KANDOS & RUNNING STREAM - 23-4 JUNE

Email from David:  As you'll see from the pix we had a memorable and productive 2nd visit to Kandos on and around the weekend of 23/24 June. A couple of shots will give you an idea of my window. Juliet's and Noelene's were still having finishing touches applied when we left @ 2pm on the Sunday. 'Shoo Cockatoo' (an image I shot at the Andrews' property 'Tarwyn Park' in the Bylong Valley) echoes the name of an activist group in the Southern Highlands also intent on shooing away the Korean-based mining company Cockatoo. There is an eerie brown line of coal trucks running through the left of the frame. 'Welcome Mat' re-purposes the mining industry's own slogan 'There's More to Mining Than Mining' upon a piece of carpet shot upstairs at Ann's. The fringing was purchased across the road.

above: David Watson Shoo Cockatoo!

and Welcome Mat

        above: 

Juliet Fowler Smith undermined 2012

Noelene Lucas

For those who couldn't make it, a short re-cap of the weekend may assist...

On the Saturday we met with Suzy Flowers - activist, musician, yoga teacher, painter, lover of lyrebirds, wombats and wild horses - and subsequently drove south the 30km or so to see her place/property at Running Stream (near Ilford), which she's owned since the mid-1980s (and lived full-time on for the past few years). We'd met Suzy by the dam at Fiona (MacDonald) and Buzz's place in Ilford on our previous visit.

Along with Jolieske Lips (whom we must talk to) and other vocal locals Suzy has battled, with the Running Stream Water Users' Group, to keep mining at bay there for 20 years. The topography around Suzy's spot is extraordinary... she took us on a wonderful hour-and-a-half rock-hopping circuit of her land. The distant views north to Kandos (and the Charbon open cut mine), overlooking a rugged mini Burragorang-like valley were spectacular and poignant. The area is/was understandably sacred for aboriginal people. Two of the three places we looked down upon from Suzy's escarpment belonged to vociferous public figures with whom many of us may be familiar with... Brett Solomon (ex-GetUp!, now Avaaz), and Nell Schofield.

Ann F and a locally-based artist, Christine McMillan came with us on the visit. Denise and I know Christine from a Wollemi National Park camping trip a few years' back with C's then-partner Hadyn Washington (ecologist/activist who has a self-built stone 'castle' house on Nullo Mountain). Haydn (who's often in Sydney) would be another good person to discuss local environmental issues with. He's just published a book, 'Climate Change Denial: Heads In the Sand'. Toni - Christine says she taught with you decades ago, in Sydney.

At Suzy's place we spoke about a visit to 'The Drip' (a resonant local aboriginal/geological site on the Goulburn River recently sold [I think] to Korean mining interests, 50km north of Kandos). Christine subsequently sent Denise and me info, which I'll forward, re Julia Imrie, a friend who owns property/cottages there, where she thought we all might like to spend some time. Maybe a weekend in spring? Ann F, I know, has already visited 'The Drip', is keen to do so go again, and has pix.

Ann Finegan, director Kandos Projects

Christine McMillan with Ann Finegan

Suzy Flower’s lyrebirds

Suzy Flowers

KANDOS/TARWYN PARK

The WRVAP visited Kandos Projects and Tarwyn Park on the weekend of 26 May.

Noelene Lucas, Toni Warburton & Juliet Fowler Smith outside Kandos Projects

Toni Warburton 

BYLONG VALLEY

In March 2012 plans began for WRVAP to visit the Bylong Valley, and planned a picnic on 19 May to meet local environmental activists and supporters to discuss strategies for creative resistance to unsustainable development.

LINKS:

Mining In The Bylong Valley 

Sharon Munro

Award for No Tillegra Dam Group

Congratulations to the Nature Conservation Council and to the No Tillegra Dam Group:

MEDIA RELEASE – 29^th October 2011

No Tillegra Dam Group

Most outstanding Environment Group 2011

“The No Tillegra Dam Group (NTDG) was presented with the Nature Conservation Council’s (NCC) Most Outstanding Environment Group award at the NCC Annual Conference on Saturday 29^th October 2011.

The award is presented annually to a Member Group of NCC which has demonstrated outstanding commitment and success in the conservation of the NSW Environment.

Carol Pasenow Chair NTDG, said it was a delight to accept this award on behalf of the members of NTDG. For a small grass roots community group to achieve the outcome which we did is testimony to the hard work and determination shown by our group. The historic decision around the Tillegra Dam proposal and the determination that NO dam shall be built in the Hunter is evidence of the detrimental effects a dam would have on not just the Williams River but the whole of the Hunter’s river network.

