The LIFESTREAM project

The LIFESTREAM project is Ken Rubeli’s proposed complex showcasing sustainable living practice based around historic Munni House and surrounding lands.  Ken Rubeli is a Dungog environmentalist and educator and was prompted to develop the project by Hunter Water Corporations’ AECOM consultancy re plans for land purchased  for the now defunct Tillegra Dam. This consultancy will publish its final report later in 2013.

The LIFESTREAM Project pdf

The end of a long saga: Tillegra and Tillegra-lite off the agenda

Media release: 2 May 2013

Greens NSW MP John Kaye welcomed the decision of the O'Farrell government
to remove new dams from the list of options being considered for the Lower
Hunter Water plan.

('Dams off the agenda', Newcastle Herald, 2 May 2013,http://j.mp/th130502)

Dr Kaye said: "It's been a long, drawn-out saga for the Hunter community
but at last the NSW government has landed somewhere sensible.

"Unlike Tillegra dam or its cut down cousin, Native Dog Creek, the short
and medium term water supply options that remain on the table are all
cost-effective, environmentally acceptable, job creating and easy on
household water bills.

"If it had not been for the mismanagement of the previous Labor government
and Hunter Water's failure to stand up for its consumers, we could have
avoided six years of anxiety and uncertainty.

"Even the remaining emergency desalination option is very different to the
original massive energy and money eating water plant that the previous
government and Hunter Water threatened to build if Tillegra had been
rejected.

"Because of its costs and its environmental impacts, desalination should
only be considered after all other options have been exhausted.

"The Hunter now has the opportunity to keep water bills down and avoid
massive damage to the Williams River and the Lower Hunter wetlands.

"Improved water efficiency can take the pressure off the Lower Hunter
wetlands that are in real trouble.  Starved of the flood flows that are
largely diverted to Grahamstown dam, salt levels are rising and bird
populations are in long term decline.

"Rescuing these wetlands is important not just for their environmental
values, but to protect the future of the fishing and prawning industries.

"It's a testament to the campaign run by community and environment groups
like No Tillegra Dam and the Save the Williams River Coalition that new
dams are now off the table," Dr Kaye said.

For more information:   John Kaye 0407 195 455

Background:

Full Day Hansard Transcript (Legislative Council, 30 April 2013)

LOWER HUNTER REGION WATER PLAN

The Hon. RICK COLLESS: My question is directed to the Minister for Finance
and Services. Will he update the House on the latest progress in developing
the Lower Hunter Water Plan?

The Hon. GREG PEARCE: The Government is determined to create a
comprehensive, robust, cost-effective, whole-of-government plan to ensure
water security for the lower Hunter region. Development of the plan is
being overseen by an independent panel of water experts, with ongoing input
from the community. This week I am very pleased to be able to announce a
short list of supply and demand options that will be further investigated
as part of the plan. The shortlisted options cover a range of drinking
water supply and demand categories, such as stormwater capture, recycling,
demand management, water efficiency, surface water transfers, groundwater,
and emergency desalination.

The demand forecast for the region is a key part of that process, and it
has been revised. The most recent model shows that growth in demand is
lower than previously predicted and that major augmentation of supply is
not needed in the short to medium term. However, modelling also has shown
that while the existing water supply system performs well in normal
conditions, the region is vulnerable to severe drought. The options
shortlisted for further investigation take that into account and have been
selected from more than 70 initial concepts. As the Government has always
said, the Lower Hunter Water Plan will look at all options, other than the
previously rejected Tillegra Dam. We now have sufficient information from
the modelling work done to date and the community consultation workshops
conducted so far to also rule out the need for us to construct a new dam in
the region as part of the plan.

In fact, three landholdings that Hunter Water had earlier acquired for the
previous Government's proposal to build Tillegra Dam already have been
placed on the market. While the shortlisted options are all technically
feasible, that does not mean that they will all be included in the final
mix of measures recommended in the plan. We need to compare the financial,
social and environmental features of each option to identify resilient
combinations that will meet the region's need throughout a severe drought
at the least cost to the community. The options we are considering taking
forward include programs to improve water efficiency and the introduction
of "Water Wise Rules", as used successfully in Sydney and the Central
Coast. They include new stormwater and wastewater recycling opportunities
and potentially new groundwater options. There is also the potential to
transfer water from nearby areas for use in the Hunter, if necessary. Those
options are being investigated in close consultation with the appropriate
stakeholders.

As I stated previously, the Government will not be proceeding with any
proposals to construct new dams in the region. The Government fully
understands that there will be strong community interest in many of those
options. We are committed to giving the community every opportunity to
contribute input. That is why we will be running a series of community
engagement workshops over the next week. The next series of workshops will
be the third undertaken since work on the plan began and demonstrates our
continued commitment to community consultation. I urge anyone who is
interested in the future of lower Hunter water supplies to participate in
the workshops. Information about the shortlisted options are also on the
Lower Hunter Water Plan website—
www.haveyoursay.nsw.gov.au/lowerhunterwaterplan. I encourage members of the
community to take advantage of this great opportunity to provide input and
have their say in the Lower Hunter Water Plan's processes.

PATONGA

above L-R: Noelene Lucas, Margaret Roberts, Suzanne Bartos, Juliet Fowler Smith, Niel Berecry, David Watson at Patonga 9 Feb

WRVAP members met on 9 February during a weekend at Patonga to discuss future directions as our focus has broadened from water to also include coal mining. We discussed art actions that would contribute to  the public debate about the crisis created by coal mining and climate change generally, and especially in light of the upcoming Federal election.  We decided to build links with other organisations fighting for the same cause and contribute our particular skills as artists. Plans were made for future research field trips in areas where someone already has a connection to the local community. A visit to the Drip on the Goulburn River is bring planned for May.

Graham being ferryman

KANDOS PROJECTS 12 -30 AUGUST

Margaret Roberts and Horst Kiechle Straight-line residency 422

part of Neil Berecry's Emporium of Dreams (left) 

and part of Leanne Wicks political campaign to get Esme Martens re-elected to the Kandos Council (right).

KANDOS PROJECTS 26 JULY

Suzanne  Bartos They kill trees too 

Text on bottom of the paper, written in mirror reversal:

One window – From Dreams to Reality; handbook of creative direct action.

Other window – The path from dreams to reality is made by walking it.

Neil Berecry Brown Emporium of Dreams

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