ARE RIVERS A LIVING ENTITY ?

 “Is a River Alive?”  That’s the title of a new book by British author and professor, Robert Macfarlane, which goes beyond thinking of a river as a living entity, as do many indigenous peoples around the world, including Australia’s First Nations people, who worship rivers as life-giving deities.

The notion of accepting rivers as living beings and granting them rights under the law is not new. Many have argued in support of legal protection for rivers, sometimes successfully. In fact, some two decades ago, Ecuador embedded four Rights of Nature articles in its constitution, granting ‘Mother Earth’ “the right to integral respect for its existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes.”

 

Then, as recently as 2017, New Zealand legislated that the Whanganui River, “from the mountains to the sea, incorporating all its physical and metaphysical elements” is a “‘legal person’ with the capacity to represent itself in court and to bear rights - the right to flow unpolluted and undammed to the sea, for example, and the right to flourish.”

 

This concept is also close to the hearts of local Clarence Valley activists who have been campaigning for the past seven years to stop mining and mineral exploration in the valley, for fear of potential pollution.

 

When reading an article on Macfarlane’s exploits and endless campaign to have rivers given the constitutional protection they so clearly deserve, I was struck by the description of that campaign as, “enabling the engagement of constitutional and legal tools in defence of natural systems from their most voracious predators: us.” Certainly, mankind is the most invasive and destructive species this planet has ever seen.

 

The Clarence River’s water quality is dreadful, mainly through mud from up-stream erosion for which humans are entirely responsible. Thoughtless and often outdated agricultural practices, and a failure to fence livestock out of rivers, along with logging of forests, which are nature’s water filters, are also contributors.

 

Rivers are our lifeblood, so it’s imperative that we clean up our act.

 

    - John Edwards 

HERITAGE DESTRUCTION AND CLIMATE FOLLY IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA

A few weeks ago new Federal Environment Minister Murray Watt announced the approval of fossil fuel giant Woodside’s North West Gas extension giving it permission to operate until 2070.  This decision, which the Minister claims contains strong conditions, has been condemned by environmentalists and First Nations people but unsurprisingly welcomed by Woodside and the Western Australian (WA) Government. 

Opposed by First Nations peoples for years, the North West Shelf gas project has been operating since the 1980s.  Gas extracted off the Pilbarra Coast is processed at Woodside’s plant at Karratha on the Burrup Peninsula.  Burrup (Murujaga) is also the location of around 500,000 ancient First Nations carvings or petroglyths.  This ancient art is of such significance that in 2023 former Environment Minister Plibersek applied to have it listed as a World Heritage site.  The United Nations' Heritage Committee recently flagged concerns over the ongoing effects of degrading acidic emissions from the Karratha processing plant on the fragile carvings and the need to prevent any further industrial development.

Minister Watt did not have to consider climate impacts of  Woodside's extension but what damage it might do to the rock art as well as economic and social matters.  His conditions largely focus on air emissions from the project.  For decades processing plant gases such as nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and ammonia have been gradually eroding the petroglyths without any effective state or federal government action to protect them.  Whether Minister Watt’s “strong conditions” will actually work, even if they are effectively monitored and enforced, is open to question.

Environmentalists oppose the extension because of the huge emissions the project will create over its increased lifetime.  As well as undermining Australia's drive to lower emissions, it threatens the nation’s climate credibility at a time when it is seeking endorsement to co-host the UN COP31 climate talks in 2026.  Any claims by uninformed politicians and others that this extension could lead to nationally cheaper domestic gas supplies or to improved gas supply on the East Coast are nonsensical as only WA will see increased supply.

The only certainty is legal action and increased campaigning against the folly of continuing to allow expansion of fossil fuel projects.

-        Leonie Blain

 Adapted from an article originally published under the title "Heritage Destruction and Climate Folly" in the Voices for the Earth column in The Clarence Valley Independent ,4 June, 2025.

 

WILL CLARENCE VALLEY COUNCIL EVER LEARN

 Clarence Valley Council’s delayed April Council meeting (held on April 24)  approved two significant development applications on land subject to flooding.  One was on the floodplain close to Maclean and the other in a low-lying area adjacent to Rushforth Road in South Grafton.  Concerns about flooding and other matters raised in submissions by many community members about these developments were disregarded by the majority of Councillors who voted to approve them. These representatives appear to have learnt nothing about the folly of continuing to develop on the floodplain.

