AUSTRALIA: Tas: Woodchipping like tearing down Opera House: actress
Copyright 2001 AAP NEWSFEED
August 11, 2001
By Don Woolford
HOBART, Aug 11 AAP - Chopping Tasmania's giant trees down for woodchips was like turning the Sydney Opera House into rubble for driveways, actress Rachel Griffiths said today.
The Oscar-nominated actress was speaking at a huge forest rally outside Hobart's Wrest Point Casino as federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley was inside addressing the state ALP conference.
Nearly 4,000 people gathered on the casino's vast upper car park to protest against state and federal Labor's support for logging old growth forests that are not protected under the Regional Forests Agreement.
Griffiths was recruited to the cause by Tasmanian Greens Senator Bob Brown. Before the rally she was flown over the Styx Valley, about 60km northwest of Hobart.
The valley has eucalypts almost 100 metres tall, the world's tallest hardwoods.
But while some stands have been protected, others have been clear-felled and the valley has become one of the main symbols of the conservation movement's push to fully protect old growth forests.
Griffiths said she had come as an ignorant outsider and had been moved by the "profound, beautiful place".
Tasmania had some of Australia's crown jewels and more Australians should go down to see them and help save them, she said.
"Tearing up Tasmania's old growth forests for woodchips for low-cost export is like turning the Sydney Opera House into rubble for driveways," she said.
Rally organisers challenged Mr Beazley to address the crowd.
He refused, saying he was in Hobart for the ALP, not to give publicity to another group which made a habit of hanging off Labor conferences.