By Graham Matthews

The national campaign to save the Hinchinbrook wilderness has escalated following Keith Williams' Cardwell Developments getting the green light from the federal government to develop its Oyster Point holdings.

On July 19, 600 protesters -- including 400 students from the Students and Sustainability Conference -- marched through the centre of Cardwell to the site to highlight opposition to the project, which threatens the Hinchinbrook wilderness and the survival of the dugongs in the area.

On August 6, the full bench of the Federal Court dismissed an appeal by Friends of Hinchinbrook against federal environment minister Robert Hill's decision to allow the development to proceed, subject to Queensland government environmental guidelines.

“The decision relies on an agreement with another body to impose non-existent environmental controls some time in the future”, said Margaret Moorehouse, Hinchinbrook campaign facilitator for the North Queensland Conservation Council (NQCC). “Such reliance on the Queensland government and the developer in this case is bankrupt, as management plans have been incomplete, defective, or repeatedly breached, at the expense of the environment”, Moorehouse said.

The NQCC has received information that the developers are attempting to gain leasehold over 600 hectares of Melaleuca forest, south of the Oyster Point development. The area is a critical habitat for the endangered mahogany glider. In a letter to Queensland environment minister, Brian Littleproud, the NQCC had demanded to know what action the state government would take to protect the area.

Littleproud's reply quoted an “independent” review concluding that the site was not capable of maintaining the gliders, and said that this review would form the basis of the government's decision.

“This was an `independent' review without a single mahogany glider expert on it”, Moorehouse told Green Left Weekly. “Mahogany gliders are living in that area.”

The Queensland environment department has granted the developer a permit to dredge over 100,000 tonnes of material from the Hinchinbrook passage. A coalition of environmental groups, including the Wilderness Society, Australian Conservation Foundation and NQCC, is proposing a blockade of the dredging, which will occur between late August and October.

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