Protesters demand end to logging in beloved Kinglake forest

Logging machinery did not move for two days after protesters stormed a controversial tree-harvesting site at a beloved Kinglake forest. And outraged contractors claim the protest cost their business “thousands of dollars”.

A group of Nillumbik and Murrindindi residents fear continued logging of their beloved Mt Robertson State Forest in Kinglake will decimate a threatened population of the greater glider and make the forest more flammable. Picture: Norm Oorloff

A family logging business has lost “thousands of dollars” after protesters interfered with controversial tree-felling at a Kinglake forest.

The protesters entered the active work site at Mt Robertson State Forest on Monday, forcing

Meyer Log Cartage contractors to “sit around” until Wednesday when Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions officers led the group away.

Logging contractor Kyle Meyer said they could not operate any machinery for two days, causing his father’s business to lose thousands of dollars.

“We turned up on Monday morning about 6.30am, but then had to turn off all our machinery when three ladies approached the work site — they repeatedly refused to leave after we asked them to,” he said.

“All our employees have families who rely on us going to work and earning a living.

“At the end of the day we just turned up to do a job the government approved and we’ve been interrupted like this.”

Protesters are concerned logging in the Mt Robertson State Forest will decimate the population of the threatened Greater Glider species.

A gross area of 22.8ha is slated for removal at the forest, which survived the deadly 2009 Black Saturday bushfires and is home to the threatened greater glider species.

The trees will be felled over the next four years, with the project approved on July 17, 2014, according to a VicForests timber release plan.

Protester and Kinglake Friends of the Forest spokesperson Leigh Wykes said the group was forced to take action after repeated requests to stop the logging fell on deaf ears.

“This is Kinglake’s forest — we got burnt out by the bushfire in 2009 and this forest remained far more intact than a lot of the forests; and now it’s just being destroyed for very little gain,” he said.

Protester Sue McKinnon said she was appalled to discover contractors had harvested at least half of the scheduled logging zone a week before protesters ventured onsite.

“There are some larger trees still there, but all of the trees around those larger ones are gone,” she said.

An aerial view of the logged section of Mt Roberston State Forest — at the corner of Extons Rd and Mt Robertson Rd, outside Kinglake.

“To see all the damage that had been done was so devastating and we felt we had to do something.”

Ms McKinnon said contractors were savaging the habitat of the threatened greater glider.

None of the animals were found in the scheduled logging zone, according to a VicForests survey.

But Ms McKinnon claimed a Kinglake Friends of the Forest survey found 10 of the endangered marsupials in the designated tree-felling zone.

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She said a team of three surveyors went out on-foot using handheld spotlights to detect the animals’ eyeshine last month.

Once detected, video footage was then taken and a map of their habitat created and submitted to the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.

Greater gliders are a threatened species and known to live in the Mt Robertson State Forest. Picture: Adam Head

Ms McKinnon said protesters were also concerned logging would cause the forest to become more flammable.

“The regrowth after logging is more fire-prone and burns with a higher intensity,” she said.

“If this forest is made more of a fire threat it affects me personally, this neighbour, that neighbour, the school up the road and all of Kinglake.

“And this is a community which has already been traumatised by fire.”

Meyer Log Cartage started logging on July 1 and have been contracted to remain onsite for the next eight weeks.

The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning was contacted for comment.

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