Ellen Sandell, East Brunswick
The Age, 7 September 2006
With an increased risk of bushfires this summer due to lower than average rainfall ( The Age, 5/9), the CFA has questioned whether there will be enough water to deal with the fire season.
As logging in our water catchments loses 1000 litres of water every second, perhaps if we stopped logging we would have enough water to fight bushfires! Logging also increases the risk of bushfires as old, damp forests are replaced with young, dry regrowth. Perhaps if we just left our old-growth trees alone we wouldn't be complaining about water restrictions, bushfires and climate change.
07 September, 2006
01 September, 2006
LETTER: Why lug buckets if we continue to log our forests?
Lee O'Mahoney, Diamond Creek
Letter to the Editor, The Age
September 1, 2006
Once again, we're being asked to shower with a friend, lug buckets of water around and rinse our brushed teeth with a smidgen of water. Fair enough. I support us developing more respect and care for our water resources.
But there's a glaring anomaly, one that the Government is loathe to acknowledge: changes we make to our showering, gardening and tooth-brushing habits are mere drops in the dam of our dwindling water supplies when trees in our water catchments continue to be logged.
Logged forests suck up 50 per cent more water compared with areas that aren't logged. Young trees are off-the-wagon waterholics compared with oldies. What's more, there's simply no need for it: supplies from plantations that aren't in our water catchments are sufficient to meet our needs for wood and woodchips.
Come on, Mr Bracks, put our water where your mouth is. Stop stealing water from our water catchments and reducing our already scarce supplies.
Original letter
Letter to the Editor, The Age
September 1, 2006
Once again, we're being asked to shower with a friend, lug buckets of water around and rinse our brushed teeth with a smidgen of water. Fair enough. I support us developing more respect and care for our water resources.
But there's a glaring anomaly, one that the Government is loathe to acknowledge: changes we make to our showering, gardening and tooth-brushing habits are mere drops in the dam of our dwindling water supplies when trees in our water catchments continue to be logged.
Logged forests suck up 50 per cent more water compared with areas that aren't logged. Young trees are off-the-wagon waterholics compared with oldies. What's more, there's simply no need for it: supplies from plantations that aren't in our water catchments are sufficient to meet our needs for wood and woodchips.
Come on, Mr Bracks, put our water where your mouth is. Stop stealing water from our water catchments and reducing our already scarce supplies.
Original letter
ARTICLE: Forestry row taken to the marginals
Ellen Whinnett
Sunday Herald Sun, September 1, 2006
Environment groups are planning a high-profile pre-election battle to have logging banned in vast tracts of Victorian forest.
A coalition of environment groups will launch its campaign shortly. They will focus on important marginal seats held by both the Liberal and Labor parties in an effort to have their message heard.
Areas in Gippsland are shaping up as the next forest battleground. Environmental groups are concerned about wood-chipping in old-growth forests, logging in water catchments, and the impact of the loss of habitat on 12 endangered species of birds, animals and frogs. The group wants clear-felling banned in all Victorian forests and all logging ended in areas worthy of conservation.
The move could set the scene for a repetition of the conflict in the Otways forests in the lead-up to the 2002 election. This eventually led Premier Steve Bracks to agree to phase out logging in the Otways by 2008.
Campaign spokesman Luke Chamberlain, from Environment East Gippsland, said two years had been spent mapping significant areas of forest that he said should be protected from logging. He said Victoria's state-owned forests were being turned over to woodchips, which were mainly sent for export and were no longer providing a great number of jobs. "It's a land grab to turn the old-growth forests into woodchip farms," Mr Chamberlain said.
Environment groups involved in the coalition, including the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Wilderness Society and the Central Highlands Alliance, will focus on several marginal seats in regional Victoria and suburban Melbourne. They include Labor's Ferntree Gully, Mt Waverley, Prahran, Mordialloc, Bentleigh and South Barwon, and Liberal marginals Nepean, South-West Coast and Bass.
They hope to reinforce the message that logging in catchment areas is continuing while water restrictions are being introduced in Melbourne.
Mr Chamberlain denied that the group would automatically support the Greens, saying they would endorse whichever party had the strongest environmental policy. But he said the Greens' policies were the best they had seen so far.
Independent MLA for the seat of Gippsland East, Craig Ingram, said the group was seeking to end all old-growth logging in his electorate, which would jeopardise up to 500 jobs. "Basically 85 per cent of old-growth is already reserved," Mr Ingram said.
He said banning logging in old-growth forests would affect the industry "everywhere east of Bairnsdale", and would hit saw-millers hard. The issue was important to voters in the timber towns of Cann River and Orbost and on into Bairnsdale. "It would be absolutely devastating to my community -- basically, death by a thousand cuts," Mr Ingram said. "It really has the potential to be a winner or a loser at the election, and I'd call on the major political parties to hold the line and protect the industry."
Mr Ingram said the environmental group was highly organised and had been putting serious pressure on all MPs. "They are spending as much time in Parliament House as some of the members of Parliament," Mr Ingram said."
Original article
Sunday Herald Sun, September 1, 2006
Environment groups are planning a high-profile pre-election battle to have logging banned in vast tracts of Victorian forest.
A coalition of environment groups will launch its campaign shortly. They will focus on important marginal seats held by both the Liberal and Labor parties in an effort to have their message heard.
Areas in Gippsland are shaping up as the next forest battleground. Environmental groups are concerned about wood-chipping in old-growth forests, logging in water catchments, and the impact of the loss of habitat on 12 endangered species of birds, animals and frogs. The group wants clear-felling banned in all Victorian forests and all logging ended in areas worthy of conservation.
The move could set the scene for a repetition of the conflict in the Otways forests in the lead-up to the 2002 election. This eventually led Premier Steve Bracks to agree to phase out logging in the Otways by 2008.
Campaign spokesman Luke Chamberlain, from Environment East Gippsland, said two years had been spent mapping significant areas of forest that he said should be protected from logging. He said Victoria's state-owned forests were being turned over to woodchips, which were mainly sent for export and were no longer providing a great number of jobs. "It's a land grab to turn the old-growth forests into woodchip farms," Mr Chamberlain said.
Environment groups involved in the coalition, including the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Wilderness Society and the Central Highlands Alliance, will focus on several marginal seats in regional Victoria and suburban Melbourne. They include Labor's Ferntree Gully, Mt Waverley, Prahran, Mordialloc, Bentleigh and South Barwon, and Liberal marginals Nepean, South-West Coast and Bass.
They hope to reinforce the message that logging in catchment areas is continuing while water restrictions are being introduced in Melbourne.
Mr Chamberlain denied that the group would automatically support the Greens, saying they would endorse whichever party had the strongest environmental policy. But he said the Greens' policies were the best they had seen so far.
Independent MLA for the seat of Gippsland East, Craig Ingram, said the group was seeking to end all old-growth logging in his electorate, which would jeopardise up to 500 jobs. "Basically 85 per cent of old-growth is already reserved," Mr Ingram said.
He said banning logging in old-growth forests would affect the industry "everywhere east of Bairnsdale", and would hit saw-millers hard. The issue was important to voters in the timber towns of Cann River and Orbost and on into Bairnsdale. "It would be absolutely devastating to my community -- basically, death by a thousand cuts," Mr Ingram said. "It really has the potential to be a winner or a loser at the election, and I'd call on the major political parties to hold the line and protect the industry."
Mr Ingram said the environmental group was highly organised and had been putting serious pressure on all MPs. "They are spending as much time in Parliament House as some of the members of Parliament," Mr Ingram said."
Original article
29 August, 2006
THE AGE:Gunns, greenies and the law
Andrew Darby
The Age, August 29, 2006
The Tasmanian timber giant is adamant it will sue environmental protesters, despite a legal setback yesterday. Is free speech in the firing line? By Andrew Darby.
As pirate ships go, the Weld Ark is more feral Australian than Jack Sparrow's Black Pearl. The Jolly Roger up the mast is where the similarities end. The Ark is built of poles and corrugated iron, and has no hull to speak of. Then there's the location at the end of a forest road - a long way from the Caribbean. But against the odds this "ship" is still causing trouble, nearly eight months after it was rigged to block access in one of Tasmania's more tenacious forest protests.
Through a sub-zero winter, a small crew of activists have stuck to the ark despite worries that opponents who wrecked a car, fired shots nearby, and offered verbal abuse, were returning more often to intimidate them.
Behind the camp, a flowing blanket of tall eucalypt rises up mountain foothills to the boundary of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. About 5000 hectares of this forest outside the heritage area is earmarked for logging. The environmentalists, mainly from the nearby Huon Valley, have blocked access for more than 20 months.
For a similar time, 20 people and organisations have been prosecuted by the timber industry giant, Gunns Ltd, and a logging contractor, in a landmark case at the Victorian Supreme Court. In its latest claim, thrown out yesterday, Gunns sought $6.9 million in damages from the environmentalists over protests they made against it.
Earlier this year, 40 British lawyers wrote to The Guardian newspaper to express their concern at Gunns' decision to sue the 20, an act that they said could financially cripple individual defendants, and have a chilling impact on freedom to protest.
Australian lawyers also warned that increased litigation against community participation in public issues silenced voices that should be heard. Led by eminent figures such as the Australian National University's Professor Hilary Charlesworth, dozens signed a statement in support of law reform.
Out in the Weld Valley, the pirate ship stands as evidence that Tasmania's forest debate is entrenched. As Gunns confirmed yesterday that it would pursue the action, what effect has the case had?
When it was lodged in December 2004, the Gunns writ was a surprise, even though the company had sued before, over a protest at one of its woodchip mills. Another forest contractor had also started a damages case over an action near the Weld, but the scale of the Gunns' writ was unprecedented.
The massive suit covered 10 different protest actions, in the state and overseas, over four years. Greens leaders Bob Brown had a $1.7 million claim against him. Four people from the Wilderness Society each faced claims in excess of $1.3 million, and the organisation itself a further $3.9 million. Those sued range from a country grandmother to a town dentist, and a filmmaker to a law student. Some had assets, others not.
Since the case began, the world has changed for both plaintiff and defendant. Prime Minister John Howard's Tasmanian forests protection package took the fire out of the hottest protests. Gunns moved further down the track towards a goahead for its contentious $1.4 billion Tasmanian pulp mill at Bell Bay on the Tamar River, spending $11 million to reach the public assessment stage, but its share price has plunged.
Some of those sued said the case was causing anguish, others claim to be disregarding it and one opponent of Gunns' pulp mill plan had prepared for prosecution, though it hasn't happened. Others were said to have been deterred from joining protest.
The Burnie dentist, Peter Pullinger, his wife Leonie and their four grown children, have much at stake. Locals for 30 years, they campaigned to protect one of the southern hemisphere's largest remaining tracts of temperate rainforest, the Tarkine, and largely won.
But there is now a $784,000 claim against Dr Pullinger for action he is alleged to have taken against Gunns, linked to a protest at a woodchip mill, and over a stockpile on the wharf at Burnie.
"I ignore this case, and literally don't think about it day to day," said Pullinger. "It's almost as if I made a conscious decision to say: 'well stuff this for a game of darts'."
The legal action seems to have made little difference to his general standing. He recently went to Canberra to meet John Howard and the Environment Minister, Ian Campbell, to talk about federal plans for protecting the Tarkine.
But in the Pullinger marriage, Leonie has always been the administrator, and the burden of dealing with the case has fallen to her. She went to the last Gunns shareholders' meeting, where she took the floor, held up a large photograph, and explained to the directors what sort of people her family were.
"We are not ratbags. That's the message I was trying to get across. We are ordinary, everyday Tasmanians who became involved in the environment because of what was happening on our doorstep."
She said the board did not respond. Outside the meeting, Gunns executive chairman, John Gay, told a reporter for the Hobart Mercury he regretted Mrs Pullinger had been affected - a sorrow that extended to his employees and their families who had been damaged by the green movement, and indeed, even to his own family.
"I'm very sorry that she is in there, but they should have thought about what they did before they did it," he said.
Jenny Weber and her partner Adam Burling are in a different phase of life. Burling is one of the 20, prosecuted over his alleged role in a road blockade at Lucaston in the Huon Valley.
Plans they had to marry have been postponed, as have those of buying a house. Burling now works in Senator Brown's offi ce. Weber remains an activist - the spokeswoman for the Weld protest. "Some people say I have courage, and they're the nice ones," Weber said.
In recent months, 10 people have been arrested in this protest as they chained themselves to logging machines and the gates of a nearby timber plant. She said threats had been made of further law suits.
"I don't want to be intimidated by a company who might want to silence me or what I work for," she said. "This is about free speech rights."
Brown believes the democratic implications of Gunns' action are as great as those of forest protection. "We're in the main getting on with life and trying to save Tasmania's forests with no less vim and vigour," he said.
"People are worried about the huge expenses involved, but it's made world news and certainly attracted support . . . It's helped make the protest more durable."
He felt no constraint in speaking out. Recently he issued a media release pointing out that Gunns' share price had fallen from $4.35 to $2.54, refl ecting the investment advisory service CommSec's prediction of $2.56 a share and an even lower $2.38 if the company proceeded with the pulp mill. Yesterday the shares closed at $2.56.
