UnSound Decisions

So now that the celebrities have okayed the port expansion project, the whole game changes. Peter Garrett thinks it's alright, as does our very own westy ranga (that would be the state minister for the environment). What's next?

Just one or two questions:

In working the room, the Albany Port Authority sends out media releases and refuses to be interviewed on the subject of the port expansion, thus utterly controlling their media content. (I've been in the room when this is going on. It's true.) Local newspapers and radio are so controlled by the bottom line that they don't have the man hours to chase up dissenters. Fifty percent of the newspapers in Albany are beholden to the advertising dollar of the Albany Port Authority. Now if Brad Williamson got around town wearing Rupert Murdoch's mask maybe I would understand this brand of reverent, unquestioning subservience in the media. But he doesn't. So it's getting close to the time where we start asking questions of the Albany Advertiser and whether they are informing, or simply advertising by rote.

Is the population of Albany willingly seduced by the latest charm offensive run by the Albany Port Authority and Grange Resources? Are we ready for the Walk of Shame in the morning? The Albany Port Authority appears very eager to pimp out our waters to the big miners (as long as they pay cash).

What we are seeing in the newspapers is story after story about the cash sprayed around for artists, museums, kids with disabilities etc etc. One of the TAFE open day's few photo opportunities in the local newspapers was for Grange and APA spruiking for jobs. All from one busted rudder.

Remember the Cove? Gone.

Feeling a bit compromised by your anger with the Albany Port Authority filling in natural coastline and dumping arsenic shit in the Sound -and the money you've received through the Atlantic Eagle Fund? Don't be. Take their money. And then tell them to F .... Off.
If you don't feel you can do that, then have a really good look at what is going on here.

And one final question:
Who elected these guys?

Peter Garrett and Holes in the Ground

I first saw Peter Garrett at the local rec centre. The nightclub boys, whom I shall give the most discreet pseudonym of the Kray Brothers, hosted the bar for the Midnight Oil gig, complete with barmaids in classy Bundy midriffs and all the water fountains taped over. (You can't possibly have free water at a concert of national standing in Albany!)

Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, Peter Garrett. Here is a letter from Tony Harrison to Peter Garrett, commenting on the Minister's recent approval of the port expansion project.

Dear Minister,

I found a small article in the West Australian newspaper dated Friday, June the 18th. It was about how you have approved the proposal from the Port of Albany and Grange Resources port development. You have failed to let the people of Albany know what is going to happen to the dredging spoil.

If you have been to Albany you would know how pristine this King George Sound really is. We don't want it destroyed. We have proof that there will be problems.

Even though this mining and export is all in W.A state waters and outside your jurisdiction, then how come you have approved this project. Before you make a decision about this dump site, I would like to invite you to come on a whale watching boat and see for yourself.
Save Our Sound,
Tony Harrison.

It seems that even though Grange have sailed in from a distant shore (47% Chinese owned), the company takes what the company wants and nothing's as precious as a hole in the ground.

What?! A Cheap Shot? Sorry, it was just irresistible.

The Save Our Sound Flotilla

Today, at 10.30 am, or perhaps a bit closer to 11, fourteen mariners and passengers converged on waters between Bald Head and Breaksea Island to protest against the Albany Port Authority and Grange Resources dumping their dredging spoils there.

Fourteen boats doesn't sound like many but it was a grand effort getting out there. The maritime origins of Albany were well represented - fishing boats, dive boats, tour boats and a few weekenders came out. There was even a tinny or two, rolling around in the massive swells of the Sound entrance.

These photos are taken from my mobile phone. If anyone has any better, please email them to me at www dot saveoursound6330 dot gmail dot com ...

Calling All Mariners

The Bottom Line

A classic example of how the Albany Port Authority works:

Local Save Our Sound campaigner Tony Harrison has a large banner that he pegs out beside his petition table. This banner was sponsored by five businesses, including a sign writing company that has operated in Albany for more than twenty five years.

