Nimbin Environment Centre

Cullen Street (main street), Nimbin, New South Wales, Australia

[Source: Nimbin Environment Centre,

^http://www.nimbincommunity.org.au/index.php/environment-centre]

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Amongst other worthy places, there are two that are special and worth a visit when exploring the Northern Rivers Region of New South Wales.  Walk the ‘Wonga Walk’ (5.4km) beneath the rainforest canopy in Dorrigo National Park and stroll through the counterculture village of Nimbin calling into the Nimbin Environment Centre.

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Dorrigo Plateau Country

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Perhaps the tallest remaining rainforest trees survive in the natural ecology and splendour in Dorrigo National Park, part of originally Gumbaynggirr Aboriginal Country, and currently one of eight groups of World Heritage protected areas in the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia..

Yellow carabeen (Sloanea woollsii) 

Found growing naturally up to 55 metres tall along the Wonga Walk in Dorrigo National Park

[Source: NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service,

^http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/dorrigo-national-park/wonga-walk/walking/visual-tour]

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Nimbin

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The village of Nimbin is many miles from Dorrigo, but that doesn’t matter.  Nimbin’s spirit is similar from that gained on the rainforest walk.

Perhaps one of the most respectful and communicative messages of any community in Australia is that of Nimbin’s, which draws upon the values of local Aboriginal elders, and shared by Nimbin’s close-knit local mix:

“We belong this country

We look after this country

Don’t do wrong around here this country

We don’t harm this country here

We belong to it this country”

~ Bundjulung Elders.

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The Nimbin Environment Centre is a voluntary non-profit organisation.  It’s website reads: our history is rooted in the successful battles which saved Terania Creek and The NightCap Forest. We are very conscious of our continuous role as custodians of this land, hand in hand with its first people: The Bundjalung nation. We receive no funding from State or Federal Governments. This empowers us to be fearless in our work to defend, protect, preserve and enhance the environment.

We read this and reflect upon our crews visit in October 2013, and upon the subsequent town fire of the 13th August 2014 which tragically struck at the heart of Nimbin.

We remember and preserve some memories for those who have contributed to the Magic of Nimbin since the Aquarius Festival of 1973 which has since celebrated the hope of ‘Counter Culture’.

We offer the following images of a Nimbin morning taken by our editor paying an overnight visit to Nimbin 23rd – 24th October 2013.  All images are copyright free in the public domain as we consider appropriate.  Nimbin sets an example of community respect to the world.  For each image click to enlarge.

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Further Reading:

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[1]    Nimbin Environment Centre, ^http://www.nimbincommunity.org.au/index.php/environment-centre

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[2]   Nimbin Museum, ^http://nimbinmuseum.com/

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[3]   Friends of Gondwana Rainforest, ^http://gondwanarainforest.org/australia

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[4]   ‘Once Upon a Time in Nimbin‘, a traveller’s account, 20120703, ^http://www.soulfoodtraveller.com/2012/07/once-upon-timein-nimbin.html

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[5]   Rainforest Publishing, owned by Hugh and Nan Nicholson, The Chandon, ^http://www.rainforestpublishing.com.au

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Environmental Protestor, Jonathon Moylan,

who put himself on the line to save Leard State Forest from greedy Whitehaven Coal

set to bulldoze  koala habitat into extinction

[Source:  ‘Time to flex shareholder muscle’,  20130119, Canberra Times,

^http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/time-to-flex-shareholder-muscle-20130118-2cz10.html

 

It was not Whitehaven Coal, but the Australian corporate regulator, Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) who tried to imprison a civil protester to jail in defence of market gambling.

ASIC Chairman Greg Medcraft

 

<< Jonathan Moylan, 26, was today sentenced to 1 year 8 months imprisonment, but subject to release immediately on a 2 year good behaviour bond following a hearing at the Supreme Court in Sydney. 150 supporters held a vigil in support of Moylan outside the court.

