Coal instead of Nature? Not on our watch!
Bimblebox needs a fighting fund. Can you help?
The Bimblebox Alliance (TBA) needs your help if we are to pursue this next stage of the fight to save Bimblebox Nature Refuge from being destroyed by Waratah Coal’s Galilee Coal Project, owned by Clive Palmer.
Mr Palmer dismissed the biodiversity riches of this mostly uncleared woodland property as ‘a pastoral area which had devoided (sic.) all of the vegetation’, and equally the vulnerability of a diminishing species –’Fortunately the Black-throated Finch has wings and can fly…’
Our effort to save Bimblebox Nature Refuge is also a fight for other Refuges under threat, and to achieve proper legislation to protect all high biodiversity value areas in Queensland, not only National Parks.
We had been in limbo since the project received state and federal approval in 2013, but now we face the real battle. For on 4th October 2019 a notice appeared on Waratah Coal’s website for application of a Mining Lease and Environmental Authority, the last statutory approvals they need before mining coal on Bimblebox Nature Refuge.
TBA gathered all our resources of facts and figures to take to the Queensland Land Court, represented by the EDO; we lodged our objection on December 2, 2019. After much to-ing and fro-ing, our actual court hearing was over many weeks in mid-2022 and on 25th November President Kingham recommended refusal of both the ML and the EA. The grounds given were strong, including the risk to Bimblebox, the limitations on Human Rights to the owners locally, and on those of all Queenslanders and especially First Nations Peoples, from the impacts of the coal on the climate.
But on 23rd December, Waratah Coal applied for a Judicial Review in the Supreme Court. That has since been withdrawn, Clive Palmer has other plans…
Whatever comes next, we will need funds to continue this battle.
Note: Since 23.9.2022 all donations over $2 to The Bimblebox Alliance are tax deductible.
• Direct deposit/EFT to: The Bimblebox Fund, BSB: 633 000 Account Number: 152 700 597. For your donation, please use ‘DON’ and your last name as a reference. So we can identify your donation, please email our Treasurer, David Iverach, (david.iverach@gmail.com) giving your name, postal address, telephone number and amount donated (unless you wish to remain anonymous), and state if a receipt is required.
• By cheque, payable to: The Bimblebox Fund, and post to: The Bimblebox Alliance Inc, c/- David Iverach, Treasurer, 11 Wigram Rd, Glebe NSW 2037. Similarly include your name, postal address, email, telephone number and amount donated (unless you wish to remain anonymous), and state if a receipt is required.
Explanation re donations to TBA and not BNR : Occasionally It has been asked why Bimblebox Nature Reserve (BNR) itself has no bank account to receive donations directly. In 2003 the BNR Agreement (category VI IUCN protected area) was signed with the Queensland state government to permanently protect the high conservation values of the property. The means of protecting the property (privately owned) was outlined in that agreement and committed the owners of the land to manage it in a defined and agreed manner. As such the Refuge itself was not (and is not) an entity that can open a bank account.
When, in 2014, it became clear that the Refuge was under serious external threat from proposed coal mining, a group of people decided that a specific organisation was required to coordinate and fund opposition to the mining proposal with the objective of saving this Refuge (and others). Thus The Bimblebox Alliance Inc (TBA) was established under the Qld Fair Trading legislation as a charity dedicated to doing all things necessary to ensure the protection of the BNR. TBA is a registered charity and has a bank account and has been the means by which supporters have funded the efforts to save the BNR.