GREAT SOUTHERN - GONE SOUTH

Now we know for sure: money doesn't grow on trees. As foreshadowed last week, the receivers moved in yesterday to try to sort out the mess that is Great Southern. The company's debt stands at $826 million. The environmental costs to us all are probably incalculable. And another 240,000 hectares of Blue Gum plantation ends up . . . going nowhere?

UPDATE: Here's a Kangaroo Island perspective. And then there's this prescient Stateline KI report from 2006. No doubt there will be a lot more fallout nation-wide. But, in the confined spaces of KI, the long-term loss of good farm country and the sorry tale of such schemes are starkly revealed.