31.03.2007

OPPONENTS of the Traveston Crossing dam last night began one of the hardest parts of their already long-running public opinion campaign against the dam – convincing Brisbane people that their arguments matter.

Queensland Senator Andrew Bartlett, a long term supporter of the Save the Mary River Group and one of the first high profile national politicians to take a real interest in the dam campaign, hosted a public forum and information session at West End last night.

The session was also promoted by the Save the Mary River Group and the Mary River Council of Mayors.

Professor Stuart White of the University of Technology Sydney, presented an outline of the anti-dam report he co-authored, after being commissioned by the Mary River Council of Mayors.

The council of Mayors, representing councils from Caloundra to Hervey Bay, was put together at the instigation of Cooloola Mayor Mick Venardos.

Valley resident Glenda Pickersgill spoke about the personal and social issues that arise when a district’s residents are made to undergo personal trauma, uncertainty, a lack of information about their future and a lack of consultation by the authorities.

“I’ll also be talking about climate change and the importance of dam issues to people everywhere, not just in the Mary Valley,” she said as she prepared for the forum late yesterday.

“The greenhouse gas emissions of a major dam are important and so is the upcoming Senate Inquiry, which will sit in Brisbane and Gympie.

“We want to build bridges,” she said. “We want people to realise that there are alternatives that do not have the same sort of impact.”

Another Valley resident, Steve Burgess, presented an information session at Griffith University yesterday on the work he and Darren Edward have done auditing the State Government’s often questionable data on hydrology and engineering matters.

Sen Bartlett said the aim of last night’s information session was to try to give Brisbane people the facts on the dam and the threats it poses to the environment and the community.

“We need to get Brisbane people on-side,” he said yesterday.

“The Government has already programmed themselves to ignore people outside Brisbane.”

University of Queensland Zoologist, Prof Gordon Grigg and Kat Noble from the Australian Conservation Foundation also addressed last night’s forum.