image: stoppress.com.au

Over the past few months, a little film Gasland has been doing a round of screenings on the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane and drawing good crowds.  It tells the story of American banjo player and filmmaker Josh Fox’s gradual discovery of the ominous extent of the underground gas industry in the US, how it had somehow, during the George W Bush/Dick Cheney era managed to make itself exempt from The Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and other protective legislation.

Click the image to watch the video on YouTube

It tells of groundwater so contaminated with gas that it could be ignited with a cigarette lighter and of the toxic nature of many of the chemicals used to fracture underground rock and allow gas to move to the surface.  It alarmingly portrayed the health impacts from both air and water pollution by the more than 500 chemicals in the fracking fluid (or fraccing), many of which enter groundwater or even become airborne when contaminated water (the industry calls it “produced water”, it sounds nicer) is misted to enhance evaporation.

The film had won a major documentary award at the Sundance Film Festival. Its pre-publicity described it as “incredibly inspiring”. I found it ominous and disturbing.  While all the audience were horrified at the American situation, there was a dangling question as to what was happening right here, in southeast Queensland.

It seemed the best way to find out was to do exactly what Josh Fox had done…. hit the road, a three-day information-gathering and film-making trip that my daughter Arkin and I hoped would shed some light on the local situation.

First stop was Kingaroy, the agricultural hub of the South Burnett.  We caught up with John and Therese Dalton who live 10 minutes drive out of Kingaroy and adjacent to the Cougar Energy Trial Underground Coal Gasification plant, UGC as we would come to know it.

The Cougar operation had just been shut down by the QLD’s Environmental Protection Agency. We needed to know the background.

John and Therese put us up in their beautiful strawbale cottage and while the full moon rose over the expansive Kingaroy skyline John outlined the local situation.  He explained that the Cougar operation involved burning coal underground and collecting the gas produced and that, being a “trial”, it had not even required an Environmental Impact Assessment.

While the potential was there to burn some 20 000 tonnes of coal in a deposit that reached right to the outskirts of Kingaroy, the plant, after months of setting up, only actually ran for five days before it was stopped by John described as a “catastrophic incident”.

There is mixed scientific opinion as to whether this was an explosion or an underground collapse, but the result was that benzene and toluene found their way into the groundwater as well as into the fatty tissue of cattle grazing nearby. The EPA has stepped in and ordered the mine to shut down although Cougar Energy has appealed this decision.

John’s neighbour Damien O’Sullivan explained his incredulity at finding that the Environmental Protection Agency had approved the trial without even having visited the site. He explained that the underground coal gasification process had even been banned in the US and described it as “a dirty filthy process which should not be used”.

Although the Cougar operation had been stopped, listening to both John and Damien didn’t exactly fill us with confidence about the role of the state’s Environmental Protection Agency. It was as if they’d been asked to look the other way!  I couldn’t help feeling that Cougar might have been a sort of sacrificial lamb and bigger operations might be causing problems elsewhere.

Further west, particularly around Tara and Chinchilla , a different process, CSG, coal seam gas, was moving from the exploratory stage  into production. I’d interviewed Friends of the Earth campaigner Drew Hutton after the Gasland screening in Maleny and he’d sent shivers down my spine when he told me that the situation in Australia, southeast Queensland in particular, was every bit as alarming as what had been portrayed in Josh Fox’s film.

Drew had set up an office just north of Tara, some 300km west of Brisbane, and was predicting that coal seam gas and underground coal gasification would become the biggest environmental campaign in Australia’s history,

Outside Tara we caught up with Michael Bretherick who’s part of the Western downs Alliance, strong local opposition to the under-regulated spread of the coal-seam gas industry. He told us that locals were engaged in a confrontation with the British Gas-owned QGC that intends to establish a gas field on the Tara rural residential estates, home to more than 2,000 people.

We drove past QGC’s huge headquarters, offices and Camp on the old Kenya station not far from Tara and realised the enormity of what was being rolled out.

