Campaign to save D'Entrecasteaux park

Campaign to save D'Entrecasteaux park

By Miles Hitchcock

PERTH — Project Sandcastle — the campaign to prevent exploration of D'Entrecasteaux National Park for mineral sands — has begun in earnest.

In January WA environment minister Bob Pearce gave Cable Sands Pty Ltd permission to explore the park for three years, as part of the state government's contradictory "Resolution of Conflict" mining in national parks policy. Cable Sands is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Japanese multinational Nissho Awai Corporation.

Several blockades of Cable Sands drilling rigs and support vehicles at vehicle compounds in Northcliffe and Jangardup by a group of 30-50 Project Sandcastle activists have resulted in arrests but have hampered exploration of the park.

D'Entrecasteaux National Park is an extremely sensitive area of coastal wilderness on the south-west coast, between Walpole and Augusta. It is marked by extensive coastal wetlands, WA's largest freshwater lake, Lake Jasper, and is the last remaining biotic frontier in the south-west free of devastating dieback disease.

Dieback is mainly spread by vehicles, especially heavy mining or logging vehicles.

The Environment Protection Authority has stated it is "a certainty" that unknown plant species exist in the park, which has never had a comprehensive biological survey.

Cable Sands has focussed its drilling activity around suspected ore bodies within 500 m of lakes Jasper and Quitjitup. Any mining activity here could devastate the delicate hydrological balance of the entire region.

The public campaign against the decision has been hampered by a lack of openness by Cable Sands and a lack of cooperation from the Department of Conservation and Land Management (which is supposed to protect national parks), despite the EPA recommending that details of the exploration program be made public.

Nissho Awai is involved in rainforest logging programs in Sarawak, Malaysia, which are displacing the Penan people.

From GLW issue 47