When SEQWater decided to open the floodgates and release thousands of megalitres from its North Pine Dam near Brisbane, it must have known the results would be disastrous for species living in the dam. Judging by a couple of releases in the previous month, it must have known that many of these would be the endangered Queensland Lungfish.

The most recent release was no freak of nature; it was a deliberate action followed by an entirely predictable fish and turtle kill.
Yet when a concerned marine biologist discovered the carnage the next day, he picked his way between more than fifty dead and dying lungfish, some with horrific injuries, in a small area below the dam.

His discovery revealed more then a disastrous lungfish kill. It uncovered an attitude that many would describe as “blasé” toward a fish revered in the scientific community as “a living fossil”. It laid bare a media spin machine that focussed on the lungfish rescue while downplaying the horrific injuries and deaths.

And it uncovered something that could easily become a recurring feature should the state government have its way and build its proposed Traveston Crossing Dam. There is no mitigation strategy in the dam’s EIS to prevent such an event, nor can there ever be. And when the controversial Paradise Dam on the Burnett River eventually overflows, it will be as déjà vu. With its much higher (and ribbed) spillway the carnage has the potential to be far greater.

Our Environment Ministers, both state and federal should be doing their very best to prevent this. Please take time to alert them to your outrage at the North Pine kill and point out the direct implications for support or approval of Traveston.