A dozen forest defenders are blocking access to the McKay Timber mill in Bridgewater today. One person has locked onto a gate and one person has climbed up a tripod, halting work. There are 25 forest defenders occupying Neville-Smith Mill at Lonnavale. 5 defenders have locked onto mill equipment while 2 defenders have locked onto the entrance gate.

“Tasmania sawmilling companies are currently on the precipice of the end of their contracts in 2027. In July 2027, contracts for these forest destroyers will be done. We call on the government to cancel those contracts and to not negotiate them, costing taxpayers more money for continued native forest destruction. Native forest logging must end now,” said Jenny Weber, Bob Brown Foundation Campaign Director.

“My name is Sam, I’m a hospitality worker, and I’m blockading this saw mill on Palawa country, Lutruwita / Tasmania. The slaughter of beautiful ancient forests for the greed of a few is a continuation of the violence that colonisation brought to this continent. The effects of this industry will be felt far beyond this island as our world reaches climate tipping points, destabilising our way of life,” said Samuel Clarke from onsite at McKay Timber.

“I’ve been working as an activist for the climate and ecological emergency for two decades now. There is no carbon budget left, but carbon emissions still keep rising. Tasmania’s ancient old-growth forests are some of the richest stores in the world. It is both economically and ecologically stupid and outright criminal to be logging these biodiverse, planet-cooling, and life-sustaining stores of carbon,” Bronwyn Plarre, 76, said while locked on today.

“It is reckless and irrational for the State Government to keep on destroying native forests simply to prop up an obsolete industry and jobs, when they must be looking for long-term solutions to climate breakdown,” said Colette Harmsen, forest defender.

“I’m here to stop native forest logging. Trees are not a commodity. They are precious living things, vital to the survival of all life. And multi-millionaire Neville Smith needs to understand that until he stops his profit-driven destructive assault on native forests, we will continue to disrupt the operations of the mill with peaceful direct action,” said Rosie Ganino, 68, a new grandmother.

“Neville Smith Forest Products is receiving logs from native forests all across the state, stockpiling logs at this site to send them across the Bass Strait to feed mills in Victoria, which have already been paid out to get out of native forests. We are here taking action today against the ongoing and state-endorsed destruction of our precious native forests,” said Lisa Searle, Bob Brown Foundation campaigner, onsite today at the Neville Smith Wood Products facility at Lonnavale in southern Tasmania.