RECENT CLARENCE COUNCIL RESOLUTION ON ENERGY OPTIMISATION AND ELECTRIFICATION

 

MEDIA RELEASE

26-3-26

The  Clarence Community Climate Group congratulates Councillors for the motion on energy optimisation and electrification which was passed at Council’s meeting on March 19.

 In welcoming this decision, Convener of the Group, Rob Mylchreest said, “This comprehensive motion looked at ongoing renewable energy electrification possibilities for both Council and the Clarence Valley community. While both Council and many householders are already making use of renewable energy, we know that building on this process and getting more of the community involved will bring major individual and societal benefits.  These will include cost savings and improvement in health as well significant reductions in carbon emissions when the electrification comes from renewable energy such as rooftop solar.”

The motion, which passed on a 7-2 vote, was submitted by Cr Peter Johnston as a follow-up from the visit to the Clarence last year by engineer and author Dr Saul Griffith, co-founder of RewiringAustralia.

Dr Griffith, is an important promoter of renewable energy and the value of electrification in both the United States and Australia. He does not advocate a sudden holus-bolus move by households away from reliance on fossil fuel energy.  He promotes a gradual shift from the use of gas/oil/petrol and its replacement with more efficient household appliances and transport vehicles when the existing ones have reached the end of their service life.  This he says is the most cost-effective way of transitioning for households.

“The installation of rooftop solar has been a game-changer for many people,” said Mr Mylchreest.  He pointed out that access to clean, cheaper energy provided an incentive to use this energy on as broad a scale as possible leading to installation of more efficient and cleaner electric appliances like induction cooktops and heat-pump hot water systems and also to the purchase of hybrid and electric cars. When solar panel prices dropped over recent years, more householders could afford them so that now around 41% in the Clarence have them installed.  And more recently the government subsidy on batteries has made them more affordable as backup for those with rooftop solar. 

However, Mr Mylchreest acknowledges that more needs to be done with electrification as there is an equity issue with a significant number of householders – those who are not well-off or who rent their homes – not benefiting from the transition.   He wonders whether the various levels of government are planning to address this issue in the near future.

On the Clarence Valley Council front he says that while Council has been making progress with aspects of electrification there are at least two areas where improvement could be made. Council could improve cost savings if it changed some energy usage in the caravan parks it manages.  Secondly the LGA is poorly served in relation to public electric vehicle charging facilities – probably less of an issue for local EV owners but certainly a disincentive for those visiting the area as tourists. 

Our Group hopes that a mooted community Renewable Energy Expo comes to fruition locally. 

 

Clarence Community Climate Group:  ccccgrp@gmail.com

NUMEROUS NEW PLANT SPECIES DISCOVERED IN CLARENCE VALLEY

Judging by the relatively low number of plant records from across the Clarence Valley, it seems the area has largely been ignored by ecologists in the past.

The large-scale land clearing and wetland draining that has occurred over the past 170 years, resulting in the loss of 95% of native vegetation across NSW’s largest coastal floodplain, could be one reason. Another could be the inaccessible nature of some hinterland areas.

Whatever the reason, the Natural Resource Audit Council studies conducted during the 1990s, and other subsequent research projects, have focussed attention to this previously under-explored region. As a result, numerous hitherto unrecorded occurrences of rare plants have been reported here, including a number of new species never recorded anywhere before.

Those plants, suspected as being undescribed, include an Asteraceae (Daisy) discovered at Pillar Valley some two years ago, and a Donkey Orchid, spotted by a member of the public at Shannon Creek a year later.

The discovery of two populations of a tree at Chambigne, closely related to White Beech, has attracted interest from botanists at the Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG), who are hoping to collect more flowering specimens so the species can be properly described.

Also, in the last two years, flowering specimens of two Bottlebrush species from the Coaldale area have defied attempts by RBG botanists to identify them, claiming they match nothing currently on record.

The Clarence Valley’s unique sandstone country has also yielded some surprises, with a grass species of the Setaria genus found at both Banyabba and Kooyong reserves, that specialists suggest could also be undescribed.

Only recently, a Wattle species was recorded in the Koukandowie Nature Reserve, another Sandstone area, that was first thought to be a disjunct occurrence of a Tablelands species. However, a number of anomalies combined to cast doubt on that identification. Another new species perhaps?

With a sad lack of official resources, describing these new species will likely depend on university students seeking a subject for a thesis, and sadly, some may never be described.

     - John Edwards

 

 Published in the Voices for the Earth column in The Clarence Valley Independent , 14 January, 2026.

 

CITIZEN SCIENTISTS AND FROGS

Biodiversity loss has been a growing concern for scientists and conservationists for years with gaps in knowledge being a major problem in determining the health status of many species.

A recent article in “The Conversation” highlighted the importance of citizen scientists in mapping biodiversity and improving knowledge of its status across the landscape.

Australian Museum researchers Grace Gillard and Jodi Rowley discussed the role of citizen scientists in recording frogs using the FrogID (www.frogid.net.au) smartphone app.

Globally frogs are one of the most threatened groups of animals. In Australia one in five species of frogs – almost 50 species – are threatened with extinction.  At least four species, including the unique gastric-breeding frogs, are now extinct and several other species, not seen for decades, are also feared extinct.   The greatest threats to frogs are disease, habitat loss and climate change. 

Gillard and Rowley analysed the 496,357 frog records logged on FrogID in NSW between 2017 and 2024.

As private land makes up the majority of the state and covers almost all habitat types, understanding of how frogs are faring on private land is vital to understanding the species’ health across the landscape.  Citizen scientists have been providing important data from private land as well as surveying public land (including national parks and other protected areas) more comprehensively than have professional scientists.

“Most of the NSW FrogID records come from urban and suburban areas with high human population density.  But the data showed an increasing number of landholders in regional and remote areas are using FrogID to record their local frogs.”

The researchers pointed out that obtaining data about frogs from these non-urban areas using traditional surveys was challenging for scientists because many frog species in arid and semi-arid areas only become active after heavy rains when these areas are often inaccessible.

There are 240 surviving frog species in Australia. 

Citizen scientists using FrogID are providing data to assist researchers in monitoring these frogs’ distribution and health on both private and public land – a major contribution to their survival.

-        Leonie Blain

Published in the Voices for the Earth column in The Clarence Valley Independent , 30 January, 2026.