Which future for the Wenlock River?

The Wenlock River is still in incredibly good health but is threatened by bauxite mining. Photo: Glenn Walker

The irreplaceable Wenlock River was nominated for Wild River protection by the Queensland Government in early December 2008.

This is a huge opportunity to protect one of our last great wild rivers and we need your support to make this happen.

Glenn Walker, Wild Rivers Campaigner for The Wilderness Society, writes about the future of this unique natural icon.

In the dark of a Cape York night on the Wenlock River, a sharp eye can judge the size of a lurking crocodile by catching the sparkle of its eyes in a roaming spotlight. It’s an awakening experience, quietly cruising over the still waters of one of our last great wild rivers, searching for a glimpse of a crocodile in the darkness. It’s gratifying when from the small boat you finally spot an elusive cus-cus rustling in the dense rainforest on the banks of the river. It’s inspiring to know that on a damaged planet there are still such incredibly unique and special places where nature still thrives and we can have such experiences.

Earlier this year The Wilderness Society accompanied two Queensland members of parliament – Carolyn Male and Ronan Lee – for this experience on the wilds of the Wenlock, and to give them the opportunity to understand the battle that has begun for its future.

Venturing into this remote region of Cape York, we toured the Wenlock by night, and visited rare rainforest springs and calm lagoons by day on the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve. From a small plane we traced the meander of the Wenlock on a misty morning, watching the nature and habitat of the river change as it spilled out into the pristine Port Musgrave. And we lunched on the banks of the Wenlock with local pastoralists and Indigenous Traditional Owners, discussing the values and future of the mighty river.

The values of the Wenlock are many. It is one of our last great wild rivers, with 50 species of freshwater fish, more than any other river in Australia, including the endangered Freshwater Sawfish and Spear-tooth Shark. The river also gives life to a huge river rainforest crossing Cape York Peninsula, and is one the best crocodile habitats in the country.

The river is also of immense cultural value to the local Indigenous people. For example, for the Kaanju people the Wenlock is the Creator of all of Kaanju lands under the umbrella of Pianamu, the Rainbow Serpent.

But what of the future for the Wenlock River?

Our vision is one where nature can continue to thrive without large-scale development and destruction; where the Wenlock River is protected under Queensland’s “Wild Rivers” laws; and where local communities benefit from an economy based on conservation and culture.

This vision is in sharp contrast to the future planned by the bauxite mining industry and is the root of the battle for the Wenlock.

Before reaching the Wenlock River in our small chartered plane on our trip last year, we flew over the devastation bauxite mining has already caused around Weipa on the east coast of Cape York.

For about 50 years the bulldozers have been busy leveling enormous swathes of the beautiful Darwin Stringybark forest (the tallest on Cape York). The process from there is to then push the trees into huge piles before burning them; the topsoil layer is then taken away for "rehabilitation" purposes; and finally the bauxite layer, usually 4-6 meters, is removed from the ground and taken away for further processing and export.

The environmental impacts of this mining process are absolute and from the air can be seen as huge red scars in the landscape, or visibly stunted forests where “rehabilitation” continues to be unsuccessful. Aside from the immediate impacts of forest destruction and erosion, the removal of the bauxite layer changes natural water flows, affecting waterholes, springs and streams.

In addition, the large amounts of water required to wash the bauxite, the roads that further fragment habitat, the ports that impede on a fragile marine environment and the millions of tones of greenhouse gases released through all this activity makes for a formidable environmental footprint in the Cape York wilderness.

And that footprint is rapidly expanding into the Wenlock River region.

Cape Alumina, a new bauxite mining company, has accelerated plans to build a mine by the Wenlock, as well as dredge a channel in Port Musgrave near the mouth of the river to ship out the bauxite. Part of the proposed mining area also covers the new Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve, which has sparked a fierce public debate between the company and Terri Irwin. And for good reason – the mine seriously threatens the reserve and the Wenlock.

On top of this, Rio Tinto, currently operating the mines around Weipa, has rights to take a shocking 80% of the water from the river and build dams without normal environmental approvals when they expand north. This blatant corporate welfare is embedded in outdated Queensland laws from the 1950s and 1960s (“special agreement acts”), giving the company virtual free rein over their activities.

For decades this sort of exploitation of the environment on Cape York has gone largely unnoticed by the public. We simply cannot allow this to continue and we must demand a sustainable future for the Wenlock River.

The Wilderness Society has launched a new Wenlock River campaign. We are calling for the Queensland Government to honour its promise to protect the Wenlock as a “Wild River”, for Rio Tinto to give back the Wenlock River, and for a stop to the Cape Alumina mine. We need your urgent help to make this campaign a success.

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