Premier John Brumby - a man of principle, a 'year of action' logging Old Growth at Bungywarr Creek

Thu, 2009-05-07 00:02 by Tigerquoll

Senseless slaughter of Victoria's Old Growth..another Brumby legacy for Victoria.
29 April, 2009: Loggers have desperately chainsawed magnificent stands of ancient Australian Eucalypts along Bungywarr Creek in East Gippsland as woodchips, allowing our natural heritage to be sold out to the Japanese for a dispicable $2.50 per tonne!

Senseless slaughter of Victoria's Old Growth..another Brumby legacy for Victoria

29 April, 2009: The result of senseless logging at iconic Bungywarr Creek, far East Gippsland. Loggers have desperately chainsawed magnificent stands of ancient Australian Eucalypts along Bungywarr Creek in East Gippsland as the woodchips, allowing our natural heritage to be sold out to the Japanese for a despicable $2.50 per tonne!

“Two protesters are ‘flying’ a platform located thirty metres up in the tree canopy”.. "this platform is cabled off to four logging machines, immobilizing them.”

First blockaded in 1994, Old Growth at Bungywarr Creek has been targeted by loggers ever since. Premier John Brumby simply cannot be trusted with Victoria's natural heritage.

Topic:

Save our forests

Comments

Sheila Newman

Thu, 2009-05-07 00:26

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Sell the loggers not the logs

Maybe these stooges for big companies would get more money selling the loggers? Sheila Newman, population sociologist home page

Vivienne (not verified)

Thu, 2009-05-07 11:37

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Rampant materialism and environmental destruction!

About 90% of what comes out of our old-growth forests ends up as woodchips to make paper, the majority of which is sent overseas. The "management plan" for Tasmania's Upper Florentine Valley means a growing logging industry for wood chips, with a current price a mere $2.50 per tonne!

Despite the area being surrounded by mountains of the Tasmanian World Heritage Area, the Colonial ignorance of slash and conquer the bush has changed little since the last Tasmanian Tiger was captured there in the 1933.

All this so-called "sustainable forest management" is just thinly disguised eco-destruction by Tasmania's logging industry.

We are bombarded with ecologically "friendly", "sustainable" and "green" language, but the euphemisms are totally contrary to everything they claim!

We are encouraged to avoid plastic bags, turn off power when it is not needed, use energy-friendly light bulbs, save water, use public transport, but the benefits of these actions belie the fact that our governments continue to support the large polluters and industries that are adding to climate change and conservation threats!

Our leaders must be held accountable the rampant materialism and environmental destruction that our nation is succumbing to.

jim barton (not verified)

Sat, 2009-05-09 12:41

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Logging contracter attacks Bungywarr protesters

i have lost several thousand dollars in income due to the pathetic protests the greens have undertaken over the last 2 weeks in the bungywarr area. If you have a problem take it up with the state government directly or the vic forests office. No one will ever take you seriously while you are illegally chained to a machine or strung up a tree stopping the people who are there to make money to feed our familys. Do you honestly think the state government gives a shit while you are taking this sort of illegal action? The only people losing out are the loggers by taking away a slab of our income, the easily led pawns the greens send in to the protests that come out feeling like heroes but now have a criminal record for life. Also not to mention the tens of thousands of tax payer dollars that get spent on the police rescue squad coming from melbourne just to release the protesters and also the local police time wasted. Start using your brains and be a little more democratic and also start telling people the truth about our logging practices instead of just the lies you make up to sway the public to your way of thinking. Old growth forest dosn't absorb carbon dioxide like you say so if you want to get technical we can say that we are helping climate change by replacing it with smaller re growth that with filter the atmosphere a lot more efficiently. This is a saw log driven industry, the pulp that goes for wood chips is what is left over from the tree after the saw log has been taken. Stop the lies and the pathetic protests because no one listens when you go about it in this way. Your protests are just an excuse for camping up the bush smoking dope, dancing around a fire by night, then during the day trying to fighting for a cause that not that many of them really know that much about.

Jose (not verified)

Sat, 2009-05-09 19:19

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State Government does not listen to decent protests!

Extreme protests are because our State Government is only interested in money and the votes of businesses, and jobs for forest workers. Extreme protests gets the public and the media's attention. The income of loggers is a minor and short-term affair. These old-growth forests and trees have been here since Columbus discovered America, or before! They have TIME and GREATNESS on their side, and these stalwarts stand as sentinels against the wreckage that humans in power want to inflict on them, for a paltry $2.50 per tonne! They store massive amounts of carbon, and chopping them down is environmental vandalism. Get a job, Jim Barton! Nobody accepts the green-washing bulls**t our State government comes out with! They are all lies.

