Black-throated Finch - Australia's Second Deliberated Extinction

Today’s decision that the beautiful Black-throated Finch should be sacrificed for billionaire Gautam Adani’s coal mine shapes up as the second deliberated extinction in Australian history.

The first was the extirpation of the Tasmanian tiger after the 1888 state legislation put a one pound ($2) bounty on its head. More than 2000 were shot. The last tiger died in a Hobart zoo on 7 September 1936.

There are fewer Black-throated Finches in 2019 than there were tigers in 1888. The obliteration of the bird’s stronghold in the Galilee Basin is the same as shooting them.

However, Adani will pay no bounty for the killings.

Adani’s daft proposal for offsets is to trap the mine-site finches and move them to a site where they have not naturally survived.

Photo of Black-Throated Finch courtesy of Brian O'Leary

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Showing 4 reactions

Lisa Allen commented 2019-06-08 10:31:27 +1000
The Queensland govt purports to claim new jobs from the Adana mine. In an increasingly mechanised world why would you economically and logically set up a new mine relying on man power rather than machines to do everything. Why not invest the money in retraining that work force into other jobs that we can guarantee are actually going to exist.
They don’t give a stuff about the finch, make an argument around money and guarantee those jobs another way, give them a viable economic alternative.
Janine Gibson commented 2019-06-01 21:23:31 +1000
So here we go. Somehow Scomo got voted in… Will never understand fellow Australians what did they vote for short term jobs tax relief that might happen in the next financial year? Or the demise of an ecosystem tourism jobs and the death of the Great Barrier Reef! Cone in Aussie come on come on….. No we voted for conservatism and death of the planet. I despair.
Eileen Dallwitz commented 2019-05-31 20:05:49 +1000
If the black-throated finch could exist in nearby environments (or any other environments) it would bloody well be there. Stop this stupid mine. Preserve Australia before you destroy it.
Paul Perdrisat commented 2019-05-31 14:07:08 +1000
What’s have our government got in their heads, shit. My mum said to me when I was young, money is the root of all evil, greed will kill the world. How very true.