WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.960 It's been making me seven years to get here, to the epic country you fought to save. 2 00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:16.400 I can hear the river far below, just a trickle. 3 00:00:16.400 --> 00:00:19.040 It sounds tame, but I know it's wild. 4 00:00:19.040 --> 00:00:25.160 There's a part of me that's afraid, that wants to stay up here where it's safe and 5 00:00:25.160 --> 00:00:26.160 dry. 6 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:39.400 But as you always said, there's no turning back on the Franklin, only one way home. 7 00:00:39.400 --> 00:00:45.520 It was the biggest environmental rally in the country's history. 8 00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:50.240 The plan to dam the Franklin has caused bitter and divisive protests that have drawn world 9 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:52.000 attention to the region. 10 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:57.800 Tasmania's hydroelectric commission dominated an era of hydro-industrialization. 11 00:00:57.800 --> 00:01:03.560 The hydro had built dams on every major river in Tasmania, except the Franklin. 12 00:01:03.560 --> 00:01:07.440 And now it wanted one there too. 13 00:01:07.440 --> 00:01:13.440 Ecologically it's very important to our survival that that's what the earth, the left, understood. 14 00:01:13.440 --> 00:01:15.640 This is part of life. 15 00:01:15.640 --> 00:01:19.800 If we get a living human being, we're better all of it. 16 00:01:19.800 --> 00:01:37.840 But who can put a value to the world's last remaining natural areas? 17 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:41.600 Hello and welcome to our special digital event today. 18 00:01:41.600 --> 00:01:46.920 My name is Stephanie and I'm the learning manager here at the Museum of Australian Democracy 19 00:01:46.920 --> 00:01:48.880 at Old Parliament House. 20 00:01:48.880 --> 00:01:55.760 We are so excited to have you join us for this event where we are celebrating 40 years 21 00:01:55.760 --> 00:01:57.600 of the Franklin River. 22 00:01:57.600 --> 00:02:03.200 We have some fantastic special guests who are joining us today as we walk through the story 23 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:06.720 of what happened back in the 1980s. 24 00:02:06.720 --> 00:02:12.120 Now I'd like to introduce you to Chris who's joining us from the Franklin movie. 25 00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:15.200 Hello. 26 00:02:15.200 --> 00:02:20.040 And I'd also like to introduce you to the National Portrait Gallery to Kate who will 27 00:02:20.040 --> 00:02:23.120 be sharing information with us too today. 28 00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:25.080 Hi everyone. 29 00:02:25.080 --> 00:02:30.360 And right here in the studio with me I have Jess Cram from the High Court as well. 30 00:02:30.360 --> 00:02:31.360 Hello. 31 00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:34.120 He's also incredibly tall standing next to me here. 32 00:02:34.120 --> 00:02:35.920 Thank you so much Jess. 33 00:02:35.920 --> 00:02:41.840 Now we are so excited to be able to bring you this special event and I would like to 34 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:46.240 start our session today with an acknowledgement of country. 35 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:51.120 So I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we are connecting 36 00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:57.040 from here in Canberra, the Nunawell, Nunawell and Nambri peoples and I pay my respects to 37 00:02:57.040 --> 00:03:00.120 their elders past and present. 38 00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:07.320 Now feel free teachers, those of you that are connecting from home to drop into the Q&A. 39 00:03:07.320 --> 00:03:12.080 This will be our main form of communication today, the lands on which you are connecting 40 00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:13.680 from as well. 41 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:18.760 I'd like to take you on a trip down the Franklin River so you can see some of the important 42 00:03:18.760 --> 00:03:23.720 heritage and the strong connection that our First Nations people have to this beautiful 43 00:03:23.720 --> 00:03:24.720 place. 44 00:03:24.720 --> 00:03:39.160 First time I saw the masterpiece we were leaving the Great Levine very swiftly down on the 45 00:03:39.160 --> 00:03:44.920 current through this narrow rock chasm and here on the left is this large rounded sculptured 46 00:03:44.920 --> 00:03:47.120 rock set back in an old coat. 47 00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:53.960 It made me think of all that is immutable and unchangeable but the big rounded rock 48 00:03:53.960 --> 00:03:59.880 sits there from year to year with the flood that went to coming by and the suns of summer 49 00:03:59.880 --> 00:04:04.680 shining on the front of it. 50 00:04:04.680 --> 00:04:10.640 The water here representing all the things that do change and change quickly and in particular 51 00:04:10.640 --> 00:04:21.160 the passage of human life, these bubbles beginning one second and washing past the next second. 52 00:04:21.160 --> 00:04:28.920 It was a relationship with a beautiful place that preceded me by not just thousands but 53 00:04:28.920 --> 00:04:36.120 millions of years had human history going back beyond the time that I could imagine. 54 00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:41.240 The people sat in those places at the beginning of the dawn of human history. 55 00:04:41.240 --> 00:04:49.240 They watched the first human sunrise. 56 00:04:49.240 --> 00:04:55.200 There were the most southerly living people on earth in a landscape that had glances above 57 00:04:55.200 --> 00:05:01.400 loading down the valleys, ice sheets above a place that we can only imagine today because 58 00:05:01.400 --> 00:05:09.040 of the things so different. 59 00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:19.120 So there you go. 60 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:25.560 You can see that there is a strong and ongoing connection to the Franklin River. 61 00:05:25.560 --> 00:05:33.160 And I hope that you are noticing how incredible some of the footage is from the Franklin movie. 62 00:05:33.160 --> 00:05:37.560 We will see more of these clips throughout our session today in between hearing from 63 00:05:37.560 --> 00:05:43.080 some of our cultural institutions including the Portrait Gallery and the High Court. 64 00:05:43.080 --> 00:05:50.200 But what I would like to do first is to set the scene with Oliver who is our lead protagonist 65 00:05:50.200 --> 00:05:55.280 in the Franklin movie and Chris who is the producer. 66 00:05:55.280 --> 00:05:59.560 I would like to introduce you to them first so you get a sense of what the Franklin movie 67 00:05:59.560 --> 00:06:01.160 is all about. 68 00:06:01.160 --> 00:06:03.840 And I believe that we have Oliver with us. 69 00:06:03.840 --> 00:06:12.920 So Oliver, can you talk us through what inspired you to create this incredible movie? 70 00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:13.920 Hi. 71 00:06:13.920 --> 00:06:18.000 Sorry for joining at a late second there. 72 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:19.160 Thanks for having me. 73 00:06:19.160 --> 00:06:26.000 And yeah, one of the things that really inspired me about making this was my connection with 74 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:27.240 my dad. 75 00:06:27.240 --> 00:06:32.760 And he was diagnosed with a terminal cancer about 10 years ago. 76 00:06:32.760 --> 00:06:39.600 And during that period of time we were looking back at a lot of his slides and stories. 77 00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:46.040 And I got to hear a lot more detail about what this whole experience back in the 80s 78 00:06:46.040 --> 00:06:50.400 had meant to him and also from his friends that would gather around and share some of 79 00:06:50.400 --> 00:06:52.400 these stories. 80 00:06:52.400 --> 00:06:57.240 And so yeah, so when he passed away, it just felt like that's the place that I need to 81 00:06:57.240 --> 00:07:03.160 go and I'm going to learn more about all of it via this connection that I had with him. 82 00:07:03.160 --> 00:07:09.000 It was an amazing time and I'm really grateful for having had it. 83 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:11.480 That is so special, Oliver. 84 00:07:11.480 --> 00:07:17.040 And I look forward to our participants seeing throughout our session today, your connections 85 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:23.920 to the Franklin and some of that historic footage, but also you exploring your trip 86 00:07:23.920 --> 00:07:26.080 down the Franklin River. 87 00:07:26.080 --> 00:07:32.320 Now, Chris, can you talk us through your role in helping to create the Franklin movie? 88 00:07:32.320 --> 00:07:33.480 Hi, Stephanie. 89 00:07:33.480 --> 00:07:38.240 Greetings from Roe Runderyland down in Melbourne on the Mary Creek. 90 00:07:38.240 --> 00:07:44.760 I'm trying to turn my video camera on, but it's not letting me turn it on for some reason. 91 00:07:44.760 --> 00:07:45.760 Sorry. 92 00:07:45.760 --> 00:07:51.360 Yeah, so do you want me to just give you a quick rundown on my role on the project? 93 00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:52.360 Absolutely, Chris. 94 00:07:52.360 --> 00:07:55.280 And we'll try and sort out your video for you while you're talking. 95 00:07:55.280 --> 00:07:56.280 No worries. 96 00:07:56.280 --> 00:08:00.960 Well, I'm the producer and a producer on a film production can mean a lot of different 97 00:08:00.960 --> 00:08:01.960 things. 98 00:08:01.960 --> 00:08:03.760 It's a very broad job description. 