Bimblebox Nature Refuge

The owners and managers of Bimblebox Nature Refuge are inviting other nature refuge landholders to sign an open petition to protect nature refuges threatened by mineral interests.

Queensland has a woeful record when it comes to biodiversity and conservation, and the current mining boom could make it a lot worse. The World Commission on Protected Areas has stated that increasing the size of national parks in Queensland will not be enough to save the states’ biodiversity. Private conservation areas are obviously going to play crucial role.

Because so much land of high conservation value is privately managed, landholders are encouraged and assisted in the hard work of protecting our natural assets as a matter of public interest. But despite being acknowledged for its high conservation value, much of this land is vulnerable to massive disruption. If extractable minerals are found these sanctuaries along with the time, trust and knowledge of the people involved, may be sacrificed for the temporary gain of an industry that has a sorry record and a dubious future.

Unsurprisingly, Hancock’s application to have its rail-line deemed ‘infrastructure of state significance’ was approved in early July by the Queensland’s coordinator general.

In Premier Bligh’s own words, this approval is “an important milestone towards a project that could help open up the Galilee Basin for the first time”. It also means that the government can ‘compulsorily acquire’ land should landholders wish not to be host to this madness.

In this statement, the Queensland premier unashamedly shows her colours in support of unleashing a massive new coal basin on the world – most of which will be exported to Asia and burnt in dirty coal-fired power stations. Over the life of the proposed mines, the ‘opening of the Galilee’ is likely to lead to around 30 billion tonnes of CO2 being transferred into the global atmosphere.

To make matters worse, the state’s endorsement for the new rail line and the plethora of new coal developments to follow, is in the absence of any relevant environmental impact studies being completed – let alone approved. This is a glaring insult to due process.

A recent article from Crikey offers some context for this. Bernard Keane aptly explains how the states in Australia effectively drive our national coal addiction rather than the federal government. Given the simple formula that over 30% of Australia’s national emissions are from coal-fired power stations and over 60% of the power produced in these power stations is owned by state governments, there is obviously a perverse disincentive for the states to make any significant change to the status quo. Australian states benefit economically from all stages of the coal cycle and so we are unlikely to see them promote any progressive change while this is still the case.

While democratic process may be struggling at the state level, at least out in the Galilee Basin there is a small sliver of hope with the west’s local paper, the Longreach Leader offering the only chance for residents to openly discuss the enormous change that their region is set to experience, without the heavy presumption that the future of coal in the region is inevitable. The first edition of the Galilee Basin News, dedicated to covering the proposed mining boom in the region,  was published on the 25.6.10 and included an article on Bimblebox Nature Refuges (albeit with a few incorrect details).

Coal mining in central Queensland is rapidly expanding

It seems Central Queensland is rapidly being pushed towards becoming the new Saudi Arabia of Australia, with a plethora of coal, gas and oil projects in the pipeline. With breathtaking incongruity, Queensland is set to double its coal exports within the next decade, at the same time that we are challenged to take climate change seriously. There was an excellent article by Guy Pearse on this topic in this month’s Monthly Magazine (http://www.themonthly.com.au/monthly-essays-guy-pearse-king-coal–2431).

The proposed ‘opening up’ of the Galilee Basin west of Emerald will result in at least 30 billion tonnes of CO2-e being released into the atmosphere over the next several decades. This makes absolute mockery of all our individual efforts to turn off the lights, and spells disaster for the millions of people around the world that will bear the brunt of rising sea levels and extreme weather events. We cannot rest peacefully while our elected governments further entrench our dependence on coal mining royalties and contribute to the endangering of the future of the planet as we know it.

