Gippsland Environment Group Inc
Lobbying against environmental threats on the unceded lands of the GunaiKurnai, Yaitmathang, Ngarigo and Bidwell Peoples
Trident Arm Bung Yarnda
GunaiKurnai Country Lake Tyers Coastal Park
Old Growth Forest scheduled for burning autumn 2026
March 2026
Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMV)
402ha planned burn
Nowa Nowa Trident Arm GP-TBO-NOW-0298 | Scheduled 2026
https://plannedburns.ffm.vic.gov.au/burn-site/966370
On GunaiKurnai Country, this 402 hectare planned burn by FFMV on Bung Yarnda, within Lake Tyers Coastal Park, targets one of the most ecologically diverse old-growth coastal forest areas remaining in southeastern Australia.
This area is long unburnt old-growth forest, most of the site has no recorded fire history and no history of logging and is home to a remarkable diversity of coastal forest. Much of this area is only accessible by water and has never been thoroughly surveyed. Gippsland Environment surveyors recorded an undocumented canoe scar tree within this burn site.
In 2021, the community protested this burn outside the DELWP offices in Bairnsdale. Senator Lidia Thorpe said at the protest "the environment in that part of the country is unlike anywhere else in the world.” The burn was subsequently post-poned, but now its back on the schedule for autumn 2026. See full story here: Fury over planned burns Lakes Post May 2021
This 402ha deliberate burn on would impact largely undisturbed coastal forest that supports rich cultural heritage and known active populations of nationally threatened plant communities and bird and mammal species, including:
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Rainforest sites of national significance
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Coastal grey box and iron bark woodlands
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Yellow-bellied Gliders
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Greater Gliders
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Large forest owls
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Glossy Black-Cockatoos
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Grey-headed Flying-foxes
The Burn will be lit with ground and aerial incendiaries
This site supports several rare and threatened Ecological Vegetation Classes (EVCs), including warm temperate rainforest, winter-flowering ironbark woodland, and old coastal grey box woodland. Hollow-bearing trees - critical habitat for a range of arboreal mammals and cavity-nesting birds - are abundant here, due to long undisturbed growth.
Shifting Baselines
Many people have never seen undisturbed old growth forest, and the rare coastal grey box woodlands here, are surprisingly open (below).
This must be protected
These forests are so old, diverse and beautiful and must remain protected as forest that has never been burnt and how beautiful this country used to be.
Below: Rain forest and old growth forest within this burn area
Take Action - Send an email
Write to the decision makers below and ask that the Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMV) planned burn Nowa Nowa Trident Arm GP-TBO-NOW-0298 in Lake Tyers State Park
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is removed from the burning schedule, or
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is referred to the Federal Environment Department as a controlled action due to the fact it has very little recorded fire history and the presence of EPBC-listed threatened plant communities, fauna and flora species.
👇🏽
Peter Brick, District Manager - Tambo District, Forest Fire Management Victoria
Email: peter.brick@deeca.vic.gov.au
Sam Quigley, Deputy Chief Fire Officer | Director, Forest and Fire Operations - Gippsland
Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action
Email: sam.quigley@deeca.vic.gov.au
Enver Erdogan – State Min for Environment
Email: enver.erdogan@parliament.vic.gov.au
Phone: (03) 9651 8260
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
Email:environment.compliance@dcceew.gov.au
