Community Action Day - Rosedale 23 August 2008

A public meeting was held informing the community about the recent revelation of plans to Dam the Baffle and Anna Bligh's verbal assurance that it would not occur during her time as Premier. We need more guarantee! Friends of the Baffle Basin and various other community organisations and private citizens are calling on the State Government to provide legislative protection for Baffle Creek.

You can download and print the petition here (http://fobb.enviro.org.au/baffledampetition.pdf). Please hand the completed form to  a FOBB member or post to FOBB 731 Pacific Dr, Deepwater 4674.

About the community action day:

Plenty of information was provided by the Wilderness Society's Rupert Quinlan, including a printed copy of a state government paper considering damming Baffle Creek and numerous articles about the story that have appeared in newspapers.

Greg Realf (FOBB) welcomed the crowd, explaining our purpose was to launch the petition, provide more information and facilitate community action in response to the threat of a dam on Baffle Creek. Channel 7 were there to film.

Steve Burgess, a hydrological modeler and a technical expert for the Save the Mary group gave us some important advice. He emphasized that FOBB and other community groups on the Community Reference Panel for the Baffle Basin's Water Resource Planning process must pressure the State government to reveal all their plans. In particular, asking for the node diagram of the IQQM (the modeling program used in the WRP process) will reveal all options considered including a dam site. Once the specific information is public then the community can effectively campaign and the CRP can capture this objection to the dam. It may seem like red tape, but he advised it is crucial to being involved in the governmental process.

Dave Kreutz also from Save the Mary gave us a history of their campaign, from the initial stages where rumours of a dam were constantly denied, to the complete shock when the Traveston Dam proposal was announced and their continuing fight to prevent its construction. About 10, 000 public submissions have been made on the Environmental Impact Statement which have to be individually addressed. Of relevance to Baffle Creek is the fact that if there are any species of concern (Traveston has 57 in the dam footprint alone) then the Federal government can be involved and override any State decisions.

Rob Messenger (MP, Member for Burnett) lent his support to the campaign, highlighting how important the pristine nature of the Baffle is for the wider community. He mentioned that other options exist to service the water needs of the community apart from a dam or a desalination plant. The use of recycled water, encouraging the purchase of water tanks, and existing groundwater reserves could all be utilised at about half the cost of the proposed desalination plant (the cost of any proposed dam is unknown).

Roger Curry is Vice President of the Wide Bay Conservation Council, and is also involved in the Save the Mary campaign. He urged us to keep the pressure on the State Government as an election looms and their environmental credentials are looking thin. The Save the Mary group are hopeful that the huge support they have in the affected electorates and all the detailed work they have done outlining alternatives for the dam will have an impact. The water from Traveston dam is actually not needed in Brisbane as they will soon be enjoying a water surplus when their desalination plant comes online. We hope sanity prevails.

Links:

Save the Mary group http://savethemaryriver.com

Get Up Australia's Climate Torch relay involving Save the Mary events 6-7th Sept. http://www.climatetorch.com/torchEvent/1485

A free sausage sizzle was provided by the Wilderness Society on the day and good discussions enjoyed by all.

As well as all who attended, and those involved in the organising of this event, special thanks go to Heather Muller for arranging the use of Rosedale Community Hall and special gratitude is owed to Donna Slaven for the design of the flyers advertising this event and the printed petition forms. Thank-you!

A bit of history:

In February this year sources within Government leaked information to The Wilderness Society that a proposal to dam Baffle Creek was about to be put to the Queensland Cabinet. A later Freedom of Information search confirmed that a document had been prepared considering the viability of a dam on Baffle Creek (see http://www.wilderness.org.au/files/baffle-creek-foi.pdf).

Although Premier Anna Bligh told reporters after the scandal broke that ";There will be no dam built on Baffle Creek for as long as I am premier and as long as I lead the Queensland government - in fact I can't see a dam being built on Baffle Creek in my lifetime. All of the advice I have is that it's a very environmentally sensitive area and the water supply to Gladstone can and will be secured by the pipeline that's currently being built from the Fitzroy River," there has been no further confirmation of this in writing. The only media release was earlier on from the Minister for Natural Resources and Water Craig Wallace stating No decisions have been made about putting any new water infrastructure, including a dam, in the Baffle Creek catchment, which provides no guarantee at all.

We are very afraid that Baffle Creek could turn into another Traveston Dam tragedy where the Government denied all rumours of a dam until it was already decided.

We are asking for legislative protection, such as that under the Wild Rivers Act 2005. Protecting pristine or near pristine Queensland rivers by declaring them wild rivers is a Labor election commitment. Six wild rivers in Qld have already been declared, with a further three "pristine and near pristine" rivers nominated by Premier Bligh and Minister Wallace in June. We believe that Baffle Creek should also be considered - its crucial location in highly populated SE Qld means that its near pristine nature is under much more threat than the previously nominated rivers (all in remote Cape York). Feeding on to the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and the northern end of the Great Sandy Marine Park is further justification for careful management of the Baffle Creek Basin. The numerous National Parks in the Baffle Basin have allowed fishing and other nature-based tourism activities to prosper, and the declaration of Baffle Creek as a Wild River will ensure the future of these important industries. The natural and cultural values indicative of a "Wild River" are all present.

Minister Wallace has said about Wild Rivers “while we want to preserve our wild rivers we also want local communities to continue to prosper.” We wholeheartedly agree and will provide our full support for any nomination of Baffle Creek under the Wild Rivers Act, and welcome the community consultation that will occur as part of this process.