Department suppression of the Cameron & Turner Myrtle Wilt Report
A grant of $70,000 was provided through the Federal Government's National Rainforest Conservation Program in the early 1990's to conduct research into Myrtle Wilt. This research was undertaken in the Otways and Central Highlands forests. The research was conducted by Cameron and Turner and a draft report titled 'Survey and monitoring of myrtle wilt within Cool Temperate Rainforest in Victoria' was completed to draft stage in 1994.
By early 1996, nearly two years later, the report was still in draft form and unavailable to the public.
Conservationists and local Otway residents were informed by field naturalists that Myrtle Wilt was at epidemic levels in the Otways. A copy of the draft Cameron and Turner report, dated November 1994, fell into the hands of conservationists, confirming epidemic levels of Myrtle Wilt.
In January 1996, efforts were made to obtain the report through Freedom of Information (FOI). The Department refused the FOI request on the grounds that the report was not in the public interest.[Click to see FOI refusal from DNRE]
Local conservationists and The Wilderness Society, with assistance from
the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO), took the matter to the Administrative
Appeals Tribunal. Under media scrutiny, the DNRE released the final report
to conservationists on the day of a hearing (prior to the hearing) at
the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on the 2nd August 1996.
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