Latest News

December 20, 2016

This week a coalition of 25 environment groups is urging Premier Daniel Andrews to abandon his plans to extend the legal exemption given to the native forest logging industry in East Gippsland. The East Gippsland Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) is a 20-year arrangement between...

December 19, 2016

Since the late 1990s the logging industry in Victoria has been exempt from adhering to federal environment laws that protect our nationally threatened wildlife. Only native forest logging gets this special exemption known as a 'regional forest agreement' (RFA) In February 2017 the East...

November 16, 2016

Logging has been stopped for the second time in one week in the Goongerah forest block. Last week VicForests were forced to stop logging at Mt. Jersey after GECO raised concerns with the state government about the threat logging posed to the endangered large...

November 09, 2016

Logging has been stopped by the Department of Environment Land Water and Planning (DELWP) in forest near Goongerah. The forest is habitat for the endangered large brown tree frog (Litoria littlejohni), a species thought to be extinct from Victoria until rediscovered by GECO volunteers...

November 09, 2016

Goongerah Environment Centre (GECO) has sent a report to the state government detailing illegal logging at Mt. Jersey in East Gippsland. GECO are concerned that logging is impacting on habitat for the Endangered large brown tree frog and protected rainforest. The large brown tree...

November 07, 2016

VicForests has placed boundary tapes marking out an area of endangered species habitat on Mt. Jersey, near Goongerah. This area is a stronghold for the endangered Large Brown Tree-frog (Litoria littlejohni). The frog was thought to be possibly extinct from Victoria until last year...

November 03, 2016

Over fifty people converged in Goongerah this weekend for the ninth GECO citizen science survey camp. People from across Gippsland, Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra took part in old growth forest walks, forest carbon accounting surveys, remote fauna camera deployment and data collection, spotlighting surveys...

October 03, 2016

We had a busy time at our citizen science camp last weekend, surveying forests threatened by logging. We deployed five fauna cameras for endangered Spot-tailed Quolls and Long Footed Potoroos, surveyed for Greater Gliders and mapped areas of protected rainforest, all within VicForests scheduled...

September 20, 2016

Goongerah Environment Centre (GECO) has been awarded the Bob Brown Foundation Community Environment Prize as part of Bob Brown’s annual Environmentalist of Year awards.  The awards recognise and encourage the commitment and courage of environmentalists in their pursuit of environmental protection, preservation and justice....

September 07, 2016

Today is National Threatened Species Day, held each year to commemorate the tragic death of the last Tasmanian Tiger that died in captivity in Hobart in 1936. We teamed up with other citizen science groups Wildlife of the Central Highlands (WOTCH) and Fauna and...

August 08, 2016

GECO has submitted a report to the state government this morning detailing a high density of Greater gliders within the controversial 'Abra Cadabra' logging coupe in the Cottonwood Range. This coupe was set aside for conservation by the Victorian Government's Forest Industry Taskforce, but...

July 27, 2016

GECO campaigners Ed Hill and Joe Henderson appeared in the Bairnsdale Magistrates Court today. They’ve been charged with entering a logging area. It is alleged they did so to document and expose logging of protected rainforest.   The charges have now been listed for contested hearing...

June 24, 2016

We conducted a spotlighting survey in the Cottonwood range on Tuesday night and recorded twenty two protected greater gliders.  The survey was conducted in a VicForests logging coupe where logging was due to commence any day. Where more than 10 greater gliders are found...

June 23, 2016

It’s hard to believe the Victorian government would prosecute people for exposing rainforest logging, but that’s precisely what they’ve done. GECO campaigners Ed Hill and Joe Henderson appeared in the Orbost Magistrates Court today. They’ve been charged with entering a logging area. It is...

June 14, 2016

Forty people made the journey to Goongerah for the GECO winter citizen science camp over the long weekend.  People from Melbourne, Canberra, East Gippsland and as far as the USA and Hong Kong joined us for old growth walks, forest carbon accounting practicals, remote...