The fight and right to save Minningup Pool

FOR hundreds of thousands of years, indigenous Aboriginal people have been the custodians of Minningup Pool, a sacred resting place of the Waugal, the hairy-faced snake.

The pool plays an important role in Aboriginal culture, happy and sorrowful celebrations, births, deaths, health and wellbeing.

In last week’s paper, Phil Ugle was concerned that plans to redevelop Minningup Pool into a busy tourist hub are not in the best interests of the traditional owners, the public or the environment, taking away the sacred site from the black fella - white fellas share Phil’s concerns.

There are many examples of the stance taken by traditional owners to protect WA’s sacred sites and things of importance, meaning and dreamtime.

From day one this concept/development has been all about tourism, WA Government driven and a fait accompli.

There has been scant respect or recognition shown of the pool’s most important feature and asset – the water body.

At this time, the only water feeding Minningup Pool is a small amount of environmental water from Harris Dam. The East branch has dried to pools, the Bingham water has long gone and Lake Kepwari has been allowed to rob Minningup of water.

When we consider future rainfall will reduce from 30 to 40 percent, is it a very good idea to spend $10 million with less water available to play in?

Then there is the yearly winter river flush to contend with, a Federal and State Government supported environmental commitment and action.

The recently completed and upgraded Venn Street and Roberts Rock river stops will ensure the 78 year committed environmental river flush is met. This process will reduce by about a third the water level in Minningup Pool during winter rainfall, May to October, by past experience.

There is bound to be some impact on and with tourism. These matters were made known and should have been dealt with by now.

The Collie rivers are dying and drying, and despite my best efforts I have not been able to get any support from Jodie Hanns MLA in getting the Minister for Water to Collie to look, learn, commit and listen to Phil Ugle and people like him.

When visitors to our town complain and write to the West Australian about the dreadful state of the Collie River in town, stating they would not put a toe in the water, it is time to heed and to act.

Some support and action from our local member of the WA Parliament would help.

- Ed Riley, Walter Drive.

New projects a fantastic milestone

LAST week’s announcement of the McGowan Government’s support of two major industrial projects was a fantastic milestone for our community, and we welcome Magnium Australia and Green Steel of WA to our town.

Collie will be home to Magnium Australia’s pilot plant to manufacture high-purity magnesium in the Light Industrial Area. The $18 million pilot plant is set to pave the way in sustainable manufacturing through the establishment of a semi-commercial pilot plant.

The pilot plant will enable commercial-scale testing of the CSIRO-developed technology, offering transitioning workers in Collie a rare opportunity to gain exposure to next-generation technologies and skills.

The pilot plant will have capacity to scale up to producing 800 tonnes of high-purity magnesium metal and is a stepping-stone to building a large-scale magnesium refinery in Collie.

Green Steel of WA is working to establish a sustainably operated steel mill which processes local scrap steel to produce green steel reinforcing bars for local consumption and export.

Together, at commercial scale, the two projects have the potential to deliver around 600 permanent jobs in Collie and more than 1,000 jobs in construction.

I’ve been working hard with the premier, deputy premier and their agencies to bring these projects to this stage. It’s incredibly rewarding to see tangible outcomes for good paying blue collar jobs for our transitioning workers – I can’t wait to see what else is possible for Collie.

I’d also like to acknowledge that there’s been a lot of hard work over the years to ensure Collie’s future. These include former member Mick Murray, the Collie Delivery Unit, SWDC and the Just Transition Working Group members.

A successful transition for Collie relies on everyone working together to make the plans a reality for Collie’s future.

Luckily, my father had married a woman whose father was also into model railways, so the layout was well looked after over the years. It was modified a little to allow for my grandfather’s increasing frailty, but otherwise stayed largely as it was.

Then, last August, my grandfather died.

This time, though, there was no one to move into the house and care for the layout. The house was to be sold, so it had to go.

I stayed out of the Shed as my brother took a saw to the baseboard and proceeded to rip up the tracks, pile up the little model buildings and cars into a heap, and chuck the control boards out the door.

It was like losing my father all over again.

I knew it had to be done – no one would want to buy a house with a 15-foot-long layout in the shed – but it still ripped my heart out to watch it. Worse still, no one else seemed affected. I was the only one who seemed to be fighting back tears as the layout my father had lavished so much love and care on was being torn apart like so much trash.

The house is sold now, and by the time this column is published, the settlement date will have passed and someone else will be living in it and maybe they will use the Shed as a hobby room, or a home gym or a man cave.

Hence my maudlin mood.

On the brighter side, though, I did what my mother did – I married a man who loves model railways. He ended up with most of the bits of the layout – the baseboard, the tracks, the model buildings and cars, and all of the rolling stock too.

He has plans for his layout in the Underground (as we call his Shed), and it does cheer me up a bit to think that one day I may see The Mallard, The Flying Scotsman or even The Duchess of Hamilton going around a track once more.

Although not at speeds my father would have approved of – you’re not trying to break a record, you bl##dy vandal!