We’re Not Allowed to Touch Brush — But We Can Blow Up a Mountain

Let me tell you something that doesn’t make a lot of sense, especially if you’re someone who works with your hands, builds fences for a living, or just appreciates a bit of common sense: brushwood, the stuff we use to build fences, is now being treated like an endangered species — all while mining companies are handed millions to tear up the earth.

According to the government, brushwood now plays an important role in Australia’s climate strategy. Because it stores carbon, it’s been swept up into the carbon credit system. That means large areas of land where brushwood grows are now protected under programs like the Emissions Reduction Fund, which pay landholders not to touch it — even if no one was going to harvest it anyway.

In theory, it’s all about reducing emissions.

But here’s the thing: brushwood isn’t a rainforest, and no one’s clear-felling thousands of hectares. It’s a naturally growing plant, often found on farms and scrubland, that is harvested by hand using machetes and traditional techniques. No machines. No burning. No chemicals.

It’s renewable. It regrows. And it’s been used this way in Australia for generations.

Now here’s where it gets intriguing. While we’re being told to limit our brushwood use to “protect the planet,” the government is handing out grants, tax credits and loans to mining giants — even the ones digging up lithium, rare earths, and coal.

Just recently:

• The Arafura Rare Earths Project received $840 million in taxpayer-funded support to mine in the NT.
• Dozens of critical mineral projects got millions more through development grants.
• Billions continue to flow to fossil fuel operations through the Fuel Tax Credit Scheme.

So let me get this straight: we’re being told we can’t cut some brush by hand to build fences… but someone else can bulldoze native land, blast rock, and build haul roads because it’s “for the future”?

Here’s what makes brush fencing different — and why the idea of restricting it under environmental rules doesn’t pass the pub test.

• Brushwood is hand-harvested. No heavy equipment. No land clearing.
• It’s cut selectively, leaving the roots intact so the plant regrows — often within 3–5 years.
• Harvesters follow strict codes around when and how they can cut, to ensure long-term regeneration.
• It’s 100% natural and biodegradable. No chemicals, no waste.
• It provides local jobs — not in a mine, but in regional communities.

So while it might look like a pile of sticks to a bureaucrat, to us it’s a sustainable, hardworking material that’s part of a real industry.

No one’s saying we shouldn’t protect the environment. We all live here, and we all want cleaner air, better land management, and less pollution.

But drawing the line at brush fencing, while opening the floodgates for large-scale mining, just doesn’t add up.

How is it that a bloke with a sickle cutting brush by hand is more of an environmental threat than a multinational company ripping open the land for minerals?

If this is about carbon storage, let’s have that conversation — but let’s not pretend that brush fences are the problem while we’re handing out taxpayer money to industries doing 1,000 times more damage.

At The Brush Fence Company, we’ve built hundreds of fences across Sydney and the Central Coast using brush that was ethically, legally, and sustainably harvested. We don’t just build with brush — we respect it. We make sure it’s packed properly, compacted tight, and capped to last 15 to 20 years.

No waste. No shortcuts. No bulldozers.

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