers discover 79 species on Mount Canobolas”

Two new threatened orchid species, the Canobolas Leek Orchid (Paraprasophyllum canobolense) and the Pink Spider Orchid (Caladenia boweri), known only from Mt Canobolas, have been formally named by Australia’s foremost authority on orchids, David Jones. Although the existence of the two species has been known for many years, their official naming as new species inContinue reading “PRESS RELEASE | New Rare Orchids on Mt Canobolas.”

National Biodiversity Month was a time to focus on our native flora and fauna, to acknowledge that world-wide, Australia’s reputation for protecting and conserving our unique biodiversity is not great.  We celebrated Wattle Day on September 1st and Threatened Species Day on September 7th, but this year September also saw a greater acknowledgement of climateContinue reading “EARTH FIRST | September was National Biodiversity Month – Think Local”

Lichen experts examined the effect of the February 2018 bushfire on endangered lichen colonies, which were unique to Mount Canobolas, recently. The two Canberra-based scientists assessed any damage and gave maintenance advice to the National Parks and Wildlife Service for four lichen species that occur nowhere else in the world. Orange-based Dr Richard Medd invitedContinue reading “PRESS ARTICLE | Experts explore impacts of bushfire to rare lichen colonies on Mount Canobolas”

I wish to express my absolute opposition to the proposal to establish a mountain bike track, or any similar activity, on Mount Canobolas for the following reasons; 1) It would totally long-term destroy the ambiance of this pristine native area of bushland, with many species of trees and plants unique to this area, at riskContinue reading “LETTER TO THE EDITOR | ‘Please do not destroy this irreplaceable natural asset’”

The following article by David Fitzsimons appeared in the Central Western Daily on 9 September 2019. A major mountain bike track proposal for Mount Canobolas has been approved for further planning in the mountain’s new plan of management, released by the state government on Monday. The plan also calls for all facilities at the summitContinue reading “MEDIA REPORT | New Mount Canobolas Plan of Management allows for consideration of mountain biking trails”

THE CAMPAIGN TO SAVE MT CANOBOLAS SCA FROM BECOMING AN INTERNATIONAL MOUNTAIN BIKING CENTRE HAS REACHED A CRITICAL MOMENT. NICK KING, PRESIDENT OF ENVIRONMENTALLY CONCERNED CITIZENS OF ORANGE HAS ISSUED THE FOLLOWING URGENT APPEAL. Dear Friend of Mount Canobolas. At a meeting of the Orange City Council Environmental Sustainability Committee meeting on Friday (9 AugustContinue reading “URGENT REQUEST FROM ECCO | Please write to Environment Minister Matt Kean re Mount Canobolas Plan of Management”

A LIGHTLY EDITED VERSION OF THE FOLLOWING PRESS RELEASE APPEARED AS THE ‘EARTH FIRST’ COLUMN IN THE CENTRAL WESTERN DAILY ON 9 AUGUST 2019. The visit to Mt Canobolas last week by the new State Minister for Energy and Environment, Matt Kean, provided no clues as to the future of the mountain biking proposal beingContinue reading “EARTH FIRST | Preserving ‘easily the most important biodiversity conservation reserve in the region’ key”

THE FOLLOWING REPORT BY DANIELLE CETINSKI IN THE CENTRAL WESTERN DAILY ON 2 AUGUST 2019 HAS BEEN LIGHTLY CONDENSED. ‘A VISIT from the state’s latest environment minister to Mount Canobolas has renewed hopes for a mountain bike trail centre, although there is still no timeframe on when the necessary approvals might come through. The managementContinue reading “MEDIA REPORT | Environment Minister Matt Kean visits Mount Canobolas”