The massive activity in coal seam gas harvesting is being felt at diverse locations across Australia. For that reason, Drew and Michael and others are organising a convergence of support in the Tara Showgrounds on the Labour Day long weekend at the start of May.

As we headed home I reflected on the last three days, the rich agricultural country we’d travelled through, and the new conflicts posed by its lying above underground coal and gas, and all that that entailed.

We’d focussed on gas but I couldn’t help thinking of the people of Felton, south of Toowoomba or Aldershot near Maryborough facing the prospect of new open cut coalmines.  The night after we arrived home, ABC’s Four Corners went to air with a full program The Gas rush devoted to coal seam gas, CSG, both around Tara and Chinchilla and in the Hunter Valley.

I’d been right to have an uneasy sense of foreboding after I’d first watched Gasland. In fact Josh Fox had been to Australia to film a piece for inclusion in the forthcoming Gasland 2. The American experience, chronicled so disturbingly in Gasland- and echoed in another film Split Estate, looked soon to be rolled out over many parts of Australia.

Four Corners had shown dropping well levels, bubbling gas… the longer-term health effects of fracking fluids would take longer to show up. But then Damien’s cattle had shown benzene and toluene in their fat after a relatively short exposure.  The consequences would be dire –for both present and future generations, an enduring millstone left as a legacy for short term financial and political gain.

And that’s exactly why an unlikely alliance of farmers and environmentalists are joining together to advocate Lock the Gate. If Drew Hutton is right it’ll be the largest environment campaign in Australia’s history.

Tara convergence details

When: Fri 29th of April – Tues 4th of May 2011

Where: Tara Showgrounds (300km west of Brisbane)
What: 4 days of workshops, forums, displays, entertainment and direct action
How: to register your interest or for more details.

Email tara2011@lockthegate.org.au or phone 07 4669 4864

 

About the Author

Ian is a regular contributor to ECO and has been active in Conondale Range and Mary River campaigns and is long-standing president of the Conondale Range Committee. He is also a Life Member of SCEC.

Arkin’s photography was an essential ingredient of the campaign to stop the now-defunct Traveston Crossing Dam and was recognised when she received a special Environment Award in 2009.

Book Review: A STRONG BROWN GOD .. the Mary River Diary

Author: Steven Lang

A Strong Brown God

Some seventeen years ago, in conversation with man from the state government’s Water Resources Commission, I made reference to Steven Lang who had just walked the length of the Mary River, from its source in the hills to the west of Maleny, to its mouth, beyond Maryborough, in the lee of Fraser island.

“Why would you want to do that?” was his response, and with those few words, I realised the chasm between his awareness of, and empathy with the Mary River, and my own.

In 1992, armed with the diaries of Stephen Simpson, the Crown Commissioner for Lands and Protector of Aborigines, and Christof Eipper a Lutheran priest who’d made the same trip almost 150 years previously, Steven Lang not only walked the river, but chronicled his journey and both his own thoughts and attitudes and those of people he encountered along the way.

In 1996 his musings and photographs became a play presented at Metro Arts in Brisbane. While the performance was excellent, its ephemeral nature always troubled me. Thus it was with some pleasure that I heard (as we were in the heat of the battle to save the Mary from Traveston Dam), that Steven was resurrecting “A Strong Brown God” in the form of a book.

And the eighteen year delay between walk and book has added some extra bonuses. Apart from Steven’s having become something of an acclaimed writer in the interim, with two novels to his credit, the book, for me, highlights some marked changes in attitude to the river.

When I was speaking to the Water Resources man, he was investigating a proposed sand and gravel operation, the sort that Steven found dotted along the length of the river, the dominant thinking of the time being that such operations were beneficial to “clean the river out a bit” with much of the sand being removed from the bed of the river itself.

