Is Warrnambool the new Pandora in James Cameron’s Avatar?
Written by Nadia Collis
If you first watched James Cameron’s movie Avatar when it was first released in 2009, you probably wouldn’t have linked the science fiction film set in the mid-22nd century to our beautiful coastal town of Warrnambool. ...
However fast forward five years and there are now striking similarities. In the movie Avatar humans are mining a precious mineral called 'Unobtanium' on Pandora, a lush habitable moon in the Alpha Centauri star system.
In our town greedy humans, working for major companies such as WHL energy limited, The Terrex group and Beach Energy have recently inundated our area and are presently conducting geographical surveys of OUR local land, as they look for precious deposits of ‘Coals Seam Gas’ in our lush coastal town of Warrnambool. 
In Avatar the expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of Na’vi – a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. In Warrnambool the exploration and drilling for ‘unconventional gases’ using a process known as ‘fracking’ threatens Warrnambool’s agricultural and tourism industries. 
Warrnambool is reliant on underground water for stock and domestic supply, if water gets contaminated by the CSG fracking process used to extract the gas, we will have no water, no farm, no stock and NO MILK!'' With the added health risks if water contamination then spreads beyond a localised area.
We cannot allow what at first seem to be local gains in revenue and local jobs to be put ahead of the health of Warrnambool’s community members and the long-term sustainability of our agricultural industries!!!! We must act now if we wish to alter the mirroring movie plot and the foreshadowing local plot of a rapacious mining company invading the lush, bio diverse planet in order to extract "unobtainium." These companies will stop at nothing to get the resource which makes them money – and it is the residents that pay the price in terms of rampant destruction of their homeland.
The Warrnambool Lock the Gate Alliance group are urging Warrnambool community members to stand up to theses greedy companies and stop them from coming onto OUR land and destroying OUR livelihoods. The Warrnambool Lock the gate Alliance group would like to openly invite community members to a local information evening to find out more.