Botany Bay and Catchment Alliance

The following article is republished from the Macarthur Advertiser for the information of members living beyond the paper’s circulation area.

25 Mar, 2012 02:24 PM

BARRY O’Farrell declared bushland on the edge of Campbelltown the Dharawal National Park yesterday.

Enjoy this special feature written by long-time Dharawal campaigner and secretary of the Georges River Environmental Alliance, Sharyn Cullis, on why today’s announcement is so important.

A NEW national park to be called Dharawal, on Sydney’s southern edge will, quite remarkably, save an area that would otherwise become the collateral damage of a huge coal mining project by one of the world’s largest resource companies, BHP Billiton.

Dharawal is 6000 hectares of rugged gorge and swamp country sitting silently on Sydney’s back doorstep. It was, for so long, under the public radar. It is the unspoilt space south of Sutherland, west of Wollongong, and east of Campbelltown and Appin that could have been damaged and lost before it was properly known and loved.

It is a nature’s own wet and wild theme park with cool, deep swimming holes and bubbling, natural spa pools. Beautiful creeks make it an ideal place for summer water play. Other nearby national parks are virtually bursting at the seams on busy weekends and show the wear and tear of being loved and used too much. In our ever-growing and recreationally insatiable city, it is the next national park we have to have.

But national parks aren’t just about people. Dharawal has great nature conservation values, a rich store of Aboriginal rock art and is the vital, clean headwaters of the Georges River; an off-set against the downstream urban muck that would otherwise ruin it, in a catchment of more than a million people.

The BHP threat was a 30-year expansion plan of their coal mining operation. It consisted of a maze of 136 new longwall mines under 220 square kilometres of the landscape. Their own environmental assessment identified 47 streams and 55 swamps at risk, either in the Dharawal or hidden away in the drinking water catchments of the Woronora and Cataract dams.

A mountain of reports detailed the likely catastrophic destruction.

It could not be denied in any case. The surrounding landscape is littered with longwall mining environmental casualties: the Cataract and Georges Rivers and Waratah Rivulet have been plagued by subsidence-related impacts; shattered riverbeds, drained pools and water charged with both methane and bright orange iron oxide scum.

The fight to save Dharawal was instigated by a band of bushwalkers and nature lovers, without real resources other than commitment, energy and their ability to network, research and argue. Some had been watching over Dharawal for a long time.

They successfully resisted a proposal to dam O’Hares Creek for a coal washery in the 1980s. It is now set to be the new park centrepiece.

In 1993, Bob Carr, then aspiring to be the next premier of NSW, promised a Dharawal National Park. The best he could do in office was reserve it at the surface, with BHP’s mining rights beneath remaining intact, to be activated in the vague future.

The future arrived in 2009. With great irony, it was the audaciousness and mind-boggling scale of the 2009 BHP mining project that created a catalyst for its salvation.

Suddenly it was urgent that the activists stopped keeping Dharawal a secret. The wider public needed to be alerted and engaged. The media demonstrated itself to be what we expect of it to report this intriguing story. Dharawal captured attention and the controversy around its future became a matter of rising political interest.

That snowballing political and media interest meant councils too came out in opposition to the BHP plan. A state election was looming and the aspiring Liberal candidates for the surrounding marginal seats flanked Barry O’Farrell as he made his crucially timed national park promise in January 2011.

BBaCA congratulates the Environmentalists, lead by Sharyn Cullis, who have worked so hard for this outcome. The Premier and his environment minister and local state members who pursued the issue and brought is to fruit are also congratulated..

Botany Bay and Catchment Alliance has membership on various Orica Botany Community Committees. Recently an Environmental Forum was held at which a portion of presentation related to Orica Botany. Lynda Newnam, a North Botany Bay activist with long membership of Orica Community groups was one of the speakers. Find below audio and powerpoints from the EcoForum.

Jason Prior   http://www.ecoforum.net.au/2012/audio/e181.mp3       slides:  http://www.ecoforum.net.au/2012/audio/e190.mp3
 
Ian Bookman (Thiess)   http://www.ecoforum.net.au/2012/audio/e190.mp3    (no slides)
 
James Stening    http://www.ecoforum.net.au/2012/audio/e250.mp3     slides  http://www.ecoforum.net.au/2012/powerpoints/e250.pdf
 
Lynda  Newnam     http://www.ecoforum.net.au/2012/audio/e249.mp3   slides  http://www.ecoforum.net.au/2012/powerpoints/e249.pdf
 
Barbara Campany    http://www.ecoforum.net.au/2012/audio/e251.mp3   slides  http://www.ecoforum.net.au/2012/powerpoints/e251.pdf
 
Mitzi Bolton  http://www.ecoforum.net.au/2012/audio/e267.mp3   slides  http://www.ecoforum.net.au/2012/powerpoints/e267.pdf
 
Garry Smith   http://www.ecoforum.net.au/2012/audio/e266.mp3   slides  http://www.ecoforum.net.au/2012/powerpoints/e266.pdf
 
Workshop  http://www.ecoforum.net.au/2012/powerpoints/e227.pdf  – no audio so far
 
Sustainable Cities with Brian Howe.  http://www.ecoforum.net.au/2012/audio/e253.mp3

THESE are the shocking images that have provoked an overwhelming response of disgust from our readers.