In those days people seemed quite familiar with their “bit of the river” with not a great sense of connectedness with either upstream or down. I still have strong memories for the Mary River Congresses, commenced not long after Steven’s walk and organized by Peter Oliver, that drew together people from throughout the catchment, developing the whole sense of interconnectedness of a catchment.

I reflect that for the bulk of the time since Steven’s walk, the Mary River Catchment Coordinating Committee (MRCCC) has brought together many with an interest in the river and has fired and fuelled teams of water testers to visit the river and tributaries on a monthly basis to test water quality.

And who could overlook those who championed the Mary against calls for its damming, both in the early nineties at Cambroon, or more recently, at Traveston Crossing.

“A Strong Brown God” documents Steven’s walk with excellent photographs which may help those not so close to the river better understand the attachment of those who are, and the passion they hold for the river.

Steven’s book concludes that “ what the Mary Valley requires of me, and by extension, I suppose, of all of us who live within it, who benefit from its largesse, that we begin to sing it, which is another way of saying we learn to give it value, to actively love it.”

I’d like to think that in the time since Steven’s walk, all of us living along the Mary have learnt much, both of, and from the river, and that this will only grow richer with time.

Thank you Steven  not only for having the drive, back in 1992, to want to experience the river as a whole, from source to sea; not only for helping us to see it in a wider historical context, not only for being at the vanguard of a complete change in attitude to the river, but now for capturing all of that in this excellent book.

“A Strong Brown God, the Mary River diary” was launched to an appreciative audience of over 100 in Maleny a few moths back, and is available from all good bookshops or from the author at www.stevenlang.com.au for just $25.

Arkin during her 4-day kayak trip down the Mary River. image: Dan Lyons.

It’s often said that a picture paints a thousand words. Photographs of faces of anguish after the initial announcement, beautiful natural scenes that were so close to being lost forever and finally faces of joy and relief after the simple word, ‘no’ echoed throughout the Mary Valley.

Arkin Mackay’s images made the issue personal. They spawned far more than a thousand words. They brought us face to face with the product of government decisions.

And most importantly they reminded us that although a river can physically divide communities, rivers can also bring people together in a way not often seen before.

Ian Mackay, Arkin’s father, proudly reminds us about the importance of her work. (The ed)

When Arkin accepted her “Froggie” Environment Award for her role in the Mary River campaign, her acceptance speech was brief and humble.

“I'm absolutely besotted with my award,” said Arkin. “And I’m genuinely surprised to realise that what I thought was me just doing what I could for the campaign, has been really beneficial to quite a few people.” image: Jackie Smith.

“I can’t write submissions,” she said, “so I take photos.”

Arkin’s involvement in the Traveston campaign came after a decision, back in 2006, to make the then-parlous state of south-east Queensland’s dams more widely appreciated. This was before the Courier Mail had realised how simple it was to dispatch a photographer to Wivenhoe to produce cracked-mud images of its retreating water line.

It seemed a simple enough task, dig out photographs of dry dams and circulate them more widely, but it met a fundamental hitch. By and large, dams only get photographed when they’re full, so it’s perhaps not surprising that people come to think that a new dam comes already filled with water.

Arkin wasn’t daunted by the absence of images of dry dams and set out with her son Tanis and I, to visit and document failing dams across the state’s southeast, going as far north as the state’s most recent dam, Paradise Dam on the Burnett River.

What she found stretched the credibility of the notion that it was just population growth straining our water resources. Dam after dam was drying up, not just here but across the whole country, and it became pretty apparent that to think you were solving the water crisis by proposing another one was the height of folly.

Arkin’s graphic photographs appeared on her Stop Press website which she devoted entirely to “activism in pictures” and she went on to produce other albums.

One of the most memorable, “Something in the Water” tackled the residual phobia about drinking recycled water, highlighting the absurd assumption that water from rivers and dams is somehow of great quality, while recycled water, purified to a level far greater, is full of risks.

