Friends of the Earth Australia's history

FoE Australia

1972 − The first FoE group in Australia forms in 1972 at Adelaide University, campaigning on issues including waste, pollution, Coca Cola and French nuclear tests in the Pacific. Following a high profile campaign against Coca Cola, a PR firm infiltrates FoE Adelaide to encourage the group to stop campaigning against the steel company BHP. BHP gives FoE Adelaide $3,900 to make a film about recycling, which FoE Adelaide turns into an exposé of the company itself.

FoE's origins contrast to some of the slightly older environmental organisations that FoE activist Neil Barrett describes in 1976 as the "establishment, government-funded group(s) which sprang out of an older style, middle class movement".

1973 − Peter Hayes writes:

"As soon as I arrived back in Australia in late 1973, I began to organize or rather, activate Friends of the Earth in Australia. A couple of tiny groups had already begun to use the name − one by a high school student in Melbourne somewhere, and one in South Australia. I was inspired by the concept of a loose, networked federation, based on the notion of ecological autogestion, or green self management."

1974 − First meeting of FoE Australia, held on French Island in Western Port Bay, Victoria, the proposed site of a nuclear power reactor.

Through the 1970s, FoE campaigns extensively to protect Antarctica. FoE publishes 'Antarctica: World Law and the Last Wilderness', and with other groups forms the Antarctica and Southern Oceans Coalition. The campaign − waged in the public realm in Australia and through international negotiating meetings − succeeds. The Madrid Protocol bans mining in Antarctica for at least 50 years.

FoE releases a video of BHP dumping steel at sea with resulting national media coverage.

Peter Hayes writes:

"In early 1974, I went to Tasmania to meet with Leigh Holloway who had established the Tasmanian Environment Centre. ... We had already helped take over the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) in October 1973 at the ACF's annual general meeting in Canberra as payback for a series of catastrophic decisions by the ACF's conservative establishment board to not back environmental causes, including Lake Pedder. ...

"Not unreasonably, while I was in Hobart Leigh asked me why we needed FoE when we had taken over the ACF? I answered that they were not competitive but complementary; that by its very structure ACF would always be slow and relatively muted by virtue of its relationship with governments. We needed a network that by its very nature could never be stopped by the powers-that-be. ... Leigh agreed; and eventually became one of FoE's most effective organizers, bridging the gap between grass-roots social campaigns and ACF as a councillor (along with FoE's Strider and Frank Muller). ACF was reconstituting itself to respond to Green Bans, land rights, and other structural issues such as energy supply that ACF had previously shunned."

FoE Melbourne has its first victory − saving Baw Baw frogs from a proposed ski run development.

Chain Reaction magazine starts − initially as Greenpeace Pacific Bulletin. Peter Hayes writes:

"FOE Melbourne's first order of business in 1974 was to organize a "Greenpeace Action" in the form of supporting an Australian vessel to sail to Moruroa in mid-1974. This was before Greenpeace existed as an organized entity in Australia. In 1972, a "Greenpeace" vessel captained by David McTaggart had sailed to Moruroa, and Greenpeace in Canada was just starting to get organized. I did not want a Greenpeace entity, but rather, a Greenpeace action that would embody FoE's mission and exemplify our style. This took the form of Rolf Heimann's Tahiti ketch that left from St. Kilda pier of a speech by Jim Cairns and to the sounds of a jazz band. ... To support Rolf's voyage, we began to publish Greenpeace Pacific Bulletins and raising money. I think there were a couple, likely one at start of 1974, and a second in winter 74. This morphed into the FoE magazine Chain Reaction ..."

In 1974, FoE Adelaide is involved in discussions with the Australia Party and the Plumbers and Gasfitters Union and establishes the Campaign Against Nuclear Energy (CANE), which is formally launched in March 1975.

1975 − By 1975 there are FoE groups in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, the Illawarra, Tasmania, Queensland and WA.

FoE Melbourne's food co-operative is established − and is still going strong 40 years later!

FoE organises a Ride Against Uranium − 250 people ride from Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide to Canberra, where Bill Liechacz from FoE NSW burns the coffin of the "ALP Conscience" with a flame kindled by his solar cooker. In 1976, 400 riders participate. The ride built FoE's profile to such an extent that, in the words of Chain Reaction editor Richard Nankin, "we now work in overcrowded offices, with people coming and going at all hours, the phones always ringing madly".

FoE anti-uranium activists track the federal government's Ranger uranium inquiry (a.k.a. Fox inquiry) around the country, by train and hitch-hiking. The Age says that it is the 300-page FoE submission that "mostly shaped the major qualms expressed by the Fox report" and that "at the moment, FoE could rightly claim to be the most potent environmental group in the country".

FoE Melbourne conducts a much-publicised "lavatory sit-in" at Melbourne Airport to protest against Concorde aircraft, complaining about "super-expenditure for a super-luxury". Peter Hayes writes:

"We felt that humor was an important weapon which we tried to weave into many of our protests, and this was one of them." The British Aircraft Corporation maintains a "bemused upper lip". The Australian Transport Minister threatens to sue FoE for $1 million in relation to the FoE pamphlet, 'British Airways is Taking Australia for a Ride'. An editorial in The Age urges FoE to step out of the toilets and to worship at the shrine of technological progress.

FoE campaigns against massive high rise developments in inner Sydney, in support of the famous Green Bans. Robert Tickner is the convenor of FoE's urban campaign and later becomes the Federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.

FoE Melbourne campaigns on the problem of lead in petrol. The oil industry fights back, but with strong community education, this issue is won in the mid-1980s by a campaign for lead-free petrol led again by FoE.

1976 − The Age newspaper describes the FoE Melbourne office as a "barely furnished terrace house in Carlton … there is no obvious indication that FoE lives in at least 16 other countries, is represented on the UN Environment Program, and ... has so far gained support of not just the left wing unions but professional organisations and church groups ... the office workers are fairly young, well educated and poor".

FoE Sydney hosts a speaking tour by Dale Bridenbaugh, an engineer with General Electric in the USA, on GE's nuclear safety problems and in particular problems with the boiling water reactor design. Thirty-five years later, those design flaws are exposed in the Fukushima disaster in Japan.

Early editions of Chain Reaction carry generic appeals from FoE's 'Leak Bureau' asking corporate or governmental whistle-blowers to provide information. In 1976, a whistleblower from Mary Kathleen Uranium Mining leaks documents to FoE revealing the existence of a global uranium cartel, leading to protracted international scandals and fines totalling hundreds of millions of dollars.

FoE sets up the Atom-Free Embassy outside the Australian Atomic Energy Commission (Lucas Heights) in November 1976. A gun-shot is fired over the Embassy one night. A tepee is established at the Embassy to function as the local branch of the FoE Leak Bureau (oddly, information is leaked about secret solar energy research at the Lucas Heights site). Vege and herb gardens are established. Lock-ons and truck blockades.

1977 − A "vast influx of active and angry people" to FoE groups.

FoE does extensive work on renewable energy options for Australia.

Ride against uranium: Melbourne to Canberra.

FoE is involved in actions preventing the loading and shipping of uranium from wharfs in Sydney and Melbourne. Chain Reaction publishes an apology for its lateness: "Absenteeism reached 100% during the Swanston Dock actions where mounted police led a charge over the top of protesters sitting on a wharf beside a ship loaded with Australian uranium. Commenting on the police's heavy-handed tactics at the protest, Chief Police Commissioner Miller says: 'I'd use elephants if I had them.'"

In Port Pirie, 200 kms north of Adelaide, a group of concerned people get together to campaign on the radiation risks from the Port Pirie Uranium Treatment Complex and set up a FoE group. In 1981, exceptionally high tides breach the wall of the tailings dam, and some materials are flushed out to sea. As a result of FoE's lobbying of the Minister of Mines and Energy, the dams are eventually stabilised in 1982 by being covered with a metre of slag from nearby mines. FoE then turns its attention to lead, as the Port Pirie smelter is too close to the town and poses a considerable health risk.

In 1977 the barricades are thrown up on Alexandra Parade in the inner suburb of Collingwood (Melbourne) to oppose the construction of the F19 (later renamed the Eastern Freeway). With strong community support, this campaign is a key activity for FoE. Dozens of protesters are arrested and several are seriously injured.

Almost all FoE groups are working on nuclear and whaling issues (among others). Peter Hayes writes: "FoE Melbourne also mobilized in 1977 to organize protests around the International Whaling Commission in Canberra in June, in coordination with FoE Canberra and the separate Project Jonah. Barbara Belding who had worked with Project Jonah in California attended for FoE International. She first came to Melbourne and we travelled together to Canberra. ... The meeting was held in a hotel near the lake and close to ANU. ... The event itself was a lot of fun, with Project Jonah inflating a giant plastic Willie the Whale in the corridor housing Japanese delegates, trapping them in the rooms. The police slashing of Willie generated global publicity for the protest."

1978 − A Women's Edition of Chain Reaction has articles on sexism in the environment movement; women at work; and several articles on feminism, sexism and the nuclear industry. A letter in Chain Reaction says FoE Sydney and Melbourne are mostly male but "joyfully non-oppressive".

FoE leaks draft Bills to amend the Atomic Energy Act. The Act allows up to 20 years prison for releasing 'restricted information'.

FoE is among the few official parties to the Inquiry into Whales and Whaling in 1978. Following the announcement that the last whaling station at Albany (WA) is going to close down, FoE campaigns for a whale sanctuary in Australian territorial waters, a ban on the import of whale products, and for Australia to take a proactive role in international forums to secure global protection for all species of whale from commercial operations.

Author and cartoonist Rolf Heimann is jailed after protesting the visit to Australia of a nuclear submarine. Several years earlier, Heimann took his yacht to join the flotilla protesting French nuclear tests at Moruroa. His book, 'Knocking on Heaven's Door', is published by FoE and gives an insightful 'activist travelogue' of opposition to the testing and deeper issues of cultural and political independence in the Pacific. FoE also publishes a book of cartoons by Heimann with a foreword "by our old friend Spike Milligan".

