Dear Senator Wong,

RE: TRAVESTON CROSSING DAM.

In one of the independent studies into the Queensland Government’s proposal to dam the Mary River at Traveston Crossing, Associate Professor Keith Walker sounds the plain warning.

‘The Traveston Crossing Dam proposal spotlights an extremely sensitive site for river conservation in Australia. Any new dam warrants careful analysis, given our national legacy of degraded rivers and declining biodiversity, but the present proposal deserves the closest scrutiny because it could decide the fate of a number of imperiled species.

Among them the Mary River Turtle and the Australian Lungfish are survivors of lineages that began hundreds of millions of years ago. They are internationally significant, and no less symbolic than the giant panda. We know little of the biology of these species, and other fauna and flora of the Mary River, and the threats they face are compounded by our ignorance.

We have often taken refuge in the belief that there are many steps on the road to extinction, and no single action could be held responsible. For some of these species, including the turtle and lungfish, we are near the end of that road.’

These reports raise serious concerns about the dam’s impacts and support the numerous submissions to both the Senate Enquiry and the dam’s EIS.

I have written to the federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett asking him to commission a similar study into the downstream impacts, particularly on the Great Sandy Strait, Ramsar wetlands and Fraser Island, given that the EIS claims that such impacts would be minimal.

I understand that the EPBC Act provides the only legislative mechanism by which that the Federal Government can curb the eagerness of the Queensland Government to build this dam. Your government states that healthy waterways are a national priority. Recent attention on the sorry plight of the Murray system should make us cautious rather than cavalier.

It is the sign of a good government that can review its decisions in the light of new independent information. It is the sign of a bad one that commissions its own studies to justify its already adopted position. The Queensland Government always said it would build this dam if it stacked up environmentally. The obvious fact is that it doesn’t.

With the failure of the Paradise Dam fishway (the model proposed for Traveston) soon to be heard in the federal Court, the stakes for the Mary are high. Given your government’s commitment to healthy waterways, can I ask that your department carefully scrutinize the dam proposal especially for its impacts in times of low flow. Can I also ask that you counsel the Queensland government as to the use of alternatives, particularly asking it to reintroduce the Waterwise rebate scheme it scrapped at the start of this year.