LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND Opened by NSW Greens MP Jamie Parker

Opening of LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND 

by Jamie Parker MP (left with chocolate frog ) 

with Juliet Fowler Smith WRVAP founder (right)) 

David Watson, artist and chief editor of The Stuttering Frog, 

introducing Sharyn Munro

Sharyn Munro, author of Rich Land, Wasteland

The Stuttering Frog #2

The title of this exhibition is taken from a popular song, a version of which you can see and hear here

LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND - the artwork

LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND at Articulate project space

David Watson Checkout  + Ransom Note (with Denise Corrigan)  

2013  powerpoint 

David Watson  Mining Rash [The Drip]  2013 

inkjet print on aluminium

Juliet Fowler Smith The Area of Affectation  2013

 installation, table, dowel, seats & found objects

Margaret Roberts Titled  2013

ply, hinges, live space/visitor-interaction

Noelene Lucas, Rivers of Coal  2013 3-channel HD video 

Christine McMillan Sludge  2013 

coal sludge in snow-domes on shelf

Sue Callanan Going, Going, Gone  2013 

hessian bags, stencil paint,coal, wood, lights

Ian Milliss Viburnum with Coal  2013 inkjet print

Noelene Lucas Living with Coal  2013 single-channel HD video

above  Toni Warburton coal clay water wood - some processes and relationships 2013. 

People are invited to submit words, images, patterns, marks from which the artist 

can select to draw onto clay beakers. Beakers will be glazed, fired and available 

for sale for $30.00 each on Sunday 1^st December. 

Neil Berecry-Brown Social Licence  2013 inkjet print

David Watson Fuse  1:100,000 maps showing proposed 2014 walk

 following power grid from Rozelle to Hunter valley source

Ralph Snowball New Lambton pit head, Adamstown  1897 

inkjet print (2013) from an original Ralph Snowball glass negative,

     courtesy Norm Barney Photographic Collection,University of Newcastle

photos Chris Ward and Margaret Roberts

The Stuttering Frog is back in the Hunter

Delivering The Stuttering Frog #2 in the Hunter region: 

left: David Watson with The Stuttering Frog, 

centre: Wendy Bowman at 'Rosedale'  in Camberwell

right: Sue Callanan, Singleton alumna

LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND to be opened by local Greens MP Jamie Parker, at 7pm tomorrow night.

LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND will now be opened tomorrow night, Friday 15 November at 7pm by Jamie Parker MP for the local seat of Balmain. 

The previous arrangement for John Kaye MLC (who has also opened other WRVAP projects) to open LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND had to change when he became no longer available. 

WRVAP is pleased and honoured to have our own local member and the only Greens lower house member of the NSW parliament to open its current project, LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND. 

WRVAP presents LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND

LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND opens at Articulate project space on Friday November 15 at 6-8pm.

LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND will be opened by Greens MP John Kaye on Friday 15 November at 7pm, and will then be open Friday - Sunday, November 16 to Dec 1, 11am - 5pm.

The Stuttering Frog #2 pdf
The Stuttering Frog # 2 issuu book
PRESS RELEASE
INVITATION

LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND will show the work of artists Neil Berecry Brown, Sue Callanan, Juliet Fowler Smith, Noelene Lucas, Christine McMillan, Ian Milliss, Margaret Roberts, Toni Warburton and David Watson, made in protest against the fossil-fuel industries and their role in the growing crisis of global warming.

exhibition planning by Noelene Lucas

The 2nd edition of WRVAP's The Stuttering Frog will be launched at the opening of LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND. As well as texts and images by the artists, it will contain writing by activists Glenn Albrecht, Julia Mullins and Colin Imrie, Julia Sheppard, Sharyn Munro and Chris Ward, as well as a coal map, some Nuggets and David's Very Crossword: 

We are indebted to graphic designer/layout artist Tony Fuery who is generously donating his pre-press skills to produce both editions of The Stuttering Frog: tony@parslowart.net. It will be available at LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND and its pdf is attached above.

