Traveston Dam will Destroy the Mary River and the Mary Valley

While I was at Kadanga railway station, I visited the Save the Mary River Information Centre. Actually I visited a number of times. Since then Anna Bligh has once again announced that the Traveston Dam is going ahead but it is a totally unofficial statement made out to be official. Friends of the Mary River are still hoping that common sense will rule and they lay their hopes with Mr Garrett. How money can be spent on something in advance of any final ruling beats me but land purchases and road works have been underway for a couple of years. People have already lost their homes except for the ones who are prepared to fight to the bitter end. Others have been scared into submission. That land is now owned by the Government so I wonder what is really going on - not that I myself understand these things. Is there another reason that this land is being collected? And on a personal note, how would you like your relatives burial ground to be submerged under water? I also wonder what the original occupants of the land think. They were the Kabi people.

What I do know from the facts presented at the Information Centre is that the dam is not viable and the tax payers money would be better spent on our long awaited hospital because hospital services on the Sunshine Coast are overtaxed and are also causing needless heartache and inefficient responses to emergencies. Fatigued doctors are making mistakes in surgery and being a public patient is becoming a risk to one's health! I could also go on about the disincentive of the life-time health care loading to those who have had to forgo their private hospital insurance at some stage. There is no way we can get back into the scheme now. Anyway that is another story.

Getting back to the dam(n)ing of the Mary River,

I am not happy about the way that we have been led to believe that the Mary River Turtle, the Mary River Cod, and the Queensland Lungfish are to be sufficiently catered for. An untested turtle ramp and an already 'proven as inefficient' "fish ladder" (Paradise Dam has one but there is insufficient water to operate it at most times and the fish are not proving to be intelligent enough to use it when there has been sufficient water) do not convince me that these vulnerable species are not going to end up extinct. I cannot be placated by such psuedo efforts performed at the tax payers expense.

If North Pine Dam is any example, then any environmental disasters involving our native species are going to be played down anyway. How many people know of the mass fish kill of the Queensland Lungfish that took place not too long ago? The photos showing dead, dying and injured Lungfish at the Information Centre are heartbreaking. I urge you to visit the Information Centre and find out the facts rather than remain in the dark like I was before the visit and my subscription to the Dam Busters newsletter. All the work has been done for you, the information collected, the petitions and letters ready for your signature.

Kadanga is a lovely little town worth the visit and if you would like to see some more photos, click below on my album at picasa.

kadanga