Strip mine in Tarkine

Strip mine in Tarkine

By Ben Courtice

HOBART — A mining lease has been granted for five hectares of land in the Tarkine wilderness in Tasmania's north-west, fulfilling environmentalists' predictions that the Tarkine road would open up the area for mining and logging.

The lease, near Mt Donaldson and accessed by the Tarkine road, involves open cut surface-strip mining, including the progressive clearance of rainforest. Water for the operation is taken from the nearby Sunday Creek, and run-off flows back into the creek with no silt traps or settling ponds.

The Wilderness Society and the Tasmanian Greens have called on governments to rule out mining in areas protected under the Regional Forest Agreement, and to reverse their decision to open up 300,000 hectares of conservation reserves to mining.

On February 13, around 30 members of the Friends of the Tarkine Network held a protest outside the office of John Beswick, Tasmania's minister for mines. A spokesperson for the network told Green Left that the minister was being targeted because he had a legal and ethical responsibility to terminate the mining lease since work had begun at the lease site without approval from the local council or the Department of Environment and Land Management. Such approval can only be given after an environmental impact assessment and a two-week public consultation period.

The Friends of the Tarkine Network is asking people to call the minister on (03) 6233 6725 and demand that he cancel the lease.

From GLW issue 263