My ‘Rich Land, Wasteland’ talks to audiences in Cygnet, Hobart, Burnie and Launceston combined with screenings of the eye-opening ‘Bimblebox’ documentary, left me both concerned and encouraged.
Concerned at the lack of awareness in the community, even amongst what were mainly environmentally aware people, that the resources rush was not confined to the mainland – or to the Tarkine here.
For example, it was a shock for folk to learn that New Hope Coal, who calculatedly emptied and ‘erased’ the Queensland town of Acland in advance of their open cut coalmine expansion, plan a coal-to-liquids (CTL) process for the low quality coal at their Rosevale and York Plains exploration leases.
Acland’s tragic demise is vividly shown in the film and depicted in my book, as is the Felton’s community fight against a similar dirty CTL petrochemical plant in their valley. They won, by the way.
Other larger companies, like the BG Group, (British Gas) have CSG interests here, and audiences were shocked at the map we displayed of Tasmania’s substantial CSG resources.
But I was encouraged that people took the information on board and could see that Tasmanians are well placed to use their people power to safeguard their regions before the juggernaut starts getting up momentum here.
The Lockthegate Alliance ( www.lockthegate.org.au) and the planned CSG-Free (or whatever-free) Communities process (http://csgfreenorthernrivers.org/csg-free-communities/) are achieving great results in NSW against inappropriate mining and drilling. The Lockthegate site is full of very useful factsheets and links.
Victorians have woken up to the threats to their agriculture and tourism, their water sources and their lifestyles, and are rapidly forming groups.
I hope to see lots of yellow Lock the Gate triangles when I return.
I’m back home but the Bimblebox film is showing at 2pm every day the Sawtooth Gallery in Launceston is open (see poster) until 27th April. I enourage you to see the exhibition and the film, pick up a Bimblebox sticker and start spreading the word!
http://www.keerronggassquad.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/LTG-Sign.jpg
Photo courtesy of Jill Sampson, one of the artists in the Document:// Bimblebox exhibition at the Sawtooth Gallery in Launceston until 27th April.