Near the mill site, the main community opponent of Australia's largest single timber industry investment has hung up his spurs. Les Rochester cited a feud with the Greens for the demise of the Tamar Residents Action Committee. It had absolutely nothing to do with Gunns, he said. "When I started this . . . I divested myself of anything I owned," he said. "I'm not worth a zac."
But he believes others in the community were still frightened of speaking out against the mill.
John Gay broke a lengthy silence on the case as he confi rmed yesterday it would be pursued, at least against some of the individuals. "Gunns isn't about silencing the Greens," he said. "What we're sick of is the malicious damage some people are doing to us. We will continue to chase that down to the nth degree."
Terry Edwards, the chief executive of the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania, believes the case hasn't prevented people from "expressing their opinions, however ill-founded those opinions might be".
"A contractor was picketed out of a coupe in the Denison forest, there are those people with the pirate ship in the Weld, and it hasn't resulted in any attempt to shut them up," he said. "They have done that with complete impunity.
"I don't think Gunns has tried to trammel free speech. In fact, quite the contrary. Gunns has been quite genuine about opening the company up to debate, particularly with the pulp mill."
The loggers - the small businessmen who contract their men and machines to supply Gunns - are currently in a pinch. Their contracts are lapsing in a depressed market for old growth chips.
"The high Australian dollar's competitiveness is contributing to that," said Rodney Bishop, chairman of the Forest Contractors Association. "And our (overseas) customers are telling us they have been told what we are doing is environmentally wrong."
Bishop defended his members' decision to commence legal action. "Not being specific to any case, we have a legal right to do what we do."
Louise Morris is one of the Gunns 20. She also discovered, a year after the event, that she had been separately sued by a logging contractor for a protest in the Denison Valley in January 2004, when she acted as media spokeswoman.
"If life ground to a halt around this I would be a rather useless campaigner," said the 29-year-old who now lives in Melbourne, where she is continuing with a university course, and becoming involved in anti-nuclear work. "In 10 years' time this will all be a lovely chapter in the story of how we managed to get free speech legislation enshrined in the constitution."
HOW THE CASE UNFOLDED
DECEMBER 14, 2004 Process servers working on behalf of Gunns hand writs to 20 environmentalists and organisations involved in Tasmanian forests campaigns, over alleged conspiracy, interference with contracts, and interference with trade and business.
APRIL 9, 2005 Counsel for six defendants, Mark Dreyfus, QC, foreshadows applications to strike out parts of Gunns’ statement of claim in the Victorian Supreme Court, describing it as embarrassing and confused.
JULY 18, 2005 Justice Bernard Bongiorno dismisses the first and second statements of claim saying: "It would be a singularly unprofi table exercise to attempt to describe every defect in it which needs correction." The court allows the claim to be refi led.
MARCH 9, 2006 The defence argues for the third statement of claim to be struck out, saying it is substantially the same as the earlier statements. Justice Bongiorno asks Gunns to provide a single document for his consideration, which runs to 641 pages. He reserves his decision.
AUGUST 28, 2006 The third statement of claim is thrown out, being ruled "too general" by Justice Bongiorno. "Too much is sought to be alleged against too many," he says. Gunns has until October 19 to tell the court if it will attempt to introduce another statement of claim.
THE GUNNS 20
1. ALEC MARR, national director of The Wilderness Society (TWS)
$1.56 million
2. GEOFF LAW, Tasmanian forest campaigner, TWS
$1.45 million
3. RUSSELL HANSON, chief executive, TWS
$1.35 million
4. LEANNE MINSHULL, business analyst, former TWS
$1.55 million
5. HEIDI DOUGLAS, filmmaker, TWS
$464,313
6. THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY INC
$3.97 million
7. ADAM BURLING, Huon Valley environmentalist
$399,018
8. LOUISE MORRIS, environmentalist, student
$419,018
9. SIMON BROWN, new media artist
$309,108
10. SENATOR BOB BROWN, Greens leader
$1.76 million
11. PEG PUTT, Tasmanian Greens leader
$1.47 million
12. HELEN GEE, environmentalist
$45,473
13. BEN MORROW, environmentalist
$121,014
14. LOU GERAGHTY, cafe owner
$249,018
15. NEAL FUNNELL, law student
$70,000
16. BRIAN DIMMICK, filmmaker
$204,704
17. HUON VALLEY ENVIRONMENT CENTRE
$569,490
18. DR PETER PULLINGER, dentist
$784,313
19. DR FRANK NICKLASON, physician
$750,000
20. DOCTORS FOR NATIVE FORESTS INC.
$550,000
Article source
The Age, August 29, 2006
The Tasmanian timber giant is adamant it will sue environmental protesters, despite a legal setback yesterday. Is free speech in the firing line? By Andrew Darby.
As pirate ships go, the Weld Ark is more feral Australian than Jack Sparrow's Black Pearl. The Jolly Roger up the mast is where the similarities end. The Ark is built of poles and corrugated iron, and has no hull to speak of. Then there's the location at the end of a forest road - a long way from the Caribbean. But against the odds this "ship" is still causing trouble, nearly eight months after it was rigged to block access in one of Tasmania's more tenacious forest protests.
Through a sub-zero winter, a small crew of activists have stuck to the ark despite worries that opponents who wrecked a car, fired shots nearby, and offered verbal abuse, were returning more often to intimidate them.
Behind the camp, a flowing blanket of tall eucalypt rises up mountain foothills to the boundary of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. About 5000 hectares of this forest outside the heritage area is earmarked for logging. The environmentalists, mainly from the nearby Huon Valley, have blocked access for more than 20 months.
For a similar time, 20 people and organisations have been prosecuted by the timber industry giant, Gunns Ltd, and a logging contractor, in a landmark case at the Victorian Supreme Court. In its latest claim, thrown out yesterday, Gunns sought $6.9 million in damages from the environmentalists over protests they made against it.
Earlier this year, 40 British lawyers wrote to The Guardian newspaper to express their concern at Gunns' decision to sue the 20, an act that they said could financially cripple individual defendants, and have a chilling impact on freedom to protest.
Australian lawyers also warned that increased litigation against community participation in public issues silenced voices that should be heard. Led by eminent figures such as the Australian National University's Professor Hilary Charlesworth, dozens signed a statement in support of law reform.
Out in the Weld Valley, the pirate ship stands as evidence that Tasmania's forest debate is entrenched. As Gunns confirmed yesterday that it would pursue the action, what effect has the case had?
When it was lodged in December 2004, the Gunns writ was a surprise, even though the company had sued before, over a protest at one of its woodchip mills. Another forest contractor had also started a damages case over an action near the Weld, but the scale of the Gunns' writ was unprecedented.
The massive suit covered 10 different protest actions, in the state and overseas, over four years. Greens leaders Bob Brown had a $1.7 million claim against him. Four people from the Wilderness Society each faced claims in excess of $1.3 million, and the organisation itself a further $3.9 million. Those sued range from a country grandmother to a town dentist, and a filmmaker to a law student. Some had assets, others not.
Since the case began, the world has changed for both plaintiff and defendant. Prime Minister John Howard's Tasmanian forests protection package took the fire out of the hottest protests. Gunns moved further down the track towards a goahead for its contentious $1.4 billion Tasmanian pulp mill at Bell Bay on the Tamar River, spending $11 million to reach the public assessment stage, but its share price has plunged.
Some of those sued said the case was causing anguish, others claim to be disregarding it and one opponent of Gunns' pulp mill plan had prepared for prosecution, though it hasn't happened. Others were said to have been deterred from joining protest.
The Burnie dentist, Peter Pullinger, his wife Leonie and their four grown children, have much at stake. Locals for 30 years, they campaigned to protect one of the southern hemisphere's largest remaining tracts of temperate rainforest, the Tarkine, and largely won.
But there is now a $784,000 claim against Dr Pullinger for action he is alleged to have taken against Gunns, linked to a protest at a woodchip mill, and over a stockpile on the wharf at Burnie.
"I ignore this case, and literally don't think about it day to day," said Pullinger. "It's almost as if I made a conscious decision to say: 'well stuff this for a game of darts'."
The legal action seems to have made little difference to his general standing. He recently went to Canberra to meet John Howard and the Environment Minister, Ian Campbell, to talk about federal plans for protecting the Tarkine.
But in the Pullinger marriage, Leonie has always been the administrator, and the burden of dealing with the case has fallen to her. She went to the last Gunns shareholders' meeting, where she took the floor, held up a large photograph, and explained to the directors what sort of people her family were.
"We are not ratbags. That's the message I was trying to get across. We are ordinary, everyday Tasmanians who became involved in the environment because of what was happening on our doorstep."
She said the board did not respond. Outside the meeting, Gunns executive chairman, John Gay, told a reporter for the Hobart Mercury he regretted Mrs Pullinger had been affected - a sorrow that extended to his employees and their families who had been damaged by the green movement, and indeed, even to his own family.
"I'm very sorry that she is in there, but they should have thought about what they did before they did it," he said.
Jenny Weber and her partner Adam Burling are in a different phase of life. Burling is one of the 20, prosecuted over his alleged role in a road blockade at Lucaston in the Huon Valley.
Plans they had to marry have been postponed, as have those of buying a house. Burling now works in Senator Brown's offi ce. Weber remains an activist - the spokeswoman for the Weld protest. "Some people say I have courage, and they're the nice ones," Weber said.
In recent months, 10 people have been arrested in this protest as they chained themselves to logging machines and the gates of a nearby timber plant. She said threats had been made of further law suits.
"I don't want to be intimidated by a company who might want to silence me or what I work for," she said. "This is about free speech rights."
Brown believes the democratic implications of Gunns' action are as great as those of forest protection. "We're in the main getting on with life and trying to save Tasmania's forests with no less vim and vigour," he said.
"People are worried about the huge expenses involved, but it's made world news and certainly attracted support . . . It's helped make the protest more durable."
He felt no constraint in speaking out. Recently he issued a media release pointing out that Gunns' share price had fallen from $4.35 to $2.54, refl ecting the investment advisory service CommSec's prediction of $2.56 a share and an even lower $2.38 if the company proceeded with the pulp mill. Yesterday the shares closed at $2.56.
Near the mill site, the main community opponent of Australia's largest single timber industry investment has hung up his spurs. Les Rochester cited a feud with the Greens for the demise of the Tamar Residents Action Committee. It had absolutely nothing to do with Gunns, he said. "When I started this . . . I divested myself of anything I owned," he said. "I'm not worth a zac."
But he believes others in the community were still frightened of speaking out against the mill.
John Gay broke a lengthy silence on the case as he confi rmed yesterday it would be pursued, at least against some of the individuals. "Gunns isn't about silencing the Greens," he said. "What we're sick of is the malicious damage some people are doing to us. We will continue to chase that down to the nth degree."
Terry Edwards, the chief executive of the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania, believes the case hasn't prevented people from "expressing their opinions, however ill-founded those opinions might be".
"A contractor was picketed out of a coupe in the Denison forest, there are those people with the pirate ship in the Weld, and it hasn't resulted in any attempt to shut them up," he said. "They have done that with complete impunity.
"I don't think Gunns has tried to trammel free speech. In fact, quite the contrary. Gunns has been quite genuine about opening the company up to debate, particularly with the pulp mill."
The loggers - the small businessmen who contract their men and machines to supply Gunns - are currently in a pinch. Their contracts are lapsing in a depressed market for old growth chips.
"The high Australian dollar's competitiveness is contributing to that," said Rodney Bishop, chairman of the Forest Contractors Association. "And our (overseas) customers are telling us they have been told what we are doing is environmentally wrong."
Bishop defended his members' decision to commence legal action. "Not being specific to any case, we have a legal right to do what we do."
Louise Morris is one of the Gunns 20. She also discovered, a year after the event, that she had been separately sued by a logging contractor for a protest in the Denison Valley in January 2004, when she acted as media spokeswoman.
"If life ground to a halt around this I would be a rather useless campaigner," said the 29-year-old who now lives in Melbourne, where she is continuing with a university course, and becoming involved in anti-nuclear work. "In 10 years' time this will all be a lovely chapter in the story of how we managed to get free speech legislation enshrined in the constitution."
HOW THE CASE UNFOLDED
DECEMBER 14, 2004 Process servers working on behalf of Gunns hand writs to 20 environmentalists and organisations involved in Tasmanian forests campaigns, over alleged conspiracy, interference with contracts, and interference with trade and business.
APRIL 9, 2005 Counsel for six defendants, Mark Dreyfus, QC, foreshadows applications to strike out parts of Gunns’ statement of claim in the Victorian Supreme Court, describing it as embarrassing and confused.
JULY 18, 2005 Justice Bernard Bongiorno dismisses the first and second statements of claim saying: "It would be a singularly unprofi table exercise to attempt to describe every defect in it which needs correction." The court allows the claim to be refi led.
MARCH 9, 2006 The defence argues for the third statement of claim to be struck out, saying it is substantially the same as the earlier statements. Justice Bongiorno asks Gunns to provide a single document for his consideration, which runs to 641 pages. He reserves his decision.