1979 − Due to intense campaigning by many groups, including FoE, the federal government places a total ban on whaling in Australian waters.

Chain Reaction reports that Joh Bjelke-Peterson supports nuclear power, having previously advocated the use of nuclear weapons ('peaceful nuclear explosives') to halt the progress of the Crown of Thorns Starfish on the Great Barrier Reef. "Fortunately, the starfish seemed to have slackened off of their own accord − possibly tipped off by somebody!"

There are 46 FoE groups spread throughout the country.

1980 − In the 1980s, there is a shift to more targeted solidarity campaigning with the rise of the Food Justice Centre, the struggle against apartheid, links with liberation struggles in Latin America and elsewhere, and growing campaigning on Australian indigenous issues. With the backdrop of the cold war and nuclear proliferation, peace and disarmament issues receive greatest attention during the later 1980s.

FoE Melbourne establishes a Food Justice Centre to work on plant variety rights at a time when patenting of seeds begins to pose a grave threat to subsistence farmers around the world. Other concerns include the use of harmful chemicals in Southern nations and corporate ownership and control of food. FoE hosts the Politics of Food conference in Melbourne.

FoE sponsors a visit to Australia by US consumer advocate Ralph Nader.

A Nuclear Free Embassy is set up in a small park near Lucas Heights, but stays for just one week − a brick is thrown at a tent so the Embassy moves to Glebe Island at the invitation of wharfies.

FoE Melbourne starts Musicians Against Nuclear Energy (MANE) including dozens of musicians and bands such as Redgum, Australian Crawl, The Angels, Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons, Atilla and the Panel Beaters, and the Incredible Shambles Band.

FoE helps fund the 'Dirt Cheap' film exposing the manipulation of Mirarr Traditional Owners by the Fraser federal government and the Northern Land Council.

The ALP government in Victoria signs a joint venture agreement with Alcoa over plans to build an aluminium smelter at Portland. A site is selected adjacent to the town itself. This area is of significance to the local traditional owners, the Gournditch-Jmara people. FoE participates in an occupation of the site from September 1980. Despite a successful High Court challenge, the site is bulldozed. Aboriginal artefacts are destroyed and the smelter is built.

1981 − FoE, the Merchant Services Guild and other unions highlight the trial of offshore dumping of waste from paper mills. Offshore dumping is subsequently banned.

In 1981, a faction of the Chain Reaction editorial collective moves office in the middle of the night to 'save' the magazine from those they regard as not having the "responsibilities we had to the wider national FoE and environmentalist constituency". This may have been due, at least partly, to the size of the editorial collective − a 1981 edition of the magazine credits 45 people as being involved with editorial decisions. Those credited include people who go on to become Senators, local councillors, authors, an adviser to Paul Keating, and the first energy minister in the Victorian Bracks' Government.

1982 − In 1982 there are 20 local groups and FoE Australia adopts a new constitution acknowledging local groups as the focus of operations. This seems to mark a shift in the way FoE operates, away from a focus on national collaboration and towards more locally focused activity and greater strategic engagement with other social movements.

A recycling campaign is established in Melbourne, aiming to introduce national beverage container deposit legislation.

FoE Brisbane is involved in community protests against retrogressive land rights legislation.

Atom Free Embassy established in Canberra.

The world bike-ride for peace, from Canberra to Darwin, highlights Australia's involvement in the nuclear fuel cycle.

Blockades at Honeymoon uranium mine in SA in 1982 and Roxby Downs in 1983 and '84, organised by an umbrella grouping called the Coalition for a Nuclear Free Australia. These actions concentrate on 'hindering and frustrating' work at the mines, in order to delay their completion and to raise community awareness. The Australian Mining Journal notes that FoE plays a 'leading role' in these blockades.

In a series of letters and articles in Chain Reaction, many women express opinions like that of Margie Kaye, who says "the environment movement over the last 10 years has continually failed to examine sexism within its internal structures". In 1982, Denise Chevalier writes on behalf of FoE Collingwood: "We, the women at FoE, have fought hard for what we have achieved. We have far more women than men working with us. The women are now at the fore in the decision making in all our campaigns".

1983 − Waste minimisation in general and recycling in particular grow as issues, involving FoE groups in Victoria, SA, NSW and elsewhere. The dominant campaign focuses on demands to legislate for deposits to be paid on drink containers.

FoE campaigns on the die-back of native forests on New England tablelands, NSW.

Fruit and vegie co-op is established in Melbourne as a project of the Food Justice Centre.

In 1983, plans are floated for leach mining of gold in Victoria. FoE Melbourne works with the Aboriginal Mining Information Centre as part of a successful campaign to stop this destructive form of mining.

FoE is involved in the Hazardous Chemicals Collective, which campaigns on issues including the bulk chemical facility located at Coode Island in Melbourne's inner west and undertakes ground-breaking work on the threats posed by dioxins.

FoE's strong and growing emphasis on social justice is not appreciated by everyone. "I am dismayed at the shift in Chain Reaction from environmental towards social/political issues such as feminism and homosexuality", wrote one reader in 1983. However, in general there is a clear sense that social justice issues form a part of the 'core business' of what FoE should be doing.

1984 − Victory in seed variety rights campaign; the ALP policy stops short of allowing plant patenting for cereals.

FoE campaigns to halt a sewerage outfall into Wimmera River, Victoria.

FoE tours international author Jim Harding ('Tools for the soft path') to raise awareness of alternative energy sources.

FoE Willunga is set up in the coastal town south of Adelaide in 1984. It helps ensure protection of the Aldinga Reef (from runoff from adjacent farmland and roads) and Aldinga Scrub, a significant pocket of remnant bush in an area with very limited original vegetation. Through co-ordinated work with the Kaurna people, the local traditional owners, FoE Willunga works to secure protection for sections of the Tjilbruke Dreaming track that are threatened by development and other forms of interference.

1985 − FoE Ryde (Sydney) discovers radioactive waste from a CSIRO complex in drains in a recreation park in Sydney.

Campaign against uranium mining in Kakadu

1986 − Campaign against visits by nuclear-powered ships to Victorian ports.

FoE Oakleigh saves a 14 hectare strip of heathland (part of a system that once spread across Melbourne's sandbelt region) from being turned into a soccer ground.

FoE and the Movement Against Uranium Mining (MAUM) occupy the Uranium Information Centre in Melbourne.

Peter Milton, Labor MP for the seat of La Trobe and later a long-term FoE member, is one of the MPs who causes an uproar by walking out on Paul Keating's budget speech when the treasurer announces the government's decision to resume uranium sales to France.

1987 − FoE campaigns for a moratorium on the release of GMOs.

1988 − Australian Bicentenary − FoE supports actions against the celebrations, including the 45,000 strong march in Sydney on Invasion Day.

FoE campaigns against food irradiation and organises a national tour by irradiation expert Tony Webb.

FoE produces 'soft energy' booklet on renewable energy.

FoE Collingwood moves to Brunswick St, Fitzroy, where it operates a community arts space for the next five years. This gallery provides an early foothold for Indigenous art from central Australia and the western desert region before it is widely available.

1989 − FoE campaigns on the use of dioxins in paper and other consumer products.

Campaign against photo degradable plastics (a short-lived fad).

A victory against mineral sands mining in Victoria.

FoE hosts a series of national waste minimisation conferences during the late 1980s.

A campaign led by FoE leads to the introduction of Australian-made recycled paper.

In the 1980s, FoE Adelaide set up a 'slow food' café in Torrensville. In 1989, the group establishes itself as the Green Party of SA. Subsequently, a new FoE group is established in Adelaide and gets involved in green city activism, including the Green City Program, which focuses on city-wide sustainability issues for Adelaide, and helps initiate the Halifax urban development in inner Adelaide.

1990 − Uranium shipments from Roxby Downs blockaded in Adelaide.

First FoE Radioactive Exposure Tour in SA. These continue to this day, educating people about the social and environmental impacts of the nuclear industry.

Alliances with various Indigenous communities campaigning against issues such as sand mining on North Stradbroke Island (Minjeribah) in Queensland, and blockades of logging operations in western Victoria.

FoE Maryborough plays a leading role in the year-long blockade on Fraser island against logging of old growth forests. Rainforest Action Group plays a significant role in ending logging operations on the island.

FoE Melbourne starts to Pay the Rent to Aboriginal traditional owners (as does FoE Australia in 1993).

Soft energy group starts in Melbourne, researching and advocating for renewable energy.

Climate change campaign starts.

FoE launches a proposal for national waste strategy (aiming at a 50% reduction by 2000).

Clare Henderson and Larry O'Loughlan are prominent national advocates of Right To Know (RTK) legislation in the early 1990s. RTK refers to the right of people to access information on the existence, quantities and effects of emissions from industrial activities.

1991 − FoE supports a campaign to stop the establishment of a McDonalds restaurant in the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne.

In November 1991, the Australian International Defence Exhibition (AIDEX) is held in Canberra. This is a trade fair for weapons manufacturers, and several thousand people demonstrate outside the National Exhibition Centre. FoE does much of the organising of events, and people from Melbourne help co-ordinate actions at the blockades and run the camp established for the duration of the exhibition. The following year, FoE works with a range of groups under the umbrella of the Disarm the Skies Campaign Coalition to organise actions outside the Aerospace Expo at Avalon, west of Melbourne ('AIDEX on wings').

FoE is heavily involved in community mobilisations against Australian involvement in the Gulf War (FoE Melbourne building ransacked in a night-time break-in).

In August 1991, the bulk chemical facility at Coode Island in inner western Melbourne suffers a major fire and a toxic cloud descends over much of the city. An inquiry is held into the possible relocation of the facility to Point Lillias, a headland on Port Phillip Bay near Geelong. The situation is complicated by plans to locate a naval arms complex on the same headland: the East Coast Armaments Complex. FoE works with a range of other groups throughout the parallel state and federal inquiries into the relocation of these facilities under the banner of the Combined Environment Groups. In the end, neither facility was moved to Point Lillias.

