Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

Friends of the Earth in Sydney (FoES)
began on Sydney University campus in
1974.
More than any of the long-established FoE
groups, FoES always worked on nature
conservation and biodiversity issues as
well as more ‘traditional’ FoE issues such
as uranium, hazardous waste, waste
minimisation and recycling.
Throughout the 1980s and ‘90s, FoES
campaigned in defence of native forests,
especially in the south east of the state.
In the late 1980s, with the release of
genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to
the environment at the Waite Institute in
South Australia, FoES initiated a campaign
on the implications of GMOs.
A number of campaigners from FoES were
highly significant in the national waste
minimisation and recycling campaigns.
Apart from advocating for waste
minimisation legislation, David Vincent
highlighted the PR tactics of the packaging
industry in Australia and the role of
industry associations in keeping Container
Deposit Legislation (CDL), levies and other
forms of regulation at bay.
Unfortunately, CDL was defeated in NSW
because of the influence of industry. FoES
worked within the Waste Crisis Network, a
coalition of environmental groups, to lobby
the Government to decrease the amount
of garbage being produced across the
state and played a key role in the creation
of state-based legislation on waste
minimisation.
It developed a comprehensive waste
minimisation strategy that proposed a
cradle to grave approach to products that
would make industry responsible for the
whole life cycle of the products it made.
Through the efforts of Dietrich Willing
and others, FoES engaged on a range of
greenhouse issues, including the National
...................................................................................................................................................................................................
Energy Grid proposal and energy efficient
building codes for local councils. In the
early 1990s, FoES was also involved in
the Federal Government’s Ecologically
Sustainable Development process.
FoES campaigned extensively on inland
river systems, including the need for
environmental flows, restoring biodiversity
in rivers, restoring natural characteristics
of stream channels and maintaining the
natural flow regimes in un-regulated rivers.
In 1994, FoES embarked on a project
funded by the Sydney Water Board to
develop community perspectives on water
management in Sydney.
A recent campaign victory has been the
re-creation of wetlands and restoration of
indigenous vegetation along White’s Creek
in inner Sydney. Ted Floyd and others
worked for several years to gain State
Government and local council acceptance
and funding to allow the first dechannelisation
of an inner urban stream.
FoE Willunga was set up in the coastal
town south of Adelaide in 1984 and
admitted to the FoE network in early 1985.
The group worked on a range of local
environmental issues. It helped ensure
protection of the Aldinga Reef (from runoff
from adjacent farmland and roads) and
Aldinga Scrub, a significant pocket of
remnant bush in an area with very limited
original vegetation.
It also helped with the re-creation of the
Washpool, a highly significant coastal
wetland. Apart from raising awareness
about renewable technology for many
years, the group was also instrumental in
the development of some of the earliest
large scale treatment and re-use of
sewage for agriculture instead of traditional
disposal of wastes through ocean outfalls.
FoE 30 Years 117