Like Father, Like Son: Retracing the Oar Strokes of the Greatest Aussie Enviro Protest Ever
Tasmania's Hydro Commission wanted to dam the Franklin in the 1980s - and thousands of protestors mobilised to stop it. Oliver Cassidy’s Dad, Mike, was arrested on the river a week before Oliver was born. Now, he recreates his late father’s rafting journey in a search for deeper understanding.
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2 years ago
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What’s Franklin about? Franklin follows eighth-generation Tasmanian and environmentalist Oliver Cassidy on a solo rafting trip down Tassie’s beautiful yet remote Franklin River. His goal? To retrace his late father’s 14-day expedition in the early 1980s to attend the most significant environmental protest in Australia's history - and to say goodbye.
What’s the key social insight within Franklin? There are two heartbeats to Franklin: the personal and the political. Like sister documentary The Giants, Franklin proves that even up against powerful governments and corporate forces, a small group of strong-willed people CAN make a real & lasting difference. But for our rushed, modern lives, Oliver’s personal story might be the more relevant takeaway: that we can all absorb nature if we choose to, and its mythic qualities can help us heal - if we just take the time to reconnect.
What social causes does Franklin explore? Environment. Democracy & Politics.
Discover other top movies & TV shows that explore these themes, and more, at good.film.
Powerful, wild and treacherous… meets magical, ancient and serene. It might sound like a battle between Yoda and Vader, but we’re really describing Tasmania’s mighty Franklin river… the site of an infamous 1980s battle.
It was summer 1983 when teacher and environmentalist Michael Cassidy embarked on a two-week journey to raft the Franklin. Mike was heading to join the blockade of protestors who’d gained nationwide media coverage, fighting against the hydro-electric dam that Tassie’s government was determined to build. If the dam went ahead, it would hand a death sentence to dozens of local species, and render the river ecosystem irreparably changed. But the protests worked. Australians saw the beauty of the region, and voted out the government that sought to destroy it.
Just before he died of cancer, Mike handed down his Franklin river paddle to his son, Oliver. “He was definitely handing down a challenge,” Oliver says. “People have died on this trip.” Michael was nearly one of them: mid-journey, he was smashed against the rocks by unexpected swell, and rain squalls shot the river level up by metres overnight, making the rapids a rushing deathtrap. We hear it all first-hand from Mike’s own diary entries, brought to life in smooth narration by veteran Aussie actor Hugo Weaving.
Oliver describes his loving Dad as a nurturer, an adventurer, and an environmental teacher. He paddled the Franklin not just to join the fight, but because if the government got their way, it could be the last time he’d get the chance. Michael Cassidy was arrested on that blockade, along with 1,271 others - Australia’s biggest environmental protest ever. Just days later, Oliver was born. “Somehow,” Oliver admits, “the Franklin exists in myth for me now”.
Franklin follows Oliver as he reshapes that myth into reality: “yearning to honour him”, he takes the same river journey as his Dad, a decade after his death. He literally touches and navigates the exact same spots. Through some great use of archive footage, we get to travel back and forth in time; it’s like we take both trips simultaneously, with the father’s journey of the past an echo of his son’s in the present - distanced by time, and yet now joined.
OAR INSPIRING: Oliver’s father Mike rafted the Franklin river in 1983 to join the blockade. He was arrested the week before Oliver was born.
Franklin is streaming in Australia on SBS On Demand.
What causes does Franklin explore?
If you caught our recent guide to The Giants, you’ll be well-versed in how the Franklin became the white-hot epicentre of politics & environmentalism clashing in the 1980s. With its towering rock formations, ice-cold waterfalls, and 3000-year-old trees, it’s no wonder “the serene valley” of Bob Brown’s backyard was a hallowed place for First Nations elders, and a respected wilderness retreat for nature lovers.
Brown himself describes Rock Island Bend (the spot made famous by photographer Peter Dombrovskis) as “an ancient rock sentinel with a commanding presence”, and the awe that’s felt by Oliver as he reaches it - pictured at the top of this guide - is palpable. It becomes a thread strongly woven through Franklin: how our environment in its natural form can give us so much more emotionally than what we mine from it physically.