ASIC used Orwellian language of defending ‘mum and dad’ investors, disguising the fact that mining companies like Whitehaven Coal are predominantly foreign-owned.

The miners, along with the superannuation industry and the ”big four” banks, have done a remarkable job popularising the idea that all Australians own a share of all companies thanks to their super. By that logic, anything that hurts any company is ”bad” for Aussie mums and dads. And that is, of course, the impression that the corporate and political spin doctors are trying to create. But what about when the courts tell the banks they cannot impose punitive charges; is that bad for mum and dad investors as well?

The hoax press release by Jonathan Moylan was designed to highlight the fact that the ANZ Bank says it doesn’t lend money to environmentally harmful projects when in fact it does so regularly.

While the hoax’s impact on ”mum and dad” shareholders was massively exaggerated, the potential power of these shareholders is systematically underestimated. While few Australians own anywhere near enough shares to notice the impact of the daily wobbles in share prices on our incomes, together we all own enough to make most companies do exactly what we want. The challenge is to focus that power through well-crafted motions and to ensure the super funds that manage our money on our behalf are willing to support those motions. The Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility will hopefully play an important role in achieving both.

Dr Richard Denniss is executive director of The Australia Institute, a Canberra-based think tank.

“The determination of the movement to protect the Maules Creek community, farmland and Traditional Owners is only getting stronger and I’m confident that determination won’t be broken,” said Jonathan Moylan.

“In 30 years time our children will look back on us and we will have to answer to them,” he said.

Rick Laird, farmer from Maules Creek whose family has farmed in the district for over 150 years, travelled to Sydney to support Jonathan Moylan.

“Jono is a young man of great principle and conviction and we are incredibly grateful for the stand he took to support Maules Creek. We remain determined to fight off Whitehaven’s coal mine to protect Maules Creek and Leard State Forest,” said Rick Laird.

“To most people ANZ is just a bank, but to our community at Maules Creek their loan to Whitehaven Coal threatens to put an end to 150 years of farming in the region.”

“We’ve been fighting this mine for years but what Jono did means the world knows what is happening to Maules Creek farms and the Leard State Forest,” said Rick Laird.

In January 2013 Jonathan Moylan issued a press release on ANZ letterhead saying the bank had withdrawn its $1.2 billion loan facility from Whitehaven’s Maules Creek Coal Project on environmental and ethical grounds. Whitehaven’s share price temporarily fell before quickly recovering.

Moylan was charged under section 1041E of the Corporations Act by ASIC, pertaining to the making of false or misleading statements.

High-resolution photographs are available at:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/standwithjono/sets/72157645492344138/

Background

 

ANZ provides a $1.2 billion loan facility to Whitehaven Coal, primarily intended to develop the Maules Creek Coal Project. The Maules Creek Coal Project is a new open-cut coal mine being developed in Leard State Forest and adjacent farm land near Maules Creek in north west NSW.

On the day of the hoax, Whitehaven Coal’s (WHC) share price dropped from $3.52 to $3.21 before a trading halt, and bounced back to $3.53 within an hour of trading resuming.  Since January 2013, Whitehaven’s share price has plummeted in the face of the slumping global coal price, closing at $1.68 yesterday.

Leard State Forest is located between Narrabri and Boggabri, it includes the most extensive and intact stands of the nationally-listed and critically endangered Box-Gum Woodland remaining on the Australian continent. The forest is home to 396 species of plants and animals and includes habitat for 34 threatened species and several endangered ecological communities.