Yesterday, on his way to present yet another petition to the upper house, Tony stopped in at the sign writing shop to ask for one more signature. The business owner declined, even though she had enthusiastically supported Tony's campaign in the past. "I can't do it," she said.
"Why?" He asked her.
"I've had a call from the Port Authority, regarding our business name being on your banner," she told him.
Apparently the head of the Port Authority rang the sign writing business to gently remind them that they were a client too.
That's all.
Just a reminder.

Democracy is Alive and Well

A Friend of the Sound sent this letter to me recently, as a response to the Albany Advertiser's article, May 6th, 2010; "Offshore Oil, Gas Project Holds Promise."

DEMOCRACY IS ALIVE AND WELL! (AND IF YOU PAY US ENOUGH, WE'LL RETURN IT SAFELY).

I'm excited to hear the Albany is set to benefit from the next resource boom. It's fantastic that the state government is supporting actions to mitigate climate change and we are all doing our bit to ramp up the race to peak oil. Future generations? Who gives a damn. While the oil glass is half full, let's drink it down, before the bartender gives it to someone else.

I bet the whales are excited too, about the pollution and seismic disturbances they "won't be exposed to."

And the timing of this announcement couldn't be better, which the daily spewing of 5,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. A company with the pretty name of Arcadia Petroleum is bound to be more accountable than BP, for sure. You can even ask them .... oh they can't be contacted for comment? Nothing has gone wrong yet, has it?

Another benefit is to the democratic process. Mines are famous for their love of public participation and comment. Just look at how excited Grange is about what we've got to say about the dredging of the harbour for iron ore shipments. And we're all pretty glad to get rid of that ugly little cove under the old pea factory, it's the last reminder of natural coastline on the south side of the harbour, after all.

And the astronomical economic benefits! All you renters, wave your eviction notices in the air if you are as excited as I am about rising accommodation and food costs.

Maybe we'll even afford to find, or rebuild, the town jetty that disappeared overnight! Maybe even a new beachfront hotel!

Lucky, lucky us!

Diddums, Russell

It's always nice to hear someone wingeing louder than myself. When I read of the managing director of Grange Resources carrying on like Henny Penny in Albany's Weekender, well, it just makes me feel all warm inside.

Russell Clarke is worried that the sky will fall in. He's also annoyed that the City of Albany has written to the Environment Minister to express its concerns about the dredging of our channel and dumping the spoils in King George Sound. If Grange have to cart the spoils anywhere else, "the huge cost would be detrimental to the project."

"That is outside (the COA's) jurisdiction," he says. "There is actually an appeals process they can go through to do that, which they chose not to do."

Yes, it is outside their jurisdiction but the Council, like any other group of people, have a right to write to any minister they like. It's called a democracy. And they did try to appeal via official channels, Russell. Their submission was rejected for being eight days late.

"Then we have the Federal Government wanting to put in this Super Profits tax that is going to change the economics of the project," he said. "The Council is wanting to dump further out to sea, the Rudd Government is wanting a super tax and other people are wanting everything else." Bloodsucking vampires, the lot of us.

Russell Clark and Grange Resources have promised the people of Albany all sorts of trinkets and lollies in return for what they term a "terrific project." Already Grange has spent millions investing in real estate. This is a prime example of their commitment to the region - they've bought a farm, so they can mine it.
"Money is being spent, assets are being bought, studies are being done." You know that picture of the skeleton sitting on an armchair, the one that real estate agents like to flourish? The picture of the young man waiting for the price of land to come down? Give us a break, Russell.

"The mine will be spending probably upwards of $3 million into the local economy in one way or another," said Russell. Have a good look at that statement, it's pretty vague and it's the whole extent of promises from Grange that you are getting today. The very same Grange Resources that is nearly 47 percent Chinese owned.

In return for these poxed blankets and beads from Russell and the Albany Port Authority (and haven't these guys been quiet), we allow the Cove to be destroyed permanently, we lose fishing, aquaculture and recreational freedom in King George Sound and we shall witness environmental vandalism on a scale we've not yet experienced in this gorgeous corner of the world.



