The legal battle and stress has had a profound impact on his life and destroyed his financial security, he says. He is receiving mental health treatment.

He agreed to surrender the .22 and the air rifle and abide by an apprehended violence order and the charges against him were dropped.

Finally, on Monday this week Graham received some vindication in relation to the incident that began the ordeal.

In Coffs Harbour Local Court the forestry contractors Michael Luigi Vitali and Rodney James Hearfield were found guilty of assaulting Graham and his companion Andre Johnston that afternoon on the road on the Dorrigo Plateaux three and a half years ago.

No conviction was recorded.

Graham is satisfied. “I don’t hold any grudges, I didn’t want them punished. I just wanted the truth of it to be acknowledged.”

Higginson is still appalled by what happened. Antagonism between loggers and protesters was neither rare nor new, she told the Herald, but there was no place for violence. What she still believes to have been collusion between police, loggers and the FCNSW reflected a dangerous culture in which protesters are perceived by the government to be suspect automatically, while those who profit from resource extraction were above suspicion.

Greensill Brothers Logging declined to comment on the incident this week, while a spokesman for Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty, who is responsible for FCNSW, said there was no place for violence from any staff or contractors, but referred further questions to the corporation itself.

In as statement FCNSW said it expected all staff and contractors to behave to the “highest standards of ethical behaviour, integrity and professional conduct in the course of their work” . That day at Wild Cattle Creek, the statement said, the contractors’ behaviour was completely unacceptable, though its own staff member behaved appropriately and reported the matter to police.

Even as the court proceedings wound to a close, Graham found himself at odds with loggers again.

In December Forestry Corp surveyors appeared at one of his bush properties, 400 hectares of old-growth rainforest that adjoins the Clouds Creek State Forest, and which contains habitat trees for endangered greater gliders. They carefully marked the border with stakes.

Then, a week before Monday’s hearing, a bulldozer crossed the border, gouged out a path 15 metres onto his land and toppled a New England Blackbutt that four nights earlier Graham had recorded greater gliders feeding in.

They left the tree lying across his access road.

By way of apology a FCNSW regional manager has since written to Graham to say that contractors had “identified a hazardous tree” which needed to “be removed to ensure safety in the vicinity”.

“It was determined that the only safe way to remove the tree and the safety hazard was to enter the small distance into the neighbouring property to push the base of the tree with a dozer, thereby allowing the head to come down out of the trees, within the forest, in a relatively slow and safe manner.

“On reflection, Forestry Corporation and the contractor should have sought to make contact with the landholder prior to entering the property and undertaking the work.”

Graham reads it differently.