BY ALEX HAZLEWOOD SFS Australia Fall 2009 

This past fall, my fellow students and I at the SFS Center for Rainforest Studies in North Queensland, Australia were moved by the natural beauty of the remnant forests found on the sand islands and banks of the Walsh River. This is an area which provides habitat for many endangered plant and bird species. Naturally, when a proposed sand mining operation along a 4km stretch of the river threatened the habitat’s integrity, we banded together with SFS faculty members and a local advocacy group in an attempt to save it.

At a meeting with members of the Save the Walsh Action Group (SWAG) in nearby Chillagoe, a former mining town, we had the opportunity to better understand Australia’s water and mineral rights as well as learn about advocacy groups in the region and the struggles they face. SWAG members informed us that Tablelands Excavation & Raw Materials (TERM), the company that had proposed the mining operation, performed inadequate assessments of the environmental impact. Furthermore, construction and extraction projects along the river had already damaged habitat quality while increasing flood risks in the region. After the meeting, SFS faculty members gathered us together and asked if we wanted to help SWAG assess the application to mine the river. The answer was a resounding “yes.”

Students organized themselves into three research teams with each group supervised by an SFS professor: Dr. Siggy Heise-Pavlov’s group examined the birds, insects, and other animals that may be displaced or damaged by sand mining; Dr. Tim Curran’s group examined the effect of sand mining on invasive weed dispersal and destruction of plant habitat; finally, Dr. David Manahan’s group had the task of researching social, cultural, and Aboriginal rights that were inadequately addressed in TERM’s application to mine. The students worked for two days, individually and collaboratively, to analyze the adequacy of TERM’s environmental impact assessment. Upon confirming the likelihood of detrimental impact of the mining operation on the Walsh and its surrounding habitat, students and faculty members drafted a letter to local and state government agencies detailing these concerns – specifically, the environmental and cultural impacts that TERM had overlooked in their application.      

The letter was sent to the heads of the Tablelands Regional Council and the Ministry for Climate Change and Sustainability. It was well understood that if, at any level of the application process, a recommendation to stop the sand mining operation of the Walsh River was to be made by a government agency, the proposal to mine would be denied. It was not until the final week of the program when Tim Curran announced that the Department of Environment and Resource Management had rejected TERM’s application. He also relayed the expression of gratitude by SWAG for the dedication and hard work of the SFS students and staff. The experience was quite possibly the most satisfying of my time in Australia, and knowing that the beautiful Walsh River will remain untouched until I can return to Queensland is a great reward.

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