Governmental contempt for Popes Glen east of Blackheath

March 23, 2022

Popes Glen Bushland Reserve is located on the eastern bushland outskirts of the village of Blackheath in the Blue Mountains, which is situated about 110km due west of Sydney’s CBD. This reserve re-opened in March 2022 after more than two years of being closed off to the travelling public by a New South Wales state government emergency decree.

This governmental closure was for safety reasons due to the government’s National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) decision back on Sunday 22nd December 2019 to deliberately set fire to the plateau-top bushland area on the eastern outskirts of Blackheath. The justification was a backburn in order to desperately protect the village from a widespread out-of-control bushfire in the nearby Grose Valley.

Ironically, the bushfire in the Grose Valley had been previously caused by the government’s own abandonment of the very distant Gospers Mountain ‘mega blaze’ ignited by a pile burn on a rural property more than 60km away to the north-east situated about 10km north-east of the hamlet of Glen Davis.

Contrary to media releases, the Gospers Mountain pile burn ignition had been deliberately lit on a remote rural property just off Army Road on Saturday 26th October 2019 inside the vast Wollomi National Park. It was not caused by dry lightning to a stringybark tree. That was fake news designed to avoid accusations of government culpability.

Gospers Mountain in the Wollomi (national) Park

The New South Wales Government’s Rural Fire Service and its (National) Parks and Wildlife Service (‘Parks Service’) mutually ignored the pile burn to the extent that they allowed the fire to burn and negligently spread and rage for two months (over some 57 days).

That ignition ultimately decimated the entire Wollomi National Park spanning some 5,017 km² and then was left to rage southward into the magnificent Grose Valley of the Blue Mountains National Park. Both national parks form part of the UNESCO world heritage listed Greater Blue Mountains Area.

That initial ignition started off as detected by this satellite image below near Gospers Mountain.

This ignition was ignored by government and so allowed to inflict catastrophic ecologically damage to both the Wollomi and Blue Mountains national parks.

Both these national parks comprise part of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. Government PR later propagated fake news of a remote tree being hit by lightning to divert blame away from government.

NPWS fake news media attributing ‘dry lightning’ to striking a remote stringybark gum tree. Yeah right – note the clean chainsawed trunk – cut by lightning? The ignition was not here.

Multiple remote Koala communities were subsequently allowed to burn to death causing regional extinction as a result. No wonder NPWS ran for cover.

In a government media release this month (March 2022), the NSW Government’s David Crust (manager of the NPWS (aka Parks Service) and his political boss Environment Minister James Griffin did a drone photo shoot at Popes Glen, after…

“..thousands of hours of painstaking work to rehabilitate the fire damage of the Rural Fire Service to this reserve, declaring…one of the Blue Mountains most popular walking tracks has reopened to visitors after being damaged in the 2019-20 bushfires”.

Government stages PR disingenuity or what? They authorised the backburn fire through Popes Glen!

How disingenuous? Government orchestrated the backburn fire that caused all the damage through Popes Glen and through the Grose Valley, through the Blackheath escarpment bushland to Pulpit Rock and beyond.

They burnt Popes Glen to save the village of Blackheath, but it was 57 days after they ignored the Gospers Mountain rural pile burn that was ignited on 26th October 2019, situated more than 60km to the northeast between Glen Davis and Putty.

Were they also holidaying in Hawaii at the time?

The 2019 Gospers Mountains wildfire ember attack below reaches the Grose Valley east of Blackheath. Note above the backburn line on the ridgetop lit by the RFS/NPWS to desperately intended to defend the village of Blackheath.

Governmental neglect allowed the Gospers Mountain bushfire to rage kilometres southward through the uniquely precious Blue Gum Forest.

Enact your backburn survival plan?

This was not the first time. Back in November 2006, the Rural Fire Service of Hartley Vale decided to backburn bushland on a hot afternoon. That backburn escaped control following a forecast wind change from the west which raged up Hartley Vale Road and crossed over the Darling Causeway and left for days to descend into the world heritage Grose Valley and burn out the uniquely precious Blue Gum Forest.