FoE Maryborough begins on the mid north coast of Queensland and continues to monitor threats to Fraser Island and the broader region. Although a number of green groups have laid claim to 'saving' Fraser Island, the role of FoE Maryborough has not received the recognition it deserves in the successful campaign to end logging. Activists Ross and Karen Daniel and Zephyr L'Green are pivotal in the group that keeps the base camp on the Island running for a whole year of blockading. Without the blockades, there would have been far less pressure on the state and federal governments to end logging on the island.

1992 − FoE Sydney report 'Bring Back Returnables' is a significant contribution to the debate on recycling.

Water campaign is established at FoE Melbourne. GMO campaign starts in Melbourne.

FoE collaborates with the Arabunna People's Committee in an (unsuccessful) effort to gain World Heritage listing for the Lake Eyre Basin. The SA Liberal government offers to host a national radioactive waste dump in the region if the federal Labor government drops the World Heritage proposal.

The East Gippsland Forest Network (EGFN) merges with FoE Melbourne. The EGFN had itself grown from Melbourne Rainforest Action Group in the late 1980s. The creation of the FoE Melbourne Forest Network and the energy of a new generation of activists results in more than five years of intense campaigning to protect Victoria's forests. Over the summer of 1993−94, FoE Melbourne joins the Wilderness Society and Concerned Residents of East Gippsland to form the East Gippsland Forest Alliance. On-the-ground blockades and campaigning continue and have helped win considerable gains in terms of forest protection.

The years under the Victorian Kennett state government (1992−99) mark a time of significant community politicisation and unprecedented resistance at the grassroots level in Melbourne and across the state. FoE plays a significant role in many struggles, both in terms of physical involvement of staff and members in picket lines and campaigns, and also behind the scenes in the training of non-violent action, police liaison, and other aspects of community organising.

1993 − FoE is involved in the national protest action held outside the Nurrungar US base near Woomera in SA. The campaign work involves close cooperation with the Kokatha traditional owners, and increased public debate over the nature of the alliance with the US and the deployment of troops to secure the base. Nurrungar is closed in 1999, with protest actions cited as one reason for the closure.

In 1993, FoE Melbourne begins working with Wadjularbinna, a Gungalidda woman from the Doomadgee community in the Gulf country of north Queensland. Many within the Gungalidda community are opposing plans by CRA to develop the Century Zinc deposit at Lawn Hill, 250 kms north-west of Mt Isa. FoE Melbourne holds actions outside the CRA AGM in Melbourne and raises the issue in the AGM itself as part of a campaign that runs for several years. Largely through the efforts of Lee Tan, these campaign links develop into a broader informal alliance. FoE Melbourne activists subsequently help establish the Bugajinda/Moonlight outstation project which includes the construction of basic facilities that allow members of the Moonlight clan to visit their country on a more regular basis, and form the beginning of an eco and cultural tourism business.

A forest campaign is launched in Victoria; blockades are launched in East Gippsland through an alliance of FoE and other groups.

National waste minimisation strategy launched.

FoE Melbourne establishes a Water Collective to work on big-picture infrastructure developments, a Melbourne Water review of its sewerage strategy, and many local issues. The Collective is explicitly bioregional in its approach, concentrating on the catchments of Port Phillip and Western Port Bays. It produces the book 'Not Just Down the Drain', focusing on domestic re-use of grey water.

1994 − FoE Melbourne works with the Kerrup Jmara community to set up a tent embassy in the main street of Portland, to protest endemic racism against the Aboriginal community and specific incidents of discrimination around policing and the provision of health services.

Campaign to stop an oil terminal in Western Port Bay, Vic.

FoE is a pivotal force in the Coalition Against Freeway Extensions (CAFE), Victoria. CAFE activists blockade road building operations on Alexandra Parade for over a month. FoE Melbourne and other activists join in a series of arrestable actions that obstruct road works. Eventually all but one of the arrestees have their charges dropped.

FoE hosts Shripad Dharmadhikary of Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save Narmada Movement), as part of the '50 years are enough' campaign, aimed at radical reform of the World Bank.

FoE launches a national wetlands campaign.

FoE Melbourne helps establish the Otway Ranges Environment Network (OREN). In 1996, it achieves the first prosecution for a breach of a logging permit on private land in Victoria. With the support of the Environmental Defenders Office, FoE Melbourne takes a case to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, successfully targeting a timber company with links to a minister in the Kennett government. This victory highlights the scale of problems from logging on private land across the state. FoE activist Anthony Amis spends much of the rest of the decade working to highlight often disastrous logging regimes on private land. He also relentlessly monitors forestry operations on the estate of the Victorian Plantation Corporation once it was privatised and sold by the Kennett government in 1998 to Hancocks, a US-based insurance company.

1995 − Successful campaign against re-siting of the East Coast Armaments Complex.

French nuclear tests in the Pacific – FoE plays a key role in community mobilisations.

FoE blockades a train carrying logs to highlight the ecological and social costs of the woodchip industry.

1996 − Following the election of the Howard Coalition government in 1996, FoE campaigns against the privatisation of Telstra and speaks out on the blackmail inherent in linking funding of an essential portfolio (in this instance the environment) with the partial sale of a public asset (Telstra).

Ramsar conference on wetlands held in Brisbane; marks the beginning of a much greater involvement of FoE Australia in the FoE International network.

North East Conservation Alliance launched in Victoria after FoE initiative.

'Streets for People' transport campaign launched. Campaign analysis shows need for more inner city bike paths − when local governments refuse, FoE paints its own, quickly followed by formal recognition.

Paper boycott starts to build pressure for the production of Australian-made 100% recycled paper.

More than 50 direct actions are organised by FoE Melbourne in 1996. One of the more dramatic is a blockade of the 'extinction express' – a train carrying whole logs from Bairnsdale in Gippsland to the Midways woodchip mill near Geelong for export to be used in paper production. FoE Melbourne works with community activists from Geelong and the Otways to occupy the Midways woodchip mill on many occasions. A less successful direct action takes place in 1996 − activists accidentally occupy a rice ship in Geelong harbour after scouts identify it as being a woodchip ship. Oops.

FoE Brisbane re-forms in 1996, after a core group of activists involved in the campaign to stop sandmining on North Stradbroke Island decide they want a long term organisational base for their work. In recent times, FoE Brisbane has campaigned against genetic engineering, food irradiation, on nuclear and indigenous issues, coal and coal transport, CSG, and much more.

1997 − Alliance Against Uranium mining forms in Alice Springs. The Aboriginal-led alliance, now known as the Australian Nuclear Free Alliance, is still going strong. FoE serves as the secretariat for the Alliance for many years, and has played a major role in organising many of the Alliance's annual meetings and in other ANFA projects.

FoE and other groups oppose sand mining on Minjeribah / North Stradbroke Island, Queensland.

Goolengook forest in East Gippsland becomes the focus of a national campaign.

FoE plays a key role working with the Mirarr people to oppose the proposed Jabiluka uranium mine in Kakadu.

FoE plays a leading role organising the Roxstop festival at the Olympic Dam mine in SA and the township of Roxby Downs, to highlight community opposition to uranium mining.

FoE is involved in the campaign for ozone protection.

FoE hosts a tour by exiled Ogoni person Komene Famaa from Nigeria, highlighting the impact of Shell's oil operations on the Niger delta.

1998 − FoE Brisbane initiates Reverse Garbage Queensland Co-op, a cooperative that collects and sells industrial discards that would otherwise go to landfill.

FoE Melbourne hosts the Indigenous Solidarity Conference, a ground-breaking gathering of Indigenous and non-Indigenous activists from around Australia.

While FoE Melbourne had enjoyed intermittent contact with the Yorta Yorta Nation for many years, from 1997 onwards this connection becomes stronger. After the 1998 Indigenous Solidarity Conference, many delegates travel to the Barmah forest to an Indigenous-only strategy session hosted by the Yorta Yorta community. FoE participates in a Yorta Yorta occupation of the Dharnya Cultural Centre in Barmah State Park in 1999, and elders request that FoE assists them further in their main objective of regaining management of traditional lands. Thus FoE Melbourne's Barmah-Millewa campaign is born.

FoE begins working with the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta, senior Aboriginal women fighting the federal government's plan to build a national radioactive waste dump in SA. In 2003, FoE successfully nominates the Kungkas for the prestigious Goldman Environmental Award, commonly referred to as the 'green Nobel prize'. FoE launches the Nuclear Freeways Project to generate awareness of proposed radioactive waste transport through NSW and SA. In addition to widespread media coverage and community support, 16 of the 18 councils along the transport route oppose the transport of radioactive waste through their communities. This work leads to a NSW Parliamentary inquiry which issues a strong report. In July 2004, the Howard government abandoned the SA dump proposal.

Jabiluka uranium campaign − FoE helps build mass protests at Jabiluka and in cities/towns around Australia. FoE activists take on a variety of 'behind the scenes' roles like co-ordinating buses for travel to Kakadu from capital cities, and working in the kitchen at base camp. Another successful campaign − Rio Tinto / ERA later gives up and rehabilitation of the Jabiluka mine site begins in August 2003.

FoE joins with the Electrical Trades Union, the Australian Nursing Federation and others in 1998 to launch the Earthworker alliance − a forum to allow for greater co-operation between green groups and trade unions. Despite building considerable momentum in its first few years, a conflict over forest issues later causes a loss of momentum.

FoE hosts the annual FoE International meeting in Melbourne – more than 40 countries are represented.

1999 − Water campaign focuses on logging in Melbourne's domestic drinking water catchments.

FoE supports traditional owners in blockading logging operations in the Cobboboonnee forests, western Victoria.

