Mining plan sparks protests and threats in Tassie wilderness


Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Broadcast: 25/07/2013

Reporter: Michael Atkin

A proposed mine in north west Tasmania's Tarkine region has sparked conflict between those supporting development and those arguing to protect the rainforest, with surprising intensity.


LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The Tasmanian wilderness has been the scene of some epic conservation battles over the years. Now a new one is underway over mining in the Tarkine, a vast tract of rainforest and home to endangered species like the iconic Tasmanian devil. For the locals, the mines mean hundreds of jobs and environmentalists are being told in no uncertain terms: "Keep out." Michael Atkin reports.

MICHAEL ATKIN, REPORTER: Bob Brown has been campaigning for Tasmania's wilderness for decades.

BOB BROWN, FORMER GREENS LEADER: What a beautiful scene. You wouldn't get a better river scene than this anywhere on Earth.

MICHAEL ATKIN: Corinna on the western coast is one of the jewels in the crown of a tourism industry that's based around the Tarkine. It's the second-largest cool temperate rainforest in the world and provides much-needed protection.

BOB BROWN: It's a stronghold for threatened and endangered species, like the Tasmanian devil, which we all know is headed for extinction. This place has got hundreds, if not thousands of devils which are disease-free.

MICHAEL ATKIN: But according to Bob Brown, this wild place is under imminent threat.

He's become patron of Save the Tarkine, campaigning with protest leader Scott Jordan to block all new mines.

BOB BROWN: You can't have that co-exist with open-cut mines big enough to swallow up the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

MICHAEL ATKIN: With state unemployment running at over eight per cent, not everyone sees it that way.

It's Saturday night and locals are gathering in the Tullah Tavern for a quiet drink. But the sombre mood is transformed when the South Burnie footy club turns up after an away game.

MICHAEL ATKIN: The boys may be rowdy, but they also bring what Tullah desperately needs, people with money to burn. Tullah is the closest place to three mines proposed by Perth company Venture Minerals.

JENNY BOWIE, TULLAH PROGRESS ASSOCIATION: We understand we need economic stimulation and we need a future for our community and we believe that that comes through mines like the Venture proposals.

LOCAL MAN: There's a lot of guys that work at fast food outlets, but, you know, people can do so much better. There is so much opportunity if these mines go ahead. We need to look at what's better for the majority, not the f***ing - ah, sorry, not the minority.

MATHEW WINSKILL, MINER: It's a future in the town for myself. It'd be great if my daughter could be a truck driver or a mining engineer or whatever she wants to be.

MICHAEL ATKIN: The Riley iron ore mine is the first Venture mine to be given the green light by the State Government. It will lead to 60 full-time jobs and last for just two years. The 119-hectare impact area is far from pristine. It has been logged and mined before.

MALCOLM HILLBECK, VENTURE MINERALS: It's about a thickness of two to three metres, very close to surface. It's in an area that has been previously mined.

MICHAEL ATKIN: But evidence of Tassie devils has also been found here. The Tasmanian Environmental Protection Authority found just five devils and one maternal den will be displaced. Now Save the Tarkine is challenging the legality of the Riley mine and using footage taken by activists to show increased devil activity.

BOB BROWN: Riley Creek shouldn't go ahead on environmental terms, but the real problem with Riley Creek is it's a cash cow for Venture Minerals to build the much bigger and much more destructive pit holds it wants in the natural rainforest at Mount Lindsay and no doubt there's more to come after that.

MICHAEL ATKIN: Just a few kilometres down the road is the much larger Mt Lindsay Tin and Tungsten open-cut mine. This is the area Venture Minerals chose to show us.

MALCOLM HILLBECK: The Mount Lindsay project will cost about $200 million in capital cost. It'll employ, when operating, 200 people.

MICHAEL ATKIN: Just around the corner is what environmentalists say is the beauty of the rainforest the company doesn't want you to see.

SCOTT JORDAN, SAVE THE TARKINE: Off to the west we're going to see a large area destroyed for the toxic tailings that come out of the mine process. It's just - you know, to destroy this ancient rainforest for - to dig a hole for some metals that you can find virtually anywhere on the planet.

MICHAEL ATKIN: No-one from Venture Minerals would speak on the record about the environmental impact of their mines.

LOCAL WOMAN: It's truly offensive that they come here. They don't live here. They don't live our life.

MICHAEL ATKIN: The locals are not impressed the environmentalists are in town. Threats on a pro-development Facebook page said they should be shot or burnt in their tents. 25-year-old Sally Stuart is one of the protestors to receive threats. They were followed by locals, had their cars photographed and location published.

SALLY STUART, STUDENTS OF SUSTAINABILITY: I was really alarmed. To tell you the truth, that night I was very alarmed for my own safety and for the safety of the group that I had brought out there with me. I felt responsible. But I also felt like it was eye-opening to see that this level of community hostility exists.

MICHAEL ATKIN: Nothing happens, but it isn't the first time protestors have received death threats. Scott Jordan has had people threaten his life and the safety of his family.

SCOTT JORDAN: Of course you get worried and certainly when something impacts on your family like that, you need to take precautions and you need to be sure that people are safe.

MICHAEL ATKIN: Save the Tarkine scrapped plans to set up a campaign office in Tullah when they feared it would be too dangerous.

JENNY BOWIE: I don't believe that he would be accosted by someone with a knife or whatever when he stepped out of the office of a night, but certainly I believe that maybe the premises might have been attacked, maybe vandalised, I don't know, graffiti on the outside, maybe Scott's tyres would have been let down.

MICHAEL ATKIN: The animosity between the two groups will only worsen if the mines are approved.

BOB BROWN: I would think that if you see the Tarkine invaded by the bulldozers and the destruction of those living rainforested valleys with their wildlife we see behind us, people are going to react to that. It wouldn't be the first time that I've found myself looking at prison walls in defence of the Tarkine.

JENNY BOWIE: If it keeps going the way it is, I think it could get nasty, yeah, because I think people have had enough and they're really actually now willing to stand up and fight for what they believe in.

LEIGH SALES: Michael Atkin reporting.