“Far from trying to scare people about the quality of the water people were drinking now, I just wanted to show the confidence we have in water treatment works to produce a safe product to drink,” she says.

Her 4-day kayak trip, with fellow photographer Chris van Wyk through the stretch of the Mary that would disappear under the dam gave a wider audience an understanding of what we stood to lose.

“Chris had taken these wonderful “algal-affro’ed” Mary River Turtle photos,”she explains,  “and I wanted to match these with shots of the vegetation in areas that could really only be readily accessed by canoe.”

As well, as these special albums, Arkin’s camera has been a regular chronicler of some of the highlights of the campaign, the rallies and actions, culminating in the jubilation at Peter Garrett’s Remembrance Day announcement.

“That was certainly a day the Mary Valley will never forget,” she says.

Arkin added a letter generator to the Stop Press website, ever expanded her mailing list, and played an important role in the more than 30,000 protest letters that went to politicians, both state and federal. She also produced posters, cards for both election campaigns and for fund-raising and was heavily involved in the photography for the Love, Mary book.

She has freely provided her photographs to reporters, writers and researchers and some of her Paradise Dam fishway photographs have been used in the Paradise Dam court case in the Federal Court.

Recognition of the role that Arkin and her camera have played in the campaign came just a few days after Peter Garrett’s “no” announcement, when she was contacted by the National Library asking permission to archive the Stop Press website as part of its history of the Traveston campaign.

Arkin protests that her effort was just one of many in fighting the dam.

The results, I think, say otherwise.

View Arkin’s images

A great place to stop for a swim on Booloumba creek. Image: Arkin Mackay. stoppress.com.au

The 10 kilometre walk from Booloumba Campsite 3 up to the impressive Booloumba Falls will eventually form the first day of a four- day walking trail, the Conondale Range Great Walk, with walker-accessed camping areas, but this section, constructed last year and opened Christmas Eve, can easily be tackled by itself.

Given the considerable difference in altitude between the Booloumba camp grounds and Booloumba Falls, the recommendation is to start the walk at the Booloumba Falls carpark which means that the bulk of the walk is downhill. Unless planning to walk both ways, it does require a car shuffle.  Drive all walkers up to the Booloumba Falls carpark making sure to leave a car down near Campground 3 for later use. The drive up to the carpark is dry weather only, and has some steep patches.

From the carpark, take the walk to Booloumba Falls, meandering along the creek as it tumbles its way towards a junction with Peter’s Creek, the location of the falls and the stunning rock formation, the Breadknife.

A section of the new Booloumba Creek walking track. Image: Arkin Mackay. stoppress.com.au

After 1.3 kilometres, the new walk heads off to the right and the walk to the falls and Breadknife is an extra kilometre (500m each way) but well worth the trouble. In summer the pool at the base of the falls is a great place to swim and the views over the Breadknife and Boooloumba Gorge are stunning all year round.

The sides of the Booloumba Gorge are very steep so the new walk heads eastwards through higher country. It takes about 3.4 kilometres to wind its way down to the base of the gorge. The first kilometre or so is relatively straight forward (with one particularly beautiful creek crossing) before it gives way to much steeper sections where the walker will probably commend himself for the decision to walk down hill rather than up.

Some of the slopes are quite steep and the track’s construction has made excellent use of the parallel cleavage planes of the local rock to craft some impressive stairs.

When the track reaches the creek, there’s a creek crossing (wet feet, slippery) and a good place for lunch and a swim.
The rest of the walk travels parallel to the northern bank of Booloumba Creek but travelling through a diversity of forest types, from groves of Piccabeen Palms to stands of giant Flooded Gums, with towering Red Cedars and even some rather incongruous Ironbarks. At one stage the track heads to higher country to the base of a tall emergent Bunya Pine. This is the more sedate part of the walk, winding downstream towards the campgrounds.