 

The Maules Creek Coal Project is approved to extract up to 13 million tonnes of coal annually, and is estimated to produce 30 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year. The mine is expected to operate for more than 30 years. The coal will be railed from the mine in north west NSW to the port of Newcastle for export. The coal mine project boundary is approximately 5 kilometres from the Maules Creek township.  >>

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[Source:  ‘Jonathan Moylan Sentenced to 2yr good behaviour bond by Supreme Court’, 20140725, ^http://www.standwithjono.org/]

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Vica Bayley, Tasmanian campaign manager for the Wilderness Society in disputed World Heritage listed forest in the Styx Valley in southern Tasmania.  Photo © Peter Mathew.  [Source: ‘Senate puts weight behind push to retain Tasmania forests’ World Heritage status, 20140515, by Andrew Darby, Sydney Morning Herald, ^http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/senate-puts-weight-behind-push-to-retain-tasmania-forests-world-heritage-status-20140515-zrdqi.html]

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“It took the World Heritage Committee less than 8 minutes to unanimously reject this shameful Australian Government proposal to delist 74,000 hectares from the Tasmanian World Heritage Area.  It is a stunning victory for World Heritage!

Thank you to those who understood the value and the importance of protecting our wild places.”

~ Keith Muir, Colong Foundation for Wilderness

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Further Reading:

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^Tasmania needs a Wilderness Act

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Williams Ridge crown-topping bushfire having been deliberately lit by National Parks Service 20140510

Looking south from Mona Road, Woodford, Blue Mountains with residual fire still unattended 6 days later near virgin “World Heritage fuel“.

Photo by Editor 20140516, click image to enlarge. 

© under  ^Creative Commons]

While holidaying in the Megalong on the weekend of 10-11 May 2014 for my 50th, in the late morning of the 10th my wife alerted me to a large bushfire smoke cloud billowing in the Blue Mountains to our east.

Cripes! was my first thought when I looked east seeing smoke plumes billowing beyond the western escarpment in the direction of our upper Blue Mountains family home. I got out my topographic Katoomba map and my Silva compass (being a weekend bushwalker) and aligned the bushfire smoke plume to my map . The billowing smoke was scarily in line with a bearing to the upper Blue Mountains where our house was.  Distance was the uncertainty.

So I immediately rang friends to check. They said the smoke was south of Woodford.  It was fortunately far away from our house.  But how could such a large bushfire start on a still, cold autumn day? My mind clicked – Hazard Reduction!

I recall seeing NPWS bushfire labelled vehicles parked in Katoomba the previous week. I hadn’t seen these specialised vehicles before, so this must be a NSW Government capital investment in ongoing National Park arson. Is it to sadistically drive wildlife extinctions?  There has been no public announcement of such, so the sadistic strategy must be pre-conceived and signed off.

So on return to home, our house was fine and no-one was the wiser about any bushfire.  The bush arson had been deliberately and “strategically” lit farther east and deep south into the Blue Mountains National Park, many kilometres from housing.  The bushfire was lit by the entrusted custodians of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area: NPWS.  They call it ecological burning so suggest that burning vegetation habitat is good for it.

Down along the Great Western Highway the scorched canopy blanket become obvious south of Lawson.  Unravel the map and the southern ridge is Williams Ridge from Kings Tableland east to Mount Bedford.  The access is Ingar Fire Trail.  This was the access route for the government bush arsonists. The gate is locked to hide the slaughter.

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Ingar Fire Trail with locked gate on Kings Tableland, Wentworth Falls

Photo by Editor 20140516, click image to enlarge.  © under  ^Creative Commons]

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Is this the new sadistic/fatalist management of National Parks and Wildlife Service?   Incinerate forest habitat in Blue Mountains World in case in burns?   Spend millions in exploitative tourism cost recovery?   As for wildlife, what wildlife.  Is this NPWS new sadistic motto for the Blue Mountains World Heritage, following the demise and exploitaton of of the Barrier Reef and Kakadu?

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Ingar Fire Trail with close up of locked gate on Kings Tableland, Wentworth Falls

Photo by Editor 20140516, click image to enlarge.  © under  ^Creative Commons]

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Burns to humans do recover in time despite the short term pain. Humans do recover from trauma in time.  If trauma goes unpublished, few in the community know about what happened anyway.  So it is morally acceptable then to inflict burn trauma upon ecological communities because no-one knows the wiser?  Yet week after week, ecological massacre repeats like the Australian Frontier Wars.   Read More: ^Aboriginal Massacres,^Australian Frontier Wars.

