Like coral reefs across the globe the forests, woodlands and coastal heath of south western Australia are undergoing a ‘bleaching” due to rapidly changing climatic conditions. Scientists had warned that this was a possibility after observing a similar event in 2011 in Western Australia’s northern jarrah forest.
We are currently witnessing another collapse, but this time it is far more widespread and sections of these unique and ancient forests may never recover.
So far the brown off streches more than 1000km and has destroyed an estimated 100,000 hectares of vegetation, an amount equal to more than 53 Rottnest Islands or more than 250 Kings Parks.
Meanwhile Western Australia still does not have a 2030 emissions reduction target and some of the world’s biggest gas projects are in the pipeline
Browned Off will investigate the extent of this growing ecological disaster and what we can all do to turn this situation around.
Western Australia’s south west is known as one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots. Will we act in time to reverse this current downwood spiral?
This is the final in a trilogy of feature films that tell the story of our forest ecosystems in crisis. It follows Cry of the Forests (2020), which looked at the issue of logging and mining in Western Australia’s native forests and Black Cockatoo Crisis (2022), which told the story of our unfolding biodiversity crisis through the plight of endangered and threatenened black cockatoos.
Jane Hammond is a life-long environmental activist, an independent documentary filmmaker and freelance journalist. She specializes in stories of environmental justice, action on climate change and social affairs.
Jane has made four long form documentary films. Her most recent, Black Cockatoo Crisis, released in 2022, was recognised as a change maker during its production with the 2021 Brian Beaton Award for Social Impact. Black Cockatoo Crisis went on to win the Change Award for Social Impact at the 2023 Adelaide Film Festival and is currently streaming on SBS On Demand. Jane’s documentary Cry of the Forests – A Western Australian Story, released in November 2020, was instrumental is raising awareness and changing public opinion on logging in WA. After a strong social impact campaign around the film the WA Government announced in 2021 that all native forest logging in the state would end by 2024.
