Styx VALLEY - timeline

7 April 2004
The Global Rescue Station is dismantled five days short of its five month anniversary after a successful first stage of the campaign. The focus of the campaign shifts from the tree sit to the ballot boxes of the Federal election, and continues to broaden internationally.

3 April 2004
Nippon Paper Industries, the largest buyer of woodchips from Tasmania's forests, publish a letter to Premier Paul Lennon and Gunns Ltd on their website. The letter requests a resolution to the debate over the wood chipping of Tasmania's ancient forests.

22 March 2004
Global animal rights group PETA and Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde publicly condemn the use of 1080 poison in clearfelling to deliberately kill native wildlife living in Tasmania's forests. Liberal Democrat Norman Baker puts a motion to the House of Commons in Britain, calling upon tourists to Tasmania to boycott the state and its products over 1080 poisoning and clearfelling. UK newspaper The Guardian publishes the story.

18 March 2004
Opposition Leader Mark Latham visits the Styx and the Global Rescue Station with Greens Senator Bob Brown.

13 March 2004
15,000 people march for Tasmania’s forests in Hobart in a rally organised by The Wilderness Society. Speakers included speakers Greens Senator Bob Brown, Tasmanian Labor MHR Duncan Kerr and gardening TV host Peter Cundall. Greenpeace speakers present were Forests Campaigner Rebecca Hubbard and Japanese activist Sakyo Noda.

12 March 2004
The four-month anniversary of the Global Rescue Station launch.

15 February 2004
Greenpeace stage an action at Tasmania’s Triabunna port, blocking a woodchip loading gantry from dumping woodchips on to a ship bound for Japan. Seven activists were arrested and later released on bail.

12 February 2004
The three-month anniversary of the Global Rescue Station launch.

9-20 February 2004
Greenpeace highlights the destruction of Tasmania’s ancient forests at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Malaysia.

2 February 2004
20 Greenpeace activists stage a peaceful protest in Brussels, Belgium outside Belgian company Bomaco’s timber yard. No arrests were made.

30 January 2004
Greenpeace and the Wilderness Society expose Belgian company Bomaco as the exclusive distributor of Gunns’ Tasmanian Oak sawn timber, sourced from Tasmanian ancient forests.

28 January 2004
Greenpeace begins a global push for Tasmania’s ancient forests in the lead up to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Malaysia in February 2004.

15 January 2004
Australian rock legend Jimmy Barnes visits the Global Rescue Station.

12 January 2004
The two-month anniversary of the Global Rescue Station launch. Greenpeace Belgium activist Kristien Van Iseghem joins in the tree sit.

25 December 2003
Activists spend Christmas day in the Global Rescue Station, enjoying a Christmas lunch of tofu and roast vegetables.

19 December 2003
Singer/songwriter John Butler of the John Butler Trio visits the Global Rescue Station and records a song up the tree, entitled Treat Your Mama With Respect.

17 December 2003
The world’s tallest living Christmas tree in the Styx forest is adorned in Christmas lights. Carol singers and a visit from Father Christmas descending the tree on ropes add to the festivities.

12 December 2003
The one-month anniversary of the Global Rescue Station launch.

10 December 2003
Forestry Tasmania admits to killing El Grande, Australia’s largest known living tree in a regeneration burn in May 2003 – reinforcing the need to have Tasmania’s ancient forests properly protected in a National Park.

8 December 2003
Greenpeace and The Wilderness Society welcome Opposition Leader Mark Latham’s pledge to visit Tasmania’s ancient forests, including the Styx, with Greens Senator Bob Brown.

24 November 2003
Activists occupy a logging coupe in the Styx valley, blockading logging machinery and successfully halting clearfelling for two days. No arrests were made. A demonstration was staged outside Parliament House in Hobart the following day.

18 November 2003
Greenpeace Japan and The Wilderness Society stage a demonstration outside the Australian embassy in Tokyo, calling on visiting Premier Jim Bacon to protect Tasmania’s ancient forests. Mr Bacon opened an exhibition of photographs of Tasmanian landscapes at the embassy.

12 November 2003
Launch of the Global Rescue Station in the Styx. Greenpeace and Wilderness Society construct a tree platform 65 metres up a giant Eucalyptus regnans tree in the Styx valley, officially launching a joint campaign to draw international attention to the plight of the world's tallest hardwood trees.

Sept 2003
The Wilderness Society launches the Tree Hug project. Ancient trees of the Styx are wrapped in 'hugs' of knitted red wool, up to 1m high and 15m long.

August 2003
The latest progress report is released by Tasmania Together. It admits: "On the downside, the target to end clearfelling in areas of high conservation value by 1 January 2003 was not met." It revises the deadline, proposing "complete phase out of clearfelling in old growth forests by 2010".

August 2003
Shareholders force Gunns Ltd, the company responsible for the majority of the logging, to hold an Extraordinary General Meeting to vote on a resolution to end logging in important forests. While most large institutional investors fail to vote with their conscience, the meeting forces debate on the issue.

July 2003
Thousands of people march peacefully through the Valley of the Giants, led by prominent Tasmanians, including author Richard Flanagan, Senator Bob Brown and TV presenter Peter Cundall. It is a scene reminiscent of the heady days of the Franklin campaign more than 20 years earlier.

2002/2003
Leading artists and authors, including Tim Winton, Peter Carey, Heather Rose and Richard Flanagan, boycott the $40,000 Tasmanian Pacific Region Fiction Prize in protest at Forestry Tasmania's sponsorship of the '10 Days on the Island' festival.

Nov 2002
A billboard erected at Sydney Airport highlighting the destruction of the Styx Valley is removed by Qantas the same day it goes up. There is talk in the media of pressure from the Tasmanian government to remove the billboard, which was an initiative of The Wilderness Society, Planet Ark and WWF Australia.

Summer 2001/2002
The Wilderness Society launches a series of Open Days, taking the public on guided trips through the Styx to promote its preservation as a tourism asset.

Sept 2001
Tasmania Together, an initiative of the Tasmanian government to "allow the people of Tasmania to have a say in their long-term social, economic and environmental future", calls for the end to clearfelling in old growth forests of high conservation value by 1 January 2003. It is clear that the deadline is at odds with Foresty Tasmania's ambitious logging targets, contained in its Three-Year Plan.

Feb 2001
The Wilderness Society officially launches its proposal for the Tasmanian government to declare a 15,000ha Valley of the Giants National Park. It calls on the Federal government to extend the World Heritage Area to protect the Styx.

Jan 2001
Well-known Australian writer Bob Ellis writes an emotive cover story for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald Good Weekend magazines, highlighting the tragedy of the Styx.

Nov 2000
60 Minutes does an expose on the clearfelling of the Styx.

Nov 2000
Forestry Tasmania, the State's forestry body, announces plans for 22 logging coupes and 17km of new roads in the Styx Valley over the next three years. More than 800ha of old growth forest in the Styx are earmarked for clearfelling.

April 2000
Margaret Scott, eminent Tasmanian poet, writer and broadcaster, launches the 'Star of Hope', a giant four-metre wide, solar-powered star perched atop the World's Tallest Christmas Tree.

1999
The Wilderness Society launches its campaign to save the last of Tasmania's old growth forest from clearfelling. In December it creates the World's Tallest Christmas Tree in the heart of the Styx. Activists scale an 80m tree and drape it with 3000 Christmas lights.

1996
Just 13 per cent of the original cover of Eucalyptus regnans remain as old growth in Tasmania. For decades, the Styx Valley has been locked away behind barricades while the logging industry has free reign to clearfell and poison its giant trees.