Putty - Sunday 14 August

We arrived at Putty after dark on Saturday night and set up the van at the Putty Hall in the dark. A quick coffee and it was off to bed.


When we got up the next morning we had a look around the Hall. We were very impressed. This is obviously a community that cares!

Kathy from the Putty group against CSG arrived just after 9am to show us the way to the protest.

She filled us in on the background to the protest.

In a nutshell, Dart Energy announced late last week that they plan to drill on private land in the Putty Valley within 500 metres of the World Heritage listed Wollemi National Park (home of the Wollemi Pine).

The Putty Valley is also part of the catchment for the Hawkesbury and feeds the Colo River (a declared Wild River).

We arrived at the protest on the Putty Road about 8km south of the Putty Valley turnoff (half way between Singleton and Windsor) and set up the van facing the road on a private property where the protest was occurring.

About 50 locals turned up for the protest. A great community response at such short notice.

We helped set up signs for passing traffic including one that said "HONK - NO CSG". We were rewarded with cars, trucks and bikes all day honking away as they drove past. Some stopped to find out what the fuss was about.

We were able to tell them that Dart Energy (owners of Macquarie Energy) had announced that they were sending in the drilling rigs to a property directly across the road on Monday morning. This was despite assurances given by the head of Dart at a public meeting in Leichardt not two weeks before that residents would receive written notification and that they were not planning to start drilling until mid-September.

When the companies talk about being "Transparent" my response is "Yes we know. We can see straight through you!"

ABC News sent a helicopter to cover the protest. They spent a good amount of time there and also filmed in the local area.

Here are some pics of the protest:

Jacinta Green, Vice President of Lock The Gate, and also from the Sydney Residents against CSG, joined the protest and is staying to confront the mining company when they arrive in the morning. Unfortunately we have to move on as we have a meeting scheduled at Wentworth Falls on Monday.

Although we are unable to be there in person on Monday we will certainly be there in spirit.

Cheers
Michael & Julie