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#No  Wombat Gombat Gold protest

June 22nd, 2020#No Wombat Gombat Gold protest

BLACKWOOD residents have taken up pickets and petitions to protest expanded mineral exploration

BLACKWOOD residents have taken up pickets and petitions to protest expanded mineral exploration on land under consideration for a new national park.

Residents say they had been given no warning or information about proposals to explore or mine in the Wombat State Forest around Shaws Lake until they awoke last week to the sounds of machinery. On inspection, they discovered large drilling rigs taking mineral samples from the side of a gully above Yankee Creek near the headwaters of the heritage-listed Lerderderg River.

The land is part of a proposed 49,553-hectare national park recommended in a Victorian Environmental Assessment Council report tabled in Parliament in June last year. A response was due in February 2020 but has been delayed due to the bushfires and coronavirus.

Gayle Osborne, convenor of Wombat Forestcare, said the deferred decision and recent commencement of exploration drilling was alarming and raised questions over the Victorian Government’s commitment to protecting an area identified by VEAC as being high-value habitat for rare and threatened species.

“It is now a year since VEAC recommended a park structure for the Wombat State Forest to protect its environmental values, including many threatened species and the headwaters of six rivers. Is the real reason for the delay that the State Government intends to mine and log the Wombat Forest?” Ms Osborne said.

The drilling is believed to be conducted by Currawong Resources Pty Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canadian-based Fosterville South which owns the Fosterville mine near Bendigo. Currawong, which holds mining exploration licences for the Blackwood-Gisborne area, has yet to comment publicly on its plans for the area. Calls from The Local to Currawong managing director, Neil (Rex) Motton, were not returned.

However, in its submission for the VEAC report the company noted that it has been negotiating a $5 million investment largely focused on the section of the licence held within the Wombat State Forest. The submission said significant indications, including previous exploration results from the 1990s, showed broad scale Fosterville-style gold mineralisation in the area. It noted that the company has gone to substantial expense getting the tenement application through the Native Title process and warned that if the project was blocked it would be looking to the government to recoup the cost.

“Should the Wombat State Forest section of our Exploration Licence be converted to a national park, we believe that significant financial compensation is due,” it said.

Meanwhile, Blackwood residents have formed a community activist group, No Wombat Gold, to fight any plans to mine the area.

 Group organiser, Phaedra Morris of Barrys Reef, said members were concerned new gold mines will affect residents’ peace and the region’s water catchments.

“Locals are very concerned that the exploration will lead to a mining operation in their spectacular forest, destroying the very reason they live here. We’ve taken a closer look and are appalled to find that there are many more licences still active in this area.”

The Wombat State Forest is rich in biodiversity; and is the habitat of greater gliders, a species already listed as vulnerable to extinction, with numbers further reduced as a result of last Summer’s bushfires.

 “Without the protection of a park structure, we will see a return to exploitation of the forest,” Ms Osborne said. “We call on the Andrews government to accept the VEAC recommendations and protect the Wombat State Forest for its biodiversity, water supply and recreational values.”

Words: Jane Williams | Image: Sandy Scheltema

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