ROSIE RICHARDS AND THE PULP MILL CAMPAIGN

While working on the history of the Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition (CVCC) for our recent ReWeavers Awards night, I was reminded of how seemingly “ordinary” people sometimes step up and achieve remarkable results.  One such person was Rosie Richards who in September 1988 became the first President of the Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition. She led the campaign against Daishowa’s proposed Clarence Valley chemical pulp mill. 

 

Rosie was an ideal person for the job in many ways.  In the conservative Clarence community she was not publicly associated with any of the recent or on-going conservation issues such as the Washpool campaign. While she was concerned about environmental impacts, both short and long-term, and made no secret of the fact, she did not look like a greenie – or the conservative view of what a greenie looked like.

Geoff and Rosie Richards at their son's wedding in 1995

Rosie was 56 years old.  She was a grandmother. Her background was not that of a stereotype greenie either. She grew up in Pymble and in the early fifties was a member of the Liberal Party Younger Set.  Her other life experiences included years as a farmer’s wife and the wife of a professional fisherman.  (Her husband Geoff had been both.)

Rosie’s personality also qualified her for this leadership role in the pulp mill campaign.  She ran both the Coalition committee and general meetings efficiently.  She was calm, sincere, friendly, articulate and very much “a lady” in old-fashioned terms.  But she was also determined and possessed a “steel backbone”.  This “steel backbone” and her courage were very necessary in the campaign to obtain information and disseminate it to the North Coast community. 

Courage was necessary to the campaigners because those promoting the benefits of Daishowa’s plans attacked the Coalition, referring to its spokespersons as scaremongers and “a benighted group who distort the facts.” Those in power locally and at the state level weren’t in any hurry to provide facts but they decried the efforts of community members who were trying to find information on pulp mill operations.  However, this did not deter the CVCC.  It sought information on pulp mills and pulping processes from around the world, asked questions of those in power and disseminated information to the community

Following Daishowa’s announcement that it would not be proceeding with its pulp mill proposal Rosie wrote to The Daily Examiner (4 April 1990) praising the efforts of the community in defeating the proposal:

“It has been an interesting nineteen months; a period that has seen the resolve of north coast people come to the fore; we have seen People Power used in a democratic way to say ‘No’  to something that we knew would harm our existing industries and our air and water.  If it had not been for the people of the Clarence Valley and their attendance at public meetings, their letters to politicians, to newspapers in Tokyo and our own Daily Examiner, and their strong support of the Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition, we may have had a huge polluting industrial complex set down in our midst, without a whimper.”

People Power did do the job – but Rosie Richards and the others on the CVCC Committee played a very important part in organizing and channelling that people power.

  - Leonie Blain

Rosie and Geoff at a function in late 2002.

 

CVCC TO CELEBRATE OF THIRTY YEARS OF ACTIVISM

The Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition (CVCC) will be having its 30^th anniversary later this year. The anniversary is in September but the major celebration will be held on Friday June 1st during the Re-Weavers Awards Dinner.  

The Awards this year, the eleventh year of the event, will focus on the achievements of the Clarence Valley Conservation Coalition and two other Clarence environment groups - the Clarence Valley Branch of the National Parks Association of NSW (founded in 1980 as part of the campaign to save the Washpool Rainforest from logging) and the Clarence Environment Centre (founded in the early months of 1989).

The CVCC was formed in 1988 following the announcement that the Japanese company Daishowa International, which already had a wood chip mill on the NSW South Coast, was planning to establish a $450 million chemical pulp mill in the Clarence Valley.

The proposal for the mill was announced in the local paper The Daily Examiner on August 30.  Ian Causley, the NSW Minister for Natural Resources and the Member for Clarence, the local state electorate, heralded the proposal claiming that it was "a red letter day" for the Clarence and the state.

Some community members welcomed the announcement, claiming the mill would provide an enormous boost to the local economy. 

But not everyone welcomed it.  Many were concerned about the impact such a large industrial development would have on the local environment – not just of the Clarence Valley but of the whole NSW North Coast because it was obvious that such a large mill would be drawing its feedstock from across the region.  Concerns included the amount of water this mill would use, the decimation of the forests, the effect on the wildlife of the forests,  the likelihood of poisonous effluent being released into either the Clarence River or the ocean as well as the likelihood of air pollution.

  

On 19 September 1988 concerned people met in Grafton to discuss the proposal and consider what action should be taken.  This meeting resulted in the formation of the CVCC.

It was decided that the CVCC would gather information on the proposed mill, disseminate that information and seek support throughout the Clarence Valley and elsewhere on the North Coast.

In the ensuing months the group sought information both locally and internationally on pulp mills and pulping processes and attempted to obtain information from the company and governments on the proposal.  Public meetings were held in Grafton, Iluka, Maclean and Minnie Water as well as in other North Coast towns.  In addition the group produced information sheets, issued many media releases, participated in media interviews, distributed bumper stickers, met with politicians both in the local area and beyond, and wrote letters to politicians and The Daily Examiner.

The proposal was eventually abandoned. The strength of local opposition and the hard work and commitment of campaigners in the CVCC and other community organisations on the North Coast paid off.  It demonstrated that strong community opposition to a huge, inappropriate development could defeat it.