MEET THE WILD THINGS
DR LISA SEARLE
Lives near Hobart and spends her life moving between being a frontline forest activist and working as a GP, often in war zones with Medicins Sans Frontiers. She will do whatever it takes to ensure not another tree falls in Tasmania’s forests. Feature story on Lisa Searle in the Tasmanian Times.
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ANDY PAINE
Andy has dedicated much of his life to environmental campaigns particularly against the establishment of new coal mines. He has been involved in Frontline Action On Coal for over 4 years.
‘The things that motivate me is something of meaning. I want to do something that leaves a positive impact in the world and so having discovered political activism and found out that I have skills that could be offered to that I sort of decided at that point that this was going to be my life.’
MILOU ALBRECHT
Milou has been attending protests with her family since she was a child. After reading about Greta Thunberg’s Friday strikes from school in 2018, she spoke to her friends and they too decided to start striking to raise awareness on climate change. The rest is history as the School Strike 4 Climate Movement took off in 2019 with over 7 million people around the world marching for climate action on 20 September 2019.
‘I’m really proud to be here (at the strike), I feel like my voice matters and to think that there are thousands of people all across the world doing the same thing as here is just incredible.’
HARRIET O'SHEA CARRE
Harriet first heard about the climate strike movement from her school friend Milou. They both began protesting outside politician’s offices and soon attracted attention. With help from the Australian Youth Climate Coalition the teenagers did some training and soon the movement quickly grew to the point where three massive street marches were held around Australia and globally during 2018/19. Harriet was invited to attend the United Nations Youth Summit on Climate in New York in September 2019.
‘Before I started striking all my emotions and anxiety about climate change were just like building up like it wasn’t constructive it was just sort of like self-destructive. But having such an amazing cause to direct all this like energy and emotion it’s really empowering.’​
THE CAMPAIGNS
Be inspired as we journey through past and present environmental campaigns throughout Australia's modern history, including:
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Save the Tarkine Rainforest
The Tarkine in North East Tasmania is the second largest tract of cool temperate rainforest in the world and is home to more than 60 species of rare, threatened or endangered plants and animals. one of the last areas of true wilderness left on the planet. Much of the area is dominated by large stands of tall Eucalypts and Myrtle. But the forest has been indiscriminately logged for many decades with a mix of selective logging for speciality timbers as well as clear fell logging where much of the timber ends up as woodchip. Protesters have been campaigning for the Tarkine to be made into a World Heritage Area for many decades.
Much of the Campaign Strategy to protect the area has been led by the Bob Brown Foundation who are embarking on a landmark legal case to stop the logging of native forests across Australia.
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Stop Adani Campaign
Frontline Action On Coal is a movement of people across Australia who want to end the unnecessary extraction of fossil fuels while bringing about climate justice and meaningful change in the world. Much of the focus of the group over the past five years has been on Stopping the construction of the mega Carmichael coal mine in Central Queensland. People of all ages have come to Camp Binbee, a Campaign Base near Bowen in Queensland to be trained in the principles of non-violent action. Once trained people perform frontline actions to demonstrate against the mine. Actions might be protesting outside the workplaces of companies that are collaborating with the Adani group to build the mine or outside the site of the mine itself.
Frontline Action on Coal was first established in August 2012 at Maules Creek, the site of the historic blockade to save the critically endangered Leard State Forest.
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School Strike 4 Climate
In 2018 a movement of young people across the world began going on strike every Friday demanding that political leaders take real action to address climate change. The movement was inspired by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg who began striking outside Swedish parliament on her own in August 2018. Attention to her action grew quickly. In Australia 14 year old Castlemaine student Milou Albrecht, read about Greta and told her friends and they decided they too could start striking every Friday. The movement grew quickly and major strike days have been held on 30 November 2018, 15 March 2019 and 20 September 2019. Each demonstration was much larger than before and the movement has helped inspire young people across the globe that change is coming.
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Past campaigns that we explore in the film:
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Terania Creek Rainforest, NSW -1974
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Franklin River, TAS -1970s & 80s
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Green Bans, NSW - 1970s
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Jabiluka Blockade, NT - 1998
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