The head of timber giant Gunns Limited has spoken publicly about why the company is severing its ties with the state's most influential forest industry lobby group.

It has been revealed Gunns is quitting the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania.

The company's departure undermines the association's finances and powerbase, as forestry peace talks continue with environmentalists.

Gunns chief executive Greg L'Estrange was asked about the spilt at a forest industry conference in Melbourne today.

"It's one of those things you normally do quietly and have those conversations with the industry," he said.

"As you would have heard today we have a certain path that we are taking our organisation on and we've made those decisions taking all of those things into account."

Mr L'Estrange says the forest industry has lost the public debate on logging.

He has called for an end to the so-called war between the industry and environmentalists.

He said there had been a decline in the public demand for wood products and he reiterated Gunns' intention to become a plantation only business, urging others to follow suit.

He told the conference that most Australians now support the environmental lobby.

"The vast support of the Australian population is with the environmental non-government organisations," he said.

"This commands them to work with them to create a future without this conflict that moves them from being in opposition for our products and processes, to being supportive.

"This may well mean transitioning to plantation but move we must."

The Health Department says it has exhausted nearly every avenue to work out why some Royal Adelaide Show patrons got sore eyes.

Dozens of people who were at the dairy judging area on Tuesday and Wednesday needed medical attention.

Test samples have been taken from the marquee and lawned area, including soil, woodchips and even air samples.

But Director of Public Health, Dr Kevin Bucket, says no definite cause has been established.

"At the moment we're thinking it may well be a combination of a confined space, very humid and moist conditions and some sort of interaction with the moisture and some sort of chemical is present either in the cattle urine or in the wood chips that were on the ground and long-term exposure," he said.

"People that have been affected were in the marquee for more than three hours and they weren't located in one particular spot so it's very hard to determine what sort of chemical and exposure it precisely was."

The Rural Doctors Association (RDA) says it hopes independent MPs Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor's demand for equity in regional health funding will be delivered quickly by the Gillard Government.

RDA chief executive Steve Sant says addressing the doctor shortage in rural Australia will take a major commitment and extra training needs to start now.

He says he hopes the package secured for regional health will include a rural training scheme to help more doctors start their careers in the country.

"We want to see medicare rebates raised for rural Australia that recognises the additional work done by rural doctors," he said.

"And providing things like obstetrics and anaesthetics, surgery, which aren't provided by GPs in the city.

"We want to see a rural health obligation that says people in the bush should have a certain standards of health care. We shouldn't be waiting six or eight or 10 weeks for an appointment at a GP."

Landholders will receive free fox baits from the South Australian Murray-Darling Basin Natural Resources management board over the next two-months.

The board's principal project officer for biodiversity, Sarah Lance, says they will be targeting key areas to reduce fox numbers whilst ground-dwelling birds, like the mallee fowl, are breeding.

She says mallee fowl numbers are in decline and they need landholders to support them in the baiting project.

"Last year we managed to get 175 landholders from across the region who laid out over 18,000 baits," she said.

"We managed to get a great spread across many of our best known nesting sites.

"We're looking for that sort number again this year."

Western Australia's Regional Development Minister Brendon Grylls has welcomed an agreement to establish much needed accommodation in the Gascoyne town of Coral Bay.

Coral Bay traditional owners last week announced a deal to lease a section of land north of the town to the State Government for workers' accommodation.

Overcrowding in the town has caused frustration for close to a decade.

Mr Grylls says he is pleased the impasse is over and has welcomed expressions of interest from potential developers.

"We've had major challenges providing accommodation for the workforce, many of them seasonal but also the small business owners that are in tourism businesses," he said.

"The challenge of remoteness and lack of housing has been a real problem."

Agricultural scientists have developed a new range of hardwood plantation trees that are resistant to pests and disease.

Timber Queensland (TQ) says since logging in state-owned native forests was stopped, there has been a shortage of alternative timber.

TQ chief executive Rod McInnes says he is confident the fast-growing trees will address Queensland's growing timber needs.

"The scientists at horticulture and forestry research have been working very hard to identify the various benefits of all those other varieties," he said.