AUGUST 28, 2006 The third statement of claim is thrown out, being ruled "too general" by Justice Bongiorno. "Too much is sought to be alleged against too many," he says. Gunns has until October 19 to tell the court if it will attempt to introduce another statement of claim.
THE GUNNS 20
1. ALEC MARR, national director of The Wilderness Society (TWS)
$1.56 million
2. GEOFF LAW, Tasmanian forest campaigner, TWS
$1.45 million
3. RUSSELL HANSON, chief executive, TWS
$1.35 million
4. LEANNE MINSHULL, business analyst, former TWS
$1.55 million
5. HEIDI DOUGLAS, filmmaker, TWS
$464,313
6. THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY INC
$3.97 million
7. ADAM BURLING, Huon Valley environmentalist
$399,018
8. LOUISE MORRIS, environmentalist, student
$419,018
9. SIMON BROWN, new media artist
$309,108
10. SENATOR BOB BROWN, Greens leader
$1.76 million
11. PEG PUTT, Tasmanian Greens leader
$1.47 million
12. HELEN GEE, environmentalist
$45,473
13. BEN MORROW, environmentalist
$121,014
14. LOU GERAGHTY, cafe owner
$249,018
15. NEAL FUNNELL, law student
$70,000
16. BRIAN DIMMICK, filmmaker
$204,704
17. HUON VALLEY ENVIRONMENT CENTRE
$569,490
18. DR PETER PULLINGER, dentist
$784,313
19. DR FRANK NICKLASON, physician
$750,000
20. DOCTORS FOR NATIVE FORESTS INC.
$550,000
Article source
ARTICLE: Gunns to try a fourth time on case
Peter Gregory
The Age
August 29, 2006
The timber company Gunns Ltd has been given a fourth chance to plead its case in a multimillion-dollar damages claim against environmentalists.
Justice Bernard Bongiorno yesterday struck out the current 221-page claim, saying it made too many claims against too many defendants in the one proceeding.
He also pointed to difficulties it caused for those sued in understanding the case against them, and the likely cost.
But Justice Bongiorno gave the company until October 19 to ask the court if it could bring another claim. If it did not, the 20 environmental groups and individuals the company had sued could make claims for costs.
Giving his judgement in the Victorian Supreme Court, Justice Bongiorno said Gunns had made serious allegations about conduct by some individuals, some of which could amount to criminal offences.
He said it would be unjust to deny Gunns the opportunity to bring its allegations in an intelligible form. But it was legally embarrassing for defendants to have to grapple with the 714-paragraph claim, which apparently was accompanied by another 2217 paragraphs of additional information, he said.
In an action seeking more than $6 million damages, Gunns sued environmentalists, including Greens leader Bob Brown, his Tasmanian counterpart, Peg Putt, and Wilderness Society national campaign director Alec Marr.
The action also named the Wilderness Society, the Huon Valley Environment Centre and Doctors For Native Forests.
Gunns claimed it was hurt financially and in its reputation, and that some defendants were conspiring against it.
Gunns said it would continue its efforts to sue. Chief executive John Gay said: "We've got the answer we wanted."
With AAP
Original article
The Age
August 29, 2006
The timber company Gunns Ltd has been given a fourth chance to plead its case in a multimillion-dollar damages claim against environmentalists.
Justice Bernard Bongiorno yesterday struck out the current 221-page claim, saying it made too many claims against too many defendants in the one proceeding.
He also pointed to difficulties it caused for those sued in understanding the case against them, and the likely cost.
But Justice Bongiorno gave the company until October 19 to ask the court if it could bring another claim. If it did not, the 20 environmental groups and individuals the company had sued could make claims for costs.
Giving his judgement in the Victorian Supreme Court, Justice Bongiorno said Gunns had made serious allegations about conduct by some individuals, some of which could amount to criminal offences.
He said it would be unjust to deny Gunns the opportunity to bring its allegations in an intelligible form. But it was legally embarrassing for defendants to have to grapple with the 714-paragraph claim, which apparently was accompanied by another 2217 paragraphs of additional information, he said.
In an action seeking more than $6 million damages, Gunns sued environmentalists, including Greens leader Bob Brown, his Tasmanian counterpart, Peg Putt, and Wilderness Society national campaign director Alec Marr.
The action also named the Wilderness Society, the Huon Valley Environment Centre and Doctors For Native Forests.
Gunns claimed it was hurt financially and in its reputation, and that some defendants were conspiring against it.
Gunns said it would continue its efforts to sue. Chief executive John Gay said: "We've got the answer we wanted."
With AAP
Original article
03 July, 2006
ARTICLE: Seeing the wood waste from the trees
Andrew Lang
The Age, July 3, 2006
Australia should be paying closer attention to Europe on biofuels, writes Andrew Lang.
AUSTRALIA could within 15 years be producing up to 20 per cent of its energy needs from oody waste, but this has thus far been almost totally ignored.The media is informative about nuclear and fossil fuels energy, with the occasional mention of renewable sources of electricity production only touching on wind and solar energy.The potential for woody biomass as fuel for off-the-shelf cost-effective energy plants for some reason is being overlooked. Government pronouncements and speakers rarely mention bioenergy, except in the odd comment about biodiesel, or ethanol in petrol.
Yet, in central Finland, up to 45 per cent of industrial and household energy consumption is produced by power plants burning woody waste. This is mainly sourced from thinning or harvesting of private forest, or timber processing waste. Overall in Finland, the world leader in industrial bioenergy production, it is more than 22 per cent.
The European Union has a short-term goal of 12 per cent of energy to be produced from renewable sources by 2010. Austria already produces about 18 per cent from wood, with central heating or power plants in many towns. The smaller plants are often supplied with their wood chip fuel by farmer syndicates. In Sweden, the figure is almost 20 per cent. The Swedes have recently decommissioned two nuclear plants, and are decommissioning their remaining seven nuclear plants as soon as they can replace them with renewable energy sources, mainly with wood-fuelled plants. The Germans are aiming to similarly decommission all their nuclear power plants. In Bavaria, taxes on fossil fuels are used to generate subsidies for municipalities to develop co-generation plants fired by a mix of municipal waste and woody waste.
Denmark and the other Scandinavian countries use the same general principle. There, heating oil and vehicle fuels are taxed on the basis of their energy value, and part of the revenue raised is used to lift the price paid for chipped forest thinnings and harvest waste delivered to the power plants. In Finland some incentive subsidy is paid for the thinning process and to offset transport and chipping costs.
Last September there was an international conference in Finland about the latest available technology on woodchip-fired power generators. These come in all sizes, from about two megawatts — enough for a small rural community — to over 200MW, enough for a city of 100,000 residents. An equally informative conference was held some months later in Norway.
The Finnish website www.finbio.fi shows the great potential for this energy source. The Swedes have a similar website at www.svebio.se. The Danes, leaders in using straw as a biofuel, are at www.danbio.dk. A web search using "bioenergy" plus the country name will bring up similar sites for Germany and Austria.
The British are building a power plant near Lockerbie in southern Scotland that will be fuelled by woody biomass.
This will use about 200,000 tonnes a year of thinnings and harvest waste from plantation forestry management in the area (Victoria exports five times that amount, mostly from chipped eucalypt logs).
In the US, despite a primary renewable energy focus on wind, solar and hydro-electricity, there are many websites detailing the growth in the bioenergy sector. A general site is www.bioenergy.ornl.gov.
Woody waste comes from several main sources. In practice, for a 10MW or larger plant, it would come from an extensive, sustainably managed, private forestry industry. Sawlog-producing plantations are normally thinned twice as part of good management. Five thousand hectares of managed sawlog plantings progressively established — whether as scattered farm sawlog woodlots across 500 farms, or as several large industrial plantations — will annually produce enough chipped thinnings and harvest waste to fuel a significant bioenergy plant.
Waste wood from building demolition or renovation is another significant source, largely going to waste in Australia. In some countries, including Denmark, householders must by law separate all flammable municipal waste for energy generation or recycling.
A key issue in favour of bioenergy as a by-product of a sustainably managed plantation timber industry is that it is almost carbon neutral. For each tree cut down, at least one more is planted, or the coppice regrowth is managed.
In addition, appropriately sited trees are playing a role in salinity mitigation, improving water quality, or providing habitat. The logs from harvested trees are milled, with up to 50 per cent of the volume going into durable products. These may keep the carbon component sequestered for 100 years or more.
Crucial for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the use of woody biomass for generating energy means that it reduces the fossil fuel used by that amount of energy. And the ash from the clean wood combustion process is a useful product as a potential component of agricultural fertiliser.
Off-the-shelf power plants fuelled by woody biomass are relatively cheap, have low visual impact, and come in all sizes. They can be fuelled by alternative solid flammable wastes, such as straw, nut husks or olive pits, and can be the source of heat and steam for adjacent industry.
Andrew Lang is a farmer, farm forester, and chairman of the innovative SMARTimbers marketing co-operative.
21 June, 2006
ARTICLE: Cockatoo threat to pulp mill
Liz Minchin
The Age, June 21, 2006
A $650 million pulp mill has been put on hold because of plans to cut down six potential nesting trees for an endangered cockatoo.
Yesterday the federal Department of Environment and Heritage wrote to the developers of the Penola Pulp Mill in South Australia, just over the Victorian border, demanding more evidence that their plans would not affect the south-eastern red-tailed black cockatoo.
The mill's project director, John Roche, said he was surprised by the intervention, and concerned that the pulp mill might go the way of a Gippsland wind farm, recently vetoed by Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell because of a one-in-1000-year risk of it killing an endangered orange-bellied parrot.
"To build the mill we have to knock over six red gums that could be used as nesting habitat for the birds, but up until today we thought that decision would be made by the local council," Mr Roche said.
"Now that decision is with the Federal Government, obviously people are a little bit anxious after what happened with the wind farm in Victoria recently."
Better known to Victorians as Commonwealth Games mascot Karak, there are only about 1000 remaining south-eastern red-tailed black cockatoos, which are found only in western Victoria and parts of South Australia.
The greatest threat to their survival is the destruction of their nesting trees and food sources. A final decision on the mill is likely to take between three months and a year.
Original article
The Age, June 21, 2006
A $650 million pulp mill has been put on hold because of plans to cut down six potential nesting trees for an endangered cockatoo.
Yesterday the federal Department of Environment and Heritage wrote to the developers of the Penola Pulp Mill in South Australia, just over the Victorian border, demanding more evidence that their plans would not affect the south-eastern red-tailed black cockatoo.
The mill's project director, John Roche, said he was surprised by the intervention, and concerned that the pulp mill might go the way of a Gippsland wind farm, recently vetoed by Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell because of a one-in-1000-year risk of it killing an endangered orange-bellied parrot.
"To build the mill we have to knock over six red gums that could be used as nesting habitat for the birds, but up until today we thought that decision would be made by the local council," Mr Roche said.
"Now that decision is with the Federal Government, obviously people are a little bit anxious after what happened with the wind farm in Victoria recently."
Better known to Victorians as Commonwealth Games mascot Karak, there are only about 1000 remaining south-eastern red-tailed black cockatoos, which are found only in western Victoria and parts of South Australia.
The greatest threat to their survival is the destruction of their nesting trees and food sources. A final decision on the mill is likely to take between three months and a year.
Original article
12 June, 2006
ARTICLE: Timber sale not much chop, says industry
Philip Hopkins
The Age (Business section), June 12, 2006
Victoria's forestry industry has launched action against VicForests' latest timber auction, saying it is unfair and produces outcomes that threaten parts of the industry.
The director of operations at the Victorian Association of Forest Industries, Nick Murray, said many of the prices reached in the auction were unsustainable.
Some of the state's best and most progressive value-adding sawmills refused to pay the high prices, and were feeling threatened, he said.
VAFI has lodged formal grievance procedures with the auction manager of online auctioneers BOMweb. The grievances will have to be heard before contracts arising from the auctions can be finalised.
The grievance procedure involves representatives from VicForests, BOMweb and an independent probity officer making a decision on the complaint.
The auction was held last week, the second in the new timber sales system that VicForests, the State Government's commercial forestry arm, will progressively introduce over the next decade.
The current system, where sawmills receive long-term licences and VicForests sets the prices for the various sawlog grades, will be progressively phased out. All native forest timber will be sold at auction by 2015.
The first auction in April was for 174,100 cubic metres of sawlogs, while the second was for about 700,000 cubic metres.
Mr Murray said the auction did not operate as buyers had been led to believe. He said it was far more complex than the first auction, with a combination of lots creating an incredible number of variables.
"There are a number of aggrieved buyers and bidders, both successful and unsuccessful, hit by the vagaries of the system," he said. "Many felt compelled to pay more than they would have thought, and others missed out on buying wood as a consequence."
Successful buyers were believed to include Neville Smith Timber Industries, Gould Sawmills, Auswest and Fenning Bairnsdale. Those missing out are believed to be leading players such as McCormack Timbers, Drouin West Timber and Black Forest Timbers.
Mr Murray said several prices, including for mountain ash, were excessive at 20-50 per cent above the administered price delivered at the mill gate.
