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