Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

Anthony Amis
On the 14 th of December 1994,
Friends of the Earth lodged an
application for an enforcement
order in the Victorian
Administrative Appeals Tribunal
(AAT) against the logging company
S.T.Y. Afforestation. S.T.Y. was
partly owned by Roger Pescott*,
then a Minister in the Kennett
Government. FoE took this action
because they believed that STY had
breached a 1983 planning permit
which allowed them to carry out
commercial logging operations
subject to seventeen special
conditions in a gazetted town water
supply catchment.
The private logging operations
in the McCraes Creek catchment
(Parish of Beenak in Victoria)
severely breached buffer zones
requirements, road infrastructure,
drainage, stream crossings, logging
out of season, slope restrictions
and also failing to adhere to the
forest utilisation plan. The
McCraes Creek catchment at the time
supplied drinking Indigenous water to photos Emerald,
Avonsleigh, Clematis, Cockatoo,
Gembrook, Kallista, Macclesfield,
Menzies Creek and The Patch.
The logging operation was found by
Loris Duclos in February 1994, who
at the time was employed by Friends
of the Earth Water Collective to do
a catchment audit of the Cockatoo
Creek. During 1994 Friends of
the Earth campaigners visited the
land in question numerous times
documenting breaches to the Code.
Legal representation for Friends
of the Earth was found through
Chris Loorham of the Environment
Defenders Office who, in turn,
gained access to Stuart Morris QC
and Michelle Quigley.
The case was heard on 4 and 5
September 1995 and a Tribunal
inspection of the land in question
...................................................................................................................................................................................................
occurred on 7 September 1995. The
case was eventually won by FoE on
the 19 th of October 1995, where an
enforcement order was made by the
Tribunal. Costs were eventually
awarded against the Shire of Yarra
Ranges – the supposed authority
who had never even visited the site
– and the company who eventually
paid out approximately $40,000.
Apparently this was the first time
in Victorian legal history that
a logging company had been found
guilty of environmental noncompliance.
The story was covered
by the ABC’s 7.30 Report, The Age
Newspaper and local newspapers.
Legal representation for S.T.Y. was
heard to say during the case that
“These people (FoE) should be hung,
drawn, quartered and shot!”
Following the drafting of the Order
more problems emerged. It was
soon evident that the company was
neglecting its responsibilities
concerning the Enforcement Order.
Friends of the Earth was forced to
do a flyover of the site in May 1996
to determine whether the details
of the enforcement order were being
met. Reports written for the
company by a former head of the
Department of Forestry stated that
remedial work had been carried out,
when FoE knew that this was not
the case. After a series of further
legal wrangling, these issues
were not finally resolved until the
AAT agreed to Amend the original
Enforcement Order in December 1998.
*It has recently come to light that
Roger Pescott is also a Director
of Edlow International, the world’s
largest uranium broker since. Mr
Pescott has been involved with
Edlow since 1980. This was not
known by FoE at the time of the STY
case.
FoE 30 Years 59