For the first time, Australia's National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) has used new powers to stop the bulldozers at a cattle station in North Queensland.
This is not only a big milestone for Australia’s nature protection laws, but also a huge win for our incredible Investigations team and crew of citizen scientists who participated in ACF Investigates.
Using satellite imagery as part of ACF Investigates, our team came across the bulldozing of more than 1,700 hectares of forest and woodland at the property at Wombinoo station. That’s an area more than 1.5 times the size of Sydney Airport! We immediately alerted the national regulator about the potentially illegal bulldozing.
Wombinoo station is home to endangered koalas and greater gliders, and hosts waterways that are part of the Herbert River Catchment that runs into the World Heritage Listed Great Barrier Reef.
The National EPA determined that any further bulldozing or even burning of already-felled trees at Wombinoo, could cause over 1,000 tonnes of fine sediment to flow onto and damage the Great Barrier Reef annually.
It was this that pushed the agency to issue its first ever "Environmental Protection Order", temporarily halting any further land clearing activities.
Sediment plumes flowing into the Great Barrier Reef.
Credit: Copernicus Sentinel-2 data of the Tully, Murray, and Herbert river plumes (6/2/2025, True colour image). Snapshot extracted from the Copernicus Browser (@Sentinel Hub) by TropWATER, James Cook University (https://browser.dataspace.copernicus.eu/)
Why is this significant?
Firstly, issuing the protection order has potentially stopped more damage. It’s also a strong signal to every sector, including the agricultural sector, that they are working with an EPA that will use the tools as its disposal to enforce the laws that protect nature from being bulldozed.
This strong decision making from the EPA is desperately needed. The destruction at Wombinoo Station is just the tip of the iceberg of deforestation around the country and, for decades, the national law meant to protect threatened species and their homes has failed to do so.
The decision also indicates that the NEPA is serious about going after what its CEO John Bradley calls “flagrant breaches” of the law.
The pastoral company behind Wombinoo Station has a contentious history of bulldozing, receiving a fine in 2017 for bulldozing 130 hectares without permission. This decision by the EPA will hopefully set a strong precedent for similar cases moving forward.
The problem of deforestation in QLD is real
The most recent state government data out of Queensland says that an area of forest and woodland bigger than the Australian Capital Territory was bulldozed in the sunshine state in just one year.
Nearly half of this was in areas that drain out onto the Great Barrier Reef and nearly all of it (86%) was bulldozed to make way for pasture.
Frustratingly, this enormous amount of bulldozing for food is being done by only a small number of farmers, mainly from the beef industry.
Most landholders are law abiding, good custodians of nature, but their efforts to produce food and look after forests are being undermined by a destructive minority.
This is sadly ironic, because soil health, water, stable climatic conditions – all the things that underpin the agricultural sector’s ability to produce food – depend on nature being healthy.
Satellite imagery of Wombinoo station before and after deforestation. Credit: ACF.
So, what’s next?
The Environmental Protection Order means that no further clearing activity, including of already-felled trees, can occur at Wombinoo Station. This order is only valid for 14 days from its issue and can be extended by another 14 days.
As the national regulator, the ball is now in the EPA’s court to determine what happens about the more than 1,700 hectares of habitat that has already been destroyed without the federal government’s assessment and permission.
Possible next steps include fines of more than a million dollars or orders to replant and remediate the environmental damage that has been done.
ACF will keep an eye on this process. We will continue to advocate for Australia’s nature protection laws to do what they are meant to do and do our bit to create a food system that works for people and nature.