Toad Media
ABC Kimberley
Tale of Two Tims and the Toads
Friday, 8 April 2005
Reporter: Adrienne Francis
Presenter: Vanessa Mills
Tim Low sees a feral future for Australia
Tim Winton thinks it is worth trying to fight the toad
A battle with the cane toad is of literary proportions
Traps, attractants, fences, viruses and sniffer dogs were just
some of the strategies aired at a public forum aimed at stopping
the cane toad marching into Western Australia.
More than 30 speakers from a cross section of interests, including
scientists, conservationists, aboriginal community members, and
farmers, addressed the two day forum, held in Kununurra recently.
The cane toad was introduced to Australia 70 years ago to control
a pest in Queensland cane fields. The South American made itself
right at home, killing native fauna with its poison, spreading as
far south as Sydney and pushing into Kakadu National Park.
The toad is now less than 300 kilometres from Western Australia
and, without action, will be established here within three years.
Scientists told the 100 strong crowd that local extinctions of
native animals are expected once the toad gains a foothold in the
east Kimberley waterways.
Broadscale trapping of toads in the territory appears to be minimising
their numbers, but when each female toad can spawn up to 35 thousand
eggs, it is like holding back the tide.
But people should not heed the doomsday forecast, according to
acclaimed author Tim Winton, who has lent his voice to the cane
toad campaign.
Mr Winton says the Kununurra forum is a valuable event to pool
scientific information and strategies to stop the toad. A similar
forum will now be held in Perth to put the toad on the state agenda.
The author of Cloudstreet and Dirt Music spent several years working
on the Save Ningaloo Campaign, which was ultimately successful.
Tim Winton told Adrienne Francis that when individuals join forces
they can make a difference.
Biologist Tim Low, author of Feral Future and The New Nature, thinks
its admirable a community is taking a stand against pests.
But he says it's too late to stop an invincible predator like the
cane toad, and any efforts to build a fence along the border are
laughable. Although small scale control in special environmental
areas may be productive.
Mr Low says pristine wilderness no longer exists in Australia and
ferals have changed the landscape irrevocably.
He says Australia's best defence against pests is to keep them
out. The cane toad was just one of many pests that can and will
make Australia home; people shouldn't think the toad is the last
of the ferals.
However he told Vanessa Mills he grew up in Queensland and he hates
the toads.
Hear them
Tim1;
Tim Winton
Tim2;
Tim Low
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