Original article
The Age (Business section), June 12, 2006
Victoria's forestry industry has launched action against VicForests' latest timber auction, saying it is unfair and produces outcomes that threaten parts of the industry.
The director of operations at the Victorian Association of Forest Industries, Nick Murray, said many of the prices reached in the auction were unsustainable.
Some of the state's best and most progressive value-adding sawmills refused to pay the high prices, and were feeling threatened, he said.
VAFI has lodged formal grievance procedures with the auction manager of online auctioneers BOMweb. The grievances will have to be heard before contracts arising from the auctions can be finalised.
The grievance procedure involves representatives from VicForests, BOMweb and an independent probity officer making a decision on the complaint.
The auction was held last week, the second in the new timber sales system that VicForests, the State Government's commercial forestry arm, will progressively introduce over the next decade.
The current system, where sawmills receive long-term licences and VicForests sets the prices for the various sawlog grades, will be progressively phased out. All native forest timber will be sold at auction by 2015.
The first auction in April was for 174,100 cubic metres of sawlogs, while the second was for about 700,000 cubic metres.
Mr Murray said the auction did not operate as buyers had been led to believe. He said it was far more complex than the first auction, with a combination of lots creating an incredible number of variables.
"There are a number of aggrieved buyers and bidders, both successful and unsuccessful, hit by the vagaries of the system," he said. "Many felt compelled to pay more than they would have thought, and others missed out on buying wood as a consequence."
Successful buyers were believed to include Neville Smith Timber Industries, Gould Sawmills, Auswest and Fenning Bairnsdale. Those missing out are believed to be leading players such as McCormack Timbers, Drouin West Timber and Black Forest Timbers.
Mr Murray said several prices, including for mountain ash, were excessive at 20-50 per cent above the administered price delivered at the mill gate.
Original article
10 June, 2006
ARTICLE: Pulp mill gets green light
Philip Hopkins
The Age (Business Section), June 10, 2006
Construction of a $700 million pulp mill at Heywood in Victoria's south-west will get under way by the end of this year after the project received the go-ahead from the Victorian Government.
The mill, 20 kilometres from Portland, will take two years to build and is expected to produce its first pulp by 2009.
It is a sister mill to a proposed pulp mill in Penola, north of Mount Gambier, which is awaiting approval from the South Australian Government.
Together, the two pulp mills represent $1.3 billion in investment, and each will employ 120 people when in full production. About 600 jobs will be created in building each mill.
Woodchips for the mills — 1.4 million green tonnes a year — will be sourced from Timbercorp's blue gum hardwood plantations in the Green Triangle, the fertile region that stretches from Warrnambool in Victoria to Kingston in SA.
The Heywood pulp mill is valued at about $400 million, but the total project will cost about $700 million when other works are included. These include a 120 megawatt, gas-fired power station connected to the SeaGas gas pipeline between Victoria and SA, and upgrades to road, rail and terminals at the Port of Portland.
Both plants will be chemi-thermomechanical pulp (CTMP) mills. CTMP is used to manufacture soft and absorbent tissue, box-board and coated fine paper among other things.
The developer is Protavia, which is backed by an alliance of companies that includes Timbercorp, chemical giant Orica, CellMark, Andritz and Silcar. CellMark is the world's largest pulp and paper trader, Andritz is the world's largest provider of the CTMP technology, and Silcar is a joint venture between German companies Thiess and Siemens.
Project director John Roche said there was huge demand for the CTMP pulp and prices were very high. "It requires much energy to produce, and Australia's energy prices are very competitive," he said.
"We are not competing against Australian electricity prices, but prices in the rest of the world. Only Russia and South Africa are comparable with Australia, but they do not have the same stable political environment." Mr Roche said adding value to the woodchips would be of great benefit to Australia. Woodchips sell for about $150-$160 a tonne, whereas pulp fetches about $800 a tonne. Mr Roche said the pulp would be exported to Taiwan, Korea and China. The two mills are expected to generate export earnings of $700 million a year, which will put a big dent in Australia's annual $2 billion trade deficit in wood products.
Timbercorp's plantation timber is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
Original article
The Age (Business Section), June 10, 2006
Construction of a $700 million pulp mill at Heywood in Victoria's south-west will get under way by the end of this year after the project received the go-ahead from the Victorian Government.
The mill, 20 kilometres from Portland, will take two years to build and is expected to produce its first pulp by 2009.
It is a sister mill to a proposed pulp mill in Penola, north of Mount Gambier, which is awaiting approval from the South Australian Government.
Together, the two pulp mills represent $1.3 billion in investment, and each will employ 120 people when in full production. About 600 jobs will be created in building each mill.
Woodchips for the mills — 1.4 million green tonnes a year — will be sourced from Timbercorp's blue gum hardwood plantations in the Green Triangle, the fertile region that stretches from Warrnambool in Victoria to Kingston in SA.
The Heywood pulp mill is valued at about $400 million, but the total project will cost about $700 million when other works are included. These include a 120 megawatt, gas-fired power station connected to the SeaGas gas pipeline between Victoria and SA, and upgrades to road, rail and terminals at the Port of Portland.
Both plants will be chemi-thermomechanical pulp (CTMP) mills. CTMP is used to manufacture soft and absorbent tissue, box-board and coated fine paper among other things.
The developer is Protavia, which is backed by an alliance of companies that includes Timbercorp, chemical giant Orica, CellMark, Andritz and Silcar. CellMark is the world's largest pulp and paper trader, Andritz is the world's largest provider of the CTMP technology, and Silcar is a joint venture between German companies Thiess and Siemens.
Project director John Roche said there was huge demand for the CTMP pulp and prices were very high. "It requires much energy to produce, and Australia's energy prices are very competitive," he said.
"We are not competing against Australian electricity prices, but prices in the rest of the world. Only Russia and South Africa are comparable with Australia, but they do not have the same stable political environment." Mr Roche said adding value to the woodchips would be of great benefit to Australia. Woodchips sell for about $150-$160 a tonne, whereas pulp fetches about $800 a tonne. Mr Roche said the pulp would be exported to Taiwan, Korea and China. The two mills are expected to generate export earnings of $700 million a year, which will put a big dent in Australia's annual $2 billion trade deficit in wood products.
Timbercorp's plantation timber is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
Original article
06 June, 2006
LETTER: Missing the logging message
Fiona Nelson, Otway Conservation Council, Apollo Bay
The Age ( letter) 6/6/06
Some 15,000 people rallied in Melbourne on Sunday to protect Victoria's old-growth, high-conservation forests and water catchments from woodchipping.
The message at the rally was loud and clear. Unfortunately, The Age (5/6), appears to have largely missed this message. It used the rally to advertise Steve Bracks' campaign to reduce power use — as important as the water use reduction campaign — thus diverting attention away from the fact that forested catchments continue to be logged primarily for woodchips.
Logging reduces water supply by as much as 50 per cent, yet the Bracks Government continues to allow our forested water catchments across Victoria to be cleared, while producing a sustainable water strategy that ensures that demand for water will exceed supply in the next 20 years for Melbourne, Ballarat and Geelong.
The Premier did say that logging has been reduced by 30 per cent over the past 6½ years. Not good enough, Mr Bracks. Protect our forests, our water, our air and our wildlife. End native forest logging now.
The Age ( letter) 6/6/06
Some 15,000 people rallied in Melbourne on Sunday to protect Victoria's old-growth, high-conservation forests and water catchments from woodchipping.
The message at the rally was loud and clear. Unfortunately, The Age (5/6), appears to have largely missed this message. It used the rally to advertise Steve Bracks' campaign to reduce power use — as important as the water use reduction campaign — thus diverting attention away from the fact that forested catchments continue to be logged primarily for woodchips.
Logging reduces water supply by as much as 50 per cent, yet the Bracks Government continues to allow our forested water catchments across Victoria to be cleared, while producing a sustainable water strategy that ensures that demand for water will exceed supply in the next 20 years for Melbourne, Ballarat and Geelong.
The Premier did say that logging has been reduced by 30 per cent over the past 6½ years. Not good enough, Mr Bracks. Protect our forests, our water, our air and our wildlife. End native forest logging now.
04 June, 2006
ARTICLE: Vic urged to protect old-growth forests
ABC News Online
Sunday, June 4, 2006
Environmentalists want the Victorian Government to do more to protect the state's old-growth forests from logging.
The Wilderness Society says while the Government has bought out about one-third of the state's logging quotas and it should now go further.
Marking World Environment Day tomorrow, the society's Alec Marr says the old-growth forests in the east, water catchments and the homes of endangered wildlife must be saved.
"We certainly expected the Government to do more this term than they have and we are running out of time," he said.
"So we want to see the Premier take a leadership role and protect all of these fantastic areas of forest that the community has been fighting for for years."
17 May, 2006
ARTICLE: Forest industry can't see wood for the (imported) trees
Philip Hopkins
The Age, May 17 2006
Plantation hardwood woodchip exports increased significantly last financial year, but Australia is set to record another $2 billion trade deficit in forest products.
Log removals from eucalypt hardwood plantations — mostly blue gums — rose by 58 per cent to 2.9 million cubic metres last financial year, according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics in its latest report on forest and wood products. Sales of eucalypt sawlogs from native forests fell by 4 per cent, to 10 million cubic metres.
ABARE's executive director Brian Fisher said the logs were used for woodchip exports.
Exports of hardwood and softwood woodchips totalled a record $858 million last financial year. Woodchips were 40 per cent of Australian timber exports of $2.1 billion, but this was dwarfed by forest product imports of $4.1 billion.
About half the imports ($2.1 billion) were of paper and paperboard, with printing and writing paper ($1.4 billion) the main source. Figures for this financial year's first half show imports totalling $2.05 billion, and exports $1.02 billion.
Chief executive of the National Association of Forest Industries Catherine Murphy said the rise in plantation woodchip exports showed the effectiveness of the Federal Government's policy, which gives tax benefits to individual plantation investors.
"We have been able to build a strong plantation sector on this platform," she said.
Ms Murphy said plantations would form the basis of the pulp mills planned for Australia. Gunns aims to build a pulp mill in northern Tasmania, and pulp mills are planned for south-west Victoria and south-east South Australia, based on the regions' blue gum plantations.
The high level of paper imports showed the necessity to get such projects off the ground, she said. But Ms Murphy said the figures also underlined that the native forest sector could not be underestimated.
"It's still three times the size of the plantation hardwood sector," she said.
Sawn wood exports in both the September and December quarters remained just above $31 million, about 22 per cent higher than the same period the year before. Dr Fisher said the increase was driven by the rise in pine sawlog exports to Asia, particularly Chinese Taipei.
Original article
The Age, May 17 2006
Plantation hardwood woodchip exports increased significantly last financial year, but Australia is set to record another $2 billion trade deficit in forest products.
Log removals from eucalypt hardwood plantations — mostly blue gums — rose by 58 per cent to 2.9 million cubic metres last financial year, according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics in its latest report on forest and wood products. Sales of eucalypt sawlogs from native forests fell by 4 per cent, to 10 million cubic metres.
ABARE's executive director Brian Fisher said the logs were used for woodchip exports.
Exports of hardwood and softwood woodchips totalled a record $858 million last financial year. Woodchips were 40 per cent of Australian timber exports of $2.1 billion, but this was dwarfed by forest product imports of $4.1 billion.
About half the imports ($2.1 billion) were of paper and paperboard, with printing and writing paper ($1.4 billion) the main source. Figures for this financial year's first half show imports totalling $2.05 billion, and exports $1.02 billion.
Chief executive of the National Association of Forest Industries Catherine Murphy said the rise in plantation woodchip exports showed the effectiveness of the Federal Government's policy, which gives tax benefits to individual plantation investors.
"We have been able to build a strong plantation sector on this platform," she said.
Ms Murphy said plantations would form the basis of the pulp mills planned for Australia. Gunns aims to build a pulp mill in northern Tasmania, and pulp mills are planned for south-west Victoria and south-east South Australia, based on the regions' blue gum plantations.
The high level of paper imports showed the necessity to get such projects off the ground, she said. But Ms Murphy said the figures also underlined that the native forest sector could not be underestimated.
"It's still three times the size of the plantation hardwood sector," she said.
Sawn wood exports in both the September and December quarters remained just above $31 million, about 22 per cent higher than the same period the year before. Dr Fisher said the increase was driven by the rise in pine sawlog exports to Asia, particularly Chinese Taipei.
Original article
16 May, 2006
ABC: Tasmania suffers downturn in woodchip demand
The World Today
Tuesday, 16 May , 2006
Tuesday, 16 May , 2006
Reporter: Tim Jeanes
ELEANOR HALL: In Tasmania today, the controversial proposal for a pulp mill in the state's north could be back on the table, in response to plummeting demand for Tasmanian woodchips.
The state's biggest timber company, Gunns Limited, is now cutting some timber contracts by up to 40 per cent.
And the Liberal Opposition and Tasmanian Greens are calling for a crisis meeting to help forest contractors.
Quotes from Greens Senator Bob Brown in the interview:
BOB BROWN: There must be a crisis meeting to deal with the pain that's being felt by so many contractors and workers in the industry who just 18 months ago were cheering John Howard and Paul Lennon in the run to the federal election. They're not cheering now.