Tonnes of waste from engines to filing cabinets and thousands of plastic bottles lines the banks of the Cooks River through Canterbury, Campsie, Hurlstone Park and Earlwood.

The Express visited three sites along this short stretch of river at Picken Oval, Croydon Park; Lees Park, Ashbury and the renowned “PET cemetery’’ of Tasker Park, Canterbury, where thousands of plastic bottles have been collected in the mangroves.

The litter is an environmental shame but it reveals only what is visible to the naked eye.

The invisible threat of fecal contamination and dangerous levels of E.coli is the river’s biggest enemy.

Test results released by the Cooks River Valley Association reveal E.coli levels 60 times higher than those acceptable for human contact or swimming, and nine times higher than acceptable for secondary contact, such as boating. (more…)

The following are excerpts from the January Oatley Flora and Fauna Conservation Society Newsletter.

GEORGES RIVER

The Georges River begins its journey approximately 60km south-west of Sydney in the town of Appin. From here the river flows north towards Liverpool, through the Chipping Norton Lakes Scheme, then east until it reaches Botany Bay. It was an important focal point for Aboriginal life and culture in the southern Sydney region, offering both food, transport and dreamtime links. The early 1800′s saw European settlers migrating to areas along the river and it became increasingly important as a transport route. There is some evidence of agriculture associated with early settlement, but this was limited by the ruggedness of the landscape and limited suitability for farming. Widespread clearing and expansion of urban development after WWII changed the landscape of the river and impacted on water quality. The prevailing view at the time was that intertidal areas (wetlands and swamps) were wastelands, unsightly and a threat to public health. Removing mangroves made it easier to dump waste to raise the ground to a “healthy” level suitable for sports grounds. Opposition to this devastation lead to the establishment of O.F.F. and other environmental groups from the 1950s. The NSW National Parks and

Wildlife Service (NPWS) was established in 1967 and the Georges River Combined Councils Committee [GRCCC] in the 1970s. www.georgesriver.org.au/

NATIVE VEGETATION – GEORGES RIVER N P

Georges River National Park (NP) is a small urban reserve of over 500 hectares with fifteen disconnected portions of mostly vegetated land that lie north and south of the river between Sandy Point and Salt Pan Creek, Lugarno. North of the river, the Park lies within an urban-residential setting.

The largest portion of the reserve is on the southern banks between Sandy Point and Mill Creek, and its southern boundary links to the Woronora Plateau. The first declaration of the Georges River reserve was in 1962 responding to dramatic human induced changes to the catchment area. It was designated a national Park in 1992.

Some remarkably undisturbed examples of the original environments remain. However, despite its proximity to a large urban population, the native vegetation had not been the focus of a detailed vegetation mapping study. NPWS saw the need for such a study with the results to be added to a recently completed map of native vegetation across the Sydney Catchment Area (SMCMA). This study h a s  n o w  b e e n  c o m p l e t e d . T h e first draft of its report was published in November; the final report will be out soon. www.environment.nsw.gov.au/parkmanagement/

DHARAWAL STATE CONSERVATION AREA

“The Bulli Seam Operations, BHP’S 30 year plan to longwall coalmine in the Appin to Wollondilly region, was approved 3 days before Christmas. The plan has been modified from its original proposal and now excludes any mining activity in more than 98% of the Area. (more…)

The following article is quoted from the Canterbury Bankstown Express for the information of those living beyond the paper’s circulation area. Our thanks to Jessica Clement for her fine reporting of this issue. Please note the Petition on the Cooks River Valley Association website. We recommend that you download the petition and circulate it amongst your friends and neighbours then forward it as noted on the website.

FOR more than 100 years, the Cooks River has delivered contaminated and filthy water to Canterbury, Campsie and Earlwood, through to Botany Bay.

A century-and-a-half ago it was the woolwashers and tanneries that contributed to the foul deluge.

Today, a university has found our ageing sewerage infrastructure is to blame.

Armed with this knowledge, residents led by the Cooks River Valley Association, have decided enough is enough.

“We need to show Sydney Water that this is the time to change their priorities and pay serious attention to the Cooks River,’’ association water quality co-ordinator Gayle Adams said.

A University of NSW study completed late last year pronounced the 23km waterway to be nothing but an “open sewer’’  carrying enough raw sewage to be deemed hazardous to human health.

The study, by Dr Stuart Khan, concluded that ageing sewers, some almost 100 years old, were leaking effluent into the river.

This confirmation has renewed calls for a clean-up.

“We’d hope that one day we could have this river restored to the point where it is safe to swim in at least one location,’’ she said.

Councils recommend nobody swim or kayak in the river. Fishing is banned.

A Sydney Water spokeswoman affirmed its commitment, in conjunction with councils, to protect the river’s health.

She said the organisation was designing plans to naturalise 1.1km of the river’s banks this year and would routinely monitor 19 stormwater drain in the catchment area.

PETITION
WHO:The Cooks River Valley Association has started a petition to clean the Cooks River and make it safe for swimming and human use
TABLED:They hope to have the petition tabled in parliament
HELP: Download the petition at www.crva.org.au or email info@crva.org.au
PLUS: Residents are also urged to contact their state MP to have the river cleaned

Canterbury Bankstown Express link to original article:-  http://express.whereilive.com.au/news/story/waterway-nothing-but-an-open-sewer/