Natalie Lowrey
Over the weekend of April 14-17, 120 people participated in the Rain Corroboree in support of the Wiradjuri traditional owners' fight to protect Lake Cowal in central-western NSW from contamination by cyanide, which is used by mining giant Barrick Gold at its one kilometre-wide open-cut mine only four kilometres from the lake.
Members of the Indigenous Justice Advocacy Network, the Coalition to Protect Lake Cowal, the Rainforest Information Centre, Peacebus.com and Friends of the Earth participated.
On April 16, the Wiradjuri traditional owners called a rally outside the Wiradjuri Condobolin Council in Condobolin, where local Wiradjuri, young and old, spoke against the mine and the WCC's collaboration with the company.
On April 17, 70 people walked peacefully onto Barrick's mine site. Eight were arrested, including one who was locked onto machinery for over two hours. The protesters held up mining operations for five hours.
Throughout the weekend, Cyanide Watch, the group campaigning to ban the use of cyanide in gold and silver mining, monitored the trucks entering and leaving the mine. The group is continuing its road-side monitoring and held a protest on April 21 in Dubbo, one of the towns that the cyanide is transported through from Gladstone in Queensland to the Barrick goldmine.
[Natalie Lowrey is a national liaison officer for Friends of the Earth Australia. For more information on the campaign, visit <http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/gold/lakem.html>.]
From Green Left Weekly, April 26, 2006.
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