Similarly, back in December 1957 a bushfire started again by human cause from spontaneous combustion from methane off solid waste landfill at Katoomba Tip. It was ignored and left to burn northward along Yosemite Creek and down into the nearby Grose Valley. Ask traumatised Ivan Thelander – a 16-year old at the time who while on a camp witnessed four of his school mates tragically perish trying to escape the wildfire up Perrys Lookdown.

Days later the wind changed to the northwest and the fire ravaged southward into the nearby villages of Leura and Wentworth Falls.

Two generations hence, Minister for Environment James Griffin in March 2022, said the picturesque Popes Glen track at Blackheath was rebuilt by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) to withstand future challenges. What, like more governmental backburns?

Are we learning?

The ‘National Parks and Wildlife Service’ is a misnomer in four respects.

NPWS’s official title is the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. The NPWS is currently a sub-directorate of the New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment.

NPWS is not “national”, rather it’s a state-based sub-department of the NSW Government (of the incumbent Liberal-National joint coalition parties), delegated by the Australia Government to manage ‘national’ parks across the domestic state of New South Wales including the UNESCO world-heritage listed Greater Blue Mountains Area
NPWS is not a protective service to native “wildlife” – rather it has an ongoing record of bush arson, notably the bushfire abandonment of late 2019 in which 80% of the the UNESCO world-heritage listed Greater Blue Mountains Area was allowed to be incinerated and much of its endangered wildlife, plus its ongoing indiscriminate incendiary arson and 1080 poison programmes by air across remote pristine World Heritage wilderness
The current Liberal-National Party coalition government of NSW has relegated the NPWS as part of a directorate of the New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment. Environment is currently part of state governmental economic planning focus. There is currently no NSW Department of Environment as such. There is currrently no NSW Department of Environment and Heritage as such.
The current NSW Environment Minister, James Griffin MP, leads no department. The Department of Planning and Environment is headed by Anthony Roberts MP who..“brings together specialists in urban and regional planning, natural resources, industry, environment, heritage, Aboriginal and social housing, and Crown lands and water.” So the NPWS is buried somewhere deep in that super ministerial portfolio of responsibility. Before Griffin, Matt Kean MP under the former and second Berejiklian ministry, was appointed as the Minister for Energy and Environment. Environment and NPWS continue to be a sub-departmentalised as part of a larger economic agenda.

Popes Glen?

The creekline reserve along the riparian corridors of Popes Glen Creek form part of a plateau wetland that extends naturally north-eastward starting from a tributary about 100m east of the Cox’s Watershed (route of the Great Western Highway).

The creek flows gently downstream along a riparian zone which receives water from a further six tributaries before plunging nearly 200 metres over Horseshoe Falls into the majestic Grose Valley below into Govetts Creek, which then flows into the Grose River and thereafter into the massive Hawkesbury River and ultimately out to sea.

Parke William Pope is whom the eponymous creek is named. Parke was the son of John Pope who was the land owner of a substantial property along Govetts Leap Road in Blackheath in the late 1800s, which is now referred to as the mispelt ‘Parklands‘ currently owned by the hotelliers, The Escarpment Group.

Blue Mountains Country Gardens and Lodges, Blackheath

Popes Glen Bushland Reserve features a hiking track alongside that starts from Blackheath’s ANZAC Soldiers Memorial Park and connects to the clifftop of the Grose Valley western escarpment. The track links up with Govetts Walk which heads southward and also Pulpit Rock Track which heads northward.

Popes Glen Creek was initially condemned to being a convenient urban drain and tip by British colonists from 1831 when the village of Blackheath was first established upon construction of Gardiner’s Inn on the Cox’s Road.

One of the lead tributaries of the creek emanates from a groundwater spring just 200m east of the site of the inn and formed an upland swamp in the headwaters of the creek. Over two centuries the creek copped sewage, urban stormwater pollution, a weed fest dominated by invasive willows, holly, blackberries and privet , as well as sedimentation from upstream housing construction and general waste dumping. This once beautiful creek corridor had been degraded into an urban drain and a tip for the growing village – “a wasteland, devoid of native plants or animals.” (Alan Lane)

But in 1989, a small group of environmentally aware Blackheath locals led by Dr Alan Lane and Virginia King started established the Popes Glen Bushcare Group and set about cleaning and rehabilitating the creek and the surrounding riparian reserve using recognised bush regeneration techniques.