This award should also be shared with member groups of the Save the Williams River Coalition; The Wilderness Society, Hunter Environment Centre, Total Environment Centre, and National Parks Association, as well as Dr John Kaye, and the Greens, who contributed enormously to our campaign. We must also thank the Hunter community whose environmental awareness and support was paramount to our campaign.

Ms Pasenow says “NTDG is now addressing the future of the Dungog community which has suffered through four years of indecision. We welcome the O’Farrell government’s commitment of no dam in the Tillegra valley and no desalination plant for the Hunter.

NTDG requests that the Premier now follow through and direct the Department of Planning to commence a ‘Whole of Government’ strategy to sell all Hunter Water owned land in the Williams River Valley. By instigating a proper land use plan we can promote a sound socio-economic future for our community. A future that ensures the preservation of the natural beauty, rural aspect, the social and natural heritage of the valley and it’s unique environment.

NTDG will work towards promoting sustainable water planning which encourages community and independent consultation.

For more information contact Carol Pasenow 0427 607 491

Chairperson: past & present of No Tillegra Dam Group

Warwick Thomas, Carol Pasenow and Sally Corbett, Don White NCC Chairperson.

Riparian Rites - open till 16 October

Riparian Rites is the latest exhibition of the Williams River Valley Artists' Project. It includes the work of artists Suzanne Bartos, Neil Berecry Brown, Ruby Davies, Noelene Lucas, Margaret Roberts, Toni Warburton, David Watson and Juliet Fowler Smith, made in response to the proposal to construct the Tillegra Dam, to the disruption that proposal has brought to the valley and to hope for a better future now that the proposal has finally been withdrawn.

above: Toni Warburton

above: Ruby Davies

above: Neil Berecry Brown, Repairing To Rights
see 2013 update as: Re-visioning the Valley

above: Neil Berecry Brown

above: Noelene Lucas

above: floor: Margaret Roberts; right wall: David Watson

above: Juliet Fowler Smith

above: Suzanne Bartos

above L-R: Claire, Neil, Toni, Suzanne, David, Ruby, Juliet, Margaret

Riparian Rites: Official Opening Saturday 17 September 3pm

The Williams River Valley Artists’ Project began in 2009 out of a conversation between artists about the then proposed Tillegra Dam in the Williams River Valley, in Dungog and the Upper Hunter in NSW. The Williams River originates in the World Heritage listed Barrington Tops and is one of the few healthy rivers left in NSW. The proposal is now defunct, but the dam would have flooded 4000 hectares, destroying the valley’s unique heritage, community and prime agricultural land.

Over the past two years a series of artists' residencies were held in the valley, resulting in exhibitions in Muswellbrook Regional Art Centre, Tocal Agricultural College and the Tin Sheds Gallery at the University of Sydney. These shows responded to the context and changing situation in the valley.

This latest show, Riparian Rites, brings together sensitive responses to the experience of the impact of the proposal and the disruption to the valley along with hope for a better future. It includes the work of artists Suzanne Bartos, Neil Berecry Brown, Ruby Davies, Noelene Lucas, Margaret Roberts, Toni Warburton, David Watson and Juliet Fowler Smith.

While this latest show is a time of celebration over the reversal of the decision to build the dam, it is also a time for reassessment and recovery. The valley has been devastated by the impact of the dam proposal, the community fragmented and the land fallen into a state of neglect and disrepair. There is on going disquiet about what the future holds.

What the Dungog shire has had to struggle with has implications for how we deal with water policies on the wider scale.

RIPARIAN RITES - Opening soon

The Williams River Valley Artists project arrives at Maitland Regional Art Gallery from the 27^th August to 16^th October with the official opening on Saturday 17^th September 3pm.

While this latest show is a time of celebration it is also a time for reassessment and recovery. The valley has been devastated by the impact of the dam proposal, the community fragmented and the land has fallen into a state of neglect and disrepair over the years of uncertainty.

Issues of water usage and the community impact of such policy decisions which the Dungog shire has had to struggle with still need to be thought about and grappled with on a wider scale.

Watch this space as things continue to unfold.

This show brings together sensitive responses to the experience of the impact of the proposal and the disruption to the valley along with hope for a better future.

Artists participating at MRAG are Suzanne Bartos, Neil Berecry Brown, Ruby Davies, Noelene Lucas, Margaret Roberts, Toni Warburton, David Watson and Juliet Fowler Smith.

The Williams River Valley, photo by Noelene Lucas