DESPITE thunderstorms, hundreds of people crammed into a giant marquee in Nambucca Heads for the Maagunda Muruygu Festival for Forests on Saturday, November 4.

Attendees came to celebrate forests and call for an end to native forest logging in NSW.

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One of the organisers, City of Coffs Harbour councillor Jonathan Cassell, crowdfunded nearly $10,000 to cover the costs of the festival.

“I’m doing this because people want to see our forests protected and I’m using free events like this to keep the community informed,” he said.

Mr Cassell said the idea began with an invitation from Gumbaynggirr Elder Uncle Micklo Jarrett to hold an event on Gumbaynggirr land.

He said entertainers came from Byron, the Central Coast and Sydney, along with emerging Coffs Coast band Blind Pretty, and the organisers only had to cover their costs.

Well-known environmentalist and former politician Bob Brown received a huge ovation when he said he would return to the upper Kalang River if logging proceeds there in the coming months.

Dr Brown told the crowd, “Don’t get depressed, get active!”, urging them to peacefully protest in defence of the forests, koalas, greater gliders and the myriad of birds to be found.

“We are charged with saving what’s left of the wild forests for future generations as well as other species that have a right to exist on this planet,” he said.

Dr Brown condemned the State Government for committing to a Great Koala National Park before this year’s election but allowing logging to continue in the proposed park precinct.

He said that while Premier Chris Minns had been in Coffs Harbour the day before the festival to announce consultations, forests were still being logged despite 80 percent of Labor voters wanting it halted.

Uncle Micklo Jarrett welcomed the throng to Gumbaynggirr country and then entertained the crowd with songs celebrating the forests in the Gumbaynggirr language.

Greens MLA Sue Higginson assured the crowd that native forest logging will be halted but the timing depended on the rising public campaign.

She said that logging of the public forests in NSW had been subsidised by more than $20 million of taxpayers’ money in the last two years.

Jenny Weber, of the Bob Brown Foundation, which organised the festival, said, “Bob Brown and I visited the stunning Upper Kalang forests yesterday with ecologist Mark Graham.

“It is a global shame that logging roads are still being built into koala habitat and the proposed logging should be permanently banned.

“Rallying with the people who want protection for the mid-north coast NSW native forests will keep happening until native forest logging is ended.”

By Andrew VIVIAN