All the government website media release 8 May 2014 can say is a dismissive massacre as usual:.

“Smoky weekend for the Blue Mountains as 5,500 hectares of hazard reduction burning gets underway”

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[Source:   “Smoky weekend for the Blue Mountains as 5,500 hectares of hazard reduction burning gets underway”, official government media release by Susie Summers, NPWS (Environment Department so-called), 20140508,  ^http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/media/OEHMedia14050801.htm]

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<<NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) plans to take advantage of a window of favourable weather to get two major hazard reduction (HR) burns completed in the Blue Mountains this weekend. Following a wet start to the season, it has been very difficult to complete burning operations, NPWS Regional Manager Alan Henderson said.

Weather permitting the following HRs will go ahead: • Friday, 9 May – 3,000 hectare Little Crater burn, south of Glenbrook and west of the Warragamba Dam; • Saturday, 10 May – 2,500 hectare Mt Bedford burn, 3km south east of Wentworth Falls, Bullaburra and 2km south of Lawson, Hazelbrook and Woodford.

“For the safety of crews and neighbours, and to the ensure these burns are effective, they can only be undertaken when the weather is right – it cannot be too wet, cold or windy – making scheduling them very tricky,” Mr Henderson said. “The proposed burn area for the Little Crater burn is remote and bounded by the Warragamba and Nepean River to the east, Erskine Creek to the north, Big Crater Creek to the west and Erskine Range (W5 management trail) to the south.

“It will protect private property to the east of Warragamba River by reducing fuel loads to minimize the risk of wildfire spreading from Blue Mountains National Park into Warragamba and Silverdale townships.

“This is a joint operation with the Rural Fire Service (RFS) which will also help to protect Sydney Catchment Authority assets to the south east of the burn including the Warragamba dam wall and its associated structures. “There is the potential for smoke from this burn to drift towards the western and southwestern suburbs of Sydney. “Meanwhile, the 2,500 hectare Mt Bedford HR is planned to begin on Saturday (May 10) and will also be conducted in partnership with RFS. “In the interests of visitor safety, Ingar Road, Andersons Trail and Bedford Creek trail will be closed for the duration of the burn, which is designed to limit the potential for wildfire to spread west to east and impact on life and property throughout the Blue Mountains.

“Smoke will be visible between Katoomba and Springwood and smoke drift may impact the Great Western Highway, the Oaks Fire Trail and lower mountains townships. Both operations and associated closures are likely to continue for a number of days. Updates regarding National Park closures may be found on the national parks website:http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/safety/fires-and-park-closures “People with asthma or those susceptible to respiratory problems are also advised to keep clear of the immediate area or stay indoors.” You can subscribe to air quality alerts from the Office of Environment and Heritage here ^http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/aqms/aqialerts.htm .

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‘The NPWS has undertaken 895 hazard reduction activities covering 70,000 hectares in total,

including 160 hazard reduction burn operations for 2013-14.’

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In 2012-13 the NPWS achieved a record 208,000 hectares in 1300 separate fuel reduction activities. This was 83% of the total hazard reduction effort for NSW, demonstrating a clear commitment by NPWS to manage fire in accordance with its Living with Fire 2012-21 strategy.  [They must be proud custodians of World Heritage.]

Under the Enhanced Bushfire Management Program (Strategic Broadacre Incineration), NPWS will pursue its plan to treat an average of over 135,000 hectares per year in 800 or more planned hazard reduction activities. Achieving this will be highly dependent on the suitability of weather conditions given the narrow window of opportunity that exists in NSW for burning safely and effectively.>> .