99 00:08:03.760 --> 00:08:08.960 It involves everything from getting the money together to imagining what the whole project 100 00:08:08.960 --> 00:08:12.760 should be and helping to actually make the project and get it out. 101 00:08:12.760 --> 00:08:17.840 So it was a seven year labor of love for Oliver and I. 102 00:08:17.840 --> 00:08:19.360 We met back in, here we go. 103 00:08:19.360 --> 00:08:20.360 Hi, everybody. 104 00:08:20.360 --> 00:08:24.840 Oliver and I met back in 2015, way back. 105 00:08:24.840 --> 00:08:30.720 And I had just discovered the whole story, the Franklin, through studying the High Court 106 00:08:30.720 --> 00:08:34.080 case in my, when I was studying my law degree. 107 00:08:34.080 --> 00:08:37.680 And I was born the year the Franklin was saved, as was Oliver. 108 00:08:37.680 --> 00:08:44.840 And I think we were both inspired to bring this incredible story of people power, of 109 00:08:44.840 --> 00:08:47.800 democracy in action to a new generation. 110 00:08:47.800 --> 00:08:53.000 Because everyone that, like if you speak to baby boomers or people who are, I guess, 111 00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:56.560 older than, I don't know, older than 40, they all remember the Franklin as this massive 112 00:08:56.560 --> 00:08:58.840 thing that happened back in 1983. 113 00:08:58.840 --> 00:09:03.120 But for anyone kind of my age and younger, not many people have heard of it. 114 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:09.560 And so, yeah, we were inspired to bring the story to a new generation because of all the 115 00:09:09.560 --> 00:09:12.560 environmental strife we've got going on today. 116 00:09:12.560 --> 00:09:20.440 And just to give solidarity to activists who are working on environmental issues today, 117 00:09:20.440 --> 00:09:21.880 like the student strikers and whatnot. 118 00:09:21.880 --> 00:09:27.080 So it's an environmental movie with a happy ending. 119 00:09:27.080 --> 00:09:32.400 And I was really proud to work with Oliver to bring it to fruition. 120 00:09:32.400 --> 00:09:33.400 Thank you so much, Chris. 121 00:09:33.400 --> 00:09:39.240 And, you know, Oliver and Christopher, I really appreciate your time today, but also the sharing 122 00:09:39.240 --> 00:09:43.840 of the clips that our wonderful students are going to be able to see throughout this digital 123 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:50.240 event and the links that you made there, Chris, between the Franklin being in the 1980s, but 124 00:09:50.240 --> 00:09:56.680 to our ongoing issues that, you know, our young people participating today are very passionate 125 00:09:56.680 --> 00:10:02.120 about the environment and that there is strong ties to, you know, lots of ways that we will 126 00:10:02.120 --> 00:10:07.360 discover today that we can, you know, actively participate in our democracy and share our 127 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:12.000 messages in different ways and considering how they can become involved and talk about 128 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:14.040 causes that they're interested in. 129 00:10:14.040 --> 00:10:16.400 So I really appreciate you highlighting that. 130 00:10:16.400 --> 00:10:21.080 And hello, I'm so glad that we can see you now, Oliver, as well. 131 00:10:21.080 --> 00:10:24.440 And I hope too that we get a cat sighting. 132 00:10:24.440 --> 00:10:26.600 Oliver has the most beautiful cat as well. 133 00:10:26.600 --> 00:10:27.600 Oh, there we go. 134 00:10:27.600 --> 00:10:28.600 Excellent. 135 00:10:28.600 --> 00:10:29.600 On cue. 136 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:30.600 Thank you very much. 137 00:10:30.600 --> 00:10:31.600 I appreciate it. 138 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:34.600 Now, participants, thank you for those that have been here. 139 00:10:34.600 --> 00:10:39.320 Now, participants, thank you for those that have started using the Q&A. 140 00:10:39.320 --> 00:10:44.280 There will be an opportunity towards the end of our program for you to ask Oliver and 141 00:10:44.280 --> 00:10:46.440 Christopher more questions. 142 00:10:46.440 --> 00:10:50.840 So start thinking about what else you would like to know about their experiences about 143 00:10:50.840 --> 00:10:55.200 creating the Franklin movie and you can drop those into the Q&A as well. 144 00:10:55.200 --> 00:10:56.640 So I'm able to see them. 145 00:10:56.640 --> 00:11:00.200 But what I would like to do is take you back in time. 146 00:11:00.200 --> 00:11:04.200 Our story today starts here at Old Parliament House. 147 00:11:04.200 --> 00:11:08.440 And so I'm going to play a little clip to get us started. 148 00:11:08.440 --> 00:11:11.640 Good evening. 149 00:11:11.640 --> 00:11:15.880 And in a sensational day in Australian politics, the Prime Minister announces a general election 150 00:11:15.880 --> 00:11:16.880 on March the 5th. 151 00:11:16.880 --> 00:11:21.240 I recommend it to his Excellency that there should be a double the solution of the parliament. 152 00:11:21.240 --> 00:11:22.840 That has been agreed. 153 00:11:22.840 --> 00:11:25.760 The election will be on the 5th of March. 154 00:11:25.760 --> 00:11:28.600 The flooding of the Franklin River is being counted by some. 155 00:11:28.600 --> 00:11:31.560 There's not just any issue, but the issue. 156 00:11:31.560 --> 00:11:36.280 Not the power state of the economy, not soaring unemployment, but this. 157 00:11:36.280 --> 00:11:41.160 An undeniably beautiful, but nevertheless remote and until now little known expanse 158 00:11:41.160 --> 00:11:42.720 of bush. 159 00:11:42.720 --> 00:11:47.400 It's voters' feelings on this, we're told, that will determine who governs Australia. 160 00:11:47.400 --> 00:11:54.240 So conservationists, this election are determined to be more than just a voice in the wilderness. 161 00:11:54.240 --> 00:12:03.480 So here we are. 162 00:12:03.480 --> 00:12:09.120 We've moved into the House of Representatives Chamber here at Old Parliament House. 163 00:12:09.120 --> 00:12:13.960 Now feel free to drop in the chat anything you're noticing or something that you might 164 00:12:13.960 --> 00:12:16.360 be interested in me talking a little bit about. 165 00:12:16.360 --> 00:12:19.880 But I'm going to set the scene for our story today. 166 00:12:19.880 --> 00:12:25.360 So in that footage, you will have noticed that it was an election promise to be discussing 167 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:31.440 the Franklin River and it was debated here in federal parliament. 168 00:12:31.440 --> 00:12:38.560 So the government who at the time was Bob Hawke was the leader. 169 00:12:38.560 --> 00:12:45.120 And the opposition was Andrew Peacock. 170 00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:53.160 And so we had the government who was Labour, they wanted to save the Franklin River. 171 00:12:53.160 --> 00:12:57.560 So they felt that it was a federal issue to be discussed here in parliament. 172 00:12:57.560 --> 00:13:03.400 And so they introduced the World Heritage Properties Conservation Bill. 173 00:13:03.400 --> 00:13:08.640 Now our opposition thought that it should be left with the states. 174 00:13:08.640 --> 00:13:13.280 They wanted to build the hydro on the Franklin River. 175 00:13:13.280 --> 00:13:19.480 And so they believed that it was the state's decision to be able to decide what they do. 176 00:13:19.480 --> 00:13:24.120 Now here in federal parliament, there were lots of arguments for and against. 177 00:13:24.120 --> 00:13:27.520 And I'm going to come back to those because I'm going to get you to help me a little bit 178 00:13:27.520 --> 00:13:33.320 later on with what you think some of the foreign against arguments might have been. 179 00:13:33.320 --> 00:13:38.400 But I want to talk particularly about a special group of people that sit in this chamber. 180 00:13:38.400 --> 00:13:42.320 So government on this side with the Prime Minister opposition on this side, but up the 181 00:13:42.320 --> 00:13:43.720 top here. 182 00:13:43.720 --> 00:13:48.160 So not everyone can come and sit in parliament and watch what's happening here. 183 00:13:48.160 --> 00:13:53.120 So these seats up the top are reserved for some very important journalists. 184 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:56.880 And they help to get the message out about the discussions that were happening here in 185 00:13:56.880 --> 00:13:58.320 parliament. 186 00:13:58.320 --> 00:14:03.880 And so this is how in the 1980s, a lot of people found out about what was being said by their 187 00:14:03.880 --> 00:14:05.120 members. 188 00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:09.760 So take a moment to think about the ways that you connect with the media, the ways that you 189 00:14:09.760 --> 00:14:12.280 find out what's happening in the world. 190 00:14:12.280 --> 00:14:16.680 And then go back to the 1980s and think about the main ways that they would have shared 191 00:14:16.680 --> 00:14:20.680 through newspaper articles, through radio. 192 00:14:20.680 --> 00:14:24.120 How did people make sure that they knew what was going on? 193 00:14:24.120 --> 00:14:28.160 I love that I'm seeing some fantastic answers coming through the chat. 194 00:14:28.160 --> 00:14:31.600 Nillie has let us know that one of the ways that she finds out about what's happening in 195 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:34.360 the world today is through behind the news. 196 00:14:34.360 --> 00:14:37.960 Also one of my favorite ways as well. 197 00:14:37.960 --> 00:14:42.400 But you'll see today in our story that there's lots of ways that people then communicated 198 00:14:42.400 --> 00:14:49.280 their message and made sure that their voice across Australia and especially down in Tasmania 199 00:14:49.280 --> 00:14:52.000 was heard in this story. 200 00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:57.520 Now I've introduced you to two of the key players in this debate, but there's someone 201 00:14:57.520 --> 00:15:00.080 else that I would like you to meet. 202 00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:04.760 And to introduce Bob Brown, I'm going to hand over to the portrait gallery. 