NT environmentalists ‘gobsmacked’ at federal green light to bulldoze nearly 3,000 hectares of tropical savanna

Australia's Environment Minister Murray Watt has approved the clearing of nearly 3,000 hectares of tropical savanna in the Northern Territory's Daly River region. Top End Pastoral Company plans to bulldoze 2,723 hectares of woodland on Claravale farm and station for agricultural development, specifically to grow crops like sorghum and cotton. The approved clearing will occur without a formal assessment under Australia's national environmental laws. Environmentalists have expressed concern, as the area is habitat for threatened species including the ghost bat, Gouldian finch, pig-nosed turtle, and red goshawk. The scale of the clearing is approximately ten times the size of Sydney's central business district.