Excerpt from autobiography:
July 26, I attended a peaceful rally to protect our local water supply. Not only attend, but I was one of the speakers opposing a massive long-wall coal mine, set to be placed directly under our water basin that supplies water to over 350,000 local residents. This mine had been opposed for 22 years, but now the Liberal government approved, what Labor had initiated as ‘exploratory’, and the contract with a South Korean mining company was set in place. 28 years for 24 hours, this mine expanding 84 hectares, would be polluting the air, destroying the environment, subsiding properties by up to 4 metres, ruining significant aboriginal sites, abolishing endangered species and flora and fauna, not to mention, denying the children and future generations of the beauty that was currently the Central Coast. In addition, another consequence of this mine, was that the South Korean mining company admitted that the water could be protected from poisons, and they would be recycling coal water after cleaning the coal into our water supply.
With all of my being, I spoke at this event, so grateful to see approximately 150 locals turn up and especially happy to have my sister Julie there standing strongly in support, holding up her own sign with the words ‘Clean Air’, ‘Clean Water’. I decided to take this opportunity to speak on behalf of the often-voiceless ones – people with physical challenges. I explained that I had mine for half my life, and my only medication was clean air, clean water, and wholesome clean food. I exclaimed that if the Wallarah 2 coal mine went ahead, these vital elements to my health and people’s health everywhere were bound to be threatened. Carbon emissions from the mining activity would increase the temperature and humidity, and such conditions are difficult for everyone to manage. I emphasised that people with physical challenges are barely able to cope with the heat and humidity as it was now, and stated that I was struggling with the fact that our basic human rights to clean water were threatened. I also spoke up for our need to protect our precious wildlife, flora and fauna, much of it already endangered. I recited the following environmental year poem written in 2008, and one that was usually in my repertoire of poems when presenting in public. I couldn’t believe that I was now reciting it for this purpose.
Our Home Relies
Love to All
On this day of ours
To share our life with care
Together we breathe
The air, our breeze
Take in the sun so fair
Shines on us all
The golden ball
Our life-giving
Comes from rays
Non-discriminate
The sun
Is giving it
Freely
To us today
No-one owns it
We all enjoy it
Not ours to give away
With human nature
Comes the danger
Of mistakenly taking away
What’s not ours
Can’t sell the clouds
Do those trees belong to you?
And the water in the dams
Is it purely coming through?
All channels
Mindful panels
Are they staying true?
To the environment
Our home relies on it
Because it’s me and you
After the presentations, a large group of us, some holding banners, some pounding drums, walked along the sidewalk and along the main road in Erina chanting, ‘Water Not Coal’. It was encouraging to hear honking horns from people passing by, also, not wishing to have the Central Coast become a coal mining town.