"Our understanding and certainly what we've observed happening in the field is that they've pretty much got that nailed now."

The New South Wales Government has approved the development application for a timber mill upgrade at Bombala in the state's South East.

The announcement comes just days after the company behind the project, Willmott Forests, appointed receivers.

The $65m project is expected to secure hundreds of jobs on the Southern Monaro, but it was revealed earlier this week that the forest management company owed millions to two banks.

The Government has now approved the development, as well as the proposal to increase its softwood log input capacity by almost 300 000 tonnes a year.

The Member for Monaro, Steve Whan, says the Government is working to guarantee a future for the mill.

"I've got State Forests down in Melbourne talking to the receivers about what they're planning to do, but also, I'm hearing that the partners in the mill at the moment are interested," he said.

Mr Whan says the approval can be used by either the current, or any future operator.

"It ensures that any other company, whether it's the current partners or anyone else who comes in, have an approved project" he said.

The State Opposition says Mr Whan is hypocritical for supporting the mill, despite endorsing a decision to stop Red Gum logging in the Riverina.

The Opposition's Spokeswoman for Natural Resource Management, Katrina Hodgkinson, says the Coalition plans to expand the timber industry.

"I want to see an expansion, in general, of forestry across New South Wales," she said.

"Not this constant erosion of our plantations and our timber milling facilities, where we've just seen Steve Whan vote with the Labor Government to shut down an entire state forest area."

She says the Labor Government's recent decision shows it is not committed to forestry.

"I just think that speaks volumes of how the Labor party treats timber communities in this state," she said.

"Honestly, it's time to be realistic about this and recognise that the Government's policies, when it comes to forestry and when it comes to timber milling, just aren't washing."

For more, go to the South East News blog.

There is now a blueprint for the future direction of the Manning Valley after 18 months of consultation.

The Manning Valley Community Plan has identified five strategic directions for the Valley.

The Greater Taree City Council's Laura Black says it is based around respect for the environment, a strong economy and lifestyle.

Ms Black says it will help council, the community and government agencies achieve good outcomes.

She says there has been a huge amount of public input.

"We had overwhelming feedback in the whole process," she said.

"We [had] contact with thousands and thousands of members of our community.

"We actually had written feedback from up to 4,000 members of our community at different stages throughout the consultation period."

Ms Black says the plan focuses on five key areas.

"Looking after what we've got, respecting the environment, a strong economy, a great lifestyle and getting things done," she said.

"The plan details the objectives of each of these key directions and some strategies that will assist council and the community and other stakeholders, other government departments."

Dredging of the Myall River at Port Stephens is just weeks away from being completed after a decade of campaigning by the local community.

The New South Wales Government allocated funding over a year ago but the dredging work only started in March this year.

The build-up of sand has caused havoc for boats, including the local ferry, while a yacht was grounded in the navigation channel in March.

Myall Action Group spokesman Gordan Grainger says the dredging is only a short-term solution but it will ease the headaches of local water users.

"The ferry and larger vessels were touching sand up to four times coming in and in fact we'd had several groundings of yachts," he said.

"The ferry was touching bottom on a number of occasions and in a couple of occasions it actually got stuck.

"Once [the dredging is complete] it will give a clear run up into the Tea Gardens wharf area."

Hunter Valley thoroughbred breeders have been warned it is vital their industry signs an emergency response agreement in case there is a future exotic disease outbreak.

The warning comes from Professor Peter Shergold in his final report on the implementation of the Callinan Inquiry into the 2007 equine influenza [EI] outbreak.

Professor Shergold says waging future eradication campaigns against EI outbreaks will be difficult if the horse industry does not allow for a fair sharing of the defence costs.

Thoroughbred breeders want to voluntarily vaccinate against the disease but equine vets adamantly oppose the proposal.

The Primary Industries Ministerial Council may support the breeder's position if a funding agreement cannot be reached by December.

Sunshine Coast Mayor Bob Abbot says the Queensland Government has no right to force the Caloundra South Structure Plan through without following due process.