In March (2010), Hancock Coal lodged its application for their proposed 495km rail to be granted ‘Infrastructure Facility of Significance’. The granting of this new status will pave the way for the government to ‘compulsorily acquire land (or easements) and native title for the Facility should voluntary negotiations be unsuccessful’. In the words of Paul Maulder, Hancock’s Managing Director:

The rail line is a linchpin in the development of the Galilee Coal Basin. Without this rail corridor and track, the Galilee Basin will not be able to develop to its full potential as a future economic powerhouse for the State of Queensland. (see http://hancockcoal.com.au/go/news/hancock-coal-ifs-application)

Comments were sought from ‘person/s who may be affected by the new facility’. Undoubtedly, the ‘person/s affected’ include the landholders directly in line of the rail development, who stand to lose rights to their land. What is less likely to register in the minds of the people developing and approving this proposed rail line is the fact that the rail is the thin edge of the wedge that will unleash a til-now-unexploited coal basin on the world. Is this really what the world needs and wants?

Coal stockyards at Abbot Point, with Caley Valley Wetlands in background. Guess where the run-off will end up?

Clive Palmer has disgraced himself over this last week, flying back from Beijing with a supposed ‘in the bag deal’ with a Chinese state-owned power company for his “China First” project. The $60bill deal was downgraded to a ‘framework agreement’ only, after the Chinese company responded to Palmer’s inaccuracies.

What the concerned public and potential investors need to understand is that Waratah’s “China First” project has not yet secured any environmental approvals, and currently the company only holds exploration permits – not a mining lease. Palmer’s announcements are not only misleading, they are ridiculously premature. The impact assessment for Waratah’s development began only late last year, and due to the scale of their proposal it will require years of assessment for it to be at all credible. And there are serious environmental concerns with all stages of Palmer’s proposed development.

Not that the lack of approvals has diminished Premier Anna Bligh’s enthusiasm, who is eager to sell off Queensland’s natural resources to prop up the state’s economy, rather than support genuine long-term industries that would not degrade Queensland and the global climate system.

A couple of the Bimblebox team visited Bowen this week to attend a breakfast with Hancock’s managing director and to attend a tour of Abbot Point coal export terminal. Both Hancock and Waratah plan to export their bounties of Galilee Basin coal through the Abbot Point terminal. Currently around 15Mt of coal are exported through Abbot Point, but there are plans to increase this to 110Mt, and even 230Mt in the future. The export facility’s coal stockyards are directly adjacent to the nationally significant Caley Valley wetlands which are home to at least 200 bird species, many of which breed in the wetlands. The shipping route would be directly through the Great Barrier Reef. So it is clear that at both the mine site and the export site there are likely to be unacceptable impacts from the proposed projects… and so what about the proposed 100m wide 500km long new rail-line? And the water pipe line? Incredibly, the routes of the railway and pipeline have not been disclosed to the public but we will report on these when we learn more.

Hundreds of Queenslanders will be sending this postcard to Premier Bligh this new year to tell her that they don’t want to see the biodiverse remnant woodland and sustainable land management on Bimblebox Nature Refuge sacrificed for the sake of digging out more climate-changing coal. If you would like to print out your own, here is the pdf version: postcard pdf

Grevillea in flower on Bimblebox Nature Refuge, threatened by Waratah Coal's "China First" mine

Will our representatives in Copenhagen this week admit to the power of the Australian coal lobby or the fact that in Queensland a plethora of new coal mines is assuring Australia’s addiction to coal for decades to come? As if their associated carbon emissions weren’t bad enough, many of the new coal mines are threatening some of the precious few private protected areas in the state.

Privately managed nature refuges have no legal protection from exploration or mining in Queensland. There are currently sixty-one Queensland Nature Refuges with coal mining exploration permits (applied for or granted) either within or adjacent to their borders. They range in size from a few hectares to thousands. Let’s look at the State government’s position on mining in nature refuges:

“A nature refuge does not alter any existing or future rights related to mineral or petroleum exploration and extraction. However, a nature refuge may require additional conditions on exploration and where a proposed nature refuge is considered to be of outstanding conservation significance, the conservation significance must be addressed on a case-by-case basis in relation to any proposed exploitation of the resource.”

Given that there has been virtually no rejection of mining license applications in Australia, this weakly worded position does not bode well for nature refuges that sit above mineral deposits. Coal deposits are particularly plentiful in Queensland, so this inevitable conflict between coal and conservation looks set to increase.

