GIVE A DAM
  • About
  • Take Action
    Film Volunteer Events Resources
  • News
  • Donate
  • About
  • Take Action
    Film Volunteer Events Resources
  • GIVE A DAM
  • News
  • Donate

Pages tagged "Featured Action Page"

Pages tagged "Featured Action Page"

Show Australia's heritage respect

Posted on Take Action by Harry Burkitt · February 02, 2023 10:05 AM

The World Heritage-listed Burragorang Valley is a living museum that the NSW Government is poised to drown beneath silt-laden dam water - without the permission of the traditional owners, the Gundungurra people, and without properly surveying the cultural heritage that would be destroyed.  

Last September, the Federal Government told the NSW Government to re-do months of work mapping the indigenous heritage in the Blue Mountains. This came after the Berejiklian Government lodged a heritage assessment that was found to be ‘flawed, inaccurate, and insensitive’ because:  

  • over 860 archaeological deposits affected by the plan to raise the Warragamba Dam wall have not been surveyed in the NSW Government’s impact assessment. 
  • the traditional owners of the land, the Gundungurra people, have not been properly consulted to compile the heritage assessment.      

A heritage assessment is supposed to protect a significant Aboriginal area from heritage desecration – the kind exemplified last year by Rio Tinto’s shameful decision to blow up ancient aboriginal heritage in Juukan Gorge. 

Yet, the NSW Government is proceeding with the plan to raise the dam wall without re-doing this work.  

Indigenous leaders like Kazan Brown are rightly outraged, saying they were “locked out by the Government’s disrespectful consultancy firms” and “have been told no matter what we say the project will go ahead.”  

We are running out of time to stop another cultural disaster from occurring within one of Australia’s premier World Heritage Areas by raising the Warragamba Dam wall. We must as a first step commit to getting the impact assessment right. 

Niche Environment and Heritage is the private consulting firm that developed the ‘flawed, inaccurate, and insensitive’ cultural impact assessment for the Berejiklian government. Their assessment proves that the State Government – and their hired help - are unwilling to treat indigenous culture and Australia’s heritage with the respect it deserves. 

Please ask Heritage NSW’s Executive Director, Sam Kidman, to replace Niche with a competent, impartial and culturally sensitive contractor to complete the heritage assessment for this critically important part of Australia. 

By signing this petition, you’re joining thousands of Australians demanding that the NSW State Government take seriously its responsibility to protect Australia’s heritage.

Make your voice heard. Sign now.

 

 

Add signature

GIVE A DAM: Flooding the Blue Mountains (watch online)

Posted on Take Action · March 14, 2019 11:46 AM
Plans to raise Warragamba Dam wall threaten vast areas of Australia’s national parks and precious World Heritage rivers. But when communities get active, history is made. See this spectacular wilderness for yourself and meet the people fighting to save it.

Events

Posted on Take Action · March 04, 2019 12:13 PM
See all events

Don't drown the Regent honeyeater

Posted on Take Action · November 27, 2018 9:21 AM
5,000 signatures

The NSW Government have just passed legislation to allow the raising of Warragamba Dam, drowning habitat critical to the survival of the Regent honeyeater, NSW's most endangered bird.

Raising the Warragamba Dam wall by 14 metres would drown old-growth forests in the Burragorang Valley, located 60km west of Sydney's CBD. Regent honeyeaters both nest and feed in these forests, with only 400 birds left in the wild.

If you don’t want too see this magnificent bird species become extinct, take action today.

Sign here now, and tell the NSW government to drop its dam plan.

The Regent Honeyeater is critically endangered, and the most threatened bird in NSW. Leading ecologists have said flooding the Burragorang Valley will be tantamount to signing off on the bird’s extinction. The NSW Government have already tried to cover up the existence of the bird in the area, embarrassed that they wish to destroy one of the most important breeding sites left for the species.

The raising of the dam wall is a developer-driven move that will make it easier to build on flood-prone areas in Western Sydney – against the wishes of local communities in western Sydney.

There’s a state election scheduled for March 2019 and the Berejiklian government needs to win all the favour it can.

