Tasmania, 2007.

Timber company, Gunns, has recently announced plans for a pulp mill in the Tamar Valley, near Launceston on Tamania's north coast. The $2.3 billion dollar pulp mill becomes the focus of intense criticism from Tasmania's strident Green movement and also Mum & Dad environmentalists concerned by the adverse effect of forest clearing and pollution. Gunns attempts to silence protest by filing a writ against 20 Tasmanian activists who henceforth become known as the Gunns 20. In August of 2007 Tasmanian photographer, Stu Gibson, takes surfer, Jye Johanneson, up to the mouth of the Tamar Valley where the pollution from the pulp mill would meet Bass Strait. With a statement making board spray and bouncy windswell the two let their feelings be known.

Fast forward five years...

In September 2012 Gunns places itself into voluntary administration following a $1 billion loss the previous financial year. The news almost certainly spells the end of the 137-year-old company. Likewise, it almost certainly spells the end of the controversial Bell Bay Pulp Mill meaning the northern Tasmanian rivermouths will be free of dioxins and other pollutants from the mill.

All photos Stu Gibson. Stu is now running photographic website, The Collective.