Gippsland Environment Group Inc
Lobbying against environmental threats on the unceded lands of the GunaiKurnai, Yaitmathang, Ngarigo and Bidwell Peoples
Dont burn Colquhuon Regional Park!
A Critical Refuge for Wildlife - Threatened by Fire
A 1,373-hectare planned burn is scheduled across almost the entire Colquhoun Regional Park near Lakes Entrance, threatening critical habitat
GunaiKurnai Country: Colquhuon Franks Tk- planned burn GP-TBO-NOW-0504
1373Ha Scheduled 2026 https://plannedburns.ffm.vic.gov.au/burn-site/3017893
The Mississippi Creek, Glossy-black cockatoos, and a 1,373ha planned burn
The Gippsland Lakes Discovery Trail follows Mississippi Creek upstream through the centre of Colquhoun Regional Park. Downstream, the Mississippi Creek becomes the North Arm at Lakes Entrance.
The trail goes right through the middle of a 1373Ha FFMV planned burn. Go and see it for yourself. You can walk, ride a bike or even take a horse. Then ask yourself: what happens when a fire this large is deliberately lit here over days—using both ground crews and aerial incendiaries—across an ecosystem that includes diverse forest habitat supporting a range of threatened species, waterways and wildlife habitat?
This isn’t an abstract map on a government website. It’s a real place and its critical unburnt habitat. And the scale of what’s proposed has the potential to move fire right through the heart of it.
Below: Heading upstream, Gippsland Lakes Discovery Trail, Mississippi Creek in the middle of the burn.
Threatened Wildlife Lives Here
This forest supports populations of nationally threatened species. Gippsland Environment Group surveyors have recorded Masked and Powerful Owls, Glossy-black Cockatoos, Gang-gang Cockatoos, Greater Gliders, Yellow-bellied Gliders and Grey-headed Flying-foxes at this site. Acoustic recorders placed across the forest have also captured Yellow-bellied Gliders, forest owls and a rich diversity of frogs and birdlife over many weeks.
The Mississippi Creek and the surrounding mature forest provide vital habitat, with big old trees, hollows and waterways that these species depend on.
Now this habitat sits inside a 1,373-hectare planned burn.
Burning the Glossies Pantry!
This large area of forest targeted for burning contains substantial stands of mature Black She-oak, Allocasuarina littoralis — the only food source for Glossy-black Cockatoos in Victoria. Surveys over some years by Gippsland Environment Group have recorded Glossy-black Cockatoos coming back to feed in this site —showing the site is an important feeding area. Large old trees may also provide be providing nesting habitat for Glossies and other hollow-dependent species, such as Yellow-bellied Gliders.
Glossy-black Cockatoos are Vulnerable in Victoria and found only in East Gippsland. They feed almost exclusively and selectively on seeds of Black She-oak trees, which are highly fire-sensitive. Fire will kill the trees outright, but even a low-intensity fire can trigger the cones to shed their seeds — and the birds will not eat from the ground.
Nearly two-thirds of the Glossy's Victorian habitat burned in the 2019–20 bushfires, leaving the Victorian species almost entirely dependent on these small unburnt coastal forest patches between Lake Tyers and Orbost.
A peer-reviewed study published in the journal Australian Field Ornithology estimated that the Victorian population had declined by three-quarters since the fires. Peter Menkhorst, a retired ecologist who worked for Victorian government wildlife agencies for 48 years and a co-author the study, said
"they probably had the most specialised diet of any Australian bird, and that a fire in black sheoak forests could badly damage their food supply. He said any unburnt stands of black sheoak were “of critical importance for the species”.
A state government report into biodiversity after the fires agreed that surviving black sheoak stands were of “great significance for this highly specialised bird species” and advised “great care” would be needed in managing the forests.
In a recent Guardian article BirdLife Australia’s president, Mandy Bamford, said Victoria’s glossy black cockatoo population was “tiny”. Those birds needed sheoaks to feed on and safe places to nest, she said. The department’s preferred burn window in autumn posed an additional risk, she said, as it overlapped with the bird’s breeding season. “If there are nestlings in hollows, they can’t get away. Also, potentially you’re reducing food sources at a critical time when they’re feeding chicks.”
A Freedom of Information request obtained by Gippsland Environment Group in 2025 estimated only around 100 Glossy-black Cockatoos remaining between Colquhoun Forest and the NSW border. Local naturalists believe the number may be even lower, with fewer than 50 birds thought to occur between Lakes Entrance and the Snowy River.
