Opposition grows to Southwood woodchip mill

BY ALEX BAINBRIDGE

HOBART — Forestry Tasmania's planned Southwood Resources woodchip mill in the Huon valley is under intense pressure from increased public opposition. This was reflected most strongly in a rally here of thousands of people on March 31.

The rally and march was described the following day by News Limited's Sunday Tasmanian as being "the largest anti-logging rally in at least a decade". That paper reported that between 3500 and 5000 people participated in the rally.

Other reflections of public opposition to current forestry practices include:

* A Morgan poll commissioned by the Wilderness Society (TWS) that found that 88% of respondents (from Australian cities in February) opposed wood-burning power stations using native forest timber. (A wood-fired power station planned to consume 300,000 tonnes of woodchip is an integral component of the Southwood project. Both federal and state governments consider this to be a "renewable" method of electricity generation — at odds with respondents in the poll, more of whom said it would be sustainable to produce power from other sources than burning wood.)

* A Launceston meeting of 300 people protested against clear-felling in north-east Tasmania in the week leading up to the March 31 rally.

* The doubling of the Wilderness Society's membership since the organisation placed a Christmas star at the top of one of the giant trees in the Styx valley, dubbing it the "tallest Christmas tree in the world", as a part of the campaign to get the Styx valley declared a national park.

The March 31 rally was very vibrant with a large number of home-made placards. People on footpaths cheered and motorists tooted horns as the rally marched past them. The rally was compared in the establishment press with the mass rallies against the Franklin dam in the early 1980s.

The rally took up a range of issues. Southwood was prominent as well as the associated proposal to develop an industrial port at Electrona. Opposition to woodchipping in the Styx was also prominent.

M1 activist Bea Brear told Green Left Weekly that the activity of forestry corporations would be highlighted at the blockade of the stock exchange on May 1. "Forestry Tasmania is one of the corporations involved in the woodchipping industry that has been receiving nominations in the 'nominate a corporate scumbag' campaign. We will definitely find a way to target them at M1."

From GLW issue 444