Two and a half inches of rain has given fresh life to Bimblebox Nature Refuge, with birds, insects and reptiles more active than ever. The rain has also allowed for the next stage of Queensland Herbarium research at Bimblebox on the use of fire as an important land-management tool (integral to Australian ecology), and the effects on native flora.

Despite the thriving biodiversity and cutting-edge research on Bimblebox, unfortunately there is still no security from Waratah’s proposed coal mine. Earlier this week Premier Anna Bligh visited the region and spoke in glowing terms about the fossil fuel developments near Alpha which will supply jobs to the district and revenue for the state government. What is omitted in all government rhetoric are the substantial negative impacts from coal mining, ranging from the loss of employees from the local agricultural industry to the environmental impacts from the coal mine itself, through to the port where it will be shipped and of course the end climate impact when the coal is burnt for energy production.

It is extremely premature of Anna Bligh to announce her support for these projects when there has not been any regional assessment of the cumulative impacts of the proposed mines, and none of the Environmental Impact Assessments for the individual projects have been completed. How can there be any credible outcome when there is such strong government support for the projects?

Part owner of Bimblebox Nature Refuge Paola Cassoni had a successful visit to Brisbane early this week where she gave a public presentation on the current mining threat to the 8000 hectares of remnant ecosystems on Bimblebox, participated in a protest outside the Major Projects Conference at the Brisbane Convention Centre, and met with the Queensland Minister for Infrastructure and Planning.

Paola was able to tell the minister and other government agency reps directly how it feels to have 8000 hectares of remnant ecosystems without protection from the aspirations of Waratah Coal to develop one of the biggest coal mines in the world. Recently 100 new exploration drilling holes for Bimblebox were approved by the Department of Environmental and Resource Management (DERM), without consulting or notifying the landholders.

To Paola and other effected landholders, the fact that mineral interests can annihilate all other land values feels like another round of terra nullius in Australia…. Will it take another 200 years for the government to acknowledge the injustice in current legislation?? Of course, by then it will be too late. If we are serious about protecting biodiversity and addressing climate change, the coal lobby and royalty-hungry government must be held accountable now.

Too Valuable to Mine: Coal Expansion on Nature Refuges

Hear the stories of those on the frontline of the campaign against coal in Queensland. An information night about the expansion of the coal industry into Western Central Queensland (the Galilee Coal Basin) and its impacts on biodiversity and communities.

6-8pm Monday the 12th October
Theatrette, Brisbane Square Library
Cnr Adelaide and George St, Brisbane City

Speakers include:
Paola Cassoni
Part owner of “Bimblebox”, a nature refuge in Western Central Queensland, threatened by coal mining. Paola will talk about her personal experience trying to protect Bimblebox from one of the largest coal mining proposals in the world.
Patricia Julien
Coordinator of the Mackay Conservation Group, will discuss Coal-based energy and synfuels expansion in Central Queensland: at what costs to wildlife and communities?

Paola and Patricia are in Brisbane to meet with ministers and protest at the Major projects Conference at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre on the 13th October. You are invited to join them in their protest to say that Queensland’s coal industry should not be expanding because the cost to the climate and our local environment is too high!

Protest:
10:30 am Tuesday the 13th October
Brisbane Convention Centre, Corner of Merivale Street and Glenelg, South Bank
Wear an animal costume for a biodiversity ‘die in’ or bring an animal placard or soft toy.
When October 12th, 2009 6:00 PM through 8:00 PM
Location

Brisbane Square Library, Theatrette
Cnr Adelaide and George st
Brisbane City,
Contact Phone: 07 38465793
Email: eleanor.anne@gmail.com

The federal and Queensland state governments both required Waratah Coal to produce an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for their proposed development. The state and federal EIS requirements have been rolled into one and is being administered through the Queensland Department of Infrastructure and Planning (DIP). The draft terms of reference for the EIA were open for public comment until Jun29th 2009. The DIP is currently reviewing the public comments and then the terms of reference will be given to Waratah Coal to complete their EIS. Many details of the proposed development will not be known until Waratah releases its completed EIS.