Destruction of Country

The Premier of Australia's wealthiest state Colin Barnett has, without notice or consultation, announced he is closing down 150 small towns in his state and has refused to meet the mayors or residents of these generally remote towns to discuss the matter. The Premier – Colin Barnett – said he had no other options after the Federal Government announced they would no longer fund essential services to the towns, instead providing a one-off payment of $90 million to the State Government to take responsibility. [node:read-more:link]

Just after the land used for nuclear testing was officially handed back to its traditional owners in full, nuclear is back on the agenda at Maralinga in South Australia. Those connected to the land are worried that a new Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission announced recently will see the land flagged as a potential site for a nuclear waste dump. The daughter of Mr Lester who was blinded by tests said they want to make a submission to the commission but is worried language difficulties would stand in their way. [node:read-more:link]

The NSW Labor Government sold the iconic The Drip gorge for $2084 in a 2010 lease conversion sale that cost a Chinese coal company less than $3 a hectare. The unpublicised $2084 conversion of more than 700 hectares of Crown land to freehold title in 2010, despite the community raising strong concerns about the possibility of such a conversion at least two years earlier, has shocked and angered groups fighting to protect the area. "They sold it for the price of a clapped-out second-hand car" said Environmentalist Bev Smiles [node:read-more:link]

Yawuru man Micklo Corpus said that Buru Energy had not listened to the Yawuru people and this was a serious breach of their rights, given that 94% of the Yawuru were against the process.
Making matters even worse, dingos, reptiles, birds and various small marsupials have been found trapped in their tailings dams which contain a toxic mixture of chemicals from the fracking process. These dams often include heavy metal traces and hydrocarbons drawn up from deep underground as a part of fluid recovery. [node:read-more:link]

WA government fires have devastated have damaged the world-renowned Bradshaw collection on the Kimberley Plateau. These works are widely regarded as the oldest figurative paintings in the world, was recently damaged by fire, which locals claim was a result of the government's program. There are 8742 known examples of rock art in the Kimberley but their future looks bleak, with damaged sites stretching from Kununurra, along the Mitchell Plateau, across the Bungle Bungles to Faraway Bay. [node:read-more:link]

A Petrolium exploration permit has been granted over The Pinnacles – described by tourism authorities as “world famous” and one of WA’s great natural attractions. - The Pinnacles comprise thousands of striking limestone formations, each up to 5m high, across 190ha in the Nambung National Park 200km north of Perth, attracting 250,000 visitors a year. But the landscape is under threat after a gas fracking exploration permit was granted to Norwest ­Energy by the WA Department of Mines and Petroleum. [node:read-more:link]

Past experiences of forced removal off country have proved disastrous. The result is more fringe dwellers, social problems, suicides and incarceration. Western Australia already has the highest rate of incarceration of Indigenous people, around 20 times the rate of non-Indigenous Australians. In fact Barnett hypocritically admitted that it “will cause great distress to Aboriginal people who will move, it will cause issues in regional towns as Aboriginal people move into them.” [node:read-more:link]

The planned closure of more than 100 of WA's remote communities will have severe consequences, the Premier Colin Barnett said, but added his hands were tied. Barnett said this after a backlash was sparked in some of the First Nations communities, with elders leading a protest outside state parliament over the plans. His talk of high rates of suicide, poor education, poor health, no jobs are references to the economic, social and health issues that he will use as a tool to dump people on the streets. [node:read-more:link]