Destruction - China First Thermal Coal Mine to destroy Bimblebox Nature Refuge - submit your comments by 7 Nov 2011

HELP PROTECT BIMBLEBOX NATURE REFUGE

As a friend recently said to me, 

'How many pages does it take to say "we're gonna dig a damn great hole?" '

Waratah Coal has finally confirmed that its proposed 'China First' mine would destroy Bimblebox Nature Refuge. The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) clearly states that 52% of Bimblebox would be open cut, and the remainder subject to major subsidence and interference from underground longwall mining. It would set a dangerous precedent for the mining of Queensland's precious conservation areas and contribute 3.3 billion tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere, on top of a myriad of regional impacts.

NOW IS THE TIME TO HAVE OUR SAY. 

The period for public comment closes on November 7th. We have prepared a submission for people to send in, and have information for people who want to write their own. It is vital that we send a message loud and clear that we will not allow our nature refuges to be dug up for the sake of more coal profits.

Please visit the Bimblebox website HERE to find our how to make a submission.

I really appreciate your time.

Many thanks, 

Paola Cassoni

www.bimblebox.orgbimblebox@gmail.com+61 7 49853474

Bimblebox Nature Refuge

Alpha QLD 4724

Australia

Click to enlarge

Further Reading:

Resourcehouse Limited

Bowen Business Information Forum - PowerPoint type presentation in .pdf format

China First now a major project

Billionaires 'China First' Qld coal mine move

Clive Palmer scores biggest export contract worth $60b

China denies $US60bn coal deal with Clive Palmer's Resourcehouse

Palmer plans coal $6.5b behemoth

Palmer's Resourcehouse gets $1.2bn funding (Lateline transcript and video)

Bird may halt Palmer mine project

Australian Mining - Clive Palmer

Water, water all around? Is there enough to drink?

You will have noted, dear Reader, that Miss Eagle has listed on the sidebar a few of her favourite nature/environmental blogs. Miss Eagle hopes, dear Reader, that you - like her - who blog beautiful things - and homes which there are no places like - take an interest in natural beauty in the great outdoors and its welfare.

Miss Eagle's great friend Denis (pictured above on the Murrumbidgee River) blogs at The Nature of Robinson where he posts about a recent enquiry about the state of rivers in his neighbourhood in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales.

We live in a time - at least in Australia - where water is precious whether it is for our lovely gardens and parks, industrial use, or growing our food. We - the wider vote-carrying dollar-spending community - have watched corporations and governments do things which are not in the interests of the community as a whole. It is time, in Miss Eagle's view, when we took an interest.

Now, Miss Eagle is able to be informed and in touch through Denis about the goings on in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales but she would like to be as informed and in touch within her own neighbourhod: the Dandenong Ranges, south-eastern Melbourne, south-eastern Victoria.

Water is the very basis of our life. Miss Eagle has a general interest in rivers and watercourse and has always wished she knew more because she has seen so many wrecked rivers. Where does a member of the general public start, dear Reader? Miss Eagle has no science. She is not even a keen amatuer naturalist like Denis and Duncan.

Good advice gladly welcomed.

Nectar: nature's own party drug

People, including Gina, have been blogging about parrot visitations. This week Poppalina has been blogging about her daphne blossoming. So I thought I would chime in with both parrots and daphne.

Two weeks ago our daphne burst into bloom. As Herself said, you watch and watch the buds longing for the time when that beautiful scent will invade your life. But, little do you know, others are watching too: watching for just the right moment for blossom to open, nectar to peak, and a strike must be made before anyone else gets to it.

So it was that a visiting pair of Crimson Rosellas feasted and partied in a quite single-minded fashion on the shrub outside our living room window.

Sunday: a prelude

Went a-walkin' this morning - to the patisserie. Yesterday afternoon brought rain to Upper Gully. Miss Eagle was in bed early but presumes that it rained through the night too. This morning was fresh, there were dripping trees and bushes and the sun was trying hard to shine through the cloud. It did succeed.

At the moment, some eucalypts are in full flower - those with a red/pink flower.

This delights the birdlife who are noisy and partying.

Like this fellow

The patisserie is Arena Boys Bakehouse at 4/79 Glenfern Road, Upper Ferntree Gully.

It is open every day - except Good Friday and Christmas, methinks.

Above are some of their wide range of goodies.

Below are the goodies Miss Eagle purchased: one each for Miss E and Herself.

• Two ciabatta rolls
• Two cannoli
• Two rum baba

Home again.

Here is the creek in front of our place. Ferny Creek.

And this beautiful red parrot was feeding quietly in a neighbour's bush

while his partner fed in a tree above.
A lovely prelude to Sunday.

