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HEWI 30th

It was in 1989 that I attended a public meeting organised by the Victorian Heritage Trust. It was held in the Supper Room of the Healesville Memorial Hall (now the Nan Francis Room at the Memo).

This meeting was attended by I think about 80 local residents all concerned about the changing nature of Healesville with new building developments and the disappearance of iconic buildings that gave Healesville its country character and marked its historical growth. Along with this came an equal concern by those attending for the natural environment and its conservation.

It was a watershed meeting in that it gave rise to the formation of Healesville Heritage Watch, a community group that for the first time in Healesville began to give voice, advocate and lobby for the built and natural environment in and about Healesville with local, State and Federal governments and their agencies.

For me this was an exciting meeting, being a new resident to Healesville and with a passion for the environment, I was able to connect with other like-minded people for the first time. It was liberating and exhilarating to find my community and this was the catalyst that led to many new and endearing friendships that cemented in my heart and mind as “Healesville as home”.

Healesville Heritage Watch drew together a diverse group of local people with a shared passion for conservation led by its first chairman Robert Martin. Robert was a dedicated chairman with a keen committee who steered Healesville Heritage Watch in adopting its constitution and providing the basis for Healesville Heritage Watch to grow and evolve over the next 30 years into its current form of Healesville Environment Watch Inc. The name change came about from a growing consensus that the overall natural “environment” was the primary focus for the group with “heritage” values encompassed within this.

There have been many people who have played their role in the evolution and growth of HEWI. Too many to name here but all to be thanked. In 1989 terms like climate change, biodiversity and sustainability were not popular or well understood concepts, and certainly not terms used in everyday conversations, politics, the media, in our workplaces nor our communities.

Healesville Heritage Watch members at River Street Market – 1989.
Market stalls were a regular community engagement activity for HHW.

Everyone who has been part of the HEWI story have contributed to where we now stand as a local community group within a global community acting to create a better world, a natural world, our one and only world, where we can live, play and marvel in living bio systems that we strive to protect and enhance for future generations.

Let’s celebrate 30 years of HEWI in 2019

Lou Sbalchiero

HEWI Founding Member

“We are pleased that the threatened Greater Gliders are safe from the chainsaws while this case is being heard,” said Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum president Steve Meacher.

Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum is being represented in court by Environmental Justice Australia.

“This injunction gives some certainty for the threatened species in these areas and for the many people who love Victoria’s unique native forests,” said EJA lawyer Danya Jacobs.

“We’ll be hard at work over the coming months as this important case proceeds to trial,” she said.

In this case Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum is challenging whether logging in certain areas of endangered species habitat can continue to have a special exemption from Australia’s national threatened species law.

In March the Court found the Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) for the Central Highlands does exempt logging from Federal threatened species law – despite non-compliance with terms in the RFA that require five-year reviews – but importantly the Court found non-compliance with other terms in the RFA may remove that exemption.

Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum alleges those terms are not being complied with, including that VicForests failed to identify and protect Leadbeater’s Possums, Greater Gliders and their habitat.

The proceeding is listed for a three-week trial to commence on 25 February 2019, with a directions hearing on Tuesday 15 May 2018 to set a timetable for the rest of the case.

Media contact: Josh Meadows, 0439 342 992

To read todays judgement and orders go to - http://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2018/2018fca0652

See also:

Federal Court grants temporary injunction to stop VicForests logging (24 April 2018)

Case to proceed to test VicForests’ non-compliance with forest agreement (20 April 2018)

Federal Court gives conservationists hope in Victorian forests case (2 March 2018)

Case to challenge logging’s exemption from Fed environment law (15 November 2017)

These issues also cover HEWI’s main advocacy focus and many of our meetings and submissions involve state government departments.

We look forward to this ideal opportunity to learn more about Samantha’s experience and her approach to our shared interests.

HEWI welcomes the wider community to join us for this interactive evening and rare opportunity to meet with a state politician on our home ground.

New HEWI memberships and renewals will also be available and encouraged! We strongly encourage any reader interested in the conservation of our natural environment to join our active group at this meeting.

DATE: Friday November 10

TIME:6.45pm for 7.00pm meeting start

VENUE: Youth Hub at the Healesville Living and Learning Centre

1 Badger Creek Road

RSVP would be helpful