First Nations sovereignty resides in Country, and First Nations are sovereign over their Country. First Nations believe they have a responsibility to protect Country from exploitation of natural resources that has widespread negative impacts on ecosystems. One such form of exploitation is the clearing of native forests.

Although the Victorian government announced a halt to native forest clearing in January 2024, various types of clearing continue in the state. One of these types of clearing is known by another name: “Forest Gardening.”

Forest gardening takes place in the Wombat State Forest, west of Melbourne, Victoria. Logging operations in the Wombat State Forest were introduced by the Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation (trading as DJAARA) as being subject to the principles of forest gardening. The term “forest gardening” is not a First Nations concept. The term and concept were first used by Robert Hart, an English horticulturalist (Whitefield 1996), but are now applied to what were previously industrial logging operations.

The term ‘forest gardening’ entered the Victorian forestry lexicon following severe storms that devastated areas of the Wombat Forest in 2021. Following these storms, government logging company VicForests entered into an agreement with the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action to remove fallen trees (VicForests 2022b).

VicForests informed DJAARA of its plans to fell logs from the storm-affected forests (Dawson 2022). VicForests then partnered with DJAARA to fell Wombat Forest (VicForests 2022a). At that time, DJAARA announced its Forest Horticulture Strategy, stating that it was “pleased to appoint VicForests to undertake the Nationwide Safeguarding” of these post-storm felling operations. This was made clear in press releases from both partners in the collaboration, with DJAARA stating that the felling operations “are undertaken through the application of forest horticulture principles and Nationwide Safeguarding in the removal of driftwood.”

The formal Forest Horticulture and Contemporary Cultural Thinning Strategy was launched on 13 December 2022. The strategy clearly states that it will use Western industrial practices, including what it terms ‘cultural thinning’. Notably, the head of the Victorian branch of Forestry Australia (formerly the Institute of Foresters) helped launch the Forest Horticulture Strategy (DJAARA and Wartaka 2022). The Forest Horticulture Strategy also had support from the CFMEU.

During the logging operation at Wombat Forest, heavy machinery was used to cut down a large proportion of the trees in the stands, transport the felled trees to landfills, load the felled trees onto trucks and drive them to sawmills and firewood yards. The Forest Gardening operation taking place in 2022–2023 is virtually identical to the conventional industrial logging that has previously taken place at Wombat Forest and elsewhere across Victoria (and many other parts of south-eastern Australia).

The primary justification for forest gardening and cultural thinning in Australian forests is that they are “overgrown.” That is, there are too many trees and the understory is too dense. In contrast, the forest before the British invasion was open and park-like. While open and park-like conditions may be appropriate for some drier forest environments, they are not appropriate for tall, humid forests or many other types of vegetation, as the seminal book Victorian bush. If intensive (so-called cultural) thinning is applied in these wetter forest ecosystems, it will remove key habitat (such as understory vegetation) for a wide range of species and thus have a major negative impact on forest biodiversity (Lindenmayer et al. 2009). It will also likely generate large amounts of carbon dioxide emissions (especially since most of the wood will be used as fuelwood and pulpwood). These logging operations may also make forests more flammable, thereby increasing the risk of fire.

We are not arguing that the tall, wet forests were “wilderness.” Absolutely not. First People traveled through these forests and maintained paths in them to reach places important to them. However, these forests were used differently than other areas. It is essential that First Peoples reclaim Traditional Knowledge and seek to apply it. However, we argue that such Traditional Practices would not include Western forestry practices, which have historically been intensive resource exploitation, often with significant social, economic, and environmental costs. Forest gardening, as practiced to date, is a “recent inventive practice” and “black lining.” It risks becoming another form of corporate exploitation; in this case, the indigenous logging industry has become associated with First Peoples as a way to legitimize continued access to logging.

It is important to understand what is happening with Forest Gardening, especially as there are active plans to expand it in Wombat Forest and elsewhere in Victoria. The proposed expansion of Forest Gardening includes the upgrade of the sawmill (Wuka 2022). For example, in October 2023 a business case, prepared by an international forestry consultancy, was submitted to the Victorian Government by Dja Dja Wurrung Corporation for $14.47 million to expand Forest Gardening in Wombat Forest (Wuka 2022). There have been proposals to start Forest Gardening in other states such as Tasmania and New South Wales.

Many First Nations have identified ways to restore and manage their Country through land rights, self-determination and cultural practices. Industrial forestry has significantly degraded forests and endangered many species. Continued logging will only exacerbate these problems. On this basis, we strongly believe that there are better ways to assert Country sovereignty than through logging (even if misleadingly called Forest Gardening). First Nations people need to be on Country to reclaim Care and restore forests where they have been degraded by previous exploitation, to control wildlife, to manage fires and to restore cultural and ecosystem resilience. These are more closely linked to healing and caring for Country. Such Traditional Care would have much stronger public support than continued logging.

Log yard previously used for timber collection and transport for felling under the VicForests and DJAARA partnership known as ‘Forest Gardening’.

Dawson, M. 2022. Rethinking strategic forestry collaborations and partnerships. Presentation at the Forestry Australia 2022 Symposium.

DJAARA and Wartaka. 2022. Galk-galk Dhelkunya — Forest Horticulture Strategy 2022–2034. Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation, Melbourne, Australia.

Lindenmayer, D. B., J. Wood, D. Michael, M. Crane, C. MacGregor, R. Montague-Drake, and L. McBurney. 2009. Are gullies best for biodiversity? An empirical study of Australian wet forest types. Forest Ecology and Management 258:169-177.

VicForests. 2022a. Dja Dja Wurrung will work with VicForests to restore country.

VicForests. 2022b. Storm Timber Recovery – VicForests Project Plan. VicForests, Melbourne, Victoria.

Whitefield, P. 1996. How to Create a Woodland Garden. Permanent Publications, Hampshire, England.

Wuka, DB 2022. Case study: Forest horticulture in the Dja Dja Wurrung State Forests. Djaara Djaara Balaki Wuka, Melbourne.