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."