Quotes taken from The Weekender, May 20, 2010, pg. 3.

The Cove

Back in the bad old days, when the pea 'n' beans processor let their by-product flow straight into the channel, we'd string up a piece of bamboo with some nylon and a hook and go looking for herring.


We stood on wet black rocks with the conveyor belt ladies (the ones who picked out the rotten peas) and men whom we thought then were old - wrinkled knees and Stubbie shorts, fingers flattened and strong with manual work. No bait required, thanks to those rotten peas and bean shells. The herring were nuts. We'd get half a bucketful in half an hour.

Around the corner from the creaking, rusting factory, there lies a pristine little cove, secreted away from roads or tracks. It's a funny little spot on the south shore of the channel into Princess Royal Harbour, damp, often hidden from the sun, clad in paper bark trees that grow right down to the briny. Things arrive here, flotsam from the Sound and beyond.

It's a good place to play, catch whiting, and watch the schools of salmon trout meander by.



To get the massive Cape iron ore ships into Princess Royal Harbour, the Albany Port Authority and Grange Resources will dredge a channel from the harbour and straight through the middle of King George Sound.

Some of the spoils from this dredging will be used to fill in the cove, creating a berth for the iron ore ships. The cove, the last piece of natural coastline on the south side of the harbour, will be gone, forever ....


... and replaced with more of this:

The Google image above is shows where the cove will be filled to, using the spoils from the dredging. This information comes from the Public Environment Review,which is on the sidebar of this blog.

Postscript: This drawing of the proposed filling-in of The Cove is inaccurate. The Albany Port Authority are actually going to fill in a lot more, further towards the channel. Also ... for the info of original readers and followers, Save Our Sound is reposting 'The Cove' because this article disappeared into 'older posts' and I want newer readers to check it out ...

A Poem

A long-time resident who has fished around Albany for fifty years and once sorted the peas at Hunts Canning, (one of those people that I mentioned in 'The Cove',) wrote this poem recently ...

Albany's Special
by Joy Jarratt

There's beaches East, there's beaches West,
The most natural harbour around.
There's sailing, fishing, swimming and surf,
Played out in King George Sound.

My favourite walk is Middleton Beach,
Sometimes we watch the whales play.
Sometimes we swim and walk the dog,
On each beautiful sunny day.

Sometimes the waves are greeny blue,
With a lovely bubbly white crest,
The water is so clear you can see right through,
It's those days that I like best.

They're talking of dredging the harbour,
But locals don't like that idea.
Big business rapes and leaves a place,
While we value what we've got here.

They need the channel to be deeper,
'Cos the ore tankers are clumsy and fat.
But Albany welcomes the Queen Mary,
And you can't do better than that.

So take your mine waste somewhere else,
And leave Albany harbour alone.
Money can't buy what's natural here,
Take your money and sludge and be gone.

Money we know usually wins the day,
And that's why we have this situation.
The question you have to ask yourself:
Will it be progress or devastation?

Interview with Tony Harrison

Tony Harrison has been agitating politicians for years now. He does it because he loves and understands our coast and can't sit by when people are making ridiculous decisions that will impact upon it. I talked to him today about his response to the Port Authority and Grange Resources wanting to dump the dredging spoils at the entrance to King George Sound.

Tony has been collecting signatures to petition against the proposed dump site, (see the photograph on the previous post) by standing out the front of maritime festivals, farmers markets and post offices for several months now. He has educated people, garnered support and ended up with nearly 1, 200 signatures. He presented the petition to Peter Watson MLA on Monday and it was in turn presented to state parliament yesterday.

He said that all kinds of people signed the petition; a broad demographic of Albanians. "A lot of young people (voters) signed it, amateur fishers, older people - a lot of older people who signed the petition remember what we have already lost and know the coastal dynamics around here, who know of all the coastal problems from Albany to Esperence that have been caused by these interventions. Some are visual problems and some are not," he said.

