Tasmania's forests: a global treasure, a national responsibility

Highlights the unprecedented destruction of Tasmania's unique oldgrowth forests. Forest are clearfelled and burnt and wildlife poisoned in the creation of export woodchips, whilst community protest continues to grow.

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Since completion of this film The Wilderness Society and the film director, Heidi Douglas, were amongst a group of twenty that were served 6.5 million dollars writs by Gunns Ltd, the biggest hardwood woodchipper in the southern hemisphere, claiming the environmentalists efforts to protect Tasmania's forests were intended to harm their business. So far the writ has been unsuccessful, being thrown out of court because it is "incomprehensible". However Gunns has resubmmitted a fourth version of the writ, and proceedings continue.

This film was produced to premiere to fifteen thousand people at the culmination of a rally for the protection of Tasmania's forests in Melbourne. Narration was ommitted to make sure the film was accessible to hearing impaired people. Instead simple bold text, music that would appeal to all ages, and powerful imagery are used to convey the messages.

The film was designed to spread awareness about Tasmania's unique oldgrowth forests, the harsh destruction taking place there, and to mobilise people to become active in the campaign.

Winner of the Katherine Knight Award, EarthVision International Film Festival 2005 (Santa Cruz, California, USA). Nominated for Best Short Documentary at the Forest Film Festival 2006 (Portland, Oregan, USA).

You can download a high resolution version of this film at the Internet Archive.

Copyright 2007, by the contributing author. Cite/attribute Resource. heidid. (2007, February 25). Tasmania\'s forests: a global treasure, a national responsibility. Retrieved July 04, 2009, from EngageMedia Web site: http://www.engagemedia.org/Members/heidid/videos/tasforest.avi. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.