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Monday, October 3, 2011

Home Sweet Home - Friday 30 September

After 2 months away we returned home today.
 Ahhhhh - Paradise!

We have to unpack and sort out the house and property after being away for so long. The ride-on gets delivered on Tuesday from the mower repairer, the water pump needs work and the pklace needs a general clean up so we will be busy for a few days.

After that we will process what the trip has meant to us and what we have achieved.

We'll keep you informed.

Cheers
Michael & Julie

Armidale - Thursday 29 September

We arrived in a cold and windy Armidale to find a great reception at the Armidale Bowling Club.

Despite Armidale not being covered by a CSG exploration licence (PEL) about 75-80 people attended the meeting.

In addition to Michael's presentation Carmel Flint gave a great presentation about the impact of coal seam gas mining on the Pilliga State Forest.

There was a very interactive seesion afetr the presentations tat included a Q&A session as well as suggestions for further actions.

It was a great final community meeting for our Defend Our Water speaking tour.

Cheers
Michael & Julie

Richmond - Wednesday 28 September

We are having difficulty administering the blog ... for several days I have tried to update the blog and still can't get into the general admin functions.

We had a small but keen group attend the meeting we set up for Richmond.

Afetr the meeting we headed notrh for our last community meeting. We got to Muswellbrook at 2am and curled up in the van outside a friend's place.




Sunday, September 25, 2011

What can I do??? - Sunday 25 September

Along the way one of the most frequently asked questions has been "What can I do to help stop CSG?"

Besides participating in the National Day of Action on Sunday 16 October there are many things that individuals can do to help the cause.

Julie put together a list of 20 things that individuals can do. Here is the list:

1.           Paint banners & put them on fences

2.           Write to Barry O’Farrell

3.           Organise local rallies and other media events

4.           Wear anti-CSG T-Shirt (constantly)

5.           Put a sign in the window of your car

6.           Join a local Action Group

7.          Write letters to local and other newspapers

8.           Meet with your local MP

9.           Lobby your local council

10.         Donate $$$ to Lock The Gate Alliance

11.         Get local sponsors

12.         Fundraising

13.         Spread the word – print & distribute brochures

14.         Write to ALL major political parties. Tell them you don’t want CSGM.

              Ask them “Do you want me to vote for the Greens?”

15.         Whatever your political persuasion, support the Greens in their stance against CSGM.

16.         Join Lock The Gate Alliance. Be a part of the biggest lobby group against CSGM. Know that   People Power does work.

17.         Gather support – speak to local community groups eg Rotary etc.

18.         Stand up for clean renewable energy

19.         Make your voice heard loud and clear

             “Not only do we not want CSG – We will not have it!”
       20.        Donate $$$ to GetUp! to help the advertising campaign

Send us your comments with additional suggestions.

Cheers
Michael & Julie

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Blacktown - Saturday 24 September

Braving a cold, overcast, almost raining morning about 70 local residents gathered at the Blacktown Village Green to express their concern about plans by Dart Energy and AGL to drill in the local area.
Residents start to gather just before 9am

Dart are planning to drill core holes near Prospect Reservoir, part of Western Sydney's water supply, and AGL are drilling near Schofield, between Blacktown and Richmond.

As an old Blacktown boy I find these plans particularly disturbing.
Michael speaks to the crowd. Also in the photo is Ben who organised the gathering.
Part of the 70 strong crowd
A good number of those attending signed up to be part of the local Blacktown Residents Against CSG group. We look forward to hearing of their activities.

Cheers
Michael & Julie

Kangaroo Valley - Friday 23 September

We braved the Hume Highway for the drive south. There had been a big truck accident and the traffic was moving at a crawl.

We arrived at the Kangaroo Valley Hall about 20 minutes before the meeting was scheduled to start to a warm reception.

I was very glad they had a mic set up as my voice is still not the best becuause of the flu.

We had a smallish but appreciative group of locals. I don't think the start of the school holidays actually helped us.
There was lots of lively discussion and a core group of locals decided to work together to form a local group to carry on the campaign.

