The National Parks Association’s Eurobodalla branch is renewing calls to convert North Brooman State Forest in the southern Shoalhaven into a Flora Reserve, citing the protection needs of a 72-metre spotted gum believed to be the tallest of its species in the world. That is according to Joslyn van der Moolen, the branch’s convener, who is pushing back against a Shoalhaven City Council motion from Cr Brett Steele that would formally oppose the reserve and entrench public access to the working state forest.
Wood Central understands the tree, known as ‘Big Spotty,’ has a 12-metre circumference and sits inside a 60-metre logging exclusion zone administered by the NSW Forestry Corporation, leaving the surrounding stand inside the active harvest plan and at risk of being thinned around the protected core.
A motion supporting the Flora Reserve was narrowly defeated at the council earlier this year. Cr Steele’s counter-proposal, which calls on the Forestry Corporation to fund visitor infrastructure at the tree and to formally oppose any reservation, was deferred at a recent meeting and is now set to return to the chamber.
Ms van der Moolen said the 2021 Census recorded only a small number of forestry jobs across the Shoalhaven, and that converting the state forest to reserve status would draw international ecotourism and create more local employment in fire management, feral animal and weed control and guided tour services.
“These jobs are locally based and far outnumber the few jobs from cutting,” Ms van der Moolen said, with the NPA branch also signalling support for a transition pathway for forestry workers who would be displaced by the reservation.
The proposal includes a boardwalk and viewing platform near the tree alongside signage explaining the site’s significance, and Ms van der Moolen rejected concerns the reserve would limit camping, dirt-bike riding or horseback access across the wider forest.
Ms van der Moolen also flagged a structural risk to the gum itself, arguing that whilst the 60-metre exclusion zone protects the trunk, removing the surrounding old growth would expose the tree to stronger winds and strip out the canopy buffer currently reducing wind velocity at the site.
It comes as the wider NSW native forestry debate continues to weigh on the Forestry Corporation’s harvest schedule, with conservation groups including the Knitting Nannas, whose members, Dr Larraine Larri and Bron Vost, have led on-ground protests at the tree, pressing for further reservations across the state forest estate.
Ms van der Moolen said the NPA Eurobodalla branch will campaign through and beyond the next council vote — with Cr Steele’s motion now set to return to a future Shoalhaven chamber meeting and a 60-metre buffer the only formal protection currently surrounding the 72-metre tree.
