Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well, this is it, our big opportunity to stop the proposal to build Traveston Dam & save the Mary River!

In the leadup to the Qld state election, we're planning a day of action in Brisbane on March 14 to ensure that residents in marginal Labor seats understand the importance of this issue and take it with them to the polls.

Join the mailing list to get the latest on the campaign.


www.stoppress.com.au
activism in pictures... and now in words! New letter generator to save the Mary River ONLINE NOW!

http://www.savethemaryriver.com/

Westy, why are they damming the Mary River,... water conservation, power generation, or both and what is the expected harm to the ecology that will become of the dam?

it's mostly for water conservation and they don't appear to care what happens to the local ecology, human population or economy

I ran google earth for the Mary river and I know it can mess with your visual perspective but the Mary river doesn't seem to be a very big river at all, with a lot of flat land around it. I followed it up to Tiaro and it doesn't appear to be much at all further inland. How much can they gain by daming it? Is there going to be a levee system with proper spillways in case of cyclones dump on the entire river valley? What all are they proposing and what ecology and estuaries will be hurt? Farmers over fisherman? Agriculture over wildlife/sealife? What are the proponents claiming over the opponents? This isn't the 1940's A fairly clear picture should be able to be painted by objective scientists. What is the local population saying about it and is the local government supporting the peoples sentiments? What I'm getting at is that if the Federal government forces it upon the area the best you may be able to hope for is that the system is balanced as best as possible. With proper "safety valves" in place. But heck I may be clueless from the other side of the world.

It will affect some of Queenslands best farm land so the farmers don’t want it, The locals from Kenilworth to Hervy Bay don’t want it, The greenies don’t want it, the fisherman don’t want it, the tourism industry is against it and the Indigenous people are against it even after being offered compensation of 3.4 million.

It is only our stubborn Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh that is pushing for it because Brisbane was short of water. Hopefully our Federal minister for the environment, Peter Garrett will grow some balls and put a stop to it. In our recent Queensland elections there was a massive swing away from the Labour government in the areas that would be affected by the dam but still Anna pushes on.

A summary of the no dam case -

http://www.savethemaryriver.com/downloa ... ersion.pdf

New Orleans was effected about 17 years ago by a drought in the upper river valleys and had to shut down the fresh water intakes to the city for about two weeks when blue salt water backed up the river about 10 miles upriver of the city. But that is just a minor inconvience as the drinking water systems are good for about that long. That kind of thing is extremely rare here in the south and only happened twice in my 45 year lifetime that I can remember. Its a shame that a city miles away can get that forced thru. Big citys have lots of money and carry lots of votes. You guys down under, thank goodness, seem to be extremely mindful of your environment and seemed to have learned by mistakes others have made like here in the US as well as other places in the world. Once its built and the environment finds a new normal under the new conditions and species start dying off it will be nearly impossible to reverse. And by the way, It really is a pretty countryside! Google earth is a little dated but from a couple hundred feet up you can see the individual trees and cars.

I didn't see your pdf until I posted. Its kinda what I was thinking. The farmers Fishermen and the people of the town of Mary River need to class action suit that and just gum it up in the courts. Trying to build a reservoir out of a flood plain is just ignorant anyway. Good luck Westy.