The Mingling Waters Music Festival at Nowa Nowa in East Gippsland - 18, 19 January 2014

This post has been taken from Cam Walker's marvellous blog, Mountain Journal

From the organisers:

Mingling Waters Music Festival is a small, grass-roots, high quality, well-organised, community-focused, family-friendly music event, supporting local artists and business, promoting Nowa Nowa as a special place to visit.

We plan to bring new and interesting artists in from the wider community.

We aim to create a scene that brings people together to talk, listen, play, and dance and celebrate together, in a beautiful natural environment!

It is a high priority to pay and look after all the participating artists as best we can.

We hope to do well enough to donate to two local charities, The East Gippsland Rail Trail and Melon’s Cottage.

There will be a small market, including food stalls, a bar, workshops, children’s activities and FINE MUSIC!

Check here for details on the artists.

Check here for details on tickets, accommodation, etc.

Concern about Coal: Fighting Fracking in Victoria; Lakes Oil in Western Vic; an export facility on beautiful but fragile 90 Mile Beach

From Cam Walker of Friends of the Earth

Dear Friends

Thank you to everyone who came along to the ‘farmers and friends against fracking’ rally last Sunday.

As you know, our petition was one of the ones handed in to Greens MP Greg Barber on the 18^th.

The Energy Minister is feeling the pressure (and came out in the media the next day to counter the rally  and say that ‘he is open to discussion on fracking’.)

However, he has still not organised the community consultation he keeps promising.

Please email or call his office, asking him to engage with the community as a matter of urgency. Tell him that there should be no on-shore exploration or production of gas until we know whether it will be safe for people, water supplies and farming. Ask him to initiate a public inquiry into this matter.

A phone call has the most impact: (03) 9651 1156

But an email is good too:

Hon Nicholas KotsirasMinister for Energy and Resourcesnicholas.kotsiras@parliament.vic.gov.au, 

Please remember, we have a monthly email newsletter, if you’d like to stay in the loop on what we are doing, please email cam.walker@foe.org.au with the words SUBSCRIBE CLIMATE in the subject line

Regards

Cam Walker

Friends of the Earth

CONTENTS

·  Farmers and friends against fracking rally

·  Lakes Oil in Western VIC

·  Coal export facility on 90 Mile Beach?

·  Local meetings: Yarragon, Drouin, Catani

·  Getting involved

Farmers and friends against fracking

There is a great set of photos on the Quit Coal facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/quitcoal.org.au/media_set?set=a.420077811442101.1073741832.100003196581402&type=1

Lakes Oil – western VIC

Lakes Oil have been quietly drilling for gas in western Victoria under petroleum exploration permits PEP163 andPEP169. 

These were issued under the Petroleum act for 'tight gas', not the MRSD Act which is used for Coal Seam Gas (CSG). One permit allows for 3 wells and to 'frack' one, the other permit for one well, drilling only.

These sites are near Timboon and north of Peterborough (PEP 169)and a broad area from Aireys Inlet up towards Winchelsea and across to Geelong, then down through the Bellarine Peninsula (PEP 163).

If you live in either of these areas and want to help stop Lakes Oil, please get in touch. Cam.walker@foe.org.au

We are hoping to hold an info session in Torquay shortly.

Further info here.

http://www.melbourne.foe.org.au/?q=node/1240

Coal export facility on 90 Mile Beach?

It has recently come to light that “a $3 billion rail line and port concept connecting the Latrobe Valley to the Bass Straight via a port at McGauran's Beach on the Ninety Mile Beach …is … the preferred export route by developers of alternative brown coal technologies”.

In May 2013, the Victorian government said that it wanted to see development of ‘next generation’ coal mines in the Latrobe Valley. An export industry will need new mines, new roads, new infrastructure and new ports.

So far, the Port of Hastings and Port Anthony have been suggested as possible locations for export infrastructure. A proposal for 90 Mile Beach seems particularly crazy.

We will be launching a campaign shortly, but in the meantime, check here for further details on what is proposed:http://www.melbourne.foe.org.au/?q=node/1257

Local events

Below is a list of some of the other upcoming events/meetings in Gippsland. If you have been thinking of getting more involved, WE NEED YOU, please come along to any of the gatherings below, everyone is welcome!

