Sydney Knitting Nannas were in good company at the rally and march from Hyde Park to Parliament on Monday, World Environment Day. The key issues were No New Coal and Gas and repeal of the anti-protest laws. The event was organised by the growing Sydney Climate Coalition and brought together the Nurses and Midwives Union, Pitt Street Uniting Church, Sutherland Shire Environment Centre, The Greens, Water for Rivers, and other groups against incinerators, native forest logging, coal and gas, AUKUS – no subs, no war and Port Kembla renewables not nuclear to name a few. A broad coalition demanding climate action now.
Speakers had strong messages about the urgency of reducing emissions, the importance of stopping Santos in the Pilliga and other new fossil fuel projects, and why we have to keep up the fight for the right to protest. Another theme was the injustice of the extreme severity of climate events affecting First Nations peoples and countries of the global south.
Protesters marched from Hyde Park down Macquarie Street and rallied on the street in front of Parliament House for nearly an hour. This plan was initially opposed by the police who wanted the rally in Martin Place, but the organisers held out and the police then agreed.
NANNAS VISIT BIG SPOTTY
At 72 metres high Big Spotty may be the tallest and oldest spotted gum in the world. With a girth of 12 metres, and dated at around 500 years old, Big Spotty was a sapling when Leonardo Da Vinci was painting the Mona Lisa.
But the majestic forest of tall spotted gums where Big Spotty lives has been identified by Forestry Corporation for logging.
Compartment 50A of the North Brooman State Forest on the NSW south coast is situated between Ulladulla and Bateman’s Bay.
The Forestry Corporation says they won’t touch Big Spotty. They’re promising a 60 metre “exclusion zone” around the giant tree when they move in with chainsaws.
But forest protectors including Knitting Nannas want the NSW Government to declare the whole of Compartment 50A a “Preserved Forest Area”. They’ve got the backing of Shoalhaven Council, which unanimously passed a motion on 28 April 2023 for the compartment to be excluded from logging.
On World Environment Day, Monday 5 June, an intrepid team of around 20 Knitting Nannas representing loops (groups) from Sydney, Illawarra, Shoalhaven and Eurobodalla trekked into Compartment 50A. They were guided by local Aboriginal woman, Takesa Frank, founding member of the Brooman State Forest Conservation Group.
The Nannas wrapped a 12 metre woollen ribbon around Big Spotty and attached craftivism messages to it. Nannas formed a circle around Big Spotty for a big Nanna hug to give her and the surrounding native forest some Nanna love. Instagram video
NAB BANK ACTION
Nannas have been doing their Action of the Week – dropping into their local NAB banks and giving them information from the Banking Climate Failure report. In a climate emergency NAB has increased its funding of fossil fuel industries by $4.5 billion in the last two years! Nannas stress that the bank should refuse to refinance their loan to Whitehaven Coal, serial environmental lawbreakers. Whitehaven has no other plan but to keep digging up and exporting coal – any loan to Whitehaven funds climate destruction.
WALK FOR WIND POWER
A couple of Sydney Nannas joined other Nanna loops in Newcastle on Saturday 3 June for a Walk for Wind Power in Newcastle organised by Rising Tide.
Rising tide are calling on state and federal governments to fund urgent ecological research so that offshore wind energy and new jobs can be created as quickly as possible and with minimal environmental impacts. See NBN News video