“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.”
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.
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?
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.
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.
For the cause and their honourCamp 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.
“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.
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.
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?
<< 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.
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]
Today’s National Parks and Wildlife Service website on Nightcap National Park reads as follows:
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<<Nightcap National Park, part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Area, is a dramatically beautiful park full of ancient rainforests, magical waterways and spectacular views. The lush rainforest provides a home for the newly discovered nightcap oak as well as a number of threatened animal species, including Albert’s lyrebird and Fleay’s barred frog which takes shelter under leaf litter and makes an ‘ok-okok-ok-ok’ after rain.
With easy access from Lismore and Nimbin, you can enjoy a picnic, bushwalk or overnight camping trip amid the park’s escarpments, waterfalls and crystal clear creeks and enjoy incredible views of the 20 million year-old Wollumbin shield volcano. >>
However, were it not for a handful of dedicated environmental activists protesting on site in the late 1970s, the Nightcap National Park would not exist.
Its magnificent rainforest ecology would be have been decimated by industrial logging, then scorched-earthed and the entire landscape converted to pasture, resembling much of what has occurred throughout the Northern Rivers Region.
In the late 1970s, the government sent in the police to protect the loggers, not the rainforest.
<< Terania Creek, located in the Nightcap Range in northern New South Wales was the site of the first major forest blockade in Australian history. Over 200 protesters halted logging of the rainforest, through non-violent direct action. In 1982, a similar protest occurred at Mount Nadi on the other side of the Nightcap Range. In 1982, the Premier, Neville Wran, declared a moratorium on the logging of rainforests in New South Wales. Today, the Nightcap National Park incorporates Mount Nadi, Griers Scrub and Terania Creek. >>
So when one visits the National Parks offices staffed by government employees, reflect on the fact that the offices and staff exist not because of government leadership, but because of the selfless will of environmental activists prepared to go to jail to save these invaluable and increasingly rare rainforests.
<< The conflict began in 1979 over a small patch of rainforest in Terania Creek, in north-eastern New South Wales. It was Australia’s first forest protest, and it was ahead of its time both globally and environmentally. The conflict spread across New South Wales and pushed forestry issues to the forefront of politics. Protesters from Terania Creek went on to similar conflicts in the Franklin River in Tasmania, the Daintree rainforests in Queensland, and Errinundra Plateau in Victoria.
Inevitably, people on both sides of the conflict suffered. Protesters were vilified as hippies and dole bludgers, and their lifestyles and homes were targeted. Workers in the forest and sawmills were labelled as loggers and vandals, and their families and businesses were damaged. >>
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[Quoted extract from the preface in the non-fiction book, ‘Terania Creek: Rainforest Wars‘, (2006) by author Dr Nigel Turvey, published by Glass House Books, Brisbane. A part of what has now become Australian history that needed to be told, a reflective generation later].
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The power of ‘Direct Action’ to turn government and public opinion
<< “Some time during 1975 there were signs up around Nimbin about the logging plans for Terania Creek. By 1979, when the loggers were due to arrive in the valley, a lot of discussion was going on at The Channon Markets.”
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Channon Markets Sunday, August 12, 1979:
“There was a big rally and the protest organisers asked if they could use my PA. They called for people to blockade and a lot of people went straight from the market to the Nicholson property which bordered the rainforest. We camped there for more than a month. Everyone was up at the bulldozer, blocking its way into the rainforest – there were cops everywhere.
“A cop told one of the protest organisers to get everyone to move down the track but I stayed where I was as most people moved off. That’s when the two cops grabbed me and dragged me down the track to the paddy wagon – it was at least a few minutes and they fractured two of my vertebrae.”
The blockade was the catalyst for the NSW Government to gazette the remaining rainforest in the state, including Terania Creek, as National Park. >>
One of Australia’s most fiercely fought environmental battles
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<< “Urban refugees Hugh and Nan Nicholson moved onto a property at Terania Creek in northern NSW 30 years ago. They were hoping to escape the rat race and live a self-sufficient lifestyle, but discovered that the forest surrounding their property was earmarked for extensive logging.
