To all Gamilaraay people living in Brisbane who would like to be a part of this, please turn up to Musgrave park at 9.00am to be painted up in Gamilaraay designs. Please come along we have to stop them now.
– Paul Spearim
A delegation of traditionally painted warriors from the Gamilaraay nation and supporters will attempt to meet with Santos at their Brisbane office at 10am on Wednesday 11th December.
“The purpose of the meeting is to tell Santos to stop drilling for coal seam gas in the Piliga Forest. They have to stop this dangerous practice immediately before they do irreparable damage to this environmentally and spiritually sensitive place,” said Paul Spearim, spokesperson for the Gamilaraay delegation.
The forest is in the heart of Gamilaraay lands near the towns of Baradine and Narrabri in North West New South Wales. The forest has become refuge for many bird and mammal species that are declining across Australia and is vital to the survival of endangered species like the Pilliga Mouse and South-eastern Long-eared Bat. The forest is deeply sacred to the Gamilaraay and is connected to some of their most important stories.
Santos have stated publicly that they plan to drill 850 wells across the pristine Pilliga Forest.
“Santos did not get a welcome to our country or permission to enter our sacred places, they need to leave. We have stories about this place that have come down to us from generation to generation for tens of thousands of years. Those stories say step lightly here, its a special place, if you disturb this place it will have devastating consequences. Bad consequences not just for Gamilaraay but for our neighbours, their neighbours and their neighbour’s neighbours,” Spearim said.
Coal seam natural gas extraction, or fracking, is known the world over for its potential to contaminate ecosystems and waterways. Fresh water aquifers running beneath the Piliga Forest feed into the Murray Darling River system that goes all the way to Victoria and South Australia as well as feeding into rivers that run East to the coast of New South Wales. It has been identified as an important recharge zone for the Great Artesian Basin.
The delegation and supporters will gather outside of Santos’ Brisbane office at the end of the Kurilpa Bridge (Tank Street) just before 10am.
For more information contact
Paul Spearim
Phone 0416 069 788
Email pspearim@gmail.com
or visit Protecting the Piliga on Facebook
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“Santos did not get a welcome to our country or permission to enter our sacred places, they need to leave. We have stories about this place that have come down to us from generation to generation for tens of thousands of years. Those stories say step lightly here, its a special place, if you disturb this place it will have devastating consequences. Bad consequences not just for Gamilaraay but for our neighbours, their neighbours and their neighbour’s neighbours,” Spearim said.
Coal seam natural gas extraction, or fracking, is known the world over for its potential to contaminate ecosystems and waterways. Fresh water aquifers running beneath the Piliga Forest feed into the Murray Darling River system that goes all the way to Victoria and South Australia as well as feeding into rivers that run East to the coast of New South Wales. It has been identified as an important recharge zone for the Great Artesian Basin.