Brickworks owns the largest mill in East Gippsland. It is a dodgy company which makes large political donations and has huge influence over the Liberal Party. It was mentioned in the NSW ICAC inquiry into corruption. It played a big part in pushing to have the logging and incineration of native forest logs in electricity generators to be defined as 'renewable' and therefore collect subsidies or credits for doing so.
For years people have been witnessing what seems like the deliberate prolonging of bushfires. Right back to the 90s up until now, a new agenda has created these monster fires.
Many of them are due to planned burns that just happen to escape on the weekend when no one is patrolling – a-la Wilson’s Prom. Other instances of deliberate perpetuation of a fire comes directly from CFA vollies and govt crew, where they are told to push a burning log across the track if they want to be on $40 an hour rather than $25 for the next week.
An East Gippsland sawmill is in the process of applying for the very same timber certification label that has been condemned by environment groups across the country this week, after the logging of WA’s 600 year old Karri forests was given a ‘green tick’.
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a global timber certifying body which outsources the inspection of forest logging operations. The auditors measure a number of criteria to ensure the wood is obtained in a socially and environmentally responsible way.
This seemingly good news story could be a disaster. Energy development company HRL and two other companies are planning 60 ha of hydroponic greenhouses heated by 220,000 tonnes of wood ‘waste’. Coincidentally, it's the same amount the government is currently trying to find a buyer for to save the ailing East Gippsland logging industry.
A bulldozer driver paid to carry out restoration work (at least $200 an hour we hear) goes 40m inside Nat Park boundary @ Brown Mountain - fells old growth tree opposite the EEG “Valley of the Giants” walk track.
The east Gippsland fires have been estimated to have cost the government (tax payer) up to $140 million to manage. We are hearing that so much of this was reckless waste – machines laying idle at $2000 a day or more, bulldozers left to do their own thing just to keep them employed. Strike teams sent from across the state for a day of 'look-see' or waiting around, to drive back the next day.
Thousands of Koalas have been knowingly killed and maimed in harvesting machines and shredders by a plantation company for years. This has highlighted the deaths and horrific injuries of thousands of native animals that go on under the label of certified environmentally-friendly products, in both plantations and native forests.
This is so insane it seems it can't be real; while primary native forests are bulldozed and burnt over in East Gippsland (at our expense), the blue gum MIS plantations from western Vic (put in at our expense) are being bulldozed and burnt - because there's no market for their wood!
Nippon, owners of the Eden woodchip mill and the Maryvale pulp and paper factory that makes Reflex paper, recently announced it will be building a cellulose nano-fibers production facility using wood pulp as the raw material. These fibres are supposed to have special qualities like high elasticity, barrier performance to gas, including oxygen, can be used as reinforcements and thickeners. Nippon says that being from plant fibres, they are eco-friendly.
We recently asked the CSIRO to cancel its $10,000 membership to Australia’s national logging lobby group, Australian Forests Products Association (formerly NAFI) as it was inappropriate and against the charter for the CSIRO.
Thousands of Koalas have been knowingly killed and maimed in harvesting machines and shredders by a plantation company for years. This has highlighted the deaths and horrific injuries of thousands of native animals that go on under the label of certified environmentally-friendly products, in both plantations and native forests.
This is so insane it seems it can't be real; while primary native forests are bulldozed and burnt over in East Gippsland (at our expense), the blue gum MIS plantations from western Vic (put in at our expense) are being bulldozed and burnt - because there's no market for their wood!
