 |
|||||||
 |
|
|
HOW MUSIC SAVED THE RAINFORESTS
In 1979 at Terania Creek in Northern New South Wales (NSW) Australia for the first time anywhere in the world, a direct action in defense of the rainforests took place. Central to the success of this campaign were the efforts of local musicians who wrote and performed the songs which expressed and communicated the spirit of our movement.Every day they would take their instruments up into the forest (the ‘front line’) singing and playing in front of the bulldozers, forcing the operators to slow down their works, or to the sometimes 200 strong police force up there with them trying to keep the logging operation going. They had realised how powerful and important music is to focus the energies of the protestors. It could lift their spirits, harness the frustrations and anger that can erupt so that instead of media getting images of an agry swearing rabble there were very clear messages coming through in the background.
If you want to hear that story better than words can say, you could start with this song. These musicians also organised and performed in innumerable benefit concerts which funded our movement.
Over the next 20 years, the Terania Creek activists spearheaded campaigns in Tasmania and Queensland as well as in NSW. As a result, most of the rainforests in eastern Australia were protected in a string of World Heritage National Parks. The world rainforest movement was born!
Now, these and other musicians have given themselves for another benefit, this time to protect rainforests in Ecuador.
The Terania Story
1. We are proud to host Neil Pike's Terania pages from the now-defunct nimbin.net. This was produced for the 1999 20th anniversary of the blockade
3. Tributes to Terania Creek from prominent Australians including Neville Wran (Premier of NSW during the blockades), Hazel Hawke (wife of the then Prime Minister of Australia Bob Hawke and Chair of the Heritage Council of NSW), Len Webb, Professor of Rainforest Ecology and doyen of Australian biologists) and Dailan Pugh, forest activist extraordinaire.
Terania Forest Blockade
20th Anniversary Tributes, 14/8/99
Hon. Neville Wran AC QC: [former Premier of New South Wales, Australia]
Many thanks for your generous invitation to officiate at the opening of the Anniversary Exhibition on Saturday 14th August. Regrettably, I have been otherwise committed that weekend for some time, hence I can't attend.
I regret this because Terania Creek and the men and women who fought for it, played a critical role in shaping my views and the views of the Government of the day in reLation to conservation. Indeed, there is no doubt that Terania Creek was a milestone in the history of conservation in Australia.
When I retired from politics, I was asked what I regarded as the Government's greatest achievement. I had no hesitation in responding that it was saving the rainforests on the north coast of New South Wales, Australia.
Whilst I am proud of what we did, my only regret is that we did not do more.
Hazel Hawke:[Chair, Heritage Council of New South Wales, Australia]
I am pleased to add my voice to your celebration of the 20th anniversary of the historic Terania protest movement.
The 1970s began with the Greens Bans movement in the historic areas of Sydney, Australia. As a result of this unique collaboration between property owners, residents, middle-class activists, and the trade union movement, we can still appreciate and Enjoy Millers Point, Glebe, Woolloomooloo, and The Rocks. These places contribute enormously to our understanding of the development of Sydney as a 19th century maritime city.
At the end of the decade it was the turn of the old growth forests. Because of the incredible determination of the Terania protest movement and the support of the Wran government, we are now able to enjoy the last remnants of the Big Scrub. World Heritage listing has confirmed the immense significance and beauty of these natural areas.
These citizens' movements proved the power of the people. They showed how much ordinary people care about our extraordinary heritage.
I salute all you who are meeting again to celebrate the important anniversary of your success. I trust you all pass on to your children love and respect for our special heritage places.
These places matter because we care about them.
Congratulations to you all.
Professor Len Webb AO:[Professor of Rainforest Ecology and Officer of the General Order of Australia]
SIGNIFICANCE OF TERANIA PROTEST
It is clear now, although only dimly realised at the time, that the popular struggle to protect the Terania rainforests in their natural habitat had deep, inner personal motives, as well as the social, political and judicial ramifications of commercial forestry, and that the issue was of much more than local significance.
Physical confrontation to defend land, in which people have deep emotional and special religious roots is, of course, not new in Australia. The rights of European exploitative settlement have been regularly challenged by Aboriginal tribes, and are still being negotiated.
Similarly, but less tangibly, the defence of the Terania forests could not have been so passionate, so genuine, if it did not rely on what Nan Nicholson has called "the simplicity of myth". This we must continue to explore.
The Terania protest brought together concerned people from many walks of life, and reflected a new, inner reality of Australian consciousness of forested landscapes. Poets such as Judith Wright have already led the way towards this confident, cultural maturity. Thus "we must be at peace" with our landscapes before we can live in harmony amongst ourselves.
Ecological science, conservation biology, and related sciences are now able to buttress the intuition and conviction of the protestors of twenty years ago!
Thus these rare, complex rainforests and their wildlife relationships have an intrinsic value in themselves, beyond the forest: in the Lismore region, in New South Wales, and nationally, that are are of unique value for the world.
Dailan Pugh: [Environmental activist and artist]
DIRECT LESSONS FROM TERANIA CREEK
The Terania Creek protest was the precedent for taking direct non-violent action to protect forests. The political effect of the blockade was inspirational for a range of future environmental confrontations around Australia.
Equally important was the personal empowerment of many people associated with that campaign. The inspiration of Terania Creek led to people taking up campaigns for forests elsewhere in the region, in other states and even internationally.
It is not just the small stand of oldgrowth Brushbox at the head of Terania Creek which still survives today because of the Terania Creek protests, but many, many thousands of hectares of rainforest, oldgrowth forest and wilderness scattered around the globe.
Personally, it was a catalyst to my devotion to forest protection, starting first with rainforests further west, expanding to include the fight for oldgrowth eucalypt forests, and culminating with the establishment of the North East Forest Alliance ten years ago
The North East Forest Alliance has used every avenue available in its fight to protect rainforest, oldgrowth, wilderness, and threatened species. This has included extensive use of non-violent direct action. From our experience, it is evident that direct action is still essential to help create the political will to protect forests.
This emphasises that the lessons that Terania Creek taught many of us 20 years ago are just as relevant today as they were then. Direct action saves forests.
