26 May
2006 - Norfolk Island’s reputation as a green
paradise will get a heavy-duty boost when a green
waste machine arrives from Melbourne next month,
the Australian Minister for the Environment and
Heritage, Ian Campbell, said today.
The TELCOR 5000 tub grinder
– which is 10 metres long, 3.8 metres high and
weighs in at 13 tonnes – left Melbourne today
for a four-day road trip to Cairns, from where
it will be loaded onto a barge headed to Norfolk
Island.
Painted in the Norfolk Island
flag’s colours, the machine will travel up the
Hume Highway to the Newell Highway before heading
past Brisbane to North Queensland.
Manufactured by TELCOR in Moorabbin,
the massive diesel-powered machine chomps through
green waste up to 40cm in diameter, and is capable
of churning out 40 metres of mulch an hour.
Senator Campbell said the machine,
funded under the Australian Government’s Natural
Heritage Trust, would process all of Norfolk Island’s
green waste, turning it into mulch, which would
be converted into valuable compost.
“Norfolk Island has more than
40 species of plants listed as endangered under
the Australian Government’s Environment Protection
and Biodiversity Act,” Senator Campbell said.
“Much of the compost produced
will be used to assist in the rehabilitation of
the island’s natural areas and habitat.”
Norfolk Island Minister for
the Environment, Stephanie Jack, said the machine
would be a significant benefit to the island.
“This system will have significant
environmental benefits. Green waste won’t need
to be burned and the quantity of builder’s waster
that is currently burnt, with the ashes dumped
at sea, will be minimised,” Ms Jack said.
“The mulch and compost will
be available for sale, so Islanders won’t have
to import fertilisers from the mainland for their
gardens and farming lands.
The mulch would also be invaluable
in helping the Islanders in their fight against
weeds, including African olive trees, she said.
