Updated March 2009

forest protest & activism

Old-growth-forest activism and protest in south-western Australia karri and jarrah forest against unsustainable logging. Protest campaigns depicted are Lane, Wattle, Gardner, Swarbrick and Boorara

LANE 01 W STATE FOREST

Dawn Vigil Lane State Forest, October 1998 IR neg.
Defenders in circle at base of tree in which tree sitter is on the platform

Photograph of the dawn vigil at the end of the first stage of the Lane 01 West forest protest. The device at the top of the tree, about 40 metres high, is a platform on which a protester camps to protect a circle of forest with a radius of two tree heights, about 150 metres, with his or her body

Following this vigil at the base of a karri tree, in which a lone protester was left to protect the area, the main group of protesters withdrew to allow already fallen trees to be removed. The timber industry moved back in and immediately started to fall more trees. This sort of behavour by CALM (now DEC & FPC gave rise to the slogan "CALM Lies - Forest Dies"

Despite continued protest, concurrent with the Wattle Campaign, Lane 01W was totally destroyed to keep the Diamond Chip Mill and the Pemberton Timber Mill operating for just a few weeks

As a result of the forest campaigns I witnessed and photographed I developed respect for the dedication and courage of many of the defenders in their attempts to halt the timber industry's feeding frenzy. Some of the defenders who came from outside have settled in the area and joined the few dedicated local residents who continue to live and work in an atmosphere of unveiled timber industry hostility. This open hostility is continuing

WATTLE STATE FOREST

A road dragon was a device made of a mixture of concrete and metal into which a defender "locked on" by means of a dog chain looped around the wrist and latched inside the dragon using a dog chain clip. The logic for the mixture of concrete and metal is that you can't use a jack hammer on metal and an angle grinder won't work on concrete, Wattle SF, near South West Highway WA

At Lane and Wattle I witnessed the steadily increasing arrogance, hostility and disregard for human safety shown by the WA Police, Western Australian Dept. of Conservation and Land Management (now Dept of Envoronment and Conservation) and the logging Industry

Log loader being used to lift the dragon from the road with Penny's arm still locked into the device, Wattle SF, one of the most arrogant and stupid acts I have ever witnessed. Wattle State Forest WA, December 1998

GARDNER 08 STATE FOREST

Peta and Debbie on the "Megastump", Gardner 08 State Forest, Chesapeake Road, Northcliffe WA. January 1999

The tree really was that big. The timber turned out to be useless and still lies on the forest floor.

Regarding the logging of Gardner 08 State Forest, Peter Beatty, CALM Planning Officer for this block stated "This [Gardner 08] was the most ancient and pristine area [of karri forest] we had. We decided to log it because the timber industry was locked out of Jane and Giblett Forests by protests."

The measured dimensions are; widest diameter 4.07 metre, circumference around butresses 14.03 metres

SWARBRICK STATE FOREST

Simon Two Dogs, Swarbrick, June 1999

BOORARA STATE FOREST

Spider, Boorara State Forest May 2000

RALLIES

OGF Rally, rear of Perth Concert Hall, "Umbrellas Rally" July 1998

I settled in Quinninup in the Australian south west karri forest intending to work with black & white photography in a contemplative manner. However, I quickly realised the truth of the destruction to the local environment. There was nothing quiet and contemplative about the forest at that time or this

The result of this reasisation was that much of my black and white photographic output for the following ten years was documentation of the destruction and defense of the tattered remnants of the once magnificent south west Australian forests

The images document Western Australian activists and protestors against ancient forest logging from 1994 to 2003. They show some of the means used to delay logging operations and gain media coverage for the forest they loved. The protesters who lived in the forest camps tolerated primitive conditions; in winter cold, mud, smokey fires, burnt raw food and fines - despite the huge sums of money collected in their name by some self annointed "peak bodies" in Perth

This forest activism documentation is unique - no one else has comprehensive photographic coverage of the Western Australian forest protest. There is some scattered colour and digital work, but the latter has generally been digitally manipulated, which removes its credibility

My approach to this photo documentation has its roots in a Western Australian Department of Arts Creative Development Grant in 1993. This grant was for the development of my work in a "fine art" portraiture direction. However, as is with these things, the subsequent outcomes went in entirely unexpected directions based on the need of the time. This forest protest documentation was a watershed in my work

I have ceased black and white photography of forest devastation. To be constantly faced with the destruction of my local environment is too much to suffer

The environment was the uhltimate concern for all humanity. The wanton destruction of the Karri forest was only one aspect of the creeping environmental apocalypse. All those who merely sat and talked about the environment were not conservationists. It was our duty to act in whatever way we could, we were not powerless

However, it is now all too late. That the Finnish, Siberian and Alaskan permafrost above the huge peatlands is melting and the peat can become aerobic, thereby releasing vast quantities of methane, any comment about logging is academic. . .

Whoopee, all life is going to die slowly and horribly - Thank you GWB, the world timber industry and Volvo drivers. Oh, that includes me

More forest protest images can be seen on the Quokkas page

15th March 2009
Forest Protest Review

Now, nearly ten years after these images were made and the events recorded seem like history, I am about to start new work

So now now a good time to look back and assess this period. The years following this work 'till 2008 was a period of serious depression, 'though I did not know I was depressed almost it 'till now, as it is ending and I am rediscovering my creativity

Watching the forest I love destroyed for greed but without profit, seeing the forest activists used for profit by organisations claiming to be "peak environmental bodies" and the cynical disregard for truth shown by Geoff Gallop's Labor government were three triggers to my depression

The Gallop Labor Government was, as already stated, swept to power on their promise to end old growth logging. They did not end old growth logging and never intended to. Their promises were those of politicians and were cynical lies in the extreme. My view of the Gallop Government reminds me of the assesment of Gov Darling in NSW "Govenor Darling displays a wicked, depraved and malignant spirit"

The mechanism to fool the city public was to invent new national parks from large swaths of "low yield" non-production forest and already cleared forest areas. In the meantime logging of any old growh remnants has continued unabated. However, Gallop and Co are politicians so this is precisely what I expected

What still sits in my craw is the equally cynical profiteering by the environmental "peak bodies". These organisations used information control for power, dictated from an assumed hierarchical position, disregarded valuable local information and grabbed any and all available money, using the vast majority of it for anything other than forest protection. I am again put in mind of the above quote ". . . displays a wicked, depraved and malignant spirit"

It was this betrayal of public trust by Gallop and the environmental heirarchy that I find far more onerous than the destructive stupidity of the logging industry, who never denied their wicked, depraved and malignant intent

Does this statement make me vulnerable to being sued? Perhaps, but the peak bodies are well know known and I have removed their names from this statement. Will they want to come forward and have the documentation collected by me and local environmental bodies made public? Also, as all I own is a crumbling house in the forest, a few old and battered cameras and an old Volvo I don't much worry

The future is what I am interested in, however short it is. Plans and the future is why I am stating this conclusion to the Forest Protest portfolio now, ready to move on to new work. Hopefully changing my own wicked, depraved and malignant spirit in the process