So began one of Australia’s most fiercely fought environmental battles, the 1979-1982 Rainforest Wars. The wars ended with the formation of Nightcap National Park, which was World Heritage-listed for good measure in 1989.
Author Nigel Turvey, a former forester and environmental scientist, stands (respectfully) on the shoulders of those who were there, using their words and pictures to give us an insightful overview of an emotionally charged environmental campaign from beginning to end; he even sets it firmly in its time with references to other newsworthy happenings such as the Azaria Chamberlain case and the Vietnam War.
One of the unexpected bonuses of this book is that it offers an inside look at the forestry profession and how it fell from grace (in the public’s eyes) during this campaign, never to recover again.
‘Terania Creek: Rainforest Wars‘ is a real page-turner and a must-read for anyone interested in conflicts in Australia’s natural places.” >>
‘Terania Creek: Rainforest Wars’– extracts from Chapter 1
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[Ed: This book is a must read for any environmentalist/conservationist with a respect for the pioneers of environmental direct action and for any student of the Conservation Movement]
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<< On the easternmost part of Australia, it survived the drifting continent’s climatic shifts and a hundred and fifty years of timber-getting. In 1979 some claimed it was the last unlogged rainforest and should be saved, but for foresters and saw-millers it was the last rainforest they would plan to log. The dispute over logging flared into the Rainforest War across New South Wales.
Today forest protests are part of Australia’s political landscape, but Terania Creek was the first.
This story is about the people from both sides who fought over the rainforest, but the enduring player in the story is the rainforest itself.
Enter the forest and you find mottled tree trunks soaring to crowns high in the canopy, supported by elegantly curved or plank-like buttresses, taller than a man, smaller trees with no buttresses at all, and trees with tumbling bifurcating trunks that grow downwards to the ground, encircling and strangling the small trees that give them support. You crouch to avoid the tangle of creepers as thick as a forearm, and the vines, some armed with hooks, which loop between the trees.>>
<< You stand under tree ferns several metres tall, with their fragile fronds and insubstantial stems protected by the high humidity and dense shade under the forest’s multiple canopy layers. And in a quiet moment you hear the startling stereophonic calls of a whip-bird and its mate. >>
<< In the early part of the twentieth century, the rainforests and drier eucalypt forests of the caldera (volcanic basin) were logged by sawmills that grew up around the ranges, providing timber for new rural industries and housing for the expanding population of the young State of New South Wales.
Soft workable timbers were harvested from remote rainforest refuges, like Terania Creek, in uncontrolled logging to supply the war effort during World War II. Bush crews returned to log the southern part of Terania Creek in the 1950s and again in 1968, but the northern part of the basin under the overhanging cliffs remained untouched. >>
<< More than two hundred years of European activity along the eastern seaboard reduced Australia’s rainforests by three quarters of their pre-1770 cover, through clearing for agriculture, uncontrolled logging, and conversion to plantations (and dairy pasture). The rainforests, which covered just 1% of Australia two hundred years ago, now cover just one quarter of one percent of the Australian landmass.
The dairy industry that had flourished on the cleared slopes of the caldera was in decline by the 1970s, and young settlers moved on to the cheap farmland. >>
<< In September 1973 Hugh and Nan Nicholson, two urban refugees looking for a self-sufficient lifestyle, found Terania Creek. They drove north from the hamlet of The Channon on a rough dirt road through steepening hills that forced the road to wind tightly around and through the creek on the valley floor.
