Necessity of Protection in the Tasmanian Rainforests
Correspondent: At the end of the ice age Tasmania was separated from the
Australian mainland when the European settlers arrived in 1803 we
immediately came into conflict with an aboriginal people who had
developed a culture distinct from their mainland ancestors. The colonizers
could not coexist with the hunter gatherers.
Those who were not killed in what came to be called the black war died
from despair and disease. While before the end of the 19th Century all the
pure blood aborigines had perished. This haunting voice is a gramophone
recording of the songs of the vanished people.
The settlers from Britain set about creating a home from home. Livestock
and mining were the mainstays of the colonial economy. Frontiersman
helped out the most valuable hard groups. These activities continue as a
mainstay of the economy and with it the attitude of the bushes near to be
exploited.
Year round contractors deliver timber to mills to be turned into wood chip
to be made into paper in Asia.
Peg Putt (Greens Member State Parliament): There’s a very, very strong thing here in our
culture about the ethics of so going out in timing with the rugged land and
exploiting it and it really gets summed up in dig it up or chop it down and
ship it out that’s how real people make real money and everything else is
you know a bit suspect
Correspondent: But change is happening. The starting point was 20 yeas ago. It
came with the success of the campaigns to stop the damming river in the
Western part of the island that’s when an extraordinary Tasmanian
wilderness in wildlife came to international notice. The Tasmanian Devil
that went extinct in a long time ago in the Australian mainland flies here.
The – is found nowhere else and can’t survive industrial logging.
The – is easy prey to foxes on the mainland but is still common in
Tasmania the eastern – the closest marsupial equivalent to a cat but now
extinct on the mainland. Or even those who believe the Tasmanian Tiger
clings on in the wilderness.
Max Jeffries: Now I think there’s quite a few genuine – big day sway as he saw one in
they went on and it was guarded and day are in danger and he was so sure
of that that he even went down to the museum and make sure that what he
saw was a tiger.
Correspondent: Dr. Bob Brown reluctantly says it is certain the tiger is extinct. 20
years ago he was a medical doctor but now after the Franklin River protest
he gave up his stethoscope to be a full time campaigner. He’s now a green
party senator and easily Australia’s most famous environmental advocate
and constant thorn in the side of the timber industry.
Senator Bob Brown: In the 90s the pair or the corporations on the politicians has
reversed floor in terms of making it difficult to protest laws the forest
stand here in the land the chainsaws when they come are liable to 6
months in jail.
Peg Putt (Greens Member State Parliament): I have the walnuts undone on my cars and
on going harassment and most grains will be able to tell you similar
stories.
Correspondent: To the foresters this is a motive green—the island export more
woodchips than the rest of Australia. The distinct forestry agency says it
follows a sustainable policy.
Hans Drielsma (General Manager, Forestry Tasmania): Well as both an ecological
context and of course a production context in the first place it’s ecological
sustainable because of the systems we’ve got and then we also measure
the growth rate of the forest to make sure that we’re already taking as
much as is growing each year.
Senator Bob Brown: Where you say the word environmentally sustainable applied to
logging in Tasmania you are seeing a lie, it’s a straight out lie. It just
doesn’t happen. It is the destruction of ecosystems which never ever
return. What might be economic is its sustainable for the money makers
and what is ecologically sustainable which are two different things. The
fire burning and poisoning and total destruction in the forest can never be
defined as ecologically sustainable.
Correspondent: The debate rages and little quarter is given by either side. In
comparison with Tod Dudley Senator Brown is a moderate. Tod Dudley
says he’s a full time environmental volunteer. He’s now the champion of
the giant velvet worm. The worm is incredibly rare and our transferry
mosquito infested forests he managed to find one.
Todd Dudley: The giant velvet worm under the back here this is really. This – is one o
the identified hot spot areas for velvet worm it’s really good habitat
because there’s lots of logs and – on the ground and its nice and I like it to
be raisingly damp to.
Correspondent: It’s not a worm actually nor is it an insect. Its kind of in between
the fossil record shows its going to change for hundreds of millions of
years. You’re looking at one of the first creatures to colonize the land.
Today its last refuge is tiny patches of damp forest in Northern Tasmania
Where to Todd Dudley it’s multimillion year tenure were being periled a
farmer in to make a tidy sum by selling this 30 hectare forest for wood
chip Todd found out about it and launched an objection into the threatened
species legislation.
A tribunal ruled in favor of the worm. The invertebrates forest refuge was
saved.
Todd: Here my main action is just that I think the we should respect life that’s
evolved that means years.
Correspondent: But Tasmania has its own way of doing things straight out of the
velvet worm decision the law was changed to prevent any similar legal
action to protect wildlife. It’s now up to the foresters to decide which bits
of biodiversity to safeguard.
Hans Drielsma (General Manager, Forestry Tasmania): And clearly it’s important
that we don’t impact on threatened species in any way. We put a lot of
effort both as an organization and as a society in terms of their the
research that’s done you know both animal organization and more
generally in Tasmania.
Correspondent: The State government seems to have complete faith in his
corporation forestry Tasmania to for sound forestry management. For
example loggers must leave trees untouched or ripped with over 20 meters
along side important streams.
Hans Drielsma: This is what we call a class 2 stream a higher order stream and we
insure that you know management the environs of this streams are
protected so we have what we call filter strips or sometimes the wildlife
habitat strip and in this case it will be a minimum of at least 30 meters
wide on each side of the stream to both protect the quality of the water.
Correspondent: Last year there was only one prosecution for breaking the
regulations but on our journey’s through logged areas it is not difficult to
find places where the code has been completely floated and this one is
especially important because it’s the habitat of another unique species that
borrow in crayfish. It’s found early in pockets of damp forest at the foot of
a mountain in the northern part of the island.
Male: What we’ve got here is a water cross that’s been interrupted by these
heavy machinery running through it the major problem I suppose is the
fact that it has been a heavy machinery heavy machinery in the creek that
the landing is too close to the creek.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services