Coal mining

Jill and I went to Bulga to support the community in their music and culture festival. On the way we went down Wallaby Scrub Road which an expanded Rio Tinto Warkworth coal mine will eliminate. In the process it will also eliminate an endangered and rare forest ecosystem and Saddleback Ridge, an important part of the local landscape. We were able to stop at a gate to the boundary of the existing mine and found a few things lying around with which we made our bird. A pair of workers gloves became wings, a green tape measure the eyes, a few boundary marker streamers for a tail and a bit of wood plus a plastic lid for the body.

In some of the images you can see the bird at the mine gate with the warning signs telling the whole world what a dangerous and toxic place the mine behind the gate is. I point to the ‘stop’ sign to indicate no further! This mine has already hugely damaged the local environment. Now Rio Tinto wants to expand it and destroy the amenity of people in the village. Our Rad Joy bird sings … enough is enough.