A sign-posted side-track takes the walker back across the creek (wet feet again) towards Campsite 3 while the track continues on to the Day Use Area 2.

It is suggested that (for experienced walkers) the 18 kilometre round trip up to the falls and back would take six hours. We found the walking part of our one-way trip took us five hours at a very leisurely pace with plenty of stops but be sure to allow time for the initial drive up and the car retrieval trip at the end.

This new walk requires a reasonable level of fitness if done downhill and considerably more if done uphill. It’s a wonderful addition to the existing walks in the Conondales and a great preview of the forthcoming great walk.

(Booloumba Creek campgrounds are accessed from the Kenilworth –Maleny road, seven kilometres south of Kenilworth. The road (a further 6 kilometres) involves two creek crossings which are labeled “4WD only” but can be crossed cautiously by two wheel drive vehicles with high clearance if the water level is sufficiently low.)

Several hundred canoeists and supporters turned out to show their energy for battle was undiminished. Image Arkin Mackay stoppress.com.au

Three years to the day since Peter Beattie’s shock announcement of plans to build the dam, several hundred canoeists and supporters turned out to a “floatilla” to show their energy for battle was undiminished. Paddlers were shown lungfish breeding sites and turtle nesting beaches before taking part in ceremony, celebrations, speeches and entertainment.

“Today we’re celebrating the resilience of our community and the wider community,” said Save the Mary River Coordinating Group President Glenda Pickersgill.

“We’re celebrating that we have dug our heels in and mounted a very strong case against damming this river.”

“Peter Beattie may have called it ‘hardly pristine’, Anna Bligh may say it’s been damaged by farming, but the real test has to be what lives in there now and with a number of unique species, this is pretty impressive. International turtle experts are even coming to regard the Mary River as ‘ the turtle river’.

The truth is that the dam presently proposed is much smaller than Peter Beattie originally envisaged. When it became apparent that it would require federal EPBC (Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act) approval, the proposal was split into two stages. This means that the yield of the proposed Stage 1 is less than a third of the original proposal while the costs have more than doubled.

“This is why Premier Bligh was so keen not to make mention of the dam at her recent election launch.  The irony is that as soon as she was elected, she claimed a mandate to build it. Many in Brisbane remember her ‘delay’ announcement and think it’s on hold,” Ms Pickersgill said.

This was the third “floatilla” on the river, and was the biggest yet. After the first, in 2006, Greens Senator Bob Brown told opponents to be prepared for a long battle. When he visited the area in 2007, Roberto Epple of the European Rivers Network said to expect maybe a seven-year battle. From the looks of it, both pieces of advice have been well-heeded.

Dam opponents recently heard of a ‘milestone’ legal challenge to the Paradise Dam fishway which will be heard in the Federal Court in September. The case, mounted by the Wide Bay Burnett Conservation Council and a coalition of Environment groups is significant as the Paradise fishway is intended as the model for use on Traveston Dam should it go ahead.

“We’ve already won this on the science,” says Glenda,  “and it’s defeating itself on the economics. Sometime soon the penny will drop for this government and they’ll realise they can’t cry poor to nurses and teachers and public servants wanting better, fairer, conditions while they pour more money into the black hole that is the Traveston Crossing Dam proposal.”

In most cases, dam opposition has invaded every aspect of life in the Mary Valley - this poignant black bean pod boat is an entry in the Moy Pocket Brown Water Classic. Image: Arkin Mackay stoppress.com.au

Since 1988 the Brownwater Classic at Moy Pocket has lured both locals and those involved in the environment movement to a patch of riverine forest near Pickering Bridge on the Mary River.

It’s been a celebration of the river, in particular the blackbean tree, for it is the seed pods of this tree that provide the raw material for the tiny craft that enter the prestigious race. The Trophy, the Numabulla Cup (gold on plywood) is highly coveted.

In addition to the main race, there is a candle-lit evening event as well as a hotly contested rock-skipping contest.