203 00:15:04.760 --> 00:15:11.960 But first we're going to see a wonderful clip that talks about the importance of the artist. 204 00:15:11.960 --> 00:15:20.480 So there was the river spaking for itself and so it did through more than a million reproductions 205 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:22.840 during the Franklin campaign. 206 00:15:22.840 --> 00:15:28.160 In many landrooms around Australia, people could look at that image and feel connected 207 00:15:28.160 --> 00:15:30.440 to that place. 208 00:15:30.440 --> 00:15:32.120 So that is the power of art. 209 00:15:32.120 --> 00:15:38.480 It's a wonderful old maintain environmental campaigns and it comes naturally. 210 00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:44.920 But the power of artists to embellish it and make it a show really makes a campaign come 211 00:15:44.920 --> 00:15:47.200 alive. 212 00:15:47.200 --> 00:15:57.800 Hi everyone and welcome to the National Portrait Gallery here in Canberra, which stands on 213 00:15:57.800 --> 00:16:00.200 Ngunnawal and Nambri land. 214 00:16:00.200 --> 00:16:06.760 My name is Kate and in this session we're going to unpack this portrait of Bob Brown. 215 00:16:06.760 --> 00:16:14.120 It's not your typical portrait, but that makes it fascinating to explore. 216 00:16:14.120 --> 00:16:21.280 To start with, I want to ask you what's the first thing you notice about this portrait? 217 00:16:21.280 --> 00:16:24.880 The first thing I notice is that it is huge. 218 00:16:24.880 --> 00:16:27.040 It's about four metres wide. 219 00:16:27.040 --> 00:16:29.640 It's almost two and a half metres tall. 220 00:16:29.640 --> 00:16:34.360 I think it's probably the biggest portrait perhaps that we have here. 221 00:16:34.360 --> 00:16:43.560 The other thing I notice is that we've got a huge figure of Bob Brown standing here. 222 00:16:43.560 --> 00:16:51.400 He's also, he's in this business suit and a tie and he's holding a question mark. 223 00:16:51.400 --> 00:16:54.560 I wonder what question he's asking. 224 00:16:54.560 --> 00:16:59.440 And that suit also, it's not quite what I'd expect of a protester that's living down 225 00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:04.960 in a wet, soggy kind of rainforest for months on end. 226 00:17:04.960 --> 00:17:08.880 So what's the artist trying to tell us putting him in a suit? 227 00:17:08.880 --> 00:17:16.080 He's also got this kind of halo effect around him, this kind of wipes line. 228 00:17:16.080 --> 00:17:17.800 Why has the artist done that? 229 00:17:17.800 --> 00:17:19.800 What's he trying to tell us? 230 00:17:19.800 --> 00:17:22.880 Is he a saint like figure? 231 00:17:22.880 --> 00:17:27.800 Perhaps he's the Messiah who's come to save the Franklin. 232 00:17:27.800 --> 00:17:33.680 The other thing I notice is that there is more than one Bob. 233 00:17:33.680 --> 00:17:38.080 In this image, we can actually see that there are three. 234 00:17:38.080 --> 00:17:42.360 It's a bit like where's Wally, except it's kind of like where's Bob. 235 00:17:42.360 --> 00:17:46.640 And I want you to keep your eyes peeled as we go through this session. 236 00:17:46.640 --> 00:17:50.000 See how many bods you can find by the end. 237 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:52.480 There's one also that's quite tricky to find. 238 00:17:52.480 --> 00:17:56.360 So I'll be impressed if someone can find that one. 239 00:17:56.360 --> 00:18:05.720 So I think here you can tell which side the artist is on by the way he's depicted Bob Brown. 240 00:18:05.720 --> 00:18:14.000 The artist Harold Thornton was one of the protesters and he was very much involved in 241 00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:20.520 painting these banners and his studio is actually right in the middle of this portrait. 242 00:18:20.520 --> 00:18:23.920 But we're going to come back to him a bit later. 243 00:18:23.920 --> 00:18:26.520 We've also got a lot happening on that river there. 244 00:18:26.520 --> 00:18:33.200 We've got barges and ships and canoeists and we'll talk about that also. 245 00:18:33.200 --> 00:18:41.680 So this is told in a very quirky fantastical style, but it's also very careful and skillfully 246 00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:44.880 done and packed with details. 247 00:18:44.880 --> 00:18:53.000 And Bob Brown says it's actually a very accurate record of this snapshot in time of Christmas 248 00:18:53.000 --> 00:19:03.080 82 to I think March 83 of when around over 6000 protesters came to Tassie to save the 249 00:19:03.080 --> 00:19:05.000 Franklin River. 250 00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:14.280 In the end I think about 1600 were arrested and 500 were jailed including Bob Brown here. 251 00:19:14.280 --> 00:19:17.400 He was jailed for 19 days over Christmas. 252 00:19:17.400 --> 00:19:21.400 In fact all three of him, all three of him were jailed. 253 00:19:21.400 --> 00:19:27.360 They're going to go to our next slide because the way that we're going to unpack this story 254 00:19:27.360 --> 00:19:32.800 today is we're going to have a look at the sky first, then we're going to go down the 255 00:19:32.800 --> 00:19:37.120 river have a look at the blockade and then go and have a look at some of the things that 256 00:19:37.120 --> 00:19:39.720 were happening on the forest floor. 257 00:19:39.720 --> 00:19:44.560 We're going to start up here with this big head up here. 258 00:19:44.560 --> 00:19:49.000 It's very realistically drawn but also a bit cartoony. 259 00:19:49.000 --> 00:20:00.120 This is Robin Gray and he was the Tasmanian Premier aka the Whispering Bulldozer and he 260 00:20:00.120 --> 00:20:08.720 also famously said that the Franklin was nothing more than a brown leech-ridden ditch. 261 00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:12.320 So he was both loved and hated in Tassie. 262 00:20:12.320 --> 00:20:17.840 He was loved by everyday Tasmanians who saw the dam as an opportunity. 263 00:20:17.840 --> 00:20:22.040 They saw it as putting food on the table. 264 00:20:22.040 --> 00:20:26.120 Would guarantee them jobs and employment and make Tassie wealthy. 265 00:20:26.120 --> 00:20:34.480 But of course for conservationists he was a huge threat and danger because it meant environmental 266 00:20:34.480 --> 00:20:38.240 catastrophe for them if the dam went ahead. 267 00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:44.680 Now just up above him can you see the figure up there and what he's doing? 268 00:20:44.680 --> 00:20:49.040 This is the head of the Hydroelectric Commission. 269 00:20:49.040 --> 00:20:56.960 His name was Russell Ashton and what he's doing is he's actually pulling strings there. 270 00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:02.880 Back then the Hydroelectric Commission was very powerful. 271 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:11.400 It had as we saw and heard it had damned a lot of Tassie and that had created cheap hydro 272 00:21:11.400 --> 00:21:17.960 electricity, brought in a lot of big businesses so set up manufacturing and goods were being 273 00:21:17.960 --> 00:21:20.120 exported around the world. 274 00:21:20.120 --> 00:21:27.600 So there was a lot of guaranteed employment in Tassie and even the HEC it employed one 275 00:21:27.600 --> 00:21:29.560 in four Tasmanians. 276 00:21:29.560 --> 00:21:36.080 But what the artist is implying up here is that Russell Ashton is pulling the strings. 277 00:21:36.080 --> 00:21:42.800 He is manipulating the Premier to get him to do what he wants and that is to build the 278 00:21:42.800 --> 00:21:46.880 dam and to keep money rolling in. 279 00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:53.800 And that's why on the other side of all these clouds and lightning again a bit cartoony. 280 00:21:53.800 --> 00:21:57.760 We have a judge from the High Court. 281 00:21:57.760 --> 00:22:05.600 He's in his black robes there in his wig and with his gavel he is literally trying to knock 282 00:22:05.600 --> 00:22:16.080 over the HEC to kind of bring the weight of the law to bear and change what's going on 283 00:22:16.080 --> 00:22:19.440 with the power dynamic there. 284 00:22:19.440 --> 00:22:23.760 We've also got these eyeballs over to the left here. 285 00:22:23.760 --> 00:22:27.360 What's the deal with the eyeballs? 286 00:22:27.360 --> 00:22:35.280 And they are actually you can see connected to these F111 fighter planes. 287 00:22:35.280 --> 00:22:42.080 And this was really controversial because the new Hawke government wanted to get photographic 288 00:22:42.080 --> 00:22:45.520 evidence that the dam was being built. 289 00:22:45.520 --> 00:22:49.920 They didn't believe the Tasmanian Premier that it had stopped. 290 00:22:49.920 --> 00:22:54.240 So controversially they sent these fighter pilots down. 291 00:22:54.240 --> 00:22:59.760 They used to do sort of training through the gullies there but they weren't meant to be 292 00:22:59.760 --> 00:23:02.800 used against the state in this way. 293 00:23:02.800 --> 00:23:06.400 So there was a huge national furor. 294 00:23:06.400 --> 00:23:10.320 Hullabaloo was really controversial. 295 00:23:10.320 --> 00:23:18.720 I think we can go to the next slide and the next guy I think this is my favourite image 296 00:23:18.720 --> 00:23:20.720 in the whole picture. 297 00:23:20.720 --> 00:23:23.480 This guy flying on a banana. 298 00:23:23.480 --> 00:23:24.840 Who is this guy? 299 00:23:24.840 --> 00:23:27.080 Why is he on the banana? 300 00:23:27.080 --> 00:23:37.480 This is Joe Biocopiderson and he was the Premier in Queensland and he flew down to support 301 00:23:37.480 --> 00:23:43.720 Robin Gray and you know kind of said you know mate look I don't know if he said mate actually 302 00:23:43.720 --> 00:23:47.320 I'm just waxing lyrical here but like let's roll with it. 303 00:23:47.320 --> 00:23:52.480 He said like mate you can't let those blokes in Canberra tell you what to do. 304 00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:54.080 This is your state. 