Logging truck stalked: Anti-logging activists stalk 63-tonne truck 200kms

Anti-logging activists stalked a logging truck for almost 200km, tailgating and weaving in and out of traffic, before being intercepted by police.

Anti-logging activists tailgated a 63-tonne logging truck from the Wombat Forest for almost 200kms, until Victoria Police stopped them in their tracks at Longwarry more than two hours later.

Harvest and haulage contractor Colin Robin, whose machinery has been repeatedly vandalised by anti-logging groups, said the white Ford van that stalked his driver’s truck risked causing an accident as it wove in and out of traffic and at one stage even turned off its lights to avoid being seen.

Driver Shane Brown said he first noticed the van slowly driving past the Bullarto landing where they were loading logs onto the truck in the middle of the Wombat Forest at about 2pm on Thursday, and then spotted it again parked on a side road as he left the site.

Mr Brown said he kept on seeing the van, which was quite distinctive, given it had a solar panel on the roof and side awning, as he made his way to the Calder Fwy.

“The van was changing lanes and its speed changed erratically, tailgating so close at times that I couldn’t see it in the mirrors and then slowing, which caused other traffic to have to swerve around it,” he said.

“As it got dark they were driving without their headlights on, to try and hide.”

At the Bolte Bridge Mr Brown said he slowed to 60kmh in a bid to get the van to pass him, but they wouldn’t.

In the end he called Mr Robin with the registration details of the van, which led to the Drouin police urging him to pull into the Longwarry Caltex service station, where they could intercept the van.

“I’m not sure what their plan was (the owners of the van),” Mr Brown said. “But they followed me into the servo, with the police coming straight up behind them.”

The police then delayed the van for 20 mins, while Mr Brown got home to his family.

“I didn’t want them following me to my home as I have two kids under 10 years and didn’t know what type of people were in the van, especially given the threats previously made against Robin logging when the machines were vandalised at Bullarto.”

Earlier this month anti-logging activists smashed up the Robin family’s $350,000 excavator, which was being used to help salvage 600,000 tonnes of windblown trees from the Wombat Forest, daubing it with graffiti that warned its owner had “become a target”.

The full message daubed on the back of the excavator read: “Whether it be VicForests or FFM (Forest Fire Management Victoria), if you destroy our forests, you kill our koalas and you become a target”.

FFMVic, which is vested with curbing forest fire fuel loads, has hired security guards to step in at night and on weekends to guard Mr Robin’s and other contractors’ machinery, at enormous cost to Victorian taxpayers.

Mr Robin said activists had appeared twice since the last attack, but been frightened off by security.