Extract from The Guardian
I will always be grateful to have benefited from his sage advice and example of standing up for what you believe in.
I first heard him speak at the Crotty Road protest in 1983 during the campaign against the Franklin Dam, and again at the protests against the logging of the Lemonthyme. He was a great communicator: passionate, direct, warm, funny and fierce – leaving people inspired and ready to take action. Unlike many in the public eye, he had the courage of his convictions and was prepared to use his TV celebrity status to boost environmental campaigns.
So when I organised the first tractor convoy of farmers to protest against North Broken Hill’s Wesley Vale elemental chorine pulp mill in 1988, he was a perfect choice to be speaker. The pulp mill, he said, was like a giant vacuum cleaner, sucking in the native forests and spewing toxic pollution into Bass Strait.
The farmers loved him because he spoke their language. He was one of them. He had a practical understanding of the value of uncontaminated soil and water and the importance of growing high-quality vegetables, and didn’t hold back on the corruption of decision makers who were prepared to abandon Tasmanians to kowtow to big business.
In an interview with the environmentalist Geoff Law on ABC TV’s Gardening Australia in 2000, he spoke about the magnificent forests of the Styx Valley, and there was hardly a rally anywhere in the state in the following years at which he did not lament the destruction of old-growth forests. In 2003 with Richard Flanagan and Bob Brown, he led the 4,000-strong march in the rain into the Styx Valley where, from the platform of a large eucalyptus stump, he demanded the state government stop the logging.
So when Gunns proposed a native forest, kraft chlorine pulp mill in his beloved Tamar Valley, it was a clash of the Titans. What he described as the “dirty, rotten, stinking pulp mill” had to be stopped. Peter spent his 80th birthday in 2007 in Launceston’s Albert Hall protesting the fast-tracking of the pulp mill and, at 82 in 2009, was arrested for the first time in his life outside Parliament House in Hobart, where he was standing in a sea of “Pulp mill corruption” placards. He pleaded not guilty on the grounds that he was not breaking the law by protesting at the parliament.
After he was sentenced he characterised the passage of the special legislation under which the mill was assessed as “corrupt”: “When you get a situation where a major proponent of a major pulp mill can actually donate to the main political parties and then cooperate in preparing that legislation for parliament and passing that through, that is corrupt and I’m fighting against that.”
Long before it was popular to call for a national anti-corruption commission, Peter had the courage to spell out the problem.
His membership of the Order of Australia in 2007 “for service to the environment, particularly the protection of wilderness areas in Tasmania, and to horticulture as a presenter of gardening programs in television and radio”, was a fitting tribute to his decades of environmental activism, which contributed to the saving of the Franklin River, the protection of forests, the expansion of the Tasmanian wilderness world heritage area, and the protection of the Wesley Vale farmlands, the Tamar Valley and Bass Strait from stinking, polluting pulp mills.
Peter Cundall was a mentor to me. I stood shoulder to shoulder with him in some of Tasmania’s biggest marches, behind banners and on stages, pallets and platforms. We shared a laugh, raged about the injustice in the world and discussed the merits of various varieties of apricots for jam. He even permitted me to photograph him once behind a barrowload of pumpkins. Like millions around Australia, I will miss him but I will always be grateful to have benefited from his sage advice, encouragement and example of standing up for what you believe in.
Peter was known for his signature signoff on Gardening Australia, “That’s your bloomin lot”. But for me his environmental rally signoff is his enduring legacy. He always wanted to be a teacher and that is what he was. He would implore the crowd to “never, ever give up”. Whether it was forests, pulp mills or political integrity, Peter knew the struggle was for the long haul but perseverance would win in the end if we put our faith in the power of the people. His words are etched in the psyche of Tasmanian environmental activists. “Never, ever give up”. Vale Peter Cundall.
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