305 00:23:54.080 --> 00:23:58.080 You decide if you want to build that dam and you've been elected with the mandate then 306 00:23:58.080 --> 00:24:00.120 you build that dam. 307 00:24:00.120 --> 00:24:08.880 So you can see here what the artist is thinking of Joe Biocopiderson because he's painted 308 00:24:08.880 --> 00:24:10.560 him as the devil. 309 00:24:10.560 --> 00:24:12.440 He's got these horns. 310 00:24:12.440 --> 00:24:14.640 He's got the wings. 311 00:24:14.640 --> 00:24:19.960 He's got talons and these red devil markings. 312 00:24:19.960 --> 00:24:24.320 So if we've got Bob Brown as the Messiah we've definitely got the devil up here in 313 00:24:24.320 --> 00:24:26.280 Joe Biocopiderson. 314 00:24:26.280 --> 00:24:28.160 What's to deal with the banana? 315 00:24:28.160 --> 00:24:30.440 He's from Queensland right? 316 00:24:30.440 --> 00:24:37.240 And they are about 95% of Australia's banana production comes from Queensland. 317 00:24:37.240 --> 00:24:40.200 What's he dragging behind him you might ask. 318 00:24:40.200 --> 00:24:47.760 Well Joe Biocopiderson he was a peanut farmer and so he's pulling a big bag of peanuts. 319 00:24:47.760 --> 00:24:50.480 If we can go to our next slide. 320 00:24:50.480 --> 00:24:58.880 This slide is on the far right of the sky and over here you can see why the Commonwealth 321 00:24:58.880 --> 00:25:04.000 Government wanted photographic evidence that the dam was going ahead. 322 00:25:04.000 --> 00:25:07.800 Here we can see bulldozers at work. 323 00:25:07.800 --> 00:25:12.120 You can see little greenies in front of them. 324 00:25:12.120 --> 00:25:15.640 They were literally putting their bodies on the line. 325 00:25:15.640 --> 00:25:17.720 They said that's all they had. 326 00:25:17.720 --> 00:25:25.800 We can see policemen running around trying to try to catch them and arrest them. 327 00:25:25.800 --> 00:25:31.600 We can see there's a key that's been built here so that all the barges can come up and 328 00:25:31.600 --> 00:25:35.480 they can unload all this big earth moving equipment. 329 00:25:35.480 --> 00:25:37.200 They can take the logs. 330 00:25:37.200 --> 00:25:43.560 We've also got Bob Brown here again with another big question mark. 331 00:25:43.560 --> 00:25:49.840 If we can go now down drill down we can see that again these are the Tasmanians. 332 00:25:49.840 --> 00:25:53.440 If we can go the next slide because we've got a nice close up. 333 00:25:53.440 --> 00:25:58.440 These I said there were some people who loved Robin Gray and these are the Tasmanians who 334 00:25:58.440 --> 00:26:01.080 are protesting for the dam. 335 00:26:01.080 --> 00:26:09.120 So here they've got signs like dammit and take your brown leeches. 336 00:26:09.120 --> 00:26:17.000 So again for them the dam was going to be a lifeline and it was going to promise jobs. 337 00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:22.720 But seeing this and knowing the bulldozers were each day getting closer to the Franklin 338 00:26:22.720 --> 00:26:26.680 River this is where the conservationists led by Bob Brown. 339 00:26:26.680 --> 00:26:33.520 They knew they had to up their game and they had to take the rallies as you saw in that 340 00:26:33.520 --> 00:26:40.360 footage early on. They had to take them from the cities to the river. 341 00:26:40.360 --> 00:26:45.400 And that's where now we're going to have a look at what was happening on the river itself. 342 00:26:45.400 --> 00:26:47.840 We can see it's pretty chaotic. 343 00:26:47.840 --> 00:26:48.840 Okay. 344 00:26:48.840 --> 00:26:55.080 There's barges with wanting to take up earth moving equipment and down around them there's 345 00:26:55.080 --> 00:26:59.640 lots of people in their canoes trying to stop them. 346 00:26:59.640 --> 00:27:04.480 It's kind of it doesn't look like it's possible and it's so dangerous and again putting their 347 00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:07.440 bodies on the line right. 348 00:27:07.440 --> 00:27:12.640 We've got also and I know that some of them were diving underneath. 349 00:27:12.640 --> 00:27:17.760 We've got up there that Rock River Island Bend. 350 00:27:17.760 --> 00:27:24.800 That was such an iconic image to help with letting Australians know how beautiful this 351 00:27:24.800 --> 00:27:30.000 environment was. You can see protesters are all over that with their banners. 352 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:36.600 We had Bob Brown he organized for these abalone divers who were off season to use their really 353 00:27:36.600 --> 00:27:43.040 fast motor boats and they would take journalists up the 20 kilometres to the to the protest 354 00:27:43.040 --> 00:27:48.760 site and back across Macquarie Harbour by 2pm. 355 00:27:48.760 --> 00:27:54.520 So it was up and back in the day by 2pm because back then they had to have their footage flown 356 00:27:54.520 --> 00:27:58.200 out so it could be on the evening news. 357 00:27:58.200 --> 00:28:04.240 Also down here you can see there's all these faces in the trees. 358 00:28:04.240 --> 00:28:12.480 These are representative of all the protesters that came and we've got a big one there above 359 00:28:12.480 --> 00:28:15.040 the trees feed the earth banner. 360 00:28:15.040 --> 00:28:17.760 That is of a guy called David Bellamy. 361 00:28:17.760 --> 00:28:25.840 He was a professor of botany in the UK and he came across to also protest for the Franklin 362 00:28:25.840 --> 00:28:27.800 to save the Franklin. 363 00:28:27.800 --> 00:28:34.080 He famously he was arrested, spent his 50th birthday in jail. 364 00:28:34.080 --> 00:28:39.880 That made headlines around the world and suddenly everyone's kind of saying what's going on 365 00:28:39.880 --> 00:28:44.160 in this place called Tassie in this crazy little place. 366 00:28:44.160 --> 00:28:50.480 So you can see here that it really looks like chaos and mayhem but for Bob Brown and the 367 00:28:50.480 --> 00:28:57.920 conservationists it was a really big thing to keep the protest peaceful and in fact they 368 00:28:57.920 --> 00:29:00.640 did training. 369 00:29:00.640 --> 00:29:06.280 People couldn't join the movement unless they'd done anti-anger management and they actually 370 00:29:06.280 --> 00:29:12.360 put people in groups to practice like if this bulldozer is coming towards you you have to 371 00:29:12.360 --> 00:29:16.840 be totally calm and you'll see in some footage they just go limp. 372 00:29:16.840 --> 00:29:21.800 If they're being arrested they're not going to protest and get angry they're just going 373 00:29:21.800 --> 00:29:23.800 to peacefully be arrested. 374 00:29:23.800 --> 00:29:28.600 In fact being arrested was really great because then they were going to cause this problem 375 00:29:28.600 --> 00:29:33.440 in the jail so it was a win-win kind of solution for them. 376 00:29:33.440 --> 00:29:41.480 But this was all inspired by Gandhi and you protest in a moral way that doesn't create 377 00:29:41.480 --> 00:29:42.480 harm. 378 00:29:42.480 --> 00:29:45.720 We're now going to have a look at a slide. 379 00:29:45.720 --> 00:29:51.600 I want to show you something that two things that really helped with the World Heritage 380 00:29:51.600 --> 00:29:52.600 Listing. 381 00:29:52.600 --> 00:29:59.800 First of all down here we have this Aboriginal man with a flag above a Bannisane land rights. 382 00:29:59.800 --> 00:30:03.920 So an Aboriginal cave was discovered. 383 00:30:03.920 --> 00:30:11.280 It had lots of bones and it also had a stone tool and when those items were taken away and 384 00:30:11.280 --> 00:30:18.680 analysed it was found that the cave had been inhabited 20,000 years ago. 385 00:30:18.680 --> 00:30:24.080 So that's when Tassie was an Arctic tundra you know that they kangaroos four metres 386 00:30:24.080 --> 00:30:25.480 tall. 387 00:30:25.480 --> 00:30:36.040 So there was the cave and then there was also on Bob Brown's shoe is perched a swift parrot. 388 00:30:36.040 --> 00:30:41.400 This is a bird that only breeds in Tassie. 389 00:30:41.400 --> 00:30:47.920 So I love the way that it's perched on Bob Brown's shoe like he's got these massive feet 390 00:30:47.920 --> 00:30:54.440 but this bird feels so confident it seems to me that Bob Brown is going to save it that 391 00:30:54.440 --> 00:30:58.480 it's perched there on his shoe. 392 00:30:58.480 --> 00:31:04.720 If we go now to the next slide I'm taking you back this is a big picture okay. 393 00:31:04.720 --> 00:31:12.320 We're going to go down to the next level which is going to be down at Bob's feet is the next 394 00:31:12.320 --> 00:31:19.120 slide we have and then I think are we going to go down one no wait we're stopping here 395 00:31:19.120 --> 00:31:27.160 because what I want you to have a look for is the artist's self portrait and my hot tip 396 00:31:27.160 --> 00:31:36.000 is to have a look for the blue tent see if you can see the artist's self portrait. 397 00:31:36.000 --> 00:31:50.240 If we go down to the next slide see if you can see in there and then to the next one 398 00:31:50.240 --> 00:31:54.120 here he is this is Harold Kangaroo Thornton. 399 00:31:54.120 --> 00:31:59.560 So he did have apart from the little green legs this is pretty realistic he did have 400 00:31:59.560 --> 00:32:05.960 this grey hair he had this glasses he was pretty eccentric he was a real character 401 00:32:05.960 --> 00:32:12.600 and on his tongue it's a bit hard to see but he actually had painted no dams and if we 402 00:32:12.600 --> 00:32:19.480 go to the next slide I want to show you his studio here that was in this is in the middle 403 00:32:19.480 --> 00:32:21.080 of the painting. 404 00:32:21.080 --> 00:32:28.560 So that is telling us that this is all from this whole painting is from his point of view 405 00:32:28.560 --> 00:32:35.680 okay so it could be biased Bob Brown says it's accurate but it's all from a protestors 406 00:32:35.680 --> 00:32:42.240 point of view but he's got his studio right there in the centre he was called Harold Kangaroo 407 00:32:42.240 --> 00:32:50.800 Thornton so there you've got a kangaroo painting a no dams sign that yellow no dams 408 00:32:50.800 --> 00:32:56.680 signage that was you know iconic again for the protest. 