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[ ‘If wildlife isn’t exterminated and made locally extinct, then we have failed our purpose.’ ]

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Eco Hazard Reduction now means starting a bushfire so hot and fierce that the entire tree crown is incinerated so that nothing can live and so that it causes a smoke plume that puts the pollution effort of industrial Sydney and its traffic to shame.

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Prevent Prepare Protect what?

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Incinerate disappearing World Heritage habitat so that timber bush properties approved for build in dumb indefensive slopes can have hope in bushfire hell?  Or to hell with it, just burn the lot, like the old Blue Mountains bush firie adage:  “Hazard reduce Katoomba to save Leura.”   Sounds like what Queensland is doing to the Great Barrier Reef.

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What wildlife?   What habitat?   What World Heritage? .

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Prevent Prepare Protect what?

When a wildfire starts, they have no idea anyway.

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Historic rally in Tasmania’s Upper Florentine Valley, Tasmania, Sunday 20140427

Photo © Matthew Newton

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Almost 2000 people have rallied today in the Upper Florentine Valley to defend World Heritage listed forests.

The Bob Brown Foundation’s Campaign Manager Jenny Weber stated, “Today’s outstanding turn out in the Upper Florentine forests clearly shows that Australians are very proud of their World Heritage forests. We are sending a strong message to UNESCO that we love our spectacular forests of outstanding universal value, and the Australian community will stand up to defend them.”

“The Australian community strongly opposes the government’s proposal to the World Heritage Committee to remove 74 000 hectares of World Heritage listed forests from the Tasmanian World Heritage Area,” Jenny Weber said.

Speakers included Australian Greens Leader Senator Christine Milne, Markets for Change CEO Peg Putt, Still Wild Still Threatened’s Miranda Gibson and Home and Away actor Lisa Gormley.

 

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Further Reading:

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[1]  ^http://www.bobbrown.org.au/

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For the cause and their honour

Camp Flozza remembered

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New Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman believes in a headline sense of “economic renewal” somehow and that his vote to power provides a Viking Mandate for him to ecologically ‘rape pillage and plunder’ Tasmania’s natural resources.

With the business community on side, the minerals council, the housing industry association, the developers, the loggers, everything is up for grabs, especially Tasmania’s old growth forests.

Logging trucks are already crossing back over Bass Strait from exile in parochial log state Queensland.

Here we go again…

Tasmanian police escort a log truck out of the Upper Florentine Valley after a week of protests, January 2009.

[Source: ‘Protests have failed to stop the log trucks’, 20090121, ABC News,

^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-01-21/tasmanian-police-escort-a-log-truck-out-of-the/273180]

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“We are going to embrace a new way of doing things in this state,” Mr Hodgman said.

Scary.  What does he mean by that?

Not one for mature mediation, ham-fisted Hodgman is determined to tear up the $273 million ‘Tasmanian Forest Agreement‘ in what he has off-handedly vilified as a “job-destroying forest deal.”   “It only threatened to lock away forever future productive forest.”

But how many Tasmanian loggers got paid out by Canberra’s $273 million Will?  How much of that $273 million is left?  Are you endorsing two-timing loggers – those paid out and now in for second crack?

So the hated 19th Century wood chip pulp mill is back on the table, with no prospect of profit, just a ‘work-for-the-dole’ scheme for crusted-on loggers.

But Hodgman, like Groom and Rundle before him, is sure short-term market conditions for woodchips will improve.   Six hundred year old forests are renewable anyway Will reckons.  Will says he has a mandate to follow through on the divisive election promise. “More wood equals more jobs” and “our plan focuses on growing the industry … not appeasing environmentalists.”

Dem’s fightin’ words indeed!

“I can’t do this on my own with these. . . people.”

Hodgman’s heavies are regrouping and more police are being recruited and resourced.  Hodgman is prepared for Forest War on the belief he has the endorsement of high-T Tasmanians.

“We will not allow the past to drag us down and stop us from moving ahead. We understand where we should move.”     ~ Vladimir Putin.

