The Florentine Valley - Tasmania

























These are photos i took a month ago at the majestic Florentine Valley. About 2 hours drive north of Hobart. It has been unchanged since the ice age, it is a prehistoric and ancient forest. The place is thick with life and wisdom, it truly feels like being in middle earth.

The area has been earmarked by Tasmanias logging industry for clearfelling. The issue is insane, since the company responsible (called 'Gunns') last year cost the Australian government $200 Million dollars in subsidies and only generated a $60 million dollar profit (since it can no longer compete in the global markets due to free trade), however this hasn't stopped them from going ahead with the building of a brand new 2.2 Billion dollar pulp mill.

It's an issue taking up a lot of my energy. My ex housemate has just been sued by Gunns for protesting at their depot last week and halting a days operations.

From todays news..

Gunns sues woodchip mill protesters - wants damages for actions made by protesters which are likely to "publicise the political beliefs of the defendants, and thereby gain media publicity".

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/its-time-to-stop-and-get-off-the-gunns-pulp-mill-merrygoround-20090107-7byn.html

It's unbelievable that they can sue for 'publicizing political beliefs'.

The destruction is absolute. Trees are ripped out of their roots along with everything else in the area (fungi, bacteria, animals). mulched, turned into woodchips, exported to Japan, made into low quality paper and then sold back to Australia at a loss for us and a profit for Japan.

The leftover logged/clear felled area, is then firebombed with napalm by planes to "re fertilize the soil" after which. once the fires have died down, carrots laced with poison are littered in the decimated area to kill any straggler animals (wallabies, potoroos, tasmanian devils) so that they wont eat the new plantations which are completely homogenized.

It is extremely difficult to put into words the importance and meaning of these forests. I have known about this situation for a while, but it is one thing to know about the trouble on an intellectual level and a completely different thing to have been there surrounded in the timeless beauty of a forest unchanged since before man and then knowing that it is going to be fingerbanged.

It makes me really sad.

Please go and find out more about this living breathing middle earth and go visit. It's beautiful, cheap, the crew there will look after you and the forest will appreciate it. These forests are ancient, timeless and priceless, and they need our collective conscious support, even if it's purely mental.. I'm sure they would appreciate it.

Support the blockade! - Still Wild Still Threatened Myspace & Facebook

Please read more about it in this article by Richard Flanagan.

More Photos - HERE!