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:
-
Rainforest sites of national significance
-
Coastal grey box and iron bark woodlands
-
Yellow-bellied Gliders
-
Greater Gliders
-
Large forest owls
-
Glossy Black-Cockatoos
-
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
Federal Intervention Needed Over Unreferred Burn in Threatened Species Habitat
Write to the decision makers below and ask that Nowa Nowa Trident Arm GP-TBO-NOW-0298 burn
-
Is removed from the burning schedule, or
-
It is referred to the Federal Environment Department as a controlled action due to it having no recorded fire history and the presence of EPBC-listed threatened plant communities and 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
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
Email:environment.compliance@dcceew.gov.au
We call on the government to remove this burn permanently from the schedule or it must be referred as a controlled action
Under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), the legal test is clear. Where a proponent considers that an action may have a significant impact on a listed threatened species, that action must be referred to the Commonwealth for assessment. This obligation has been affirmed in the Save Our Strathbogie Forest against the State of Victoria/Dept. of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, in the Federal Court
In this instance, numerous EPBC-listed species are known to occur in the proposed burn area. Yet the planned burning has not been referred to the Commonwealth at all.
This raises a fundamental legal problem.
Given the scale of the proposed burn, it is simply not credible to claim that the activity does not meet the EPBC Act threshold of “may have a significant impact.” The test is intentionally precautionary. It is triggered by the possibility of significant harm — not certainty.
A burn of this magnitude in habitat known to support listed species plainly meets that threshold.
The unavoidable conclusion is that the action should have been referred. Proceeding without referral means that those planning, approving or carrying out the burning activity risk acting unlawfully under Commonwealth law.
This places not only decision-makers but also personnel directed to carry out the burn in an extremely difficult position. Individuals should not be expected to participate in an activity that may constitute a breach of federal environmental law — particularly where there are already reports of departmental staff expressing serious concerns about the burns.
We call on the Federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and the Australian Government to immediately intervene, investigate the failure to refer this action, and ensure compliance with the EPBC Act.
At present, there has been no serious response from either the Victorian Government or the Commonwealth despite the clear legal issues and the presence of multiple threatened species.
Silence in the face of a potential breach of national environmental law is not an acceptable response.
