The Northcote by-election is a great opportunity for all candidates to show their support for protecting native forests and wildlife. 

Do you live in Northcote and will be voting in the by-election?

Contact your candidates to tell them you want Victoria's native forests protected from logging.

More than 30 environment, recreation and scientific groups have renewed their call for the creation of the Great Forest National Park, as Labor’s favoured issues of renters rights and cost of housing prove less popular with voters in the upcoming Northcote by-election.

Read coverage in The Guardian here.

As Northcote voters head to the polls this weekend, here’s a wrap up of the Friends of the Earth campaign in the Northcote by-election and where the candidates stand on the issue of native forest logging and the creation of the Great Forest National Park.

The Kuark forest is located in far East Gippsland, Victoria. This magnificent forest is home to rare rainforest and endangered animals. Sections of it are currently on logging schedules and could be cut at any moment. An access track has been cut into the first coupe.

In response, campaigners have set up a camp in the forest to oppose logging. In response, the Victorian government announced it would increase the protection given to old growth forests, but activists are not prepared for any of the coupe to be logged.

Ancient forest in East Gippsland's iconic Kuark forest is about to be logged!

Our friends and affiliate members Goongerah Envrionment Centre (GECO) have been working around the clock to protect this forest.

Trees over 400 years old will be cut down this week if we do not act.

A road has been pushed into the forest in preparation to start logging one of the most significant old growth forests in Victoria.

Logging has not yet started so there's still time to stop it.

If you haven't already, please take action here - Email Environment Minister Lily D'Ambrosio calling on her to stop the logging of this beautiful forest.

We're working closely with our friends at GECO to stop this logging using a variety of different strategies, your efforts to amplify the message in the Minister's office will greatly help.

We will keep you in the loop as new information comes to hand. Please follow our affiliate GECO's Facebook and Twitter for live updates.

Ancient forest in East Gippsland's iconic Kuark forest is about to be logged! 

Our friends and affiliate members Goongerah Envrionment Centre (GECO) have been working around the clock to protect this forest. 

Trees over 400 years old will be cut down this week if we do not act. 

A road has been pushed into the forest in preparation to start logging one of the most significant old growth forests in Victoria.  

Logging has not yet started so there's still time to stop it. 

Take action here - Email Environment Minister Lily D'Ambrosio calling on her to stop the logging of this beautiful forest. 

The Labor government's logging agency VicForests has begun logging in the Toolangi state forest, where critically endangered Leadbeater's possums have been found. 

Logging commenced without a pre-logging threatened species survey to identify protected species and implement legally required protections.

Community group Wildlife of the Central Highlands detected a critically endangered Leadbeater's possum on the edge of the logging area last Sunday night but the logging is continuing wihtout a threatened species survey to protect other endangered possums likely to be in the area. 

As VicForests refused to look for other Leadbeater's possums in the rest of the forest, volunteers from WOTCH conducted another survey and found a second Leadbeater's possum!

October 4, 2017

Environmental organisation Friends of the Earth (FoE) today welcomed Minister Lily D'Ambrosio's announcement that 1,200 hectares of land, including the Nationally significant College Creek has been handed back to the State. This is the first of 8,000 ha that will return to the state by 2028, under the Strzelecki Cores and Links Reserve. The land was under the control of Hancock Victorian Plantations.

Friends of the Earth spokesperson Anthony Amis, said "this has been a 20 year campaign to protect College Creek and its unique rainforest attributes. Full credit must go to Friends of Gippsland Bush (FoGB) who initiated this campaign back in 1996."

Well over 300 people turned out on a freezing night to stop logging in Mirboo North in Gippsland on the 14th of September. Local resident Marg Thomas said "Vic Forests (VF), were ill prepared for the well informed and vehement community opposition to logging the community's local forests".

"The people attending voted unanimously that logging not proceed and established the "Preserve our Forests Campaign". This small community's indomitable spirit is something VF will find hard, if not impossible, to counter. Mirboo North residents will never give up and are determined to preserve their forests".

The Andrew’s government purchase of the ailing Heyfield timber mill should now complete the transition out of native forests into plantations, environment group Friends of the Earth has said.  

“The purchase of the mill gives the government an opportunity to decisively act to protect forests and prevent the extinction of endangered wildlife. The next step is to urgently complete the transition of the logging industry out of native forests and into plantations and create the Great Forest National Park,” said Friends of the Earth campaigner Ed Hill.

Recent logging within the proposed Great Forest National Park - Chris Taylor