Railtrack, the company responsible for railways in England, cancels millions of dollars of contracts for Jarrah timber following a FoE report showing that forestry operations are unsustainable.

FoE initiates work on herbicides and plantation forestry.

Streets for People is established as a new transport campaign at FoE Melbourne, focusing on proactive, positive and creative action. Transport issues are also prominent in the work of FoE Sydney. In 2000, FoE Sydney works with other groups to successfully advocate for the $1.4 billion publicly-funded Parramatta to Chatswood rail link.

2000 − Wildspaces film festival becomes a FoE event.

FoE's Climate Justice campaign is launched, focusing on the human rights and equity dimensions of global warming. In 2001, FoE hosts an international seminar on the themes of climate justice and globalisation. A series of street events, public meetings and direct actions are held to highlight the human dimensions of climate change. FoE starts combining the concepts of ecological debt into its work and begins advocating for recognition of and support for environmental (climate) refugees.

On a global level, as neo-liberalism enters a new phase with a systematic liberalisation of trade regimes, FoE's focus on trade issues grows through the 1990s, reaching a high point with the massive protests against the World Economic Forum meeting held in Melbourne in 2000. FoE Melbourne is active in the successful campaign against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, which would have established a set of rules restricting what governments could do to regulate international investment and corporate behaviour.

From 2000 onwards, FoE devotes more attention to the ecological and social impacts of the establishment of plantations, including the use of herbicides, impacts on ground water and other negative elements.

With the Green Institute and Heinrich-Boll Foundation, FoE organises an international conference in Canberra to assess how far global environmental co-operation has developed since the first 'Earth Summit' was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Delegates represent almost 60 countries.

2001 − FoE organises a radiothon and other fundraising for communities impacted by an earthquake in El Salvador.

Whites creek wetlands start to be re-established in inner Sydney after a FoE campaign.

FoE joins with various community alliances to oppose the shameless racism of the federal Coalition government.

FoE's Environment and Population project seeks to broaden the population debate beyond a fixation on numbers of people by offering an internationalist perspective on ecology.

2002 − Responding to the threat of a second Gulf War, FoE becomes a founding member of the Victorian Peace Network and is involved in anti-war rallies and organising throughout the subsequent invasion of Iraq.

Pangea leaves Australia after attempting to win support for a high-level nuclear waste dump. The proposal came into the public domain after a promotional video is leaked to FoE in the UK.

The Dharnya Alliance, a collaboration between the Yorta Yorta Nation and green and social justice organisations, is formed. FoE organises the first 'Barmah summit' and acts as secretariat for the Alliance.

2003 − FoE joins with traditional owners and others to oppose a large open-cut gold mine in the Lake Cowal region of mid-west NSW.

FoE publishes 'Population, Immigration and Environment', generating considerable feedback, both positive and negative, especially from other green organisations.

2004 − FoE organises a climate justice tour, traveling the east coast of Australia to highlight the impacts of global warming on Pacific communities.

FoE's Radioactive Exposure Tour meets up with senior Aboriginal woman from the Kupa Piti Kungka Tjuta days after the Howard government abandons plans to impose a nuclear waste dump in SA.

2007 − 100th edition of FoE Australia's magazine, Chain Reaction.

Ceduna-based Kokatha-Mula woman Sue Coleman Haseldine from FoE affiliate West Mallee Protection wins the 2007 SA Premier's Award for excellence for indigenous leadership in natural resource management.

FoE's Nuclear Freeways campaign visits Canberra, Sydney, the Blue Mountains and Lithgow.

FoE Adelaide's Clean Futures Collective initiates a volunteer work program with the Adnyamathanha community in Nepabunna, near the Flinders Ranges. Tasks include working in the community's bush tucker garden, saving seed of local species and helping with local eco-tourism ventures.

On World Environment Day, FoE Australia joins with the Rainforest Information Centre, Borneo Orangutan Society, and the Australian Orangutan Project to launch the Palm Oil Action Group, calling on Australian consumers, retailers and manufacturers to play a role in curbing massive deforestation in south-east Asia.

FoE climate campaigners host a speaking tour featuring Ursula Rakova and Bernard Tunim from the Carteret Islands, holding forums in Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne to hear the Carteret story of climate-related dislocation and relocation.

2008 − FoE works with the Latin American Solidarity Network and a range of other groups to hold an Indigenous Solidarity Gathering in Melbourne. The focus is on Latin America, Asia and the Pacific. It is well attended with Indigenous representatives from Australia, Aotearoa (New Zealand), North America, Latin America, Melanesia and the Pacific Islands.

Mukwano Australia joins FoE Australia as an affiliate member. Mukwano works with organic farming communities in Africa to establish health care facilities. A health care centre building is completed in Uganda.

2009 − FoE Adelaide, in partnership with the Conservation Council of South Australia and the University of Adelaide, hosts Australia's first conference on Earth Jurisprudence in Adelaide. Earth Jurisprudence (a.k.a. Wild Law) calls for a radical shift to our legal system, from a human-only orientation to an Earth-centred approach.

PNG non-government organisation Tulele Peisa is welcomed as a new FoE affiliate. Tulele Peisa supports climate refugees from the Carteret Islands who are in the process of migrating to Bougainville.

Environment groups applaud the Victorian government's announcement of its plan to create a chain of new River Red Gum National Parks along the Murray, Goulburn and Ovens rivers in northern Victoria. FoE worked for almost 12 years alongside Traditional Owners to help secure this outcome.

2010 − The Big Melt tour: FoE organises a national climate change speaking tour featuring people from Nepal.

FoE Adelaide coordinates the South Australian Food Convergence, 'From Plains to Plate: the Future of Food in South Australia', drawing together 750 participants. FoE helps establish the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance, a growing national network of small farmers, community, environment and health organisations, social and business enterprises to assert the need for a sustainable food policy for Australia.

A delegation from the global peasant's network La Via Campesina makes an historic visit to Australia. The Adelaide leg of the visit is hosted by FoE Adelaide, with farmers from Korea, Japan, Timor-Leste and Indonesia meeting local farmers and community organisations to strengthen links across the Asia-Pacific region for just and sustainable food systems.

Nuclear Freeways campaigners travel from Sydney and Melbourne through northern Victoria and SA, ending up at the Australian Nuclear Free Alliance meeting in Alice Springs.

2011 − FoE Melbourne ramps up its Yes 2 Renewables project − initially a website, 'Y2R' becomes a significant campaign.

'Leave it in the Ground' ride against uranium: FoE Adelaide organises a cycling trip from Port Augusta to the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary. Plans for mining in the Sanctuary are later banned by the state government.

FoE Brisbane activist Derec Davies locks on to a Gladstone port corporation dredge after being ferried in by a Zodiac inflatable speed-boat, unfurling a banner which read "Save the reef, halt dredging".

FoE holds a series of forums in western Victoria (Warrnambool, Colac, Ballarat, and Geelong) to highlight the threat posed by the expansion of coal seam gas, coal, and shale gas in the region.

FoE and the Inland Rivers Network release a report on the environmental water needs of major wetlands, lakes and river reaches in the Murray Darling Basin.

FoE organises an east-coast speaking tour of Indonesian environmental activists, highlighting dodgy carbon 'offset' schemes.

FoE affiliate Mukwano Australia supports the Katuulo Organic Pineapple Cooperative to build, staff and maintain a health care centre in Katuulo, a remote rural community in Uganda.

2012 − FoE activist June Norman is joined by a growing number of people during her 29-day walk of almost 500 kms from Kumbarilla to Gladstone in Queensland. The purpose of the walk is to highlight the impacts of the coal seam gas industry and it follows the route of a proposed gas pipeline to the port town of Gladstone. The walkers arrive in Gladstone the same day that UNESCO is meeting to assess the impacts that the coal and gas industries are having on the Great Barrier Reef and the surrounding Marine Park.

Four members of FoE Melbourne's Quit Coal campaign climb onto the roof of Parliament House in Melbourne and unfurl a giant banner about the effects of coal on the climate. Nine others lock onto the pillars at the front of the building. Quit Coal activists are also working with local communities in Bacchus Marsh and Anglesea.

After many years of campaigning by FoE campaigner Anthony Amis, the timber treatment chemical copper chromium arsenic (CCA) is designated as being a restricted chemical by the federal regulator.

The Safe Sunscreen Guide produced by FoE's Nanotechnology Project attracts widespread interest and media coverage. The Australian Education Union passes a resolution to protect school-children from nano-sunscreens and provide copies of the Safe Sunscreen Guide to every state school in Australia.

2013 − Chloe Aldenhoven and Dom O'Dwyer, activists from FoE Melbourne's Quit Coal campaign, scale a large cooling tower at the coal-fired Yallourn Power Station in the Latrobe Valley and remain there for 30 hours. It is the longest occupation of a power station in Australia's history.

CounterAct is welcomed as a new affiliate member of FoE, supporting communities to take effective, creative, strategic nonviolent direct action on issues of environmental and social justice.

FoE Brisbane campaigns on the problem of dangerous dust from coal wagons. Coal is transported from Acland in the Darling Downs through Toowoomba and Ipswich, then through 21 residential suburbs of Brisbane, passing within 100 metres of many properties.

Building on successful campaigns to protect River Red Gum forests and secure environmental flows through the Murray Darling Basin Plan, FoE Melbourne's Barmah-Millewa campaign focuses on developing an advocacy campaign for Indigenous water rights. Two 'Cultural Flows' films are completed with Traditional Owners along the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers, highlighting Indigenous people's deep connections to the rivers and waterways in their country.

FoE's 'Nature: Not Negotiable' project campaigns to stop the Commonwealth handing over environmental powers to state governments.

FoE's Nanotechnology Project reveals that two Australian sunscreen ingredient manufacturers have been marketing nano sunscreen ingredients as non-nano. The scandal generates extensive media coverage, and creates industry pressure to develop genuinely non-nano products.