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The Channon (hamlet), turnoff to Terania Creek
[Click image to enlarge, photo by Editor 20131023]
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<< Just before the valley sides closed in completely they found a small patch of cleared land running a short distance upslope from the creek flats. It was the last cleared land at the end of the road, a degraded dairy farm losing ground to encroaching weeds (typically Lantana). On the eastern boundary, across the creek, was the rainforest of Whian Whian State Forest, and on the northern boundary was Goonimbar State Forest with its tall, moist rainforest and palm communities. The forests were held in the basin of Terania Creek, ringed with cliffs below the backdrop of the Nightcap Range. >>
<<Then a war broke out in this most peaceful landscape – the Rainforest War. It started in 1979 with a battle over the rainforests of Terania Creek and spread to rainforests across the State of New South Wales. On one side were the young settlers making their homes around the caldera. On the other side were the Forestry Commission of New South Wales and the sawmills it licensed.
The new settlers were bent on protecting the forests; they felt a spiritual relationship with the rainforests, were in awe on the ancient life-forms and felt duty-bound to protect them. The Forestry Commission, in contrast, managed extensive forest regions on long cycles of cutting and regeneration according to silvicultural principles of forest management. Geographically, its focus was regional and broad, whereas that of the protesters, initially was local and narrow; its intervention was based on science (agroforestry) and economics while that of the protesters was based on conservation (ecological science which then not been formalised) and spirituality.>>
<< The events that followed make up the story of The Rainforest War…But the central character of the story is the rainforest of Terania Creek, claimed by protesters as the last unlogged rainforest. Its ancient genetic lineage of buttressed trunks, soft leaves, colourful flowers and fleshy fruits appeared vulnerable and stimulated a primitive instinct in those who entered it. Like a newborn infant, the marvel of its existence inspired its own protection. It is a spiritual landscape – the living archaeology of Gondwana. >>
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[Source: ‘Terania Creek: Rainforest Wars‘, (2006) by author Dr Nigel Turvey, published by Glass House Books, Brisbane, ^http://nigelturvey.com/page1001.aspx]
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The joys of trouble-making on a grand scale!
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<< Helicopters landed in the paddocks, police cars parked all over our precious grass, the campers kept expanding their area. All along Hugh and I had feared defeat and the loss of that exquisite forest. Now we feared loss of control of our lives. And we weren’t even getting into the forest to do the heroic stuff with all the other activists. We were pinned to the cabin with the phone stuck on an ear, sitting in strategy meetings while trying to remember where the kids were, or hunting for vital but constantly disappearing papers.
But we loved it too. The joys of trouble-making on a grand scale! The media whirlwind! The politicians suddenly ringing us! The euphoria of watching so many different skills miraculously dovetailing for an inspired purpose! The discovery of so many fascinating and resourceful people!
And on top of all that, after four weeks of intensity, we won. It was hard to believe. Was it the daily road blocks or the protestors up trees that did it? Was it the cut-up logs? That was bad press and everyone was appalled but it stopped the trees being felled wholesale. Was it brilliant, or just lucky, media manipulation? Was it the penetrating and relentless phone calls by Bren Claridge to Premier Wran’s office? Was it the lack of trespass laws which would have kept us out of the forest? Was it simply a state government leaving all the pawns to fight it out and point to the safe jumping side? Was the time just right to save rainforest or did we help to make the time happen?
Community cohesion thrives on tackling big issues together. And there are huge challenges confronting us: the local impact of climate change; the Dunoon Dam; the inevitable attack on forests thought saved for ever; an increasing regional population that also expects more per person in resources; the breath-taking irrationality of the belief that growth without limits is even possible let alone desirable.
People still come up to us in the street and say “I was at Terania Creek and it changed the direction of my life!” It sounds so corny now but it did feel like a coming-of-age for all of us, the new-age interlopers, even if it wasn’t appreciated by the “real” locals. Our ideal of self-sufficient living had turned out to be insufficient until it had acknowledged and defended the landscape in which it was embedded.
