Conservationist defects to mining lobby
By Nick Everett
BRISBANE — Frances Herbert, former Queensland Conservation Council spokesperson on the Stradbroke Island anti-sand-mining campaign, took up the position of public policy officer with CRL (Consolidated Rutile Ltd) earlier this month. CRL is the company sand-mining North Stradbroke Island.
Herbert informed members of the Stradbroke Island Action Coalition (SIAC) of her decision to become the company's PR person on the same day as resigning her position with QCC.
Since its formation in early May, SIAC has campaigned for a permanent end to sand mining on North Stradbroke.
In October 1996, CRL's Gordon operation broke through the water table, resulting in seepage in three areas, inundating vegetation. The pollution is a breach of CRL's mining lease conditions and of its export control licence. Queensland mining and energy minister Tom Gilmore decided that no penalty would be imposed and the lease would not be revoked.
CRL's newest mine, Ibis Alpha, threatens to flood Ibis and Black Snake lagoons, both of which lie outside CRL's lease.
In April conservationists blockaded the CRL mining road, preventing the transport of minerals from Gordon to the loading facility at Dunwich. The blockade stopped all mining trucks for six days. SIAC and some of the island's traditional owners re-established a protest camp in early May.
CRL has now closed the Gordon mine indefinitely for "environmental maintenance". However, the federal government's recent abolition of its export control licensing duty now leaves environmental regulation of mining in Queensland in the hands of the Borbidge government.