Members of the Popes Glen Bushcare Group (with Council reps) still going strong in 2018

These techniques have since been referred to as ‘The Bradley Method‘ as prescribed in the famous book of 2002 by sisters Joan and Eileen Bradley of the Sydney suburb of Mosman in their book ‘Bringing Back the Bush‘.

The group successfully removed one hectare of willows from an unstable sediment flat at the creek headwaters, pioneered innovative stormwater control strategies to enable weed removal and reduce the flow of pollutants and sediment to the National Park, and engaged with over 600 students, residents and professionals.

“Approximately 65 volunteers have contributed an impressive 4,257 hours to the project since 2012.” They were supported by 5,303 hours of professional contractor assistance. “We are very proud of this achievement. Our strength was working together using evidence-based learning to implement an adaptive management approach to wetland management and restoration, which is now widely recognised in the environmental management field.”

(Alan Lane)

Check the video link below. It outlines the extensive history, commitment and success of one of the Blue Mountains first bushland groups, Popes Glen Bushcare Group.

The Popes Glen Walk follows the creek downstream for about 4km to Horseshoe Falls and then also connects up with a track network including along Braeside Creek to enable hikers to do an 8km return circuit.

As the outcome of all the thousands of hours worked by bushcare volunteers, the track route passes through a fully rehabilitated riparian corridor featuring native flora and fauna of the area – yellow robins, eastern spine bills, white-throated tree creepers, satin bower birds, and the endangered Blue Mountains Water Skink (Eulamprus leuraensis) and Giant Dragonfly (Petalura gigantea).

Popes Glen restored to its former glory

This medium grade track is well-defined with ample interpretative signage.

NOTE: The creek water is still not fit for drinking. It’s still downstream of Blackheath’s urban stormwater pollutants, just as is the ‘protected’ Grose Valley.

Hikers pass through restored bushland, upland swamps, ferny glades, creek cascades and over a footbride crossing the creek on to the stunning lookout views over the Grose Valley clifftop escarpment. The walk culminates at the Govetts Leap Lookout where there are seats, quaint picnic shelters and toilet facilities, before returning back to Blackheath via Braeside Creek track.

Alan Lane has stated:

“This is an iconic educational site that is a haven for birdwatchers, frog enthusiasts and environmentalists, with its successful regeneration drawing ecologists from around the world and large groups of local university students to study it.”

The track is conveniently accessible by foot from the Blackheath village centre, railway station, the Blackheath Glen Tourist Park and the Blue Mountains Heritage Centre featuring informative displays, books and gifts.

Alan welcomes volunteers to contribute to ongoing bushcare of the corridor site. If you’d like to volunteer a few hours of your time, Popes Glen Bushcare Group meets on the fourth Saturday of each month from 9am – 1pm.

In 2016, Blackheath bushcare volunteers Alan Lane and Paul Vale published an account of the rehabilitation story of the Popes Glen Bushcare Groupin their instructive book ‘Decades of Healing “The Full Story”‘ which outlines the extensive history (officially 2002 to 2016), of the commitment and success of one of the Blue Mountains first bushland groups, Popes Glen Bushcare.

Officially from 2002 to 2018 the Popes Glen Bushcare Group of volunteers, supported by Blue Mountains Council and the Environmental Trust of NSW, created a thriving Upper Blue Mountains Swamp from a former willow-infested silt flat at the headwaters of Popes Glen Creek, Blackheath NSW.

This illustrated history of the ambitious and complex volunteer-led project contains 165 pages with 120 full-colour images, a detailed description of each aspect of the project, includes failures as well as successes, emphasising lessons learned and the central roles played by adaptive management and careful documentation of the project.

Alan notes:

“This book is for bushcare volunteers and professionals, restoration ecologists, local councils and environmental groups, including schools interested in Citizen Science. It is both a motivational and “how-to” guide for groups tackling a large and complex rehabilitation project that perhaps seems over-ambitious”.