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[Sources:  ‘Premier claims Tasmania in period of economic renewal since Liberals seize power’, by Lucy Shannon, 20140407, ABC News, ^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-06/premier-claims-tasmania-has-entered-a-period-of-economic-renewa/5370640;  ‘Tasmania’s forest agreement to be ‘torn-up’’, 20140410, ^http://www.enviroinfo.com.au/tasmanias-forest-agreement-to-be-torn-up/]

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Does young Will mean blood?

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Rally to Defend Tasmania’s World Heritage in the Upper Florentine!

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When:    Sunday, 27 April 2014
Time:     12 noon for 12:30pm start
Where:  Camp Flozza, In Tasmania’s magnificent Florentine Valley World Heritage Area, Gordon River Road, 21 km east of Maydena

(From Maydena drive along Gordon River Road, heading towards Lake Pedder. On the right, 3.3 km from the Thumbs Lookout, there will be signs for rally).

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Tasmanians and Australians this is your time!

The Bob Brown Foundation is hosting a rally in World Heritage listed forests of the Upper Florentine, Tasmania, in response to the Australian Government’s intention to remove 74,000 ha from the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

Speakers include Senator Christine Milne – Leader of the Australian Greens, Peg Putt – CEO of Markets for Change and Miranda Gibson – spokesperson for Still Wild Still Threatened.

Bob Brown Foundation Campaign Manager Jenny Weber said, “Tasmania’s globally significant World Heritage Area is gravely threatened by the Australian Government’s request to the World Heritage Committee to remove 74,000ha of forests from World Heritage listing. We are receiving huge support from members of the public who are coming along to this rally, people who love these forests and don’t want to see the listing stripped from forests which have outstanding universal values.”

“We will stand together in the magnificent World Heritage listed Upper Florentine forests to support the world heritage convention and call for protection of Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage Area and the maintenance of the current boundary.  Standing together among the ancient tall eucalyptus forests, we will prove that the Australian Government is wrong in claiming that it is logged and degraded,” Jenny Weber said.

“The Upper Florentine is pristine.  This entire region is proposed for removal from the World Heritage Area, though it is a perfect contradiction of the Liberal Government’s claims that these 74,000 ha are logged or degraded.  The Upper Florentine is an extensive area of pristine tall eucalypt forest, part of a corridor of tall eucalyptus forests from the far south to the central west of Tasmania, recognised as World Heritage in 2013. This intact region of ancient forest is again under threat by the Australian Government’s proposal to remove these magnificent intact forests for logging,” Jenny Weber said.

World Heritage Campaign Manager
The Bob Brown Foundation

[Source:  ^http://www.bobbrown.org.au/rally_to_defend_world_heritage]

 

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Sacred Upper Florentine Valley being logged only a few years ago

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For Tasmanians, Tasmania is all we’ve got.

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Sydney Water reservoir half-painted

Narrow Neck Road, Katoomba 

[Photo by Editor, 20131213, Photo © under  ^Creative Commons]

This water reservoir tank is one of two on the ridgetop at Narrow Neck Road, Katoomba (Central Blue Mountains, New South Wales) which supplies drinking water to the immediate and surrounding residents of Katoomba.

Previously, in May 2013 we took a photo of both tanks showing the white chlorine salt efflorescence stains and we published an article later in August that year.  Why then should someone wish to paint over the stains with green paint?  Do they think it will make the water cleaner and more appealing to be drunk?

In our previous article on this topic we asked:  “Are we to now expect fresh green paint over the chlorine salt efflorescent tanks to hide the problem?” It seems Sydney Water has done just that.  Who else would spend their own money to paint over a government water tank? Why is it that Sydney Water’s water quality analysis measured at the upstream Cascade Reservoir and not from these tanks before it flows to residents?

