Concerned residents of the Bremer Valley are rallying to stop huge coal mining projects that threaten their homes and communities. On Monday night at Rosewood three more community groups were formed to fight the Ebenezer and Bremer View coal projects stretching from Ebenezer to Mount Walker and beyond.
The new groups are the Rosewood Community Group, the Thagoona and Walloon Group and the Mount Walker, Rosevale and Mount Mort Group. They will join current groups, the Rosewood District Protection Organisation (RDPO) and Coal Free Bremer in the battle.
The State Government has approved two leases totalling around 9500 hectares for open cut coal mining that will gouge through the Valley, near Ipswich.
Ipswich City Councillor, David Pahlke and Ipswich West LNP sitting Member Sean Choat attended the meeting, along with Vicki Perrin, the spokesperson for Coal Free Wide Bay Burnett and Beyond and Drew Hutton, national president of the Lock the Gate Alliance.
Ms Perrin helped communities around Avondale and Winfield near Bundaberg declare themselves coal mine and gasfield free in January. “All it takes is organisation and determination and you too can stop mining companies taking over your homes, land and communities,” she said.
Mr Hutton encouraged the gathering to take the simple step of putting a sign on the property saying “Lock the Gate” to let government officials and mining executives know there was a groundswell of support to halt destructive mining in their region.
“You won’t win through the usual channels of writing submissions or through legal action because the present state government, like the previous one, supports mining companies over communities,” he said.
“So you have to take a stand to protect yourselves and your properties.”