History of the Geelong Community Forum

It would be fair to say that the Geelong Community Forum has always existed because there has always been a core of active and aware people in Geelong. People who care about the environment, employment, social justice and participatory democracy. One such group of people came together to protect a section of remnant Yellow Gum vegetation on Harvey block near Bannockburn. The local water authority, Barwon Water, had decided to destroy 12 Hectares of this area so they could install a new sewerage system for the town.     

The Yellow Gum ecosystem should have been protected by four counts of the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988, a landscape overlay, recognition as a site of National significance for Fauna and State significance for Flora, the Native Vegetation protection Act, the ANZECC guidelines for preparation of an Environment Effects Statement and, at the last minute, the reclassification of the local Yellow Gum as a Rare Plant by the State Botanist. In short, this was a site that should not have been messed with and yet our entire system failed. Golden Plains Shire, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Barwon Water, Marie Tehan and the Minister for Infrastructure all failed to enact legislation, despite continuous lobbying by interested individuals and groups.      

By July 1997 members or participants in the Bannockburn Yellow Gum Action Group included the Friends of Bannockburn Bush, Leigh Landcare, Friends of Inverleigh Flora and Fauna Reserve, Friends of Pt Lillias, Geelong Field Naturalists, Geelong Environment Council, Wainwrights Tree Environment Centre, the Otway Ranges Environment Network, local farmers, school teachers, residents and many others who later turned up at a blockade of the site or wrote convincingly to the newspapers, Barwon Water, or to politicians. An intense campaign to save the area culminated in Barwon Water sending in a chainsaw gang on Tuesday August 19th, despite having arranged to talk with the group on the following Friday. They felled 137 trees but claimed only 80. Barwon Water's actions were protected by hundreds of police who outnumbered protesters, 2 to 1. During the heat of the Battle, over 30 packed police cars were lined up neatly in the empty paddock where the sewage ponds should have been placed.

The fallout from the campaign was extensive with 7 members of the group issued with a writ for defamation because of a sticker campaign which made a play on the name of the chair of Barwon Water. The case was later settled out of court for a substantial sum of money and has become a celebrated case study for those interested in SLAPPs - Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation.     

After the destruction the Bannockburn Yellow Gum Action Group decided to channel the energy for environmental concern and organised the Geelong Environment Festival to showcase better ways of doing things and to launch Barwon Biodiversity Watch. This group was established to monitor environmental impacts and to avert another potential 'Bannockburn'. The participants no longer trusted the legislative processes that had been set up.      

Several open meetings were held following the launch and it emerged that there were far wider concerns in the Geelong region than just "the environment." We were all concerned about the direction the State and Federal Governments were taking with respect to many issues including: land rights, civil rights, youth issues, unemployment, privatisation, logging in the Otway water catchments, sewerage disposal and so on. These were many more issues than the group could handle. A steering committee was formed, with solid union and political alliances, and plans were set in place to run a Community Conference to discuss these issues and more. Key local and Melbourne based activists were contacted and agreed to help facilitate workshops or speak. Learning from past oversights, the steering committee set about to incorporate as the Geelong Community Forum Inc. But before the community conference could get underway many of the issues for which we were holding the conference demanded immediate attention.      

It was the middle of the Maritime Union dispute and it was obvious to many of us that the Federal government was misleading the public on key issues. The MUA was not getting a fair run in the local press and we felt that it was important that the union's views could be given a proper public airing. We quickly put together our first public forum. We not only invited key union leaders to speak - Mick O'Leary (MUA), Leigh Hubbard (Melbourne Trades Hall), John Kranz (Geelong Trades and Labour Council), but we also gave a platform for our own members to express their views on the dispute - Ivan Verschuur (rank and file MUA), Kerri Erler (ALP preselected candidate for Bellarine), Bill Deller (Progressive Labour Party) and Dan Dwyer (independent lawyer); the meeting was chaired by Serena O'Meley (student). After the speakers had finished the meeting was thrown open to questions and comments from the floor until everyone who wanted to had a chance to have their say. The forum was an outstanding success, and what made it so important was not only its place in the national protests against Peter Reith and Chris Corrigan, but also the opportunity it provided many people to have their views validated in a public arena, in some cases for the first time.      

