Bimblebox

Australia’s battle against coal and gas expansion

The people caring for Bimblebox Nature Refuge in Central West Queensland saw that the harsh reality of the nation’s mining boom was happening behind the backs of most Australians.

But for them, the experience of intrusive coal exploration was all too real, as their Nature Refuge sits over the coal reserves of the then-untapped Galilee Basin.  They had thought the Refuge was protected permanently by legal contracts with state and federal governments.

But then Waratah Coal was given exploration rights over it for their “China First” project (now called the Galilee Coal Project). Shocked co-owner Paola Cassoni felt that the best way to resist would be to show Aussies what has happening in their backyard.

In 2010 they heard about U.S. independent filmmaker, Mike O’Connell’, and his renowned documentary, ‘Mountaintop Removal’, which told the world about resistance to coal mining in Appalachia, West Virginia. They asked him to come here.

The resulting documentary, ‘Bimblebox’, was released in early 2012, and premiered as the official selection at the Byron Bay Film Festival that year.

It is named for this major flashpoint in the conflict between coal and ecology in Australia – but the story O’Connell tells is bigger than Bimblebox; it’s for anyone who cares about Australia, the environment, climate change, and the power of the coal industry. The fate of Bimblebox Nature Refuge is placed in the context of community responses to the massive expansion of coal and coal seam gas mining across the eastern states of Australia.

Featuring the haunting music of Gurrumul Yunupingu, Bimblebox shows what would be destroyed if the mines planned for the Galilee go ahead, and the growing protest movement that will resist it.

As we have seen, with the Adani Carmichael mine approval and the Stop Adani movement. And as we will see if Clive Palmer’s Galilee Coal Project that would destroy Bimblebox is allowed to proceed. The film is still highly relevant… unfortunately.

• To purchase a DVD please fill out the form below.

Alternatively, contact Paola Cassoni, bimblebox@gmail.com, or Sheena Gillman, sheenagillman@gmail.com.

• The full film can also be streamed online for $3.99 through MeetTheFilmmakers.

• Listen to extracts from the film on an interview recorded on ‘A Question of Balance’.

• Watch the trailer on Vimeo.

• Now also available to watch as free streaming.

• Follow the film on facebook .

• Find out more about the film-maker Michael C O’Connell .

(Comment :Commission to Screen Queensland Documentary on World Environment Day « Catholic Justice and Peace Commission)