Tasmanian logging sites and mill shut down as protests escalate

Twenty forest defenders protested at the Smithton Ta Ann mill yesterday, while more than 100 forest defenders are involved in frontline actions across three sites as part of Bob Brown Foundation’s Forest Resistance Tour.

Two treesitters have spent two nights holding off logging in the Lake St Claire area, while other protesters continue to occupy the forests in the Central Highlands.

MJ Johnston, a 34-year-old from Bundjalung Country/Tweed Heads in NSW, who is locked onto logging machinery in the Central Highlands, said, ‘I’m here as a concerned citizen taking a stand on the frontline to protect these irreplaceable ancient rainforests and their complex ecosystems.

‘In a world full of destruction, and with no other options, only where there is action will you find hope.’

At the contentious Ta Ann Smithton mill, Anna Markey and Erin Miller are with fellow forest defenders peacefully occupying the mill.

‘I’m here today with BBF to protest the logging of native forests. I am disgusted and terrified that the government here subsidise this foreign company to destroy and profit from our beautiful native forests,’ said Anna Markey, retired schoolteacher and grandparent from Goolwa, South Australia, who is locked on at the Ta Ann mill.

‘Every tree counts. All forest life matters at a time when fires, floods and heatwaves are destroying our homes. These companies must leave the forests now.’

Lisa Searle, Bob Brown Foundation’s Native Forests Campaigns Organiser, said, ‘Ta Ann is responsible for the destruction of vast swathes of native forests in Malaysia, and is also one of the big players driving the ongoing destruction of our native forests here in Tasmania.

‘This is day two of a week of actions, with people from all over Australia standing up and calling for an immediate end to native forest logging on our beautiful island of Lutruwita / Tasmania,’ she said.