On December 2 2019, The Bimblebox Alliance (TBA), represented by the EDO, lodged their objections to Waratah Coal’s plans for a coal mine over Bimblebox. There are lots to object to, but water impacts can no longer be one of them! The ABC was outside the court and interviewed Paola and the EDO’s Sean Ryan.
To win this fight, The Bimblebox Alliance Inc. needs YOU. Yes, we need funds, but we also need your hearts and minds, your hands-on help, and your connections. Spread the word about this David and Goliath battle for Nature to be valued above and beyond Coal.
• Join us in The Bimblebox Alliance Inc. (TBA) and share your particular skills. IT? Social Media? Clerical? Numerical? We are all volunteers, trying our best to meet this challenge, but we can’t all be multi-skilled, and we can certainly use more help!
• Write to your local papers (if you still have one) and to any major papers that take letters to the editor. See the Bimblebox Fact Sheet for backup, and express how you feel about this coal mine proposal, and about a dedicated Nature Refuge being offered up for a coal project – whether Bimblebox or any private ‘protected’ area.
• Call your local talkback radio shows and share your opinions about what is being proposed for Bimblebox. If this state significant ‘protected area” is mined, nowhere is safe!
• Write to your politicians so they know how you feel about this; ask them what their stance is on private ‘protected’ areas not being exempt from mining, on the impacts this project might have, on water, on habitat, on climate change…! Let them know this is a major issue of concern for you, and will influence your votes. Call or visit your local MP!
• Share our Facebook posts. Look out for our FrogsFriday features across social media, showcasing the diversity of Bimblebox.
• Share our tweets (Twitter handle @BimbleboxNR) and use our hashtags, #SaveBimblebox, #NatureNotCoal, #FrogsFriday and #Valuing Nature.
• Get Bimblebox update emails: sign up on this page.
• Donate to our fighting fund.
• Buy for Bimblebox: beautiful all-year-round Bimblebox calendars, our great logo bags and T-shirts, the book: Bimblebox – A Nature Refuge under Siege, the DVD…
• Markets: post-Covid, run a tell-and-sell market stall, with Bimblebox goods and info and stickers; clean out the garage and sell bric-a-brac, old tools, books or whatever to raise funds forthe fight.
• Tell your story: whenever you can, share with people why you care about Bimblebox and are helping to fight for its survival.
• Volunteer for hands-on help at Bimblebox; more help is always need to care for and nurture the living treasures there, to weed, to manage areas and the small cattle herd.
In late 2019 Clive Palmer’s Waratah Coal applied to the Queensland Government for a Mining Lease and Environmental Authority, two of the final steps required before approval of mining on Bimblebox Nature Refuge. The Bimblebox Alliance (TBA) had only until December 2nd, 2019 to object to the Land Court of Queensland.
But due to a technical issue, the process was restarted and the new deadline was April 3rd, 2020. We now await a Directions Hearing date. The EDO will represent TBA as well as our fellow objectors, Youth Verdict, a group of young people concerned by the potential breach of their human rights that this Galilee Coal Project could pose.
Wildlife have rights too, and we are gathering all our resources to fight to protect the flora and fauna of Bimblebox. It was always incredibly contradictory that a mining exploration licence was granted over a dedicated Refuge recognised by both Federal and State governments because it was such a significant large tract of intact vegetation of high biodiversity values.
Bimblebox Nature Refuge is beautiful – and invaluable: an 8,000 hectare property, 95% uncleared, in the largely cleared Desert Uplands Bioregion of Central West Queensland, in the south Galilee Basin. It is living proof that sustainable grazing and high conservation values can successfully co-exist.
The Bimblebox Alliance believe we have social licence and moral right on our side, and now we need to prove that we also have the legal right to exist. To do that in court is costly.
We need as much financial help as possible to fund this battle. Can you help?
This 5-minute video depicts the history and the possible dire future of Bimblebox Nature Refuge. Our thanks to Tangible Media, Bob Brown, Sonya Duus, Mark Doyle and Karl Hoch. Please click on “HD” in the lower right-hand corner to ensure maximum colour and sound quality.
The 2020 Bimblebox Calendar is a beautiful photographic testimony to the rich diversity of flora and fauna that this Nature Refuge protects. We are most grateful to Bimblebox supporters Greg and Emma Harm, of Tangible Media, who have designed the calendar around their stunning photographs.
Buy our 2020 Calendar to help save all these natural treasures from being destroyed for a coal mine! Now at the reduced price of $10 each (including P &P).
2020 may be moving along, but for the next nine months these Calendars will keep delighting with their visual charm as well as sharing fresh information each month.
Or buy a Bimblebox T-shirt or Singlet and get one of these great Calendars for FREE!