IT MIGHT BE SAID THAT THE SMELL OF DEATH HANGING OVER TASMANIA’S PULP MILL PROJECT ENDED FORMER TASMANIAN PREMIER PAUL LENNON’S POLITICAL CAREER. THE LAST STRAWS WERE MR LENNON’S 17% POLLING FIGURE AND DOUBTS OVER FUNDING FOR HIS PET PROJECT. GIVEN THAT POLLING RESULT, THE DEMISE OF THE LABOR STRONGMAN AND HIS MILL SHOULD HAVE GONE DOWN WELL WITH MOST TASMANIANS. ONE GROUP NOT BEST PLEASED WAS THE MAJORITY OF THE POPULATION OF GEORGE TOWN - THE PEOPLE MOST IMMEDIATELY AFFECTED BY THE PROJECT.

ASKED “YES OR NO TO THE PULP MILL”, MOST SAID YES. IT’S AN INDUSTRIAL TOWN AND THE LOCALS WANT THE JOBS. AND, THEY SAID, IT COULDN’T BE ANY WORSE THAT WHAT THEY’VE BEEN LIVING WITH.

IN EARLY 2008, Akaroyfilms' Derek Rogers KNOCKED ON A FEW THOUSAND DOORS, AND FOUND THIS:

THERE’S a legless man in George Town who swears he’ll blow up Gunns’ pulp mill if it’s built.

Just around the corner lives a younger, able-bodied man who will cautiously admit that he looks forward to the mill’s coming: “It might have a job for me.”

He drops shopping catalogues into letterboxes, including that of Dennis Lowe, the would-be bomber.

“I got heart problems, kidney problems, liver problems, I went blind, I got a dislocated thumb and I been bleedin’ out my arse the last six months,” said Mr Lowe, waving his stumps in the air.

“It’s all from Comalco and TEMCO.

“I blame it all on Tasmania and the Government’s inability to do anything right, except for its own ends.”

His myriad medical problems have not been categorically linked to the factories’ output - they started appearing before he moved down from New South Wales three and a half years ago - but that doesn’t make him any less angry.

It’s the fury of people like Mr Lowe that makes supporters of the mill nervous.

Still, more say yes to the mill than no.

Of 676 households asked “yes or no”, 337 were solidly supportive and 169 100% hostile. Another 83 households had nothing against the mill and 77 were unsure because of concerns about pollution, extra log trucks traffic and/or unwanted population growth.

Ten households were split between yes and no.

Some people copped it from family and/or friends when revealing their preferences - sometimes for the first time.

John Barker’s daughter and grandchildren, up from Launceston for the day, demanded to know if he knew “anything about the pulp mill” after he expressed whole-hearted support. “It’s going ahead anyway,” Mr Barker said. “Worst thing that’s ever happened,” was the chorused reply.

Twenty-year-old Lisa Camino, born and raised in the town, said they were “fine without it”. Her boyfriend, 25-year-old local Paul Francis, copped a tongue lashing when he said yes to the mill. “Why shouldn’t we have the mill,” he asked Miss Camino. “I’ll tell you why in a minute,” she said, before taking him inside.

Trindy Hogan, who was confident the mill would be a good thing, said the issue had “split the community pretty well”.

The primary reason people support the mill is job creation.
George Town has high unemployment. Secondary to jobs is: “Why not? We’ve already got Comalco and TEMCO.”

Comalco is Rio Tinto’s aluminium plant, while The Tasmanian Electro Metallurgical Company Pty Ltd (TEMCO) is a producer of manganese alloys, an essential additive in the production of steel.

The former has been at Bell Bay since the 1950s, the latter since the ‘60s.

Scores of people pointed out, without prompting, black sediment coating their roofs and walls. None viewed it as anything other than a fact of life in an industrial town.

“When you look at it, Comalco’s been there since 1955 and TEMCO since 1967, and you look at the houses and you see the grit from TEMCO,” said Marilyn Hunter, who moved from Queensland 14 months ago and bought two houses - one to live in and one as an investment.

“We can live with that - why not the mill?

“The value (of the investment property) has gone up $20,000.”

Long-time resident Ros Westergreen smiled when she said yes to the pulp mill and jobs, as “Comalco and TEMCO are going to kill us anyway”.

Offered Forest Enterprises Australia employee Di Nelson: “You gotta take into account the pollution we get already … be different if there was nothing in the area.”

She moved to George Town a year ago, for the job.

After 30 years, log truck driver Murray Brown also accepts the “black sludge” over his house and the fact that “you couldn’t have a rainwater tank in George Town”.

He looks forward to carting logs to the mill.

“They’re not going to build it unless it’s right - the guidelines are that strict,” Mr Brown said.

Rodney Baker, a self-employed carpenter who is allergic to timber dust, was another prepared to accept a little pollution as a fact of life.