So please, add your name to the petition today. Tell the Premier you GIVE A DAM about NSW most threatened (and beautiful!) bird species.

Add signature

Volunteer

Posted on Take Action by Harry Burkitt · November 26, 2018 7:39 PM

We could not run this historic campaign without committed volunteers.

From holding stalls at community events, door knocking, letter boxing and chanting at protests - having people on the ground who GIVE A DAM is vital to the campaign's success.

Please, if you care about the natural and cultural heritage of Australia get in touch with us today!

Become a volunteer

Spread the word with campaign resources

Posted on Take Action · November 17, 2018 3:57 AM

Download posters, pamphlets, petitions, logos and banners to use at your local community event to spread the word about the campaign. All material is in the correct format to be printed at your home computer or at Officeworks.

If you have any questions or issues with this material, get in contact with us here.


We GIVE A DAM Alliance

Posted on Take Action · January 29, 2017 3:08 AM

The We GIVE A DAM Alliance is a collection of community groups, organisations and companies who oppose the raising of Warragamba Dam wall. The Alliance opposes the raising of Warragamba Dam wall as it places developer interest ahead of community safety, Indigenous rights and the World Heritage Convention.

To join, provide your organisation's details in the adjacent application form and email it (with your logo) to [email protected].


Wilderness Australia logo
Privacy
 - 

Created by Code Nation using NationBuilder

©2023 Australian Foundation for Wilderness Limited ACN 001 112 143 ABN 84 001 112 143. Advocating as 'Wilderness Australia'.
Formerly The Colong Foundation for Wilderness Ltd. Registered Office 10/154 Elizabeth Street Sydney NSW 2000.

Desecrating Indigenous culture

The southern Blue Mountains is an extensive and rich cultural landscape belonging to the Gundungurra People. The rivers, waterholes and mountains of the Blue Mountains landscape tell one of the most intact and documented dream-time stories in Australia - the epic battle of tiger cat (Mirrigan) and snake (Gurrangatch) which formed the southern Blue Mountains. 

When Warragamba Dam was built in 1960 it resulted in the flooding of a large proportion of the cultural heritage and dreamtime stories of the Gundungurra people. If the dam wall is raised the remaining sites of this story - including Indigenous archeological sites, creation waterholes and cave art - will be destroyed.


An indigenous cave art site that would be inundated.

They have already applied for an Aboriginal Place nomination to the NSW Government to try and stop the dam raising destroying their last cultural sites [i]. By getting involved with the campaign, you can assist the Gundungurra people save their remaining cultural heritage from destruction. Having lost so much already, we need to make sure we stop the dam raising to protect what is left.

 

[i] Isla Cunningham (2018) Gundungurra Group Lodge Proposal to Protect Sacred Sites at risk in Warragamba Dam Plan, The Blue Mountains Gazette. Available Online: https://bit.ly/2NN8xbp

Inadequate flood protection

The Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley is particularly prone to flooding as it is naturally constricted in two places that, in conditions of severe rainfall, results in floodwaters backing up and inundating floodplains in north-west Sydney.

jamie2.png

Alternative flood management options have additional benefits for western Sydney, including greater safety for the most flood prone residents, better transport, a more vibrant agricultural sector, a healthier environment and improved water security.

Importantly, half of all floodwaters in the Hawkesbury-Nepean originate from catchment areas that are not upstream of Warragamba Dam [i]. This means that even if a raised Warragamba Dam was to hold back some flood waters, other catchments could still cause significant flooding in the valley. In fact, flood waters from the Grose River alone can cause moderate to major flooding of Richmond in the lower Hawkesbury [ii].

You can read Assoc. Prof Jamie Pittock's full report on the alternatives to raising Warragamba Dam wall here.

 

[i] Department of Primary Industries (2014), Office of Water. Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley Flood Management Review Stage One. Available Online: https://bit.ly/2JxtchB

[ii] Australian Water and Coastal Studies (AWACS). 1997. Lower Hawkesbury River Flood Study. Prepared for NSW Department of Land and Water Conservation, Sydney.

A developers' dam

The dam raising is being driven by developer interests on the Hawkesbury-Nepean floodplain. The NSW Government has stated in its principle document advocating the dam proposal that it plans to allow an additional 134,000 people to reside on western Sydney floodplains after the dam is raised [i].


