On the weekend, during a thunderstorm, hundreds of people crammed into a giant marquee at the Nambucca Festival calling for an end to native forest logging in NSW.
Environmentalist Bob Brown received a huge ovation when he said he would return to the upper Kalang River if logging proceeds there in the coming months.
‘Don’t get depressed, get active!’ was Brown’s call in backing peaceful blockading in defence of the forests, koalas, greater gliders and many species of birds to be found there.
‘We are charged with saving what’s left of the wild forests for future generations as well as other species that have a right to exist on this planet,’ he said.
Brown condemned the Labor state government for committing to a Great Koala National Park before this year’s election but now fobbing off any action to stop logging in the proposed park precinct.
Bob Brown said that Premier Chris Minns had been in Coffs Harbour on Friday to announce the ongoing destruction of the forests while ‘consultations’ are held. despite 80 per cent of Labor voters wanting it halted.
Welcome
Uncle Micklo, Elder of the Gumbaynggirr people, welcomed the throng to Gumbaynggirr country and then entertained the crowd with songs celebrating the forests in the Gumbaynggirr language.
Greens MLA Sue Higginson assured the crowd that native forest logging will be halted but the timing depended on the rising public campaign.
She said that logging of the public forests in NSW had been subsidised by more than $20 million of taxpayers’ money in the last two years.
Jenny Weber, of the Bob Brown Foundation, which organised the festival, said ‘Bob Brown and I visited the stunning Upper Kalang forests yesterday with ecologist Mark Graham. It is a global shame that logging roads are still being built into koala habitat and the proposed logging should be permanently banned.
‘Rallying with the people who want protection for the mid-north coast NSW native forests will keep happening until native forest logging is ended.’
Penny Sharpe a no-show
Earlier, NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe cancelled a planned meeting in NSW with forest communities.
Minister Sharpe was due to meet community members on Friday, without giving an indication of what she would want to discuss beforehand. Community members hoped to talk about the urgent need to end logging in the proposed Great Koala National Park.
At the last minute, the meeting was cancelled, as forest activists were welcoming her outside with banners and protest signs. Penny Sharpe communicated through a third party that she was only coming if protesters would pack up, as she would not want to be seen in a photo with protest signs at the Coffs Harbour venue.
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