Planning issues also reached a critical juncture, with the City of Greater Geelong endorsing a proposal to construct an international watersports complex on the Belmont Common. Their proposal is to cut a 2.2km channel through the middle of this area effectively excising 64ha of public open space from a flood plain. This project will see the destruction of 6000 trees, threaten the habitat of two protected species of bird, increase the incidence of blue-green algae in the water channel, expose anoxic and probably toxic landfill wastes, requires the relocation of close to a dozen sporting and other user groups off the Common, and can be expected to have a cost blow out amounting to millions of dollars. We facilitated a public meeting on this issue in June 1998 for the Friends of the Belmont Common which attracted 600 residents. This meeting was a tremendous morale raiser for all concerned, and the Friends of the Belmont Common have gone on to run a further public meeting this year which attracted 900 residents. Despite this the council has recently advertised a planning amendment for the scheme to go ahead. We expect the campaign to save the Belmont Common will become one of the biggest that Geelong has ever seen.      

By the time we reached our conference we had already been lobbying our local councillors, running public forums, issuing our newsletter to a growing database and gaining frequent press attention. To some extent our activities superseded the need for the conference as we were well on the way to uniting people around those issues which we had identified as being important to the well-being of our community. Since the conference we have run meetings on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, planning issues, 'Economic Irrationalism in the Public Health System' and the problems with Compulsory Competitive Tendering.       

From the beginning of this year, the group worked toward more proactive campaigning. Through our national alliances we were able to have the Hon. Paul Hellyer, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada come and speak on 'Globalisation, Economic Justice and Democracy' at a public Forum. We assisted with the formation of the Osborne Park Association Inc. and Friends of Osborne House to protect the historically significant land and stables adjoined to Osborne House from a residential development - this campaign culminated in a Heritage Walk and Picnic attended by representatives of over a dozen diverse organisations, from the Victorian and Australian Navy Leagues to the Wathaurong Aboriginal Cooperative. We are currently contributing to the development of a Community Consultation policy for our local council, and have worked hard to ensure that Geelong is included in consultations on the West Regional Forest Agreement. We estimate that over 2000 people have attended events in which the Geelong Community Forum has had a key organisational role since our incorporation in May 1998.      

For those seeking a link in the kinds of issues which we tackle the answer lies within the current global push toward corporatisation and economic rationalism which we believe is a major factor in the 'dis-integration' of communities. The latest moves within the World Trade Organisation to liberalise virtually every sector of the economy shows the urgent need for people from diverse backgrounds to unite in articulating alternative ways of living and working which are socially and environmentally sustainable.     

The strength of our model is that we can cover a broad range of environmental, social and political interests, at local, state, national and international levels, without having to be instant experts in any one area. The simple fact of raising the issues to the public attention and providing basic assistance with accessing various political structures and alliances can lead to significant changes in public discourse and activity around issues. These debates take on a life of their own and we are able to retire into the background and move on to the next campaign.      

The flaw in our model was our naivety in thinking that we could enter the highly constrained political space within Geelong and not meet with reasonably concerted opposition, even from unlikely quarters, who have tried to harm our credibility by labelling us 'radicals' or a 'front' for one or another political party. Within our own structure we have had to act to ensure through our constitution that we cannot be hi-jacked by party political interests. We have limited access to office bearer positions to people who are not political representatives, and made sure that convenors of our public meetings are our own members and are independent. This is important because we have key people from five political parties represented in our membership and we cannot afford to be seen to promote any one party. Our aim is to empower the community, not established political parties.      

We believe that our model is simple, effective and transferable to other communities and we are more than willing to assist other individuals and groups with setting up their own independent Forum. Eventually these could network together on a State-wide basis.      If you are interested in forming a Community Forum, or would like more information about the Geelong Community Forum, please phone Stuart McCallum on 03 52811601 or e-mail Serena O'Meley sophia@pipeline.com.au