FoE hosts two members of FoE Indonesia (WALHI) who travel to Australia to raise awareness about the push to expand export coal mining in Central Kalimantan.

2014 − The 2014 Radioactive Exposure Tour is an epic adventure from Melbourne to Muckaty (north of Tennant Creek) in the NT, the site of a proposed national radioactive waste dump. Participants come from Australia, India, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, England, New Zealand and France.

Soon after, FoE activists celebrate with Muckaty Traditional Owners after the federal government abandons plans to impose a radioactive waste dump in the NT.

FoE's Barmah-Millewa campaign successfully mobilises community pressure to stall damaging 'scientific logging trials' in River Red Gum national parks.

FoE activists hit the road for a seven-day tour of the Galilee Coal Basin in Queensland. Coal companies plan to build nine new mega-mines in the Basin.

Robin Taubenfeld and other FoE Brisbane activists play a leading role in the Brisbane G20 Peoples Convergence.

FoE Melbourne's Yes 2 Renewables campaign launches a fact-finding road trip at the Hepburn Wind farm, the first stop of an 11-week trip to get a real understanding of the impact the Renewable Energy Target has had on communities in south-eastern Australia.

Beth Cameron, co-ordinator of the FoE Melbourne food co-op, and Cam Walker, FoE Melbourne campaigns co-ordinator, celebrate 25 years of working for the organisation. Beth and Cam are acknowledged at the Yarra Sustainability Awards.

FoE publishes a report on the high levels of chlorine disinfection byproducts in water supplied by Westernport Water to Phillip Island and surrounds in southern Victoria.

FoE Melbourne puts the issue of unconventional gas firmly onto the state political agenda, and makes renewable energy a significant issue in the lead up to the state election.

In just its second year, FoE affiliate Market Forces has an impact on the lending policies of large institutions such as the Big 4 Banks.

FoEA sees that unabated climate change is the single greatest threat to the natural environment, at all levels from the local to the global. For many years our climate justice campaign forged the national agenda on the human rights dimensions of climate change, most notably through advocating for recognition of climate refugees (people and communities displaced by climate change). 

Over the past half decade, we have greatly increased the work we do on mitigation – working to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions here in Australia. 

The key to this is to help stop the planned massive expansion of coal and gas projects in Australia while supporting a rapid transition to renewable energy sources. We have active state-based campaigns focused on coal and gas in Queensland and Victoria as well as activity at the national level.

2015 - FoE Melbourne focused on the need for the current government to re-write the regressive anti wind laws put in place by the Baillieu government while it was in power. The creation of these laws had effectively stopped the development of large scale renewable energy in the state. The Andrews government has now re-written the worst aspects of these laws.

FoE Melbourne works to build support for a state renewable energy target (a VRET). We believed this was necessary because of the continual destabilisation of the renewable energy industry at the federal level under Abbott.

Market Forces continues to play a key role in campaigns aimed at shifting finance and investment patterns of major financial institutions and keeping prospective lenders from supporting the mega coal mines proposed in Queensland’s Galilee Basin, including supporting Traditional Owners to call on international banks to avoid funding the Carmichael coal mine.

The Climate Frontlines collective of FoE Brisbane continues to maintain its relationship and work with key Torres Strait elders and leaders, as it seeks to find effective ways of supporting initiatives outlined in the Torres Strait Regional Authority’s new 5-year plan, Climate Change Strategy: Building Community Adaptive Capacity and Resilience.

FoE hosted Ursula Rakova of the Carterets Islands in PNG on an east coast

speaking tour in 2016. The Carterets community are currently managing their own relocation from their homeland to the island of Bougainville, about 120 kilometres away.

The most recent IPCC report has endorsed the view of climate activists and scientists who have warned that countries cannot burn the world’s known reserves of fossil fuels without sending the climate system into a dangerous tailspin. We believe our best contribution to slowing climate change is to stop the further development of fossil fuel projects in Australia.

The Paris Agreement is signed at COP2,  much to the dismay and protests by activist from FoE Australia and around the world on the streets of Paris in November 2015

FoE steps back into the Economic Justice space after having had a thriving campaign in the 90s. The focus thus far has been on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), initially calling for the release of the agreement’s text, and more recently advocating for the removal of the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism.

The Economic Justice Collective (EJC) is one of the founding members of the TPP Unions and Community Roundtable, and we have continued to work closely with unions, grassroots and community organisations and individuals throughout the campaign.

In July 2015, EJC released a paper titled ‘Fracking the Planet: How the Trans Pacific Partnership will expand fracking in Australia and around the globe’. The paper explains the implications of the Investment State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) Chapter of the TPP.

Healthy Futures joins FoE Australia as a new member. Healthy Futures is

organising health professionals, students and supporters to address climate

change and related threats to health (principally, the health threats posed by the extraction and burning of fossil fuels). Their current campaign focus is on lobbying HESTA, Australia’s largest health industry super fund, to divest from thermal coal.

Another new member were ClimAct. Since joining FoE, ClimAct’s highlights include featuring in the ArtCOP21 Festival during COP21 (30 November to 12 December 2015), including hand delivering hundreds of Australian children’s messages to the entrance of the historical climate conference before dawn on Day 1. These poignant messages have subsequently become the foundation for a #KeepYourPromise #COP21 twitter campaign driven by Melbourne Barrister Andrew Laird.

In October 2015 Friends of the Earth published the report “A Snapshot of Tasmanian Non-Microbiological Detections in Drinking Water July 2013-June 2014. Selected Breaches of Australian Drinking Water Guidelines” after being requested assistance from people in Tasmania concerned about their drinking water.

2016 -   FoE Melbourne’s Quit Coal collective play a major role with the community in the Victorian Government announcement of  a permanent ban on unconventional gas drilling (including fracking), and a moratorium on conventional gas drilling 

FoE Melbourne plays a leading role in securing a Victorian state renewable energy target (the VRET),

Friends of the Earth has also continued to advocate for the Victorian state government to adopt stronger climate policies and increase preparedness for climate change impacts. Friends of the Earth Melbourne’s Quit Coal, Yes 2 Renewables, Sustainable Cities and Act on Climate campaigns have worked tirelessly in these areas over the past few years and we pay tribute to the hundreds of volunteers who have helped achieve these truly inspiring outcomes.

FoE responded to the devastating fires that occurred in Central and Western Tasmania in early 2016. Around 14,000 hectares of World Heritage Area forests and other vegetation were burnt, with almost 100,000 hectares of land affected in total. The fires badly affected large areas of cool temperate rainforests and relic species in the mountains which date back to the time when Australia was part of the super continent of Gondwana. These ecosystems are not fire adapted in the way that much of the Australian landscape is, and could take centuries to properly recover from the fires. 

FoE called for an inquiry into the fires to determine the impacts of climate change on fire regimes, whether there were sufficient resources for firefighting authorities and how land management and fire authorities can act to ensure protection of fire sensitive vegetation in the future.

FoE’s Anti-nuclear & Clean Energy (ACE) activists have been incredibly

busy over the past year, working with Aboriginal Traditional Owners in South Australia who are fighting against plans for national and international nuclear waste dumps on their lands.

The South Australian government’s Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission released its final report in May 2016. It rejects the nuclear energy in large part but does promote a plan for South Australia to offer itself as the world’s high level nuclear waste dump. 

Since May 2016 the SA government has been running an aggressive promotional campaign dressed up as ‘community consultation’.The federal government announced that just one of the sites remains under consideration – Aboriginal land in the Flinders Ranges of SA. 

ACE anti nuclear activists work closely with Adnyamathanha Traditional Owners who are united in their opposition to the proposed dump, and we have made numerous trips to the Flinders Ranges as well as hosting a Melbourne visit by Adnyamathanha Traditional Owners Regina and Vivianne McKenzie to raise awareness about their struggle.

In late 2016 South Australia experienced unprecedented storm and gale force winds, which caused power outages state-wide. 

Anti-renewables media stories reached a high-water mark after the event, with fossil fuel backers quick to blame renewable energy for the crisis. FoE shifts our work on renewables to focus on South Australia to build support for state action on renewable energy and nationally to encourage the federal government to adopt sensible and forward-looking energy polices.

Market Forces continues to shift fossil fuel finance, with hundreds of Australians leaving their banks in protest over fossil fuel lending on Divestment Day and Australia’s major banks reducing their exposure to fossil fuels by $4.65 billion. Market Forces won the City of Melbourne award for contributing to Environment and Sustainability by a Community Organisation, recognising the innovative service of the Super Switch website, helping people to align their super with their values of being fossil fuel free.

In September 2016, Friends of the Earth published the first national report concerning pesticide contamination of waterways throughout Australia. There is no Government authority in the country monitoring biocide usage or pollution on a national level.

In September 2016 Biolink Ecological Consultants published the first scientific paper concerning population estimates and preferred tree species concerning the Strzelecki Koala, Victoria’s only relic population of koala. Friends of the Earth supplied information to Biolink from thousands of tree surveys that FoE conducted between 2014-16 in the South Gippsland and Strzelecki bioregions.

2017 - FoE celebrates as the Fracking ban is legislated in Victoria after campaigning and organisng with communities  since 2011, the fracking ban comes into effect and is one of the only places in the world to legislate. 

In January 2017, Friends of the Earth with the technical support of DVIZE Creative, created the Australian Nuclear Map.

Friends of the Earth Melbourne is awarded 2017 Premiers Sustainability Award for Environmental Justice for their work with communities on the fracking ban and moratorium 

On June 17, FoE campaigners around the country supported the National Day of Action for a ban on nuclear weapons, organised by the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Events were held in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Darwin, Hobart, Perth and Canberra and coincided with events all around the world including the Women’s March to Ban the Bomb in New York. The United Nations recently negotiated a treaty to ban nuclear weapons, so now the pressure is on to force nuclear weapons states and their allies (including the Australian government – which boycotted the treaty negotiations – to get serious about nuclear disarmament.

