Protecting the Forest at New Heights

The Story Behind the Little Red Toolangi Treehouse

– Odette Shenfield interviews Hannah Patchett

In 2013, Hannah Patchett spent a month in the Little Red Toolangi Treehouse to protest logging in the Toolangi State Forest. During her time there, she garnered widespread support and national media coverage – the red treehouse became an icon.

Hannah and I went to Primary School together, and hadn’t seen each other since we were twelve. There was a lot to catch up on, but mostly I was dying to find out the story behind the Little Red Toolangi Treehouse.

We met at a café in Northcote, Melbourne. Over tea and orange juice, she told me about life in the Treehouse and her experience with environmental activism. She is an unassuming activist – striking in her humility.

O: Can you tell me about the Little Red Toolangi Treehouse? What motivated you to live alone in a 30 metre high treehouse in them middle of the forest?

H: At the end of September 2013 I received a message from a friend that read, “I want to build a treetop shack in Toolangi and get you to sit in it indefinitely. Interested?”

That’s how it started, it wasn’t really my idea, I was just the person who they thought of. I’m not allowed to say who the friend was, because when they took it down, they were looking to charge someone for the ownership of it, and they never found out.

O: What did you think when you received the message?

H: At first I was scared, because I had no idea what it was going to be like and what challenges I’d be faced with. But it’s one of those things you just can’t say no to.

I got the message around the end of September, and went up on October 23rd.

On October 23rd I stayed my first of what would be 30 nights in what had become The Little Red Toolangi Treehouse. I had spent the past year tree climbing in the hope that an opportunity like this would come up. As well as tree climbing I became immersed in the campaign to save the forests of Toolangi from clearfell logging. For those who don’t know, Toolangi is a state forest located approximately 60 kilometres northeast of Melbourne’s CBD. It’s some of the last remaining habitat of the critically endangered Leadbeater’s Possum, and home to Mountain Ash the second tallest tree species in the world. They used to be the tallest before they were logged.

I wanted to bring attention to the scientific research of Professor David Lindenmayer, who has researched clear fell logging in the Toolangi area. He has found that extensive logging can increase the severity of bushfires in mountain ash forests and contributes to the rapid extinction of our wildlife specifically the Leadbeater’s Possum. Toolangi is very close to where the 2009 bushfires happened. Lindenmayer’s research has indicated that logging contributed to those fires. As a young person concerned about climate change, it also seemed crazy to cut down these forests that store huge amounts of carbon.

I couldn’t say no to this opportunity because I understand the value of our environment. I must admit I also loved the idea of living in a tree house.