The NO DAM Quick Guides

With the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) submission period over, (and a record, more than seventeen thousand submissions later), the proposed Traveston Dam has moved squarely into the national conservation spotlight. Despite being labeled as “far from pristine” by ex-Premier Peter Beattie or “ a NIMBY issue” by current Premier Anna Bligh, environmentalists nationally have recognized there is much to be lost should Peter Garrett give the Mary Dam the green light.

The Australian Conservation Foundation has placed the Traveston Dam and its threat to turtles and lungfish in pride of place on its website [click here to visit]. Featured heavily are the incredible algal-affroed Mary River Turtle photographs taken last year near Kenilworth by Sunshine Coast Photographer Chris Van Wyck.

ACF has established a letter generator [click here to open] to lobby the federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett against approving the dam. There’s more than a touch of irony in this as Peter Garrett is a Past President of ACF and is well acquainted with the adverse impacts of dams.Visit the generator and see how easy it is to formulate a letter and register your opposition.

As well as this, respected Wilderness Society campaigner Lyndon Schneiders in an on-line blog [click here to visit] reflecting on politics and environment in Queensland, made reference to “the ill-considered Traveston Dam on the Mary River” and “environmentally disastrous schemes such as the Traveston Dam”.

Late last month, Radio National replayed "A Whisper from the Past", Nick Franklin's investigation of the mysterious appeal of the lungfish, a descendant of the link with the first water creatures that were able to breathe air. The program has been aired internationally on the BBC and also on Radio Eye.

More recently, ABC TV’s 7.30 Report was in the Mary Valley and Sandy Straits filming, with the program due to go to air in the near future. The current Australian Geographic includes a detailed analysis of Traveston Dam and dams in general.

It became plain during the Senate Enquiry that the ripples of this proposal had spread far beyond the Mary Valley. If the government had been hoping that proceeding full steam ahead with land acquisitions and a program of relentless bombardment of “this dam is going ahead” propaganda, might have resulted in diminished opposition, it has plainly received a surprise.
The big question will be whether the government’s blustering “act like it’s already approved” style will be allowed to influence a decision that should have been made on purely environmental grounds under the EPBC Act. Federal Labor has an excellent Water Policy that is about as far removed from Traveston Dam as Gordon Nuttall is from being a minister in the Queensland government. It’s hard to see how it could bend to include something like Traveston Dam.

All eyes now, though, are on Peter Garrett. Close scrutiny of the EIS showed many, many reasons why the dam shouldn’t proceed. That should be all there is to the matter.
If it isn’t, then the Garrett Dam on the Mary will hang like an environmental albatross around the neck of both state and federal governments. It looks like Bob Brown was right… this will be a long battle.