This being the twentieth such event, the Commodore of the Moy Pocket Yacht Club is keen to invite past participants (as well as any who have consistently missed it) to this year’s memorable event on Saturday July 11 from 1pm.

Boats must be biodegradable and can be constructed on-site before the race which is scheduled for 3pm.  All boatbuilding material is provided. Barbecues and fires are also on hand but all food and drink requirements need to be brought along by participants, as well as chairs and warm clothing.

For enquiries contact the Commodore, Ian Mackay (07) 54460124 evenings.

(Pickering Bridge is three kilometres along Moy Pocket Road after it leaves the Kenilworth –Eumundi Road at Gheerulla Hall.  Gheerulla Hall is about 24 kilometres from Eumundi, or eight kilometres from Kenilworth.)

Dam opponents happy to see some hope. Image Arkin Mackay.

It was a surprise announcement, from left field, as they say. The Premier on the morning news stating that Traveston Dam may be delayed by “at least several years” and that water re-cycling was in doubt. The Courier Mail would call it “Gone to Water” while the Gympie times led with “Dam’s End is Bligh”.

It seemed to show the first backing away from a plan that was hastily announced on the eve of the previous state election and it looked like great cause for celebration. Media and campaigners converged on Traveston Crossing and spirits were high. It was a clear sign that the dam proposal wouldn’t have passed the federal approvals process.

The Premier took a totally different angle, pointing out that 85 per cent of the area was degraded by farming and that substantial mitigation works needed to be carried out, presumably both upstream and downstream of the dam area, before it might get approval. By next day, though, she was backing away from the “delay” statement, saying that the EIS should still be with the federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett by next April as planned.

While it was locals hastily gathered together on the banks of the Mary River that day, the case has well and truly entered the national environment arena. As well as peak national conservation groups, the Senate has now passed three motions relating to Traveston, the latest by Queensland Liberal Senator Ian McDonald to scrap it completely. Media reports now consistently refer to the “controversial” Traveston Dam proposal.

Confusing any thoughts of a government exit strategy on the dam, though, is the fact that Queensland Water Infrastructure, a wholly government-owned company has run well ahead of the pack in preparations for the dam. An aggressive purchasing strategy has seen many properties sold to QWI .

“It was as if they were totally thumbing their noses at even the possibility that the Federal Government might reject this proposal,” said one.   “We were told it was a definite goer and that if we wanted the best price we should sell now.”

Businessmen report similar experiences, with a host of seminars organised, offering opportunities arising from the construction of the dam. Even the local Mayor, a self-professed opponent of the dam seemed to have become swayed toward inevitability by the insistence of QWI, and had even started to talk about community off-sets.

In the local community QWI strategically targeted its financial largesse. The Gympie Muster reportedly received some $100 000 in funding which many saw as little more than a bribe, especially when Muster star John Williamson was advised he couldn’t wear his Mary River Turtle T-shirt on stage.

Coinciding with, and probably precipitating, the Premier’s “delay” announcement, was the release of several damning independent reports originally commissioned by the Federal Department of Environment and subsequently tabled in state parliament by Gympie MP David Gibson.  The reports simply gave more credence to what opponents have been saying all along.

When Peter Beattie referred to the Mary as “hardly pristine” and when the present Premier points to the environmental degradation from farming, they conveniently overlook two key points. The real test of environmental degradation has to be measured in terms of what still manages to live in and near the river. With several unique species, the Mary scores well in that department. The other is that the least degraded section of river is precisely that part proposed for inundation. Cattle may indeed trample some Mary River Turtle eggs, as was claimed in Parliament, but the Traveston area shows the best recruitment of juveniles.

It was all eerily reminiscent of Harry Butler loosing all environmental credibility when he entered the Franklin Dam debate, declaring that the Franklin wasn’t really wilderness, not far short of Premier Gray’s labelling it a “leech-infested ditch”.