Meet the Candidates Coal & Gas Forum 

When: Wednesday the 28th August @ 7pm

Where: Yarragon Public Hall, Campbell St, Yarragon

All known candidates in the McMillian electorate have been invited.

For more information email: bbsn@dcsi.net.au

Friday 30th August, 7pm

Drouin CSG Information Meeting

@ The Drouin South Hall, Drouin-Korumburra road

Speakers: Dr Gavin Mudd (Groundwater Specialist), Felicity Millner (Environment Defenders Office)

and Dr Merryn Reddenbach (Doctors for the Environment)

Catani CSG Information Night

When: Wednesday 11th September @ 7pm

Where: Catani Football Club, Taplins road, Catani

Speakers Include: Ariane Wilkinson (Environment Defenders Office) &

Allison Sable (Seaspray Local)

For more info call Gillian on 0418 995 756

Getting involved

NO CSG IN VICTORIA 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/No-CSG-in-Victoria/278427315523831

Friends of the Earth facebook: 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Friends-of-the-Earth-Australia/16744315982

Quit Coal: 

http://quitcoal.org.au/

FoE website: 

http://www.melbourne.foe.org.au/

To support our work, please check here: 

http://www.givenow.com.au/foecsgcampaign

Campaigns co-ordinator

Friends of the Earth

Box 222, Fitzroy, 3065

Ph: 03 9419 8700 (ext 20)

M: 0419 338 047

melbourne.foe.org.au

foe.org.au

Do Australians really want to ruin their great and historic Food Bowls?

Do Australians really want to ruin 
their great and historic Food Bowls?
Their governments certainly do.
See below for relevant websites to help you fight.

From the Gippsland Times via Denis Wilson

Unconventional gas not worth the risk 

By Ursula Alquier, Lock the Gate Victorian co-ordinator, Seaspray

Aug. 6, 2013, noon

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

THE AustralianPetroleum Production and Exploration Association has launched its $5 million 'charm offensive' to try to convince Victorians that unconventional gas such as coal seam gas tight gas are clean, green and good for the economy.

APPEA claims that 100,000 jobs have been created in the gas industry in the past year, but according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics in May 2013, employment in oil and gas extraction was 24,700 people.

This has increased by 9400 since May 2012 and this includes both oil and gas, meaning the number working in the gas industry is actually much smaller.

What they also fail to acknowledge is that unconventional gas expansion into rural Victoria will create job loses in other robust, long-serving and crucial industries such as agriculture and tourism.

Putting the negative impact this will have on other local economies aside, we are still dealing with an industry that has a dismal environmental record with over 6.5 per cent of well casings failing initially and 60 per cent failing over the first 20 years, leading to migration of methane, these are industry figures.

We are talking about the contamination of our underground water.

Once these aquifers have been compromised there is no going back.

Why would we want to support a 'flash in the pan' industry that has a life span of 25 years at the most and put at risk our water security and the state's ability to grow clean, safe food for generations to come, all to support an export market?

That risk seems too irresponsible and dangerous to take.

For thinking and action:

Lock the Gate Alliance in Victoria

Lock the Gate Glppsland

Coal Seam Gas Fact Sheet

Gippsland Action Group

Bishop would lock the gate to miners

Seaspray landholders take a stand against unconventional gas mining

Community over mining

Quit coal - fracking in Victoria

Pedalling their message - Gippsland Times

TAFE funding cuts fail regional communities. The Victorian Govt should put locals first.

