Is there anybody out there?

We cannot do another term of Nationals - we just cannot.

They have been here forever, the last one for 27 years ... somebody ... anybody Save Our Souls!

Here in the electorate of the Upper Hunter we are drowning in a landscape of coal and gas and now that the government has truncated our railway line, we cannot even get out.

We are stuck in the middle of ecocide and injustice, our very own 'Faustian bargain' arranged by democracy.

Save our Souls.

We cannot breathe, we cannot farm, we cannot get to the doctors', we cannot get to the beach, we cannot get educated, we cannot get trained ... why?

... because Mike Baird and the Liberal National coalition are locked in a death spiral as a result of dodgy deals arranged by dodgy developers and dodgy politicians.

Mike Baird has got it seriously wrong.



Starting with the trains and at the risk of being repetitive, it is unseemly for a premier to try and avoid the provisions of the Transport Administration Act which expressly forbid the cutting of a railway line except by Act of Parliament.

The Upper Hunter electorate is not impressed by Mike Baird's attempt to vest ownership of the railway line to the Hunter Development Corporation for railway acquisition purposes and neither are we impressed by their partnership with General Property Trust under the auspices of the government owned Urban Growth NSW.

(Screen capture from NSW Railpage)


Wendy Wales from the Denman Aberdeen Muswellbrook Scone Healthy Environment Group (DAMSHEG) is appalled that yet another vital public asset is being removed from collective use.

"I want to know why the information that Mr Robert Hawes, apparently a member of the Hunter Infrastructure and Investment Fund Board and the Hunter Development Corporation ... I want to know why that piece of information that he donated $60,000,000 to the government to assist with their 'deliberations on the future of the rail line,' ONLY appeared in the very last paragraph of the Newcastle Herald article 'City's future plotted by shadow government.'

"I want to know why this '$60,000,000 donation' mention hasn't been discussed more.

"I couldn't believe I was reading it correctly, you know $60 million donated to get rid of 2km of Newcastle rail so I raised the matter with George Souris.

"He told me via email that he had no knowledge of any of the assertions or content of this article and that he was sorry but he couldn't help me. He also went on to say that he'd had 'no engagement with ICAC on any Newcastle issue, but whatever it is, it ought to be given straight to ICAC,' whatever that means."

The article in question has since been removed from the Herald's site,



... however you can 'read all about it here!'

But back to Wendy's question, why did that $60,000,000 donation only get such a little snippet of reporting in the paper? Why? What is the back story? Cui bono? ... who benefited?

When you read the four documents that also featured in the 'now-removed-Newcastle-Herald' article,

1. Master Planning Group documents Friday 24 May 2013 — 10:00am

2. McCloy letter to Brad Hazzard Feb 2012

3. DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING AND INFRASTRUCTURE March 2012

4. Brad Hazzard response

... you get a very chummy little picture ... all parties seem very connected and red flags are going off.

Conflicts of interests anyone?

You're not saying anything, Mike, and here in the Upper Hunter, we all want to know.

Simmering away behind Upper Hunter's transport injustice, the mines keep digging for humanity ... and a big gold-star for global pollution.

Is there anybody out there? Coal is ruining my valley



Once famous for its wines, today we are more famous for our mines, and along with inversions & DIDOs (drive-in-drive-outs), 'Keep-Out' and 'For-Sale' signs dot our landscape.









Take a drive on the New England Highway beyond Maitland, and the landscape vandalism caused by coal mines is obvious.



But leave the highway to take a detour, and abandoned houses hint of another vandalism.





Author, grandmother and long time hunter resident before her move to the North Coast hinterland late last year, Sharyn Munro told me that the damage done to communities by runaway coal and the gas extraction industries is heartbreaking.

"Despite all the hype and all the promises that streets would be paved with gold, and progress for all, a very good example of the reality is what happened with the Peabody Wilpinjong mine over at Woolar just over the range from the Hunter Valley.

"They had 96 entries in the phone book when that mine started, and most of the people in the village were all for it but then in five years of that mine opening, there were only 12 entries in the phone book – that village became unliveable."



"We’ve lost so many villages here in the Hunter; Warkworth, Camberwell’s owned by the mines, brave little Bulga’s struggling to survive against illegal encroachments. We’ve got Jerry’s Plains fearing for its life from the Peabody mine and Denman is at great risk from the 4 mines proposed for its community."



"Yes the money is huge but you know, at what cost, at what cost?"



Sharyn Munro's view on coal-induced community vandalism is shared by John Krey, member of the Bulga Milbrodale Progress Association.

"We’ve been fighting a proposal which is an open cut mine expansion which would see the centre of Bulga be unliveable because of noise and dust.

