Media release – Bob Brown Foundation, 31 May 2021
Forest defender released from gaol as protests continue against Tarkine mine
Bob Brown Foundation has welcomed the release of Billy Rodwell from gaol while continuing to pursue Premier Gutwein on why this shocking and heavy handed incarceration was allowed.
Meantime protesters are back in takayna/Tarkine blocking the access road to the mine site and have planted a native myrtle in a hope that it will be there in 500 years when this area is protected.
“Only Premier Gutwein knows why Billy was treated harshly with this excessive overkill. Billy Rodwell shouldn’t have been held on remand and should have been released from the police station on Friday. We are relieved he has his freedom again,” Bob Brown Foundation Campaign Manager Jenny Weber said.
“Questions need to be asked of Tasmania Police why such an outrageous ill conceived gaoling of a young man for his first offences was carried out. What we have just witnessed by Tasmania Police, the government, and MMG employees to intimidate and bully a young environmentalist in the last days has strengthened our resolve,” Jenny Weber said.
“Billy Rodwell has made a stand for the planet in our Tarkine rainforests. He is a sign of things to come,” Bob Brown said
“Young Australians everywhere will be proud of him,” Bob Brown said.
In takayna/Tarkine protesters have defiantly returned to the contentious site to plant rainforest trees.
“I’m a bushwalking guide and have worked in the Tarkine for many years. After days walking through pristine forest, the guests are confronted with the ongoing destruction of the Tarkine. ‘How do we not know about this.’ Is their usual cry. Australians know more about the illegal destruction of the Amazon than the state-sanctioned logging of Tasmanian’s old growth rainforest,” said Jef Donald, Tarkine Defender currently carrying out the protest now.
Bob Brown Foundation is not going to back down in the defence of these rainforests. We will not succumb to police intimidation tactics and this action today is one stand of many to come until the bulldozers are out of takayna/Tarkine.