As well as collecting signatures, Tony has written letters to the main players; Albany Port Authority, Grange Resources, the Minister for Environment and asked them to guarantee him that the sand dumped from the dredging will not shift. In their replies, not one body was able to commit to this. The Port Authority and Grange evaded the question altogether and Ecologia, the company that wrote the PER have not even answered yet.

Tony Harrison's fears that the dump site will spread with current and wave actions are well founded and based on his past experience and observation. "The evidence is there to prove the massive strength of waves and currents. In 1985, they dumped sand just off Middleton Beach and the currents and tides are not that strong just off the tideline there, but there's been sand and coal just washing in for the last 25 years. Since 2005, even though Whale World is further inside King George sound (than the proposed dump site), the ocean has been strong enough to fill the groyne with sand and that's only in 5 years. And Emu Point? Well, DPI just can't fix that, they're ignoring it. With those examples, then the currents in King George Sound are definitely strong enough to move a pile of sand."

"Last august the Belchers broke. (The Belchers is a reef situated between the proposed spoil dump site and another proposed site further out to sea.) That reef is 12 metres below the surface. If all the experts tell us that there is no energy or power in the ocean at 12, 20 or even 40 metres, well then ... they shouldn't be in the jobs they are in."

So why is the Albany Port Authority so intent on dumping the spoil inside the Sound?
"Because it's the cheapest. It's at the last point of Albany Port Authority jurisdiction. After that it is out of state waters and under federal control. That's why they want it inside."

"The Port, Grange and the politicians are all thinking of economics first and the environment is right down the bottom somewhere. They don't realise that, if you look after the environment first, everything follows - jobs, infrastructure, money. No damage, everything keeps going."

Dump Site

This is photograph was taken from Breaksea Island, looking towards Bald Head. These waters are where the Albany Port Authority is proposing to dump the spoils from the dredging of King George Sound and the channel into Princess Royal Harbour.

Thankyou to the City

A good piece of news for the Sound this week was the City of Albany voting to oppose the dumping of the dredging spoil in King George Sound. Although the city has no jurisdiction on this issue, they can have a say - and they did.
Originally, councillor Dot Price put forward the motion to oppose the dredging site but her recent resignation meant that the motion was not discussed until this week. Councillor Dennis Wellington put forward the motion and the Mayor Milton Evans seconded it.

In the Albany Advertiser this week, Councillor Wellington was quoted as saying that he was not 100 percent convinced that dumping the dredging spoils in the Sound was a viable option. He said that if it were approved and it ended up being the wrong site, there was no turning back. "I would hate to think that I had a part in stuffing up our coastline, so I have to oppose the proposed dumping site," he said.
The Mayor Evans said, "We can't just sit back and let the Environment Minister tick off on this."

The City of Albany had previously attempted to lodge an appeal to the Environment Protection Authority but it was rejected because they didn't get their act together on time. This was not too big a crime, considering that the EPA released the Albany Port Expansion Report as a public document on the 18th of January and shut down appeals to this document after February 1st!

Item No. 18.4, Minutes:
"The grounds of the appeal related to the acknowledged impact of dredging on local recreational and commercial operators, as well as shortcomings in the hydrographical analysis identified in the peer reviews of the environmental management plan."

Those peer reviews sound like interesting reading ... Anyway, some suggestions were raised for the dumping of the dredging spoils. It was put forward that the sand dug out of the Sound be used to rectify previous disasters created by meddlesome groyne builders - at Emu Point and the site of the new entertainment centre. Ahem. I'll leave that be for now.

The media liaison officer at the City of Albany wrote that it was unclear whether lobbying of the State government will influence or add to the process that the Minister for the Environment is required to undertake by statute. But lobbying for the Sound could be Albany's version of the Hippocratic oath - it may heal heal and will definitely not harm. The Council, in a week that has probably been quite trying for them in other areas, have done something rather marvellous here. They deserve a bit of commendation, a letter of thanks from the people in the community that they represent, a beer perhaps, a bunch of flowers.

