Blue Whale Farm Plantation director Mehran Zare says bushfire safety informed illegal clearing works

The director of a company stung with a huge fine for illegally clearing land near Scott River has conceded the error, but said bushfire safety was behind the decision.

Director Mehran Zare told the Times his company Blue Whale Farm Plantation was complying with an order to rehabilitate the cleared land under the guidance of WA’s Department of Water and Environmental Regulation after prosecution.

Earlier this year, a magistrate issued a $141,000 fine after finding the operator failed to seek permission from the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River before removing more than 16ha of native bush, which included the endangered Lambertia orbifolia.

Mr Zare this week declined to answer any questions about whether the plantation company had the capacity to pay, but said the clearing represented less than 2 per cent of the plantation’s total area and was undertaken due to serious concerns about bushfire risk.

“The towns of Augusta, Margaret River and Nannup are all within a 20-minute drive,” he said.

“The lack of recent fire activity in the area has led to an extremely high fuel load, posing a severe risk of a hot burn bushfire.

“This would critically damage the biosystem, including rare plants and dormant seeds. It would also endanger surrounding areas, including the town of Augusta, neighbouring farms and houses.”

In February 2022, the property owners engaged a contractor to undertake the work according to the Shire’s firebreak requirements.

“To meet these requirements necessitated stockpiling a substantial amount of material — primarily limestone for road base — which was accessed onsite,” Mr Zare said.

“This involved the clearing of less than 2 per cent of the property’s area.”

The director said bringing any outside soils onto the site could have posed a “catastrophic threat” by introducing dieback to existing plant species.

But Mr Zare said the owners acknowledged no application to undertake that onsite work was lodged and the penalty was accepted.

The magistrate found the operator guilty in July, with the penalty only set down last month.

The shire said it undertook the legal case after the clearing equal to nine Optus stadiums was noted.

“There are no winners when it comes to the destruction of the environment, and on behalf of our community we wanted to make a stand,” shire president Julia Meldrum said earlier this year.

“We believe the ruling speaks to the importance of protecting vulnerable ecology.”

The action was lauded by local conservationists with Margaret River Regional Environment Centre and University of Western Australia researcher Steve Hopper saying prosecution was an important step.

“This (clearing) action placed the subspecies (Lambertia orbifolia) one step closer to going extinct in the wild.

“Endangered plants like the Lambertia are part of WA’s globally recognised endemic flora, found nowhere else on earth,” Professor Hopper said.

“As custodians, we need to protect the most endangered species and celebrate their existence as beacons of hope in a world too often preoccupied with development at any cost.”