BOB BROWN: Well, the one thing about the Greens is we've got a transition strategy, which would have saved the industry from this pain.
Let there be no doubt about this. The Greens and the environment movement, in particular the Wilderness Society, are going to continue to campaign to save Tasmania's old growth forests, because that's what we should doing for Australia's magnificent ecological resource in these remnant forests, but it's also the best long-term prospect as far as job creation and long-term, good quality job creation.
Through the hospitality and the tourism industries we won't have this boom and bust phenomenon.
Original article
The state's biggest timber company, Gunns Limited, is now cutting some timber contracts by up to 40 per cent.
And the Liberal Opposition and Tasmanian Greens are calling for a crisis meeting to help forest contractors.
Quotes from Greens Senator Bob Brown in the interview:
BOB BROWN: There must be a crisis meeting to deal with the pain that's being felt by so many contractors and workers in the industry who just 18 months ago were cheering John Howard and Paul Lennon in the run to the federal election. They're not cheering now.
BOB BROWN: Well, the one thing about the Greens is we've got a transition strategy, which would have saved the industry from this pain.
Let there be no doubt about this. The Greens and the environment movement, in particular the Wilderness Society, are going to continue to campaign to save Tasmania's old growth forests, because that's what we should doing for Australia's magnificent ecological resource in these remnant forests, but it's also the best long-term prospect as far as job creation and long-term, good quality job creation.
Through the hospitality and the tourism industries we won't have this boom and bust phenomenon.
Original article
15 May, 2006
ARTICLE: Timber sale gets strong price growth for coffers
Philip Hopkins
The Age, May 15, 2006
Cutting to the chase. Some in the timber industry believe the prices achieved have been manipulated.
VICFORESTS' first auction of native forest timber has dramatically increased the money going to Treasury's coffers, but has been strongly criticised by the timber industry.
The weighted average price of timber sold was 43 per cent higher than the prices paid by timber mills under the current licence system. Some wood lots were 118 per cent higher, while others were 22 per cent lower.
VicForests' sales director, Matthew Crapp, said the percentage increases were on top of the 10-20 per cent price rises for licensed timber brought in last year.
The auction was the first in the new timber sales system that VicForests, the State Government's commercial forestry arm, will progressively introduce over the next decade.
The current system, where sawmills receive long-term licences and VicForests sets the prices for the various sawlog grades, will be phased out.
All native forest timber will be sold at auction by 2015.
A total of 174,100 cubic metres of sawlogs in 47 lots was sold, with forward sales spread over all years until 2014-15. Revenue was $3 million higher over the 10 years than it would have been under the administered system.
Mr Crapp said the catalogue was small, but gave bidders the opportunity to use the new system. "The system worked well and is broadly accepted," he said.
The average lot size was 1610 cubic metres, with the largest 5000 cubic metres and the smallest 500 cubic metres. The 931 bids involved 14,000 different price calculations.
A total of 42 bidders qualified for the first two auctions, and 34 eventually placed bids, with 18 successful. All were Victorian domestic processors.
Mr Crapp said competition was strongest for the higher-grade lots, which was reflected in the higher prices.
"The higher-grade logs tended to go to the value-adding sawmills," he said.
"Bidding dropped during rounds three and four, when most lots went above the administrative price levels."
Mr Crapp said the specialised, mixed species lots from East Gippsland, such as yellow stringybark and silvertop ash, received the best prices.
Longer-term lots outperformed the shorter-term, and larger lots were also more popular. The prices would be more moderate in the long term, he said.
The director of operations at the Victorian Association of Forest Industries, Nick Murray, said while industry accepted the auction model, it was not a true market-based system.
"It is conducted by a monopoly supplier that, with other parts of government, dictates the release of wood to the market in terms of volume and tenure," he said.
"It thus has the ability to manipulate both to extract the maximum price from buyers."
Mr Murray said despite the State Government's formal commitment to a sustainable yield of 560,000 cubic metres of sawlogs, industry remained uncertain about the total volume of wood available in the future. This uncertainty created an artificial market environment and helped explain why the auction prices were so high.
Mr Murray said the prices were much higher than administered prices for wood in other states. "These higher prices are not necessarily a reflection of the intrinsic commercial value of this wood," he said.
Mr Murray said bidders marginally costed the wood and offset this against wood supplied under the supply contracts.
The small catalogue lots also gave the market the chance to "cherry pick" prime lots, while other bidders used the auction to improve their wood quality so as to forfeit supply of lower-quality wood, he said.
Mr Murray said many big businesses did not win any wood, or only small volumes. This indicated the prices were unrealistic and uncommercial for business of scale, he said.
VicForests will hold a second auction this month for 680,000 cubic metres of sawlog. Mr Crapp said this would give an indication of what the future timber industry might look like.
Original article
03 May, 2006
ARTICLE: $6m to end clear-fell
The Mercury
SUE NEALES
3 May 2006
A NEW $6 million research program will focus on finding alternatives to the controversial dual issues of the clear-felling of ancient native forests and the use of 1080 poison in private forestry plantations.
Federal Forestry Minister Eric Abetz said the partnership between the Federal and State governments would ensure scientific rigour was added to the often heated and emotional debate surrounding these contentious forestry practices.
Announcing the research initiative in Hobart yesterday, Senator Abetz said it was important science determined the outcome of these issues, rather than the "shrill mantra of some in our community".
About $4m of the research by the Forestry Co-operative Research Centre, based at the University of Tasmania, has been flagged as part of the 2004 Regional Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement, while the State Government is contributing another $2 million.
Forests Minister Bryan Green is confident the alternatives to clear-felling developed by the Forestry CRC will allow all clear-felling of "old growth forests" to be eliminated by 2010.
The State Government has already committed to this.
However, Mr Green said that, in practice, this clear-felling of native forests termed as "old growth" by Forestry Tasmania only accounted for 300 to 400 hectares a year.
But the conservation movement claims this figure is playing with statistics because Forestry Tasmania labels any ancient forest that has had a natural wildfire through it as regrowth to be clear-felled, rather than old growth.
"A lot of this is recycling announcements and commitments that have already been made, and muddying the water with confusing statistics," the Wilderness Society's Vica Bayley said last night.
Also announced yesterday was a renewed commitment by both the State and Federal governments to seek an alternative to the use of 1080 poison on farms and in private plantations.
The use of 1080 to kill browsing native animals that harm crops and young tree seedlings was stopped last year by Forestry Tasmania in the face of a growing international storm about the mass and cruel killings of species such as wallabies, Tasmanian devils, bandicoots and paddymelons.
Original article
SUE NEALES
3 May 2006
A NEW $6 million research program will focus on finding alternatives to the controversial dual issues of the clear-felling of ancient native forests and the use of 1080 poison in private forestry plantations.
Federal Forestry Minister Eric Abetz said the partnership between the Federal and State governments would ensure scientific rigour was added to the often heated and emotional debate surrounding these contentious forestry practices.
Announcing the research initiative in Hobart yesterday, Senator Abetz said it was important science determined the outcome of these issues, rather than the "shrill mantra of some in our community".
About $4m of the research by the Forestry Co-operative Research Centre, based at the University of Tasmania, has been flagged as part of the 2004 Regional Tasmanian Community Forest Agreement, while the State Government is contributing another $2 million.
Forests Minister Bryan Green is confident the alternatives to clear-felling developed by the Forestry CRC will allow all clear-felling of "old growth forests" to be eliminated by 2010.
The State Government has already committed to this.
However, Mr Green said that, in practice, this clear-felling of native forests termed as "old growth" by Forestry Tasmania only accounted for 300 to 400 hectares a year.
But the conservation movement claims this figure is playing with statistics because Forestry Tasmania labels any ancient forest that has had a natural wildfire through it as regrowth to be clear-felled, rather than old growth.
"A lot of this is recycling announcements and commitments that have already been made, and muddying the water with confusing statistics," the Wilderness Society's Vica Bayley said last night.
Also announced yesterday was a renewed commitment by both the State and Federal governments to seek an alternative to the use of 1080 poison on farms and in private plantations.
The use of 1080 to kill browsing native animals that harm crops and young tree seedlings was stopped last year by Forestry Tasmania in the face of a growing international storm about the mass and cruel killings of species such as wallabies, Tasmanian devils, bandicoots and paddymelons.
Original article
02 May, 2006
ARTICLE: Forest protest flap
Warrnambool Standard
By LIZ McKINNON
2 May 2006
A PROTEST to save the Cobboboonee forest near Portland and the state's remaining old-growth forest took a windy turn at a Warrnambool landmark yesterday.
Protesters scaled the dizzy heights of the Fletcher Jones water tower in the early hours
The first said in colourful writing `Save the Cobboboonee' and the second `Save Our Old Growth Forests' in black and white. Students from Deakin University and University of Melbourne launched the protest to stop clear-fell logging,
sparking outrage from Warrnambool City Council.
The council hired a crane to take down the banners later in the morning at a ``significant cost'' out of fears for the public's safety.
Warrnambool conservationist and protest member Piers Johnson said that in the past 100 years 95 per cent of the Portland forest management area and Cobboboonee forest had been cleared.
he area was home to endangered species such as the red-tailed black cockatoo and is under threat of land clearing, forest burning and general habitat destruction because of logging, Mr Johnson said.
``Actions will continue until (Premier) Bracks acts to protect remaining forests and declare them part of the existing Glenelg National Park,'' he said.
University of Melbourne student union environment officer Julia Dehm said the State Government vowed to stop logging in state forests at the last election but had continued to assign contracts to logging companies.
She said state parks like Cobboboonee should be declared national parks for future protection.
``Nothing has been done to stop it. We are hoping to put more pressure on the Government to ensure it is protected,'' she said.
Two protesters fitted with professional climbing apparatus scaled the rusted tower ladder at 2am yesterday and didn't abseil down until 5.30am.
Ms Dehm said the prominence of the site made it ideal to stage the protest.
``I think a lot of people support us. They are passionate about protecting their forest,'' she said.
Warrnambool City Council economic development director Andrew Minack said the banners were put up illegally and in a very dangerous site.
``Because of occupational health and safety we had to get a crane in to do anything. It was at a significant cost,'' he said.
``Council staff are forbidden to go up there. There are parts of the ladder rusted off.''
He said the banners were weighted down by bags filled with bricks and sand which had the potential to fall through the Fletcher Jones building roof onto TAFE students or pedestrians on paths. ``I understand people feeling passionate
about old-growth forests, but I don't think this is an appropriate way of displaying or promoting it,'' Mr Minack said.
21 April, 2006
ARTICLE: Not Out of the Woods Just Yet
By DON MELNICK and MARY PEARL
New York Times, April 20, 2006
OUR forests are the heart of our environmental support system. And yet, in the 36 years that have passed since the first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, we have lost more than one billion acres of forest, with no end in sight.
The people most vulnerable to the disappearance of forests are the poor: nearly three-quarters of the 1.2 billion people defined as extremely poor live in rural areas, where they rely most directly on forests for food, fuel, fiber and building materials. But those of us in the developed world are hardly immune. Smaller forests mean fewer predators keeping insects and rodents in check in the Northeastern United States, a phenomenon linked to the spread of Lyme disease and West Nile virus, among others.
Everywhere, forests prevent erosion, filter and regulate the flow of fresh water, protect coral reefs and fisheries and harbor animals that pollinate, control pests and buffer disease. That is why the single most important action we can take to protect lives and livelihoods worldwide is to protect forests. And one of the best ways to do that is to change how we think about their economics.
First, we must connect local, informal foresters, who harvest timber and other forest products for a small fraction of their value, to better markets. A good example is in Papua New Guinea. A community there receives about $13 for a cubic meter of tropical hardwood. That same cubic meter of wood, transferred through a series of intermediaries, shows up in New York Harbor with a new price tag, $700. Minimally processed into thin veneer, it sells for $2,300. That same cubic meter, fully finished, goes for over $3,000. Small forest holders who receive just pennies on the dollar for a valuable natural resource can hardly be expected to practice sustainable forestry. Opening access to regional and global markets at fair value will create strong incentives for sustainable forest management.
Second, we must recognize the importance of forests in maintaining water and soil by encouraging their preservation along rivers. Markets can help here, as well. Costa Rica's hydroelectric power companies pay upland farmers to keep land forested to prevent the companies' dams from filling with silt. The cost is shared between a power company and its customers. Logic dictates that those who benefit when forests stop erosion should return some of those benefits to those who protect forests.
Third, we must seek a global trade agreement that promotes legally, sustainably harvested timber. We should not tolerate the forest destruction abetted by most countries, which will neither monitor what is extracted at home, nor place conditions on imports. When we first visited Sumatra and Borneo fewer than 20 years ago, there were vast tracts of forest. Recent estimates indicate that these two islands, among the six largest in the world, could be largely clear-cut by 2012. With those trees will go people's livelihoods, communities, cultural values and health, as well as the forests' unexplored biological diversity.