For a population this small, burning critical feeding habitat is not a minor impact — it is a serious risk to the species’ survival in Victoria.
Below: Glossy-black Cockatoos feeding on black she-oaks in the burn site.
Bottom right: Black she-oaks have already been destroyed in FFMV pre-burn roadside works
Centuries of Habitat at Risk
This forest contains large old hollow-bearing trees, critical for nesting and shelter. These old trees are increasingly scarce; it can take up to 200 years to develop a hollow large enough for a Greater Glider.
Fire has devastating impacts on hollow-bearing trees, weakening them, causing collapse, or destroying hollows entirely. Burning through this site risks destroying both essential food sources and centuries-old habitat.
Research by DELWP Report No:95 (Bluff 2016) identified that hollow bearing trees in planned burns were 28 times more likely to collapse than in unburnt areas.
Below: Large old habitat trees in the burn site, photos Lisa Roberts
You Can See the Impact for Yourself
You can actually see an area along the same trail that was burnt a couple of years ago. The fire has trickled down the hill, damaged old trees, destroyed the canopy — below.
A Living Landscape, Not a Map
This is more than just lines on a burn plan. It’s a real place with real wildlife, where Glossy-black Cockatoos return to feed, hollow-dependent species shelter, and the Mississippi Creek trail winds through the forest.
This planned burn will move directly through the heart of the ecosystem, threatening species, habitats, and the very landscapes people come to here to experience.
Map: Colquhuon Franks Tk- planned burn GP-TBO-NOW-0504
1373Ha Scheduled: Autumn 2026
Take Action - Send an email
Write to the decision makers below and ask that the Colquhuon Franks Tk- planned burn GP-TBO-NOW-0504
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Is removed from the burning schedule, or
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It is referred to the Federal Environment Department as a controlled action due to the presence of EPBC-listed threatened species.
👇🏽
Peter Brick, District Manager - Tambo District, Forest Fire Management Victoria
Email: peter.brick@deeca.vic.gov.au
Steve Dimopoulos MP – State Min for Environment
Email: reception.dimopoulos@ecodev.vic.gov.au
Phone: 03 862 43101
Chris Hardman - Chief Fire Officer and Executive Director of the Forest and Fire Operations Division at Forest Fire Management Victoria
Email: chris.hardman@deeca.vic.gov.au
Murray Watt – Federal Min for Environment
Email: Minister.Watt@dcceew.gov.auPhone: 02 6277 7920
EPBC Compliance - Compliance and Enforcement at the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water
You can also contact those responsible below to give native forest proper independent oversight and protection of biodiversity in planned burns
Parks and Reserves take up around 50% of the state's planned burn targets. There is no protection for biodiversity, habitat or threatened species in planned burns, even within Parks and Reserves.
Fire management planning is happening, without independent oversight, with the Department self-assessing and evaluating their own operations. FFMV do not monitor the efficacy of their planned burns in preventing bushfires.
In Victoria there is no mandatory Code for protection of biodiversity values in planned burn operations that takes into account obligations under the EPBC Act
There is no publicly available information on how operations are planned and how impact on threatened species is minimised and avoided
FFMV do no long term on- ground pre or post-burn survey for fauna, flora or habitat
FFMV rely on desktop data from the Victorian Biodiversity Atlas in planning which is outdated and does not show most recent records. This was highlighted by the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office’s report Protecting Victoria’s Biodiversity (2021)
According to the Victorian Auditor General’s report Reducing Bushfire Risks. Victorian Auditor General (2020). “With the exception of some isolated case studies, DELWP does not know the effect of its burns on native flora and fauna”
Re efficacy of planned burns in preventing bushfires:
“We’ve understood for a long time now that logging can make bushfires worse, but it’s only in the last few years that evidence is showing that prescribed burning could be doing the same thing,” lead researcher Professor David Lindenmayer, ANU
You can send an email HERE 👉🏽 https://vnpa.org.au/action-minister-give-native-forests-proper-oversight/
Or write your own and send to:
👇🏽
Steve Dimopoulos MP – State Min for Environment
Email: reception.dimopoulos@ecodev.vic.gov.au
Phone: 03 862 43101
Jacinta Allan – Premier of Victoria
Email: jacinta.allan@parliament.vic.gov.au
Phone: 03 9651 5000
Vicki Ward Minister for Emergency Services
Email: vicki.ward@parliament.vic.gov.au
Phone: 1300 358 704
Murray Watt – Federal Min for Environment
Email: Minister.Watt@dcceew.gov.au
Phone: 02 6277 7920