The Maclean development - a 24 hour, seven days a week Service Centre – is close to the motorway’s Maclean exit.  As the site is on the floodplain in a flood storage area, the Service Centre will be built on a raised mound using an estimated 66,000 cubic metres of fill.  Shades of the West Yamba disaster! 

The three councillors who opposed the development referred to a range of detrimental effects it would have including noise problems for nearby residents as well as clearing of important vegetation in an area of endangered ecological community (Swamp Open Forest of Broad-leaved Paperbark) and the potential for fuel spills and leakage to enter the adjacent wetlands and the Clarence River.

One of the submissions opposing the development commented on the location of Service Centres and their proximity to urban areas, stating that the criteria for Service Centres is that they be constructed well away from residential areas to mitigate noise and light pollution.  This is necessary because of the volume of traffic – and particularly the numbers of large trucks.  Motorway service centres at Chinderah, Ballina, Halfway Creek and Nambucca Heads are away from urban areas. So how did Maclean come to draw the booby prize?  Why was it not sited further north, and adjacent to the motorway on flood-free land?

In relation to this continued folly of floodplain development, it’s interesting to remember how assorted Federal and State politicians in 2022 proclaimed building on floodplains would have to stop.   While they are ignoring the problem, our council is rushing ahead making the existing problem worse.

-        Leonie Blain

Adapted from an article originally published under the title "When will they ever learn" in the Voices for the Earth column in The Clarence Valley Independent ,7 May, 2025.

FAST-TRACKED MINING IN CLARENCE AND COFFS DRINKING WATER CATCHMENT

 Media Release

5th May 2025

 The Clarence Catchment Alliance (CCA),  local environmental groups and residents are calling for immediate action as mining exploration for antimony and tungsten escalates across the Wild Cattle Creek area near Dorrigo, a sensitive part of the drinking water catchment relied on by more than 80,000 people in the Clarence Valley and Coffs Harbour regions.

In a matter of months exploration licences have been fast-tracked under the NSW Government’s Critical Minerals Strategy, allowing companies to progress rapidly despite operating in flood-prone, high-rainfall headwater regions. One licence was granted just four months after application, and additional licence applications have since been lodged and approved, many bordering national parks, public forests, and endangered species habitat.

Alongside these approvals, private landholders on the Dorrigo Plateau have begun receiving formal letters from mining companies seeking land access for drilling. Many residents say they had no prior knowledge of nearby exploration activity, and feel overwhelmed and unprepared to respond, particularly following a core sample spill at Bielsdown Bridge on the Coramba Road in April, which has since been reported to the NSW Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).

“We all know how toxic Antimony and the mining of other heavy metals can be, with the past poisoning of the Urunga wetlands a stark reminder. Therefore, this latest incident on the Bielsdown Bridge should come as a timely warning that accidents can and do occur, and that this type of mining activity in these rugged, highly erosive hinterlands of the Clarence Valley, pose an unacceptable threat to our drinking water,” said John Edwards, CCA member and long-term local environmental advocate.

The affected waterways include the Clarence and Nymboida Rivers, which are essential for farming, fisheries, tourism, and the daily water needs of multiple communities. They also support Eastern Freshwater Cod, platypus, koalas, and intersect with Aboriginal cultural sites that are deeply significant to Bundjalung and Gumbaynggirr peoples.

“Industrial mining developments in our high rainfall river catchments are dangerous and highly inappropriate,” said a spokesperson for the Blicks River Guardians. “The risks of contamination are unthinkable for the health of the Clarence–Coffs Harbour regional water supply and the reliance for coastal townships on clean drinking water. Heavy metal contamination in Wild Cattle Creek, the Blicks, and Nymboida Rivers will impact Clarence catchment communities for millennia.”

