End of round one in rainforest battle

Press, 21 August 1984, Page 10

End of round one in rainforest battle

NZPA-AAP Brisbane Conservationists have conceded defeat in their ground war battle to stop a road being built through the Daintree rainforest in the far north of Queensland. A conservationists’ spokesman said yesterday the fight was not over and they would now look at possible legal action to halt the road between Cape Tribulation and Bloomfield. “It’s all that’s left for us,” Tony Toohey said. “We’re fighting the whole system

now; it beat us as much as anything else but we’re far from finished yet. “We’re looking at how legal aspects were transgressed. I don’t mean by us breaking the law standing in front of the machines but by being arrested on private property. We’re looking at World Heritage legislation.” Mr Toohey said about 100 protesters were still in the Daintree forest, but »the police had blockaded them from the road.

“The dozers have got to the stage where those at the original campsite can’t see them. The police have got the whole road as forbidden territory.” A Douglas Shire Council spokesman said work on the road progressed unhindered yesterday, about skm from the starting point. i At the first blockade two weeks ago, protesters and barricades halted work for three days and holes in the road had to be filled in before wopk could begin.