This Saturday 27th June – at the Wharf Hotel in Wynyard – starting at 2pm
Craig Garland MP, Independent Member for Braddon, will be joined by several Tasmanian artists, Shane Howard of Goanna, former Senator and leader of the Greens, Dr. Bob Brown, and other outspoken critics of the proposed Robbins Island wind farm with the purpose of celebrating the environmental values and cultural heritage values of Pilitka/Robbins Island and the surrounding wetlands.
The one-day music festival will feature a range of artists and speakers from many walks of life, to help the community stay informed and have fun at the same time.
In a show of solidarity with community members wanting to protect Pilitika/Robbins Island, the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania also reiterated their concerns and opposition to the proposed wind farm in favour of stronger recognition and protections.
It’s an all ages event and kids under 18 are free entry.
Tickets are at Trybooking
Lineup
2:50 – Molly O’Brien
3:40 Speaker – Scott Jordan
3:50 Tommy Vincent
4:40 Speaker – Vanessa Bleyer
4:55 Rosie Haden
6:00 speaker Tabatha Badger MP
6:15 Speaker – Dr. Bob Brown
6:30 Shane Howard
7:30 Speaker – Krystelle Jordan
7:45 Speaker – Craig Garland MP
8:00 Raccoon Dog
9:00 Speaker Alice Carson
9:30 Capitan O’Briens Craic
10:50 Whalebone
Statement by Sarah Wilcox, General Manager of the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania
Pilitika is more than just a location. It is our family, our land, and our identity. We belong to Pilitika, and Pilitika belongs to us.
Our families have lived here, cared for this land, and been shaped by it for thousands of generations. Pilitika carries our stories, ceremonies, heritage, ancestors, and living culture.
The threats to Pilitika’s ecosystems and all life here are real and serious. If these values are harmed, they cannot be restored or replaced.
We support the shift to renewable energy because climate action is important. However, no project should destroy irreplaceable cultural heritage, biodiversity, or our living land.
We should not have to destroy the places that make Lutruwita/Tasmania special to protect our future. Caring for Country means caring for both the environment and the cultural landscapes that have sustained our people for thousands of years.
Palawa people must be involved from the very beginning of renewable energy projects as real partners and decision-makers. Do not come to us only after the decisions are made.
There is a better way forward, one that respects the land, honours culture, and provides renewable energy without harming the values we want to protect. Choose this path.
Statement from Craig Garland MP
This Saturday – We’ve got a music lineup, 7 good acts, nearly all Tasmanian, I believe, in the bottom pub (Wynyard) to highlight and promote a bit of an awareness about what’s being proposed for Robbin’s Island.
A very absurd place to be putting a wind farm.
It flies in the face of aboriginal community, environmentalists.
It’s just a terrible, terrible place to be putting a wind farm.
We’re putting on a lineup of good Tassie acts to highlight and promote the awareness to that.
It’s also an opportunity to give younger people, an opportunity to come along and hear some music without having to pay any money.
If you’re under 18, you’ve got a guardian or a parent. Come along and enjoy the day.
The Robbins Island wind farm is an attack on us and our culture, what they’re proposing for that area there.
We don’t need it.
We don’t have to have a wind farm there.
We can put these wind farms in the most suitable place and minimise the impacts and the cost of the community, but they’re not doing that.
For 26 years, that island (+ surrounds) has been waiting for Ramsar listing.
In 2000, the Labor Party had the nomination for Ramsar listing on their desks, and they didn’t want to move with it because they were scared that it would get in the way of this wind farm.
Here we are 26 years later.
Now, to give you an idea, Ramsar, for those that don’t know, is a recognised protection for these wading bird areas where they have to stop over and feed.
Already in this state, we have 9 or 10 protected places under Ramsar are to protect these migratory birds.
Robbins Island has twice the amount of birds than the other 9 or 10 sites already protected, and yet it’s still sitting there waiting for that protection.
We’ve had community groups there struggling to deal with the rice grass that’s being spread everywhere.
If Ramsar listing was given to that area, millions of dollars would come in to maintain the integrity of the waterway and what’s flowing into it and also get the eradication of that rice grass, which is smothering the area and affecting fish and the bird life.
We’ve got a good lineup of speakers coming along. Dr. Bob Brown will be talking there.
We’ll have Krystelle Jordan from the TAC.
I’ll be having a bit of a yap.
Alice Carson from the Circular Head Coastal Awareness Network, Vanessa Bleyer and Scott Jordan. And don’t forget Tabatha Badger. She’s a gun. She’ll have a fair bit to say, and I hope she sort of elaborates on what’s going on with the data centres right now.
It’s a complete deception, this renewable thing.
It’s a bit like the stadium and everything else.
All the details are hidden and at the last minute they throw it out at us and we’re just highlighting that Robbins is not kosher for a wind farm.
…
I’m not saving the ‘land’. It’s a disease-free devil population that’s there.
We’ve got bird flu that’s turning up right now.
These birds are under a fair bit of stress
It’s interesting that the whole nation or the government is up in arms about bird flu coming in because of what it’s going to do primary production.
But they want to put a wind farm out there and, you know, 10,000 migratory birds come there every year and that system can handle up to 20 to 30,000 birds, given the events from one year to the next.
We have Victorian birds that come over and feed in this area when they have drought over there, so it’s absolutely crucial to a lot of bird life.
And we talk about ownership – that was the meeting place of the 10 or 12 Aboriginal tribes of the northwest coast.
They didn’t give that over to the to the family that has that island now.
That was taken from them and that has never been reconciled.
And another thing to remember about this is that Victoria’s Aboriginal Heritage Act – if we had the same teeth with our act here, Robbin’s Island would not even been discussed.
What you’ve got here is another deception.
The Aboriginal Heritage Act has not been attended to since 1975, because the focus on these 2 major parties in this state has always been on jobs and growth, regardless of what it means for the community, or for environment, and that is just disgraceful.
You know, it’s lazy governance. They haven’t done their due diligence.
Another thing to remember too, our wedge tailed eagles, the Northwest is a recognised stronghold from.
Right now, they’re struggling to replace the birds that have been taking out by transmission lines and existing wind farms.
To give you an idea of the sort of stress that this puts on those birds, only one out of 11 fledgelings survives to go on.
Between 8 and 9 years of age, they lose even more. They’re already under the pump. We’re not even talking about that.
It’s a stupid place for a wind farm, and we’re going to have a bit of a celebration on Saturday night to highlight just how stupid that place is to be putting a wind farm.
We will be highlighting, there are alternatives, and we have to be very sensible how we do this renewable expansion if we go on that way.
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