Franklin River

I remember studying commerce in 1983 in year nine.

And that was the year of the Tasmanian dam case in the high court where the Hawke government had come in determined to stop the damming of the Franklin River in Tasmania.

And it turned out to be a massive constitutional fight in the high court, this battle over environmental rights, states' rights.

the future of environmental protection in Australia.

Yeah.

And I go, "Well, if Riesling wasn't planted in this country right now, where would you plant Riesling?" And I would say that you will not plant it in the Clare Valley, Eden Valley, or Franklin River.

Yeah.

And so there is illogical things that we have to do with experimentation of wine to just make something and see how it goes, and it's these random acts of how you make wine.

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If you love a writer who can move you from a Japanese coal mine to a London flirtation to a rapid on the Franklin River in Australia and make it all feel like it's part of the same question, This book might be exactly what you're looking for.

It's Question 7 by Richard Flanagan.

My final recommendation is Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay.

Uh, all of those grief, loss, anger, um, And as, you know, at that age going, why can, why can these people not see the inherent magnificence and beauty of such a place? You know, it seemed pointless.

And so when the Franklin River came along about 10 years later, we'd all, as a band, you know, I'd already been invested in living in Geelong.

Goanna came out of Geelong, which is... a bit like Newcastle, a kind of industrial city, but at the back of Geelong was the Great Ocean Road and the Otway Forest, the ever dwindling Otway Forests.

And so we did a lot of benefits to try and raise support and funds and awareness about the Otway Forest being cut down.

You've got to take the fight to them.

You add your bit of light to the sum of light.

And I think, and like... where was the franklin river saved in the high court you know by legal argument and but bob hawk did stand up coming into the 1983 election um which was march of that year and i think this was released in february bob um bob hawk did come out and say he committed to saving the franklin river if they were elected and they were And he said that Franklin will be saved.

Of course, Robin Gray, who was the Premier of Tasmania, said, no, it won't.

The organic farming, the protests against pesticides, all of these things.

The damming of the Franklin River.

rainforest logging, all of these things.

The fact that there's a yoga studio within easy reach of nearly everybody in a city these days, a lot of these things can be brought back to the hippie movement, who, you know, we were idealists.

Actually, it's the same group of people that I started bushwalking with.

We started going to nuclear disarmament marches, Back in the day, fighting to try and save the Franklin River from the dams and those sorts of things.

So even back then, there were concerns about the environment, and we were very concerned.

I guess I grew up in an era where there were the same concerns about whether the world could continue as we know it.

It's too dependent on health outcomes and too limiting in time span.

Whitewater rafting down the Franklin River or trekking in Nepal simply might not be feasible in your 70s.

If you haven't already got a sabbatical planned, Why don't you roll it around in your head over the next few days and consider how you might make it work.

If it's something that appeals to you, hopefully the ideas in this episode will help you solve the financial piece of the equation.

There were arrests, damaged equipment, and by most participant accounts, a protest that stayed committed to non-violence even when things escalated.

It was non-violent direct action, stuff that we see, you know, that happened with the Franklin River and stuff that's still happening now in areas of Tasmania, such as in Takaina and you know, all the wonderful non-direct action that's happening here.

So yeah, I just wanted to flag that because I thought it was super interesting and how this movement for all its facets was very much around, you know, anti-establishment, but also fighting for, you know, the environment and looking after the land that provides this incredible plant.

And the good news stories in this was that it actually worked.