Massive new National Park for the Murray

The Barmah State Forest, the southern section of Australia's biggest red gum forest - described by some as the ''Kakadu of the south'' - will become one of four new national parks and will be jointly managed by its Aboriginal traditional owners. At nearly 30,000 hectares it is a significant chunk to be protected, following a three-year investigation into the state of the red gum forests.

While Yorta Yorta leaders are optimistic about the new park and environmentalists are delighted by their campaign win, many locals around the forest remain bitter about the change, which they say will lock up the land they have lived in and used sustainably for generations.

Outside the Barmah pub, bumpers are emblazoned with stickers bearing slogans such as ''Red gums for all & forever'' and ''No flamin' red gum national parks''. Inside, a wood stove burns red gum around the clock. The bar is a huge slab of red gum sawn at the local mill.

The proposal to convert their ''backyard'' state forest into national park and give local indigenous people some control over its management has stirred anger in non-indigenous communities, who lodged submissions in their thousands and formed organisations opposing the plan.

There is a small tourism industry here and crops and cattle, but, at least in popular belief, timber has been harvested sustainably for the benefit of the forest for generations and is the lifeblood of the town.

''We didn't want to see it go and disappear,'' says 78-year-old mill owner Jerry Swan. ''It's regenerating the whole time … With a sensible cut, it would just go on forever and ever.''

Mr Swan's father was a master axeman who would ringbark a tree so precisely that half a century on his son claims to be able to identify his work by the thinness of scars left on old trunks.

Since logging ceased in Barmah last June, Mr Swan has been cleaning up the wood in his yard in preparation for retirement. He is eligible for an $80,000 compensation payment from the state government, but in a cruel twist of fate his wife, who was diagnosed with cancer two weeks after ''they pulled the pin on the bush'', died a few months ago.

According to the non-indigenous locals of Barmah, anger about the conversion of the forest into national park stems not just from the spectre of lost livelihoods but also from scepticism about the resourcing and management of national parks.

But Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation president Neville Atkinson believes logging and grazing have taken a toll.

''I don't think they've really realised the continual negative impact they've had on these fragile areas,'' Mr Atkinson says of the timber and cattle industries. ''What we're going to be left with now is a changed landscape because of these past activities, and it's going to take us a long time to get it back to some sort of natural balance. To save all these areas, to me it's a no-brainer.''

Cattle have been banned from the Barmah State Forest for two years now and Peter Newman, chairman of the Rivers and Red Gum Environment Alliance - which makes the bumper stickers - says that without cattle eating and trampling vegetation the fire risk is increased.

Mr Newman, whose property fronts the forest, says cattle have grazed in the forest for more than 150 years without causing significant damage. As well as fire, he says he is worried about floods, weeds and pests under the new management - with the public shooting of feral animals also to be banned in the new park.

Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority ecologist Keith Ward, who is involved in talks on the management of the new national park, says grazing has not been ruled out and would be considered if research showed it would benefit the forest. ''But I think the way things were going, the pendulum was far too far the other way. As a botanist trying to undertake flora surveys there, [I can say] it wasn't a reserve; it was an out-paddock for cattle.''

Water management is another subject of criticism by opponents of the park, who believe those in charge of it ''don't know what they're doing''.

According to Mr Newman, ''making it a national park, unless they do something about water, will have no impact whatsoever''.

For the Yorta Yorta, who lost a long-running native title battle in 2002, the new deal is not just about connections to the land. It's also ''a social justice package'' that Mr Atkinson expects will bring about a huge shift in his people's social and economic status.

''One thing in Australia's favour I think is that when they realise that things have been wrong they've admitted it, and then made up the ground,'' he says. ''That's just about where we're at at the moment - making up some ground.

''It would be irresponsible of all of us if we didn't start to put an end to this battle. People need to consider … it's not just about them today; it's about future generations.''