Updated on Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 10:12AM by stevem

Updated on Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 12:05AM by stevem

MARY Valley indigenous leader Eve Fesl yesterday dropped a bomb on the Traveston Crossing dam project, demanding a stop work order in response to claimed government breaches of its own cultural heritage laws. Dr Fesl yesterday claimed the government had ignored the rights of her people under the legal concept of contemporaneous history. She said the government and its dam construction company, Queensland Water Infrastructure Pty Ltd, had ignored this concept, which she says is essentially the provable cultural claims of people who really are from the Mary Valley. She says some Native Title claimants “would not even know where the Mary Valley is,” if they had not been told by QWI.

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Updated on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 07:10AM by stevem

Updated on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 07:15AM by stevem

Updated on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 07:48AM by stevem

Updated on Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 01:48PM by stevem

Updated on Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 03:35PM by stevem

FLEETING it may have been, but anti-Traveston dam protesters believe their meet and greet with Kevin Rudd yesterday can still have a lasting effect. Every time the Prime Minister sips his morning coffee from the ‘I Love Mary’ mug he was presented with yesterday, he just may be reminded of the controversy surrounding the proposed Traveston dam. He may also think long and hard about the effects Queensland Labor Government plans may have on the south-east corner of his home state when he picks up his new ‘No Dam’ pen. And his memories of swimming in the Mary River may even be jogged every time he glances at his new Mary River book. That would please protesters anyway, who gathered outside Hervey Bay Hospital yesterday morning to hand over the presents to the prime minister during what was a very brisk stop. As Mr Rudd climbed out of his car to a pack of media he by-passed the hospital entrance to introduce himself to a group of anti-Traveston dam campaigners wearing their signature yellow t-shirts and holding their bright ‘Don’t Murray Our Mary’ placards.

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Updated on Thursday, September 3, 2009 at 12:47PM by stevem

The Gubbi Gubbi Aboriginal people have criticised the State Government’s handling of payments and preliminary work for the proposed $1.5 billion Traveston Crossing Dam near Gympie. Gubbi Gubbi elder Eve Fesl the first indigenous Australian to obtain a PhD from an Australian university, has accused the Government of disenfranchising her people by short cutting the Native Title process. Instead the Government had negotiated with a conglomerate of other Aboriginal groups loosely described as Kabi Kabi, which did not have such strong links to the Mary Valley. “Some of them are not even Aboriginal”, she said. ” My mother (Evelyn Monkland Olsen) was born on the banks of the Mary River at Imbil and all our people are connected to the area”.

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Updated on Sunday, April 12, 2009 at 09:20AM by stevem

What appears to be an act in keeping with government commitments to river conservation in fact affects Aboriginal assets extending to 13 rivers in the basins and catchments of the three named rivers, and includes “high preservation zones”. The wild rivers declarations cover 19,000sqkm, mainly indigenous freehold land. In other words, vast areas of land that were not part of the original proposal for these rivers have been added. This sudden announcement was a shock to the Aboriginal owners of these areas. It is clear that the majority of the submissions from the Aboriginal traditional owners have been ignored and treated with contempt. They were advised by the relevant minister to write to the Wilderness Society for an extension of time to resolve their problems. The Wilderness Society declined.

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Updated on Monday, April 28, 2008 at 10:08AM by stevem

Updated on Tuesday, May 6, 2008 at 03:59PM by stevem

Questions have been raised about the effectiveness of native title laws after a claim lodged more than a decade ago faltered due to a change in the legislation. The Gubbi Gubbi tribe lodged an application with the Native Title Tribunal in 1996 to register a claim over the Glasshouse Mountains, covering about 8.8sq km of land. This claim had occurred but was later deregistered after an amendment to the law.

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AN attempt will be made in the Federal Court this week by the Bligh Government to strike out a native title claim that threatens the Traveston Dam. Deputy Premier Paul Lucas defended an unusual move to intervene in the case by the government-owned Queensland Water Infrastructure, which is building the $2 billion dam. It is believed to be the first time a Labor government has used the courts to try to undermine a native title claim.

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GYMPIE MP David Gibson has backed the Gubbi Gubbi people in their outrage at new moves to block their native title claims over their traditional lands upstream from the proposed Traveston Crossing dam. And he supported an aboriginal call to arms to defend native title rights against the financial might of private companies, such as QWI, who were well resourced enough to hire Queens Counsel even for preliminary hearings on native title matters.

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Eve Fesl is a Gubbi Gubbi woman and she knows the story of injustice all too well. Take the Traveston Dam proposal. The Queensland government recently offered indigenous groups, including the Gubbi Gubbi people, an Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA), worth more than $1 million. Two other indigenous groups accepted but the Gubbi Gubbi, the only group whose land is affected by the dam, flatly refused. “We said we would have nothing to do with it. We’re not going to sign away our history, our culture, the Mary Valley. No way,” Eve says.

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Updated on Saturday, August 18, 2007 at 02:04PM by stevem

An Aboriginal elder says she is getting legal advice on lodging an official complaint against the company contracted to build the Traveston Crossing dam in south-east Queensland. Dr Fesl says at a meeting last weekend in Gympie, QWI favoured the two groups who signed the agreement and tried to have her excluded from the meeting. “They have to have the ILUA - which is the Indigenous land use agreement - they have to have that registered, so having somebody not sign it makes it a bit more difficult to have it registered,” she said.

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Updated on Friday, June 29, 2007 at 08:30AM by stevem

An Indigenous group has knocked back a $1 million offer from the State Government to sign a land use agreement for the Traveston Crossing dam in south-east Queensland. Gubbi Gubbi elder Doctor Eve Fesl says her people refused the offer because it would have given their consent to dam the Mary River.

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