It's not only here in Ballarat that a storm is being kicked up within the community over the Baillieu Governments cutting of TAFE funding ... to the point that TAFEs are endangered.  The material below has been placed on the Save our Tafe - Gippsland Facebook site by Sarah Bardsley.

~~~~~

What do the Gippsland TAFE CUTS 
mean for our community?

The Baillieu Government’s cuts to TAFE funding will make it harder for our whole Gippsland community to access quality education and training – both physically and financially.

Many State and Federal government studies have been undertaken on Gippsland, investigating and addressing solutions to combat; unemployment, forecast closures of major employers in the power industry (reskilling people) and on the low level of youth engagement in education at both secondary and post-secondary levels, and on supporting our vulnerable (indigenous, disability and new Australians) with engaging within our community. 

All of these reports talk about the need to engage youth in training and developing a skilled workforce in areas of skills shortages.  Funding for many of these course areas have been significantly cut and are only available if training providers (TAFEs) high fees.  Additionally the recurrent funding that has been cut disadvantages the vulnerable, as there will no longer be services to support them with their studies.

These cuts and the removal of VET training courses in Gippsland, if not reversed, will deliver negative impacts for generations to come, through contributing to greater hardship for our community and for our young people and our vulnerable.  It is likely that inaccessibility to affordable, quality vocation education and training will result in escalating unemployment and disengaged people across our community.

The government keeps saying that they are putting $1.2billion back into training, however this is not for TAFEs this is for all RTO’s – including the private providers - some of whom acted unethically and created the budget blowout that Mr Hall, Mr Baillieu and their colleagues keep talking about. 

Our community deserves this Essential Service!

The FACTS on Gippslands TAFEs:

·         $16.5M cuts have been made to Gippsland’s TAFEs!

·         Significant fee increases for most courses – up to 80%

·         Gippsland’s TAFEs have been misrepresented. 

Mr Peter Hall and other members of the Liberal / Coalition parties have been defending their aggressive cuts to TAFE - a 30% reduction in Government Recurrent Funding – are due to these “massive cost blowouts”.

Mr Hall and his peers have said publically that “Training enrolments increased by 44%, but not always in areas of economic need or with good prospective job outcomes, e.g. courses to train fitness instructors have increased 1,955% since 2008.”

However the State-wide figures misrepresent the actual reality for Gippsland’s TAFEs and the VET sector.

The STATE government’s Victorian Training Market Quarterly Report Q1 2012 from 2008 to 2011, documents a decline in enrolments for Gippsland TAFEs of 5%, this was also mirrored for private RTOs in our region.  And in 2011 Gippsland’s TAFE student enrolments grew by only 2% (Table 2.16, p26) - thus the quoted increases to enrolments have not taken place in our Gippsland region. 

The reasons TAFEs had to cut specific course

is due to the cuts in State funding. A sample is shown below:

Qualification Name	2012-13 Subsidy $	Reduction in Funding $
Certificate II in Process Manufacturing	1.50	-9.68
Certificate III in Hospitality	1.50	-7.49
Diploma of Hospitality	2.00	-5.04
Advanced Diploma of Hospitality	3.00	-4.04
Diploma of Employment Service	2.50	-3.13
Certificate IV in Sport and Recreation	1.50	-8.39
Certificate III in Events	1.50	-7.49
Certificate III in Business Administration, Retail and Business	1.50	-5.69
Diploma of Management and Retail Management	1.50	-4.13
Diploma of Supply Chain and Logistics Management	4.50	-3.95
Diplomas of Business, Business Administration, Human Resources Management and Project Management	2.00	-3.63

Full list is available from the SAVE Our TAFE Community Action Group – Gippsland.

Results of cuts so far

·       100 courses cancelled many in areas of skills shortage as identified by the STATE   and Federal Governments reports*

·       More than 8 campuses closed or to be closed - five are Outreach Centres serving communities that are remote - such as Mallacoota, Orbost, Buchan and local townships of Yarram and Heyfield.

As our public transport is so poor, there are few options for those that don’t drive or are unable to use or own a car – which is the case for many of our young people – who go to TAFE.

·       Over 100 Staff job have been or are about to be lost– which has significant impacts for our communities.

Welshpooll Lock the Gate Meeting to-night : Victoria's Gippsland Foodbowl - assaulted by CSG and Fracking.

Things are hotting up in Gippsland - and it's certainly not the weather. 

For more info on how CSG and Fracking

is invading Victoria's beautiful,  rich, and beloved foodbowl

go here.

And if you want to get off your rear end and do something about,

get to Welshpool tonight.

My friend and Networker Junnita is keeping me/us up to date on this.

 There is another Meeting locally in the Welshpool Hall 

at 7.30pm Monday night June 25th. 

There will also be a film shown too.

Earthquake information and humour

My friend Junitta lives on a mountaintop in southern Gippsland.  Gippsland, east of Victoria's capital city Melbourne,  was the site of an earthquake this week.  She has provided some information on it - with a sense of humour as you will note. If you open the information picture in a new tab, it will enlarge and be easier to read.  Junitta also wonders what mining might contribute to earthquake phenomena.