It was well worth the drive, even if we did get back to Sydney at midnight.

Cheers
Michael & Julie

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Sydney - Channel 7 came calling

Channel 7 came out yesterday and did lots of filming of us and the Frack Cave (the caravan) and us in the Frack Cave and interviewed us about plans by Dart Energy to start exploration activities in Western Sydney.

They put a good item to air.
Channel 7 News Report

We also found out today that AGL have plans to drill at Schofields.

We spent today putting up posters and handing out brochures at Richmond and Windsor for Saturday's rally and a community meeting we are organising at Richmond next Wednesday.

Cheers
Michael & Julie

Monday, September 19, 2011

Sydney - St Peters Protest- Sunday 18 September

We headed off early to make sure we could park the van near Sydney Park for the rally at the end of the march from Camperdown.

Along with others we set up our stall only to be bufeted by howling winds gudting through the park. On group's cabana anded up in the lake and had to be fished out.

It was all worth it though as we saw the marchers approach through the park.
It was even better with the noise

Speakers included Michael, Simon Sheikh from GetUp and Jeremy Buckingham.

There would have been about 1,500 people there.

Cheers
Michael & Julie

Friday, September 16, 2011

Sydney - Green Day - Friday 16 September

We decided to go into the city to enjoy some of the "green" delights on offer.

We managed to sample two.

First - we visited Jeremy Buckingham's office at Parliament House.

It was interesting as we went through Security in our No Fracking T-shirts. They told us that we could not wear "protest" T-shirts inside Parliament House. We pointed out that Julie only had a bra under hers. Because I had mine on over my shirt they asked if I could take mine off, turn it inside out and let Julie wear it. The things we do!

When we got up to Level 11 Justin and Jeremy made us feel very welcome.

Julie tried out Justin's chair to see how it felt.
Julie in charge - with a little help from Justin.

What??? You want your chair back???
 Second - we visited the Royal Botanic Gardens.

By this time I had my T-shirt back
It was great to spend a couple of hours wandering through a green island in the heart of the city.















Out T-shirts attracted some interest and two women engaged us in conversation. One was from ballina and the other from Mullumbimby. We had to laugh!

Cheers
Michael & Julie

Parramatta - You can't go back! But surprises happen. - Thursday 15 September

Julie had not been to Westfield Parramatta for 30 years so we decided to go in for "Thursday Night Shopping".

We lasted about 10 minutes in Westfield and then went for a walk through (and beyond) Church Street Mall.

Trying to find a reasonably priced dinner in Parramatta was looking increasingly unlikely when we came across a small cafe at the end of a block.

The Mars Hill cafe tags itself as "Where thinkers drink". It is focussed on ethical business practices, supporting artists and musicians to have a performance space, fair trade and supporting people to develop relevant work skills in a supportive community environment.
Mars Hill cafe
We spoke with Mark, the manager. He described what the cafe is about and gave us the contact details for Kevin (who got it all started). We are catching up with Kevin on Saturday.

We arranged to drop off some Defend Our Water brochures and a poster advertising the St Peters protest on Sunday (18/9). We also donated two T-shirts ... one each of  "Don't frack the earth" and "Don't frack with me" for staff to wear.

It was a pleasant surprise to see an expression of "community" in the heart of the city. Maybe there is hope after all!

Cheers
Michael & Julie

R & R - Wed/Thur 14&15 September

We realised when we got back into Sydney that the only options for clean undies was to wash or go shopping (LOL) so we decided to do some basic housekeeping in the Frack Cave.

The only other alternative would have been to make sure we stood down wind of people - and that seemed like too hard a task to manage on a daily basis.

So we did the washing and the cleaning.

We did get out on Thursday night ... subject of next post.

Cheers
Michael & Julie

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Bathurst (Rahamim) - Tuesday 13 September

After hearing Sister Patricia Powell speak at the Running Stream community meeting on Friday night we were determined to call in at the Sisters of Mercy - Rahamim Ecological Centre at Bathurst to find out more about what they do.
Sister Patricia Powell with Julie

Sister Patricia is an unassuming woman with a well developed sense of humour. We liked her immediately and she has had an impact on both of us.