December 2019: Government Sets Fire to Popes Glen

As a direct consequence of the government’s abandoned Gospers Mountain ignition, followed by the government’s reactive backburn of the eastern plateau above the Grose Valley including Popes Glen, 80% of Eva and Bill Johnstone’s adjoining 3.2 hectare Biodiversity Conservation Trust bushland property (home to many endangered species such as the Blue Mountains water skink and giant dragonfly) was wiped out by the bushfire in December 2019.

Setting fire to ecology by the Parks Service. They deem ecology to be a fuel hazard and so term it “hazard reduction” by applying lit kerosene.

Coming up through the gully from Popes Glen, the backburn blaze came within metres of their treasured greenhouse and organic gardens. The couple managed to defend their property with vital assistance from local RFS volunteers and the professional NSW Fire and Rescue Service.

All that volunteer work incinerated

Eva Johnstone, a local horticulturalist and landscape architect, stated:

“If it had gone beyond Dell Street (alongside Popes Glen) it would have gone into town and been an inferno. It was horrendous. Adrenaline was going 100 miles an hour. You don’t think about anything but going in there and doing it. Afterwards you break down a bit…

While some greenery has reappeared on the trunks of trees, as the fire burnt through the tree canopy, there were no seeds for starting new life again.”

The 2019-20 bushfires across New South Wales (notoriously ignored by both the NSW Government and the Australian Government burnt an estimated 24-33 million hectares, destroying over 5900 buildings and killed at least 34 people. It was claimed that three billion terrestrial vertebrates (the majority being reptiles) were affected, with endangered species

believed to be driven to extinction.

In the aftermath of the backburn with the bushland destroyed into a blackened moonscape, the volunteer Popes Glen Bushcare Group set out in a restorative tree-planting blitz from 25th November 2020 planting and watering in hundreds of locally native tube stock tree seedlings.

The backburn destroyed the timber footbridge across Popes Glen Creek.

So Council decided to replace it with a concrete and steel one…

Governmental brutalist contempt for Popes Glen persists

In March 2020, Blue Mountains Council in its infinite widsom reckoned that concreting Popes Glen’s wetland with a path would be a hoot. Council in its naïve bureaucratic bubble conjured up a concrete pathway, bridge and boardwalk for accessible wheelchair access, or otherwise secretly facilitating mass tourism.

Another Echo Point, a Maccas next?

But the local Popes Glen Bushcare volunteers, who have over nearly 30 years and countless hours have restored the once degraded wasteland in to a ecological wetland, rightly complained that Council’s bubble plan was dumb and destructive and were horrified by Council’s ill-thought proposal.

The group’s co-ordinator, Alan Lane, said a concrete path about 700m long was planned, which would cut across the steep, northern edge of Popes Glen before turning across the wetland towards the caravan park. It would be bounded on both sides by metal rails, with many sections standing on high posts to minimise the gradient on the slope and avoid storm surges on the wetland.

Alan Lane:

“The proposed imposing structure will loom over swathes of now-nearly pristine bushland and the restored iconic wetland. It would dominate the whole vista and landscape. Council’s path as proposed would require massive excavation, involving removal of a huge amount of vegetation, including tree species Eucalyptus dalrympleana and Eucalyptus piperita, found only in this area within the Blue Mountains. The chemicals in the concrete would also detrimentally affect the stream, by influencing the base of the aquatic food chain, particularly the microscopic water plants such as algae.

The group would prefer a simple dirt track, only about 350m in length, which has less impact on the environment, and could link the duck pond with the existing track to Govetts Leap, and had suggested this to council.

Popes Glen is essentially the gateway for walkers from Blackheath to the World Heritage National Park and all the walks of the Grose Valley area. It provides the ideal setting for a world-class track, akin to those in Tassie or New Zealand that are minimally invasive and environmentally sensitive. A link from the duck pond to the main Popes Glen/Govetts Leap track makes complete sense. An accessible path, suitable for wheelchairs and strollers, was better suited to around the duck pond (in Blackheath ANZAC Soldiers Memorial Park).”

He and the group’s co-founder, Virginia King, are determined to see a better solution found.