Beltane 1999 Newsletter NSW Environmental Issues and Updates |
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Timbarra Update - Mining on hold
"Ross Mining announced yesterday it was suspending operations at its Timbarra gold mine in northern NSW, putting 60 staff out of work. The operation, east of Tenterfield, has been curtailed by environmental opposition." (SMH - Sept 1999)
It just goes to show that you can make a difference if you try. The Timbarra gold mine is on hold, but that doesn’t mean pressure can be let up. Letters of support are still needed to ensure this mine stays closed.
DRAGON Environmental Network
DRAGON is an English environmental Pagan network of activists who are fighting to save their environment. Dragon has been involved in saving some of the last old growth forests in the English countryside. They have now opened up their ways to the rest of the word through the internet, the Dragon Environmental network web site was launched on the 21st September 1999, it can be viewed at:
http://www.gn.apc.org/dragon/index.html
The web site contains information about Dragon, about environmental campaigning from a Pagan perspective, and guidelines on setting up your own Dragon network.
There is currently an attempt to establish a local Sydney based Dragon network. And other areas of the state are encouraged to link up with Pagans in their area to work together . If you are interested in Dragon, after viewing the material (If you need a paper based version of the material, drop me an envelope and I’ll post the relevant section out to you.), drop PAN a line and we can advertise your details for your area, and see if there are others who would like to link up to do some environmental magick.
There will be a meeting in Sydney in early November. If you are interested in finding out when and where, please email me, or ring and leave a message on my machine (with your name, number and best time to call back). I expect a meeting date will be set by the 3rd November.
Nuclear Free Ways Project
(Source: Friends of the Earth Fitzroy Newsletter article - Autumn 1999 (reprinted with permission from the Friends of the Earth web site))
The Anti-Uranium Campaign at FoE has devised a campaign initiative to knock out the proposed National Radioactive Waste dump and the approved new Sydney nuclear reactor.
Its called the Nuclear Free Ways Project.
We intend to focus on the issue of radioactive waste transport, necessitated by the remote disposal option pursued by the Federal government. Our intention is to network with communities en-route of the likely transports and engage them in a campaign to protect their cities and farms from accidental and incidental radioactive contamination or exposure. Transport routes are the weak link in the nuclear chain running from waste production to disposal. It represents an additional risk to an already inherently high risk industry. Its also a weak link in the government’s nuclear expansion agenda. Networking with communities and informing them of the dangers of radioactive waste transportation offers an opportunity for Nuclear Free campaigners to involve new constituencies in the fight to stop the dump and the reactor.
One of the "tools" the Project seeks to use is a Mock Nuclear Waste Transport. This will be a to-scale (non-toxic!) version of the real thing that will travel the likely transport routes and be a platform for informing and effectively engaging community action. This is not a new idea, but it is a good one. Mock Transports have been used to good campaign effect in the United States.
Mary Olsen, a senior campaigner from the Nuclear Information Resource Service in the USA, was in Australia for the Symposium for Sanity hosted by Dr. Helen Caldicott in March. It gave FoE campaigners the opportunity to pick her brains and gleen some wisdom from her experiences. In the US the campaign was known as "Mobile Chernobyl" and in the words of Mary, Mock N-Waste Transports are a "winner". So, we’ve undertaken to design and budget for the project and are currently in fundraising mode! If you are interested in the Project please let us know! There’s a considerable amount of liaison and contact work to undertake as we begin to mobilise new constituencies in the campaign. We look forward to your participation.
For further details of the Nuclear Free Ways Project contact Daniel Voronoff, Anti-Uranium Co-ordinator.
Anti-Uranium Campaign
Friends of the Earth, Fitzroy
PO Box 222 Fitzroy 3065
ph: 03 9419 8700
fx: 03 9416 2081
foefitzroy@peg.apc.org