MEDIA RELEASE 13 March 2026

NEFA welcomes the Forestry Corporation being order to pay $450,000 for forest restoration for their illegal logging of six giant, and three hollow-bearing, trees in Wild Cattle Creek State Forest, near Dorrigo, in 2020

“These illegally logged trees are over 300 years old, priceless relicts predating European colonization, they are irreplaceable, said NEFA spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

“In today’s judgement in the Land and Environment Court, in lieu of paying a fine to the Government Justice Pain ordered $450,000 to be paid to the Yurruungga Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) to carry out Court approved restorative justice actions, including a healing ceremony, biocultural site repair plans, cultural mapping and the training of rangers as Gumbaynggirr Guardians.

“Court costs have been reserved, so the final payout is likely to be far greater.

Illegally felled giant tree, over 300 years old, and left to rot

“Justice Pain has ordered that the Forestry Corporation engage a consultant to undertake an audit of the skills and training needed for forestry technicians to adequately search for giant and hollow-bearing trees, and prepare an implementation plan.

“While this is welcome, the problem is that it is almost six years after the offences were committed, enabling the unrepentant Forestry Corporation to continue rampaging through our forests committing other atrocities for far too long.

“These forests were the scene of protest actions in July 2020, leading to an EPA inspection on 9 July identifying that two Giant Trees had been illegally logged, the EPA allowed the logging to continue for another 9 days before imposing a Stop Work Order on 18 July.

“NEFA followed this up with a brief audit on the 28 July that identified an additional two giant trees that had been felled, along with significant damage to another four giant 'hollow-bearing trees' and 6 trees required to be retained as Koala feed trees[i].

“We wanted to encourage the EPA to undertake a more comprehensive audit of the logging operation as all too often they only inspect small parts of logging areas.

“We were successful in getting them to extend their assessment, though unfortunately they ignored the significant damage caused to other trees” Mr. Pugh said.

[i] Brief Audit of Wild Cattle Creek