Finally, we must protect the role that forests play in mitigating global warming by absorbing carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Markets for trading carbon dioxide emissions credits must expand to all sources and all nations. They already exist in the developed world, where yesterday morning carbon credits from efficient factory operations and tree re-planting projects were traded at roughly 30 euros per ton.
If a company in Belgium can own carbon credits because it has reduced its factories' carbon emissions, then a forest owner in the Central African Republic should be able to trade the carbon credits he earns by not cutting down its trees. To the atmosphere, a ton of carbon is a ton of carbon. By opening trade in carbon credits to all countries, we provide economic opportunity to developing nations and create a very powerful incentive to conserve forests.
Together, these measures have the potential to reverse rates of forest loss. Sustainable forests, in turn, can form the basis for the health and economic well-being of the poorest among us, while benefiting everyone else as well. What could be a more satisfying vision for Earth Day 2006?
Don Melnick is a professor of conservation biology at Columbia University. Mary Pearl is president of Wildlife Trust."
ARTICLE: Supporters sought to lobby Govt on sustainable logging
ABC News Online
21 April 2006
A campaigner for sustainable logging in the Wombat Forest is trying to rally like-minded people to lobby the State Government.
Increasingly tough restrictions being placed on logging activity in the forest have forced some sawmills to close.
But Loris Duclos says a State Government adviser told her the Government had not made a final decision on the forest's future.
"He reassured me that the Government did not have a lock-up agenda for the Wombat, so those who support a small native forest industry in this area need to be ringing the minister and making sure that a strong voice from this side of the debate is heard, because they certainly hear a lot from the other," she said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200604/s1621116.htm
21 April 2006
A campaigner for sustainable logging in the Wombat Forest is trying to rally like-minded people to lobby the State Government.
Increasingly tough restrictions being placed on logging activity in the forest have forced some sawmills to close.
But Loris Duclos says a State Government adviser told her the Government had not made a final decision on the forest's future.
"He reassured me that the Government did not have a lock-up agenda for the Wombat, so those who support a small native forest industry in this area need to be ringing the minister and making sure that a strong voice from this side of the debate is heard, because they certainly hear a lot from the other," she said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200604/s1621116.htm
ARTICLE: Supporters sought to lobby Govt on sustainable logging
ABC News Online
21 April 2006
A campaigner for sustainable logging in the Wombat Forest is trying to rally like-minded people to lobby the State Government.
Increasingly tough restrictions being placed on logging activity in the forest have forced some sawmills to close.
But Loris Duclos says a State Government adviser told her the Government had not made a final decision on the forest's future.
"He reassured me that the Government did not have a lock-up agenda for the Wombat, so those who support a small native forest industry in this area need to be ringing the minister and making sure that a strong voice from this side of the debate is heard, because they certainly hear a lot from the other," she said."
Original article
21 April 2006
A campaigner for sustainable logging in the Wombat Forest is trying to rally like-minded people to lobby the State Government.
Increasingly tough restrictions being placed on logging activity in the forest have forced some sawmills to close.
But Loris Duclos says a State Government adviser told her the Government had not made a final decision on the forest's future.
"He reassured me that the Government did not have a lock-up agenda for the Wombat, so those who support a small native forest industry in this area need to be ringing the minister and making sure that a strong voice from this side of the debate is heard, because they certainly hear a lot from the other," she said."
Original article
18 April, 2006
LETTERS: Green logging solution gets the chop
David Hall, Brunswick East
The Heraldsun (letter), 18/4/06
Your article on Ron the “lumberjack” (“Ron vows to go out swinging”, April 8) brought up the important point that the environment movement is not about no logging, it’s about sustainable logging that makes sense.
Woodchipping old-growth forest in 2006 doesn’t make sense on any level. It isn’t boosting the economy. It isn’t creating jobs. And this isn’t wasteland.
The area being clear-felled in East Gippsland is a national treasure. Its destruction is so sad.
I applaud Ron for his comments, and I applaud the unlikely alliance between loggers who do have a vision for the future with greenies who always have.
Bracks would win my vote and that of many of my friends and family if he was brave enough to stop woodchipping of old-growth forests.
Colin Smith, St Kilda
The Heraldsun (letter), 18/4/06
Your story about the small timber cutter in Bruthen (“Ron vows to go out swinging”, April 8) shows up the hypocrisy of the State Government about forestry. It denies him any logs and sends them aji to the chip-mill instead. This makes a nonsense of its claim to be interested in value-adding. Instead, it promotes clearfelling, which is value-destruction.
Peter Quinn, Lome
The Heraldsun (letter), 18/4/06
Park Victoria and the Bracks Government sadly are on a hat-trick of tourism decimation. After last year’s Wi!sons Promontory burn fiasco and this year’s Grampians inferno, Parks Victoria next summer could well be responsible for the Colac/Otways bushfire that is coming because an ecological burn is well overdue.
Parks Victoria and Bracks Government are pandering to inner-Melbourne greens. Parks Victoria’s pest management is also a disgrace in the Great Otways National Park.
So enjoy your visit to the Colac-Otways while you can. Parks Victoria's incompetence could well mean a charred Great Ocean Road landscape.
The Heraldsun (letter), 18/4/06
Your article on Ron the “lumberjack” (“Ron vows to go out swinging”, April 8) brought up the important point that the environment movement is not about no logging, it’s about sustainable logging that makes sense.
Woodchipping old-growth forest in 2006 doesn’t make sense on any level. It isn’t boosting the economy. It isn’t creating jobs. And this isn’t wasteland.
The area being clear-felled in East Gippsland is a national treasure. Its destruction is so sad.
I applaud Ron for his comments, and I applaud the unlikely alliance between loggers who do have a vision for the future with greenies who always have.
Bracks would win my vote and that of many of my friends and family if he was brave enough to stop woodchipping of old-growth forests.
Colin Smith, St Kilda
The Heraldsun (letter), 18/4/06
Your story about the small timber cutter in Bruthen (“Ron vows to go out swinging”, April 8) shows up the hypocrisy of the State Government about forestry. It denies him any logs and sends them aji to the chip-mill instead. This makes a nonsense of its claim to be interested in value-adding. Instead, it promotes clearfelling, which is value-destruction.
Peter Quinn, Lome
The Heraldsun (letter), 18/4/06
Park Victoria and the Bracks Government sadly are on a hat-trick of tourism decimation. After last year’s Wi!sons Promontory burn fiasco and this year’s Grampians inferno, Parks Victoria next summer could well be responsible for the Colac/Otways bushfire that is coming because an ecological burn is well overdue.
Parks Victoria and Bracks Government are pandering to inner-Melbourne greens. Parks Victoria’s pest management is also a disgrace in the Great Otways National Park.
So enjoy your visit to the Colac-Otways while you can. Parks Victoria's incompetence could well mean a charred Great Ocean Road landscape.
16 April, 2006
ARTICLE: Death puts spotlight on Leadbeater plight
John Elder
The Sunday Age , April 16 2006
The Sunday Age , April 16 2006
Leadbeater's possum was once the tiny comeback kid of Australian wildlife.
Thought to have vanished, the possum was rediscovered alive and struggling in 1961. Ten years later it was made the faunal emblem of Victoria. Now it looks as if we will have to find a new one.
The death of the last Leadbeater in captivity, which was announced yesterday, means the little possum is no longer a promise and symbol of life renewed. In the wild, there are thought to be only a 1000 left.
In what appears to be a last-ditch stand, author Peter Preuss is calling for co-operative effort by Victoria's zoos, the timber industry and the State Government to relaunch a possum breeding program.
Preuss is the biographer of late amateur naturalist Des Hackett, who successfully bred the possums in captivity.
He said efforts to revive the possum's population faltered after Mr Hackett died in 1997, and today the possum's natural habitat was under threat from logging.
Preuss said the last possums in the wild lived in a 50-square-kilometre area in Victoria's central highlands - the mountain ash forests around Noojee, Powelltown, Marysville and Warburton.
In one positive sign, he said possum numbers were increasing in the Yellingbo Nature Reserve, an area of swamp and forest protected for the helmeted honey-eater, Victoria's bird emblem.
"This shows the possums can survive if we give them some nesting boxes," he said.
A spokesman for Healesville Sanctuary yesterday confirmed that the last captive possum, a male, died on Monday, following the death of its female mate last month. The pair had become too old to breed.
With AAP
12 April, 2006
ARTICLE: Timber group invests heavily to stay at the cutting edge
Philip Hopkins
April 10 2006
The coloured laser beams quickly hone in on the timber slab as it moves along the conveyor, pinpointing accurately how best to cut the wood.
Vince Erasmus looks on with approval. The South African, who has just joined timber group Integrated Tree Cropping as chief executive, is a firm believer in the role of new technology in giving a competitive edge. Previously, an operator would have judged manually the best way to cut the timber, but lasers do it better.
Neville Smith Timber, a division of ITC, uses the laser equipment at its processing plant at Heyfield in Victoria, along with a new piece of technology that was pioneered for the aerospace industry.
The $400,000 investment applies the technique of ultrasonic void detection to solid timber — the first time this has been done in the world.
"With ultrasonics, we're now able to affectively see inside each solid piece of timber that comes through the mill and pick up discontinuities in the wood," Erasmus said. "The technology allows us to detect tiny internal faults that are invisible to the eye."
Those faults make the timber unsuitable for appearance-grade products, but fine for structural use such as joints, lintels and bearers.
In South Africa, Erasmus was executive manager of Hans Merensky Timber, the country's largest sawmilling group and an operator of extensive eucalypt and pine plantations with a turnover of $210 million.
ITC, a listed subsidiary of Futuris Corporation, is of similar ilk; it manages more than 140,000 hectares of hardwood plantations, and through Neville Smith, is the largest hardwood timber processor in Australia.
Neville Smith's main timber mills are at Heyfield in central Gippsland, but it also has operations in Seymour, Tasmania and southern NSW. Neville Smith, acquired by ITC 20 months ago, has the capacity to process more than 250,000 cubic metres of native hardwood, all sourced from regrowth forests.
On an inspection tour at Heyfield, Erasmus said timber processing was going through a tough period. "Internationally, supply now exceeds demand for hardwood products and demand is not that good," he said. "It's difficult to sell products at the right price."
Erasmus said hardwood processing was volume driven, but customers were getting increasingly choosy, so timber quality was paramount.
Hence the new investments at Neville Smith. Erasmus said that, apart from the check scanner, ITC was buying a reconditioner kiln to dry timber more slowly and to a higher standard. A finger jointer will also be acquired to turn offcuts that would be normally woodchipped or made into sawdust into a new, higher-value product. ITC is also putting a greater emphasis on sales and marketing, having hired seven sales staff. ITC has been Perth-based, but Erasmus is seeking a house in Melbourne, signalling ITC's intention to locate itself on the east coast.
Erasmus said there was capacity for growth in the Australian timber market through high-quality niche products.
About 18 per cent of Neville Smith's products are exported, and Erasmus signalled interest in forging a partnership with a Chinese manufacturer. "China is an opportunity for us, given Australia's relative proximity to China and the cheaper shipping rates compared with other countries," he said.
ITC has launched a campaign to market its products as "GoodWood", emphasising the timber is harvested from regrowth native forests, not old growth or tropical forests, and highlighting its advantages as a storer of carbon in the age of climate change.
Erasmus said ITC intended to gain Forest Stewardship Council certification for its native hardwood products. ITC has already gained FSC approval for its plantation management. FSC is allied to WWF and is supported by green groups.
Bell Potter Securities, in a research paper, noted ITC's negative cash flow despite the company's profit of $6.3 million in the first half of 2005-06.
Analyst Ian Gibson said the result was below expectations, but was entirely due to the processing division. "With respect to processing, we believe that the operating performance has bottomed … when the recovery does come, the Neville Smith Group will be stronger."
But uncertainty about the tax treatment of managed investment schemes and the housing market may weigh on the share price, causing it to trade below Bell Potter's assessed value of $1.67, Gibson said.
ITC's share price closed at $1.09 on Friday.
Original article
April 10 2006
The coloured laser beams quickly hone in on the timber slab as it moves along the conveyor, pinpointing accurately how best to cut the wood.
Vince Erasmus looks on with approval. The South African, who has just joined timber group Integrated Tree Cropping as chief executive, is a firm believer in the role of new technology in giving a competitive edge. Previously, an operator would have judged manually the best way to cut the timber, but lasers do it better.
Neville Smith Timber, a division of ITC, uses the laser equipment at its processing plant at Heyfield in Victoria, along with a new piece of technology that was pioneered for the aerospace industry.
The $400,000 investment applies the technique of ultrasonic void detection to solid timber — the first time this has been done in the world.
"With ultrasonics, we're now able to affectively see inside each solid piece of timber that comes through the mill and pick up discontinuities in the wood," Erasmus said. "The technology allows us to detect tiny internal faults that are invisible to the eye."
Those faults make the timber unsuitable for appearance-grade products, but fine for structural use such as joints, lintels and bearers.
In South Africa, Erasmus was executive manager of Hans Merensky Timber, the country's largest sawmilling group and an operator of extensive eucalypt and pine plantations with a turnover of $210 million.
