From the air, the contrast is clear to see. Beautiful bush, thriving gum trees and striking rocky outcrops, an area known to be the home and feeding ground of threatened species including spotted-tailed quolls, brush-tailed rock wallabies and greater gliders. But what really hits you is the freshly scarred earth, bare dirt, a huge void in the midst of the green, a landscape ravaged by bulldozers.
Satellite images showing nature destruction at Red Range, NSW.
In mid August, after weeks of careful research, we flew a drone over a property at Red Range in northern New South Wales, between Inverell and Grafton. We knew what to expect from the satellite images we had studied. But seeing the destruction in drone footage hits home more than the satellite maps.
Drone video showing nature destruction at Red Range, NSW.
The destruction we found and documented at Red Range is one of 50 cases of deforestation ACF exposed this week. These 50 cases of nature destruction are heavily clustered in New South Wales and Queensland, although we also highlighted cases in Western Australia and Tasmania.
ACF shouldn’t have to be doing this. But the laws that are meant to protect Australian nature are failing. Compliance with the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act is barely monitored, it is rarely enforced and full of loopholes allowing businesses to destroy nature. Nature in Australia is in crisis, with one of the worst extinction rates in the world, an ever-growing threatened species list and the highest rate of deforestation in the developed world.
How did we find this bulldozing?
ACF’s Investigations team spent hundreds of hours sifting through deforestation detections and satellite images from across Australia to find and verify nature destruction like what we found at Red Range. The team compiled a shortlist of 50 cases, focused on some key criteria.
Even though most farmers are good land managers and the majority of deforestation is carried out by a minority of operators, we know that most of the Australian bush and forest bulldozed is to clear more land for cattle grazing. So the team looked at examples of deforestation from the past four years on properties linked to the cattle industry.
Bulldozed land at Red Range, NSW.
The scale of what the team discovered is shocking. Added up, the 50 beef properties we looked at had bulldozed 16,000 hectares of bush. The biggest single case of destruction was over 1500 hectares of grassy woodland. Another devastating example was the destruction of 40 hectares of tropical rainforest (equivalent to about 20 rugby fields) bulldozed next door to the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area in Queensland.
Cross-referencing these 50 properties with threatened species records, our Investigations team found the homes or feeding grounds of some of our most loved and vulnerable animals may have been destroyed – including cassowaries, koalas, pink cockatoos, northern quolls, greater gliders, and regent honeyeaters.
According to the 2021 State of the Environment report, ‘habitat loss and degradation is the main threat to species in Australia.’ Deforestation is noted as a key threat in 60% of Australia’s threatened species listings. It leads to the deaths of 50-100 million native animals every year. Deforestation robs species of their homes and denies them access to food, water, safe movement across the landscape and causes stress, injury, illness and death. It endangers the future of the natural world we love and depend on – for our our health, our climate, our economy and our identity.
What’s the link to Coles and Woolworths?
The two major supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths, are the biggest suppliers of beef to Australian consumers. They are major players making huge profits from Australian beef, while farmers at the other end of the supply chain are pressured to push nature to the edge. They have a massive influence on the beef industry that’s behind most of the bulldozing and deforestation that leaves our precious animals homeless and pushes them towards extinction.
But the two big supermarkets have failed to commit to eliminating deforestation from their supply chains – even though their rival Aldi has.
Woolworths only has a weak ‘net zero deforestation by 2025’ target, which essentially means it will attempt to compensate for deforestation in its food supply chain by planting some seedlings somewhere else. But that doesn’t help the koalas and birds that need healthy trees right now to feed on and nest in.
And Coles has no plan to get deforestation out of its supply chain.
That’s not good enough. Responsible farmers deserve to be recognised for their efforts. Every Australian should be able to walk into a Coles or Woolies and pick up a steak or packet of mince and not have to worry it is linked to the bulldozing of animal homes. Currently they cannot.
UPDATE: A day after we exposed these 50 cases of nature destruction, supermarket Woolworths announced it would stop selling beef linked to deforestation by the end of 2025! Since Woolworths is the biggest retail seller of beef to Australians, this move has enormous implications for the nature we love that’s being pushed towards extinction by deforestation.
It means that Australian supermarket shoppers will soon be able to buy beef knowing they are supporting farmers who protect forests and woodland on their properties.
But Coles is still refusing to commit to selling deforestation-free beef.
And Aldi’s commitment goes further than Woolworths by ruling out the destruction of all ecosystems including native bushland, not just forests.
What can you do?
As the two biggest retail buyers of beef, Coles and Woolworths have the power to change the rate of bulldozing of forests and woodlands.
They’re conscious of their public image, and tracking what their customers and the Australian public think. They also require their suppliers to comply with all sorts of standards – from health and safety to the use of antibiotics – and we need them to join Aldi in adding deforestation to the list.
Add your voice to the call for supermarkets to commit to stop bulldozing nature. A food system that is good for people and nature is possible and the big supermarkets must help to create it.
Click and drag to see the Red Range, NSW nature destruction from above.