Despite these concerns, exploration is being promoted by the state as part of a national push for critical minerals. While exploration approvals proceed quickly, many communities and landholders are finding out after licences are granted or land access is requested, rather than through early and meaningful consultation. There is increasing concern about the lack of transparent regional planning, minimal public information, and the absence of cumulative impact assessments across multiple communities and licence sites. There are currently 40+ mineral exploration licences (ELs) held across the Clarence Catchment.

“This exploration is not only irresponsible, it’s dangerous,” said Shae Fleming, Coordinator of the Clarence Catchment Alliance. “To be fast-tracking mining for a toxic metalloid in a drinking water catchment, in flood country, without full environmental scrutiny or proper consultation, puts entire communities and ecosystems at risk. The NSW Government is failing its duty of care to regional people.”

The Clarence Catchment Alliance is calling for:

• Clarence Valley and Coffs Harbour Councils to urgently lobby the NSW Government for a moratorium on mineral exploration in the Coffs-Clarence drinking water catchments.

• NSW Ministers for Water, Environment, and Regional NSW to immediately place an embargo and move to revoke all licences in the Clarence drinking water catchment and review fast-tracked approvals under the Critical Minerals Strategy.

• Local State and Federal MPs to formally oppose the Wild Cattle Creek exploration licences.

• NSW MPs to back the 26 March 2025 Notice of Motion by Clarence MP Richie Williamson, calling for stronger protections for the Clarence River Catchment.

This is about protecting the life of our river systems, the safety of our drinking water, the rights of landholders and Traditional Owners, and the economic, cultural and environmental wellbeing of an entire region. The Clarence Catchment must be protected — now and for future generations.

AUSTRALIAN POLITICIANS WITH HEADS IN THE SAND

The warnings about the impacts of human-induced climate change have been loud and clear for over fifty years, with the First World Climate Conference, the first major international scientific gathering to discuss the problem, being held in Geneva in February 1979. 

The Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit followed in 1992, which led to the establishment of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the adoption of a global plan for sustainable development. 155 countries, including Australia, signed up, nominating 2000 as the year signatories would reduce emissions to 1990 levels.

2000 came and went, and with global emissions still on the rise in 2006, British economist, Nicholas Stern, presented his climate change review famously pointing out that, “the benefits of strong and early action far outweigh the economic costs of not acting.”

Another 20 years have now elapsed, with procrastination and politics combining to ensure that greenhouse gasses continue to rise worldwide. So, it was no great surprise last week to hear Günther Thallinger, a board member of the insurance giant, Allianz, assert that “the climate crisis is on track to destroy capitalism.”

He also pointed out that the world is fast approaching temperature levels where insurers will no longer be able to offer cover for many climate risks, something that would come as no surprise to householders in flood zones and high bushfire risk areas, many of whom can no longer find insurers willing to take on the risk, or if they do, the cost is prohibitive.

Extreme weather events, bushfires, floods and heat waves, have been seemingly endless in recent years, costing the government, or more specifically taxpayers, many billions of dollars, and priceless damage to the environment.

However, despite all of this, and some determined young folk protesting loudly over the lack of action on climate change, we were forced to watch last week’s leaders debate ramble on about cost of living and housing, with climate change barely mentioned.

Politicians need to get their heads out of the sand and focus on the real issues.

 

-        John Edwards

 

Originally published under the title "Heads in the Sand" in the Voices for the Earth column in The Clarence Valley Independent ,16 April, 2025.

WHAT IS THE DOMINANT ISSUE IN THE AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL ELECTION

 The Climate Council, an independent, community-funded organisation campaigning for effective action on climate change in Australia, released a report recently on how the various political parties and some independents are shaping up on climate action.  The report “The Climate Crossroads: Progress, Politics and a Pivotal Election” is available on their website -  www.climatecouncil.org.au

Energy expert and Climate Councillor Greg Bourne said, “The shift to renewable power is well underway and is accelerating.  Solar and wind power backed by storage like big batteries is the lowest-cost, fastest and cleanest way to power our homes and businesses.

“This election political players need to commit to accelerating the clean energy transformation that is already delivering for millions of Australians.  This is the only way to reduce bills and pollution.”

The report also highlighted the important role of the crossbench in the last parliament where pro-climate Independents and the Greens helped strengthen climate laws, protect clean energy investment and block public funding for fossil fuels.

