The battle for daintree

1. 2nd blockade co-ordinated by: The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF

1.1. taking the Daintree issue onto a national and international stage

1.2. undermined locally the credibility of the blockade.

2. YES TO ROAD

2.1. isolated Aboriginal settlement at Bloomfield River

3. Interview with Peter Stanton > describes those days as black days

3.1. Wanted to protect the rainforest

3.2. believed path being bulldozed was not as described

3.3. Overruled by higher authority

3.4. Roads were never surveyed by engineer, drivers were decision makers

3.5. Stanton was later suspended from duty for supporting blockades

4. Anton Toohey: Chairman of DSWAG

4.1. First blockade: nothing important just mumbo jumbo about feeling

4.2. Second Blockade:

4.2.1. Cops now were more brutal

4.2.2. By August 1984, more radical campaigners (with experience in direct action from the Franklin River, East Gippsland and Roxby Downs) had become involved.

4.3. SUMMARY:

4.3.1. While they lost the battle for the road, Antony Toohey believed that, with the World Heritage listing of the Wet Tropics in 1988, they won the war.

5. Author: Rachel Sanderson

5.1. Date of incident: 1983

5.2. RACHEL SANDERSON is a PhD candidate at James Cook University, Townsville

6. The dispute over the construction of a 33-kilometre road through one of the last extensive lowland tropical rainforests

7. INCIDENT: october 7 1984, official opening of road

7.1. Participation from high level authority, rained heavily had to be pulled out

7.2. Outcome: It set momentum which led to construction of road in much larger area

8. NO TO ROAD

8.1. saw it as vandalism and future destruction of forest

8.2. individual conservationists and green organisations

9. Involved: Local conservationists (Douglas Shire Wilderness Action Group (DSWAGl) Objective: blockade of the construction site Date: 30 November 1983

9.1. First Blockade

9.1.1. 30 November until 15 December 1983

9.1.2. Wet season halted construction (well it helped)

9.1.3. Less media

9.2. Second Blockade

9.2.1. More protests, and more media attention

9.2.2. On 6 August 1984 the bulldozers returned.

9.2.3. the blockaders conceded defeat