Waterbirds, Aurukun wetlands, Photo: Kerry Trapnell

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has nominated Saturday, 24 March, for the Queensland election, and has flagged the environment as one of her three major priorities to focus on during the election campaign (alongside jobs and education).

This presents a major opportunity to put the big issues like Wild River protection and controlling mining on Cape York Peninsula firmly on the election campaign agenda.

We have already been campaigning hard to ensure the best election outcome for the environment. We’ve been active with street stalls, running TV ads and huge billboards in Brisbane, getting our voice heard in the media, and talking to the parties about their positions on key environment issues.

Liberal Nation Party leader Campbell Newman has committed to scrapping Wild River protections if elected – a very poor decision. So our focus to date has been strongly based around highlighting Mr Newman’s anti-environment stance, particularly in the crucial electorate of Ashgrove.

Wild Rivers under threat

Overall the 2012 election represents a major crossroads for environmental protection in Queensland.  Over the last couple of decades, the state has moved to a much more progressive position on forest protection and land-clearing (it used to be the clearing capital of Australia), wild river protections, and advancing work on large scale conservation for Cape York Peninsula - one of our last great wild places - including World Heritage nomination.

Notwithstanding these progressive environmental steps, both the current Queensland Labor Government and the Liberal Nation Party still support the massive expansion of coal, bauxite, sand mining and coal seam gas across the state, which pose a growing threat to our most special natural places.

So the big question this election is - will Queensland continue on a forward looking path or will we witness the undoing of such significant achievements?

Right up to the 24th of March we will campaign strongly on Wild Rivers, given how critical these protections are, and how important it is for the Liberal Nation Party to embrace them. We will also be campaigning on commitments to finalise a World Heritage nomination for Cape York Peninsula, reining in mining in sensitive ecological areas, marine protections and retaining native woodlands and forests safe from land clearing.

Queenslanders have a right to know what the political parties - especially those who may form the next Government - and their leaders will or will not do in protecting the environment. We will remain a loud and clear voice during the election campaign to ensure Queensland takes the path of environmental protection.

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Bauxite mining tree clearing and burning. Photograph: The Wilderness Society collection.

With the region currently being considered for World Heritage and National Heritage listing, we have written to Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke requesting urgent intervention to ensure that high natural and cultural values are not destroyed while community consultation for these listings is underway.

The Wilderness Society has sought emergency National Heritage listing for four areas on Cape York Peninsula under serious threat from destructive mining proposals (see map below).

The mining boom is driving an outbreak of new mining proposals on Cape York Peninsula for coal, bauxite, kaolin and mineral sands. There are six new mines now proposed for Cape York Peninsula. Each requires a new port and combined would wipe out 45,000 hectares of forest and native grassland.

These mines will bring destructive land clearing, water extraction, pollution, dams, dredging, vast road networks and other industrial infrastructure to pristine and remote locations in Cape York Peninsula – destroying the very values for which the region is being assessed for World Heritage and National Heritage listing.

Cape York Peninsula is internationally renowned for its extraordinary natural and cultural values, with a unique and intact mosaic of rainforest, savannah, wetlands, dune fields, wild rivers and coral reefs.

The region is a hotspot for biodiversity, boasting half of Australia’s bird species, more than half of our butterfly species, a third of our mammal species and 20 per cent of our plant species. There are 264 plants and 40 vertebrate species found only on Cape York Peninsula, with more being discovered almost every year.

Because of these globally significant conservation values, the Bligh and Gillard Governments have been working with local communities to develop a World Heritage nomination and National Heritage listing for the region. But the spate of mining proposals seriously undermines the current consultation process and the future effectiveness of these conservation measures.

It’s untenable for Minister Burke to pursue protection for Cape York while giving the green light to destructive mining proposals. The Minister must act swiftly to place these four highly threatened areas on the emergency National Heritage list.

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The new location is on the same street as our previous campaign centre so it's still in a central West End location close to buses. The new accommodation also provides improved access for all our members and supporters and an awesome new working environment for our campaign centre staff and wilderness defenders.

Many thanks to all those who helped out with the move and everyone is invited to drop into our new home during business hours to check it out!

Happy New Year and Best Wishes to everyone from the Brisbane Campaign Centre!

Cooper Creek. Photo by Bill Doyle

In a momentous win for Australian conservation, the mighty rivers of western Queensland's Lake Eyre Basin - Cooper Creek, Georgina river and Diamantina river - have been protected under Queensland's Wild Rivers Act.

These rivers are great Australian icons - immortalised by Bush poet Banjo Patterson, and the site of the tragic deaths of explorers Burke and Wills (on Cooper Creek). They are among the last, near-natural desert river systems left in the world.

The area transforms during wet times from an arid environment to one bursting with fish, birds, wildflowers, and lush green grasses, as masses of water travel hundreds of kilometers from the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range in North Queensland to South Australia's Lake Eyre.

A massive 4.5 million hectares now fall within special buffer zones around major watercourses, lakes, wetlands and floodplains, within which strip mining, irrigated agriculture and other destructive industrial activities can no longer occur.

Big victory

To put the scale of this achievement into perspective, the area of these high protection buffer zones is more than three times the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area and 27 times larger than Fraser Island.

Importantly, coal seam gas and other petroleum activities have been banned near major watercourses, with very tight regulations in floodplains that will make any gas mine in these areas nigh on impossible. Water guzzling cotton farms and other large-scale irrigation schemes - which have loomed for two decades as a major threat to the region - have also been banned as a result of this protection plan.

The Wilderness Society has worked closely with the Australian Floodplain Association, Pew Environment Group, and Cooper's Creek Protection Group, as well as graziers, traditional owners and local governments to secure the future of this special river system. Three years of extensive negotiations has now paid off, with the mining industry effectively having lost this battle.

This is a big conservation outcome - one all Australian's should celebrate and be proud of. Thanks to the many members and supporters of The Wilderness Society, as well as the strong community leaders in western Queensland who secured this truly amazing victory.

Our next task is to secure this important win in the face of Queensland Liberal-National Party leader Campbell Newman pledging to remove wild river protections if elected next year. With your help again we're sure we can create the right pressure needed from the community!

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