Bob points out this irony in a riverside chat with Oliver. A general practice doctor in the 80s, he was seeing patients with more and more stress in their lives. It seemed like madness to him that a beautiful, natural resource - one that provides us with relaxation and wonder - could be destroyed by a government to make a dam for electricity… to power, yep, more work and more stress. We were going backwards, not forwards. “The best answer to human anxiety,” Bob says, “is re-engagement with nature… and the Franklin provides that, if we look after it.”
This political battle is keenly retold in Franklin. As one TV report states: “This is the only world heritage area in any country owned by an authority which wants to flood it, protected by a government which arrests people who go to see it.” You get a strong sense of the stubbornness of the figureheads in suits vs. the (equally un-back-downable) will of the people. A Hobart protest stretched the length of 8 city blocks and took 25 minutes to march past any one point. With cameras watching on, the ‘dam plan’ became the hottest election topic in the nation - leading directly to a change of federal government, voted into power in a landslide.
NO DAM WAY: pro-wilderness demonstrators march through the city of Hobart, Tasmania in 1981.
What’s the key scene in Franklin?
The crunch point happens when the Hydro-Electric Commission sends bulldozers, floating down the river on huge pontoons, to the areas they want to flatten. For the protestors, “that was the beginning of the real war… this ancient place was never going to be the same again”. The Aboriginal elders of the area describe what they saw with simple grace: that “the land would cry” at the destruction. Watching today, we can feel that pain.
It’s hard to imagine forming a floating barricade against heavy machinery with only flesh, bone & rubber rafts. Luckily, we don’t have to imagine - director Kasimir Burgess and the team behind Franklin have a treasure trove of amazing archive footage to work with. The 16mm film stock immediately puts you in the context of the fight.
But what looks like a scene of great loss becomes a catalyst for victory. Bob Brown sums up how this pivotal moment fired up the activists: “they were invading this world heritage wilderness and we were losing. It was heart-wrenching, but it built a kind of defiance into the camp… now I’m even less inclined to give up and go away.”
We’d ascribe a similar defiance to Oliver Cassidy, too. The other key scene comes as he talks about his relationship with his Dad, and why retracing his Franklin journey is so important to him. It’s not just a tribute, or a farewell: it’s a rebirth. Through lots of great family film footage, we see Oliver growing up with his Dad - being introduced to nature, and spending time on the water - but we don’t see him as a young boy. Because Oliver is a transgender man, and his transition took place after his father passed away. It lends a whole new weight to Oliver’s Franklin journey: more than a mere rite of passage, it’s a way to say goodbye to his Dad as the man he’s become today.
ACCLAIMED: Franklin has been nominated for the AACTA Award for Best Documentary.
What do the reviews say about Franklin?
- “…an utterly enthralling documentary about one of the most incendiary periods in Australian history.” ~ FilmInk
- “A gorgeous film … a visual tapestry” ~ Sydney Morning Herald
- “Awe-inspiring … a tear-jerking testament to the power of nature” ~ Time Out
Fully on board, or disagree big time? We’d love to hear your take. Leave a review to share your thoughts with the good.film community!
Oliver is an 8th-generation Tasmanian, passionate conservationist, activist, and transgender person. He co-founded the Tasmanian Conservation Trust in 2015.
So… why should I watch Franklin?
Not everyone can crack out the kayak for the weekend. So if it’s been a while since you’ve hit the water - or even sat under a tree - Franklin and its poetic scenes of nature could be just the ticket for some enviro-relaxation.
But more than that, it’s a beautiful reminder of what’s really valuable to us as a species - you know, the whole “you can’t eat money” thing. Nature enriches us, grounds us and connects us, to our environment and to each other - even if, like Oliver, our loved ones may no longer be physically with us.
As Oliver completes the journey, we feel his bond with his Dad. Wearing the same knitted beanie bearing his name that his father wore in 1983, we see the same surroundings, the exact same elements: through Mike’s eyes, on film he shot himself, then through Oliver’s eyes, in crisp and beautiful HD. It’s a somewhat magical time-warp. You can blame the misty Tassie rainforest, but you might not have a dry eye when Oliver says his last goodbye at an ancient tree and leaves that beanie behind.
The Franklin protest was the largest fight and the 80s biggest win for Australia’s environmental future. We’re left with the feeling that our future battles for our planet could be far easier… if only we learned from our past. In the words of Bob Brown, “nature will be there long after we human beings have done our worst. Won’t it be great if we’ve done our best, and we’re there with it.”
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