Eve Jeffery
Scores of north coast locals will tomorrow join many others as they descend on the south-east Queensland gaslands to take part in a huge party, not to celebrate but to protest.
In what is now becoming a pilgrimage to the controversial gaslands, people from all over Australia will attend the party for Dayne Pratzky and a few hundred of his closest friends, who will add their voice to the loud scream against coal seam gas (CSG) mining.
Dayne’s Party – A Concert in the Gaslands, is demanding national attention be focused on the Surat Basin in central Queensland, Australia’s own ‘Gasland’.
Campaigners say the people of Australia are getting desperate to have their voice heard, serious protest action is constantly being demonstrated in all areas of CSG mining.
Yesterday near Tara, protesters climbed a 200-metre-high reverse osmosis plant tower to deliver the international ‘Lock The Gate’ message in a banner metres wide across the top of the structure.
Dayne’s Party – A Concert in the Gaslands is a private party that will be held halfway between Tara and Chinchilla from noon till 10pm on Saturday, 13 July, at Dayne Pratzky’s farm. This is smack bang in the middle of the Kenya Gasfield.
Dayne is asking friends to come and bear witness to what CSG mining can do to a community and environment.
‘If you breathe air, if you drink water and if you eat food you are a friend of Dayne’s,’ says Mr Pratzky.
Event organiser Nick Hanlon says that the exodus of Metgasco from the northern rivers calmed the election waters as far as the CSG issue was concerned.
Election issue
‘We’re dying to keep it an election issue,’ she said this morning as she travels to Tara. ‘We want to show the country what CSG mining looks like.’
Ms Hanlon says the people who are left in the area are suffering, they have lost all hope.
‘It’s really important that we take support and hope back to the land as they have lost hope.
‘There are environmental refugees leaving in droves. The people left behind cannot afford to leave. We are showing them that they haven’t been abandoned and they don’t stand alone.’
Aussies Against Fracking will be launched on the day. This is a collaboration of Australian musicians who will release a rewrite of an iconic Aussie rock song rewritten by the Angels former frontman Doc Neeson.
Ash Grunwald, Jarmbi’je Githabul and Dayne Pratzky will surf the bubbling waters of the Condamine River in gas masks to shine a light on the destructive impacts of fracking.
Campaigners say the protest action is a defining moment for our country.
They say farmers, activists, scientists, Indigenous elders and activists, retirees, knitting nannas and concerned citizens have mobilised and united to stand up for the right of our children, grandchildren and many generations to come to have clean water to drink and unpoisoned lands to farm.
‘We want to show the rest of the country what is happening in rural Australia and what the future holds for all Australians if the coal seam gas (CSG) industry rolls out as planned,’ says Nick.
‘We will illustrate the dire need for Aussies to Lock the Gate to coal seam gas mining now, before it is too late.’
For those who can’t make it to Dayne’s party, Echonetdaily plans to have live updates on our Facebook page.
DAYNE’S PARTY – A CONCERT IN THE GASLANDS
12 noon–10pm Saturday, 13 July
Old Tara Road, Wiembilla, halfway between Tara and Chinchilla, Kenya Gasfield, Surat Basin Gaslands, Central Western Queensland, Australia
