The Terania Campaign- how it worked

Soon after the protest ended a magazine was produced to raise funds and awareness. Called "The Message of Terania", it was produced by "Stephen Brower, Paul Josef, Peter Geddes, Dudley Leggett, Milo Dunphy, Wendy, David Spain and Charlie". The following is an article from it...

The Terania campaign -how it worked.

They formed a circle when they dug in at Terania Creek. A circle of the young and not so young re-settlers of the Rainbow region. And their friends. Holding hands they made decisions which shook a Government, took Australia into a new era of public protest, stopped the tread of a twenty ton bulldozer, the march of 130 police and rescued a rainforest. And from that circle which chanted the mystical Eastern 'Om' came the skills to run a prolonged campaign. Cooking for 300. Hot showers. Running water. Sanitation. First Aid. A highly organised child care facility, even an Indian sweat lodge. A highly organised tent city.

Couriers and scouts rode trail bikes in clouds of dust at speeds which made police blanch. High in the mountains, the outposts of an elaborate radio security squad reported all movement into the Terania Creek Basin. With that information, blockades were made and the forest fighters gathered around the machinery and trees. On the wide verandah of the bush cottage half a mile from the forest camp was the political wing of the Circle. They and their supporters were working out a campaign which contains valuable pointers for other conservationists who need to alter government and public opinion.

There was a legal divisision to cope with those arrested in the forest. Solicitors to brief, bail, statutory declarations, claims listed against police. There was a bathroom-based photographic division where films for media and legal purposes were developed, printed and dispatched. The advertising people produced a flurry of professional, heart-felt messages which would cost less deserving clients tens of thousands of dollars. There had been considerable media effort over the first five years of the struggle. Firstly in letters to the editor in early years building up to full page ads and highly professional television commercials in the local media. But by May Ist (with logging due to begin on June Ist) it was clear that the national media had to be called in.

It was announced that people would stop the logging, by lying in front of the bulldozers, if necessary. Press kits were distributed to all major newspaper and television stations. Patrick O'Neill from Nationwide picked up the story first back in May then Craig McGregor, who wrote the first major story on Terania in the National Times on the occasion of Conservation Minister Lin Gordon's first visit.

The media office taped interviews with conservationist spokesmen and fed
them daily to radio stations in all Eastern capitals. Statements to television and newspapers were co-ordinated and released, leaving the sawmilling interests fighting for national media space. In the garage beside the bush cottage, a man to be dubbed 'Peter Propaganda' produced on a printing
machine reams of leaflets, information sheets and petition forms. Teams took these to the people in the stores and the streets.

And the elephantine Labor Party was lobbied. As even multi-national companies know, it is a task of daunting magnitude. From the grass roots level of the local branch secretaries to the Premier. But there was one slip. The local branches were by no means sewn up. Their lack of support at a meeting with the six-man Cabinet sub-committee was a chink in the otherwise polished campaign. Some local Labor Party branches were already in the control cf the logging lobby and only one of the eight local branches was strongly vocal in support of the entrenched conservationists. All ministers were lobbied. Reaction varied from helpful and sympathetic to outright rejection. Premier Wran (once he realised the strength of the campaign) met with 6 different members of Terania Native Forest Action Group over a period of weeks. It was clear that persistence and patience are needed to influence a Government. And while the camp waited for its statement to be felt, the public relations were making an impact on the local establishment.

"An Invitation to the Forest" was the theme for advertisements on the two weekends during the height of the battle. And they came in their two-thousands. An early winner for the founding fathers and mothers of the Terania Native Forest Action Group was an opinion poll they commissioned a reputable Sydney firm to carry out in the Lismore district. It showed eighty-three per cent in favour of making Terania Creek a Nature Reserve. The Associated Country Sawmillers called the poll questions questionable, but it was the only survey for the three months it took for them to pose their own questions to the people of Lismore. Even that came out in favour of an environmental impact study.

Throughout the conflict, virtually every controversial aspect was documented on film and audio tape. This foresight has proved invaluable to document a case to make certain such a confrontation will not be repeated. Submission after submission was prepared for the local councillors, government departments, backbenchers, Cabinet Ministers and anyone else with an influence and interest in thc forest. There were ten different petitions signed and sent to the Government by the conservationists and support flowed in from groups and individuals throughout Australia. In one day, 70 conservation groups publicly declared their support.

The Government sub-committee which came to look over Terania were given a great deal of attention. By this stage, the camp had disbanded and it was up to the original hard-core of Terania Native Forest Action Group committee to handle it. Information kits, welcoming receptions, country lunches, walks in the forest and formal delegations were laid on. The most impressive aspect for the visiting politicians however, was what the sawmillers could not counter. They could not come up with a group of genuinely concerned people simply seeking a communion with their surroundings. The many different philosophies which constituted the campaign of Terania Creek were unanimous in this objective and this kept the fight clean.

In summing up, the constant positive attitude, carried through at all levels, differentiates the Terania campaign from any other relatively flawless, professional campaign. The bummer is that there had to be a campaign in the first place.