Logging in the Otways
Rainforests predominate only on the protected southern slopes of the Otway ranges. They are three-tiered forests with wet leaf mulch and ferns at ground level, vines, shrubs and ferns and a closed tree canopy that protects them all from the sun. There are gum trees that are extremely tall, but the Otways' climax tree is the Myrtle Beech. You are lucky to find one with its dark green leaves like hard maiden-hair ferns and glorious mossy trunks. It is dying from introduced fungus and it will not grow after fire. Fires in our remnant rainforest have to be started by napalm and are used for many reasons. Fire changes the nature of Otway rainforest for hundreds of years, if not for ever.
Anti-logging campaigns in Apollo Bay in 1981 highlighted the destruction of the Otway rainforests, soils, fresh streams, micro-organisms and creatures for woodchips. Public meetings showed that our precious biodiversity, water catchments, tall trees and other assets are connected and more appropriate for real protection and tourism.
Yvonne started 'Save the Otways' and led public tours of legal clear-felling in old growth logging sites. In February 1984 a group of local people halted a disgraceful legal logging operation in the newly-formed Otway National Park for three hours. This resulted in a stay behind bars for Yvonne. Recently the value of the Otways was acknowledged by the creation of a Greater Otway National Park, but the Otway State forest still gives the government an excuse to continue logging.
Contemporary Issues
Plantation logging is much better than deliberately destroying old growth rainforest, but the Otways are not the place for industrialised tree farming. There is some evidence that plantations here grow too fast and the trees are too knotty and defective. You can see plantation logging near Turton's Track and opposite the Geelong water catchment in the west Barwon valley. Watch out for the log trucks! Pine plantations are an ecological wasteland, but gum tree plantations also cause very serious erosion and poisonous spraying. Thin young gum trees are repeatedly bulldozed, chopped and debarked onsite by monstrous, heavy machinery. What a shocking thing to do on steep land and right next to protected forest and creatures and on busy tourist roads.
Logging trucks and bulldozers can bring the phytophthera fungus that kills myrtle beech trees.
All logging compacts the soil and all log tracks cause turbidity. The Otways are too steep, too wet and too precious for plantation tree-farming. Logging the Otways is a big mistake!
What Can I Do?
Tell the government what you think, be as political as you can, talk to your local representatives and make your opinion count. Here's a suggestion, but better still, use your own thoughts.