409 00:32:56.680 --> 00:33:02.040 We've also got kind of a campsite here where we've got these little greeny people maybe 410 00:33:02.040 --> 00:33:09.200 they're meeting to strategise people came from all over the world from the UK from Germany 411 00:33:09.200 --> 00:33:13.520 they were really brave because they thought they might lose their passports if there were 412 00:33:13.520 --> 00:33:19.440 public servants from Canberra they were worried that if they got arrested they might they might 413 00:33:19.440 --> 00:33:24.680 lose their jobs so these people were very brave putting their bodies on the line as 414 00:33:24.680 --> 00:33:29.240 well as potentially their life and their livelihoods. 415 00:33:29.240 --> 00:33:35.360 If we go to the next slide I want to show you these are the kind of big banners that Harold 416 00:33:35.360 --> 00:33:42.240 Thornton was painting in that studio so these are huge aren't they these are in these big 417 00:33:42.240 --> 00:33:49.440 human pine trees thousands of years old huge I just wonder how did they get these banners 418 00:33:49.440 --> 00:33:55.680 up there they must have scaled the trees but these banners would have been fantastic again 419 00:33:55.680 --> 00:34:03.800 for media footage for these helicopters flying around so as you heard at the start art and 420 00:34:03.800 --> 00:34:08.360 the media these guys were pretty savvy in what they were doing. 421 00:34:08.360 --> 00:34:13.680 If we can go to our next slide I'm again going to take you back we're at the big portrait 422 00:34:13.680 --> 00:34:21.200 but we're going to go down to the next one which is I think Amy if we just go down to 423 00:34:21.200 --> 00:34:27.520 the next one yeah we're yeah if you have I want to show you some of the practicalities 424 00:34:27.520 --> 00:34:34.080 because it was pretty primal basic living no hot showers no waters lots of leeches up 425 00:34:34.080 --> 00:34:41.720 here we have a greenie sitting on a pit toilet an open pit toilet so life was pretty basic 426 00:34:41.720 --> 00:34:47.600 and up there there's some sign saying put lime in the pit after you've gone was like 427 00:34:47.600 --> 00:34:52.560 a disinfectant they all these people living in the forest they couldn't get disease there's 428 00:34:52.560 --> 00:34:59.200 also a sign they're saying wash your hands if we come over here we've got a fenced off 429 00:34:59.200 --> 00:35:06.960 area it's saying hidden treasure don't camp here once was a toilet hidden treasure once 430 00:35:06.960 --> 00:35:11.960 was a toilet you can probably work out what that hidden treasure might be so Harold Thornton 431 00:35:11.960 --> 00:35:17.360 there's lots of toilet humour here we have a policeman in the corner down there running 432 00:35:17.360 --> 00:35:25.960 what's he doing let's go and have a look at what he is doing up the top here we can see 433 00:35:25.960 --> 00:35:32.640 he is chasing greenies through the forest he's trying to capture them but then down to the 434 00:35:32.640 --> 00:35:38.200 left you can see there's actually a policeman having a cup of tea with the greenies so policemen 435 00:35:38.200 --> 00:35:44.280 were on both sides as well this whole down was so divisive in Tassie it's split families 436 00:35:44.280 --> 00:35:50.000 and it's still a really sore point today so we have policemen both sides of the camp there's 437 00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:55.880 a policeman down here he's lining up with the greenies he's on if you can see the writing 438 00:35:55.880 --> 00:36:04.040 on the tent he's waiting to go into the horse pitle tent the horse pitle tent the hospital 439 00:36:04.040 --> 00:36:11.560 tent and it is where there's a decent tree so there's lots of silly puns lots of humour 440 00:36:11.560 --> 00:36:20.320 that howard Thornton has put into this story if we go to the next slide I had asked you 441 00:36:20.320 --> 00:36:26.080 at the start you know we saw three bobs that we could find quite easily and I said keep 442 00:36:26.080 --> 00:36:34.760 your eyes peeled where are the others how many did you find if we can go to the next slide 443 00:36:34.760 --> 00:36:41.320 I'm going to reveal that there are actually five bobs in this remember it was like a 444 00:36:41.320 --> 00:36:49.280 Wears Wally it is such a Wears Bob there was one that was down by the feet of the greenie 445 00:36:49.280 --> 00:36:53.600 that's down near his left shoe you can go and have a look for that later and there's 446 00:36:53.600 --> 00:36:59.280 also on a tree there's a poster of Bob Brown here with a victory and that iconic no damn 447 00:36:59.280 --> 00:37:13.400 signage if we go to our next slide what I Bob Brown you know had this question five question 448 00:37:13.400 --> 00:37:22.000 marks throughout the whole painting what I want you to think about is what question 449 00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:30.040 was Bob asking is it how are we going to save our environment why are we doing this am I 450 00:37:30.040 --> 00:37:37.960 going to be jailed and if you had something you were really passionate about some environmental 451 00:37:37.960 --> 00:37:44.880 cause that you wanted to save what would it be how would you go about protecting it what 452 00:37:44.880 --> 00:37:50.680 would you do it's been great talking to you about this portrait today from the National 453 00:37:50.680 --> 00:37:56.200 Portrait Gallery it would be lovely to see you here in person at some point I am now 454 00:37:56.200 --> 00:38:06.320 going to hand over and we're going to give the last word to Bob Brown. 455 00:38:06.320 --> 00:38:11.320 And in March just as this blockade was tailing off they changed the government the Hawke 456 00:38:11.320 --> 00:38:18.800 government came in it decided it was going to oppose Robin Gray and his damn building 457 00:38:18.800 --> 00:38:24.360 that went to the High Court the judges up there and by four judges to three on the first 458 00:38:24.360 --> 00:38:30.600 of July 1983 they effectively made the decision the damn must stop the wilderness must be 459 00:38:30.600 --> 00:38:38.080 saved for the whole of the world according to the World Heritage Convention so when this 460 00:38:38.080 --> 00:38:43.920 was painted it looked very grim but now I've got a smile on my face because what Harold 461 00:38:43.920 --> 00:38:52.920 depicted there was a huge peaceful protest with people from all over Australia which 462 00:38:52.920 --> 00:38:58.680 ended up saving the river. 463 00:38:58.680 --> 00:39:07.000 Thank you so much Kate I really enjoyed seeing the up close details that were included in 464 00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:12.400 that Bob Brown portrait and I promise you after this digital excursion I'm on my way 465 00:39:12.400 --> 00:39:18.080 down to the Portrait Gallery to see it in person because that was absolutely incredible 466 00:39:18.080 --> 00:39:23.960 and I love the attention to detail and thank you so much for the storytelling layer that 467 00:39:23.960 --> 00:39:27.040 you added to our session today. 468 00:39:27.040 --> 00:39:33.960 Now I have a clip that I want to show you and Kate has already helped us out with this 469 00:39:33.960 --> 00:39:39.640 but I'd love to talk about some of the issues that were raised some of the discussions that 470 00:39:39.640 --> 00:39:45.760 were had for and against the damning of the Franklin so please while we're watching this 471 00:39:45.760 --> 00:39:51.240 clip and we're looking at different ways that people communicated their message see what 472 00:39:51.240 --> 00:39:58.040 you notice and start to write it in the chat what you're seeing. 473 00:39:58.040 --> 00:40:00.960 If we want to look after ourselves we're going to look after the planet and if we couldn't 474 00:40:00.960 --> 00:40:05.840 look after the Franklin here in one of the wealthiest places on the planet what could 475 00:40:05.840 --> 00:40:13.400 be looked after so in this very room 16 greenies and beanies all of us huddled against the 476 00:40:13.400 --> 00:40:20.120 coal decided the Wilderness Society $2 membership was underway and because it was action oriented 477 00:40:20.120 --> 00:40:29.000 against the threat of dams on the Franklin it grew very very rapidly teachers lawyers 478 00:40:29.000 --> 00:40:38.320 doctors and adventurers they were feisty people very bright they knew what the odds were. 479 00:40:38.320 --> 00:40:44.120 Well the Franklin River empowered a whole generation of people to become involved and 480 00:40:44.120 --> 00:40:47.400 this group enjoyed such amazing camaraderie. 481 00:40:47.400 --> 00:40:52.440 The mood of it was just unbelievable this was what really inspired me and Mike was certainly 482 00:40:52.440 --> 00:40:57.920 wanting to be involved in that just to make a stand and so he was the convener in the 483 00:40:57.920 --> 00:41:04.840 north of the Wilderness Society arranged rallies and meetings in the life which was just the 484 00:41:04.840 --> 00:41:09.280 very essence of him really that you don't want to spoil all the natural beauty of the 485 00:41:09.280 --> 00:41:10.960 world. 486 00:41:10.960 --> 00:41:16.480 We knew the river had to be able to speak for itself but we've got to make a film so 487 00:41:16.480 --> 00:41:26.320 we bought a second hand Bollocks 16mm wind it up yourself movie camera and we went back 488 00:41:26.320 --> 00:41:32.800 down the river this time with Paul Smiths Peter and Rick and Sam Stark. 489 00:41:32.800 --> 00:41:38.640 I was a little bit apprehensive I'd never done any kayaking or river rafting or anything 490 00:41:38.640 --> 00:41:43.760 before but I was up for an adventure. 491 00:41:43.760 --> 00:41:55.600 Alright so I wonder what ways you noticed in that clip that people shared their message. 