A RUDE AWAKENING

It all started just after 5 a.m

One car started honking its horn, long and drawn out. I awoke to see flashing lights in the distance near the fringe of the clearing and all around.
Then the sound of grinding, cutting metal.

I stumbled out of my van to see more flashing lights and a swarm of police in high visibility gear, helmets, batons, and a convoy of paddy wagons.

This all seemed a little intense and dramatic, a total of 30 police congregated around the blockade, public servants being the muscle for a privately owned mining company, a great use of tax payers money.

MMG is the Chinese state owned mining company with an active lease on this region, they are meant to be conducting an ecological survey to establish whether any at risk and endangered flora and fauna are in the area before they conduct any demolition.

They are acting before taking the correct surveys, yet private citizens are being arrested for breaking the law? Where is the logic? I was incredibly disappointed to see the government fail, this was the start of a lengthy protest that lasted thanks over 50 days.

MMG are driving through a 4 km stretch of road through pristine wilderness, ancient forest that needs world heritage listing and protection from any new destruction.

MMG are working towards a large tailings dam where they will process mineral extraction, corrupting the land, spoiling the river system and scarring the land forever.

Thanks to the bob brown foundation for their continued and tireless effort to keep protect this diverse and unique landscape. This fight is continuing to this day, a year on and the protesters are still holding on to stop illegal logging and the destruction on native habitat.

The short term benefit of mines is outweighed by the long term ramifications and scarification of these forests.

MY TIME SO FAR IN THE TARKINE / TAKAYNA

One of my main purposes of coming to the island state was to visit and witness the Tarkine, this was my first time visiting the west coast and it didn’t disappoint.

At first sight, the landscape was dense and lush, alive in every way, driving through from the north, you start to work your way through plantation timber, as far as the eye can see.

Forestry has been apart of colonised Tasmanian culture, particularly up here in the north west, in an age where we understand the changing climate and our world wide collective effect on this planet, I was interested to hear more from the local perspective, is there such thing as susutainable modern timber harvesting?

Enter, the defenders camp.

Pieman river blockade

13th of May 2021

Cleared native forest, paving a road through pristine wilderness, there are over 100 active leases within the North west of Tasmania, constant threat from companies looking to extract whatever primary resources they are interested in.

Within any industry there is a smoke screen in effect to minimise their impact or inflate their social and community economic value.

Witnessing the destruction first hand was definitely confronting.

Giant eucalyptus stand towering above, separated from the rest of the forest, sitting alone without the strength of its friends and family, it is just a matter of time before the wild weather take them down.

This Myrtle Beech was magnificent, surrounded by much larger trees tragically cut down to make room for a road, for machinery to bulldoze through, to food the landscape for a mining tailings dam.

The sheer size of this tree made it very difficult to recut, this was the largest tree I have worked with todate.

The landscape looking like Nebulous.

This process was incredibly slow, there is a trade off between cutting horizontally like this or recutting a tree that has fallen over and is laying on its side.

Here the saw blade bends and binds, jamming with most movements, working between both saws to make my way through.

I was so blown away and the beauty and intense colour of this Myrtle, the pink tones were something else.

I had made a mess from my initial saw cuts, I had to fillet high sections to clean up the surface.

The weather in the west will change in an instant, after stopping and starting I decided to set up a more robust and semi permanent space which would allow me to work for longer, this was day 4 into the process.

HEADING WEST

Mt. Roland from the north east

To me this image captures the divide and tension between humans and the environment here.

Up in the Central Plateau I came across my first insight into Hydro in Tasmania.

Did you know it accounts for 80% of the states energy consumption?

My main reason to head up this way was to explore Parsons Falls, it is on the way to the Walls of Jerusalem. It didn’t disappoint, it seems like everywhere you go in Tasmania there is something to discover, the wild and natural elements of Tasmania is its greatest asset.

Weather plays a huge part in my work printing fallen trees, I wasn’t sure if I had missed my window of opportunity before the wet season came in. While the weather continues to be wet, I headed out for a hike.

Next up, the walls of Jerusalem