Thirty Years of Creative Resistance - Friends of the Earth Australia

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.
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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