A part-time ranger from Perth, 48-year-old Mr Iddon has largely given up city life to join a growing group of protesters in the fight to save Western Australia's oldgrowth forests. He makes his home in the Gardner Forest, 350 kilometres south off Perth, underneath a massive karri dubbed tile Cathedral Tree because of its hollow base (it was burnt out by fire many years ago).
The tree has been the scene of some of the fiercest battles for WA's forests this year as timber cutters have tried to move into the area. More than 70 people have been arrested and charged with preventing workers from doing their jobs in recent months. The protesters believed they were making progress, encouraged by some significant, albeit temporary, success in turning away the loggers. Public opinion was swinging their way, with newspaper polls showing 87 per cent of WA voters wanted logging banned in oldgrowth forests. Thousands of city people had taken to the streets in several protest marches and the State Government seemed to be wavering on the issue of logging in oldgrowth forests.
Then came the Regional Forest Agreement, a 20-year blueprint for logging in WA, signed earlier this week by the State and Federal Governments. Conservationists were crushed; The agreement made some green concessions -- setting aside another 150,000 hectares of bush for reserves and creating; 12 new national parks -- but It also gave the timber industry the all clear to continue logging pristine old-growth forests: for woodchips.
The WA Forest Alliance convener, Mr Peter Robertson, said the State Government had caved in to the timber industry. He said most of the land placed under protection was of low conservation value, while pristine forests were being left to be chopped down by loggers. "The timber industry l;as been given all the forests it wanted and conservationists have been given the scraps, Mr Robertson said.
The agreement was welcomed by the $400 million-a-year timber industry, which had been lobbying hard to counter an anti-logging campaign that had gathered great public support through its use of high-profile business and sporting figures.
Fashion designer Lit Davenport, West Coast Eagles coach Mick Malthouse, basketball star Luc Longley, Olympian Shirley De La Hunty (Strickland) and Liberal Party matriarch Dame Rachel Cleland threw their weight behind the green push. International conservationists David Bellamy and David Suzuki also criticised the State Government's policy on logging, saying it was not sustainable. The conservationists' campaign aimed to dispel the idea that only rabid greenies and forest-dwelling ferals were worried about trees.
"A lot of people think we are all ferals with nose rings and dreadlocks but there are a lot of middle-aged folk down here at the blockade camps," said John Austin, a photographer and protester from the nearby town of Quinninup. Mr Austin was sitting on an old car seat at the main camp in Gardner Forest.
A few fellow protesters were cooking breakfast over an open fire and trying to keep warm. A girlie magazine and a book on Introductory Buddhism were scatterred about on the makeshift furniture. The protesters were polite, friendly and passionate about their cause.
One of the more unusual activists around is Northcliffe timber miller Paul Smith. Mr Smith runs a small mill in the town but said he had come to the conclusion that the timber industry was not the way ahead for the south-west. "We haven't got much else going for us," Mr Smith said. "Even as a timber miller I can see that tourism is where the future lies for my children.
"You can't just keep chopping down the forests forever. Some of
these trees are up to 600 years old and have a four-metre girth. Tourists
will come to see these trees but they are not interested in regrowth forests."