Reports such as this highlight issues that many politicians would prefer did not receive any comprehensive scrutiny.

While many people understandably have major concerns about the cost of living, this federal election is about a range of issues about our future – over the course of the next three years of the new parliament and beyond. 

Cost of living is what both the major parties – Coalition  (Liberal and National) and Labor - are claiming as the dominant issue in the election.  This is what it suits them to discuss.  It’s almost as if they are saying, “Now is the time to address cost of living.  When we have done that, we can look at other less urgent matters.”

Politicians should not be the arbiters on what is an issue – major or otherwise – in this or any other election.

There are many other important issues which should be considered by electors and raised by them with election candidates. These include improving action on climate change and protection of the natural world – our biodiversity.  These should receive urgent attention in our next parliament.

-        Leonie Blain

 Originally published under the title "What is the Dominant Election Issue?" in the Voices for the Earth column in The Clarence Valley Independent ,9 April, 2025.

 

 

 

SPACE INVADERS TWO - Invasive exotic species

 Having recently written about wildlife sharing our space, this week I’m prompted to write about space invaders of another sort - invasive species, particularly exotic weeds, and our ongoing contribution to that problem.

 Governments at all levels across Australia spend a small fortune promoting the need to prevent weeds spreading into our environment, formulating weed management plans and educating the public on how to deal with them. However, when it comes to the crunch, the failure to manage weeds is most predominant on land owned and/or managed by those very governments.

 Not only are government agencies failing to manage invasive weeds on public land, they are actively spreading them, often through sheer negligence.

 In just the last month I have encountered two such cases in our own district. The first was a case of recent road maintenance in Yuraygir National Park near Brooms Head, where introduced gravel and rocks have brought with them a variety of weeds including the highly invasive grass species, Setaria. 

 

Photo: John Edwards

 Originally introduced to Australia as a pasture grass, the two metre-tall Setaria is now one of the more invasive species on the North Coast, and at Brooms Head has now invaded over 10 metres either side of the road, extending along the road for hundreds of metres, ably assisted by the excessive soil disturbance that occurred during the process.

The second case is along Rushforth Road where a particularly nasty invasive weed, Singapore Daisy, has been brought in by excavators undertaking repairs to water mains.

  

Photo: John Edwards

Unfortunately, despite extensive government funded advertising telling us how to prevent the spread of weeds, including not dumping garden waste, and ensuring earth-moving machines and slashers are cleaned before moving to new areas, these are two of the biggest problems. However, while dumping is illegal, there are no strict, legally enforceable protocols in place for the latter. Why not?

 The NSW Department of Primary Industries strongly recommends we follow best practice guidelines for weed hygiene, including thorough cleaning of machinery. Is it too much to expect our governments to set an example?

 

-        John Edwards

 

 Originally published under the title "Space Invaders Two" in the Voices for the Earth column in The Clarence Valley Independent ,19 March, 2025.

 

Destructive logging in the Great Koala National Park exposed

 MEDIA RELEASE 

National Parks Association (NPA)

27th March 2025

A report  (The Plan to Keep Logging the Great Koala National Park) produced by the National Parks Association of NSW (NPA) and Wilderness Australia shows the depth of destructive logging taking place across several forests within the proposed Great Koala National Park right now, including Sheas Nob, Ingalba, and Orara East State Forests. 

Previous analysis by the North East Forest Alliance has shown that since the Minns Government was elected, 7,185 hectares have already been logged within the Great Koala National Park (GKNP) assessment area. Additionally, 1,924 hectares are currently being logged, with another 3,469 hectares scheduled for the next six months. If delays continue,12,578 hectares could be destroyed, threatening the survival of one of the most important koala populations in NSW. 

NPA CEO Gary Dunnett stated, “The Great Koala National Park proposal was designed around two basic principles: to protect as much as possible of the core Koala habitats and populations of the region; and to focus exclusively on existing National Parks and State Forests.  

‘The reason for concentrating on public lands is that determining their future is the responsibility of the Premier of the day.   

‘This report paints a stark picture of what this means for Premier Minns’ reputation- the longer he delays declaring the new park, the more koalas will be needlessly lost” concluded Mr Dunnett.