Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

John Fraser
Every once in a while, perhaps only once in a lifetime, something
comes along that drives our involvement in the search for a better
way of living our lives on this planet. For me, that moment came
the first time I saw the forests of Goolengook. Goolengook forced me
to let the issue deep inside my defences. While I can’t speak for
others, it became a campaign in which thousands of people came back
again and again, and so I find it impossible to believe I was the
only person who experienced it this way.
The forests of Goolengook contained, and still do contain, whole
valleys where the rainforest is so thick it can take half a day
to walk a kilometre. Valleys where the tree ferns are bigger than
fully grown trees in more conventional Australian forests. The
place is an absolute treasure trove of rare and endangered species
including long footed potoroos, tiger quolls, and powerful and
sooty owls. Forests that the Victorian government’s own scientists
described as the best opportunity in Victoria for the preservation
of warm and cool temperate rainforest.
The resulting blockade started small, became very big, and then
varied massively in numbers over a period of five years. Despite the
many differences in opinions and priorities that do exist within
the green movement, the blockade and associated political campaign,
was an amazing example of collaboration between diverse groups and
individuals. The work by GECO in handling the day to day logistics
of maintaining the blockade deserves special mention here. The
incredible perseverance of the activists who stayed during the
logging of 2002, despite a horrific campaign of activist harassment
on the part of the Department of Sustainability and Environment,
and the Victoria Police, is something I will remember for the rest
of my life.
This perseverance paid off in the form of a government moratorium
on further logging introduced in 2002. Although some incredible
forest was lost to the loggers much of the forest may one day
receive permanent protection. The fight is not over though, as the
Bracks government can revoke this moratorium at any time, and a
future liberal government could simply choose to ignore it. What
we have with Goolengook is a partial win that many people said
we’d never get. It’s up to us all to convert this partial win into
permanent protection.
FoE 30 Years 112