A block of wood - and art and beauty

Over at Getting Stitched, Kristin has posted with an update about Mary Azarian and her work. Now, dear Reader, your correspondent, Miss Eagle, cannot quite recall how she found out about Mary A. Perhaps, Kristin did a previous post. But twelve months or more ago, Miss E 'discovered' the wonderful work of Mary Azarian, woodcut artist.
Miss Eagle purchased Mary Azarian's The Gardener's Alphabet over the net as a birthday gift for Herself. Miss E would provide the link for you, dear Reader, but it seems to be broken or disappeared.
Kristen says that Mary confirmed her belief that it takes time, practice, and plain hard work to build any artist's or business' reputation. The lonely toiling-on develops style, techniques, talent, and skills which sometimes (but not always) turns into success on a commercial level. Love what you do and keep doing it, having faith that someone, somewhere will recognize your talent. Try not to get discouraged if success takes longer to obtain than you would ever have thought it would.



Sounds a lot like our endeavours with our blogs and our collections and our craft and creativity don't you think?

Mary Azarian

Drought

Photo by John Mitchell
And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
Isaiah 58:11 / KJV

Sunrise : Sunset

The photograph above is of a Sunset

Below are Sunrises



One of the most wonderful things on Miss Eagle's recent visit to The Nine Mile near Broken Hill was the sunrises and sunsets. In Melbourne, there is cloud and great variability in the weather. In the Western Division, there are clear unpolluted skies. Greeting the morning sunrise once again became a morning ritual for Miss Eagle. Here are her remembrances of the sun.
For some really glorious photographs pop across and see Denis's.

Meeting an old friend. Part II

Denis is a naturalist. His knowledge of plants and birds is encyclopedic. Each morning we would watch the sunrise together from an embankment on the eastern side of the homestead. Then we would check on what was happening. A walk around three sides of the homestead perimeter (the fourth side was inaccessible) would takes us an hour. We would notice each bird, take time to find good light and photograph each bird, identify the plants and, in case a plant was questionable, collect a specimen for verification in a large compendium on plants of the Western Division.

And so the friendship developed.

A week after arrival we set off to drive back to Robertson (pop. 1000 approx) where Denis lives to spend a couple of days in a rural rainforest environment and meet some of Denis's many friends.

Denis (right) with Anni Heino of Mayday and Andrew Ford

Eventually, the time came for Miss Eagle to return to Melbourne. She got up on the Saturday morning and it seemed a good thing to her that Denis should come back to Melbourne. After Denis recovered from this shock, he agreed to come but said he felt like he had been hi-jacked! He went back to Robertson this week. So for just over three weeks we have been together and felt comfortable and tender with one another.

Now, Miss Eagle usually doesn't get this personal on her blog - but, after some of the comments over at The Nature of Robertson, it seemed appropriate that Miss Eagle made comment. Denis has a strong network in Robertson and there appears to be significant gossiping and comment.

So my life has changed dramatically in 2006. Two years ago (two years this week on 22 September) Miss Eagle arrived in Melbourne with her wings severely clipped by a long illness. Now Miss Eagle has lost 40kgs (nearly 90 lbs) since November 2005 due to a gastric lap band. She has gone back to work in local government after she was forced by illness to leave it early in 2002. And now there is an intelligent and loving man in her life who shares many of her interests and values. For Miss Eagle, Providence is stunning.

The Desert blooms - 2

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The Desert blooms

This enamel bowl of fruit was on the table when we arrived.

When it came to Miss Eagle's first turn on the roster, we decided to eat in.

To make things nice and festive Miss Eagle picked wild flowers for table decoration.

She placed gum leaves around the fruit bowl.

Below, she selected a large piece of white quartz,

put it on a large glass plate,

surrounded it with gum leaves, and placed some

tea lights around it.

(She had thrown these in the car, in case....)

Below are a wild species of portulacae which grows

around the homestead at The Nine Mile and it sits

comfortably with what may be a bracken fern in a saucepan

Any further bids on Risorgimento?

Denis Wilson from The Nature of Robertson posted a comment to my previous post. Denis, as will be seen from his blog, is a naturalist, birdwatcher, and photographer. So no one misses his beautiful thoughts on the seasons, Miss Eagle is copying them here:

As soon as the Winter Solstice passes, and days start to get longer, many things start to grow, (or bud, or flower). It is a huge seasonal divide, which is not noticeable to Eurocentric, and insulated, urbanites. I think country people (and gardeners) might be more in touch with this than true city folk.But the plants and animals know all about it (it is breeding season for Wombats).

Presumably the Aboriginals would have been in tune with this seasonal sense of anticipation (I believe there are many different names for "seasons" in the NT, for example. But I don't know about this in the southern states.I cannot come up with an "appropriate" name, just now. But something like the "return". What about the Italian historical term: "risorgimento" (resurgence) - it sounds better in Italian. It actually encompasses the sense of recovery, and the sense of passion and urgency which turns into the frenetic burst of growth with which we are familiar in Spring.The more I think about that name, the more I like it - "risorgimento".

