Furries, Sawmills and Old Growth: Inside Kirsha Kaechele's OnlyFerns

Artist Kirsha Kaechele has launched OnlyFerns, an OnlyFans portal selling forest-themed adult videos to pay Tasmanian logging workers to leave old-growth trees standing. The project features 12 vignettes filmed in Tasmanian sawmills and private forests, and it premiered as a feature film in Melbourne last week.

The production already has a singular scene behind it. Forestry workers, hired as crew for the day, carried furries — performers in animal suits that can cost thousands of dollars — through mossy undergrowth so no tails dragged in the mud. The director then closed the set for a group sex scene.

"They were just adorable. Even when they're doing adult acts, it still just looks really cute and kind of innocuous," Kaechele told the Guardian.

How does the money reach the forests?

Kaechele, married to Museum of Old and New Art (Mona) founder David Walsh and known as the museum's first lady, describes OnlyFerns as an "artwork-cum-economic engine intended to protect Tasmania's ancient forests". Subscribers pay to view the videos; the revenue is intended to compensate forest workers for not felling trees. Instead of logging, they would build boardwalks and artwork in the logging coupes.

Mona and Kaechele covered all production costs, including paying creators and crew, plus a documentary and book. Sawmills will manufacture the artwork. "Ensuring that there are no hours lost is critical to the success of the project," she said. "Most environmental campaigns have set up an us-them scenario, where workers are excluded from protection. That is not pragmatic, it ruffles feathers. And it is inelegant."

Sustainable Timber Tasmania, formerly Forestry Tasmania, said it is "having discussions with Mona about their ambitions in relation to forest management … but we are also mindful that we need to remain within our charter as a Government Business Enterprise". It called the project "an amazing initiative that has brought stakeholders together".

Revenue projections remain unknown. "The scale of what we build will depend on our success (and the generosity of my husband and other philanthropists who may or may not support it by subscribing)," Kaechele said.

Who is filming?

Around twenty OnlyFans creators flew into Burnie for the shoots, housed by a local near the sawmills. Creator Kellie Panther, who has a forked tongue among other body modifications, recalled the small plane and fellow passengers offering a knowing, "Oh, hey." Panther once worked as a stripper to fund her environmental science degree and lives in bushland outside Melbourne.

The scenarios role-play the power dynamics of Tasmania's long forest wars: a "logger" in hi-vis amid the ferns, a dominatrix pegging an environmentalist among woodchips, Panther as a hippy activist dragged through mud by shibari artist Rebel Roper. The feature stitches scenes together with Kaechele as a sawmill sex-line receptionist, in vintage Twin Peaks styling. At the 18+, invitation-only Melbourne premiere, crowds whooped at each creator's opening — and voices called out "Save the trees!" to break the tension.

Why are environmental groups angry?

OnlyFerns grew out of the Forest Congress, which Kaechele formed in 2023 to unite conservationists, scientists, Palawa elders and forestry representatives. In July, the Wilderness Society withdrew, saying the logging industry had taken "zero steps … to correct their poor commercial and industrial practices". The Bob Brown Foundation, which boycotted from the start, called it a "pro-logging plan", saying protection of "3 or 4%" of old growth "leaves 96% of the forests to be clear-felled and incinerated along with their wildlife".

"Ending this tragedy is not performance art," the statement continued.

Kaechele defends targeting only old growth. "We are selecting forests for which there is no doubt [on either side]," she said. "I want the villain to become the hero … but I don't want it to impact you negatively. So how do we do this?"

What does this change for Tasmania's forests? That depends on subscriptions and philanthropy — and on whether a model paying loggers to build boardwalks can outbid the chainsaws.