What: Mary River Festival 2009
When: 21/03/2009, 12 noon start
Where: Nelson Reserve, Jaycee Way Gympie.
Why: Why not?
Who: www.maryriverfestival.org.au

What:World Wetlands Day-celebrating the Ramsar convention
When 2/02/2009
Where: Hervey Bay/Maryborough
Who: Contact Tanzi, run.mary.run@gmail.com or 0405 843 375 for details

A series of local hall meetings will be held in early February throughout the communities directly displaced by the Dam proposal and the Northern Pipeline Interconnector Stage 2.

These meetings will be an attempt to update people on what information we can glean from State Government sources about what actions are planned for 2009, to discuss local concerns about what these plans mean for families and businesses and to share information about what the government is actually doing on the ground in the project area.

Kandanga Hall 7pm 9/2.
Ridgewood Hall 7pm 10/2
Imbil RSL Hall 7pm 11/2
Kenilworth - to be announced
Cooran - to be announced

For more information, or if you have information to share about what is going on, please contact the Kandanga Info Centre on 5488 4800, or use the contact page on the savethemaryriver.com website.

Mary River Festival 21st March 2009

What: Mary River Festival 2009
When: 21/03/2009, 12 noon start
Where: Nelson Reserve, Jaycee Way Gympie.
Why: Why not?
Who: www.maryriverfestival.org.au

Anyone able to help please contact Joolie Gibbs [Gallery@gympie.qld.gov.au]

FORCING THE STATE GOVERNMENT TO COME CLEAN

The campaign to save the Mary River is gathering momentum with a series of public meetings around the proposed dam footprint. The meetings, held in Kandanga, Imbil, Ridgewood and Kenilworth this week and in Cooran on Tues next week (7pm Cooran Hall) are bringing the community together to discuss their concerns and to call on the state Government to come clean on its plans for the Mary Valley.

There is growing concern that many people around Queensland think that the dam has been stopped since Premier Bligh announced a delay in construction due to environmental impacts. This created a widespread impression that the fight to save the Mary River was won. But the very next day the Premier announced the state Government is still 100% committed to building this dam. The Labor State Government is still very much ‘full steam ahead’ on getting approvals for its proposed dam and the Stage 2 Northern Pipeline Interconnector in early 2009.

Queensland Water Infrastructure (QWI) is going ahead with environmental mitigation plans and projects in the Mary Valley, and new Government policies are being pushed through. Much more land has been purchased by QWI than what was identified in the purchase plan for the proposed dam, putting valley communities under pressure and causing costs to blowout. Yet independent studies commissioned by Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett have condemned many claims made by the State Government’s Environmental Impact Statement. This is creating confusion and uncertainty for people in communities around the Mary Valley.

Communities are raising many concerns, including potential flooding upstream of the proposed dam. Many people are living on properties which already go partly under water when the Mary River floods, and there is widespread disbelief at the claims made by QWI that their properties would not be flood-affected by a proposed dam.

Other concerns include how much more property around the Mary Valley will be sought by QWI, and how such a large amount of land will be managed. Land-owners are still being pressured to sell out and leave.

Many people from communities around the Mary Valley have come forward with new energy and enthusiastic support for the campaign.

‘We need the state Government to come clean on its mitigation plans for the Mary Valley’, said Glenda Pickersgill, President of the Save the Mary River Coordinating Group. ‘Too much is unclear for the people in communities along the Mary River.’