Connecting Community, Reconnecting Rainforest
An intergenerational project to restore the rainforest
Next to the old Eacham shire council chambers, on Queensland’s Atherton Tablelands, is a mosaic on a shop wall. One of nine made to commemorate the centenary of federation, the mosaic depicts a tropical rainforest.
The centrepiece is a giant red cedar, a tree with timber once considered so valuable it was called ‘red gold’. Two men swing axes into the trunk, exposing pale wood. Nearby, a tree kangaroo watches a felled cedar being dragged away by a bullock team.
From ‘In the living mosaic of the Atherton Tablelands, mabi forest is being restored’, The Guardian 3 April 2022.
Mabi rainforest is one of Australia’s most endangered ecosystems. Almost entirely restricted to the Atherton Tablelands of Far North Queensland, clearing has reduced it to less than 5% of its former range. It is fragmented — apart from two protected blocks, most mabi forest remnants are less than 5 hectares (about 12 acres) in area — and susceptible to weeds and fire. The forest is in a bad way.
But this is a good news story. It is about community organisations, landholders, local businesses, and state and federal governments working together to restore mabi forest. At least, to give it the support it needs…