"This has a massive effect on people’s psyche, on people’s view of the future, their view of where they are currently, and an open cut mine actually moving in such that they can no longer live in this area and their family and already families are splitting up."



John Krey says the DIDO miners work their shifts and leave as soon as they’re done.

"They don’t add anything to the social fabric of the village … the whole social approach or the whole social cohesiveness of the village is gone, and they do not contribute. It’s not the miners’ fault because they’re here to make the big money – but that does destroy the village."

No-one can argue that Bulga has not been destroyed.

Despite the Bulga Milbrodale Progress Association's earlier victory against Rio Tinto, 'government-lobbying' for 'Big Mine' has seen the massive mine expansion finally approved followed by the Planning Assessment Commission (PAC) suggesting that the village of Bulga could be relocated.

This is classic community vandalism perpetuated by the lunacy of coal with only our community elders prepared to take up the baton of defence ... sigh



We should be screaming from the rooftops ...

WE ARE SCREAMING FROM THE ROOFTOPS

Meanwhile bubbling away over the Barrington Tops in the east of the Upper Hunter electorate is Gloucester, fighting for their future, fighting for our future.



Right now there has been a suspension of AGL's coal seam gas activities as a consequence of chemicals used in their drilling processes appearing in the water.

Despite fierce opposition to the drilling and desecration of people's lives, the fossil fuel group has dominated the area of the local council's management side making it difficult for the actually elected councillors to take a position.

Ken Johnson (OAM), a former Principal in the NSW Department of Education, currently part-time university lecturer and representative on various government working parties, and the president of the Gloucester Project, says Gloucester can either choose a fossil fuel economy or a food future economy, the latter of which has already attracted a lot of positive attention from many different agencies.

"At last year's Australian Regional Development Conference in Albury, I gave a presentation on socio-economic, sustainable, regional development, showing the relationship between Gloucester approaching climate change difficulties and potentially being one of the areas to be favoured by climate change.

"As a gateway to the North Coast, this whole region could become an important food bowl for Australia, but to date the concept has been thoroughly blocked by Gloucester's council management which refuses to give it proper consideration.

"The purpose of the Gloucester Project is to increase the significance of sacrificed zones in relation to agencies with responsiblitiy to prepare areas for anticipated difficulties from climate change.

"Gloucester council management are not prepared to consider the emerging pattern that agencies promoting the fracking process are likely to be liable for adverse community outcomes because they have responsibilities regarding land use and the people who live in there.

"The process of fracking has a greater impact than previous methods of gas extraction because 'fracking' the strata increases the amount of chemicals escaping into the environment. We are looking at clear evidence concerning migrating methane and migrating mining impurities having a dire impact on people and communities.

"Mothers and babies living in close proximity to CSG wells have an increase risk of significant health difficulties."



The outlook is grim for the Upper Hunter.

Yet despite the countless studies available concerning the impact of fracking on humans, animals and vegetation, pointing to a chain of evidence against coal seam gas extraction, the Liberal National Government is determined to continue with their policy of CSG business as usual if re-elected.

Ken Johnson feels it will not be long before all agencies from governments and industries will have to accept their responsibilities towards maternal and infant health because the evidence is already showing that inadequate advice leads to litigation.

"We need to look at today's playgrounds, and think about the little girls playing in them who will be Australia's future mothers, and remember that in reality those little girls are playing a deadly lottery that will see a proportion of them who live within 30km of a well suffer from significant health problems - we are potentially sacrificing children.

"It is an inescapable issue and government and industry are complicit in the creation of maternal and infant disability - the research is there."

Back in Scone and 30km to the west of me and my family, we have just found out that AJ Lucas has just bought a licence to frack for CSG in Bunnan.

(Screen capture: Jeremy Buckingham, NSW Greens MP)


When will this madness stop?

We know that the National Party candidate plans to carry on as per the will of the current NSW government which really means as per the will of Big Corpa; you know 'Big Gas' and 'Big Mine' and 'Big Developa.'

(Image: with permission from Knitting Nannas)


The Gloucester Knitting Nannas are right when they advise us all in the Upper Hunter electorate to the put the National candidate last, and basically vote for someone else, anyone else.

The National Party has not served our interests in the electorate, only their own, and they are not entitled to this seat. Why, I have not even touched upon the planned annihilation of the glorious Liverpool Plains ... weep.

The beautiful Hunter Valley and the Upper Hunter electorate are being systematically destroyed and no-one, nothing is safe.



We can no longer listen to National party policies heavily weighted towards Tooth Fairy and Father Christmas imaginings - our reality ought not to have to entail National Party representation - they have failed us.



"Dear mythological creature in whom I don't believe,
Please don't let the National Party win in my electorate."

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(also cross-posted to Scone Blog)