Obviously I can’t speak for the woodchipping/logging industry, but I bet they felt just as let down as I did by the timid and inadequate coverage of this event.

Conservationists went to the venue to express disgust at the 20 year failure of the RFAs and reject the loaded, sham process adopted by state and federal governments to roll them over indefinitely. Governments have made up their minds and the result is a foregone conclusion. Your readers have a right to know this.

Native forest woodchipping is living on borrowed time and urgently needs an exit strategy. It’s not a matter of “if” it will close, but “when”. When the time comes the industry must not simply walk away from the environmental destruction it has caused or its obligations to workers and local communities, as so many mining companies have done in the past.

We don’t need another RFA. We need an exit from this cruel, destructive industry.

The struggle to end woodchipping of native forests in this region is probably Australia’s longest running environmental campaign. It is not going to disappear just because a section of the media feels more comfortable ignoring it.

I take issue with the views of Tom Griffin of Pambula. I ask that you publish  my reply to his letter to the editor (BDN, 13/2).

Our occupation of this continent has not been to the advantage of the original people.

The fact is that Aboriginal mortality rates, disease disadvantage and rates of incarceration are much worse than for  any other group in our society.

It is historical fact the indigenous population of this continent was subjected to displacement, disease, genocide, slavery, the removal of children, internment and suppression of language and culture.

Aborigines have continuously occupied this continent for at least the last 60,000 years. There is archaeological evidence of culture, music art, language, law, territorial boundaries and technologies of housing and weaponry. In other words, they had a functioning, viable society for a very long time before we came  along to civilise them with our politics, smallpox, inequality, alcohol, unemployment, environmental destruction and the whole Monty Python litany of benefits.

It is historical fact that, despite waging war against the invaders, peace was not achieved by an act of treaty between the white invaders and the original occupants of this land.

Since there is no treaty, I take the view that it is insulting to celebrate anything on the same day as this continent had a foreign flag hoist over it.

As part of our commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the Wollongbar (II) just north-east of Port Macquarie during WW2, we are endeavouring to locate any descendants of relatives or friends of crew members who were on board this merchant ship when she was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-180 on April 29, 1943.

Captain Charles Theodore Benson and 31 other crew members perished when the Wollongbar (II) sank quickly off Crescent Head with a cargo of butter, cheese and bacon. Only five crew members survived this tragedy when they were rescued five and a half hours later by fishermen in their trawler, the XLCR.

Volunteers at the Mid North Coast Maritime Museum at Port Macquarie would appreciate any help in learning more about the five men who survived and the 32 who perished almost 75 years ago. Contact us at mncmminc@exemail.com, 0488 555 120, or PO Box 481 Port Macquarie 2444.