Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

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Gillian Walker ................................................................................................................................................................................................... Perched atop Big Hill, in the western Victorian town of Stawell, is a small Grecian rotunda with a viewfinder to pick out the Grampians, the Pyrenees, the Black Range and the surrounding Wimmera landscape — a 360 degree view. Here, the local priest comes to write his sermons, lovers meet, dogs get walked, kids play and stargazers gather. In July 1998 the people of Stawell woke up to find that the Hill, with its tradition as a Koorie look-out and its town-associations, was to be blown out of existence by Mining Project Investors, an agglomerate of Australia-wide entrepreneurs, and an American company, Pittson. A number of horrified citizens got together to fight this proposal, forming the Big Hill Action Group, under the leadership of former town councillors Barbara and Graeme Bennett. They uncovered the record of the Pittson company, which had had a mining dam collapse, causing the death of 127 people, and had committed 806 environmental violations in their “mountain-leveling” strip mining of the Appalachians. The company was well embedded in council matters and had the local newspaper on side. Things looked far from optimistic. Nevertheless the Action Group opened a shop front on the main street to disseminate information and form a centre for letter writing campaigns, along with submissions to relevant organisations. The action group was also represented in the “community consultation” forums run by the Department of Infrastructure. Help came from the National Trust, the Victorian National Parks Association with Charlie Sherwin, the Australian Heritage FoE 30 Years 84
Council, the Victorian Field Naturalists and Harry Von Moorst, of Werribee fame. It was Harry who suggested that the group should approach Friends of the Earth, and this proved to be just the boost needed. Cam Walker, Anthony Amis and Damian Sullivan of FoE did further mining company research — Anthony in particular, produced a massively important document. Spearheaded by Anthony, FoE put in place letter writing campaigns both locally and overseas, and organised press releases and media interviews, as well as visiting Stawell with Damian to put heart into the battling locals. The group scored a visit from Caroline Hogg MLC, who gave sound advice and promised to spread the word. By the time the Environmental Effects Statement process had finished, the story of Big Hill was getting out into the wider world. Friends of Albert Park, 3CR Broadcasting, and the Coalition Against Open Cut Mining joined in, sharing information and experience. Through all this Lesley Bennett (no relation to Graeme and Barbara) together with the late Bill Hall, local RSL president, kept in contact with Anthony and Damian, who arranged to have the issue covered on the “Insight” TV program in the run up to the World Economic Forum protests. Finally, when the assessment and panel report came to light in November 2000, the mining project was stopped and the Hill, with its neighboring houses, was saved. Earlier, the action group with the help of festival lantern maker Graeme Dunstan, had constructed lanterns in a variety of shapes and carried them, lit, during one memorable march from the main street to the Hill’s crown. ................................................................................................................................................................................................... On receiving the final report, the Age newspaper published a photograph of Graeme and four members of the Action Group with their lanterns alight on the Grecian rotunda. There was symbolism there! Amidst the thankfulness for a successful outcome and the acknowledgment of all the help from FoE and other organisations, there remained the sobering truth that mining companies never give up. Mining Project Investors, still linked to their American cousins, remain mining underground in the Stawell area, waiting and working for the relaxation of regulations which would allow them to once more threaten to wreck a town’s history, environment and way of life. We all must look out for each other and for the environment not only of our own region but throughout the world. Mining companies have international links but so, in the name of humanity, do we. Robbie Thorpe at the Corrobborree for Sovereignty, Canberra, January 1998. FoE 30 Years 85
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Up to a few decades ago, many peopl
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It seemed like a simple idea: to pr
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The optimism, courage and creativit
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Over thirty years, FoE has develope
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decades. In Australia, FoE is commi
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This group acted as an inspiration
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In the 1970s, a handful of key issu
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Apart from working on the direct im
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In the mid ‘70s I was studying en
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In 1976, there was a strong campaig
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egan to jostle for access to Antarc
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Keith Suter The future is never as
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I first became aware of FoE via Pet
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I remember the attempts of the nucl
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I grew up with the threat of global
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In late 1980 a couple of people who
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Page 47 and 48: Ila Marks Dave Sweeney talking at t
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Page 53 and 54: In the early 1990s, the nuclear ind
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Page 62 and 63: Action outside the state government
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Page 72 and 73: From 1985 until 1992, undercover of
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Page 78 and 79: Dave Sweeney From its earliest days
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Page 92 and 93: When it was announced that Melbourn
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Page 105 and 106: Roman Orzanski Possibly the first F
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Page 121 and 122: Lee Tan “Let’s chuck in some co
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lead to some form of wisdom: a know
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Anon (1987); Know your FoE; the Coe
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Page 5 • ‘U Mines’ - Through
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1990s Page 46 • Image from Chain
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• The march that followed the ‘
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Page 116 • FoE ran a food stall a
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