So Queenslanders approach a state election not really sure whether there is a delay or not and even less certain as to what it means for the Mary. They seem to have a much better grasp than the Premier, though, of the fundamental tenet of conservation biology, that of the imperative of conserving areas of high-quality habitat and are encouraged that the federal government seems prepared to stand up to the “bull at a gate’ approach of the Queensland government.

Persisting with the hastily conceived folly of Traveston, is simply pouring good money after bad.

The Mary River. Image Arkin Mackay.

Professor Angela Arthington of the Australian Rivers Institute and Water Co-operative Research Centre has recently released an excellent and timely paper “Australian lungfish, Neoceratodus forsteri, threatened by a new dam”.

The paper draws from a number of sources to provide an overview of lungfish distribution, biology and requirements as well as assessing anticipated impacts of a dam at Traveston Crossing.

Peter Garrett also commissioned several studies which were tabled in state parliament in late November. Despite the Premier’s claims to the contrary, the findings by Associate Professor Walker, Professor Bunn and Dr Kuchling were scathing of the dam proposal.

They determined that the part of the Mary River that would be inundated by the dam contains important habitat for the Mary River Turtle, Mary River Cod, Australian Lungfish and the Southern Barred Frog that is critical to their ongoing survival. These experts also advised that it would be highly unlikely that the dam would provide suitable foraging and breeding habitat to support the self-sustaining populations of these species and were critical of many of the mitigation and offset measures proposed by the proponent.

Dr Kuching’s report on the Mary River Turtle says the proposed dam would “modify, destroy, remove, isolate and decrease the availability and quality of habitat” and likely cause a disruption of the breeding cycle of about 50 per cent of the population in the area. The report claims that mitigation measures like nesting bank relocations are unlikely to fully compensate for the lost habitat, and the planned Freshwater Species Conservation Centre would be unlikely to be beneficial because the centre is dependent on the construction of the Traveston Crossing Dam “which would eliminate the majority of the best remaining juvenile habitat in the Mary River.”

The reports can be read here.

Weighing in at over 20 kg, the EIS package for the dam may well have been the nations largest, but the number of submissions it has generated has also been of epic proportions.  The Sunshine Coast Daily reported that 16,488 submissions had been received by noon on the closing day, and staff advised that they were continuing to pour in throughout the afternoon.

After nearly three months, the Deputy Premier advised parliament recently that 11,261 submissions had been assessed after duplicates were removed.

While many of the submissions came from the Mary Valley in the vicinity of the dam, (headed by the Save the Mary’s 180 page response), by far the greatest number came from the area downstream. The recently-established, Maryborough-based Greater Mary Association generated some 10,000 individual submissions as well as its own 68-page critique of the EIS.

One has to wonder whether State Climate Change Minister and local member for that part of the river, Andrew McNamara will be able to shrug off the overwhelming vote of “no confidence” in his government’s plan.

The Prime Minister’s National Plan to tackle the water crisis (from the pm’s website)

Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth. As the impact of climate change intensifies, Australia faces increasingly acute long-term water shortages both in our cities and regional areas – with lower rainfall, rivers drying up and dam water levels falling. Tackling the water crisis is a major long-term priority for the Australian Government.

Tackling the water crisis and securing our future water supply requires all Australians to work together to use water more efficiently, cut water wastage, more effectively capture rain and stormwater, and adapt to the impact of climate change.

The Rudd Government will tackle the water crisis with a national plan to invest in water infrastructure, sustain our farming communities, revitalise our rivers and waterways, secure water supplies in our cities and towns and ensure that we become smarter and more efficient in our water usage.

The Government will invest in greater use of recycled water, desalination and stormwater through a $1 billion urban water infrastructure fund. The Government will also assist households to install water and energy efficient products, with rebates for rainwater tanks and solar hot water.

The Government will also be working cooperatively with State and Local Governments, farmers, industry and the community to secure Australia’s long-term water supply.

