Mum, daughter in tree to make point in mine protest

PROTESTERS worked to disrupt the clearing of the Leard State Forest again at the weekend, with three women suspending themselves from a tree over two days.

Actions continued after a week of protest against the controversial Whitehaven-owned Maules Creek coal mine. 

On Saturday, 44-year-old mother Juliet Lamont and her 16-year-old daughter Luca scaled a tree within the mine site to halt clearing of the Leard forest.

“The passing of my partner has been a massive driving force behind my need to get my priorities in order and take action against corporate and government disregard for our environment and future,” Juliet said. 

Tom Jefferson was a photographer with Greenpeace and was in the process of making an environmental documentary when he passed away. 

“I’m scared for our future, and I feel we need to take a stand now,” Luca said. 

The action is the latest in a week of community-led disruption of Whitehaven Coal’s clearing of the forest. 

Yesterday, ecologist Tiffany Harrison suspended herself from a tree in the Leard State Forest.

“Short-sighted greed and corruption are rapidly destroying country, culture, precious life and ecosystems, which have existed for hundreds of thousands of years,” she said.

The Leard Forest Alliance said the forest’s box gum woodland was listed as a critically endangered ecological community and was home to 31 species listed as vulnerable.

Protesters said Whitehaven was required to preserve “like-for-like” areas to offset the clearing, but a study by ecologists Phil Spark and Dr John Hunter found that less than 5 per cent of the proposed offsets represented “like-for-like” habitat. 

Maules Creek community worker and Leard Forest Alliance spokeswoman Anne-Marie Rasmussen said no animal from a forest could be rehomed, and neither would they survive the blasting, noise and dust of a coal mine. 

“Quite simply, that whole forest and all the threatened species in it will die,” she said.

The Leard Alliance protesters said more than 25 people were arrested in the past week, with the two-and-a-half years of community-led resistance resulting in close to 350 arrests.

From Mum, daughter in tree to make point in mine protest in Northern Daily Leader