Welcome to Friends of the Earth Melbourne December news. Get along to end of year picnics with our forest and koala collectives, Nukes free future fundraiser, FoE t-shirts, a bush walk to Lt Dargo river, First Nations clean energy principles, fire news, and more!
Get along to end of year picnics with our forest and koala collectives, and join our new volunteer info sessions in person or online events here.
Friends of the Earth has t-shirts & totes galore! Support grassroots activism, order online here.
We'll be finalising all merch sales in the lead up to xmas on 14 Dec so get in quick!
Nukes free future wine & cap fundraiser, order online here.
Nuke free news, and a podcast and report on Uranium in NT waters.
Catch up online Chain Reaction magazine, Ecosystems of Resistance pdf here.
Read a review of the Victorian State election and what it means for climate, energy and forests here.
Get a Co-op Power update and make the switch here.
Walk to the Lt Dargo river Jan 2023
Join us for a walk to experience the beauty that is the Little Dargo, Saturday 14 January, 9.30am for a 10 am start. Finish time around 3pm. We will be hosted by the Treasure family, who have grazed cattle on, and looked after, the Dargo High Plains for five generations. Christa Treasure will tell us some of the historical and cultural significance of the area to her and the Treasure family and how logging will devastate this history. We will then walk in to the Upper Dargo via the recently recut Mailman’s Track. This used to be how mail was delivered from Harrietville in the gold mining days. There is a steep descent to the River. You will visit areas which are due to be logged and see a pristine mountain river before walking back out.
This is a free trip, open to anyone with a moderate level of fitness. Numbers are limited so you will need to rsvp here.
A full gear list and details on where to meet will be sent once you rsvp.
Dirty dozen polluters pull your weight!
Communities have been doing a heavy lift when it comes to tackling the climate crisis. Now we’re asking the Dirty Dozen companies to pull their weight. The Albanese Government was elected with a mandate to reform and strengthen Australia’s ‘Climate Safeguard Mechanism’ to deliver deep emissions cuts from large industrial polluters this decade. Read more & make an action pledge.
First Nations clean energy principles
Members from Friends of the Earth were privileged to join an online webinar on the 30th November, 2022 for the launch of the First Nations Clean Energy Network's Ten Principles for Clean Energy Projects. The First Nations Clean Energy Network (FNCEN) was formed to ensure First Nations People play a central role in Australia’s renewable energy transition, and to make sure this transition occurs fairly for First Nations people and communities. Read more.
Mt Stirling survey trip, video & sign a letter to the Vic Environment Minister
With news that logging could commence on Mt Stirling as soon as this week, Friends of the Earth (FoE) activists visited the mountain over the weekend of November 18 – 20. Assisted by Friends of Mt Stirling and the Victorian National Parks Association, we visited most of the planned coupes and carried out night time surveying for threatened animal species in a number of them. Read more.
State park forest spray drift slap on the wrist
In June 2020, Friends of the Earth found a potential spray drift incident which impacted on a two kilometre native forest boundary of a pine plantation located in Holey Plains State Park. The impacted site is ~14km south east of the Gippsland town of Rosedale and is owned by Hancock Victorian Plantations. In September 2022 FoE was advised that the investigation and associated legal proceedings against the spray contracting firm by the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions (Agriculture Victoria) had concluded. We were advised that information regarding the incident was confidential but that information pertaining to the incident and subsequent investigation might be accessible via Freedom of Information. Read more.
Mountain forests miss out on protection
In November 2019 over 96,000 hectares of Immediate Protection Areas (IPAs) were announced by the Victorian government alongside the Victorian Forestry Plan which will see an end to native forest logging by 2030. IPA boundaries for four areas have now been finalised, in the Strathbogie Ranges, around Mirboo North, the Central Highlands and East Gippsland. However, there has been no additional protection of forests threatened with logging in the Victorian high country. Read more.
Fire news
Fires are part of life here in Australia. Many of our landscapes are fire adapted or fire reliant, and First Nations people have been using fire for millennia to manage and craft the landscapes we now live in. However, climate change is driving ever more intense fire seasons. These newsletters provide weekly news updates that will be posted through the 2021/22 fire season. Read more.
Emergency response systems overwhelmed
This year has seen large parts of Eastern Australia experience record-breaking rainfall and flooding. Again. It is clear that these events have been influenced by climate change. Climate change is causing more intense storms and downpours, and these floods are the latest in a long line of climate change-driven extreme weather events that have occurred in recent years, including prolonged droughts, heatwaves, the Black Summer bushfires, and powerful storms. And new analysis of weather data suggests that the potential for severe flash flooding has increased far beyond predictions. Rapid rain bursts over the greater Sydney region have intensified by at least 40% over the last two decades. Read more.
Join the Food Coop and find the Food Co-op on instagram
Listen Dirt Radio episodes on a Vic Forests carbon report, Protests to prison pipeline, and a State election recap.