“Probably, in the long-term it’s not going to be good for the place, but in the short-term it’s going to provide jobs for the young people and that’s what we gotta be worrying about,” he said.

“The Government will probably make it safe.”

Kevin, who moved to George Town six months ago and has done a little casual work at TEMCO, said “anyone who had seen that wouldn’t be too concerned by the pulp mill”.

He was a definite yes.

On the other hand, Edna Gaetani said that “people keep saying ’What about Comalco and TEMCO’ … well, that was in the ‘50s”. She said there was no way they should or would get approval today.

Ava Stronach said she “moved here because I like industry - just not this one.”

Several people cited health problems as reasons for opposing the introduction of new industries to the town’s backyard.

Cancer and respiratory problems were blamed on the old industries.

Beverley Stanton, who came to George Town in 1944 and married a fisherman, said she felt unable to support a new factory as “we’ve got enough illness in this town as it is - I’ve been diagnosed with cancer this week”.

“We never had the illness we have now before the industry came,” she said.

Mrs Stanton’s daughter also has cancer.

Tanya Biginski, whose mother has respiratory troubles, said economics rationales were given too much weight.

“These people here, most of them are in favour,” she said.

“They don’t care if my kids die, their kids die, even if they die - as long as their house prices go up and they get more jobs.”

Others said that choosing to live in George Town was choosing to live with some pollution.

The husband of one woman who said yes to the mill because “it’s an industrial area anyway, and it’s jobs” lives with a disease caused only by exposure to aluminium.

He worked at Comalco for several decades.

Another local woman, Julie Nesbit, was still outraged that her mother had been involved in protests against the opening of TEMCO 40 years back.

“Mum was out there all day, every day, saying ‘We won’t be able to eat the fish’,” Mrs Nesbit said.

“I said to her then ‘Mum, we eat the fish now and we’ve got Comalco. Mum always said ‘Bell Bay will kill us all of cancer’. She still ate the fish out of the river, I still do. You grow up here, you’re raised on fish.”

Both her parents died of cancer, but Mrs Nesbit said that was a coincidence.

Her youngest son is an apprentice at TEMCO.

Tim Manion, a 13-year veteran of TEMCO, said he did not “understand the science” put up by Gunns and the State Government.

“There’s been a lot of spin-doctoring by both sides,” he said.

“A lot of people say that if it wasn’t right it would be shut down - I don’t believe that that would happen.”

Supporters believe that the mill will be shut down if below standard.

Stan Phillips, who worked for Comalco for 33 years, said: “Let it go and see what happens. If it don’t meet the standards, close it.”

Damian Glover, who has been with Comalco for 15 years and worked for TEMCO for four, said he supported the mill because he’d “seen how much money Comalco has spent to conform - and they’re still spending”. He said Comalco was “not perfect, but they’re getting there”.

“Something that’s new is going to have to meet stiffer regulations,” Mr Glover said.

Another TEMCO employee, there for 14 years and counting, was a firm no - she said effluent was the point of distinction between her place of work and the pulp mill.

“The difference is that they (Gunns) are going to pump the stuff out into the water,” she said.

Asked if the whether the logo on her uniform made it hard for her to be critical, she said: “I know I work for a place that’s a polluter, but we don’t need any more,” she said.

Others felt it was hard to say no.

Peter Davie, who was with TEMCO for 15 years after moving to George Town in 1977, said there was “not a dirtier place on earth” than his old place of work, and “you’re not going to get pollution any worse than you get now”.

He supports the pulp mill, but questions where the water is going to come from.

“At first they said it would come from Pipers River,” Mr Davie said. “I can piss as much water as comes from the Piper. So where’s it coming from?”

He is also concerned about effluent.

“I don’t give a bugger how far they take the stuff out - it will come back with the tide,” Mr Davie said.

“(Still) as far as bringing work into the place it’s going to be a damn good thing.”

Another resident, a one-time worker at the woodchip mill now owned by Gunns, said he was pro-industry but unsure about the wisdom of allowing the pulp mill to go ahead, as some woodchip mill maintenance issues had been “not too crash hot and, if the same applies at the pulp mill, that’d be a concern”.

Carolyn Weston, who has lived in George Town for 18 months, said she supported the mill but didn’t understand the environmental ramifications.

“You hear that it’s going to be beautiful, and that it’s going to destroy everything,” she said.

“Who’s right?”

Brian Wilson, who moved to George Town 44 years ago, said he opposed it because he’d worked in one at Maryvale, in Victoria.

“One night I was in a picture theatre in Yallourn and half-way through the feature the wind changed,” he said.

“It emptied the theatre.

“An engineer told me it was the acid in the eucalypts, and you could not make pulp out of Australian hardwoods without the smell.”

