Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

In the 1970s, a handful of key
issues dominated FoE’s national
campaign work: the whaling
campaign, global and local
nuclear expansion, promoting
renewable energy sources, the
campaign to protect Antarctica
and actions to highlight
corporate power.
The FoE Australia network grew quickly
from 1973 onwards. In particular the
first bike ride against uranium, which
converged on Canberra, built FoE’s profile
to such an extent that, in the words of
Chain Reaction editor Richard Nankin,
‘we now work in overcrowded offices, with
people coming and going at all hours, the
phones always ringing madly’.
In the first few years of its existence, FoE
grew almost exponentially, and it probably
took a few years for the network to develop
an agreed structure that could cope
with rapid growth while maintaining the
independent local groups as the core of
the organisation. FoE was, after all, more
of a network than a single entity.
Uranium was a dominant issue throughout
the 1970s. Massive anti uranium
campaigning led to the ALP changing its
policy from one that supported uranium
mining in 1973 to one of complete
opposition to mining, milling and export
by 1978. In 1975, the Ranger Uranium
Environmental Inquiry, commonly called
the Fox Inquiry, was established. FoE’s
submission to the inquiry was 300 pages
long and was praised by the Commission
for its thoroughness. According to The Age
newspaper, it was the FoE submission
that “mostly shaped the major qualms
expressed by the Fox report”. It continued,
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“at the moment, FoE could rightly claim to
be the most potent environmental group
in the country”. Throughout the inquiry,
FoE published Uranium Deadline, a six
weekly 32, page resume of nuclear news
and details on campaign activities. In
1976, controversial documents on uranium
contracts were leaked via FoE to the
Ranger Inquiry. The report of the Inquiry
was presented in May 1977 and, despite
the best efforts of FoE and many others,
recommended that the Ranger uranium
mine be allowed to proceed. The mine was
opened in 1981 and remains a constant
target for FoE activists.
The period from 1974 to 1977 saw
particularly concerted action on nuclear
issues. Alliances were built with trade
unions and other social groups. In most
states, FoE was involved in forging broad
anti-nuclear umbrella organisations such
as the Campaign Against Nuclear Energy
(CANE). Uranium dominated national level
activity with the Fox Commission’s Ranger
Inquiry, national ALP conferences, various
state elections and a tour organised by
FoE of the prominent renewable energy
advocate, Amory Lovins.
FoE 30 Years 9