NSW Forests - Birth of a movement

NSW forests are a place of firsts. It was in NSW that woodchipping first began in Australia in the late 1960s. From Eden on the state's far south coast, this blight on our forest heritage spread throughout the country.

It was at Terania Creek near Lismore in 1979 that a forest protest first forced government to rethink its policies - ultimately resulting in the Rainforests Decision of 1982 which protected a total of 120,000 hectares of forest including all of Terania Creek.

The protest in the south-eastern forests of New South Wales in 1989-190 was even bigger than the Franklin blockade, running intermittently for eighteen months and resulting in 1300 arrests.

Activists were also prepared to go to court, instituting a spectacular series of cases without counterpart anywhere else in Australia. In one case after another, initially involving the State's south-eastern forests, then the State's north-eastern forests, the Forestry Commission was humiliated as the Land and Environment Court found that the Commission had flouted its legal obligations to prepare environmental impact statements and conduct its operations with due regard for protected native species.

The campaign grew through the 90s. Bob Carr was elected Premier of NSW in 1995 on a platform of protecting forests and ending export woodchipping. Many areas of valuable forests on the south and north coast as well as the western woodlands north of Dubbo have been protected by the State Labor government. However woodchipping continues, ripping the heart out of many forests necessary for species both plant and animal. Much has been won, but much still needs to be done.

The key campaign we are working on is for the remaining old growth forests on the state's south coast.