492 00:41:55.600 --> 00:42:02.480 Now we are really fortunate today we bought out some items from our collection here at 493 00:42:02.480 --> 00:42:09.280 the museum to show you and so you can see two pieces in front of me today and you'll notice 494 00:42:09.280 --> 00:42:15.600 that because these are from our collection I'm wearing special gloves so that I can look 495 00:42:15.600 --> 00:42:20.920 after these important pieces about Franklin's story. 496 00:42:20.920 --> 00:42:28.080 Now I wonder what you're noticing in these pictures what you're seeing in ways that 497 00:42:28.080 --> 00:42:33.920 people have communicated their message and feel free to drop it in the Q&A what you're 498 00:42:33.920 --> 00:42:34.920 seeing there. 499 00:42:34.920 --> 00:42:41.200 I hope you noticed from that clip that we were watching that you saw the platypus your 500 00:42:41.200 --> 00:42:44.680 sits represented on two pieces here. 501 00:42:44.680 --> 00:42:50.600 I wonder how that helps to communicate our message and to draw interest into our conversation 502 00:42:50.600 --> 00:42:52.280 about the Franklin. 503 00:42:52.280 --> 00:43:00.040 I can see there's a lovely comment in the Q&A that it does look like a military poster. 504 00:43:00.040 --> 00:43:06.320 It says on here your Franklin your river needs you. 505 00:43:06.320 --> 00:43:11.520 If you were going to communicate a message just like Kate said what would you put on 506 00:43:11.520 --> 00:43:18.000 a poster that would draw people's interest in would you choose animals from the local 507 00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:23.680 area so that you can build empathy with your audience? 508 00:43:23.680 --> 00:43:28.960 Would you choose something that's more direct that connects the history telling them that 509 00:43:28.960 --> 00:43:31.440 they need to join your cause? 510 00:43:31.440 --> 00:43:34.360 Oh there's a lovely comment. 511 00:43:34.360 --> 00:43:37.680 Thank you Millie about how cool platypuses are. 512 00:43:37.680 --> 00:43:41.800 I think the same thing and as soon as I saw that little clip that we played for you before 513 00:43:41.800 --> 00:43:47.960 and I saw that giant platypus on the beach I knew that that was a wonderful way that 514 00:43:47.960 --> 00:43:53.480 the Franklin River conservation team was sharing their message. 515 00:43:53.480 --> 00:43:57.800 So I wonder how you would communicate a message. 516 00:43:57.800 --> 00:44:01.600 What would you do to make sure that people were listening? 517 00:44:01.600 --> 00:44:07.520 Would you create a poster or perhaps you would design a sticker? 518 00:44:07.520 --> 00:44:09.480 Are you interested in wearing your cause? 519 00:44:09.480 --> 00:44:15.800 I know Oliver has a t-shirt on today that talks about his passion for the Franklin. 520 00:44:15.800 --> 00:44:19.600 Is that a way that you would share your message? 521 00:44:19.600 --> 00:44:22.680 Would you, are you into craftivism? 522 00:44:22.680 --> 00:44:30.200 Would you create something like a banner or perhaps a stuffed toy? 523 00:44:30.200 --> 00:44:35.080 What would draw people's interest in being able to discuss an issue that you are passionate 524 00:44:35.080 --> 00:44:41.920 about? 525 00:44:41.920 --> 00:44:48.160 Now thank you for looking at those objects with me and I would like to say a special 526 00:44:48.160 --> 00:44:54.480 thank you to our wonderful heritage team here at the museum for helping us to bring those 527 00:44:54.480 --> 00:44:57.960 out for this very special event for you to be able to look at. 528 00:44:57.960 --> 00:45:03.720 We're feeling very privileged to be able to show you them today from our collection. 529 00:45:03.720 --> 00:45:10.240 Now I'd like to take you to the High Court so we can meet Jessica and look at what happened 530 00:45:10.240 --> 00:45:17.120 after the decision was made here and the Labor government were successful in passing the 531 00:45:17.120 --> 00:45:21.080 bill to save the dam but then it went to the High Court. 532 00:45:21.080 --> 00:45:25.840 So I'm going to leave this chamber now and Jessica will meet you out the front of the 533 00:45:25.840 --> 00:45:27.840 High Court. 534 00:45:27.840 --> 00:45:36.840 So the passing of the World Heritage Coppities Conservation Bill in 1983 by the federal government 535 00:45:36.840 --> 00:45:42.120 did not stop the Tasmanian Hydroelectric Commission from their construction activities 536 00:45:42.120 --> 00:45:43.600 on the river. 537 00:45:43.600 --> 00:45:48.800 The Tasmanian government argued that the constitution did not give the federal government 538 00:45:48.800 --> 00:45:52.520 the power to stop the dam construction. 539 00:45:52.520 --> 00:45:59.320 So in May 1983 the federal government meant proceedings here at the High Court to stop 540 00:45:59.320 --> 00:46:01.400 work on the dam. 541 00:46:01.400 --> 00:46:06.760 Now one of the main jobs of the High Court is to explain and apply the laws of the 542 00:46:06.760 --> 00:46:10.200 Australia especially the Constitution. 543 00:46:10.200 --> 00:46:11.960 Here's my little copy. 544 00:46:11.960 --> 00:46:17.600 The Constitution is like the rule book for how to govern the nation of Australia including 545 00:46:17.600 --> 00:46:20.680 outlining the powers of the federal government. 546 00:46:20.680 --> 00:46:23.120 So I have a question for you. 547 00:46:23.120 --> 00:46:27.440 Why do you think it's important that the Constitution is interpreted? 548 00:46:27.440 --> 00:46:30.200 Why do you think the Constitution may need interpreting? 549 00:46:30.200 --> 00:46:33.000 You can pop that in the chat box for me. 550 00:46:33.000 --> 00:46:37.960 So we've got some answers here. 551 00:46:37.960 --> 00:46:39.360 It's over 100 years old. 552 00:46:39.360 --> 00:46:41.160 It's created in 1901. 553 00:46:41.160 --> 00:46:42.160 It's very old. 554 00:46:42.160 --> 00:46:46.720 It uses lots of old language and sometimes we need to interpret that. 555 00:46:46.720 --> 00:46:53.320 I've also got another one there that some ideas that we've got today like aeroplanes, 556 00:46:53.320 --> 00:46:57.480 internet went around when the Constitution was created. 557 00:46:57.480 --> 00:46:58.720 Fantastic. 558 00:46:58.720 --> 00:47:03.760 All seven justices of the High Court sat on the case to determine whether the federal 559 00:47:03.760 --> 00:47:11.120 government's law, their legislation was supported by their power in the Constitution. 560 00:47:11.120 --> 00:47:16.600 Before we dive into what the High Court considered, it's important to clarify that when Australia 561 00:47:16.600 --> 00:47:22.640 signs an international treaty, so an agreement with other nations such as with the World Heritage 562 00:47:22.640 --> 00:47:28.560 Committee, the requirements included in the treaty don't actually apply in Australia until 563 00:47:28.560 --> 00:47:33.200 they are converted into domestic law, into Australian law. 564 00:47:33.200 --> 00:47:39.640 So when the Southwest of Tasmania was declared a World Heritage Site, the federal government 565 00:47:39.640 --> 00:47:45.920 actually had to make a law in Australia to legally protect the area, which they did with 566 00:47:45.920 --> 00:47:49.720 the World Heritage Properties Conservation Act. 567 00:47:49.720 --> 00:47:55.400 With this in mind, let's turn back to the case, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Tasmania, 568 00:47:55.400 --> 00:47:58.960 or commonly known as the Tasmanian dams case. 569 00:47:58.960 --> 00:48:02.920 There are several key questions the High Court needed to consider. 570 00:48:02.920 --> 00:48:07.880 The central question was whether the federal government could rely on the external affairs 571 00:48:07.880 --> 00:48:12.760 power in the Constitution to support the validity of the law. 572 00:48:12.760 --> 00:48:17.320 So here we are in our main courtroom where the case was held. 573 00:48:17.320 --> 00:48:23.040 Now section 71 of the Constitution outlines the powers of the federal government and part 574 00:48:23.040 --> 00:48:27.440 29 refers to this thing called external affairs power. 575 00:48:27.440 --> 00:48:30.360 But what does external affairs mean? 576 00:48:30.360 --> 00:48:33.560 This is what the justices had to consider. 577 00:48:33.560 --> 00:48:37.560 Before I let you know the final judgment, I want to read out the beginning of the media 578 00:48:37.560 --> 00:48:40.040 release that was issued by the High Court. 579 00:48:40.040 --> 00:48:45.640 And this was the first time High Court issued a media release, and it summarized the main 580 00:48:45.640 --> 00:48:48.040 judgment for the public. 581 00:48:48.040 --> 00:48:52.920 It reads, "The questions concern the validity of certain 582 00:48:52.920 --> 00:48:59.640 Commonwealth acts, regulations and proclamations which have been brought into being for the 583 00:48:59.640 --> 00:49:05.360 immediate purpose of preventing the construction of the Gordon below the Franklin dam. 584 00:49:05.360 --> 00:49:08.480 They are strictly legal questions. 585 00:49:08.480 --> 00:49:13.360 The court is in no way concerned with the question whether it is desirable or undesirable, 586 00:49:13.360 --> 00:49:18.440 either on the whole or from any particular point of view that the construction of the 587 00:49:18.440 --> 00:49:20.280 dam should proceed. 588 00:49:20.280 --> 00:49:25.080 The assessment of the possible advantages and disadvantages of constructing the dam 589 00:49:25.080 --> 00:49:29.960 and the balancing of the one against the other are not a matter for the court. 590 00:49:29.960 --> 00:49:34.720 And the questions concern the validity of certain Commonwealth acts, regulations and 591 00:49:34.720 --> 00:49:39.400 proclamations which have been brought into being for the immediate purpose of preventing 592 00:49:39.400 --> 00:49:45.800 the construction of the Gordon below the Franklin dam." 593 00:49:45.800 --> 00:49:49.160 The assessment of the possible advantages and disadvantages of constructing the dam 594 00:49:49.160 --> 00:49:52.840 and balancing the one against the other are not a matter for the court. 