Also, one hundred new Bimblebox books by Maureen Cooper will be available at the opening of LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND to take in exchange for donations in support of the court case against the Alpha mine. 

Other slogans we could have used - from images of recent protests sent by Sharyn Munro:

Moolarben Coal Mine applies to be allowed to pollute Goulburn River when it rains moderately.

Since arriving back from the Drip last week, we have heard from Julia that Moolarben Coal Mine (MCM) has just put out on exhibition yet another Mine Modification – ‘MCM optimisation Mod 9”. She said it is applying to significantly increase the open pit size of the Stage 1 approval. This involves taking out most of a native vegetated hillside comprised of 171 hectares of native veg (including EPBC Grassy Box Woodlands) in the Moolarben Valley.

A stand out concern is the increased risk of downstream water pollution into the Goulburn River from these massive pits adjacent to the Moolarben creek (upper tributary of the Goulburn)

– MCO are applying for a ‘get out of jail clause’ to their Environmental Pollution License – so they can discharge with limits whenever we receive moderate train fall over 5 days period

“However, Condition L2.6 in the proposed EPL states that the limits specified in Table 2.9 and

Table 2.10 do not apply when the discharge occurs solely as a result of rainfall measured at the

site which exceeds 44mm of rainfall over a consecutive 5-day period”.

This clause is an admission that the only way to manage the proposed scale of open pits is to have free rein to pollute the river whenever moderate rain falls.

In the first 3 months of 2013 MCM would have been able to discharge at least 3 times under these non- conditions.

Submissions to the NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure are due by 14 June 2013.

(http://majorprojects.planning.nsw.gov.au/index.pl?action=view_job&job_id=5983)

See Moolarben Coal site here

Research visit to The Drip on the Goulburn River, 24-6 May 2013

On Friday 24 May we travelled to Gleniston, a property on the Goulburn River north of Mudgee in NSW, to see first hand something of what is happening to land being mined, and being explored for mining. Those of us who arrived at night saw the dramatic lit-up Moolarben open-cut mine at Ulan, about 10kms south of Gleniston.  We heard about and discussed the situation with Julia Imrie, joint owner of Gleniston and PhD candidate in water management in Environmental Studies at ANU.

On Saturday, Julia walked us through her property to show us the location of Moolarben Coal's planned drill holes, and to see where Moolarben's long wall mining is planned just short of the Goulburn River where the famous Drip is located, to visit the Drip, and walk out down the river. In the afternoon we decorated and ate delicious pizzas cooked in the pizza oven in the back garden of Julia and Colin's place, and visited Colin's woodworking studio, and heard about the process of building the 3 delightful stone cottages, two of which we stayed in during the 2 nights. 

We had a wonderful time, staying in super-comfortable accommodation, with fantastic company in each other and our hosts Julia and Colin and the animals and birds, and located in the most relaxing and delightful bush and landscape that mining companies plan to destroy whole areas of because they think the land is just there to convert into dollars for them and their shareholders, and because they think there is no future anyway so they had better rip out what they can get while they can. Even thuogh there are campaigns to save the Goulburn river we hope the market collapses because that seems to be the only thing that means anything to them.

We hope to return soon with the rest of the WRVAP members, Noelene Lucas, Virginia Hilyard and Juliet Fowler Smith who couldn't make it this time.

L-R: Julia Imrie, Margaret Roberts, Suzanne Bartos, Ann Finegan, 

doggie 1, Christine McMillan, Chris Ward, Toni Warburton, Denise Corrigan

L-R above at the Drip: Suzanne Bartos, Toni Warburton 

Chris Ward, David Watson (front), Margaret Roberts, 

Christine McMillan (back), Julia Imrie, Ann Finegan.

above: at and near The Drip on the Goulburn River

Photos by David Watson