The centre is focussed on developing ecologically sustainable land use practices and running workshops and other activities. They certainly practice what they preach.
Arriving at Rahamim
The centre is quite impressive, from the building - a donation from a benefactor many years ago - to the community gardens and various tree plantings and sustainable land use practices.

Rahamim Centre - housed in a grand old family home donated to the Sisters of Mercy
The Sisters are pursuing the notion of eco-spirituality as espoused by Thomas Berry.

They have about 5 hectares of land on which they are implementing a range of strategies including tree planting, water harvesting, treatment and reuse, community gardens, solar energy.

John Fry, a very experienced and knowledgeable man, works with the Sisters to implement their vision.

He took us on a tour of the property and explained what they are doing. The Sisters are very lucky (they might say blessed) to have him working with them.
One of a number of layered "dams" to catch run off water
Mesh neded to be added to allow for student groups to visit
Rows of tree plantings and swales
"Speed hump" used to rediret run off water
Artificial wetland
Artificial wetland - another view
John Fry in the community garden
The chook yard
The original water storage tanks were rediscovered and are used to gather water from the roof. Original "convict bricks" have been used.
The tree plantings that used biodynamics are twice the height of traditional plantings
It was well worth the visit, both to catch up with Sister Patricia and also to see what is happening at Rahamim. We encourage anyone in the mid-west to find out about the cntre and its work.

Cheers, and blessings ;) 
Michael & Julie

Mudgee to Bathurst - Tuesday 13 September

The next morning we decided to head to Bathurst to catch up with Sr patricia at Rahamim (more later) and along the way stopped at Sofala for lunch.

Sofala is another place that Julie had visited many years ago.

It is nestled in a valley half way between Mudgee and Bathurst and has a large proportion of old houses. Many of them are in the process of being renovated.






We found two disappointments at Sofala.

One was the number of hoauses that were not consistent with the "theme" of the village.

The other struck us as we sat at the old cafe having lunch, a really good hamburger. The local community hall, straight across the road, had been revamped - in Colorbond! Somehow it did not gel with the feel of the village.

After lunch we headed off towards Bathurst, passing through Wattle Flat and negotiating lots of hilly winding roads.

Boy - it was good to finally arrive at Bathurst!

Cheers
Michael & Julie



Mudgee Area - Monday 12 September

The combination of the talk by Sister Patricia Powell at the community meeting at Running Stream on Friday night and our tour of the Mudgee and Bylong Valley areas on Saturday we decided to take a day to revisit some of the places we had seen, and some that we had not had a chance to stop at.

Sr Paricia had touched us in a deep way when she spoke about a spiritual connectedness among all of "creation" and notions of eco-spirituality.

The Drip, north of Mudgee towards Coolah, had made a strong impact on Julie, and to some extent on me.

Locals have done a lot of work to rehabilitate this site, which had great significance for the local Wiradjari people, and have been campaigning for about 6 yearsto have it incorporated into the local National Park system.

We did not have time on Saturday to explore the area to any great degree so we headed back on Monday morning.

We were not disappointed.








We had lunch while we were there and then, as a surprise for Julie, I headed north for about 2km to the "Hands On Rock".

This is a series of rock paintings of hands done over time by local Indigenous people. It is maintained by NPWS. The painters used ochre and their hands as a stencil, blowing the ochre across their hands on to the rock face. From the carpark area it is a 600m walk uphill to a viewing platform.

Julie had visited about 20 years ago and was keen to see it again.

The painitings were getting fainter over time but many were still visible and the sense of connectedness to a long history and the local environment was palpable.




We then headed back towards Mudgee and decided to go cross country to visit Gulgong, the town on the $10 note.

It was interesting to visit, with lots of old houses and other buildings in various states of repair and renovation. It even has an opera house! Very refined.







From there we headed back to Mudgee to get a well earned night's sleep.

Cheers
Michael & Julie