Flying foxes will fly more safely thanks to the recent Planning and Environment Court decision.
Photo © John Jacob

A Queensland conservation campaigner has claimed a victory for Queensland wildlife and community action after the Planning and Environment Court handed down a decision in her favour that will help prevent North Queensland flying foxes from dying on electric grids.

Justice Robin on 16 November 2007 ordered Merv and Pam Thomas, trading under the business name Frippery, to dismantle electric grids on their lychee orchards. The judge deemed the Thomases had already electrocuted thousands of flying foxes on the grids and might continue to kill substantial numbers unless restrained.

Justice Robin ordered the Frippery grids be removed within two months of the decision.

‘We hope this is the end of a long saga,’ said Dr Carol Booth, flying fox conservation campaigner, who initiated the Booth vs Frippery case in late 2004 with the help of the Environmental Defenders Organisation Queensland (EDO Qld). This was the third such case brought by Dr Booth who has campaigned since 2000 against the use of electric grids for crop protection.

‘We hope these findings remove any final impediments to the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] resolving that all grids be dismantled,’ Dr Booth said.

The Frippery case was the first brought using third party powers, a 2003 amendment to the Queensland Nature Conservation Act 1992 which allows members of the public to initiate legal proceedings under the Act.

‘This shows the power of the community being able to use the legislation,’ said Dr Booth.

‘For flying foxes there will be direct impacts in preventing killings in the future. And it is important for all wildlife in terms of the community being able to use the law,’ she added.

‘Kudos must go to the marvellous legal team of Chris McGrath and EDO,’ commented Dr Booth. The EDO team supported the case through its first defeat in the Environment and Planning Court, and an appeal which led to the recent re-hearing of the case. Costs for the case were met through public donations of funds from conservation and wildlife supporters.

The judgement also accepted evidence presented on injuries and deaths caused by grids and endorsed netting of fruit trees as a feasible alternative. Grids are a conservation problem because they kill large numbers of flying-foxes— about 18,000 were killed in one season on the Bosworth grids —and they inflict suffering.

Information about the electric grid court cases

More information on flying foxes

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