Last Friday, Queensland Infrastructure and Planning Minister Stirling Hinchliffe gave the council a 10-day extension to finalise the plan.

If the council does not submit the plan to the Government on time, Mr Hinchliffe will use his ministerial powers to take the development out of the council's hands.

Cr Abbot says he is writing to the Minister urging him to allow more time for the council to reach agreement with land owners and developers on infrastructure issues, as it did with the Palmview development in the hinterland south-west of Maroochydore.

"The Government aren't the planning authority here - we are," he said.

"The Government doesn't understand the intricacies that we face every day and the Government has no right in my view to be belligerent and bludgeon this sort of application through on the grounds that they're currently using."

Recent heavy rain has seen Bundaberg and Burnett dam levels reach a 10-year high.

Paradise Dam near Biggenden is currently at 98 per cent capacity while the Bjelke Petersen Dam near Murgon is sitting at 47 per cent.

Sunfish area operations manager Nev Wogandt says one of the biggest surprises is the Fred Haigh Dam reaching 81 per cent.

"Since this last inflow it's picked up 1,300 megalitres which is great," he said.

"It's topped it off from when it filled up to the 80-odd per cent earlier in the year.

"Really it has not been at this level for the past 10 years and it reached 65 per cent back in 2004, so this is really great news for the Fred Haigh Dam."

Fishing groups in Queensland say they have concerns for the future of the industry under a Labor minority government.

The Greens announced during the election campaign they want to ban all commercial fishing and mining exploration in the Coral Sea.

The previous federal government introduced an interim Coral Sea Conservation Zone, which covers nearly 1 million square kilometres at the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Wayne Bayne from Marine Queensland says he is seeking talks with the new government.

"What we had was everybody and their dog involved in it including international organisations virtually dictating to the Labor Government what they were doing," he said.

"If this process continues, I can tell you that the ramifications for regional and rural communities and regional economies like Cairns is going to be absolutely horrendous."

The secretary of Fraser Coast recreational fishing group Sunfish, Martin Bellert, says he is confident they can negotiate with the new Federal Government.

Before the election, Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett said the Government would assess whether fishing should be banned to protect the marine environment between Double Island Point and Fraser Island off south-east Queensland.

Mr Bellert says he believes the independents will encourage the new government to listen to recreational fishers' concerns.

"[Independent] Tony Windsor is reasonably sympathetic to the fishing issues anyhow," he said.

"We've got what we feel comfortable with with the way the situation's going because it's placed us in a better negotiating position."

The Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) says there is no guarantee more overtaking lanes will be built on the Newell Highway.

The RTA is working on a strategy, due to be completed by September, to identify the highest priority locations for extra overtaking lanes.

The sections of highway which are chosen will depend on a number of factors, including crash rates and the road's gradient.

Western Region manager Peter Dearden says while the RTA has funding for the investigations, it still needs to secure extra money for the actual works.

"Right now we have funding to undertake the strategy," he said.

'We don't have any funding to construct any overtaking lanes but it's really too early to say how many of those overtaking lanes might be constructed.

"It certainly puts us in a much stronger position if we're seeking funding if we've got a robust strategy underpinning that funding request."

Mr Dearden says they are interested in hearing what the public has to say.

"We're always interested in getting direct feedback from our customers and the Newell Highway has got many of our customers using it," he said.

"But in addition to that we need to have a defensible position for whatever it is we're recommending in the strategy.

"It's likely that the strategy will come up with a prioritised list and we want to know where we're going to get the very best value for money."

Potato farmers in the south-east of South Australia have finalised negotiations with buyer McCain and will take a cut of $26.50 per tonne on current prices.

The SA industry is the first to finalise its farm-gate price with the company in a decision which is expected to set prices across Australia.

Farmers will get about $300 per tonne.

Growers association chairman Andrew Whiterson says a high Australian dollar and an oversupply have driven the price down.

"We roughly know what the profit level in potatoes is and to take a price drop such as this, we know it's going to be very tough to remain viable," he said.

"In due course, that gives it a very negative outlook to being a potato farmer.

"That's taking our prices back to a price we haven't seen for four years I think since our price was down at that level. All we can hope is that some of our cost pressures may actually ease as well."