ITC, a listed subsidiary of Futuris Corporation, is of similar ilk; it manages more than 140,000 hectares of hardwood plantations, and through Neville Smith, is the largest hardwood timber processor in Australia.
Neville Smith's main timber mills are at Heyfield in central Gippsland, but it also has operations in Seymour, Tasmania and southern NSW. Neville Smith, acquired by ITC 20 months ago, has the capacity to process more than 250,000 cubic metres of native hardwood, all sourced from regrowth forests.
On an inspection tour at Heyfield, Erasmus said timber processing was going through a tough period. "Internationally, supply now exceeds demand for hardwood products and demand is not that good," he said. "It's difficult to sell products at the right price."
Erasmus said hardwood processing was volume driven, but customers were getting increasingly choosy, so timber quality was paramount.
Hence the new investments at Neville Smith. Erasmus said that, apart from the check scanner, ITC was buying a reconditioner kiln to dry timber more slowly and to a higher standard. A finger jointer will also be acquired to turn offcuts that would be normally woodchipped or made into sawdust into a new, higher-value product. ITC is also putting a greater emphasis on sales and marketing, having hired seven sales staff. ITC has been Perth-based, but Erasmus is seeking a house in Melbourne, signalling ITC's intention to locate itself on the east coast.
Erasmus said there was capacity for growth in the Australian timber market through high-quality niche products.
About 18 per cent of Neville Smith's products are exported, and Erasmus signalled interest in forging a partnership with a Chinese manufacturer. "China is an opportunity for us, given Australia's relative proximity to China and the cheaper shipping rates compared with other countries," he said.
ITC has launched a campaign to market its products as "GoodWood", emphasising the timber is harvested from regrowth native forests, not old growth or tropical forests, and highlighting its advantages as a storer of carbon in the age of climate change.
Erasmus said ITC intended to gain Forest Stewardship Council certification for its native hardwood products. ITC has already gained FSC approval for its plantation management. FSC is allied to WWF and is supported by green groups.
Bell Potter Securities, in a research paper, noted ITC's negative cash flow despite the company's profit of $6.3 million in the first half of 2005-06.
Analyst Ian Gibson said the result was below expectations, but was entirely due to the processing division. "With respect to processing, we believe that the operating performance has bottomed … when the recovery does come, the Neville Smith Group will be stronger."
But uncertainty about the tax treatment of managed investment schemes and the housing market may weigh on the share price, causing it to trade below Bell Potter's assessed value of $1.67, Gibson said.
ITC's share price closed at $1.09 on Friday.
Original article
11 April, 2006
ARTICLE: Protesters held over logging blockade
The Age
April 10, 2006 - 3:34PM
Police have arrested three anti-logging protesters and moved 17 other demonstrators from a blockade in the East Gippsland region of Victoria.
Goongerah Environment Centre (GEC) spokeswoman Fiona York said the protest was in an area of old growth forest being logged less than 100 metres from the Goolengook forest.
The three protester who were arrested had chained themselves to logging machinery, she said.
"The rest of them have been moved out of the coupe by 20 or so Parks Victoria, DSE (Department of Sustainability and Environment) and police," Ms York said.
Thirty arrests had been made at 15 blockades in East Gippsland since December 2005, she said.
The Goolengook Forest is the subject of an investigation by the Victorian Environment Assessment Council (VEAC).
"This particular coupe is right on the border of the assessment area that VEAC is looking into protection for Goolengook," Ms York said.
"While the Goolengook Forest is being investigated and under moratorium from logging, forest of comparable value is being logged right next door."
The area was at the headwaters of the Arte River, and the old-growth forest and rainforest were habitat for endangered flora and fauna, she said. Its unique eco-system was home to more than 300 rare and threatened plant and animal species, including the tiger quoll and the powerful owl.
"Premier Steve Bracks needs to do more than just investigate icon areas for the sake of a few votes," Ms York said.
"All old growth forest needs to be protected immediately."
AAP
07 April, 2006
LETTER: Lucky polly (Campbell "protects" the orange bellied parrot
Jill Redwood, Orbost
The Age, April 7, 2006
Luckily for the orange-bellied parrot, it spends some of the year in a marginal seat that's arguing about the aesthetics of wind farms. Our whales, sooty owls, tiger quolls and hundreds of other threatened species aren't so lucky under the Federal Government's Environment Act.
The $11 million logging industry in East Gippsland, for example, takes out threatened species every day without a shred of concern from the Howard Government.
The Age, April 7, 2006
Luckily for the orange-bellied parrot, it spends some of the year in a marginal seat that's arguing about the aesthetics of wind farms. Our whales, sooty owls, tiger quolls and hundreds of other threatened species aren't so lucky under the Federal Government's Environment Act.
The $11 million logging industry in East Gippsland, for example, takes out threatened species every day without a shred of concern from the Howard Government.
06 April, 2006
MEDIA RELEASE: Sustainable timber industry council announced
FROM THE MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE
Thursday, April 6, 2006
The sustainable growth of Victoria’s timber industry will be assisted by the establishment of a new peak advisory body, the Sustainable Timber Industry Council (STIC), the Minister for Agriculture Bob Cameron announced today.
Mr Cameron said STIC would foster a united, whole of industry approach to securing the sustainable development of Victoria’s forest and forest products sector and will provide advice to him on a broad range of timber industry issues.
“The timber industry in Victoria is based on plantation and native forest timber resources. It has an annual turnover of more than $3 billion and is of critical importance to the economic future of this state.
Mr Cameron said as part of the ‘Our Forests, Our Future’ policy initiative, the Bracks Government made a commitment ensuring that our forests, the timber industry and their communities are protected for the long term.
“That commitment was reiterated in the ‘Moving Forward’ Provincial Statement announced late last year and STIC is an important part of that process.
“One of STIC’s major roles over the next year will be the development of a Timber Industry Strategy, which will establish Victoria as a world leader in sustainable timber industries,” Mr Cameron said.
Mr Cameron said he was pleased to announce Christian Zahra as the Chair of STIC.
“Christian Zahra has an excellent understanding of the important issues facing the timber industry in Victoria and is widely respected within the sector,” Mr Cameron said.
The remaining members of STIC come from key industry sectors, and include:
Thursday, April 6, 2006
The sustainable growth of Victoria’s timber industry will be assisted by the establishment of a new peak advisory body, the Sustainable Timber Industry Council (STIC), the Minister for Agriculture Bob Cameron announced today.
Mr Cameron said STIC would foster a united, whole of industry approach to securing the sustainable development of Victoria’s forest and forest products sector and will provide advice to him on a broad range of timber industry issues.
“The timber industry in Victoria is based on plantation and native forest timber resources. It has an annual turnover of more than $3 billion and is of critical importance to the economic future of this state.
Mr Cameron said as part of the ‘Our Forests, Our Future’ policy initiative, the Bracks Government made a commitment ensuring that our forests, the timber industry and their communities are protected for the long term.
“That commitment was reiterated in the ‘Moving Forward’ Provincial Statement announced late last year and STIC is an important part of that process.
“One of STIC’s major roles over the next year will be the development of a Timber Industry Strategy, which will establish Victoria as a world leader in sustainable timber industries,” Mr Cameron said.
Mr Cameron said he was pleased to announce Christian Zahra as the Chair of STIC.
“Christian Zahra has an excellent understanding of the important issues facing the timber industry in Victoria and is widely respected within the sector,” Mr Cameron said.
The remaining members of STIC come from key industry sectors, and include:
- Diane Tregoning – Chief Executive of Black Forest Timbers Pty Ltd
- Andrew Lang – Chairman of SMARTimbers Cooperative Ltd
- Bob Smith – former CEO of State Forests of NSW
- Kevin White – former CEO of Hancock Victorian Plantations
- Ken Robertson – former Strategic Development Manager for Carter Holt Harvey.
- Michael O’Connor – National Secretary of the forestry section of the CFMEU
- Ian Kennedy – former Executive Director of Regional Development Victoria
28 March, 2006
LETTER: Bracks must protect Leadbeater's habitat
It is sad news indeed that only one Leadbeater's possum, Victoria’s state faunal emblem, remains in captivity after its mate died in a Melbourne sanctuary.
The possum’s survival is under threat because clearfell logging of the Central Highlands, including Melbourne’s water catchments, is destroying its habitat. It needs old trees with hollows for its nests.
Steve Bracks should act immediately to protect these forests and prevent the possum's extinction in its natural habitat. He should also protect the remaining forest habit of Karak, the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo which was the Commonwealth Games mascot, to assist its survival in the wild too.
ARTICLE: One left as possum dies in captivity
March 28, 2006
Only one member of the endangered possum species that is Victoria's state faunal emblem remains in captivity after its mate died in a Melbourne sanctuary.
Leadbeater's possum, which lives in the mountain ash forests of the state's central highlands, was considered extinct until it was rediscovered in 1961 and a successful captive breeding program started.
But the death of the second-last Leadbeater's possum at the Healesville Sanctuary has ended that program, author Peter Preuss said yesterday.
Mr Preuss, the biographer of the late amateur naturalist Des Hackett, said Mr Hackett had remarkable results breeding the possums in captivity. By the 1980s he was able to hand over breeding colonies to zoos throughout Australia, with the hope the offspring could one day be released in the wild.
"Unfortunately, the Leadbeater's possum is a very politically sensitive animal," he said. "Because their natural range is almost exclusively within Victoria's timber harvesting areas, Leadbeater's possums were never released. Instead, colonies were exported to zoos throughout the world."
"Today, there are just 1000 left in the wild and only one lonely individual remains in captivity (in Victoria)," he said.
AAP
Original article
Only one member of the endangered possum species that is Victoria's state faunal emblem remains in captivity after its mate died in a Melbourne sanctuary.
Leadbeater's possum, which lives in the mountain ash forests of the state's central highlands, was considered extinct until it was rediscovered in 1961 and a successful captive breeding program started.
But the death of the second-last Leadbeater's possum at the Healesville Sanctuary has ended that program, author Peter Preuss said yesterday.
Mr Preuss, the biographer of the late amateur naturalist Des Hackett, said Mr Hackett had remarkable results breeding the possums in captivity. By the 1980s he was able to hand over breeding colonies to zoos throughout Australia, with the hope the offspring could one day be released in the wild.
"Unfortunately, the Leadbeater's possum is a very politically sensitive animal," he said. "Because their natural range is almost exclusively within Victoria's timber harvesting areas, Leadbeater's possums were never released. Instead, colonies were exported to zoos throughout the world."
"Today, there are just 1000 left in the wild and only one lonely individual remains in captivity (in Victoria)," he said.
AAP
Original article
28 February, 2006
ARTICLE: PNG forest-saving initiative launched
HeraldSun, 28 February 06
From correspondents in Port Moresby
THE Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior II docks in Port Moresby today for the launch of a campaign promoting small-scale bush milling in Papua New Guinea instead of large-scale destructive logging.
The initiative was part of a campaign to preserve the Asia-Pacific's remaining ancient "Paradise" rainforests stretching from South-East Asia across Indonesia to PNG and the Solomon Islands, Greenpeace Australia Pacific's chief executive, Steve Shallhorn, said.
The project would help PNG forest landowners mark out tribal boundaries as a protection against foreign timber companies and their destructive logging practices, he said.
PNG's Kuni tribe on the Murray Lakes between the Fly and Strickland rivers in PNG's Western Province has invited Greenpeace to set up a "global forest rescue station" on their land.
Greenpeace volunteers and eco-forestry trainers will work alongside three Lake Murray tribes to establish their tribal rights over about 300,000 hectares by identifying, marking out and mapping their boundaries to deter illegal logging, Mr Shallhorn said in a statement.
In 2003, Greenpeace and other environmental groups helped Murray Lakes landowners halt illegal logging in the area by the Malaysian logging company Concord Pacific.
Kuni clan leader Sep Galeva, a leader in that campaign, said his people wanted to do small-scale logging in a way that was sustainable and environmentally friendly but brought in financial returns to villagers.
A portable timber mill will be used by the Kuni tribe to mill selectively logged trees for sale as "ecotimber" in a pilot program to encourage other tribes to do the same and avoid large-scale logging by big timber companies.
"We want to say no to loggers who come in and destroy everything," Mr Galeva said.
Mr Shallhorn said the Paradise Forests were being logged faster than any in the world.
Fewer than 1 per cent had any form of protection with more than a quarter of a million hectares of primary forest destroyed by logging companies each year in PNG alone, he said.
"Unless action like this is taken worldwide, vast numbers of species of plants and animals will become extinct, rainfall patterns will be disrupted and the global climate will change even faster than it is now.
"The Australian Government must ban the importation of illegal and destructively-logged timber and support the efforts by countries that produce timber to combat corruption and strengthen law enforcement institutions," Mr Shallhorn said.
After its Port Moresby visit, the Rainbow Warrior will sail on a "forest crime patrol" to draw attention to ongoing illegal logging across the region and promote sustainable forestry.
18 February, 2006
ARTICLE: A possum stares extinction in the face
Tracee Hutchison
The Age, February 18, 2006
There's a giant mountain ash tree in Victoria's Royston Range with a pink H spray-painted onto its massive trunk. It's taken more than 200 years for it to reach its 60-metre height and, inside, it is likely that a family of tiny possums is nestling in its hollows.
