Wilderness is generally defined as a remote area that has not been affected by modern industrial civilisation. It is a storehouse of limitless potential, and may one day be the source of cures for some of the major perils facing the human race. Wilderness contains a valuable gene pool that will be needed in the future. These areas are a source of biological diversity and a place where evolution can continue without intrusion by humans. Wilderness is a source of the clean air, water, soil and food which is essential to the continuation of life as we know it on earth.. Wilderness is the repository of the cultural wisdom of indigenous races. "We all derive wisdom and a feeling of place from its existence." Millions of years of evolution have created an environment which can sustain biological diversity and ecosystem processes. Tropical jungles, forested mountains, alpine plains, arid woodlands, open grasslands, deserts and coral reefs are all types of wilderness that have been threatened globally by the demands of an ever expanding human population. "We are losing 30-40 hectares per minute around the world. Half the world's countries do not have any wilderness areas at all."
In Australia the wilderness has been managed by aboriginal people for tens of thousands of years. However the spread of settlements, unwise agricultural and pastoral activities, unsustainable forestry and mining, unplanned tourism and roads have encroached on our natural environment. It's important that we protect these areas so as to ensure the variety of plant and animal species which live there are not wiped out. There is no sense in destroying something that we rely on. "Wilderness has value which no scientist can synthesise, and no economist can price."
Established in 1976, The Wilderness Society (TWS) is a community based conservation organisation with the prime objective being to protect Australia's wilderness and other high conservation value areas. They operate through public education and empowerment, advocacy and negotiation, political lobbying as well as desk and field research. They are a non-profit, non-government and politically unaligned group with a philosophy of non-violence and consensus decision-making which uses political processes to maximise conservation decisions. The vast majority of funding is obtained from membership dues, donations, public fundraising and from Wilderness Society retail operations.
Structurally, TWS consists of a national organisation with campaign centres located in state capitals. The head office in Hobart deals with membership servicing, national fundraising projects, the production of Wilderness News and merchandising such as calendars, diaries and screen savers. National conservation campaigns are coordinated from this centre. The regional campaign centres vary from small groups consisting of a few volunteers who concentrate on public awareness raising, to large campaign centres with paid campaign, fundraising and retail staff in addition to the volunteer workers. Many of the campaign centres are responsible for operation of the Wilderness Society shop, which is a major source of campaign funds.
By far the largest part of TWS's campaigning activities involve education and mobilising Australians so that there is active and broad community support to preserve wilderness. The society encourages people to demonstrate their support through planned non-violent direct action and by direct dialogue with decisionmakers and opinion shapers. The Society produces educational materials for schools and the general public and is active in the production of publicity material. The Society's skilled activists make good use of the media to raise consciousness about wilderness and its campaigns to save it.
The Wilderness Society has protected over five Million hectares of wilderness in Australia. National campaigns include: Kakadu; The Daintree; Kangaroo Island; South West Tasmania including the Franklin River; Australia's sub-Antarctic Islands; Shark Bay; South East Queensland's high conservation value forests, to name a few.
Campaigns in Newcastle include: Stockton Bight; Watagan Forest; State Forests; Green policing and recycled paper.
Stockton Bight is the last great sand dune system in New South Wales. It has 32 kilometres of rolling sandy slopes that are just 20 minutes from the CBD of Newcastle. In 1995 the current NSW Premier, Bob Carr, made an election promise to make the Bight a national park. This election pledge was finally honoured in February 2001 when 1905 ha of Stockton bight was officially declared a National Park by Bob Carr. "We have reached a sensible balanced agreement." The government's plan includes continued approval of sand mining by Mineral Deposits Pty Ltd (MDL) at the southern end of the Bight. "Worimi Aboriginal Land Council has agreed to manage the new conservation area in conjunction with the National Parks and Wildlife Service. It has taken six years of hard work to bring together the many different interests over the Bight."