The cause of eye irritations at the Royal Adelaide Show remains under investigation.

Health authorities have been doing tests at the dairy judging lawn where dozens of people suffered eye problems this week.

Judging was moved to another area.

Show chief executive John Rothwell says samples have been taken from the marquee area, including soil and sawdust, but nothing has been established as the cause.

"[We are] looking at the marquee, whether it was the fabric, but that's not a new fabric so it couldn't be putting off any chemicals," he said.

"[We've] looked at anything that might have been done with the lawn in advance of the Show and the only thing we do well out is we put a light application of fertiliser and that's no different than normal.

"We really need to find the cause because you wouldn't want to come to the end of the Show and start planning for next year without knowing what the situation is, so that's our number one priority now that people have had their eyes washed and attended to."

It appears likely a contentious west coast abalone farm will be allowed back at the same site where it broke up in a storm off the South Australian coast in July.

Environmentalists and the Greens argue the aquaculture venture should not be allowed to return as it threatens a sea lion colony near Elliston.

But SA executive director of aquaculture, Professor Mehdi Doroudi, says moves are under way which would allow the farm's return.

He says there can be no guarantee of avoiding debris but improvements are being investigated.

"We are going to look into their licence conditions and management strategies that they have for their infrastructure to make sure that such risk is going to be, as best as possible, mitigated in the future," he said.

The Opposition says a South Australian mining boom is failing to materialise, but the Government disagrees.

It claims new figures from the Bureau of Statistics show a 53 per cent drop in spending on mining exploration in SA over the past two financial years.

But the Government though has pointed to the recent June quarter, which had a 40 per cent jump in spending.

Liberal MP Mitch Williams thinks the SA Government is failing to do enough to support mining.

"The so-called mining boom that we've been expecting in South Australia has come to a sudden halt," he said.

"The problem that we have in South Australia is our Government has failed to spend any money on the sort of infrastructure to encourage people to come out and to look to operate mines in South Australia.

"For the last few years we've seen a dramatic fall in the exploration spend in South Australia, particularly when you compare it with the exploration spend in those other states where the mining industry is more entrenched and they have the sort of infrastructure that they require."

SA Mineral Resources Development Minister Paul Holloway has dismissed the Opposition's claim.

"I think that's one of the silliest I've ever heard any member of the Opposition say and I think the public are well aware of the big impact that mining's had on this state," he said.

A manual has been released to give graziers more information about using guard dogs to protect their flocks from wild dog attacks.

Wild dogs are estimated to cost $67 million a year to rural industries in Queensland.

Some producers have been using Maremma dogs to help protect sheep.

AgForce spokesman Brent Finlay says the Maremmas also protect other stock.

"They are bonded to the flocks or the herd because they will work with both sheep and cattle," he said.

"In Victoria, they've actually bonded them with penguins to protect penguins from predation - they stay with the livestock all the time and fend off predators.

"They are a very important addition to the wild dog toolbox."

Record numbers of visitors are travelling to parts of south-west Queensland to see the outback in bloom.

Wildflowers and waterbirds are flourishing across the region after massive flooding earlier this year and good winter rain.

The Thargomindah Visitor Information Centre, west of Toowoomba, says its tourist numbers were up by 66 per cent for July and August compared to last year.

Manager Jan Seery says the extra promotion after the flooding has helped, but the waterbirds and wildflowers are an amazing natural attraction.

"They are magnificent - there are all sorts of colours - yellows, purples and whites in flower - the birds are beautiful," she said.

"If you go to Lake Bindagolly there are swans with cygnets behind them which is pretty amazing and there are huge numbers of them, not just one or two.

"There is just about every type of bird species that you can think of.

Ms Seery says the high number of tourist should continue throughout the rest of spring.

"These are the highest numbers I can find for Thargomindah," she said.

"In fact, we have actually had more people come through out Visitor Information Centre than we had for the whole of last year.

"Because of the rain we have had and the rain that is coming again it is going to give another flush of wildflowers so I think our visitors will continue through into October and November."