Finally, if nothing else, the wrestle for Terania Creek finally put us in touch with the original custodians, the people who fought for the land first and were massacred for it, in one of the worst killing fields in the entire country. We realised that fighting for your own backyard is a long-standing and deeply honourable activity. If everyone genuinely safeguarded their own patch most environmental problems would evaporate. And so would many social problems, since it is connectedness with its people and its history which enables little communities like ours to love themselves.
I don’t know but I would do it all again. In fact, as a community we need to do it all again. >>
[1] ‘Terania Creek: Rainforest Wars‘, (2006) by author Dr Nigel Turvey, published by Glass House Books, Brisbane, ^http://nigelturvey.com/page1001.aspx]
<< “The protest against the logging in Terania Creek Basin has been an occurrence of great social significance and for those present a spiritual experience unprecedented in their lifetime.
The spirit of caring and sharing that ebbed and flowed throughout the four week long camp of resistance was the strongest evidence that any had encountered of what was repeatedly described as tribalism but which might more easily be described as brotherhood. Perhaps it was the nature of the trees and their timeless passive servitude to man which evoked the deep inner feelings of a holy cause in their protection. Or was it the awareness of service to all mankind and the planets ecosystem that was being lived out, which allowed each individual to rise above his normal petty personal cravings and attachments…
How was this accomplished? Through the implementation of practices which re-enforced our belief in the good will of the people, the sacrifice of personal ego to guidance by the group mind. Without the circle meetings, wherein all information and feelings were exchanged and decisions made, none of this would have been possible. “May the circle be unbroken” became our deepest hymn. Through the centring of the group in the linking of the circle, the group mind was evoked and, miraculously at times, consensus was achieved. We all undertook to respect that consensus, which gave us a bewildering and potent presence in the heat of confrontation with a structured, hierarchical, but rigid and confused opponent.
And in this way we won each day and the argument to boot, demonstrating to even our amazement the power of clarity, love and peacefulness over ignorance, insensitivity and brute force.
But much more than this did we win. For what we learned about ourselves and our fellow travellers on this rainbow coloured spaceship will sustain and promote our efforts, which we will surely now give in order to bring into being a more healthy and healing lifestyle. And thus our place of power among the species here will no longer be abused but will at last be honoured.” >>
‘Presented by Ruby Vincent, “A Question of Balance” is a grassroots environmental (website-based) show that is aimed at the general community to show that we can do things to improve our environment and STILL maintain an enjoyable standard of living. We do deal with important issues but attempt to avoid the doom and gloom ‘inevitable’ approach since the average person simply tunes out and there is no point in just preaching to the committed environmental activists.’
Click icon to play interview with William Lines about the battle for Terania Creek
‘Actor Jack Thompson wraps up the documentary, summarising the achievements of the Terania Creek protesters and delivering an impassioned plea to stop the destruction of rainforests.’
Local community protest against Metgasco coal seam gas drilling around Bentley/Rock Valley, 20131014About 14km west of Lismore, New South Wales, Australia
[Source: Photo by Marie Cameron, ^http://www.echo.net.au/2013/10/csg-flash-mob-at-bentley/]
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May 2009: Before the state election, Barry O’Farrell promised:
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“The next Liberal/National Government will ensure that mining cannot occur…in any water catchment area, and will ensure that mining leases and mining exploration permits reflect that common sense; NO IFS, NO BUTS, A GUARANTEE.”
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Sep 2012: NSW Government approves Coal Seam Gas in the Northern Rivers
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North Sydney based Metgasco Limited (Metgasco) is a publicly listed company on the Australian Stock Market focused on exploring and developing gas resources including coal seam methane gas (CSG) in the Northern Rivers Region of New South Wales.
In September 2012, the New South Wales (NSW) state government approved the first production of coal seam gas in the Northern Rivers Region, awarding exploration licences to Metgasco. The licences cover what Metgasco calls its ‘Casino Gas Project‘.