Market Forces ramps up work on divestment with Medibank commiting to divest from fossil fuel companies and both Westpac and NAB introducing policies to restrict coal lending. The resolutions for the oil and gas corporations would commit the companies to adopt the recommendations of the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate related Financial Disclosures, resulting in Oil Search, Woodside Petroleum and Origin Energy committing to undertaking a 2°C scenario stress testing. Engineering companies walked away from Adani’s Carmichael coal mine and Adani also failed to reach its financial close deadline again.

ACE campaign is still working to support communities opposed to a proposed national nuclear waste dump in SA. Two sites have been targeted – near Hawker in the Flinders Ranges, and Kimba at the top of the Eyre Peninsula. FoE has successfully fundraised for a drone to help Adnyamathanha Traditional Owners to continue their important work documenting the ancient landscape of the Flinders Ranges, recording story lines, and protecting the country from the planned nuclear dump (www.chuffed.org/project/flindersdrone).

Climate Frontlines expanded from being a collective based in Brisbane to a national project with contributions from Friends of the Earth members in Melbourne and Brisbane.

In November 2017, Climate Frontlines sponsored member Stella Miria-Robinson, originally from Papua New Guinea, to join the Friends of the Earth International team at the UNFCCC COP23 in Bonn Germany. Stella had been the keynote speaker at the climate rally in Brisbane in 2015 to coincide with COP 21 in Paris. Her message from Bonn travelled far and wide on Friends of the Earth International’s Real World Radio.

FoE Far North Queensland joins with local Stop Adani activists and FoE activists across the country in an alliance of groups to stop the Adani mega coal mine proposed in Queensland. 

Friends of the Earth Australia welcomed new affiliate member this year, Wildlife of the Central Highlands (WOTCH). Friends of the Earth affiliate group Goongerah Environment Centre (GECO), WOTCH and Friends of the Earth Melbourne’s Forest Collective all worked in collaboration towards the goals of the creation of the Great Forest National Park, to the east of Melbourne, and the Emerald Link Reserve system in far east Gippsland. 

WOTCH and GECO engaged in citizen science lead wildlife surveys around key endangered species. The information gathered by community members and subsequent awareness raising exercises lead to government intervention to protect the habitat of Greater Gliders, Orbost Spiny Crayfish, Leadbeater’s Possum and other important species.

FoE Australia nominates a representative for the APAC region for the FoEI Gender Justice and Dismantling Patriarchy working group. This working group is tasked by the international federation at the 2016 BGM to dismantling patriarchy and bring about gender justice internally in our international federation but also to assist in the implementation of the feminist and system change strategy for our collective work, including intergrating anti oppression and grassroots intersectional feminist analysis into our campaign work at all levels of the federation and within the federations organisational spaces. They hold their first face to face meeting in Ghana September 2017.

In October 2017 Friends of the Earth published the first pesticide contamination report concerning Victorian waterways and water supply catchments between the years 2007-2016. The information was sourced from Freedom of Information applications to water authorities across the state. None of the data had been published before.

In November 2017, Friends of the Earth with the technical support of DVIZE Creative, created the Australian Pesticide Map. The map was created as a means of highlighting key pesticide areas of concern across the country. Prior to this website there was no national database on pesticide pollution incidents across the country.

The Australian Drinking Water Map was created several months later, again as a means of determining which communities across Australia are at most risk from toxic substances in their drinking water. Similar to pesticides, prior to this map there was no national database of drinking water quality published in Australia.

2018 - In July 2018 Friends of the Earth launched a new national project, Tipping Point. 

The Tipping Point team is helping to spearhead the Australian fossil fuel divestment movement, supporting the growth of the #StopAdani campaign, organising mass climate mobilisations and pushing major banks to say no to fossil fuels. Tipping Point believes that the solutions are at our fingertips and aims to facilitate the turbo charging of a people-powered movement that will drive the social and political change the climate so desperately needs.

Tipping Point and other FoE member groups begin to support the growing Climate

Strike network and its allies to build a movement that is calling for ambitious climate action. This student led movement has grown massively throughout the year and we are keen to provide support to foster the growth of these new leaders.

Brisbane continues to hold a strong connection with Reverse Garbage with whom they share a building space. Reverse Garbage - also a Friends of the Earth Australia affiliated member - is a not-forprofit workers’ co-operative in Brisbane that collects high quality industrial discards, diverting them from landfill to sell them at low cost to the general public. Brisbane houses Tipping Point staff, as well as the Peace, Antinuclear and Clean Energy (PACE) collective and Climate Frontlines work. 

Friends of the Earth Adelaide continue to work in collaboration with Traditional Owners opposing three sites that are being actively considered as nuclear waste dump sites—Barndioota, near Hawker in the iconic Flinders Ranges, and two sites on farming land near Kimba on the Eyre Peninsula. 

Friends of the Earth Melbourne have seen a massive increase in campaign activity with the addition of strong Forest and Transport campaigns and a re-birth of the River Country campaign, which works to ensure protection for inland rivers in the Murray Darling Basin

This year saw the rewriting of the Victorian Climate Act. In 2009, Friends of the Earth campaigned successfully in support of a Climate Change Act. However, with a change of government in 2010, the emission reduction targets were gutted in the Act. In 2017/18 Friends of the Earth Melbourne once again campaigned for the adoption of a rebuilt Act, including generating cross party and independent support in the Upper House to ensure the safe passage of the Act through both houses of parliament. 

Market Forces continues to turbo charge divestment in destructive fossil fuel projects and is now supporting over 30 organisations, including South and Southeast Asian groups, with fossil fuel finance research and campaign support. This Includes campaigning resulting in the Nghi Son 2 Vietnamese coal power station being delayed in reaching financial close and Standard Chartered bank ruling out funding all new coal power plants. Another year of keeping the Adani Carmichael coal project at bay, as more than fifty companies publicly rule out financial support for, or working with Adani on their climate-wrecking coal mine. On the back of the analysis Market Forces produced showing how the majority of superannuation funds were failing to show evidence of considering climate risk, an ecology student Mark McVeigh sued REST for not factoring climate change into investment decision-making.  

GECO welcomed the Victorian State Government’s announcement that some old growth forests in East Gippsland’s Kuark forest will be protected. However, there is still is concern over continued logging in environmentally sensitive forests under the recently renewed Regional Forest Agreements (RFAs)

The Victorian State Government announced that the first hand-back of the new Strzelecki Reserve would occur in the Strzelecki Ranges in Gippsland during 2018. In July 2018, the Brataualung Forest Reserve was formally announced by the State Environment Minister Lily D’Ambrosio. 2,400ha of high conservation forest was reserved, with another 5,600ha to be added to the Reserve over the next decade. The ranges were heavily cleared during the 19th century and contain few conservation reserves. The new Reserve doubles the amount of Reserved land in the Strzeleckis and was the result of 20 years of work by groups including Friends of the Earth and Friends of Gippsland Bush

Friends of the Earth Australia were proud to support the work of Friends of the Earth International and Friends of the Earth Netherlands who launch a court case against Shell. This ground-breaking case, if successful, would significantly limit Shell’s investments in oil and gas globally by requiring them to comply with global climate targets. Friends of the Earth Netherlands’ case is part of a growing global movement to hold companies to account for their contribution to dangerous climate change.

The Earthworker Cooperative has been making strides this year as the co-operative network begins to flourish both in the Latrobe Valley and Melbourne. Their Morwell based factory, Earthworker Energy Manufacturing Cooperative, has been recruiting prospective local members and preparing to begin manufacturing solar hot water systems. 

Meanwhile, the Redgum Cleaning Cooperative launched in Melbourne in early 2018 and it’s five members have been busy at work providing eco-friendly cleaning services, and serving as an important example of workplace democracy in action. Earthworker members continue to promote the worker-cooperative model and it’s value in forming a practical, community response to the climate emergency.

ASEN hosted their annual Training Camp at Minto Heights in January where 150 people attended workshops about decolonisation and local environmental campaigns. With the support of Friends of the Earth Melbourne, ASEN organised the annual Students of Sustainability conference in Melbourne this year, with almost 500 people from around the country attending over 120 workshops, excursions and panels over 5 days in July.

FoE Australia’s Defence of Earth project begins to investigate the carbon bootprint of Australia’s defence forces. Current international agreements do not require governments to include military emissions as part of their reporting obligations. Currently, it appears that the

Federal Government is only reporting on a small part of possible military emissions. We have contacted the Department of Defence and continue to probe for information about what the Australian Defence Force’s true carbon ‘bootprint’ is.

Friends of the Earth exposed mass illegal logging carried out by VicForests in areas not allocated for logging. 

This year saw the Federal government begin a review into Australia’s national environmental laws - the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, or the EPBC Act. Friends of the Earth have contributed to the review and will continue to track the process as it unfurls.

the Andrews government Announces in November 2019 protections for key areas of forest in East Gippsland, including Kuark forest, which our member group Goongerah Environment Centre (GECO) has been campaigning for over a decade to protect. The government also announced a staged end to native forest logging, with an immediate halt on old growth logging. None of this would have been achieved without the hard work of Friends of the

Earth and our member groups Wildlife of the Central Highlands (WOTCH), Goongerah

Environment Centre (GECO) and other environment groups advocating for the protection of forests.

In late  2018, Friends of the Earth with the technical support of DVIZE Creative, created the Australian PFAS Map. The map was created as a means of highlighting key PFAS areas of concern across the country. Prior to this website there was no national database on PFAS pollution incidents across the country.

2019 - FoE releases a report on Greater Gliders that showed 600 hectares of habitat had been logged since the species was listed as vulnerable to extinction under state laws.

WOTCH is granted injunctions to protect 26 logging coupes in the Central Highlands. These include forest in the Kalatha Valley of the Giants in Toolangi, along the iconic Koala Creek near Cambarville, in the Upper Thomson water catchment, and around Mansfield, Noojee and Warburton.