595 00:49:52.840 --> 00:49:57.520 And the court's judgment does not reflect any view of merits of the dispute. 596 00:49:57.520 --> 00:50:02.840 So basically this opening summary stresses that the justices' decisions were based purely 597 00:50:02.840 --> 00:50:09.360 on legal questions, on the interpretation of the Constitution, not the moral question 598 00:50:09.360 --> 00:50:14.800 of whether it was right or wrong to construct a dam on the Franklin River. 599 00:50:14.800 --> 00:50:19.960 On the 1st of July 1983, the High Court delivered their judgment. 600 00:50:19.960 --> 00:50:25.880 The court found parts of the World Heritage Properties Conservation Act to be valid. 601 00:50:25.880 --> 00:50:31.280 That is that the federal government did have the power to exercise the external affairs 602 00:50:31.280 --> 00:50:38.560 power in the Constitution to pass that legislation to protect World Heritage sites. 603 00:50:38.560 --> 00:50:44.960 As we heard from Bob Brown, it was a four-three split, meaning four justices held that according 604 00:50:44.960 --> 00:50:49.720 to the Constitution, the federal government had that power, but three justices did not 605 00:50:49.720 --> 00:50:52.960 uphold this reading of the Constitution. 606 00:50:52.960 --> 00:50:58.080 So why do you think it's important we have an odd number of justices on the High Court 607 00:50:58.080 --> 00:50:59.680 bench? 608 00:50:59.680 --> 00:51:03.360 Have a quick discussion, pop some answers in the chat. 609 00:51:03.360 --> 00:51:08.040 Why do you think it's important we have an odd number of justices? 610 00:51:08.040 --> 00:51:12.640 Oh, I see some great answers there. 611 00:51:12.640 --> 00:51:16.600 Yeah, we always have an outcome that's right. 612 00:51:16.600 --> 00:51:17.760 So we've got a majority. 613 00:51:17.760 --> 00:51:22.400 We're always going to have a decision with our cases. 614 00:51:22.400 --> 00:51:28.400 So from a legal point of view, this case greatly expanded the areas in which the federal government 615 00:51:28.400 --> 00:51:34.880 could make laws and perhaps in ways the authors of the Constitution couldn't even imagine. 616 00:51:34.880 --> 00:51:39.960 It also helped to find how lawmaking powers are divided between the state and federal 617 00:51:39.960 --> 00:51:41.460 governments. 618 00:51:41.460 --> 00:51:45.600 From an environmentalist point of view, this case saved the Franklin River. 619 00:51:45.600 --> 00:51:51.440 Let's take one more look at the Franklin. 620 00:51:51.440 --> 00:51:54.280 How bloody marvellous this is. 621 00:51:54.280 --> 00:51:56.240 It's not the new Tasmania. 622 00:51:56.240 --> 00:52:02.840 It's the true Tasmania, one of the truly great places on this earth. 623 00:52:02.840 --> 00:52:06.280 As to all the unsung heroes, the living and the dead. 624 00:52:06.280 --> 00:52:08.920 It was not just a river you saved. 625 00:52:08.920 --> 00:52:11.960 Tasmania changed, Australia altered. 626 00:52:11.960 --> 00:52:18.200 It liberated me as it liberated so many. 627 00:52:18.200 --> 00:52:21.960 It was more than a river then and is far more than a river now. 628 00:52:21.960 --> 00:52:30.400 It is a vast and never-growing delta of destinies. 629 00:52:30.400 --> 00:52:38.080 So when people say it is just a moment in the past, they're wrong. 630 00:52:38.080 --> 00:52:42.120 Because the river began to run through all of us and it continues to flow with a strong 631 00:52:42.120 --> 00:52:51.640 go. 632 00:52:51.640 --> 00:52:53.520 Thank you so much, Jess. 633 00:52:53.520 --> 00:53:02.040 And I hope you enjoyed seeing that final clip of Oliver travelling down the Franklin River. 634 00:53:02.040 --> 00:53:07.200 Now I hope you have a better understanding of the story of the Franklin and the significance 635 00:53:07.200 --> 00:53:12.320 of this debate after our digital event today. 636 00:53:12.320 --> 00:53:17.080 We will make this event available after so that you can go back and watch any of those 637 00:53:17.080 --> 00:53:22.480 clips or especially watch the fantastic work of the National Portrait Gallery and Jess 638 00:53:22.480 --> 00:53:26.600 from the High Court today so you can take another look. 639 00:53:26.600 --> 00:53:32.680 Now we have a little bit of time so I am keen for you to be able to ask a couple of questions 640 00:53:32.680 --> 00:53:38.360 of anyone of our participants today and you'll see that I've shifted into a very important 641 00:53:38.360 --> 00:53:40.680 space in the museum. 642 00:53:40.680 --> 00:53:45.440 We are in the Prime Minister's office and this is set up for Bob Hawke, who was our 643 00:53:45.440 --> 00:53:50.680 last Prime Minister to work in this space before Parliament moved up to Australian Parliament 644 00:53:50.680 --> 00:53:52.760 House so you can see his desk here. 645 00:53:52.760 --> 00:53:58.600 You can also see the hands-on records on this side of all the things that are set in Parliament 646 00:53:58.600 --> 00:54:00.720 are recorded. 647 00:54:00.720 --> 00:54:06.880 Now Oliver, I'm going to throw to you first. 648 00:54:06.880 --> 00:54:12.320 One of our participants has asked if you can tell us a little bit more about your trip 649 00:54:12.320 --> 00:54:13.520 down the Franklin. 650 00:54:13.520 --> 00:54:16.640 What was that like? 651 00:54:16.640 --> 00:54:22.440 I saw someone was asking if it was as arduous as it looked. 652 00:54:22.440 --> 00:54:27.400 And well, yeah, I can say it was and not least because we were also shooting a film while 653 00:54:27.400 --> 00:54:28.400 doing it. 654 00:54:28.400 --> 00:54:32.480 But I mean, it's an amazing place. 655 00:54:32.480 --> 00:54:37.920 It takes, it took us about 10 days to do it and it's a commitment because once you're 656 00:54:37.920 --> 00:54:42.040 on the river, if you decide that you need to leave the river then you're still looking 657 00:54:42.040 --> 00:54:46.320 at a couple of days walking out from only a few spots along the way. 658 00:54:46.320 --> 00:54:49.240 So there's no mobile reception or anything like that. 659 00:54:49.240 --> 00:54:54.480 We had to have all of our gear with us for that entire 10 days. 660 00:54:54.480 --> 00:55:02.360 But it's the arduousness and the connection with nature that you just sort of have that 661 00:55:02.360 --> 00:55:07.200 you kind of delve into within a couple of days and being in that place. 662 00:55:07.200 --> 00:55:13.520 You just see so much and you just really experience all the colors and the bush and all the species 663 00:55:13.520 --> 00:55:15.200 that are around you in that life. 664 00:55:15.200 --> 00:55:18.760 And you can't come out of that without feeling changed in some way. 665 00:55:18.760 --> 00:55:23.600 I really think it's worthwhile, I think, for people to do of any sort, if getting out to 666 00:55:23.600 --> 00:55:25.280 nature of any sort. 667 00:55:25.280 --> 00:55:30.360 But you know, if you are capable of getting into the Franklin, I recommend it so highly. 668 00:55:30.360 --> 00:55:35.080 It's just an absolutely extraordinary adventure for anyone. 669 00:55:35.080 --> 00:55:41.280 I can see your passion, Oliver, there and your joy for, you know, that it's bringing 670 00:55:41.280 --> 00:55:44.560 back memories of you traveling down the river. 671 00:55:44.560 --> 00:55:48.440 I'm going to come back and ask you another question, but I want to ask Chris a question. 672 00:55:48.440 --> 00:55:53.200 Chris, can you tell me how many people you take on an experience like this when you're 673 00:55:53.200 --> 00:55:55.280 filming on the Franklin River? 674 00:55:55.280 --> 00:55:57.720 What does a crew look like? 675 00:55:57.720 --> 00:55:59.400 It's a good question. 676 00:55:59.400 --> 00:56:04.000 We wanted to keep the crew as small as possible to make Oliver's journey as authentic as possible. 677 00:56:04.000 --> 00:56:11.880 So, but having said that, we had, I think, for memory, I think we had 11 crew. 678 00:56:11.880 --> 00:56:16.760 We had five river guides who were experts at taking untrained people like us down the 679 00:56:16.760 --> 00:56:19.400 river to keep us safe. 680 00:56:19.400 --> 00:56:25.640 And they know every rock in every corner, every tree on the river is quite amazing. 681 00:56:25.640 --> 00:56:27.880 Our friends at Franklin River after. 682 00:56:27.880 --> 00:56:32.240 And then we had, I think, yeah, so that meant there were six of us, including Oliver. 683 00:56:32.240 --> 00:56:35.440 So we had Casimir, our director. 684 00:56:35.440 --> 00:56:37.320 We had Ben, our cinematographer. 685 00:56:37.320 --> 00:56:40.400 I was on, I was, I had had two jobs. 686 00:56:40.400 --> 00:56:43.920 I was a sound recordist and I was also looking after all the data wrangling at the end of 687 00:56:43.920 --> 00:56:44.920 each day. 688 00:56:44.920 --> 00:56:49.160 So that's taking all the footage off the cameras and backing it all up to make sure it was 689 00:56:49.160 --> 00:56:50.160 all safe. 690 00:56:50.160 --> 00:56:52.720 And we had a couple of others. 691 00:56:52.720 --> 00:56:58.200 We had a drone, a drone cinematographer whose job was it just to fly the drone. 692 00:56:58.200 --> 00:57:03.080 And we had Annie, another producer who was helping us with all the logistics and planning 693 00:57:03.080 --> 00:57:04.580 and everything. 694 00:57:04.580 --> 00:57:07.120 And we also had a stills photographer as well. 695 00:57:07.120 --> 00:57:09.600 So yeah, there was a crew of 11 of us. 696 00:57:09.600 --> 00:57:11.840 So 10 people behind the camera. 697 00:57:11.840 --> 00:57:12.960 But yeah, it doesn't really look like that. 698 00:57:12.960 --> 00:57:15.320 It looks like Oliver was out there on the river all by himself. 699 00:57:15.320 --> 00:57:17.920 But no, we did have a crew. 700 00:57:17.920 --> 00:57:21.280 We were a film production, so we needed to make sure it was safe. 701 00:57:21.280 --> 00:57:23.160 So we had all these guides behind the camera. 