The gas extraction has only become economically viable since the adaptation of the American hydraulic fracturing (abbreviated ‘fracking’) technique invented in 1997 that requires high pressure water with toxic and flammable benzene in order to fracture coals and rock seams deep underground to release natural gas.
The production licence covers an area of land 22km west-southwest of Lismore.
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Bentley pastoral landscape inside the Leycester Catchment
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Simultaneously, the NSW government also renewed several coal seam gas exploration licences throughout NSW, lifted a ban on the controversial American ‘fracking’ process, and revealed new regulations to govern the industry.
Metgasco managing director and CEO Peter Henderson said Metgasco hoped to be granted many more production licences in the Northern Rivers Region in the future.
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CEO Peter Henderson:
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“We’re hoping to supply a whole lot more gas to the local area, but to do so we’ll have to go through the same process of putting development submissions together, seeking approvals and getting production licences… and that process will be more difficult that it was before because of the government’s new regulations. It’s a case of drilling more wells, putting flow lines in, building power plants and so forth, it’s not very exciting stuff.”
“We’ve got a range of opportunities in terms of drilling the wells however we’re not proposing any fracking in this production licence. The work we’ve done to-date suggests the top coal we’re looking at is better developed by drilling horizontal wells, it’s the most economic way of getting the gas out of the coal.
There’s a possibility in the future when we want to develop some of the deeper coals we might find that fracking is the best way of proceeding and if we do that all those wells will be approved by government.”
Grassroots protest organisation, Lock the Gate’s Boudicca Cerese predicted the anti-CSG community would block any attempt by Metgasco to resume drilling, because it was the company’s ultimate intent to drill “hundreds if not thousands” of wells. “They need to make a profit – they will want all the gas in their licence area which requires large-scale industrial gasfields,” Ms Cerese said.
Metgasco participated in the successful NSW Energy Security Summit on 26 September 2013, at which the serious gas shortages facing NSW consumers over the coming years were given extensive media coverage. Major energy users, farming community representatives and other stakeholders joined gas explorers and producers in reviewing the very disturbing forecasts of steep gas price increases in all eastern states.
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<< Metgasco has an ally at the Richmond Valley Council. He is none other than the GM. Although the council has many elected representatives the GM seems to be the one representing Richmond Valley whenever important decisions has to be taken. Our democracy has been slowly metamorphosing into Demockery and what more blatant evidence than seeing the GM run the monthly council meetings. >>
[Source: Casino Environment Centre]
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[Ed: The threat of domestic gas shortages in Australia is a greedy gas industry cartel hoax warranting a Royal Commission enquiry, removal of industry self-regulation, punitative fines and industry restructure. The General manager of Richmond Valley Council, John Walker, must be a gullible fool if he bleats the con that Metgasco’s gas interests are for the local Richmond Valley Power Station, local jobs and local infrastructure.
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Metgasco’s largest shareholder is a wholly owned subsidiary of Liquified Natural Gas Limited (LNG) now mainly owned by China Huanqiu Contracting and Engineering Corporation. Metgasco is primarily interested in converting CSG to LNG, desires a separate LNG offshore floating facility for export so it can profit from overinflated foreign LNP market pricing.
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All domestic interest is unprofitable and a PR con.]
The approval of Metgasco’s production licence has angered Northern Rivers anti-coal seam gas campaigners. Boudicca Cerese from the Lock the Gate Alliance said the State Government had ignored the concerns of the majority of the community.
Boudicca Cerese:
“What the granting of these licences clearly shows is that the government has capitulated to the vested interests of the CSG industry and this industry is now proceeding in the region without a social licence. There’s overwhelming opposition from the public to this industry and yet the government is going ahead regardless.”
The community has said all along ‘where is the science that proves this won’t impact our groundwater?’ And it’s not there. All this is just being forced on the community without and proper investigation of the impacts.”
