Gilly Flower

Just when we thought it couldn't get any hotter, Lonnie set a new record today for the hottest day ever.

Today the mercury hit 39 degrees, and last night it reached 21 - so a bit more than the 19 that was predicted. No wonder sleeping was a problem. I thought I'd left these sort of temperatures behind when I left WA, but after 20 years they seem to have caught up with me. And no relief in sight tomorrow, when I've volunteered to assist on the Greens' stall at the Hillwood River Festival.

The original plan was to join other TAPpers on the bus to the Florentine, where another rally to support the tree-sitters from Still Wild Still Threatened has been organised.

Some of these kids have been camping out at "Camp Flozza" for up to two years in the effort to protect Tassie's forests from Forestry Tasmania's obscene and brutal logging practices. I went down there with some friends two weeks ago for a fantastic community picnic. About 1000 people were there that day, which was chilly and showery - a far cry from what we're experiencing at the moment - and of those approximately 400 entered the Exclusion Zone. This action has potentially put them in a position where they can be arrested for trespass, acircumstance that is really bizarre considering these are state forests, and belong to the people - not Forestry Tasmania!

Everyone was videoed though, and with so many conservationists, activists, or simply citizens concerned about the planet, now being easily identified either through RB's stopthemillintasmania website, or fom TV footage, it's more than possible some arrests will happen. If only to intimidate the rest of us.

Much as I wanted to cross that uneven line of yellow tape, I decided not to. Frankly I can't afford to lose my job, and as Greens MP Cassy O'Connor said "save it for the pulp mill, Anne."

The following describes the extraordinary stuff that is occurring down here, and what is already being planned as the next step in the fight to bury the mill:

http://newmatilda.com:80/2009/01/28/its-time-break-law-tasmania

So tomorrow my activism will be confined to encouraging the good people of Lonnie to learn more about the Greens, and hopefully persuade a few of them to vote out Ivan at the upcoming LegCo elections.

Must remember to take a hat, sunscreen and some bottles of water though, and I hope a few others will come to relieve J and me throughout the day, before we either cook, or melt. Or do both.