Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

East Gippsland (CROEG) to launch
the East Gippsland Forest Alliance.
More than 350 joined the Alliance
at a gathering in Goongerah in East
Gippsland, and direct action was started
both in the forests of East Gippsland,
and against the woodchip mill at Eden.
February 1994 also saw the infamous
“pressure holds” action, where over 100
people converged on the Department
of Conservation and Natural Resources
in East Melbourne. In an attempt
the break the blockade Police from
the Tactical Response Group used
torture tactics on about 30 of the nonviolent
protesters. Pressure holds were
inflicted in full view of a large media
contingent. The results were front page
newspaper headings for 3 days and
saturated the media. Not only did the
image in the Herald Sun win a Walkley
Award for media photograph of the
year, it was also used by the newspaper
in its two page centrespread ‘Images
of the Twentieth Century’ printed
on December 31 1999. Activists
successfully claimed compensation
for the pressure holds in 1998 and
the Victorian Police supposedly have
stopped using these tactics above the
neck.
Forest Network took part in hundreds
of blockades and actions over the
following years - with approximately
50 actions occurring in 1996. A key
focus of the group at that time was the
annual woodchip licence renewals.
Action highlights must also include
the action outside the Chairman of
North Ltds’ house in 1997. A trailer
of woodchips was dumped on his
driveway by FN. In order to get to
work, the disgruntled Chairman began
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shovelling the woodchips onto his
garden. After 15 minutes of physical
exertion and with 90% of the woodchip
pile remaining the Chairman then
retreated back into his house defeated.
In the summer of 1994 FN was
involved in the creation of GECO
- Goongerah Environment Centre
Office, which continues to be a hub
in organising direct action protests in
the forests of East Gippsland. During
the summer of 1995 -1996, FoE
joined local residents in the Otways
in building a broad based local group,
which went through a number of
names: Forest and Land Action Group,
Save the Otways, Friends of the
Otways, and, finally OREN the Otway
Ranges Environment Network. OREN
is now the peak green group in The
Otways region and has won a number
of local victories including the creation
of a 100,000 ha National Park.
FoE was also instrumental in getting
the Goolengook Campaign started
in 1996. This blockade eventually
became the longest forest blockade
in Australian history, lasting over 5
years. Thousands of people joined
the blockade with hundreds of arrests
occurring. At the time of writing
Goolengook is under a logging
moratorium.
In the late nineties, FN continued
to liaise and be active in most other
parts of the state where forests are
under threat, including Central
Victoria (Wombat forest), the Central
Highlands, the Victorian Alps, the
Western district, East Gippsland and
the Strezlecki Ranges. FN has worked
closely with Aboriginal traditional
FoE 30 Years 109