The logging of Bruny Island

John Tolhurst Adventure Bay, Bruny Island

So there it is. Forestry Tasmania won’t change its plans, without an Act of Parliament, and will keep us in the dark about the real situation. We have to be content with the smash and grab of our treasures, and be grateful for any crumbs that should fall our way.
ON SATURDAY, 10th May, Forestry Tasmania presented a proposal for logging in the State Forest behind Adventure Bay on Bruny Island, over the next three years.

This presentation was at the request of the Bruny Island Forestry Consulting Group, and follows considerable disquiet in the community over the impact of these logging coupes, principally on the tourist industry on the island. Other areas of concern have been the impact of extra logging trucks on the island’s roads (presently there is only one truck on a daily basis), congestion on the ferry, the economics of the proposal and the effects on wildlife.

The meeting was well attended by about 250 residents, made up of shack-owners, small business people and retirees in the main. Given that the permanent population of Bruny is only about 600, spread over both islands, this was a considerable turn-out.

In the chair was Paul Harriss, MLC, well-known for his impartial views on logging, and, of course, his principled stand on the Pulp Mill Assessment Act. It was not clear who had asked him to chair the meeting, but we were told that it had been arranged some 3 months previously!

The actual presentation was by a young female forester called Amy (surname supplied, but forgotten) backed up by a much heavier, older and greyer dude called Peter Pepper. He was well-named as it turned out, having a belligerent and dismissive attitude towards questioners, that would not have been out of place in a CFMEU official.

The presentation went ahead very clearly, outlining the location of the coupes, expected dates of logging, routes of the trucks, movements per day and expected volumes of logs. Much was made of the desire by FT to minimize the visual impact of the logging. The forest in question is about 100 to 120 years old according to Amy, though John Davis, convenor of the Forestry Consulting group, thought it was more likely to be 60 to 70 years old. The Forest Practices Code recognizes the community as a stakeholder, said Amy, and thus the coupes were restricted in size, and techniques were to be used that would render them less visually objectionable. Plans for the years beyond three have not yet been formed, we were told, but there’s a lot of forestry areas on the map.

In response to several questions about the economic return to the Bruny Island community, Peter Pepper was less than amused. We should be grateful to Forestry Tasmania for the benefits such as the roads they have provided (for their contractors to use), he said.

Moreover, when pursued on this matter, he pointed out that Bruny Island enjoyed the benefits of being part of the state of Tasmania, and thus received the benefits (sic) of logging indirectly. It was clear that there would not be any employment generated for the island, but rather that FT was concerned to provide a volume of work for their private off-island contractor, to make it worth his while to come over and log. Asked if a cost/benefit analysis had been undertaken, the formidable Mr. Pepper replies that one had indeed been undertaken, about 3 months previously, but we (the public) were not to be told what it determined. I think this insulting riposte suggests that a) the costs outweighed the benefits and b) we need someone to ask for it in parliament where they can’t be so easily denied. Tim? Kim? Nick?

Another interesting revelation made by Mr. Pepper was that a representative of Gunns was on the consulting committee. The elephant in the room was of course the mooted pulp mill in the Tamar. Since Gunns have already forecast a second mill in the Huon, I think we can safely guess that the rest of Bruny’s forests are being eyed off for the near future.

Incidentally, whenever the matter of economics was raised, the term “commercial in confidence” appeared as a reason for not answering. It must be a contagion that has affected the logging industry and its government representatives.

Other speakers raised the possible effects of the logging on bird-life (a promise of some further consultation on this from Amy) and the quality of air and water for neighbouring organic properties (mine, actually). This brought forward the interesting claim from Mr. Pepper that Forestry Tasmania was the largest organic farm on the island. We may suppose that FT is yet to receive organic certification. I did say in reply that slash and burn did not form part of my organic methodology, but this did not impress Mr. Pepper.

Speakers who more or less approved of the logging seemed to emphasize the need to keep Bruny as “ a working community”, not just “something to be gawked at”. Since tourism actually generates about 5 million dollars annually for the Bruny Island economy, and 120 jobs, it seems to many of us that it is tourism that will keep Bruny as a working community, not logging.

However, it seems that tourism jobs are not “real”.

Nor, one supposes, are other jobs that rely on a clean, green environment. We’ve been here before.

Other pro-logging speakers pointed to the fact that Bruny had been logged extensively in the past, but there were still plenty of trees left today. We used to be a whaling community, too…..

Discussion continues around the room for about an hour and a half. Whilst there was some tension, generally things were pretty civilized, as they usually are on Bruny. We all know we have to live with one another, whatever our views on such things, and we depend on one another too. The pro-logger may well deliver your wood, or drive your children on the school bus, while you might employ his wife in your B+B…..

So there it is. Forestry Tasmania won’t change its plans, without an Act of Parliament, and will keep us in the dark about the real situation. We have to be content with the smash and grab of our treasures, and be grateful for any crumbs that should fall our way.

Meanwhile, the forests are whittled away, and with their disappearance, the tourists will depart, too.

Still, our trees will make a lot of toilet rolls around the world, and thence a lot of clean arseholes.