By JESSE GRAHAM
MEMBERS of a Toolangi anti-logging group will front court on Thursday to answer charges of trespassing and disrupting logging work last year.
Eight members of the Knitting Nannas of Toolangi (KNOT) will appear at Ringwood Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 21 November at 10am.
The group received summons earlier this year for the hearing, which was originally scheduled for Seymour Magistrates’ Court on 31 October.
Charges were filed by the Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI), which claims that the group entered a logging coupe illegally on 19 September 2012.
The charge reads that unauthorised activity in a public safety zone is contrary to the Safety on Public Land Act 2004.
A KNOT representative said the group had entered the South End logging coupe near Toolangi on 19 September 2012 as part of the group’s protest of logging in the area.
The representative said that forestry workers stopped their work and contacted DEPI and the police, but then told the group to leave immediately to avoid charges being pressed.
They said the group did leave immediately and thought the matter was finished, until they received the summons in September.
The Department of Environment and Primary Industries (DEPI) was contacted for a comment on the court summons and the claims of the KNOT representative.
DEPI agreed to comment, but was unable to reply by deadline.
For a full report on the hearing, see next week’s Mail.