There was one other person whose name constantly popped up in the minutes; bringing the EPA report to the attentions of the councillors, writing an appeal in sheaves of longhand and pleading with the council to help save King George Sound from dredging spoils; right after the Albany Port Authority's slick power point presentation. It was the dogged Tony Harrison. He's always there. Good onya Tony and thank you.

Albany Advertiser, April 22, 2010, p. 6.

A WineDark Sound

Searching for King George whiting in the King George Sound, on a big swell, as the sun goes down. The Albany Port Authority has conceded that fishing, whale watching and leisure activities will all be affected by the dredging plume.

Keep a Weather Eye

Someone said to me today; "You know they're gonna do it anyway, don't you?"
Despite the question mark (that's just my grammar hand), it was delivered as a statement, and I've heard this statement a few times before today.

The Albany Port Authority, after all the dissent, appeals, blogs, submissions, letters to the newspaper and opposition by the city Council, will probably dredge the Sound and dump the spoils wherever they like, anyway. There's that Grand Vision to take into account - the long term prospective of the port being an axis of commerce over the next century. Jobs. Cash. International Status. Position. Twenty years worth of iron ore.

Opponents of the dredging the Sound are being viewed as a mild case of worms - annoying, expected and easily dealt with. To continue my bad metaphors, the Albany Port Authority has been described as "a prize fighter, just waiting for us to step into the ring."

The vermicide used in this situation to get rid of dissenters of the dredging will be a very simple pill - exhaustion. The Albany Port Authority is depending on the age old rythm of everyone jumping up and down for a year or so, organising petitions, protests, letters, submissions, appeals and outrage; standing in the rain outside festivals and markets, arguing in supermarkets and starting fights in pubs. Then one day, people will just be over the haranguing and being harangued. As soon as everyone is exhausted with the telling and being told, the Albany Port Authority will dredge the Sound.

This is not a fatalistic rant, so much as asking readers to keep a weather eye on these players who, intent on continuing their death of a thousand cuts of our harbour and Sound, are willing to wait. Conserve your energy. This is gonna take a while.

So, Who Are We Working For Again?

Even though the proposed dredging of King George Sound is an offensive of the Albany Port Authority, the compensation revenues from diesel-roasted cocoa beans, busted rudders and unexploded bombs are not going to fund this spectacular piece of ditch digging.

So who pays for all this infrastructure? Grange Resources are footing the bill - if they can come up with the cash. Grange have recently been approved to begin extracting iron ore from Wellstead, a tiny hamlet east of here, adjacent to the banksia-encrusted Fitzgerald National Park. Grange need a way to ship that ore to China. Albany's Princess Royal Harbour, being one of the best natural harbours in the world, is the chosen/cursed child.

And who are Grange Resources? Well, try googling 'Grange resources top 20 shareholders' and come to your own conclusion. Here is a piece written by my friend Michelle about these guys:

"I checked the list of shareholders and you guessed it; the Chinese have a huge stake in this. A company called Shagang International Holdings Limited has 40.43% (465,151,278 shares). Another Chinese company called Shagang International (Australia) Pty Ltd owns another 6.33%, so in total the Chinese own nearly 47% ....
.... if you check the shareholder register, you will see that a Singaporean investment company owns another share (call me paranoid)." Michelle Frantom. www.michellefrantom.blogspot.com

On the bright side, real estate prices in the boondocks will skyrocket for a coupla years and homebuyers will be re-inspired after B.H.P.'s unceremonious dumping of a certain south western community. Maybe some enthusiastic soul will even build a brand new supermarket in Wellstead.

Eventually the Cape ships, obese with exportable ore, will chug in and out of the Sound. After The Albany Port Authority has dredged the Sound, our waters will be be dealt their killer blow and the last natural southern part of the Princess filled in with her own spoils.

The money from this project is not going to stay in this country. The Port Authority gets the dredging paid for and Grange Resources gets cheap iron ore. Sometimes the Chinese government's aggressive garnering of food, mineral and water resources is a bit overwhelming.
The Tibetans have been saying that for quite a while now.

King George Sound, with a View of Breaksea Island