The Friends of the Earth Far North Queensland’s Cassowary Keystone Conservation work was nominated for it’s fourth Cassowary Award

Earthworker opened it’s cooperatively owned factory in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley and has started production of solar hot water systems

WOTCH received a Community Environment award from Environment Victoria in recognition of it’s efforts to protect forests in the Central Highlands

Market Forces continues to deliver campaigns that ratchet up the degree to which the financial and corporate sectors are acting on climate change. Some highlights include the commitment from Commonwealth Bank to be out of thermal coal by 2030 and Singapore’s three commercial banks committing to no longer finance coal power stations. The number of companies unwilling to work with or finance the Adani Carmichael project exceeds sixty. Three major insurers responded to Market Forces’ campaigning by announcing commitments to exit thermal coal by 2030 or sooner.

Sadly FoE Australia lost one of its Board members this year and FoE Far North Queensland lost one of their favourite environmental warriors. John Glue passed away peacefully and surrounded by friends on 25.06.19 at the Cairns Base Hospital. The FoE Federation sends our deep respects and love to John’s extended family and we honour the long standing work and commitment of John to social and environmental justice. Rest in power brother.

Friends of the Earth worked to encourage state and territory governments to enact policies which will drive the uptake of renewable energy, whilst stopping new coal and gas projects. Working with a range of other environmental and climate organisations, we helped launch Australia Beyond Coal, which seeks to see a rapid transition of existing coal fired power stations to 100% renewable energy. 

Australia’s first offshore wind farm Star of the South has started the environmental approvals process, and has been referred to both the VIC state and federal governments for formal consideration. Market Forces has continued to deliver campaigns that ratchet up the degree to which the financial and corporate sectors are acting on climate change.

Suncorp became the world’s first insurer to rule out underwriting new oil and gas projects and phasing out exposure to all fossil fuels by 2025. If left unchecked, climate change poses an existential threat to the natural environment of Australia. 

Climate science makes it clear that if we are to avoid runaway climate change we must keep the majority of known fossil fuel reserves - coal, oil and gas - in the ground. Friends of the Earth continues to support and connect the #StopAdani grassroots networks that are working in their communities to stop Adani’s mega coal mine and move Australia beyond coal.

We are also supporting the growing Climate Strike network and its allies to build a movement that is calling for all governments to enact ambitious climate action. This student led movement has grown massively throughout the year and we are keen to provide support to foster the growth of these new leaders. 

September 20, 2019 saw the School Strike movement mobilise 300,000 nationwide, joining millions worldwide in the largest mobilisations since the invasion of Iraq. These strikes were directly supported by Tipping Point and FoEA. 

So called Australia’s Black Summer begins with fires breaking out across the country from August onwards. By December 2019, a large portion of the country is on fire with severe fires in QLD, NSW and VIC, SA, TAS and WA. 

Many FoE activists and their friends and family are caught in fire impacted areas, others are volunteering with local fire brigades. 

While in the cities FoE volunteers and activist begin providing mutual aid, including face masks to the most vulnerable across our communities and in the CBD, as smoke begins to blanket the city and very soon entire country to the point of being visible from space. 

FoE Melbourne’s concern turns to those of their members fighting fires and living in Gippsland (such as many of the forest activists from FoEM, GECO and WOTCH) as the fires rage across the region and hit Mallacoota as the skies cross victoria turn red. FoE loses communication with many of our friends and family as mobile towers are knocked out across NSW, ACT and Victoria.

2020 - 15 Jan 2020: The sheer magnitude of plant and animal species potentially wiped off the face of Australia by unrivalled bushfires is unknown. But when the fires that have torn through a combined area almost as big as England eventually ease, scientists fear a brutal outcome. Most of the animals that escaped the unprecedented crisis will eventually perish.

"Even the animals that haven't immediately been killed from the fires and the smoke, most of those that are displaced will eventually die," said Professor Martine Maron from the University of Queensland's School of Earth and Environmental Sciences. Predators like foxes and cats will thrive, buoyed by easy pickings and room to move.

The fires have claimed at least one billion animals, according to University of Sydney environmental sciences professor Chris Dickman. That figure only takes in birds, reptiles and mammals, excluding bats, frogs, insects and other invertebrates. It is being described as conservative, as government officials and non-government experts rush to map the real toll. Ecosystems that rely on many parts working together could collapse.
Leading Koala experts estimate 70% of the koala populations across Australia died in the fires and there are fears many remaining Koalas and other animals will starve in the desolate landscapes. FoE gets to work, we need a plan to feed and water wildlife while the forest recovers enough for them to survive on their own.

Early in 2020 Friends of the Earth Melbourne works with impacted communities in Victoria to start a support network for local people to care for wildlife in bushfire affected areas in East Gippsland.

We help establish seven drop off and pick up hubs in the Gippy region and back and forth from the FoE office in Collingwood. Local animal feed suppliers and community in the city and rural areas( including councils) provide or make nesting boxes, water feeders and search corridors for signs of animals.
Local FoE members with carpentry skills get involved and start building special nest coxes for giant owls and gilders. FoE Melbourne’s office begins to fill up with donationsof feeders and nestboxes of all sizes.

We create instruction guide manuals for the feeding and nestboxes and begin coordinating drivers to take out the nest boxes and start stocking the regional hubs as locals get the call out and begin to distribute food, water and shelter boxes for animals in fire damaged areas. This aid goes on through Jan, Feb as we develop broader networks to facilitate delivery even further of food and shelter and to provide expert advice to people caring for starving or injured wildlife.

In March the COVID-19 pandemic hits our shores, Everything is turned upside down, everything momentarily stops. The hubs continue to function in regional areas but the connection to FoE Melbourne’s supply of nestboxes are stuck as drivers can no longer travel and Melbourne goes into the first of many lockdowns.

FoE as a federation adapts quickly to working remotely and continues mutual aid where possible by providing masks across to local communities and joining local neighbourhood covid support groups for providing care and food to those lockdown or ill.
Goongerah Environment Centre have carried out substantial on ground investigation into the likely ecological impacts of ‘salvage logging’ which has been announced for areas in areas burnt in the 2019/ 20 fires.

Friends of the Earth has worked for decades to secure adequate protection of forests and other indigenous ecosystems in Victoria.

2019/20 marked a significant point in this work, with the Victorian government announcing protection of 96,000 hectares of forests in eastern Victoria and complete and immediate protection of 90,000 hectares of all remaining old growth forest. We continue to work to see the full implementation of this announcement.

The VIC state government allocated $120 million to ensure the industry is fully supported in the transition from native forest logging. We are continuing work to support this transition, including the creation of alternative sources of fibre and timber.

In June 2020, Friends of the Earth discovered a spray drift incident in Holey Plains State Park in Gippsland. Several kilometres of trees were impacted from aerial spraying of pine plantations months earlier. An investigation was conducted by the Department of Agriculture, with court hearings occurring two years later.

Friends of the Earth is a proud partner organisation of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, who were instrumental in creating the UN treaty banning nuclear weapons. This treaty reached 50 ratifications in 2020, entering binding international law. We look forward to celebrating this win with everyone who has worked so hard on this campaign.

This year, Friends of the Earth Far North Queensland (FNQ) launched a new campaign called Guardian of the Wet Tropics; with the goal of bringing environmental landholders together to share their common values to build relationships with their neighbours.

FoE begins a good grief network for activitist to come together and discuss the climate grief being experienced after the fires and the beginning of 19 months of floods across the country

Defence of Earth played a key role in raising awareness around a proposed arms expo in Brisbane, achieving a postponement of that event due to Covid-19 and raising awareness of the risks associated with prioritising defence industries and economies.

Defence of Earth presented a paper at the national IPAN conference in Darwin and contributed an environmental voice to actions in that region, hosted webinars on military spending and nuclear weapons and participated in webinars and public action around war, the environment and military bases.

Market Forces continues to grow its campaign program to shift finance and investment away from the causes of environmental harm. Highlights include superannuation funds worth $500 billion divesting from thermal coal, and ANZ and Westpac committing to having no thermal coal exposure by 2030. Suncorp became the world’s first insurer to rule out underwriting new oil and gas projects and phasing out exposure to all fossil fuels by 2025. More than 90% of proposed new coal power plants in Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia fail to reach financial close.

In August of this year FoE Australia votes to approve the School Strike 4 Climate application to join our federation. The Strikers turn their attention to #FundOurFutureNotGas pledge

Most of our FoE Melbourne group and members based in the city (except for the essential workers in FoE's food cooperative) spend the majority of the year in lockdown working remotely due to the Pandemic, while regional areas and other States begin to open up after much shorter lockdowns.

2021 - The Victorian Fracking ban is passed into the Constitution! FoE celebrates with the communities that fought so hard to make this happen over 7 years.

Almost at the same time the Victorian Government announces it is lifting the moratorium on conventional gas. The fight continues

FoE Melboure starts the No More Gas Collective and joins forces with community groups on the frontlines of offshore and onshore gas projects including; Surfers for Climate, OCEAN and SOPEC. We start DRILLWATCH to track potential test site activity

FoE International wins their case against SHELL - a huge victory for the future and sets a precedent for corporations to rapidly cut emissions.

Market Forces gets the Bank of China to commit to no longer finance thermal coal mines or coal power stations overseas and all four of Australia’s big banks commit to no thermal coal exposure by 2030. Two of our big superannuation funds targets, UniSuper and Vision Super divest a large number of shares from Australian oil and gas companies Woodside and Santos. The number of companies ruling out working on or supporting the Adani Carmichael project increases to over 100.

School Strikers take to the streets again for the first time since the pandemic began on May 21, with 50 strikes across the continent covering 50,000 participants. They demand the government #FundOurFutureNotGas, backed by 27 union endorsements.

