Sustainable Queensland? Thermal coal mine set to destroy Bimblebox Nature Refuge. Submit your comments by 7 Nov 2011

HELP PROTECT BIMBLEBOX NATURE REFUGE

As a friend recently said to me, 

'How many pages does it take to say "we're gonna dig a damn great hole?" '

Waratah Coal has finally confirmed that its proposed 'China First' mine would destroy Bimblebox Nature Refuge. The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) clearly states that 52% of Bimblebox would be open cut, and the remainder subject to major subsidence and interference from underground longwall mining. It would set a dangerous precedent for the mining of Queensland's precious conservation areas and contribute 3.3 billion tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere, on top of a myriad of regional impacts.

NOW IS THE TIME TO HAVE OUR SAY. 

The period for public comment closes on November 7th. We have prepared a submission for people to send in, and have information for people who want to write their own. It is vital that we send a message loud and clear that we will not allow our nature refuges to be dug up for the sake of more coal profits.

Please visit the Bimblebox website HERE to find our how to make a submission.

I really appreciate your time.

Many thanks, 

Paola Cassoni

www.bimblebox.orgbimblebox@gmail.com+61 7 49853474

Bimblebox Nature Refuge

Alpha QLD 4724

Australia

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Further Reading:

Resourcehouse Limited

Bowen Business Information Forum - PowerPoint type presentation in .pdf format

China First now a major project

Billionaires 'China First' Qld coal mine move

Clive Palmer scores biggest export contract worth $60b

China denies $US60bn coal deal with Clive Palmer's Resourcehouse

Palmer plans coal $6.5b behemoth

Palmer's Resourcehouse gets $1.2bn funding (Lateline transcript and video)

Bird may halt Palmer mine project

Australian Mining - Clive Palmer

Musk Farm and Wombat Hill - you too can visit great Australian gardens

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From Melbourne Art Network

Go buy some horsey stuff and help sad horses to a better life

Quest Equine Welfare

HORSEY GEAR SHED CLEAROUT ~ SALE! 

Hartley, NSW. Oct. 31 - Nov. 6

On Facebook

Local Harvest

LOCAL FOOD BENEFITS COMMUNITIES & THE ENVIRONMENT

Local Harvest is a new national initiative aiming to help people find local sources of food and grow their own.

A national directory for finding food co-ops, swap meets, community gardens, farmers markets, box systems, organic retailers and more by simply entering your postcode.

DIY alternatives for food production and meeting essential needs, including resources for growing and making your own.

Take up the Local Harvest Challenge, where for one week you attempt to reduce the 'degrees of separation' from your food. Based on the Household Action Challenge run in previous years.

There is a fantastic similar resource existing for the USA found at www.localharvest.org on which this project has been based.

We need $10,000 to get this project up and running, can you help?

Spread the Word! Tell your friends about this project...

 

Garage Sale - Fri & Sat, 7-8 October. Address released.

Resourcefulness collected: Australian Family Recipes 1868 to 1950 by Victoria Heywood

I love a bit of food history.  Food history is not only quaint and historic recipes.  Possum Pie, Beetroot Beer and Lamingtons: Australian Family Recipes from 1868 to 1950 by Victoria Heywood is a social history of lives gone by.  As of the first of this month, a wonderful contribution to Australian food history has hit the bookstands.  

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Victoria came across many weird, supposedly edible, things in 17 years travelling the world as a journalist, but none so strange as some of the dishes she encountered back home in Australia when researching Possum Pie, Beetroot Beer and Lamingtons. In a writing career spanning 20-odd years, Victoria has written extensively about food, sex, health and travel for magazines and newspapers both here and abroad, and is the author of numerous other books.  One that would be of interest to Oz Tucker lovers is:

More about this book here

Bring the family down for a FREE sausage sizzle and 

some other tasty treats from original Australian cookbooks 

and hear Victoria Heywood chat about her new book:

• Where - Westgarth Books, 77 High Street, Northcote
• When - 12-1 pm, Saturday, October 15, 2011
• Phone - 9482 7117

Unsustainability in Docklands with raspberries to VicUrban and Lend Lease

Last week, I wrote a post highly critical of Docklands.  Working away in Docklands to build community and sustainability over the last two years or so has been a community gardens mob....

Picture from here

And have they had their battles.

First prize for Unsustainability

to VicUrban and Lend Lease

Just think of all that education and all those resources

that have produced the engineers, the planners, etc

at the above corporations.

Yet, it seems, they are unable to plan and build

with people, community and nature in mind,

and certainly don't have an inkling about sustainability.

In the format of the Twitterverse,

#VicUrbanfail #LendLeasefail

GARAGE SALE: RINGWOOD, VIC: FRI, SAT 7/8 OCTOBER

Please Don't Dump It: dispose of thoughtfully

Home from a morning walk.  Now that - hopefully - the worst of a Melbourne winter is past, I am trying to start with a positive outlook.  I set off about 5.30am. Currently, the temperature is about 2degrees.  I came home with frozen, hurting hands in spite of gloves.

There's nothing like exploring your suburb when the majority of the population are still abed.  I live right in the middle of a major urban hub so the morning quiet is a good time for window shopping in places that one has to whizz past because of the major pace of traffic.

It was in this "window shopping" mode that I noted the boxes of stuff outside the local Salvos. 

Now the stuff outside my local Salvos was not of this quantity.

But the gleaner in me had to check out what was there.

I regularly complain about people who put good stuff out on their footpath.

Gleaners like me can take it - and hopefully will.

Because, with the sort of weather we have in Melbourne,

if unwanted goods are not disposed of thoughtfully,

rain and heavy weather will severely damage otherwise useful stuff.

But it is amazing how many people will not drive the few minutes to 

the Vinnies or the Salvos and give their stuff to the people 

who can maximise the opportunity.

At my local Salvos, I discovered that some people get there -

yet dump stuff that shouldn't be there:

empty Coke bottles, little empty boxes with rubbish in them.

Across the road at Vinnies, there was much more stuff outside their store.

About the same quantity as in the picture above.

As far as I could tell, it was not rubbish.

So please, when you are spring cleaning or moving house,

please dispose of your unwanted stuff thoughtfully.

• Send your still useful and usable stuff in a clean state to your favourite charity.
• Put recyclable material in your recycling bin. 
• For larger and electrical items, please check with your local Council on how to dispose.
• Put real rubbish in your rubbish bin.  
• Please aim to keep material for the rubbish bin to the absolute minimum.