Bulldozer tactics against greenies

Press, 14 September 1988, Page 21

Bulldozer tactics against greenies

ALASTAIR MATHESON

writes from Queensland that two of Australia’s

most priceless natural resources are facing destruction. Conservationists on the Great Barrier Reef and North Queensland’s unspoilt wet tropical rainforest, he reports, are facing bitter opposition, not only from local vested interests, but from a hostile state government.

Long embroiled in open defiance of the Federal Government in Australia, the ultra Right-wing state government of Queensland opposes almost every policy of the Labour legislators in the Federal capital, Canberra, especially where conservation is concerned. Where this involves protecting large areas of the coastal rainforest in northern Queensland, the state government is openly allied with the powerful timber industry, afraid lest the conservationist “lobby” stops all logging activity, and brings mass unemployment to the timber workers who earn a good living from the rich hardwoods. With slogans like “Bulldoze a Greenie Today” or “Plant a Greenie Today” on their T-shirts, loggers show their contempt for those striving to see both the, rainforest and the nearby Great Barrier Reef listed among UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites. They have even sent a delegation to that United Nations body’s headquarters in Paris to argue their case, which is to be left alone.

Things came to a head between the opposing groups four years ago when environmentalists, with some outside support, tried to prevent the opening up of a highway through the rainforest from Daintree River and the Cape Tribulation National Park to Bloomfield River, south of Cooktown where Captain Cook beached the Endeavour in 1770. Previously the "Bloomfield Trail” has been a simple walking track for backpackers, some trail-bike fanatics and rugged four-wheel-drive vehicles. The developers’ idea was not only to shorten the existing route to Cooktown from Cairns by 90 kilometres, but create “a tunnel through the forest” which would make its wonders easily accessible to the growing tourist industry. Until they were defeated, environmentalists tried to blockade the new all-weather road to stop bulldozers back in 1984,

claiming that the mass influx of private cars and tourist buses would ruin the primeval forest environment. Their main criticism of the Queensland state authorities was that they had gone ahead with he road without a proper survey, for first carrying out the environmental impact assessment ordered by Canberra, and paid no regard to the restrictions laid down for national parks. Even the state Main Roads Department was against building the road, they allege. “It is a molestation of this

fragile environment” is how an environmentalist, Dr Aila Kito, describes the bulldozing of the road through this coastal wilderness, which is estimated to contain over 1000 hectares of complex lowland tropical rainforest. To make the road, hundreds of mature trees were felled, including some of the tallest and most attractive timber trees such as black bean, pencil cedar, blue quandong and lillypilly. Experts say that unless the road and the adjoining forest are closed to the public at intervals, vines will invade the gaps left by

the tall trees and strangle growth, preventing tree seedlings from flourishing. "Once this Daintree Park area is opened up to developers the river will take silt into the sea, causing damage to the living coral of the Barrier Reef,” says one “greenie,” who explains that the resultant murky seawater will prevent enough sunlight getting to the coral for the photosynthesis effect that is needed. To the environmentalists the main significance of the Cape Tribulation area is that it is the point where the mainland is

closest to the coral reef. Only in two other places in the world do rainforests and coral reefs come so close to each other — in the Mergui Archipelago, off the coast of Burma, and along the north coast of Papua New Guinea. At one time Australia’s environmentalists regarded tourists in the same light as loggers and developers, despoilers of the natural environment. Ironically, however, with the onset of “nature-loving tourism” and an influx of American and Japanese visitors in recent years, the “greenies” see them as their

allies in the struggle against their opponents in the Queensland state government. For the two decades when he was the power in the land as the Premier of Queensland, Sir Joh Bjelke-Peterson championed the cause of the land developers, ridiculing environmentalists who “climb trees like monkeys.” He is no longer in power, but many of his supporters are still in office, notably the Environment Minister, Martin- Tenni. He has been quoted as saying of this area, “The more roads the better,” claiming the issue of the rainforest is not a public one but a “hippie issue.” ' The Hawke Government in Canberra is still pushing ahead to have the whole area of north Queensland included in the UNESCO Heritage Sites list. Meanwhile, Queensland continues to attract the bulk of the richer tourists, flocking in from

overseas to sample the sights of the 2000 km-long Barrier Reef from a growing chain of hotels which transport their guests by hovercraft to the best viewing spots for marine life. » A Singapore-built z-.‘concrete floating hotel” is moored right atop a reef off Townsville, and one enterprising firm is to operate a “submarine safari” from this Four Seasons Hotel for onehour dives down into the outer reef. So entrenched has the Japanese tourist trade become in Queensland that they now have their own hotels, travel agents and ships. Keeping in with the times, Japanese is now being taught as a “second language” in the state’s schools, and those in the tourist industry with an eye to the. future are also studying the language and the customs of Japan. It’s a far cry from the pre-war “White Australia Policy,” and the yen has become as sought after as the American dollar in the banking houses of Brisbane. Copyright London Observer Service.