More information and to register now: http://www.beyondcoalandgas.org/

Three days of inspiring workshops and discussions

From Saturday 18 - Monday 20 May, 2013, in Kurri Kurri in the Hunter Valley, NSW, communities from around Australia will gather for three days of inspiring workshops and discussion, to share experiences and to learn from one another under the banner Our Land, Our Water, Our Future — Beyond Coal and Gas.

Governments of all persuasions seem unwilling to correct the power imbalance that has put the interests of coal and gas companies ahead of the interests of the community. Mining has been put before agriculture, tourism, the long-term sustainability of local economies and public health. Our best farmland, drinking water catchments and many of our most precious natural places are under threat. And the scale of the fossil fuel boom poses a global threat to the climate.

But there is a change in the wind. In NSW, the hearings before the Independent Commission Against Corruption have exposed the failings of the regulatory system. In Queensland, the massive expansion of coal and gas ports in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area has earned the rebuke of UNESCO and the World Heritage Committee.

Communities from one end of Australia to the other are standing up to defend the places they love from the impacts of the coal and gas boom. Farmers, landowners, conservationists, scientists, fishers, climate activists and ordinary people from all walks of life are saying “enough is enough”.

As a result, the assumption that the coal and gas boom is good for Australia is being seriously re-assessed.

This gathering is about what happens next. Why and how we move beyond coal and gas.