Sunday’s picnic on the edge of the Gladstone State Forest saw over 100 people turn out to mark a full week of disruptions to logging operations.
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The protest began at the Sunny Corner access road on February 12, when Forestry Corporation began logging operations after promising only minimal protection for the breeding population of koalas known to inhabit the area.
After starting the blockade inside the forest, the activists were forced to beat a tactical retreat 500m onto Crown land when Forestry Corporation closed the section they were occupying, which potentially exposed them to hefty fines.
“They came down here regularly on Monday and told us we were all going to be fined $7000,” Ashley said. “Students and young people and mothers, all threatened with $7000 fines. It’s intimidating, because we know they have those savage legal powers.”
Despite the retreat, the protest camp has still been able to obstruct the haulage road, which is the only route the logging trucks can use to take the timber out.
However, loggers themselves have access via other trails and have been cutting down trees.
“To avoid using the road, Forestry are snigging logs up to 3kms and have generated a dust bowl of a snig track that, if it ever rains, will release hundreds of tons of loose soil into the Kalang River below,” Bellingen Environment Centre spokesperson Ashley Love said.
He said the public show of solidarity on Sunday included many new people as well as Greens representatives from local and state government Dominic King, Jennie Fenton and Jeremy Buckingham.
However, the blockade may be nearing its end.
“Acknowledging our blockade cannot last forever we are looking at other ways of getting the message out,” Ashley said. “Joining the planned protest in Sydney on March 24 has been discussed, as has holding our own march on that date in Bellingen or Coffs Harbour.”
Signs of high use by koalas in Gladstone State Forest have been recorded going back 20 years, and in August an inspection by the Kalang River Forest Alliance found 15 trees with koala scats (faeces) in compartments 232 and 233, with four of the trees showing frequent and recent visits by a mother and joey.