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Traditional owners call on Premier for protection of Wenlock River from development by Derek Tipper 27 February 2014
M
apoon Rangers and Traditional Owners are urging the Premier to stand by promises to protect the Wenlock River from mining, dams and broadscale agriculture. The call comes amid growing concern that the Queensland Government has yet to schedule any public meetings in Cape York as the March 25 deadline for public comment on the Draft Cape York Regional approaches. In November Premier Campbell Newman created a Strategic Environment Area (SEA) to provide perpetual protection for the Steve Irwin Wildlife Reserve, near Mapoon from mining and other destructive industrial developments. Thanakwith Traditional Owner and Ranger, Stanley Budby, fears the draft regional plan ignores the need to protect important cultural heritage and leaves too much of his country, in and around the Wenlock River, open for development. Mr Budby said Mapoon Rangers and Traditional Owners want the Premier Campbell Newman and
Above: Stanley Budby, Mapoon Land & Sea Ranger and Thanakwith Traditional Owner. Image supplied. Right: Wenlock River. Image: Kerry Trapnell
his Deputy, Jeff Seeney, to visit the Western Cape region to discuss stopping sand mining proposals. “I call on the government to come and talk to us, there’s plenty of ideas here,” Mr Budby said. “The Premier should protect the whole lot. “If it’s all protected I’m happy, we don’t want any mining company coming in and destroying it. We’re only beginning to understand what is there.” Mr Budby said the Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities along the river had started the Wenlock catchment Group, to protect against mining threats.
“We started this group off with the Traditional Owners so we could have our say about the River, to give it a chance,” Mr Budby said. “If you let mining company come into this bay or into this river it will destroy everything. It will kill everything “We intend to look after it. “Don’t destroy it. You destroying your own home and when you destroy that what’s the use you fighting for?”
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