Infrastructure NSW map showing planned development areas on the Hawkesbury-Nepean floodplain [ii].

There have been numerous inappropriate western-Sydney floodplain developments green-lighted in 2017/18 (the same year legislating to raise the dam was rammed through the NSW Parliament). These include the Penrith Panthers, Penrith Lakes, Marsden Park North and Vineyard development proposals. The SEPP for a number of these areas allows for development below the 1:100 year flood planning level [iii]. International best practice dictates that floodplain development should not occur below the 1:500 year level [ix].

Minister Ayres, the Minister for Western Sydney has himself said that he plans for future development across the low-lying Penrith floodplain "as far as the eye can see" in the coming years [x].

The Western Sydney Leadership Council's chairman, Christopher Brown, has flagged developing flood-prone land as a potential funding source for the dam wall extension [xi], saying:

"I think there's the capacity to use a value-capture funding method to reduce the impact on taxpayers," he said.

"Maybe via levy on land release that was previously considered flood-prone so we might be able to do it at a cheaper rate than what the Government's talking about."

 

[i] Infrastructure NSW (2017), Hawkesbury-Nepean Valley Flood Risk Management Strategy, page 3. Available online: https://bit.ly/2wDd4VL

[ii] Molino Stewart (2012), Hawkesbury-Nepean Flood Damages Assessment, Prepared for Infrastructure NSW, page 15. Available online: https://bit.ly/2MXahcH

[iii] Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, State Environmental Planning Policy (Penrith Lakes Scheme) Amendment 2017, page 19. Available online: https://bit.ly/2PrXwrT

[ix] Caroline Wenger, Karen Hussey & Jamie Pittock (2012) The Use of the 1:100 Year Standard in the United States: Insights for Australia? Australian Environment Review, Vol. 27, pages 337-342

[x] Channel 9 News (2014) 4th of December 2014 News Coverage of Penrith Lakes. Available online: https://bit.ly/2EpcaPu 

[xi] Sarah Gerathy (2016) Warragamba Dam: Wall Flood-Protection Plan Raises Environmental Concerns, Australian Broadcasting Company. Available online: https://ab.co/2G8np0E

Destroying Sydney's wilderness

The Government has stated that inundation by sediment-laden flood waters would occur in the World Heritage Area for five weeks at a time [i]. Based on WaterNSW published flood levels, up to 4,700 hectares of the World Heritage listed Blue Mountains National Parks and 65 kilometres of wilderness streams would be inundated by the 14-metre dam wall raising [ii].

The wild rivers of the southern Blue Mountains form a landscape that has been largely untouched by modern society. The area is home to 48 threatened plant and animal species, ancient river valleys, rare dry rainforests and hundreds of Indigenous cultural sites [iii]. The significance of the southern Blue Mountains landscape led it to being inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2000.

The Regent Honeyeater is currently listed as Critically Endangered. The Burragorang Valley floor, to be inundated by the proposed raising of Warragamba Dam wall, is the most fertile regional habitat and key breeding site for this species [iv]. Impacts on one habitat (e.g. the Burragorang Valley) cannot be offset by improvements in another due to the rotational use of habitats by the species.

The lower Nattai Valley is home to one of Sydney’s refuge koala populations. The valley will be inundated by the raising of the Warragamba Dam wall raising.

 

[i] WaterNSW (2016), Warragamba Dam Raising Preliminary Environmental Assessment, page 24. Prepared by BMT WBM Pty Ltd, Sydney. Available online: https://bit.ly/2rzXjtz

[ii] WaterNSW (2016), Warragamba Dam Raising Preliminary Environmental Assessment, page 26. Prepared by BMT WBM Pty Ltd, Sydney. Available online: https://bit.ly/2rzXjtz

[iii] ibid

[iv] Ross Crates et al. (2018) Submission to the New South Wales Legislative Council’s inquiry into the Water NSW Amendment (Warragamba) Bill 2018, Inquiry into Water NSW Amendment (Warragamba Dam) Bill 2018. Available Online: https://bit.ly/2UsVs6F