702 00:57:23.160 --> 00:57:26.720 The river, I mean, it's, it's worth saying that the river is a very dangerous place. 703 00:57:26.720 --> 00:57:28.200 There's a lot of hazards. 704 00:57:28.200 --> 00:57:33.040 So it's definitely not the kind of place you'll just, any punter can just go down with no 705 00:57:33.040 --> 00:57:34.040 training. 706 00:57:34.040 --> 00:57:37.960 You know, the best way to do it, if you're interested to do the Franklin is to go with 707 00:57:37.960 --> 00:57:38.960 a guide. 708 00:57:38.960 --> 00:57:40.480 So we went with Franklin River rafting. 709 00:57:40.480 --> 00:57:44.480 And there's other, there's other really professional guides that take people down. 710 00:57:44.480 --> 00:57:46.520 And if you ever get the chance, it's a wonderful thing. 711 00:57:46.520 --> 00:57:48.760 You don't need to have much training. 712 00:57:48.760 --> 00:57:49.760 They really look after you. 713 00:57:49.760 --> 00:57:50.760 They feed you. 714 00:57:50.760 --> 00:57:51.760 They keep you safe. 715 00:57:51.760 --> 00:57:54.480 And it allows you just to go along for the ride. 716 00:57:54.480 --> 00:57:56.360 Oh, that's wonderful. 717 00:57:56.360 --> 00:58:00.880 I'm glad to know you don't need much training to be able to go, Chris. 718 00:58:00.880 --> 00:58:09.480 Um, Oliver, I'm, I know this story has significantly influenced your life and your journey. 719 00:58:09.480 --> 00:58:13.600 Can you tell us a little bit more about that? 720 00:58:13.600 --> 00:58:16.600 Oh, wow. 721 00:58:16.600 --> 00:58:24.200 Um, yeah, well, I was thinking about it because, uh, given my family history, the Franklin 722 00:58:24.200 --> 00:58:26.560 protest had sort of always existed. 723 00:58:26.560 --> 00:58:31.760 Um, you know, it was sort of almost the saving of the river was this inevitable history, like 724 00:58:31.760 --> 00:58:36.880 how we sort of talk about, you know, the second world war or all these kinds of points in 725 00:58:36.880 --> 00:58:39.480 time where it's like that was always going to be. 726 00:58:39.480 --> 00:58:43.200 But the actual fact is that it was so close. 727 00:58:43.200 --> 00:58:50.360 And what I really learned diving into the story behind this protest was to realize how 728 00:58:50.360 --> 00:58:53.760 uncertain it was at any given moment. 729 00:58:53.760 --> 00:58:58.720 And nobody knew what the outcome was actually going to be until that final high court case 730 00:58:58.720 --> 00:59:01.040 that we were talking about earlier. 731 00:59:01.040 --> 00:59:05.440 And that's actually given me quite a lot of hope because everything that we face today 732 00:59:05.440 --> 00:59:10.400 with climate change and any issue that anyone listening is, you know, important to somebody's 733 00:59:10.400 --> 00:59:15.200 heart, you don't know the outcome, but it doesn't mean that it's not worth taking a 734 00:59:15.200 --> 00:59:20.400 stand on it because what the Franklin can tell us is that that makes a difference. 735 00:59:20.400 --> 00:59:27.360 Now, Oliver and Chris, I've got one more beautiful question that is in the chat from 736 00:59:27.360 --> 00:59:30.840 Carmel and Perry for you today. 737 00:59:30.840 --> 00:59:35.280 And I'll give you both a chance to answer this one before we wrap up our session. 738 00:59:35.280 --> 00:59:41.440 They're very keen to know how can young people get involved in conservation? 739 00:59:41.440 --> 00:59:43.640 Maybe if we start with Oliver. 740 00:59:43.640 --> 00:59:47.880 Oh, there's a lot of different ways. 741 00:59:47.880 --> 00:59:51.560 I mean, take a stand yourself. 742 00:59:51.560 --> 00:59:52.560 That's great. 743 00:59:52.560 --> 00:59:59.520 If you want to join in with some people that are working on particular issues, like some 744 00:59:59.520 --> 01:00:04.280 of the ones that are really centered towards younger folks, we've got the Australian youth 745 01:00:04.280 --> 01:00:06.280 climate group. 746 01:00:06.280 --> 01:00:08.000 We've got the school strike. 747 01:00:08.000 --> 01:00:13.600 We've got, you know, there's a whole range of different things that pop up in your area. 748 01:00:13.600 --> 01:00:16.680 And where you are locally really matters. 749 01:00:16.680 --> 01:00:21.160 Everything actually that would have kind of brushed over a little bit, but I just wanted 750 01:00:21.160 --> 01:00:25.800 to bring attention back to the fact that on the Franklin, there were a number of people 751 01:00:25.800 --> 01:00:31.000 in straw and in Tasmania that were really fighting for saving that river and especially 752 01:00:31.000 --> 01:00:34.920 in straw and itself without those people, we wouldn't have been able to get the protesters 753 01:00:34.920 --> 01:00:35.920 up there. 754 01:00:35.920 --> 01:00:41.400 So we had, you know, the boat drivers and people running the stores there and people 755 01:00:41.400 --> 01:00:45.520 with their properties that they let people kind of come and camp and they were supporting 756 01:00:45.520 --> 01:00:50.640 saving that river because it was absolutely part of who they were knowing what that wilderness 757 01:00:50.640 --> 01:00:54.360 was like just on their doorstep and they wanted to keep it that way. 758 01:00:54.360 --> 01:00:59.720 So taking an action where you are joining a group that's looking at, you know, asking 759 01:00:59.720 --> 01:01:08.000 a question of a politician, challenging what the, what the sort of status quo is. 760 01:01:08.000 --> 01:01:11.080 It doesn't always have to be the way that it seems like it is. 761 01:01:11.080 --> 01:01:14.960 So you can always step up and and put a little bit of pressure on and ask some questions 762 01:01:14.960 --> 01:01:17.640 and get out there and experience some nature. 763 01:01:17.640 --> 01:01:22.400 And it's also good for making friends and getting in with like minded groups. 764 01:01:22.400 --> 01:01:23.400 Lovely. 765 01:01:23.400 --> 01:01:25.240 Thank you all of our Chris. 766 01:01:25.240 --> 01:01:26.840 Would you like to add to that? 767 01:01:26.840 --> 01:01:34.400 Yeah, I'm reminded of advice that Bob Brown gave that I always remember is you don't, 768 01:01:34.400 --> 01:01:38.560 if you to get into conservation, you don't have to be an activist, you know, you know, 769 01:01:38.560 --> 01:01:41.280 you don't have to be right out on the streets getting arrested every day. 770 01:01:41.280 --> 01:01:43.840 I mean, if that's what you're into, you can totally do that. 771 01:01:43.840 --> 01:01:47.000 You can join groups like XR and be quite out there. 772 01:01:47.000 --> 01:01:50.840 But I think the key thing for a lot of people, it's maybe a bit daunting and there's so 773 01:01:50.840 --> 01:01:53.080 many other ways you can get involved. 774 01:01:53.080 --> 01:01:58.000 And I think what Bob Brown says is think about what, what, what's your special thing that 775 01:01:58.000 --> 01:01:59.280 you can contribute. 776 01:01:59.280 --> 01:02:05.000 So as we try to outline in the film, you can be if you're an artist or if you're a musician 777 01:02:05.000 --> 01:02:08.160 or in particular, I'm a, I'm a lawyer and a filmmaker. 778 01:02:08.160 --> 01:02:11.360 So I use this is a real passion project for me. 779 01:02:11.360 --> 01:02:16.040 This is kind of my contribution to the whole environmental thing is to make a film that 780 01:02:16.040 --> 01:02:17.880 tries to inspire the people about it. 781 01:02:17.880 --> 01:02:22.840 So whether it's cooking, going down to support other people who are on the front lines with 782 01:02:22.840 --> 01:02:28.880 cooking or just, there's just so many different ways you can get involved in, in environmental 783 01:02:28.880 --> 01:02:29.880 movements. 784 01:02:29.880 --> 01:02:35.160 So yeah, I would second Oliver and finding a group that's doing something that you care 785 01:02:35.160 --> 01:02:38.960 about, whether it's in your local area, working on a really local issue or could be a really 786 01:02:38.960 --> 01:02:40.960 global issue too. 787 01:02:40.960 --> 01:02:44.960 Yeah, just keep in mind that it's, there's not just one type of activism that you can 788 01:02:44.960 --> 01:02:49.880 get involved in so many different ways and contribute your superpower to that. 789 01:02:49.880 --> 01:02:54.600 I really love the way you've summarized that, Chris, you know, that's so important to us 790 01:02:54.600 --> 01:02:58.680 here at the museum as well, that there are lots of ways that you can participate. 791 01:02:58.680 --> 01:03:03.880 And I love that both of you have highlighted linking to your passions, your interests, but 792 01:03:03.880 --> 01:03:09.360 also finding the unique way that you can either support or be able to share your message. 793 01:03:09.360 --> 01:03:12.880 So thank you for both of those final remarks. 794 01:03:12.880 --> 01:03:19.480 It has been an absolute joy, Oliver, Chris, the National Portrait Gallery, Kate having 795 01:03:19.480 --> 01:03:25.040 you with us today and Jess in the studio here with us for this very special event. 796 01:03:25.040 --> 01:03:29.640 Thank you to all of you who connected with us across Australia online and for those that 797 01:03:29.640 --> 01:03:36.880 have contributed to our chat, we really appreciate your comments and we look forward to seeing 798 01:03:36.880 --> 01:03:38.680 what you do next. 799 01:03:38.680 --> 01:03:43.120 So if you would like to have a look at the whole Franklin movie, you can have a look 800 01:03:43.120 --> 01:03:49.280 on the Franklin movie web page, teachers, those at home, there are lots of resources 801 01:03:49.280 --> 01:03:54.240 available that the fantastic Franklin movie team have put together and a special thanks 802 01:03:54.240 --> 01:03:55.240 to Andrea. 803 01:03:55.240 --> 01:04:01.120 For those, you can also head to the Moad Learning website as well and we've dropped some activities 804 01:04:01.120 --> 01:04:03.080 to help you as well. 805 01:04:03.080 --> 01:04:05.200 But thank you for today. 806 01:04:05.200 --> 01:04:09.320 Thank you for your time and we look forward to seeing you at our next digital event. 807 808