Tasmanian Forests, and logging activities in them

All photos by Geoff Law unless otherwise credited
Photo text by Geoff Law

Page last updated 14/5/99.

Senator Bob Brown and staff stand in front of “The Big Tree” in the Styx valley of southern Tasmania. This Eucalyptus regnans is now 91 metres tall (the top having blown out) and is the tallest known tree in Australia and the tallest hardwood tree in the world. Doomed myrtle (Nothofagus cunninghamii) in the rainforests of the Surrey Hills block. This tree may already have been destroyed. Sign at foot of “The Big Tree”, Styx valley

Nothing sums up the obscenity of the Tasmanian logging industry better than the Burnie wharf. Great piles of whole logs waiting for export are dwarfed by the mountains of rainforest woodchips behind them. So much for the Regional Forest Agreement creating investment, downstream processing and jobs. Since the RFA was signed, the Burnie pulpmill has closed, Tasmania imports pulp from Indonesia and exports more woodchips and whole logs. The logs are pine sawlogs from plantations that have replaced our native forests. In 1997-98, one plantation log in three was exported as either unprocessed woodchips or logs. The woodchips are from the cleared rainforests on the Surrey Hills estate. This is the access road through a forestry concession to the Styx valley and the world’s tallest hardwood. The public is not exactly encouraged to go and look. However, this is all public land. The concession used to be that of Australian Newsprint Mills but is now controlled by Fletcher Challenge, a multinational company

Eucalyptus regnans oldgrowth forest and rainforest understorey consisting largely of sassafras (Atherospermum moschati) and myrtle (Nothofagus cunninghamii) in coupe SX 15A in the Styx valley – due for clearfelling in 1999. Photo by Rob Blakers.
Roadline logging in preparation for clearfelling the coupe – SX 15A, Styx valley. The background trees are between 60 and 75 metres tall. Over 60 hectares of tall-eucalypt forest and rainforest here will be completely flattened.

Photo by Rob Blakers.
One of the doomed massive trees in coupe SX 15A, Styx valley. The trees in this coupe are up to 77 metres tall and up to six metres in diameter. A giant stump – all that remains of one of the huge trees felled to make way for the logging road in coupe SX 15A in the Styx valley.

Photo from anonymous source.
Regeneration burn following clearfell logging in north-western Tasmania’s Tarkine area. You can see the helicopter in the centre of the photo with the “heli-torch”, an incendiary device that drops thousands of ping-pong balls of napalm on the mangled remains of the forest. Approximately 15,000 ha of forest is treated this way in Tasmania every year. Escaped regeneration burn in the Styx valley, March 1998. This regeneration burn escaped and burnt out about 1500 ha of native forest and plantations. The fire was lit about three days before a day of 37 degrees Celsius and hot northerly winds. In 1998 over 6000 ha were burnt by escaped regeneration burns, including the Mathinna Falls Forest Reserve.

The Huon River in Tasmania’s South-West wilderness, near the famous Huon Track, the traditional waking route to Federation Peak and the Arthurs. Forestry Tasmania intends to log this valley all the way up to Blakes Opening, in the far background of this photo. Logging invades Tasmania’s South-West wilderness in the Huon valley, not far downstream of the above photo. This logging is ruining the integrity of the adjacent Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area whose boundaries have been drawn to protect the treeless mountaintops and leave the forested valleys to the loggers.

Logging road through North Forest Products’ Surrey Hills estate – private land slated for logging. North is the state’s biggest landholder with 126,000 ha of plantations and forests at its disposal. On the 85,000-ha Surrey Hills block there were over 10,000 ha of threatened oldgrowth forest in 1997. North is clearing the rainforests pictured above to replace them with plantations. Clearing of the Surrey Hills rainforests for plantations

North is replacing native vegetation with plantations on an absolutely massive scale. By 1997 the company had already converted half the Surrey Hills block (42,500 ha) with a further 16,800 ha to go. These operations are occurring all over the state. On public land, approximately over 7000 ha of native forest will be replaced by plantations in 1998-99 alone. More Plantations


