The prestigious 14th Annual Sunshine Coast Environment Awards were on November 27, 2009, and collectively, the campaign to stop Traveston Dam was honoured with an unprecedented three awards.

The first went to the Save the Mary River Coordinating Group for their incredible hard work over the 3.5 year campaign. Similarly, the Greater Mary Association was awarded for their efforts in highlighting the potential downstream impacts of the proposed dam. Both of these groups have achieved an outcome that many said was impossible, and it was a special moment to see that honoured by the wider environmental community with highly coveted 'Froggy' awards.

Ian Mackay, while accepting the Save the Mary group award, said “There were times along the campaign trail that a snowflake in hell would have been given better odds than us beating the dam, but the Mary River had to be saved and the battle would have gone on until that outcome was achieved.” He paid tribute to the incredible efforts of a wide range of individuals and groups, and the 'whole of community' response that overturned the proposal.

Tanzi Smith, in accepting the Greater Mary Association award, recognized the dedication of a whole different community downstream of proposed dam site, from Tiaro to Hervey Bay. This group formed after government claims that the dam would have “minimal downstream impacts” and was instrumental in state Sustainability Minister Andrew McNamara losing his seat over the issue at the last state election.

The final award of the night caught me completely unawares as I was presented with a Froggy for my work to stop the dam. I believe that the key strength of the campaign was the diversity of skills that were present amongst campaigners, and the way people utilised their own talents and abilities to mount a broad and multi-faceted attack on this proposed act of environmental bastardry. As for me, I would've done nearly anything to avoid having to read scientific reports and write submissions, and it was almost with a sense of relief that I could fall back on photography and graphic design skills to do my part. As I said while accepting the award, I consider my part in the campaign a relatively small one - to provide visual resources, or what I like to call 'activism in pictures'.

The true success story is how those images were received and used by others, and the fact that they were picked up by a wider audience and spread around the world, gathering us much-needed support outside the Mary Valley. Alongside the images, another successful campaign tool was the letter generator here on the Stop Press website, which played an important role in collecting the 30,000-plus protest letters that went to state and federal politicians. Again, a success which relied on other people taking up the cause. So, whilst I am absolutely humbled and delighted to receive this award, I'm dedicating it to all the people that took my contributions and turned them into a part of what has been described as one of Australia's biggest environmental victories!

Thanks to the Sunshine Coast Environment Council for their official recognition of the campaign's success... and for their ongoing and often unrewarded efforts in promoting environmental sanity!

Cheers,
Arkin