On Wednesday 20th April the hearing of our case began with a site visit to Bimblebox Nature Refuge. The court travelled here and were welcomed onto Wangan and Jagalingou Country by Uncle Adrian Burragubba and family.
From the EDO (FB blog):
The Bimblebox Nature Refuge is an important habitat, teeming with a known 668 species of native plants and animals.
It was bought for conservation in 2000, when a group of locals decided to invest their hard-earned savings to protect the property from widespread clearing taking place across the region. The Australian Government chipped in with a grant of around $300,000 for the land purchase. That grant came with the condition that the site become a Protected Area, as categorised by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Bimblebox was to be protected in perpetuity.
Today, the nature refuge is an invaluable study in how the conservation of the natural environment can be prioritised on private grazing properties. Allowing Bimblebox to be -destroyed for a coal development would undermine the entire nature refuge program.
Since The Bimblebox Alliance first challenged the Galilee Coal Project, proponent Waratah Coal has amended its plans, and no longer intends to undertake open cut mining on Bimblebox Nature Refuge. However, the proposal to underground mine beneath Bimblebox has not changed. The integrity of the National Reserve System of Protected Areas will be in question if mining of Nature Refuges is permitted.
The court will hear evidence that Waratah’s underground mine would cause subsidence of the surface and likely impact hydrology and ecosystems. The very biodiversity values that Bimblebox has been established to protect would be in peril.
The beautiful Bimblebox Nature Refuge: What’s at stake: (see EDO blog for full gallery of pics)
Next Tuesday (April 26), the Land Court will sit in Brisbane to hear opening arguments in the case.
Youth Verdict and The Bimblebox Alliance will ask President Kingham of the Land Court of Queensland to recommend that the Mining Lease and Environmental Approval for the Galilee Coal Project be refused by the minister.
The solicitor on record for this case is Alison Rose. EDO would like to thank barristers Saul Holt QC, Emrys Nekvapil, Kasey McAuliffe-Lake and Katherine Brown for their assistance.