Tigerquoll

Mon, 2009-05-11 18:20

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VicForests no different to Indonesian Timber Mafia

Illegal logging involves "wood harvesting, processing and trade that do not conform to law. Illegalities occur right through the chain from source to consumer, the harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including corrupt means to gain access to forests, extraction without permission or from a protected area, cutting of protected species or extraction of timber in excess of agreed limits. Illegalities may also occur during transport, including illegal processing and export as well as misdeclaration to customs, before the timber enters the legal market." Other examples of illegal logging are: * Underreporting harvest volumes and tax payable * Ignoring selective cutting guidelines * Harvesting outside concession boundaries * Falsifying log transport documents * Accepting falsified log transport documents Timber can also be considered illegal if the plantations are not properly managed. This includes: * Clear-cutting natural forest, then failing to replant * Not planting at rates required to maintain long-term production * Replanting with low-quality species * Replanting at low density." SOURCE: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2002/timber_mafia/resources/resou... So perhaps Jim Barton can explain the forest impact difference between VicForests endorsed slaughter of Australia's heritage oldgrowth at Bungywarr Creek and at Brown Mountain in East Gippsland and what the Indonesia's Timber Mafia are doing?

jim barton (not verified)

Tue, 2009-05-12 20:00

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Proud logger with a job attacks guinea pigs

(originally entitled 'more lies') Righto jose and tigerquoll lets get a few things straight. first and foremost, i have a job. i am a logger currently logging the bungywarr creek area incase you didn't read my first piece properly. Secondly, tigerquolls new name is now guinea pig because thats what he looked and sounded like when he was running back for cover into the bush at last weeks tax payer funded protest when we wanted to talk to him. It is bullshit for you dole bludgers to say that loggers incomes are not an important issue when it comes to this arguement. ... (For the rest of jim barton's post, go here. - JS)

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 2009-05-13 01:54

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Logging subsidised by tax-payer

You would have to be blind not to see that your line of work is unsustainable. That means that it costs more than it produces financially (the community subsidises logging). Do us all a favour and get a real job, or go on the dole and stop costing us all more than money.

Jim Barton (not verified)

Wed, 2009-05-13 21:39

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Proud logger with job recycles but is realistic

Thats the best you can come up with? Show me facts and figures on much it subsidises actual harvesting procedures. Now if it is so unsustainable why are we logging areas that have been logged 2, 3 and up to 4 times over the last 100 years. Going on the dole would be the easy way out, wouldn't it gutless anonymous? That is why all you loser protestors are putting your hands out every week. If you really care about the environment get out there and start working towards reducing wild dog numbers, helping to erradicate feral cats and why don't you do something about the introduced vines that are strangling the native forests to death. The vines are spread through water ways that usually start their journey from up in the national parks that you lot won't let anyone into to even maintain. If you new anything about what you are talking about you would see this every time you are heading up the combienbar road dodging stubbies on your way to another pointless protest at bungywarr. But it is just easier to throw empty accusations once again without concrete evidence at the people who actually work for a living to feed their families instead of relying on someone else to feed them. I would like to say however, thank you to the person/s running this web site who have let me have a say on this subject. The greens have a terrible history of twisting what actually happens into a tangled web of what they think the public should hear, even as made up as a lot of it is. A healthy discussion is good for both sides, but eventually you will see the the country cannot survive on beautiful views, love and goodwill. unfortunately money makes the world go round and it is far to late to change that. Even climate change is a money making lie. The earth has been changing temperature for millions of years and unfortunately buying a hybrid car and some solar panels is not going to make a lick of difference. To those who doubt my thoughts, show us all some hard evidence over the last million years of the temperature difference to now. As much as you may hate the idea the earth is undergoing a natural process that no one can control. Why i seem to recall a history lesson at school that showed tasmania, the mainland and indonesia was all one continent. With rising sea levels we now have more continents than we did millions of years ago and the sea will continue to rise no matter what we do. It is clearly a scare tactic to sway voters and the general public. I am not a complete monster i still recycle and don't litter but we have to be realistic.

Vivienne (not verified)

Thu, 2009-05-14 10:55

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Logging is not sustainable.

Yes, you have a job! The point is , it is a dead-end type of job if you must continually destroy the habitat and ecosystems that support life. Most of our ancient forests end up at woodchips, for $2.50 per tonne! Nobody here is "putting their hands out", but the logging industry should not be immune from retrenchment like other industries. You are right about other issues, about rubbish, feral animals and weeds. Retrenched loggers should be part of a new industry of "green" jobs of managing our native forests. There is so much good that could be done, as you have mentioned! While writing this, kangaroos are being massacred in Canberra as being "environmental threats", but the real threats are humans, and the greed for profits! I think you have a conflict of interests with your source of income. The Government must take most of the blame for bending to these industries to get the rural votes. Our government cannot and will not address climate change because it is contrary to the growth mentality they are addicted to. Our materialistic greed is escalating, I believe, because our leaders know that our planet as such does not have another millenium left!

