Defend our Water Campaign Launch and Skill Up!
Record breaking heatwaves and drought continue to cripple Queensland. Meanwhile both major parties are letting Adani get away with plans to extract billions of litres of water from our rivers and underground reservoirs every year to run their mega coal mine.
With a Federal election just around the corner, now is a critical time to join the community push to stop Adani from sucking our state dry. That’s why Queenslanders are uniting to launch an exciting new campaign to Defend Our Water and #StopAdani.
Join community members from across central Queensland for the Defend our Water campaign launch and campaign workshop on February 17. Get equipped with all the intel and skills you need to #StopAdani destroying our water.
Supporters of the project will have us believe that Adani is the best thing since sliced bread and is backed by 100% support from places like Mackay, Townsville and Rockhampton.
By coming together, raising our voices and showing what’s at risk from Adani’s mega mine we can tell a different story - that Queenslanders reject Adani’s false promises and demand a better future for our state.
Join us for this special one day event to:
- Learn about the new national campaign to protect Queensland’s precious water from Adani’s coal mine
- Meet like-minded people from across central and Northern Queensland ready to take action
- Supercharge your skills to increase your impact with workshops on the everything from the impacts of the mine to speaking with others in your community, social media, and more!
It’s on Sunday February 17 from 9am to 5pm in Mackay and hosted by our friends at Mackay Conservation Group and Lock the Gate Alliance. People will be travelling from Townsville to Rockhampton and everywhere in between to be there.
Accommodation can be arranged for those staying from out of town and lunch and snacks will be provided for an optional donation of $10
Registration is free but places are limited, secure your ticket today.
P.S. Spread the word by inviting your friends on Facebook.
Next Stop Adani Mackay meeting & campaign signup.
Lets make 2019 the year we Stop Adani!
Getting involved is as easy as showing up to our next organising meeting at the Mackay Conservation Group office at 5.30pm Thursday the 7th of February.
Join the Mackay Stop Adani team today to get involved with our rapidly growing campaign team of writers, event organisers, stall holders, campaign coordinators, social media warriors, community campaigners and dedicated volunteers.
Can't make the meeting? Sign up to join the campaign here and one of our organisers will call you.
Volunteer Positions Available
If you have a few hours to spare on a regular basis then we have some tasks that you may like to help with. If you are interested in any of these projects, please email info@mackayconservationgroup.org.au
Task |
Description |
Hours per week |
Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catalogue Library | Our library of hundreds of books and reports on local and global environmental issues is currently out of action. We need someone to input the book titles into an online database so that people working on campaigns and projects can find materials. | 1 to 8 | Ongoing |
| Build storage shelves | We have recently had a major clean-up at the Environment Centre and have reduced a lot of clutter but we still don't have enough storage for posters, campaign materials and files. If you have some carpentry skills and would like to help us build a new set of shelving then we'd love to hear from you. | Variable | One off |
| Media Monitoring | We have a great volunteer who reads the Daily Mercury each day and selects the environmental stories for us. We need someone to go through all the collected stories and put them in a database so we can easily retrieve them in the future. | 1 to 3 | Ongoing |
| Paper Shredding | Our old financial records and other out of date files were taking up a lot of room at the Environment Centre. We have a paper shredder but we need someone to feed it. An easy job that could be combined with something else. | 10 | 2 |
| EcoPress Editor | If you have a talent for writing and would like to put together our monthly newsletter then this is a very enjoyable and rewarding job. Most of the content is prepared by the staff. Your role would be to ensure that all the content that we want people to read is included and that the newsletter is published on time. | 2 | Ongoing |
| Membership manager | Over the years we have lost touch with some of our members for one reason or another. We'd like a volunteer to make contact with former members and invite them to rejoin MCG. If you are really keen then you could also assist us to improve our membership flyer and ensure it is distributed widely. | 1 | 20 |
| Artist | The front room of the Environment Centre is now our meeting room. It would be great to have a mural painted on at least one wall depicting the marine environment. If you have the skills to undertake a task like this then please let us know. | Variable | One off |
| Gardening | We need someone to select some suitable species of small plants for the garden at the back of the environment centre then ensure they are planted and maintained until they are self sufficient. We're looking for bird and/or butterfly attractors from the local area. | 10 | One off |
| Boomerang Bags Coordinator | The current coordinator of Boomerang Bags Mackay has had to take a break so we're looking for someone to take over this very worthwhile community project. | 3 | Ongoing |
| Development monitor | A key role for Mackay Conservation Group is to respond to development applications. While most applications that come to council are minor, there are some big ones that we should be taking an interest in. We need someone to monitor the council websites for development notifications. | 1 | Ongoing |
| Planner | If you have planning qualifications then you could assist us to respond to Development Applications by identifying the planning issues that council must consider when assessing a proposal. | Variable | Ad hoc |
Volunteers Needed: Submission on Burdekin Catchment Water Quality & Environmental Values
We're looking for a couple of volunteers to develop a submission on a discussion paper on environmental values and water quality guidelines for the Burdekin Catchment.
The Burdekin has the highest average annual volume of outflow into the Great Barrier Reef and as a result makes the largest contribution to the water quality of the reef. This discussion paper looks objectives that must be achieved in order to improve the sustainability of land use and protect the reef from impacts of land based activities.
If you have an interest in this issue then it would be great to hear from you so we can gather together a small team to work on parts of the submission. Training and qualifications aren't a necessary requirement. What we need are people who can read and comprehend a report then provide comments that reflect the environmental values of the community.
The Draft environmental values and water quality guidelines: Burdekin River Basin fresh and estuarine waters discussion paper can be found on the Queensland Government website along with a number of other discussion papers for catchments around Queensland. Submissions are due by the end of June so we need to make a start on this project soon.
The Department of Environment and Heritage Protection has offered to provide us with a one hour briefing on the issue on Tuesday 30 May from 3pm to 4pm or Wednesday 31 May from 9am to 10am.
If you are interested in coming to the briefing and/or helping with the submission, please contact Peter McCallum via email peter@mackayconservationgroup.org.au