Updated May 2008
FOREST PROTEST
& ACTIVISM
Old-growth-forest activism and protest in south-western Australia karri and jarrah forest against unsustainable logging. Protest campaigns depicted are Lane, Wattle, Gardner, Swarbrick and Boorara
The images document Western Australian activists and protestors against ancient forest logging from 1994 to 2003. They show some of the means used to delay logging operations and gain media coverage for the forest they loved. The protesters who lived in the forest camps tolerated primitive conditions; in winter cold, mud, smokey fires, burnt raw food and fines - despite the huge sums of money collected in their name by some self annointed "peak bodies" in Perth
LANE 01 W STATE FOREST
Defenders in circle at base of tree in which tree sitter is on the platform
Photograph of the dawn vigil at the end of the first stage of the Lane 01 West forest protest. The device at the top of the tree, about 40 metres high, is a platform on which a protester camps to protect a circle of forest with a radius of two tree heights, about 150 metres, with his or her body
Following this vigil at the base of a karri tree, in which a lone protester was left to protect the area, the main group of protesters withdrew to allow already fallen trees to be removed. The timber industry moved back in and immediately started to fall more trees. This sort of behavour by CALM (now DEC & FPC gave rise to the slogan “CALM Lies - Forest Dies”
Despite continued protest, concurrent with the Wattle Campaign, Lane 01W was totally destroyed to keep the Diamond Chip Mill and the Pemberton Timber Mill operating for just a few weeks
As a result of the forest campaigns I witnessed and photographed I developed respect for the dedication and courage of many of the defenders in their attempts to halt the timber industry's feeding frenzy. Some of the defenders who came from outside have settled in the area and joined the few dedicated local residents who continue to live and work in an atmosphere of unveiled timber industry hostility. This open hostility is continuing
WATTLE STATE FOREST
dragon, November 1998
A road dragon was a device made of a mixture of concrete and metal into which a defender "locked on" by means of a dog chain looped around the wrist and latched inside the dragon using a dog chain clip. The logic for the mixture of concrete and metal is that you can't use a jack hammer on metal and an angle grinder won't work on concrete, Wattle SF, near South West Highway WA
December 1998
At Lane and Wattle I witnessed the steadily increasing arrogance, hostility and disregard for human safety shown by the WA Police, Western Australian Dept. of Conservation and Land Management (now Dept of Envoronment and Conservation) and the logging Industry.
GARDNER 08 STATE FOREST
Well actually, clowning around for the camera
8th April 1999
The tree really was that big. The timber turned out to be useless and still lies on the forest floor.
Regarding the logging of Gardner 08 State Forest, Peter Beatty, CALM Planning Officer for this block stated "This [Gardner 08] was the most ancient and pristine area [of karri forest] we had. We decided to log it because the timber industry was locked out of Jane and Giblett Forests by protests."
The measured dimensions are; widest diameter 4.07 metre, circumference around butresses 14.03 metres
SWARBRICK STATE FOREST
BOORARA STATE FOREST
RALLIES
Peter Murphy in "Wastefarmers (Westfarmers) costume
Swarbrick rally, Thompson Road WA, July 1999. (IRneg)
(Photograph by Debbie Ludlam for John Austin)
I settled in Quinninup in the Australian south west karri forest intending to work with black & white photography in a contemplative manner. However, I quickly realised the truth of the destruction to the local environment. The result of this is that much of my black and white photographic output for the following ten years was documentation of the destruction and defense of the tattered remnants of the once magnificent south west forests
This documentation is unique - no one else has comprehensive photographic coverage of the Western Australian forest protest. There is some scattered colour and digital work, but the latter has in some cases been digitally manipulated, which removes its credibility
I have ceased black and white photography of forest devastation. To be constantly faced with the destruction of my local environment is too much to suffer. Especially in the face of crap from some money grubbing, self annointed "peak environmental bodies" based in Perth who exist only to gain funding, with total disinterest in what is happening in the forest
More forest protest images can be seen on the Quokkas page