Senator Bob Brown and staff stand in front of “The Big Tree” in the Styx valley of southern Tasmania. This Eucalyptus regnans is now 91 metres tall (the top having blown out) and is the tallest known tree in Australia and the tallest hardwood tree in the world.	Doomed myrtle (Nothofagus cunninghamii) in the rainforests of the Surrey Hills block. This tree may already have been destroyed.	Sign at foot of “The Big Tree”, Styx valley


Nothing sums up the obscenity of the Tasmanian logging industry better than the Burnie wharf. Great piles of whole logs waiting for export are dwarfed by the mountains of rainforest woodchips behind them. So much for the Regional Forest Agreement creating investment, downstream processing and jobs. Since the RFA was signed, the Burnie pulpmill has closed, Tasmania imports pulp from Indonesia and exports more woodchips and whole logs. The logs are pine sawlogs from plantations that have replaced our native forests. In 1997-98, one plantation log in three was exported as either unprocessed woodchips or logs. The woodchips are from the cleared rainforests on the Surrey Hills estate.	This is the access road through a forestry concession to the Styx valley and the world’s tallest hardwood. The public is not exactly encouraged to go and look. However, this is all public land. The concession used to be that of Australian Newsprint Mills but is now controlled by Fletcher Challenge, a multinational company

Eucalyptus regnans oldgrowth forest and rainforest understorey consisting largely of sassafras (Atherospermum moschati) and myrtle (Nothofagus cunninghamii) in coupe SX 15A in the Styx valley – due for clearfelling in 1999.	Photo by Rob Blakers. Roadline logging in preparation for clearfelling the coupe – SX 15A, Styx valley. The background trees are between 60 and 75 metres tall. Over 60 hectares of tall-eucalypt forest and rainforest here will be completely flattened.

Photo by Rob Blakers. One of the doomed massive trees in coupe SX 15A, Styx valley. The trees in this coupe are up to 77 metres tall and up to six metres in diameter.	A giant stump – all that remains of one of the huge trees felled to make way for the logging road in coupe SX 15A in the Styx valley.

Photo from anonymous source. Regeneration burn following clearfell logging in north-western Tasmania’s Tarkine area. You can see the helicopter in the centre of the photo with the “heli-torch”, an incendiary device that drops thousands of ping-pong balls of napalm on the mangled remains of the forest. Approximately 15,000 ha of forest is treated this way in Tasmania every year.	Escaped regeneration burn in the Styx valley, March 1998. This regeneration burn escaped and burnt out about 1500 ha of native forest and plantations. The fire was lit about three days before a day of 37 degrees Celsius and hot northerly winds. In 1998 over 6000 ha were burnt by escaped regeneration burns, including the Mathinna Falls Forest Reserve.

The Huon River in Tasmania’s South-West wilderness, near the famous Huon Track, the traditional waking route to Federation Peak and the Arthurs. Forestry Tasmania intends to log this valley all the way up to Blakes Opening, in the far background of this photo.	Logging invades Tasmania’s South-West wilderness in the Huon valley, not far downstream of the above photo. This logging is ruining the integrity of the adjacent Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area whose boundaries have been drawn to protect the treeless mountaintops and leave the forested valleys to the loggers.

Logging road through North Forest Products’ Surrey Hills estate – private land slated for logging. North is the state’s biggest landholder with 126,000 ha of plantations and forests at its disposal. On the 85,000-ha Surrey Hills block there were over 10,000 ha of threatened oldgrowth forest in 1997. North is clearing the rainforests pictured above to replace them with plantations.	Clearing of the Surrey Hills rainforests for plantations

North is replacing native vegetation with plantations on an absolutely massive scale. By 1997 the company had already converted half the Surrey Hills block (42,500 ha) with a further 16,800 ha to go. These operations are occurring all over the state. On public land, approximately over 7000 ha of native forest will be replaced by plantations in 1998-99 alone.	More Plantations