Rushworth's first "Climate Conversations"

Rushworth's first 'Climate conversations' meeting brought with it a sense of enthusiasm, curiosity and relief as community members expressed a keen desire to not only learn about how climate change is affecting our region but also how they can be pro-active in addressing the change that's taking place.

Lou Costa has ignited a conversation in Rushworth about the climate crisis.

Louise Costa facilitated the meeting and said "it was good to meet community members who are keen to learn and share information in an open and constructive environment; knowing that the group will continue to collaborate on a project that will benefit the Rushworth area."

Louise has commenced a climate leadership course which has been designed by the Dept of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) and LEAD Loddon Murray. Objectives of the course are to educate participants about how climate change is affecting our region and how to address these changes through area-specific projects. These projects will have particular emphasis on adaptation for the most vulnerable members of regional society. The course culminates in a climate summit where project ideas will be presented.

Louise said her first intensive learning seminar was challenging and confronting with a presentation from CSIRO climate scientist John Clarke explaining the daunting climate projections for our region.

Despite this, Louise says "I met a fantastic bunch of people with similar goals and spent two days learning not only about climate change but also about how to stay positive, progressive and constructive."

The next scheduled 'climate conversation' for Rushworth will be 

Tuesday 3 March, 5.45pm at the Rushworth Community House.

The meeting will run for an hour and be broken into three main parts:

• Introduction / information
• Identifying our problem (on a local level)
• Brainstorming project ideas (crazy, radical, innovative - all ideas will be considered!)

Push to block Narrabri gas heading interstate

The backers of a proposed project to pipe gas from Narrabri, in north-west NSW, to Newcastle, are seeking government backing to force the gas from the project to be sold in NSW, rather than be transported across state borders for export abroad.

Construction of the Eastern Gas Pipeline between Nowra and Nerriga, NSW.

The push comes as the manufacturing sector is gripped by surging gas prices, which have forced a number of companies to look hard at closing operations, to avoid looming losses.Read Brian Robins’ story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Push to block Narrabri gas heading interstate.”

And while their is apparently a struggle to keep NSW gas in NSW, some argue that we should even by mining it in the first place.

The Wilderness Society is proud to stand with thousands of community members across NSW who are working to protect their land and water from Santos coal seam gas in North West NSW.

Santos’ plans to build gasfields across the Gunnedah Basin of North West NSW are being met with fierce community opposition. Their Narrabri Gas Project is Santos’ plan to drill 850 coal seam gas wells through the Pilliga forest, the largest inland forest left in Eastern Australia.

Santos’ risky quest for coal seam gas in the Pilliga so far has met disastrous results – with over 20 pollution scares, including groundwater contamination, waste spills, and continuing leaks from evaporation ponds.

Now the project has lost bipartisan political support with the State Opposition announcing policy specifically ruling out gasfield development in the Pilliga. The economic justification for the project, a gas supply shortage in NSW, has also been conclusively disproven.

Technical uncertainty at Narrabri remains high and reserves were recently written down by 32%. 

The project has already been delayed for years due to the geotechnical difficulties, environmental contamination and community protests.

The community will not rest until the Narrabri Gas Project is scrapped altogether.

In fact, local community members are celebrating the results of neighbour to neighbour coal seam gas surveys. The incredible results are in: 96% of people living across more than 3 million hectares of land in North West NSW want to be gasfield free!