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Updated: February 24, 2010
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Logging wastes up to 1,000 litres every second, reduces waterflow into our dams by 50% and causes erosion and pollution that impacts on water quality. Victoria’s plantation forests can produce our wood. Let Victoria’s native forests produce our water!
Welcome to 2010, the year to protect Victoria's forests
This site is dedicated to protecting the source of Melbourne’s water supply - the forested catchments of the Central Highlands just east of Melbourne.
Australia is the driest inhabited continent on the planet and water is our most precious resource. On top of that, climate change is expected to make Victoria warmer and drier. The CSIRO forecasts that by 2020, Melbourne will have 8% less water, so it is vital that we save every drop.
- Need further proof? This photo shows logging in the Thomson catchment, Melbourne’s largest water storage. The Thomson Dam is now only 17% full. Photo: the Wilderness Society Collection
Tragically, the Brumby government allows logging in five of Melbourne’s water catchments which supply more than half of the city’s water, including our largest catchment, the Thomson Dam.
While water supply is scarce, the quality of our water is the envy of the world. But now it is under threat.
Latest updates
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Historic Healesville meeting sends clear message to VicForests - July 19, 2010
On the 24th June, in an historic meeting in Healesville, around 350 people packed out the town's Memorial Hall to hear about the disappearing native forests in the Central Highlands.
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Tony told: saving water starts with protecting forests and rivers
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June 15, 2010
Local Mitcham district residents today take their request that the state government ramp up action to protect Melbourne's water supply to the office of their local member of parliament, Tony Robinson.
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Tony Richardson MP targeted over failure to protect forests and water - June 14, 2010
On the morning of Thursday 3rd, the failure of local Mitcham MP Tony Robinson to meet with The Wilderness Society and Environment Victoria came home to roost. Local residents protested outside Minister Robinson's office in Mitcham in a show of support for the protection of Victoria's native forests and rivers.
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VicForests' 2009 Annual Report reveals $5.1 million loss - October 22, 2009
In another blow to the Victorian taxpayer, VicForests' 2009 Annual Report has revealed losses of over $5.1 million. Whilst taxpayers foot the bill, export woodchip and paper companies continue to bask in the supply of cheap pulplogs being logged from old growth forests and water catchments.
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Taking our 350.org forest protection message to the world - October 20, 2009
Last weekend, the Wilderness Society took our forest protection message to the world by joining in with the lead up to 350.org's International Day of Action. A giant spectacular message was stamped in a clearfelled forest of the Central Highlands of Victoria.
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Supreme Court orders logging halt at Brown Mountain - September 14, 2009
In an historic win for the Victorian forest campaign, the Supreme Court has ordered a logging halt in Brown Mountain's old-growth forests in East Gippsland.
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Over 1,000 signatures delivered to Parliament House - September 14, 2009
We've collected over a thousand of these signed slips, and on Tuesday 1 September took them to Parliament House as a Giant Petition Tree.
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Campaigners badge the otherwise blank offices that house VicForests - August 27, 2009
On 26 August, Wilderness Society staff and volunteers paid a visit to the state’s #1 Wally with Water. Handing out pamphlets to passes-by during the busy lunch-hour in the heart of the CBD, campaigners badged the otherwise blank offices that house VicForests.
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Salvage logging in Victoria's Central Highlands - August 03, 2010
See recent photos of salvage logging in Victoria's Central Highlands.
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One of Melbourne’s biggest water wallys exposed - July 28, 2009
Today the Wilderness Society launched an education campaign to expose the environmentally damaging actions of the Victorian Government’s commercial logging agency, VicForests. The campaign includes a new website www.sicforests.com.au
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