By Michael Burt
Forest campaigners have continued attempts to blockade logging operations in Pine Creek State Forest despite the presence of police on site last week.
Four police cars were called to the contentious State Forest last Tuesday to curtail any potential clashes between conservationists and Forestry Corporation of NSW staff.
The peaceful blockade, located on corner of Tower Road and Valery Road, aimed to prevent entry into forest ‘compartments’ that conservationists say should be protected as part of the Great Koala National Park (GKNP).
Forest campaigner Indi West took on a five-hour long “tree sit” on the day to delay the entry of logging trucks while fellow advocate Viv locked herself onto harvesting machinery two days later. The actions followed a recent blockade training camp near State Forest’s entrance to learn non-violent options to stop logging activities.
Indi’s 30-metre ascent of a Eucalypt tree was backed by more than 50 supporters, including Gumbaynggirr Elder Alison Buchannan, who told the attending authorities that there was no permission granted for logging to occur in this part of Gumbaynggirr Country.
“I deeply believe you show up for what you love, no matter what that is. I aim to protect this really important forest that has so many beautiful ecosystems inside it,” Indi said.
“We demand a halt to logging and an end to removing habitat through planting.”
Indi was attempting to stop logging operations in Compartments 32 and 33, which environmental groups say are the home to the largest populations of coastal koalas in NSW.
They are also part of the “Forest Bridge”, which is a long-running proposal developed by Friends of Pine Creek (FoPC) to permanently conserve around 1,650 hectares across Pine Creek and Tuckers Nob State Forests and join the coast to the tablelands in one continuous corridor.
Forestry Corporation classifies much of the land as plantation, but FoPC argues that community ecological surveys show it contains intact native forest and mature koala feed and habitat trees, sections of which have stood for around 60 years.
Forest advocate Viv said the sites will be clear-felled by Forestry NSW without consent and without consultation with Gumbaynggirr Elders and the community.
“It’s just ridiculous what we do at a time when we can’t afford to take any more, it’s ridiculous to think we have rights over everything that has given us life, corporations, places that chase money, they are totally lost to what it actually means to be a part of this earth,” Viv said.
The plantations at Pine Creek State Forest were developed on former dairy farms by APM Forests between the 1960s and 1980s. The forest estate is now managed by the Forestry Corporation of NSW, which routinely harvests and replants the plantation areas. Local community groups have been advocating for rezoning the forest since 1995 to protect a significant and endangered koala population.
Minister for the Environment, Penny Sharpe, defended the timber harvesting at Pine Creek in Parliament last week after concerns were raised by Greens MP Sue Higginson.
“To be clear, there has been an extensive process that involved community and environmental groups in looking at the assessment,” Minister Sharpe said.
“The issue around Pine Creek has always been contentious because it is a plantation forest and people do not wish for it to be harvested.”
“People cannot have it both ways. They cannot say that plantation is the future and then not support the harvesting of plantation.”
In 2017 the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage mapped koala habitats across public forests, the area in Pine Creek state forest actively being logged in July 2026 is a mapped “Area of Regional Koala Significance” (ARKS).
Penny Sharpe says:
“People cannot have it both ways. They cannot say that plantation is the future and then not support the harvesting of plantation.”
The people say:
“The Minns government cannot have it both ways. Either it is a mapped area of identified koala habitat or the promise to protect local koalas in a GKNP is a Great BIG LIE!”