Otway native forests – No clearfell logging since 2008

Clearfell logging in the biodiverse public native forest land of the Otway Ranges was banned in 2008 and is now illegal. Prior to this, much of the public land within the former Otway State Forest was available for clearfell logging, predominately for woodchips. This clearfell logging ban was achieved after a multi-year, non-violent direct action (NVDA) anti-logging campaign that was driven by a grassroots volunteer social movement called the Otway Ranges Environment Network (OREN).

This anti-logging movement was in dynamic competition with a well established and powerful pro-logging industry driven countermovement. The Otway native forest logging industry was entrenched since colonial times (the 1850s), supplying hardwood timber. In these early times, selective logging practices were employed – remote bush sawmills felling massive old growth trees with hand saws and axes. By the early 1970s, hand saws and axes and been replaced with chainsaws and bulldozers and much of the original Otway tall old-growth forests had been cut down. To sustain ongoing logging, in the 1980s the logging industry successfully lobbied for an Otway woodchip industry to profit from cutting trees which were too small to be used as sawlogs. This promoted the practice of clearfell logging where small trees could cut down and mulched up to be used to make paper through the domestic and export woodchip markets.

By the early 1990s, clearfell logging was destroying biodiverse native forest through the removal of almost all trees and vegetation from an area (a ‘logging coupe’) leaving the site bare and the soil highly disturbed. Clearfell logging is similar to clearing of native forest for agricultural purposes. About 70% of removed trees were sold for woodchips and 30% were sold for hardwood sawlogs. In the Otways, logging coupes typically ranged in size from 15 to 25 hectares. Every year approximately 3-4 square kilometres of former Otway State Forest was clearfell logged. In the year 2000, it was government policy, set by the Regional Forest Agreement, to allow ongoing clearfell logging across the Otways until at least 2020.

To stop the destruction of Otway biodiverse native forests, a seven year grassroots community campaign between 1995 – 2002 was driven by OREN. After OREN’s many campaigns over this time, OREN persuaded the ALP State Government under Premier Steve Bracks to adopt public policy that would make Otway clearfell logging illegal and create the Great Otway National Park and Otway Forest Park. At the November 2002 Victorian State election, the Bracks Labor Government was re-elected with a popular political mandate to implement the new Otway policies which made nature conservation a priority for the 160,000 ha of public forested land in the Otway Ranges. Overall, there was a six year logging phase out period (2002-2008), with the last truck load of trees removed in May 2008.

Immediately after the November 2002 Victorian State election, priority was given to ban clearfell logging in the Geelong domestic water supply catchments and high conservation forests on the south face of the Otways. In September 2005, legislation to create the new Great Otway National Park (102,000 ha) and Otway Forest Park (60,000 ha) was passed through the Victorian Parliament. Significantly, the Victorian Liberal Party opposition recognised that the Victorian public had voted for an Otway logging ban and fully supported the passage of the government’s anti-logging Otway legislation in 2005.

The total ban on Otway clearfell logging was unprecedented. The Otways is the only high rainfall tall forest region in Australia where an existing and well established native forest woodchip industry for both the domestic (to make Kleenex tissues) and export markets has been totally terminated.

FURTHER INFORMATION

The 20 year anniversary of the Victorian State Governments November 2002 decision (and democratically mandated policies) to ban Otway clearfell logging and create the Great Otway National Park were reflected on in 2022 by ABC news journalist Rhiannon Stevens investigative story “The battle for the Otways“.

Up until 2009, the old OREN website (configured for desktop computer only) provides an good overview of the OREN/Otway forest campaign (1995-2008).

OREN recognises the Gadubanud people as the Tradition Owners of the Otways Ranges. Always were and always will be. For more informational, see Gadubanud Tradition Owner Richard Collopy website.