NSW Forestry Corporation has been forced to give an undertaking to stop logging in Newry State Forest after a successful application to the Land and Environment Court brought today by Gumbaynggirr Elder Uncle Micklo.
All logging operations have been halted in the forest until 4pm Friday to allow Gumbaynggirr Elders to survey the logged sites.
Greens MP Sue Higginson. Image: Tree Faerie
The decision follows weeks of conflict in the forest after the Forestry Corporation sent in multiple logging crews to the forest under protection from NSW Police, locking up the forest and preventing Gumbaynggirr Elders from accessing their sacred sites.
Newry State Forest is part of the area the NSW Government promised to protect as part of the Great Koala National Park.
Greens MP and spokesperson for the environment Sue Higginson said the decision was ‘a huge and important moment in the ongoing fight to protect the forest at the heart of the Great Koala National Park’.
‘Since late July at Newry we have seen Forestry Corporation lock up the forest, throngs of NSW Police guarding the logging operations, koala habitat destroyed and First Nations Elders violently arrested and locked up for practising Ceremony on their ancestral lands.’
‘The environmental destruction and conflict that is happening in the forests of the Mid North Coast is a result of political failure.
‘These are the very forests that the Labor Party promised to protect as part of the Great Koala National Park. It is unbelievable that now First Nations Elders are having to take the Government to Court to stop them destroying their Country and living culture in the face of this broken election promise.’
Ms Higginson called on the NSW Government to cease the logging operation in Newry and the other forests critical to the Great Koala National Park altogether.
‘Minns the butcher’ – in the ocean, ‘Killer Curtains’ being reinstalled, on land the forest SlaughterFest continues.
Memo to Premier Minns, dial up ‘Dan the Magnificent’ in Victoria. Dan will show you how its done – the ending of native forest slaughter.
A great result!
Unfortunately, whether it’s the Federal or the State ALP, they just don’t get it.
NSW new Labor government is increasingly becoming a problem.
Whooo hoo ! No more state-funded death and destruction for three days.
Not exactly a great victory, and that is only achievable by resorting to the utilisation of those greater rights of Aboriginal citizens.
So come on Sue, where are the laws entitling us, ordinary citizens, to intercede when governments are so obviously corrupt?
This government is funding private industry to destroy our national assets, while running at a financial loss.
If this isn’t illegal, it is certainly immoral and if appealing to the law seems impossible, are we forced to ignore legal avenues and take the fight to the street?
Such wonderful news.
This is exactly the purpose of the Environmental Court system and great to see that it still works.
Bylong Valley residents managed to stop the coalminers ruining that small lush valley in the Hunter….of course the decision was challenged by the miners and had to be revisited, but finally won. I would expect this to happen here.
Go Uncle Micklo, you have full support.
Thank goodness for the indigenous people who have the power to stop this outrageous logging.
Shows that they don’t really need a Voice to Parliament, they simply have to actually bother to do something.
Maybe these people against logging can be up the front when the Bush fires start.do people think what there houses frames are made of.
Metal frames
It takes 2 tons of coal to make 1 ton of steel. Wood is made of sequestered CO2.
For those opposed to the native timber sector, can you show a credible report which details how many koalas or any other animal has died as a direct result of harvesting? You may also be interested to know that according to the Natural Resources Commission, koalas survive extremely in post-harvest regrowth. Meanwhile, the products made from this timber store carbon and the regrowing forests sequester more carbon. So what is it exactly you don’t like?
It’s also a shame The Echo can’t do even the most rudimentary journalistic requirement of checking the facts, rather than copy and pasting Greens media releases.