Dear friends, The blockade of Leard forest is starting its eleventh day this morning, and I was woken by rain falling on my face, and the smell of the earth getting wet. Thank goodness, we are getting a break from the extreme heat for the next few days. There have been many people from far afield here at the blockade over the last ten days, and we are getting ongoing and invaluable support from the local people of Maules Creek who have campaigned against this mine for years. I think that ten people have so far been arrested holding up work on the construction of the mine, though I am starting to lose count. They have been people from Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, the Midnorth coast and Hunter regions of NSW, men and women, ranging in age from 20 to 64, all united in their purpose to make a stand against the loss of Leard forest to open cut coal mining. As things go so far, we have had some success. Whitehaven’s construction work is still in its early stages: preparing roads, water pipes and electrical transmission lines. They have not yet begun trying to clear Leard State Forest, though some forest on adjacent lands has been pushed through for roads. This means we have time to build up numbers and prepare before we have to throw everything we have at them. In the last few days, a large and menacing bulldozer has been brought on site, and the first attempt by Whitehaven cut a new road through some of the Leard State Forest itself may be hours away. The team here are working hard to stay on top of what Whitehaven are doing, maintain two camps and win the daily battles with electricity and heat, continue launching action to frustrate the construction work, and prepare ourselves for the large numbers of you that we hope are coming over the weekend and early next week for the activities on 28th January. Attempts so far to dislodge the long-term camp that has maintained protest here for over 500 days have failed, though Narrabri Council on Tuesday passed a motion instructing Council’s General Manager to take whatever action she could to remove us and the nearby Pilliga camp. It’s not clear at this stage what action the Council will take, or when, but we are making plans and preparation for the large numbers that will be arriving over the weekend to camp on the property of one of the Maules Creek farmers, so we won’t have to worry about last minute site emergencies. If people ask you, “when should I go out?” the answer is “as soon as you can.” We are trying to amass large numbers for Tuesday, which means being here on Monday, but in truth we need people out here from now on to help us prepare for the big gathering, and also keep scouting and being ready for action against the clearing. If people ask you “where should I go?” at this point, tell them to head out to the forest via the Kamilaroi Highway and the Manilla Road. We will have a tent established at the Iron Bridge where Manilla Road crosses the Namoi giving people maps and directions. I haven’t done a big media compilation, but I think it’s fair to say we’re getting lots of the right kind of attention for this campaign. Daily stories in the Northern Daily Leader, NW Courier, ABC North West, have told the story that needs to be told, as have the more far reaching stories by AAP, the SMH and New Matilda. No Fibs continues to publish daily reports on the twitter feed of #leardblockade and is recruiting on-ground citizen journalists to report from the blockade, as they did for the seat of Indi at the last Federal election. For those wondering, Greg Hunt has still not acted on the Gomeroi request for a stop work order to protect their sites, but the Gomeroi had a small victory when the NSW Department of Planning told them that they were investigating allegations that a scar tree has been damaged, and work had stopped on that part of the site while the investigations were underway. The scar tree damage was found by #leardblockade activists. Well be joining Traditional Owners at a protest march in Gunnedah tomorrow. We have also still not seen the review of Whitehaven’s offsets which was lodged with the Environment Department at the end of December. If that report supports independent ecologists’ claims that the approval for this mine was based on false and misleading information, then Hunt has the ability to revoke the approval. We’re looking forward to seeing you all out here in the lead up to and on 28 January. The big day is not an end point, so make arrangements if you can to stick around and be part of history for a little longer. from under the lightning, george -- Georgina Woods 0437 405 932 Nolite te bastardes carborundorum
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 02:56:17 +0000
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