In devastating news today, 26 Oct 2020, VicRoads has destroyed 300 years of living cultural heritage.
The Directions Tree (pictured above) was felled today at around 1.30 pm Australian Eastern Standard time.
This tree was over 300 years old. It was a place where the Djabwarrung people could go to seek spiritual guidance and to feel connected to their ancestors.
And it was cut down today, to make way for a road that has multiple other viable routes.
This has been an ongoing battle since 2018. There have been protectors on site since June 2018, and multiple attempts over the years by VicRoads to bully or intimidate protestors off the land, including getting the police to show up in drives to arrest protectors. Police have also spent the last two years specifically targeting known protectors, going so far as to jailing one (indigenous) man for six months because he had an expired drivers licence. When that one finally made it to a judge, the judge was disgusted and and threw the whole case out, cause who the hell imprisons someone for six months for having an expired licence?? Cops with a vendetta, thats who.
There have been multiple legal challenges from multiple directions over the route of this road, and the fact that the planned route requires the destruction of three indigenous heritage sites. There is an open court case at the moment, set for December, and by moving ahead with works and destroying one of the sites, VicRoads is in direct contravention of a court order.
Not only did they cut it down, they also then loaded the tree onto a truck and drove it up and down the stretch of road past one of the other sites where the protectors are camped. They know full well how devastating this destruction is, and they drove thw felled tree back and forth in front of the people who've spent three years protecting this tree, deliberately taunting them.
The destruction of the Directions Tree is an abominable crime. And its one that they want to commit again. Theres a Grandfather tree -- over 700 years old -- that is next in their firing line.
If youre in Australia, please call or email Dan Andrews (Victorian premier), Sussan Ley (Federal Environment Minister) or your local MP and protest the destruction of the Directions Tree, and ask them to protect the Grandfather Tree.
If youre international, please email them. Feel free to call, too, but international rates are pricey, and them getting flooded by international emails will be really, really helpful and will show them that the world's eyes are on them.
Dan Andrews: daniel.andrews@parliament.vic.gov.au . Phone number: 03 9651 5000.
Sussan Ley: sussan.ley.mp@aph.gov.au . Phone number: 02 6277 7920.
