Murray-Darling Kayaker joins the fight to save the Mary
By Ian Mackay

When, last year Steve Posselt set out on his epic by foot and kayak from Brisbane to Adelaide via the Murray-Darling, he entered a world of unknowns. For four months he paddled and walked, often dragging his wheeled kayak behind him as he wound his way through southern Queensland, western New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

Australia watched with fascination as he gave regular updates and reports on the state of the rivers and spoke at many venues along the way.

Steve is no stranger to water, having been a water engineer for over 30 years. Yet it’s his passion for rivers and educating about climate change that fuelled the trip and turned him into a modern day adventurer.

Steve reached Adelaide at the end of September and is now turning his attention to the Mary River in south-east Queensland where, despite massive opposition, and in the absence of federal approval, the state government is forging ahead with plans to build the Traveston Crossing Dam.

But Steve’s “involvement” amounts to much more than lobbying or letter writing. On April 12, he and his kayak will depart Brisbane for a five week trip which includes paddling the length of the Mary River.

Before his departure, though, Steve will give three fundraising presentations on his Murray/Darling trip. These will be at
Gympie Wednesday April 2nd at the Civic Centre 7.30pm
Noosa Thursday April 3rd at the “J” 7.30pm
Maryborough Friday April 4th at the Civic Hall 7.30pm
Entry price for each is $10 or $20 per family.

Steve’s “Don’t Murray the Mary” trip will take him up the Brisbane River, across Wivenhoe Dam then across Somerset Dam on the Stanley River.

A gruelling walk with kayak will be necessary as he climbs out of the Stanley catchment near Woodford, up to Bellthorpe at the southern end of the Conondale Ranges and descends into the upper catchment of the Mary.

As with the Murray trip Steve will maintain a regularly updated web-site on his travels and it is anticipated he will be joined by other paddlers along the way.

Steve’s message is plain. He can see the writing on the wall about climate change and its impact on our traditional methods of water supply and sees as sheer folly the addition of another dam when dams across Australia have been letting us down. When he adds Peak Oil to the equation, he just shakes his head at the wisdom of flooding good farming land near urban centres.

Steve plans to be at Traveston Crossing for the second anniversary of the government’s dam decision on April 27 before continuing downstream through Maryborough, the Great Sandy Straits in the lee of Fraser Island before paddling southward along the coast and back to Brisbane. The entire trip is estimated to take five weeks.

SATURDAY  12TH APRIL ———   BRISBANE ———  12.00 NOON
 
Steve Posselt will be starting his KAYAK trip up the Brisbane river and down the Mary River.
He has the media coming at 11.00.
He will be starting his trip from the boat ramp at West End boat ramp, Riverside Drive, Between Boundary St and Jane St.  
We should aim to be there at 10.30am before the press arrive at 11am.
 
We have organised a bus leaving Kandanga at 7.30am, it will cost just $15     
[you can even put your kayak under the bus]
 
This is our first chance to get on the media in Brisbane, so we need a bus full, it seats  49.
 Lets  get   a  bus load of people to go to Brisbane to see him off. His trip is about stopping this DAM and getting the message out there, hopefully Australia wide.
 

Campaigning kayaker completes gruelling protest
May 10, 2008

Exhausted environmental campaigner Steve Posselt has completed a gruelling kayak marathon hoping for more support … and a cold beer.

A crowd of wellwishers and onlookers cheered as Mr Posselt arrived back at Brisbane’s West End jetty from a round-trip to Maryborough to protest against the building of the controversial Traveston Crossing Dam.

He set out on the 861-kilometre paddle on April 12 to raise awareness of the environmental consequences of damming the Mary River, near Gympie.

Supporters waved placards and shouted “Don’t Murray the Mary”, while Gubbi Gubbi senior elder Eve Fesl pleaded with the Queensland government to reconsider damming the home of her ancestors.

“Our whole history and culture will be washed out if that dam is built. But not only that, a number of threatened species could be wiped out,” Dr Fesl said.

Mr Posselt, a civil engineer, last year completed a four-month journey along the Murray-Darling river system by kayak to heighten environmental awareness.

His latest journey was aimed at drawing attention to what he believes could turn out to be an environmental disaster.

“We have got to stop the dam because if we don’t stop this dam our children and grandchildren would not forgive us,” he told reporters.

“It’s a shallow dam and I can’t see anywhere where the sums have been done on greenhouse gas emissions.

“It looks like we may be going back into an el nino pattern so it won’t be any good anyway.”

Mr Posselt said he would like to meet federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett and the state government to discuss alternative options to the dam.

“I would like to explain what I have seen. I’ve been this industry since 1971 and I’ve been to university for 10 years so I have a bit of an idea what is going on,” he said.

“It’s certainly touched my heartstrings and the fight is not over.”

Mr Posselt admitted he was also looking forward to a bit of rest and a cold beer.

“A beer would be good - a beer would be excellent.”

AAP

Murray River may be beyond saving

June 18, 2008

PARTS of the lower Murray River may be beyond recovery without water by October, a new report says.

The Federal Government has deferred consideration of the report until a meeting of the Murray-Darling Ministerial Council in November.

The report, prepared by a scientific panel and leaked to the ABC, warns there are six months to save crucial parts of the Murray-Darling Basin.

Without sufficient water, ecosystem recovery may take years to decades and the unique ecology of the lower Murray will be irreversibly lost, the report says.

Vegetation on the lower Murray had been lost and wetlands were dry while some fish species might already be extinct.

Arlene Buchan, healthy rivers campaigner for the Australian Conservation Foundation, said that waiting until November could be detrimental to the system.

“You don’t often hear a scientist using language of this strength,” she said on ABC radio today.

“They’re being crystal clear about the need for water, the short period of time, the urgency of the problem and the consequences of not acting.

“What the ministerial council have done is ignore the urgency that is portrayed by these scientists.

“They have more or less made a decision about the lower lakes and the Coorong by not making a decision to return water to them.”

University of Adelaide ecologist Associate Professor David Paton said some fresh water lakes were on the verge of bring unrecognisable.

“As far as I am concerned there has been 10 years at least that people have said you have got to restore the environmental flows to the system if you wish to keep the natural assets,” he said on ABC radio.

“We have failed to do that. Now we should be seriously trying to repair the damage and at least prevent it going to the point where when we do have water back, which might be two or three years away, you are just not going to have a system that you can recover.”

There were suggestions coming from some in South Australia that Lake Albert may never be freshwater again.

“The writing is on the wall,” Prof Paton said.

“Lakes Albert and Alexandrina and even the Coorong might be very different systems to what they have been throughout the 20th century.”

Great news .. Peter Garrett will be there to receive the letters from Steve Posselt at 1pm at the Man-o-War wharf (at the Botanical Garden side of the Opera House) in Sydney.

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=F.7d5a9eff-cf9b-4f39-adc0-050642f0a60f


and afterwards at 4pm at the University of Technology Sydney there will be a Water Forum “Down the Drain” with speakers Steve Posselt, Stuart White and Jean Joss.

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=F.495119a5-95bd-4be2-b734-f494c8974f03