Forest Rescue released the statement below on March 14.
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Forest Rescue has been waging a non violent direct action battle with the Western Australia state government’s Forest Products Commission (FPC) in order to secure the last remaining numbat habitat in the southwest — the Warrup Forest near Bridgetown in WA.
The forest is one of the last remaining intact colonies of the numbat, of which less than a thousand remain in the wild. The numbat was originally found across the whole of southern Australia.
During the commencement of work in the Warrup Forest by the FPC and contractor Warren Forest Services, several Forest Rescue activists entered the Warrup 6 coupe in order to stop and or slow down work on March 12.
During this action several breaches of Occupational Health and Safety requirements occurred, as well as several counts of assault upon activists.
Some of these incidents are listed below:
1) Driving a bulldozer into a person.
2) Deliberately trying to intimidate with a heavy machine.
3) Moving vehicle whilst people are within the designated exclusion zone.
4) Physically touching someone with the intent to use, and using, unnecessary force.
A Forest Rescue activist however still managed to “lock on” to a log loader. A young female activist thumb locked herself to the front of the machine, which effectively stopped work for the duration of the lock on.
On the morning of March 14, three Forest Rescue activists again locked on to logging machines in order to stop work. Tim Mitchell, the FPC operation coordinator, was present after a workers request. Workers arrived at 5.45am and police were still not present at 8.30am.
“We had three activists locked on to a Slider and a Loader, this will stop work and cost the FPC profits, as well as save the numbat habitat for another day,” said Forest Rescue’s Simon Peterffy.
“The loggers working on this job have started to think that this is all a big game, they have been using their machinery like toddlers with Tonka trucks to be quite frank.
“Monday [March 12] was a fine example of the type of the violent, careless and reckless behaviour these loggers are using in order to try and intimidate protesters who are using non-violent protest to prevent ecocide.
“A complaint will be made to the appropriate authorities in regards to the multiple assaults and the blatantly obvious disregard for the OH&S requirements. Forest Rescue will be uploading a 6-minute clip on to our Youtube and Facebook pages for the public to view.”