Truck driver Barry Crosswell had a different view of the matter.

“Burnie was a stinking place, but technology now is totally different,” he said. “It’s all changed. Comalco used to be a stinking, rotten hovel until they put the new scrubbers in.”

“TEMCO still spreads dust, but this won‘t be as bad as that,” Mr Crosswell said.

Another long-time local, Neville Marston, said the technology used here in the past and now elsewhere in the world was “not as good as what we’ll be using”.

“I elect people into these jobs to make decisions for me,” Mr Marston said.

“You’ve gotta trust ‘em.”

Geoff Sweet, George Town warden (what they now call mayor) from 1982-90, also said he felt that people elected to positions of influence should be left to run things as they saw fit.

Opinion polls were pointless exercises, he said.

Mr Sweet said an example was the poll held in 1972 on the subject of a swimming pool in George Town - a poll that came down against the project by 800-odd votes to 700-odd votes.

“So they didn’t do it … bloody stupid,” he said.

Mr Sweet said supporters of the pool idea had approached him soon after his elevation to the position of warden and asked if he wanted one for the town.

“I said yeah, and we got it through.”

He said that whereas the town had got a 25m pool for $2.2 million in 1986, it could have had a 50m pool for $250,000 in ‘72.

“It was people from outside the town who were against it - same as now,” Mr Sweet said.

“The biggest problem is the outsiders are sticking their noses in - West Tamar professionals. I went to that public meeting (in George Town’s town hall last year) and they was all very ar-tic-u-late.

“This pulp mill will only be good for the town.

“The greenies and so on have made sure this will be a good thing.”

Long-time resident Julie Clark said the mill should be grabbed regardless of any environmental concerns.

“If we don’t get it, someone else will,” she said. “We might as well have it. It can’t be any worse than Comalco or TEMCO.”

Kathleen Davie said that after 15 years in the town she was tolerant of most things.

“Just let it go,” she said.

“With the plywood place, there was stuff you can’t believe … but we’ve gotta go ahead. You hear people say Tasmania’s backward, but then they won’t let progress go ahead.”

Overwhelmingly, supporters said: “Yes, jobs.”

Simple as that.

Fewer than 20 people so much as mentioned the closed loop system that Gunns rejected (the company said the system, which would have seen effluent dealt with on land rather than being pumped into Bass Strait, was too expensive).

A handful of households supported the mill but said they would have preferred the closed loop be employed.

A few said they would not support a mill without it.

Wharfie Matt Shea said the closed loop issue mattered so much he would sell up and move.

“I think they’re arrogant that they won’t use the closed loop system … by all means, do it, but do it clean,” Mr Shea said.

The one-time woodchipper said he was “a bit disappointed” in the new Federal Minister for the Environment, Peter Garrett: “I thought he was going to make a difference.”

One of his neighbours, who specified that she supported a mill with no closed loop, said Mr Garrett was just doing his job.

“I used to listen to him, because I went out with a fan … all his songs were based on greenie stuff,” she said. “Now he’s getting paid to do a job, and he’s had to change his tune.”

She laughed at what she saw as Mr Garrett‘s predicament.

The one-time rock singer has accepted Gunns’ assurances and this pulp mill will be okay. In contrast, many local supporters of the mill scoffed at Gunns’ claim that output from the mill would compare favourably with American drinking water.

Opponents like surfer Andrew Hulse, born in George Town 38 years ago, guffawed.

“If they reckon it’s so harmless, why don’t they pump it back up there (indicating the hills behind) and let the farmers use it,” he asked.

Still, most people think the mill is a done deal and a good thing.

John Swanney, who spends a lot of time tending his garden - which fronts a main road - said he had told the “40 or 50 greenies and tree-huggers” who had spoken to him over the fence or knocked on his door “that we’d all like to live in an ideal world, but that’s impossible”.

“It (the mill) is not going into a green area - there’s a lot of industry there,” he said.

(Welder Kuldeep Malhotra said he thought George Town a very green area and, as such, crying out for more industry.

“In India there’s lots of pollution,” he said. “Here, there’s lots of land and only one pulp mill, so no problem. There’s lots of greenery here.”)

Mr Swanney said fewer horticulturalists would complain than the mill‘s enemies thought.

“People say it’s going to ruin the wineries, but they’re all owned by Gunns anyway,” he said, with a merry grin.

He said local knowledge was limited in the opposition camp, as ``a lot of the greenies and tree-huggers aren’t from this area“. And he was bemused that Gunns’ Launceston offices have not been picketed.

“The fun’s only just starting,” he said. “They’ll all be out on the roads - just you wait and see.”

Nancy Potter, who has lived for 70 years in the house her grandfather bought in 1930 for 60 pounds, despaired of ever seeing the mill built.