Pools in the Mary River, like these are home to the “living fossil”, the lungfish, and sandy beaches provide nesting banks for rare turtles. Image: Arkin Mackay

The Tell Kevin Campaign

The Prime Minister’s statement sounds like that of a government that has learnt lessons from the Murray and is keen to avoid similar catastrophic and costly mistakes, while seeking to ensure reliable sources of water that are less rainfall-dependent and less impacted by climate change.

This could have been written by any of us opposing the folly of this dam. The fact is though, that it was written by  the man who heads the team that’ll have the final say on whether the Mary flows or flounders.

We need to be writing to the PM, to his key Ministers and to federal Labor backbenchers to congratulate them on this far-sighted and visionary statement and to contrast it with the actions of the Qld government that not only insists on building the dam but that has done such a cursory examination of all alternatives.

The State Government, and its offshoot QWI, have acted as if there is no impediment to the dam being built; it has thumbed its nose at the possibility that EPBC approval may not be forthcoming, and has embarked on an aggressive process of property acquisition, meetings with contractors etc.

Recent rains have removed some of the urgency of the water “crisis” and allow a breathing space to ensure the wisest water decisions are the ones put into play.

We need a lot of letters to do this. Lots! The bar has been set so high with the number of EIS submissions that many heads turned. Now that they’ve turned we need them to start to think outside the pro-Traveston briefing they would have received from the State Government.

Your original letters are always best. Politicians use the rule of thumb that for every letter (or email) received, at least a hundred people share the same viewpoint. That’s why sixteen thousand submissions turned more than a few heads. Next come form letters which aren’t credited with the same 1 to 100 factor but they’re still worth doing.

Call on the Prime Minister and the Federal Government to apply its visionary water policy to override Queensland’s ill-advised decision to pursue this dam. How harshly would the new government be judged if it espoused such a noble and enlightened vision for water and waterways yet failed to deliver at its very first test.

For more information, visit the Save the Mary website or call at their No Dam Infocentre at Kandanga.

Into the National Spotlight

The Australian Conservation Foundation has placed the Traveston Dam and its threat to turtles and lungfish in pride of place on its website.

Featured heavily are the incredible algal-affroed Mary River Turtle photographs taken last year near Kenilworth by Sunshine Coast Photographer Chris Van Wyck.

ACF has established a letter generator to lobby the federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett against approving the dam. There’s more than a touch of irony in this as Peter Garrett is a past President of ACF and is well acquainted with the adverse impacts of dams.

As well as this, respected Wilderness Society campaigner Lyndon Schneiders in an on-line blog reflecting on politics and environment in Queensland, made reference to  “the ill-considered Traveston Dam on the Mary River” and “environmentally disastrous schemes such as the Traveston Dam”.

(Just recently TWS revealed government plans for a dam on Baffle Creek and while Water Minister Craig Wallace ” could neither confirm nor deny” the plan, Premier Anna Bligh was very quick to rule it out.)

Earlier this year, Radio National replayed ” A Whisper from the Past“, Nick Franklin’s investigation of the mysterious appeal of the lungfish, a descendant of the link with the first water creatures that were able to breathe air. The program has been aired on the BBC and previously also on Radio Eye.  More recently, ABC TV’s 7.30 Report was in the Mary Valley and Sandy Straits investigating the issue.

During the Senate Enquiry, it became all too obvious that the ripples of this proposal had spread far beyond the Mary Valley. If the government had been hoping that proceeding full steam ahead with land acquisitions and a program of relentless bombardment of “this dam is going ahead” propaganda, might have resulted in diminished opposition, it has plainly received a huge surprise.

The big question will be whether the government’s blustering “act like it’s already approved” style will be allowed to influence a decision that should have been made on purely environmental grounds under the EPBC Act. Federal Labor has an excellent and visionary Water Policy. It’s hard to see how it could bend to include something like Traveston Dam.