LOST IN THE WOODS
Australia, 2023, 80 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Daniel Clarke.
Daniel Clarke was named South Australia’s journalist of the year, 2023. He has brought his investigative journalist talents to this documentary, spending time with the inhabitants of Kangaroo Island, off the South Australian coast.
The documentary is an investigation, offering the audience a variety of opinions, voices, locals, parliamentarians, business representatives, farmer. It is over to the audience to evaluate the credibility of each of the speakers, appreciate their particular perspective, note the contrasts in perspectives, political decisions, economic decisions.
Kangaroo Island has been a centre for the development of farming, with some land clearing, in the first part of the 20th century. With its wildlife, it is also a centre for tourism. This film highlights the farming and agricultural aspects of the 20th century, the change of policy in planting thousands and thousands of blue gums in the early 2000s but their rapid growth, many seeing them as a weed, a pest, with toxic leaves, leading to rapid growth, farmers selling some of their land for profit for the extension of these trees.
There were discussions about the timber industry, but the island has no port and there were many discussions about two locations, the economics, the suitability, distance from the timber and logging, aspects and the holiday homes of the wealthy and politicians. There are fiery exchanges through the commentators throughout the film, especially concerning the Deputy Premier of South Australia, her decisions, her resignation.
Needless to say, the farmers are down-to-earth, earthy in their comments, their memories, the regrets. The main representative of business is a very smooth talker, saying that he is seeking the truth, sometimes casually dismissive of the comments of the locals. There is the editor of the local paper, a local media politician, mutual criticisms. And, more lately, environmentalists, the issue of clearing the logging, the preservation of animals, the status of koalas and their being considered the rabbits of the trees…
What brought all this to a head was a lightning strike in late 2019, coinciding with the devastating spate of bushfires all over Australia, and extraordinary destruction. The tree plantations went up in smoke and the consequent discussions about clearing the land, the unsuitability of the blue gums (except, as one says, the need of toilet paper during the pandemic), the role of the companies who bought the land and their responsibilities in clearing or not.
Throughout the film, informative aspects and statistics are provided, the amount of land burnt, the number of trees, only two people killed in the fire, surprisingly, the eventual statements by the company he declined to take part in the film about intentions for clearing the land.
A significant documentary for an Australian audience, for international audiences especially in the context of climate change, consideration of land use, carbon emissions, logging, environmental issues, in danger, the culling of koalas…