She was not looking forward to “the fun”.

“It’s dragged on so long I just don’t know any more,” Mrs Potter said.

“The people against it - have they looked into it, or are they just opposing it to be nasty? You don’t know with these conservationists.”

Neighbour John Warhurst had similar doubts.

“I’m almost 90, and I don’t think I’m going to see it,” he said.

Many local supporters of the mill agreed with Mr Sweet, the ex-warden, that most opponents were outsiders - from the western banks of the Tamar, or Launceston, or even further afield.

Local mill opponents denied that outsiders dominate, but there’s no denying that interest in their cause has spread far and wide.

Of the six cars whose tyres were slashed at last year’s Low Head protest, five had travelled from the state’s North-West Coast. Of course, outsiders have taken a keen interest in the interstate protests and stunts - most notable of which was the attempt during the 2007 federal election on the seat of now-shadow treasurer Malcolm Turnbull.

In George Town, there was a great deal of resentment at perceived interference.

Life-long local Ricky Hill said the pulp mill would be “the best thing since sliced bread”, not least because it would be one in the eye for “all those people on the other side of the river who think their shit don’t stink”.

However, given the large proportion of anti-mill households in George Town suggested by research for this article, another resident might have been exaggerating when she suggested that “half the ones as is kicking up a stink don’t even live here - they live across the river, or in Hobart, or in Launceston”.

“Like it’s going to affect them,” she said.

A senior Gunns executive, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the company would close its timber mill in Launceston when the new mill opened.

He said this would mean a net improvement in air quality.
The Tasmanian branch of the Australian Medical Association has expressed concerns about the potential for adverse health effects resulting from the proposed mill, which will air-dry 1.3 million tonnes of pulp a year.

Its position statement, released in September 2006, said: “Building is planned for the eastern bank of the Tamar River at Bell Bay in the Tamar
River Valley, 45km north-west from the city of Launceston. The mill will thus be within the Tamar Valley air shed (TVAS)3, with its inherent meteorological inversion layer. The pulp mill design incorporates the
burning of wood and/or wood by-products to provide power. Air emissions resulting from this and as a by-product of related mill operations have the potential to add to the existing adverse respiratory load of air-borne particles in Launceston and surrounding areas.”

The Wilderness Society – an avowed opponent of any and all pulp mills – has said the kraft pulp mill process is “an inherently dirty process”. “Severe air pollution can result from particulates and various sulphur compounds entering the airshed,” its press releases have warned.

Some George Town residents suggested that mill opponents were being hypocritical.

Danny Corby, who bought 68 acres just outside the town at Christmas and moved from Western Australia with his family, said that “the dickheads who are against it, half of them are driving around in cars blowing out more smoke than what’s in this cigarette”.

A local business owner said she had been upset by the aggressiveness of the naysayers’ campaign.

“I have to say that the against side is very vocal; offensive at times,” she said. “A lot of graffiti is going on - on street signs and that.”

This businessperson has lived in George Town for three years.

Timber mill worker Bart Daniels said claims of environmental damage were “unrehearsed drivel” spouted mostly by people who lived anywhere but George Town.

“Why have a rally on Bondi Beach saying “No pulp mill’,” he asked.

“We all went to that rally (in Launceston, in support of the mill) and we got paid to go, and they’re all saying ‘We didn’t get paid to go (to Launceston’s anti-mill rally)’, but they’re all waving these paper products.

“And these blokes were hurling abuse at us.

“Gunns is far too big to be stupid - look at how they gained control of the shares in Auspine. This John Gay is one of the biggest, smartest people.

“Jobs are brilliant, as far as I’m concerned.”

Dianne O’Neill lives just around the corner. Her husband worked in the timber industry. Pro-industry and initially “all for” the pulp mill, the O’Neills were talked around on the issue by their teenage daughters.

“We all went to the rally at Low Head,” Mrs O’Neill said (for the record, she’s lived in George Town for more than 30 years).

“My youngest daughter (16 years old) has been given a bit of flak about it.

“A lot of people just go by what their parents think. My kids educated me. The last couple of years they’ve been doing projects on it - it hasn’t been pushed by the schools, they’ve chosen to.

“The mill doesn’t weigh up for me.

“I don’t think there are going to be a lot of local jobs.”

Peggy Ogden, a local of 41 years standing whose husband and son worked at Comalco, said she could take neither side completely seriously and was still weighing up the arguments.

“You just don’t know where the truth lies,” she said.

“The ones who are pro are so pro they can’t see anything else. Same goes for those against. I’m a bit flexible at the moment - I was yes at first, but now I’m unsure.”
She’s for heavy industry.

“We’ve basically got it, haven’t we,” she said.

“In the past we didn’t know so much. Having come from Burnie, which was a stinking place … it couldn’t be like that.”