Australian Spring

To read "Australian Spring" click on the picture for an enlarged version.

You should then see an enlarged version with on it a little square with arrows.

Click this little square and you will find the picture is now readable.

It is only July, but - after some clear Melbourne weather this week and seeing wattles and jonquils and fruit trees in blossom - Miss Eagle feels as though Spring is in the air. We Eurocentric people of the Southern Hemisphere still rely on the distinction of the Northern Hemisphere seasons turned upside down. So officially, Spring does not arrive here until September 1. Miss Eagle believes that we should pay more attention to our own environment not just in the Southern Hemisphere or in our own nation but in our own locality.

Miss Eagle thinks that if we were sufficiently in tune with our environment there would be a name for what is happening now. And for lots of other seasonal changes as well, seasonal changes that may not happen for a period of three months but may only last for three weeks or six weeks.

What would this present season be called? The Harbinger? Newness? Please let Miss Eagle know what you think.

The poem, Australian Spring, by Australia's leading suffragette and face-on-the-five-dollar note, Catherine Helen Spence, is from the State Library of South Australia and reminds us of the attitude of transplanted Europeans. Things have changed a century later - but not enough. Generally speaking, we Australians have not come to terms with our land. We have not paid sufficient attention to what it can tell us. In fact, let's ask ourselves if we are listening at all.

We are still seeing things through the eyes of elsewhere, not the eyes of the native born.

Pick your trunk

Over at The Nature of Robertson, Denis is talking about favourite tree trunks - and it is eucalypts he is talking about.

Miss Eagle thinks of the marvellous eucalypt trunks that she has loved. She thinks, first of all, of the huge salmon pink roseate trunks of the huge eucalypts in the Cardwell Ranges between Cardwell and Mount Garnet in North Queensland. Miss Eagle thinks they may be the most magnificent trees that she has ever seen. Then she thinks of the Snappy Gum which is ubiquitous in the Outback where Miss Eagle has spent a significant part of her life. God had His decorating angels at work in deciding how brilliantly that stark white trunk and the grey green leaves went with the red soils and sands and spinifex.

Spirit of Endurance1937 Wilpena Pound, Flinders Ranges, SA.

Gelatin silver photograph (Kodura Etching Brown)28.5 x 34.1 (NLA Accession # C27-1)nla.pic-an2384497

And then Miss Eagle thought of what may be Australia's most famous trunk, most famous individual tree. This is the Spirit of Endurance, a photograph by Harold Cazneaux who is an uncle of Australia's famous expeditioner and philanthropist, Dick Smith. The tree in the photograph is in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia. Miss Eagle saw it about ten years ago. The Flinders Ranges is one of her favourite places. The tree is quite a few decades older than when it appeared in the photograph and thus has experienced even more of the vicissitudes of life. It does not look as splendid as it did then. It is a scarred tree which has survived fire. It is hardened by its experience and yet still generates life. It is an Australian parable, an Aussie metaphor.

Ferntree Gully National Park

Went for a walk this morning in Ferntree Gully National Park

which is only five minutes away from The Trad Pad.

It was a beautiful sunshiney day.
The park is not pristine as can be seen by the invasion of agapanthus and sweet peas

among a host of weed species.

There are native species to admire and enjoy....

...like gumnuts...

-

...and banks of fine maidenhair fern

...and native blossom.

There are mighty eucalypts

...and young saplings.

I walked along Belview Terrace.

I left the path seeking a short cut. I took a tumble.

I hadn't read Sharon's post at that stage in which she said

"May your path continue to get smoother..."

I didn't think that I could do the Lotus Position but found I could

if my feet ended up a few cms below my derriere.

This was the upward view from my tumbling spot.

Along my way, a shy wallaby went deeper into the bush

and a pair of red parrots hid in the tree branches

so that I couldn't photograph them.

It was a beautiful time and took sixty-five minutes.

Based on my recent condition, I felt that was a great effort.

It is November and the world is gold

It is November and along the length of eastern Australia from the pointy end to the Prom the world is golden with the Silky Oak - Grevillia Robusta - in full and glorious flower. I love it in the present - but I love it in the past. I remember the silky oaks in my grandparents garden at Cannon Hill in Brisbane in a part known as Gallaway's Hill. When people got on the bus to Cannon Hill and asked to go to Gallaway's Hill there would always be confusion. There is a properly named Galloway's Hill in Brisbane. But for a very long time the top of Muir Street was known by locals as Gallaway's Hill because my great-grandmother, and my great-uncles and my great-aunts lived there and two doors down lived my grandparents.