The fauna of the area is surprisingly diverse. Species include the Grey Kangaroo, Red Necked and Swamp Wallabies, Dingoes Bushland Swamp Rats, Brush Tailed and Ring Tailed Possums, Northern Brown Bandicoots, and a dense population of Bats and Flying Foxes. The area is home to the endangered Glossy Black Cockatoo and other threatened species such as the Sugar Glider and Koala. Frogs and Reptiles are also found in the area.
The endangered Black Glossy Cockatoo.
Located beneath the mobile sand dunes and bushland is the Stockton aquifer which is the Hunter's largest and most valuable underground water supply. Mining and development puts this pure water reserve at risk of contamination. Over the last 20 years the area has been threatened by housing developments, sand extraction and mineral sand mining. Unregulated four wheel driving is seriously affecting the breeding of the Little Tern, Pied Oystercatcher and Red Capped Dotteral as well as doing irreparable damage to Aboriginal middens.
The Newcastle Branch of TWS has also campaigned to preserve the Watagan forests. Australia's forests contain the tallest flowering plants on earth, more than one twentieth of the world's land biodiversity, and over three quarters of Australia's plant species. Yet they are being logged at a rate equivalent to almost two million-quarter acre suburban house blocks every year. One hundred and thirteen forest species in Australia are listed on the Government Threatened Species lists, yet in 1995 Australia exported more woodchips than any other country on earth.
TWS is the only conservation organisation in Australia with a nationally coordinated forest campaign. The Wilderness Society's national network of state and regional campaign centres bring a national overview to Australia's forest campaign, as well as helping the smaller regional groups around the country who are campaigning to protect their local forests. The Wilderness Society is also the only conservation organisation campaigning on forests at every level, including environmental education, community mobilisation, forest rescues (blockading), national and international lobbying, research, consumer and corporate campaigning, as well as state and national election campaigns. The State Government's own advice stated that 1.2 million hectares of forest in North-East NSW required protection in reserves. Less than a third of these threatened forests have gained protection. This means more vital ecosystems will be cleared by logging. The Wilderness Society has established a forest camp at the Watagans, which has been a centre for green policing, where activists check the logging practices of the Forestry Commission.
Within the first week of establishment of the camp, serious breaches of logging prescriptions were discovered in Heaton State Forest. This led to an on site meeting between conservationists, the National Parks and Wildlife Service Threatened Species Unit and the Forestry Commission and, eventually, the issue was resolved.
Activists share a seat on one of the logged trees
Photo courtesy of the Wilderness Society.
How many rare, threatened and endangered animals and plants will die over the next year in our region under State Forests' administration of public native forests? The public demand a basic level of accountability, and if state forests cannot account for this, then how can we have any faith in their management? This knowledge would be a basic precondition of understanding the long term consequences of intensive logging.
Australia's national forest policy of 1992 sets put broad conservation and industry goals for the management of Australian forests agreed between commonwealth, state and territory governments. To implement this national policy, governments agreed to:
- Undertake comprehensive regional assessments of environmental, heritage, and economic and social values of forest
- Provide interim protection to forest areas, which may be required for a comprehensive, adequate, and representative forest reserve system
- Negotiate regional forest agreement between the commonwealth and the state governments about the long term management and use of forest in a particular region.
Regional forest agreements are agreements between the Commonwealth and the State Governments which provide a blueprint for the future management of our local forests, and the basis for an international competitive and ecological sustainable forest products industry.
The 20-year agreements aims to establish:
- A world class comprehensive, adequate Representative (CAR) Forest Reserve system
- Certainty for industries and regional communities, enabling the development of internationally competitive and ecologically sustainable industries
- Ecologically sustainable management of the whole forest estate, both on and off reserves.
Local Wilderness Society representatives advise that during 2001 a new issue has come to prominence in the Hunter, namely the burning of wood to generate electricity. At Liddell Power Station, Macquarie Generation are reportedly burning 5% wood and 95% coal. Currently there is a proposal to build a new power station at Raymond Terrace that will rely totally on the burning of wood. TWS is opposed to this development and has begun to raise public awareness on the issue. They anticipate that this will be a major issue for the Newcastle branch until the proposal is dropped.
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