Jose (not verified)

Thu, 2009-05-14 16:05

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earth is undergoing a natural process that no one can control

Yes, Jim Barton, the earth is undergoing a natural process that no one can control. There are things we can't control, but there are also things we can! The massive plundering of our planet to accummulate riches and exports for continual growth is something we can control, if we get rid of self-interests and greed. Gaia will continue, the rock that rotates around the Sun, but it may not take kindly to the human "virus" it is infected with! Stephen Hawkings said humans were a bit of biological "scum" on a medium sized planet. We should not take our only home for granted! We do not have another to exploit! Our ecology is finite and so is Earth.

jim barton (not verified)

Fri, 2009-05-15 18:12

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twisting numbers into lies

$2.50 a ton is not quite the truth. $2.50 a ton is what a machine operator is paid. You keep saying that wood chips are sold for $2.50 a ton, so show me a genuine document that states the chips are going for that price. $2.50 is a tonnage rate for being loaded onto the truck so technically they can't be sent for that price. So if they are fallen for $3.50 a ton, snigged for $2.00 a ton and loaded for $2.00 ton, then the mills would have gone broke years ago wouldn't they? Then you have the transport costs i believe that this is proof enough that you are scaring people again with more unproven lies. Yeh they are being loaded onto the truck for that price but no way sold for it.

Tigerquoll

Thu, 2009-05-14 00:32

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National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI)

NAFI (or perhaps 'Not Another Freakin Import' provides a chainsaw scream for Australia's scarce and depleting forests. Japanese woodchippers rape Aussie forests only to import A4 paper back to us at a profit. Aren't we NAFI suckers?

NAFI is committed to ensuring clear fell logging and woodchipping of old growth has strong representation in political and public engagement to ensure this desperate slaughtering is supported in order to achieve the best possible outcome for NAFI and short contract loggers with no future prospects.

Australia's forest industries, made up of remnant old growth habitat, plantations and any outlying unoccupied timber houses on the edge of towns, offer significant benefits for NAFI and no-neck loggers with no future prospects. By the year 2020 forest industries are projected to contribute:

* 16,000 short term forestry contracts and base pay with no security, no annual leave and no sick leave
* 81 million tonnes of Australian native forests sold out to Mitsui (the Japanese)
* $19 billion of Australia's native farm sold out to the Japanese woodchippers - who have the hide profit from selling back to Australia white shiny A4 photocopy paper.

And so how is the multinational raper of Gippsland forests, Japanese Sumitomo Mitsui fairing these days? Well as at 10th April 2009, Sumitomo Mitsui reported its largest loss in six years and has desperately proposed to raise 800 billion yen in public offering.

Gippsland loggers have become losers in every sense. Contract logging to feed Jap woodchippers may pay the rent for a few months, but forget supporting a family or paying a mortgage! How many forestry workers called into the CES since the start of 2009?

Rousey (not verified)

Tue, 2009-10-13 11:22

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Chainsaw operator should get a proper job that creates wealth

I reckon that gutless whinging chainsaw operator or truck driver or whatever he is should stop taking subsidies and handouts from the government (Vicforests - never made a profit - any real company and you would have been out of a job years ago), get an education and get a proper job. Or at least stand up for something he believes. Other than the front bar of the pub.

ecoEngine (not verified)

Tue, 2009-10-13 13:47

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These old trees do not have a monetary value!

These trees are up to 600 years old. Their value is ecological and intrinsic. No value in $$ can justify their destruction. Income and jobs are temporal and temporary. We don't chop up our houses when we need firewood. Destroying these heritage level trees, and protection from climate change, cannot be justified for whatever value! They are PRICELESS so disputing over dollars is irrelevant.

Premier John Brumby - a man of principle, a 'year of action' logging Old Growth at Bungywarr Creek

Topic:

Comments

Sell the loggers not the logs

Rampant materialism and environmental destruction!

Logging contracter attacks Bungywarr protesters

State Government does not listen to decent protests!

VicForests no different to Indonesian Timber Mafia

Proud logger with a job attacks guinea pigs

Logging subsidised by tax-payer

Proud logger with job recycles but is realistic

Logging is not sustainable.

earth is undergoing a natural process that no one can control

twisting numbers into lies

National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI)

Chainsaw operator should get a proper job that creates wealth

These old trees do not have a monetary value!

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