Vic: Otways controntation was just "push and shove", logger

AAP General News (Australia)
04-03-2000
Vic: Otways controntation was just "push and shove", logger

MELBOURNE, April 3 AAP - A claim that environmentalists were attacked in Victoria's
Otway Ranges has turned into a bitter war of words, with the logger who organised the
confrontation saying it was nothing more than "pushing and shoving".

Clearwater Logging manager Michael Fenn told AAP he yesterday organised 15 friends
to help him recover his machinery barricaded by protesters since last Thursday at the
Middle Spur logging coupe, in the state's south-west.

Mr Fenn said both sides were pushing and shoving, but none of the loggers was carrying
baseball bats, as alleged by the environmentalists.

The protesters claim they were brutally set upon, with 10 of the members being "seriously
injured" and five of those being hospitalised.

Mr Fenn said some people on both sides may have armed themselves with sticks, but he
said no-one suffered significant injuries of any kind.

He said the loggers formed a line between the protesters and his machinery before moving
the equipment from the site.

"There was a bit of wrestling, but nothing of any great significance," he said. "There
was pushing and shoving, but no baseball bats.

"We didn't go in there to have a war, we went in there to get our machines.

"I learned there were five people carted off to hospital. It must have happened after we left."

Mr Fenn said he had lost up to $30,000 in revenue by protesters blocking various logging
coupes in the Otway Ranges.

He said he had asked police and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment
to retrieve his equipment, but they had told him they could not help.

AAP gfr/jlw/bdm

KEYWORD: OTWAY LOGGER

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