THE Save the Mary River Co-ordinating Group has marked the recent National Water Week with a campaign to take its fight against the dam to Canberra. THE Save the Mary River Co-ordinating Group says it has marked the recent National Water Week with a campaign to take its fight against the dam to Canberra. “The campaign to save the Mary River and Great Sandy Strait will expose the Premier’s cover-up of the facts regarding the proposed Traveston Crossing dam to key politicians in Parliament House in Canberra this week,” group president Glenda Pickersgill said. She said she had aimed to meet politicians and explain “the key flaws in the proposal to a conference organized by the peak body of environmental practitioners, the Environmental Institute of Australian and New Zealand. “This was a great opportunity for environmental assessors from all over the country, including some who might be involved in the decision, to hear the true facts behind this proposal,” she said.

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THE Sunshine Coast is in danger of losing its identity and becoming “another suburb of greater Brisbane”. The convenor of next Friday’s Sunshine Coast State of the Region Summit, professor Scott Prasser, warned rapid population growth and development in south-east Queensland was having serious consequences on the region. Prof Prasser said it was turning into another Gold Coast due to the encouragement of the “east-west sprawl”. “Now is the time for some of this to be remedied, but it requires rigorous planning and a commitment to stick at it long enough to make a difference,” he said.

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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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Father Mark Franklin has been so moved by the social injustice that has occurred to the people of the Mary Valley over the proposed dam, that he has offered his church for an ecumenical prayer service dedicated to the Mary River and its communities. The service has been planned especially to pray for the Federal politicians who are making an imminent decision about whether the State government’s proposed Mary River dam will have approval or not. Reverend Iain Watt from the Uniting Church at Imbil will speak in an ecumenical liturgy which will include an Indigenous ceremony as well.”In the face of injustice and displacement we need to continue to stand together against this outrageous treatment of people, as well as the proposed damage to the Mary River environment,” said Rev Watt. The local service will be held at St Patrick’s Catholic Church, Church Street, in Pomona on Sunday 8th November at 3 pm, followed by a sausage sizzle hosted by the Noosa Catholic Parish.

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One of the laziest arguments put forward by proponents of a bigger Australia is the need to feed more taxpayers into the system to fund the looming mass retirement of baby boomers. The theory goes that if we don’t grow by the 60% the prime minister projects, to a national population of 35 million in the next 40 years, either the existing workforce would have to pay more tax or baby boomers would experience a meaner retirement. Property council darling Bernard Salt and certain state government demographers say the cost can be met simply by increasing the tax base through growth and young migrants, who they presume won’t get sick or require a pension for at least 40 years. Also forgotten is the cost of educating their children. The laziness of this argument is both apparent and dangerous.

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More than 1,000 freshwater fish species are threatened with extinction, reflecting the strain on global water resources, an updated global “Red List” of endangered species showed Tuesday. The list by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the most respected inventory of biodiversity covering more than 47,000 of the world’s species. Scientists looked at 3,120 freshwater fish this year, 510 more than a year ago. They found that 1,147, or a third, are now threatened with extinction. “Creatures living in freshwater have long been neglected,” said Jean-Christophe Vie, deputy head of species programme at the IUCN. “This year we have again added a large number of them to the IUCN Red List and are confirming the high levels of threat to many freshwater animals and plants. “This reflects the state of our previous water resources. There is now an urgency to pursue our effort but more importantly, to start using this information to move towards a wise use of water resources.”

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Updated on Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 04:29PM by stevem

THE Bligh Government is sitting on a high-level report identifying the location of the second-wave of desalination plants planned for Queensland. The report, completed months ago, reveals which of two environmentally sensitive sites at Bribie Island or Marcoola on the Sunshine Coast will host a proposed new desalination plant. A site at bayside Lytton in Brisbane and either the Bribie or Marcoola options - both of which involve building in national parks - were identified last February as “priority” locations. However, despite promising a final decision on sites by mid-year, the Government now says it will not release the report until a decision is made on the Traveston Dam in the Mary Valley.

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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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THE threat of a stormy and wet summer has pushed the $395 million project to double the capacity of the Hinze Dam on the Gold Coast to crisis point. Project managers must decide whether to gamble on proceeding with critical work building the exposed clay core of the dam wall, or wait until the wet season finishes next year. Before workers can start raising the dam wall by 15m, they have to strip away rocks to expose the clay core base.

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A SUNSHINE Coast MP fears new plans to create a water retailing authority could set the stage for a sell-off of this region’s $2.8 billion resource. Is the state government’s motivation behind the south-east Queensland water reform to prepare the Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay’s $2.8 billion resource for sale to a private enterprise. They are the questions being asked by Buderim MP Steve Dickson following the passing of legislation on Thursday to create the new water distribution and retailing authority on the Sunshine Coast - to be operational next year.

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