They are Leadbeater's possums, so small they would fit in the palm of your hand. The pink H on the tree means these little creatures were safe from the chainsaws that clear-felled around them this week - their house is a designated habitat tree.
After presuming the species extinct, scientists found the last surviving colonies of Leadbeater's possums living in Victoria's Central Highlands in the early 1960s. Just 2000 of them remain. They are a protected and endangered species and Victoria's state fauna emblem.
On Monday night these little possums would have looked out over what was left of their neighbourhood and wondered what had happened to the furniture. And their food source. The sap from the once-plentiful alpine ash and their much loved wattle are gone. So are the blackwoods.
In the distance, they might have seen one or two old-growth trees still standing - also marked with an H to save the other English-speaking possums in the forest. They'll be among a handful of forest-dwelling creatures to survive this week's logging in the stretch of state forest that runs between the Yarra Valley National Park and Mount Bullfight Conservation Reserve.
Studies of forest activity by eminent environmental scientists such as Dr David Lindenmayer from the Australian National University indicate most animals die when a forest is extensively disturbed in a clear-felling operation. There are no early warning signals. Adult animals have a strong affinity with their home range and are reluctant to move.
In the daylight, the H-trees protrude from the forest floor like an Absurdist's version of a Russell Drysdale painting. It is a macabre and disturbing sight. The H-trees are too far apart for the possums to skip between branches and there is a sense that the forest has screamed all night but only the survivors will remember the sound.
For them, there's a looming regeneration fire, which will burn through the logging debris on the forest floor. The heat intensity of an often chemically fuelled regeneration fire will make life inside one of these H-trees almost unbearable - that is assuming the fire also speaks English and is smart enough to burn around them. Surviving this fire will be a challenge for a creature with very little body weight.
The complex eco-systems of old-growth forests don't like regeneration fires very much either. They tend to suit eucalypts, which grow back - plantation-like - relatively quickly. This works well for future logging and suits the industry these forests service rather nicely. But Leadbeater's possums don't like young eucalypts very much. They don't form hollows so it's hard to make a house. They need old-growth trees to survive.
This week many of these possums will have thought about moving to a place with more H-trees. They will have scouted for wattle and alpine ash sap.
But, as we see in other aspects of the Australian experience, newcomers aren't always welcome in unfamiliar territories - especially if you're a minority and have particular living requirements. It's a precarious predicament. About 80 per cent of the old-growth trees that came out of Royston this week will be chipped. By now the logs will have reached the Midway woodchip mill in Geelong and might be on their way to Japan. Others will have arrived at the Paperlinx mill in Maryvale where they'll end up as sheet paper with a lifespan of about a week. It's not much to show for 200 years of breathing life into the planet.
Royston Range is one of the last old-growth forests within a comfortable drive from Melbourne, just two hours due east along the Maroondah Highway. Walking though this forest, you can't help but be reminded of how blessed we are to have these precious, centuries-old ecosystems exist at all, let alone on the doorstep of a capital city.
Australia has the worst record for plant and mammal extinctions in the world in the past 200 years. We clear land faster here than in any other developed nation. Our planet is heating up and the best our governments can do is gag the scientists who would hold us to account and prop up the industries that contribute to the problem.
Unless the Victorian Government puts an end to old-growth logging in the state forests of eastern Victoria, the legacy of Premier Steve Bracks may well include the extinction of a tiny possum. For woodchips. For the paper on which history will record the state-sanctioned passing of our fauna emblem. It is madness.
Tracee Hutchison is a Melbourne writer and broadcaster.
10 February, 2006
EDITORIAL: Potoroos and parrots need better protection
The Age, February 10, 2006
'You're gunna get stung!" That greeting on the Environment Protection Authority website is aimed at anyone who discards rubbish carelessly. Under Victorian law, litterers face hefty fines (ranging from $210 to $6289), which the EPA says are to deter people from actions that "can cause injury to people and wildlife".
How then should the EPA deal with businesses and government agencies that put protected flora and fauna at serious risk? According to an EPA audit - commissioned by the State Government at the urging of environmentalists - there were at least four breaches of the Environment Protection Act in 2004 and 2005, three by VicForests near Cann River in East Gippsland, and a fourth in the Barmah State Forest, near Echuca, where the Department of Sustainability and Environment logged more than half of a 35-hectare protected nesting colony for the endangered superb parrot. The EPA found the breaches were due to poor management and inadequate staff training.
The long-footed potoroo, a small kangaroo unique to the forests of south-east Australia, lives in Gippsland. Possibly the only thing it has in common with the superb parrot, a bird with a striking green body, is its vulnerability. Both are at greater risk as a result of these breaches but the offenders have escaped with what amounts to a slap on the wrist after they promised to behave more responsibly in future.
The EPA was not asked to consider penalties and the auditors concluded that there is a legal question as to whether government officers are bound by codes of practice outlined in the Conservation, Forests and Lands Act 1987. If this is the case, an amendment is urgently needed. It is ludicrous that an individual could face a penalty of $4192 for depositing household rubbish in a litter bin, yet agencies that do far more environmental damage get off scott free.
Link to article
'You're gunna get stung!" That greeting on the Environment Protection Authority website is aimed at anyone who discards rubbish carelessly. Under Victorian law, litterers face hefty fines (ranging from $210 to $6289), which the EPA says are to deter people from actions that "can cause injury to people and wildlife".
How then should the EPA deal with businesses and government agencies that put protected flora and fauna at serious risk? According to an EPA audit - commissioned by the State Government at the urging of environmentalists - there were at least four breaches of the Environment Protection Act in 2004 and 2005, three by VicForests near Cann River in East Gippsland, and a fourth in the Barmah State Forest, near Echuca, where the Department of Sustainability and Environment logged more than half of a 35-hectare protected nesting colony for the endangered superb parrot. The EPA found the breaches were due to poor management and inadequate staff training.
The long-footed potoroo, a small kangaroo unique to the forests of south-east Australia, lives in Gippsland. Possibly the only thing it has in common with the superb parrot, a bird with a striking green body, is its vulnerability. Both are at greater risk as a result of these breaches but the offenders have escaped with what amounts to a slap on the wrist after they promised to behave more responsibly in future.
The EPA was not asked to consider penalties and the auditors concluded that there is a legal question as to whether government officers are bound by codes of practice outlined in the Conservation, Forests and Lands Act 1987. If this is the case, an amendment is urgently needed. It is ludicrous that an individual could face a penalty of $4192 for depositing household rubbish in a litter bin, yet agencies that do far more environmental damage get off scott free.
Link to article
09 February, 2006
LETTER: Logging breaches are unacceptable
It is simply unacceptable that the Bracks’ government has taken no action when recent Environment Protection Agency audits found serious logging breaches where protected trees in National Parks were felled and endangered species where threatened (Age 9/2).
I was recently fined for traveling on the train with an unvalidated ticket, despite attempting to validate it and clearly communicating this to the Minister for Transport and the Premier. Why is zero tolerance and the full weight of the law exercised against so-called fare evaders on public transport, yet loggers who clearly break the law go unpunished?
It is apparent that the mismanagement of our forests extends past clear felling of our old growth forests for low value export woodchips to a lack of compliance with the law.
Acting Environment Minister Candy Broad should take immediate steps to ensure prosecutions rather than make excuses for Government inaction and a logging industry that is out of control and destroying our old growth forests.08 February, 2006
ARTICLE: In a world of their own, unknown wildlife yet to learn they should fear us
Sydney Morning Herald
THE first bird that Australian scientist, Kris Helgen, spotted flitting around the expedition's remote jungle camp was an exotic new species. The flowers were the size of dinner plates. And the frogs were unrecognisable.
But it was the fearlessness and abundance of the kangaroos and long-beaked echidnas in the pristine, mist-shrouded Foja Mountains of western New Guinea that impressed the
young researcher most.
Hunted to near extinction elsewhere on the island, the kangaroos are usually skittish and shy with people on the rare occasions they are spotted.
The team of 25 American, Australian and Indonesian scientists flew by helicopter last December into the midst of the large tract of uninhabited tropical forest. They unearthed a "lost world" brimming with new wildlife.
It took years to obtain permits, then persuade the local Kwerba and Papasena tribes to agree to escort the expedition into the mountains in the west of the Indonesian province of Papua.
Apart from the orange-faced honeyeater - the first new species of bird found on the island in more than 60 years - the team discovered dozens of new species of butterfly, frog and plants.
The team's scientific leader, Stephen Richards, of the South Australian Museum, yesterday spoke of his wonder at seeing dozens of a spectacularly crested new species of smoky honeyeater after reaching a summit. Tall trees were draped from ground to canopy with thick moss, dripping water from curtains of mist. Animals abounded, many remarkably docile as they had never encountered human hunters.
"Because there is no human presence at all, this area is like it was before people came to Papua New Guinea. It really is a garden of Eden," Mr Richards said.
A specialist in frogs, he has found at least 20 new species during his month-long stay - including one less than 14 millimetres long.
The researchers also became the first Western scientists to see a live, male Berlepsch's six-wired bird of paradise. The exotic bird had been first described in the late 19th century through specimens collected by indigenous hunters from an unknown location on New Guinea. Several subsequent expeditions had failed to find it.
Six species of kangaroos, including two tree kangaroos, were found to live in the forest. Most importantly, they included the golden-mantled tree kangaroo, a new mammal for Indonesia, and one which had only previously been found on a single mountain in neighbouring Papua New Guinea.
The species was thought to be highly threatened. "But it seemed to be quite common here, so that was a very exciting find," Mr Helgen said.
Echidnas unperturbed by humans were found on three consecutive nights. "We simply picked them up and carried them back to camp."
The Kwerba and Papasena, the customary landowners of the forest, welcomed the team, from the non-profit organisation Conservation International, and served as guides and naturalists on the expedition into the vast jungle tract.
ARTICLE: Entrepreneur's $2m saves Tasmanian forest
The Sydney Morning Herald (article)
February 8, 2006
A $2 million pledge from entrepreneur Dick Smith has saved one of Australia's most significant historic sites.
Recherche Bay, near the southern-most tip of Tasmania, has been saved from the logger's axe after it was bought by conservation groups with Mr Smith's help.
Today's announcement of the purchase comes after three years of lobbying led by Greens leader Bob Brown.
Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon, announcing the deal today, said the $2.21 million purchase would not have been possible without Mr Smith's financial support.
"If Dick Smith hadn't put his $2 million on the table we wouldn't be standing here, it's as simple as that," Mr Lennon said.
The land was originally earmarked by landowners Rob and David Vernon for logging by timber giant Gunns Limited, with a deal to harvest 30,000 tonnes of woodchip and 5000 tonnes of sawlogs from the 142-hectare site.
Recherche Bay, the coastline where French explorer Bruni d'Entrecasteaux anchored in 1792 and 1793, has been described by archaeologists as one of the nation's greatest cultural heritage sites.
The French expedition made friendly contact with local Aborigines, recording observations and more than 80 words.
It carried out the first scientific experiment on Australian soil, proving Earth's magnetic fields became stronger closer to the poles.
The bay also yielded the first recorded fossil in Australia.
Evidence of a garden and a 20-metre stone wall discovered in 2003 are the only identified relics of European exploration of Tasmania in the period prior to European settlement.
Eminent archaeologist John Mulvaney said after the discovery that logging Recherche Bay "would represent vandalism of significant Australian cultural heritage".
Mr Lennon's support cements a backflip for the government, which until last week had refused to intervene and had given permission for the construction last year of a logging road through the adjacent Southport Lagoon.
It will now have to rehabilitate that road.
The premier denied the move was planned to win Green votes, despite the looming state election.
"I'm here today to focus on the positives. We have saved this site and a lot of these decisions were made some time back. I don't look backward, I look forward," he said.
Tasmanian Land Conservancy (TLC), which will manage the land, estimates the entire project will cost $2.5 million.
Mr Smith's $2 million pledge comprises a $100,000 donation and a $1.9 million loan.
TLC executive officer Nathan Males said the $100,000 would be used as a deposit.
"If we don't raise enough (to repay the loan) by the end of the year, Dick Smith has made an assurance that the property won't have to be resold and he will help us to find the money," Mr Males said.
The state government has given $680,000, which includes $210,000 towards the purchase, $80,000 in stamp duty, $84,000 in TLC administration costs and $300,000 for rehabilitation works at Southport Lagoon.
Mr Lennon said he had written to the federal government asking it to match the state's contribution.
Senator Brown also requested the federal government match community contributions, which totalled $238,000 in pledges so far.
He said his own $5000 donation was waiting "as soon as the contracts are signed".
"I've been waiting for this day for a long, long time," he said.
"I am totally delighted with the outcome and commit myself now to the big job ahead - to raise money to pay back Dick Smith's generosity."
Mr Smith was unavailable for comment today, but has previously described Recherche Bay as "an extraordinary area".
The businessman, who last year bought a million-dollar property in southern Tasmania, spent Christmas on his boat at Recherche Bay.
AAP
Original article
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