Floods continue to happen more frequently and sporadically across the country, with an increase in severe weather related events across the globe as predicted by the IPCC report for years

As 2021 comes to an end, the Conference of Parties (COP) climate negotiations are held in Glasgow. FoE is well represented by many of our global member groups and while there was some significant forward movement, it was clear that wealthy nations had failed to commit to actions that are consistent with what climate science demands.

2022 - In January flooding hits Queensland, followed in Feburary by the first of two catastrophic floods that wiped out communities in the NSW northern rivers. Lismore goes under twice in two months.

By March Eastern Australia is flooded. By December this year the floods will still be impacting in SA. Again many FoE community members are impacted either directly or indirectly by the floods. Many FoE people participate in mutual aid in their local areas, others are trapped isolated in regional areas on and off again for months over 2022.

Three years into the pandemic, and with the impacts of the climate crisis continuing to bring tragedy to so many, the grassroots climate justice movement is not backing down, but growing its power and strategies from strength to strength.

Tipping Point works behind the scenes to support these movements, specifically the School Strike 4 Climate Movement and StopAdani - soon to become Move Beyond Coal.

School strikers continue to take to the streets and halls of political power to shine a spotlight on our Government’s climate negligence. The StopAdani movement continues to fight to keep Carmichael coal in the ground and stand in solidarity with Wangan and Jagalingou Traditional Owners protecting their land.

2022 was the year that the long awaited energy transition really got underway in Victoria. FoE’s focus on energy campaigning for the last 10 years has been to ‘build things’ rather than ‘close things’ and we have worked hard to see deep emission reduction targets adopted by the state government, in order to drive the rapid uptake of renewable energy and storage.

We have called for a full, funded and just energy transition for the workers and broader Latrobe Valley community. The last year saw great progress which is tipping our state ever closer to 100% renewables.

In March 2022, the Victorian government announced a major new offshore wind plan that will see the state build a massive 9 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2040. Star of the South is an absolute game changer that will transform the energy system.

As we sustained our efforts to see a just energy transition, we ramped up our efforts to stop further development of new onshore and offshore fossil gas projects across Victoria. We worked with traditional owner groups, including Keerray Woorroong Gunditjmara First Nations Peoples, coastal communities, farmers and the tourism industry to advocate for an end to further fossil gas development.

Friends of the Earth finds possibly the largest area of forest containing Strzelecki koalas at Mullungdung State Forests. FoE estimates several thousand hectares of forest contain a koala population of 400-500 animals.

In May 2022, FoE reports that koalas had been incinerated in recent forest burns in Mount Richmond National Park in the states south west.

Goongerah Environment Centre (GECO) continues important on the ground monitoring of forests in East Gippsland scheduled for logging, working closely with community members, other environment groups, and First Nations peoples to advocate for the protection of forests

GECO releases the film ‘Defend Errinundra’ which was shown at the ‘Dare to Struggle’ film festival

Wildlife of the Central Highlands (WOTCH) Supreme Court case against VicForests is ongoing in order to protect unburnt habitat for the threatened Greater Glider, Sooty Owl, Powerful Owl and Smoky Mouse. These animals were severely impacted by 2019–20 bushfires and all found to be among the ‘fauna species of most immediate concern’ by the Victorian government’s own preliminary response to the bushfires.

FoE assists in the emergence of the Victorian Forest Alliance. The Victorian Forest Alliance is a new alliance of over 30 existing grass-roots and community forest groups from across regional Victoria and metro Melbourne. The alliance has formed to better collaborate and build the power of grassroots groups and is an auspiced project of FoE Melbourne

FoE Australia helps facilitate the initial process to bring together an national alliance in the anti-AUKUS space nationally and hosts the first national meeting of groups to collectively address AUKUS and the nuclear submarine deals.

Earthworker’s pilot project is the establishment of Australia’s first worker-owned factory, making renewable energy appliances and components. Located in the heart of Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, the Earthworker Energy Manufacturing Cooperative (EEMC) is part of ensuring a just transition for communities affected by the move from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy.

EEMC won the tender to install 80 solar hot water and heat pump units into social housing with CEHL. An excellent way to do our job of both dignified work for those of the valley as they transition from coal to renewables, as well as bringing reduced heating bills and environmental impact to the social housing sector. A win-win.

Redgum Cleaning Cooperative and Earthworker Energy Manufacturing Cooperative have both made significant progress over the last year. We now welcome a new cooperative, the Earthworker Construction Cooperative.

Earthworker Education has been created to teach short courses on the foundational principles and practical elements of co-operatives with regular courses now run in Melbourne.

Julien Vincent is awarded a Goldman Environmental Prize for 2022 recognising the success of Market Forces. The Goldman Environmental Prize honours the achievements and leadership of grassroots environmental activists from around the world, inspiring all of us to take action to protect our planet.

After Market Forces campaigning on superannuation funds, the fund NGS permanently divests from Australian and international oil and gas producers. Standard Chartered and DBS divested from Indonesian coal miner Adaro.

Adani was forced to repay all of its outstanding debt to the Abbot Point Coal Export Terminal, as they were unable to find any external finance for the port. Due to withdrawn funds, the last proposed coal power plant in Bangladesh was unable to be built and the LNG to power projects in Chattogram did not reach financial close in 2022.

Friends of the Earth Melbourne collective, Act On Climate had their People's Climate Strategy nominated as a finalist for the Premier's Sustainability Award.

Margaret Pestorius from FoE FNQ and Defence of Earth received the University of Qld Rotary Peace Centre Local Agents of Peace awards, recognising the work she is doing to raise awareness and demonstrate alternatives to war and the preparations for war in Australia.

In September 2022 for the first time since the pandemic FoE Australia holds a face to face national meeting at Common Ground in regional Victoria with roughly 40 people in attendance from across the FoE Australia federation.

For 3 days representatives from around the country meet to discuss strategy and campaigns and to share our experiences over the pandemic. The meeting establishes rapid response and mutual aid working groups on a national level.

VFA members take VicForests to court to protect the greater glider and other species. The court orders all logging to stop temporarily across eastern Victoria.

The machinery stops in December 2022 for the first time in decades as VicForest works on species monitoring processes to take back to the court.

2023 - FoE Melbourne is making the most of the first year fully out of lockdown and hits the road to be with community in the first of 3 planned road trips around Victoria. They head to Mt Wills and pledge their support to local communties to stand and protect the Alpine region.

It’s May and logging has still not recommenced after Victorian Forest Alliance’s successful injunction and court order. There is hope we will end native logging before the State Government date of 2030.

23 May 2023
Budget lockdown ends. The Victorian Government announce an earlier end to NATIVE FOREST LOGGING in Victoria and a transition plan for workers (by 1 Jan 2024 instead of 2030). This is a historic victory for the forest movement after 40 plus years of resisting and protecting forests from logging.

*This is a living timeline that is updated on a regular basis with input from members of the federation. (last updated May 2023)

FoE Australia
• FoE Australia history blog
• FoE Australia - a short history from the early 1970s to 2014 (from Chain Reaction #123, April 2015)
• FoE Australia, 2004, '30 Years of Creative Resistance' (PDF)
• Peter Hayes account of the early years of FoE Australia and in particular FoE Melbourne: 'Founding Friends of the Earth Australia: the Early Years'

FoE International
• FoE International, 2001, 30th anniversary publication: Sparks of hope, fires of resistance (PDF)
• FoE International at 40 - 40th anniversary publication (PDF)
• FoE International at 40 - 40 Years of Struggles and Successes (PDF)

Listen - Dirt Radio

Podcast - ACTING UP! - Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth 

1. Acting Up! - 45 Years of FoE - International focus
   Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - International focus
2. Acting Up! - 45 Years of FoE - Anti-capitalist & Trade Union solidarity
   Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - Anti-capitalist & Trade Union solidarity. 
   
3. Acting Up! - 45 Years of FoE - Transform Waste
   Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - Transform Waste. Waste has always been an issue.
   
4. Acting Up! - 45 Years of FoE - Wrong Way go back!
   Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth. Wrong Way go back! Roads has been a defining early issue from the 70s
   
5. Acting Up! - 45 Years of FoE - The Fun Begins (Anti Nuclear)
   Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - The Fun Begins (Anti Nuclear). 
   
6. Acting Up! - 45 Years of FoE - Pesticides, Permaculture, Organics & Food Coop
   Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - Pesticides, Permaculture, Organics & Food Coop. 
   
7. Acting Up! - 45 Years of FoE - Indigenous Solidarity Gatherings 1997 & 1998
   Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - Indigenous Solidarity Gatherings 1997 & 1998. 
   
8. Acting Up! - 45 Years of FoE - Talking Tactics: From Lobbying to Locking on
   Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - Talking Tactics: From Lobbying to Locking on. 
9. Acting Up! - 45 Years of FoE - Friends of the Earth & 3CR
   Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - FoE & 3CR. Today's program is the final one of the series. 
   
10. Acting Up! - 45 Years of FoE - The Early Years
    Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth. Going Back to Where it All Began -the early years.
    
11. Acting Up! - 45 Years of FoE - Taking a look at FoE Local Groups: FoE Brisbane
    Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - Taking a look at FoE Local Groups
    
12. Acting Up! - 45 Years of FoE - Queer & Feminist History
    Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - Queer & Feminist History. 
    
13. Acting Up! - 45 Years of FoE - Walking tall amongst giants - FoE's work in forests
    Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth. Walking tall amongst giants - FoE's work in forests.
    
14. Acting Up! - 45 Years of FoE - Radioactive Tours
    Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - Radioactive Tours. Nuclear power has no future. 
    
15. Acting Up! - 45 Years of FoE - The Barmah-Millewa Collective
    Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - The Barmah-Millewa Collective. 
    
16. Acting Up! - 45 Years of FoE - Climate action to climate justice
    Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - Climate action to climate justice. 
    
17. Acting Up! - 45 Years of FoE - Bands and Gigs
    Celebrating 45 years of Friends of the Earth - Bands and Gigs. FoE is quite a musical place!