East Gippsland
Although the article which appeared in GLW on the woodchip licences and the East Gippsland situation (January 26) was fairly accurate it made a few points which could be misinterpreted.
1) The actual volume of timber leaving East Gippsland as woodchips is not 20,000 cubic metres a year but closer to 330,000 cubic metres. The 20,000 is only that which is trucked out as whole logs rather than "mill waste" to the woodchip mill at Eden. The remainder is made up of sawlog off-cuts, residual logs unsuitable for sawn timber and downgraded sawlogs (a common practice to obtain higher quality but cheaper chip logs). The ratio of sawlogs to residual logs taken from the towering old growth forests of East Gippsland is 1: 4.5, that's about 85% that are ending up on a ship bound for Japan as tiny woodchips.
2) The woodchipping along with the sawlog industry in East Gippsland has much less than 5-10 years of forest left to feed from. Both conservation groups and genuine sawmillers alike believe there is only another 3-4 years left before the government is forced to begin opening up sites of Biological Significance, wildlife corridors, endangered species habitat etc, for clearfelling. In fact these intentions are clearly obvious in the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources own reports and logging plans.
3) The East Gippsland Forest Alliance is made up of three groups which all agree we should be supporting an ecologically sustainable timber industry. Such an achievement is impossible while woodchipping dominates the industry; while current forest management is geared towards justifying the destructive method of clearfelling: while untouched forests are used to provide sawn timber and while we know so pitifully little about what is being lost or irreplaceably damaged by native forest logging.
Until the government and woodchip-dominated timber industry begins to dramatically alter its cut-out-and-get-out mentality, East Gippsland will never have a thriving and diverse economy. Instead it will keep the workers (those who have managed to keep their jobs) enslaved to the corporate giants, paying off their machinery. The bosses must also be sitting back laughing while they have the workers aggressively defending the woodchip industry against the "greenies". This is not in the long term interests of the economy, the community or the forests. Both require diversity to be strong and healthy.
Jill Redwood
Coordinator
Concerned Residents Of East Gippsland
Asbestos
In your issue of 26 January 1994 you carried an article: Aboriginal Voices: after the year of Indigenous Peoples.
One of the people who needs to be represented in such an article and be given as much publicity as possible is Charles Moran, co-founder and chairperson of the NSW Asbestos Ex-miners Aboriginal Corporation.
An organisation has been formed in Sydney, in solidarity with a similar group in Melbourne, called the Sydney Solidarity with Baryulgil Campaign.
Baryulgil is one of those issues which is a disgrace in terms of human rights abuses on a scale equal to any other such abuses in other parts of the world.
Asbestos was mined in this area of NSW for many years by James Hardie, and ultimately the mining ceased — the mine operated from 1942 to 1979 — leaving asbestos dumped in piles outside the mine, and left to blow all over the residential area.
Charles Moran, his wife Rita and two of their five children carry symptoms of Asbestosis. Charles has been fighting a campaign for many years to get proper medical treatment for all affected, the area cleaned up — communities are still living in the polluted areas without any proper facilities and access to health treatment.
Neither the Federal nor State governments have made any attempt to do anything about the problem, and money needs to be raised to fight James Hardie and Co. for compensation and for them to clean up the pollution they created in the first place. The company had known for many years about the dangers of working with asbestos, and to make matters worse, processed blue asbestos brought in from South Africa.
This disgraceful state of affairs needs to be given as much publicity as possible, and to this end we are helping with solidarity campaigns wherever possible. In view of some success experienced with a similar situation in Wittenoom in Western Australia, it is necessary to pursue the NSW issue until similar compensations are achieved.
People who may be contacted for further information are Peter MacGregor, phone 568 2279, and Charles Moran, phone (066) 24 2174, at 23 Norwood Avenue, Goonelabah NSW 2480.
Mannie De Saxe
Sydney
Native title
The Premier of Qld Mr Goss opposes land right claims made by Aboriginal groups throughout Queensland in their bid to obtain Native Title. In view of Mr Goss' outburst it is quite obvious the Aboriginal people are not going to receive justice where land rights are concerned.
Mr Goss considers Aboriginal land claims outrageous and moved to have unacceptable native title land claims struck out of the courts. He criticises assertions about genocide, rape, kidnapping, pillage, murder and destruction of Aboriginal rights as offensive and not deserving to be let stand in the courts.
It looks as though Mr Goss does not want the Aboriginal people to have what they believe is rightfully theirs. It does not matter one iota about all the land held by the Japanese and other foreign investors, that's of no concern to him. It seems it's only the Aboriginals Mr Goss is concerned about.
Mr Goss has lost sight of the fact that this country once belonged to the Aboriginal people. It must be remembered that these indigenous people were here before us. Surely they're entitled to express their rights?
The Aboriginal people have yet to fight their battles, before biased white man's courts to obtain land that once was theirs. In view of Mr Goss' outburst, I can only see them getting land that couldn't feed a bandicoot. I see no end to the injustice being done to these people.
W.G. Fox
Brisbane