This is the analysis:

>‘Typical drinking water analysis’, Cascade Water Supply System’ (66kb, PDF)

[Source:  ‘Typical drinking water analysis’, Cascade Water Supply System, Sydney Water,  undated (so supposedly indicative),  ^http://www.sydneywater.com.au/web/groups/publicwebcontent/documents/document/zgrf/mdq0/~edisp/dd_044721.pdf]

This is the same tank previously in May 2013:

Blue Mountains drinking water tank with chlorine salt stains

Mineral salt efflorescence

Narrow Neck Road, Katoomba

[Photo by Editor, 20130507, Photo © under  ^Creative Commons]

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This is our previous article:

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Blue Mountains tap water not worth drinking

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Guy Fawkes River National Park near Ebor Falls

Northern Rivers Region, New South Wales, Australia

These parks are located in the traditional lands of the Gumbaynggirr and Banbai Aboriginal people.

Sites of high cultural significance are located along traditional walking routes between the Boyd River and high country around Ebor.

[Click image to enlarge, photo by Editor 20131025, © under  ^Creative Commons]

 

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Welcome to Country

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<< I am so honoured to have been asked to be with you here today and would like to thank the Custodians and Keepers of this country, both past and present, for the privilege, of welcoming you, this morning.

I extend, a very special welcome to all the Elders with us today, Indigenous and non-Indigenous.

Becoming welcomed to country, is not just saying “welcome to the country of the Wonnarua, Tharawal, Gandangara, Wiradjuri, Gomilaroi, Bandjalung, worimi and leaving it at that.

It’s about wanting our welcomed people to at least, at some time in their lives, experience some of the many important cultural aspects of our countries, which have survived.
Our languages, our songs, dances, stories, foods, kinships, arts and histories.

It’s about shedding ourselves of all of those negative generalisations, stereotypes and guilt, which some of us, may still have for each other.

It’s about wanting welcomed peoples, to get to know us, in all our positive ways.

History tells us that our peoples went through some very terrible times, with some legacies of those times, still yet to be addressed, positively.

It’s about non Indigenous Australia’s sincere recognition,that this whole country was already under custodianship, respected and nurtured by people, before the advent of British rule.

It’s about seeing each other as equals, and commemorating the positive developments of this country, which we have all shared in, as being Australians together.

My peoples have merged and interacted with the new people who came to our lands since Invasion times started in 1788 and will continue to do so.

We now speak your English, wear your attire, do your dances, play your sports, eat your foods, sing your songs and know your stories and histories.

There are also non Indigenous people who speak our languages, sing our songs, eat our foods and know our stories and histories.

We have integrated into your many religious, political, social and sporting, organisations and in doing so, became one of this countries most integrative groups.

Our women married into the first Irish, Anglo and Celtic stock, plus those groups which came here under the many immigration policies this country has had, especially after the 1940s.

We are all Australians today, aren’t we?

Ladies and Gentlemen, on behalf of the Gadigal Clan of the Eora Nation whose land this function is now on, to sincerely welcome you in their language, the language of this country.

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Boodyeri Mulinawul!
Good Morning!

Dyinalyungs, Mullabos,  Guragalungalyungs, Guragalyungs
Ladies and Gentlemen, Girls and Boys.

Gurigarang tali ngia niya bidya mulinawul
Glad to see you here this morning

Dali dingaladi bamal marana Yura Warrane Eora
This is the land of the original peoples of  Sydney, the Eora.

Wingara ngubadi Eora Bamal
Please Respect Eora Land.

Garigarang walama wugul kamaru
May your stay here be fruitful and safe and your departure, in peace.

Yanu Yanu.
Bye Bye’. >>

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[Source:  ‘Welcome to Country’, Aboriginal speech delivered at the start of the 2013 Masters Interpretation Workshop, Thursday, November 21, 2013,  by James Wilson-Miller, Curator, Koori Arts, History & Design, Design & Society, Powerhouse Museum, 500 Harris Street, Ultimo, Sydney, NSW 2007 Australia]

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