Chaelundi National Park is north-west of Dorrigo and Grafton, approximately 600 kilometres (370 mi) by road north of Sydney.

[1] The park was proclaimed in January 1997, on land formerly designated as a State-owned production forest.

A series of cases were brought in the NSW Land and Environment Court between 1989 and 1991 by members of the North East Forest Alliance in order to protect the forest located near Dorrigo from continued logging.

One key case concerned the interpretation of s.99 of the National Parks and Wildlife Act, 1974 (NSW), which stated that it was an offence to "take or kill any endangered fauna".

These legal cases were combined with an on-site blockade of logging work, the blockade being undertaken by experienced and inexperienced green activists and locals many of whom camped in the forest; using techniques such as chaining protesters inside concrete pipes and up six-metre-high (20 ft) tripods.