Metgasco‘s CSG exploration encroaches into Rous Water Catchment
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Metgasco’s PEL 16 (exploration licence) envelopes all of the beef industry town of Casino and its 9000 or more residents. The CSG license extends over the rich agricultural area around Casino, over Bungabee State Forest and encroaches into key water tributaries of Back Creek and Leycester Creek within Rous Water’s Leycester Creek Catchment (‘x‘ on map below).
Rous Water is continually undertaking important projects to maximise the quality and security of a healthy drinking water supply for the region. Metgasco isn’t.
Dec 2012: NSW Government installs mining lackies to its water board
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<< The NSW government’s Minister for Primary Industries, Katrina Hodgkinson, has replaced the entire Board of the Sydney Catchment Authority, the independent body established for the sole purpose of protecting our drinking water supplies. The new chairperson is a former director of two of Australia’s largest mining companies.
In opposition, the (now) Minister for Resources, Chris Hartcher, lectured parliament extensively about the dangers posed by coal seam gas (CSG) mining, using Eastern Mining’s pollution of the Pilliga as an example. Similarly the Premier made a ‘no ifs, no buts’ unconditional promise to ban mining in our water catchments.
Subsequently, we have witnessed CSG contamination events across NSW and Queensland that clearly demonstrate that neither the industry or current planning and legislation standards can be relied on to protect vital areas – such as our drinking water catchments and prime farmland – from the effects of CSG mining.
Since obtaining office with these opposing policies, Minister Hartcher has overseen CSG licence renewals and drilling approvals across our drinking water catchments that include approval for fracking. This is despite mounting scientific evidence of the danger CSG mining poses to water supplies, the increased risk created when fracking is used and the dubious nature of the clean energy tag attributed to unconventional gas by the CSG industry.
The NSW Government has ignored most recommendations of the Upper House Review Committee into CSG mining. The ensuing Strategic Regional Land Use Policy turned out to be farcical in protecting our drinking water from production CSG mining.
In the context of CSG licenses being granted over drinking water catchments, including two in the Illawarra, this is of grave concern. How can it possibly be acceptable that the authority charged with protecting our drinking water – for the purpose of public health – has not one public health expert, but is headed up by a former mining executive?
It is difficult to recall a period when an Australian state has seen such disregard for proper government process and standards. It’s time for all citizens of NSW to let this government know, in no uncertain terms, that this latest abuse of power is a step too far. >>
July 2013: Federal Resources Minister thinks CSG has rights over ‘hamlets’
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<< Metgasco has just released a statement, in which director Peter Henderson says Metgasco is planning to start drilling again at its Rosella well, about 12km north east of Casino.
When Metgasco pulled out of the region early in the year, it blamed the State Government’s rules restricting CSG activity around populated areas. However, Mr Henderson is saying it is the attitude of the new Federal Government that has encouraged the company’s return: “… recent regulatory and political developments, particularly since the September Federal election, have encouraged Metgasco to initiate the activities necessary to enable field operations to recommence,” he says in the statement.
The new Resources Minister, Ian Macfarlane, has been particularly outspoken in favour of coal seam gas since the Federal election, saying the exclusion zones blocking CSG wells should exist only around “urban centres” – not “hamlets”. >>
[Source: ‘Metgasco is back!’, 201307, The Northern Star]
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Dec 2013: Nimbin Environment Centre says the gloves are off!
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<< The fight is hotting up. Metgasco is planning to drill on a property at Bungabee Road Bently.
Residents have been discussing and organising and Nimbin Environment Centre is helping out. A regular protest is being held twice weekly on Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon at Naughtons Gap intersection . Call us if you need a lift to get there.
NEC also supports the Food Not Bombs event held every second Friday on Cullen St. Please come and join this great initiative by James Creagh. A big thank you to Phil Mitten who has kept at his post at the Nimbin Environment Centre for many many years now. Phil has had to cease volunteering at Nimbin Environment Centre because of family commitments. We wish him the very best.
