Stop Coal Mine in Australian Nature Reserve

  • by: Judith B.
  • recipient: Greg Hunt, Minister for the Environment, Australia

Greg Hunt, who’s beginning to look more like the coal minister than the environment minister, has just given permission for a coal mine right in the middle of Queensland’s most threatened natural habitat.

Clive Palmer’s Galilee Basin mine, grandly titled the China First mine, was given official blessing on Wednesday 18 December.

The mine plans and associated railway line would obliterate half of the Bimblebox Nature Refuge, a vital habitat for koalas, not to mention using up groundwater and adding to pollution.

To “offset” all this destruction, the company in question, Waratah Coal, has to pay a token amount towards conservation efforts and abide by a few none-too-stringent restrictions. None of these will replace the habitat destroyed or the wildlife it contains.

Killing off Australia’s wildlife for the sake of a deadly and completely unsustainable industry is not what environment ministers are supposed to encourage.

Tell Hunt to get his priorities right and call an immediate halt to the project.

We the undersigned ask that you immediately suspend the China First mine planned for the Galilee Basin. The environmental damage that would be wrought by this mine and associated transport infrastructure is far too high a price to pay for further developing a polluting industry.


Australia should be focusing on protecting its wildlife and developing renewable energies, not on this suicidal rush after coal. We are tired of sacrificing our natural heritage so the coal industry can increase its profits.


Please take your responsibilities as environment minister seriously, starting with looking out for the environment.


Thank you for your attention.

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