Secretary,
Western Victoria RFA Independent Panel
P.O.Box 502
East Melbourne Vic 3002

When one surveys the public authorities in the Geelong region one can see why the fragmented, shrinking native forests are in such trouble:

(i) incompetent Barwon Water, long run as a secretive fiefdom;

(ii) the urban-oriented State Government, in its new ALP form still dominated by an NRE which in turn is a captive of narrow forestry interests.

(iii) local government in the region, often still ruled by primitive farming interests.

What is remarkable about this pattern is that the sociological and economic substrate underlying it has changed so rapidly. Timber extraction in any form is a minor and relatively declining activity, its destructiveness far outweighing any short-term economic benefit. Tourism is vastly increased and far more sophisticated (even in the Geelong region). Ecological knowledge has expanded exponentially in the last 20 years, which has reversed the ideological climate. Thatcherite economic ideology is also receding apace.

For over 20 years I developed a small plantation farm in this region, revegetating creeks, reducing salinity etc etc. It disgusts me to see responsible authorities simultaneously conniving at the degrading of native forests. You all know that agroforestry plantations on the vast expanses of second-rate, under-used farmland is the only intelligent route out of the mess that has been created. Just do it. Stop capitulating to the brutal stupidity of the current timber interests.

As for jobs, as someone who has examined (sociologically) the decline in timber industry employment in (for example) the Wombat State Forest, I can but state the obvious: noone has given a stuff about the spectacular job loss since the 1940s in this industry. "Rationalisation", improvements in transport, economies of scale- all the usual suspects have combined to wipe out timber towns. Few if any remain. The timber industry is the essence of hypocrisy: they got rid of jobs- conservationists have had but a recent and minor effect. Go and visit Blakeville. If you haven't heard of it, that's my point.

For thirty years I have watched the degradation of the Otways and lesser Western District forests. Never once have I taken to the hills to confront the timber industry thugs. There should be no logging whatever in water catchments, and all other native forest logging should be phased out promptly. Failure to do this will galvanise the silent majority who hate what is being done now. You know what the polls say. People like me, older than the young Greens, and with ample cash, will attack.

Frank Campbell