The gloves are off and the NSW government along with Martin Ferguson now chair of APPEA Advisory Board and Mac Fartlane Federal Resources minister are intent on destructive industries such as new Open Cut Coal mines and unconventional gas extraction.
Many people come to our centres at NEC and CEC dishearten, throwing their arms in the air and conceding defeat. I say to those people do not despair because that is exactly what they want you to do. They are afraid of the power of people informed and united. This is why they lie and fabricate and invent crisises like; there is a gas shortage, NSW will be left in the dark. The price of gas will sky rocket! The gas industry will create thousands of jobs!
These are all proven lies, a look at what independent pundits are saying and a little research will quickly exposed these myths. As for ‘most people in Casino want the gas’ here is the result of some unusual statistics taken at demos in front of Metgasco’s office in Casino.
Tallies of Toots vs fingers ( people who honk or wave in support of our anti-gas stand and those who make rude gestures) show a consistent 87-90% against gas. So if you don’t believe us ( that includes Mr Walker, Henderson and company) come join us and see for yourselves.
In the end people power will return democracy to its rightful place in spite of bullying by Big Corporations, The Feds and the Rum Corps of NSW.
Viva La Revolution! >>
[Source: Nimbin Environment Centre]
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Nov 2013: Hundreds at Metgasco Protest
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Police estimated almost 300 people turned up at Metgasco’s Casino office yesterday to protest the company’s ongoing exploration for coal-seam and other unconventional gas in the area.
One man’s handwritten sign put the crowd’s feelings succinctly:
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‘We are living in the age of stupid when money, gas companies, power, politicians, ego, greed are more important than water, earth, life, air and us.’
June 2013: State govt fast-tracked Metgasco licence
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<< Greens MLC Jeremy Buckingham has released Department of Resources documents appearing to show the State Government was trying to fast-track Metgasco’s production licence and make an announcement to the industry before the department had set any conditions on the licences.
Mr Buckingham obtained the documents under a freedom of information request.
In an email dated August 6, last year, Lindsay Cohen, a liaison officer to resources minister Chris Hartcher said in relation to the approval of a production licence for Metgasco that “the minister is keen to approve this”. He then said the department will still need to “work on conditions” but that they “want to issue a media release accordingly as a signal to industry that progress is being made”.
In another revelation, it seems Metgasco did not want to have any announcement about their production licence being granted before council elections on September 8, possibly because of the CSG referendum being held by Lismore City Council.
And from Lindsay Cohen on August 21: “Confidential: Metgasco advised the minister that it would be premature for the approval to be signed and announced yet as there would be ASX/share price ramifications that need to be planned for.
“They also would prefer it to be grouped with the conditional approval and subsequent announcement of the PELs as discussed in cabinet.”
The announcement about Metgasco’s production licence, the first issued by the O’Farrell Government was made on September 11 (after the elections) in the last paragraph of a media release about the renewal of other exploration licences.
Lock the Gate Northern Rivers spokeswoman, Boudicca Cerese, said the documents showed the minister was sending one message to industry and another to the community.
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Boudicca Cerese:
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“It exposes the hypocrisy of the State Government.
On one hand they are trying to convince people that their regulations are world’s best practice, yet on the other hand they are trying to push through the licence without even sorting out the conditions.” >>
.Here we go again..
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So why does ANU have $900m in shares in Metgasco?
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<< One of Australia’s leading universities, which is a top 20 shareholder in Metgasco, says it is still planning to sell its shares more than a year after promising to do so.
The Australian National University, which holds more than $900 million in listed and unlisted investments, holds 2.5 million shares in Metgasco.
In October 2011, the university promised to sell the stock, but hasn’t. While the stock does not represent any untoward investment behaviour by the university, it has grated on students who oppose the CSG extraction.
The issue has sparked a Freedom of Information application from a students group called the ANU Environment Collective that wants to see the stock sold.
ANU said yesterday it was still planning to sell down its shareholding in the company, but there were “few potential buyers”. >>
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]
