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August 29, 2007
Last weekend, as I walked around Hobart's CBD with my camera, I kept on thinking about corporatist Tasmania--that unholy alliance between the two main political parties and Gunns Ltd. If Gunn's calls the shots on resource development, then the Lennon government provides the support to ease the obstacles. The corporatist alliance's contempt for due process and democracy be seen in the events to impose the pulp mill on Bell Bay near Launceston. Those who resist are 'misinformed’ by The Greens.
Gary Sauer-Thompson, commercial facade, Hobart, 2007
Who then were the exiles on main street? Where was the trashy vitality, the lust and rebellion, the sleaze to be found? Was this where opposition to the systematic destruction of the old growth native forests and the subsequent poisoning of the very fabric of Tasmanian politics and life could be found?
Gary Sauer-Thompson, politics, Hobart, 2007
It wasn't just the libertarian punks who were against society --it is also Tasmania's wilderness photographers against Gunn's proposed pulp mill. They critique the destruction through clearfelling of the very landscapes that have contributed to clean and green Tasmania’s image as well as the toxic emissions from the pulp mill itself.
Martin Flanagan, in his "Out of Control: The Tragedy of Tasmania's Forests' article in issue 23 ( May 2007) of The Monthly magazine says:
Clearfelling, as the name suggests, first involves the complete felling of a forest by chainsaws and skidders. Then, the whole area is torched, the firing started by helicopters dropping incendiary devices made of jellied petroleum, commonly known as napalm. The resultant fire is of such ferocity it produces mushroom clouds visible from considerable distances. In consequence, every autumn, the island’s otherwise most beautiful season, china-blue skies are frequently nicotine-scummed, an inescapable reminder that clearfelling means the total destruction of ancient and unique forests. At its worst, the smoke from these burn-offs has led to the closure of schools, highways and tourist destinations.
Tasmania is the only Australian state that clearfells its rainforests. While the rest of Australia has either ended, or is ending, the logging of old-growth forests, Tasmania is the only state where it is secretly planned to accelerate the destruction of native forests, driven by the greed for profit that can be made from woodchips.
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