Fight For The Bight

On Saturday I participated in an event to highlight a cause that I strongly believe in. It was a National day of protest called ‘Fight for The Bight’ and was an environmental protest against the Norwegian company Equinor and their plan to drill for oil in the Great Australian Bight.

This company is persisting in applying for the right to drill for oil in the Bight despite the fact that they have been knocked back twice on previous applications. Why the Government is continuing with the idea I don’t understand.  The company currently has to provide more details about source control, oil spill risk and other environmental protection matters.  How they can possibly do this with any authority I fail to see as the Great Australian Bight is deeper, more treacherous and more remote than any other oil drilling enterprise at the moment including the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea. That would suggest therefore that any oil spill risk is completely unknown and environmental protection measures would be untested and fallible.

Perhaps that’s why the company and the Government feel they can do what they like, because of the remoteness of the area they are looking at. I think what they fail to realise is that Australian’s love remote!  We adore travelling and experiencing remote locations.  Our country is remote, our holidays are remote.  Remote is what makes us special and remote doesn’t mean it’s not visited and not loved.

Anyone who has ever travelled across the Nullarbor and seen the Bunda Cliffs, the edge of southern Australia and the epic coastline will know how special it is. Not to mention that this is a major breeding ground for Southern Right Whales and other species, who then migrate along the entire southern and eastern coast of the country. To mess with this area and potentially cause a catastrophic event like an oil spill doesn’t bear thinking about.

That is why I was happy to be one of thousands of people who took to beaches around the country to protest. The protest I attended was held at Middleton Beach in South Australia a well-known whale nursery area on the Fleurieu Peninsula. I would urge anyone concerned about the welfare of our country’s environment to keep informed of this FIGHT and lend your voices to this important issue. It’s too late once disaster has happened to be sorry and wish things were different.

To get a handle on the whole situation I found the following websites very useful:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/aug/26/great-australian-bight-oil-industry-would-need-decades-of-subsidies-report-warns

http://theconversation.com/drilling-for-oil-in-the-great-australian-bight-would-be-disastrous-for-marine-life-and-the-local-community-116288

Cheers

Glenys

13 thoughts on “Fight For The Bight”

  1. Having just travelled to a remote area of Australia I can totally understand why you took a stand. Good on you Glenys. Such an important issue and the more people that protest the better.

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    1. It’s so frustrating at the moment I feel like everything is falling on deaf ears. No one in Government seems to be listening to science, ASIO, or professionals. I just don’t get it, and it has drawn me to act and write. Maybe the more voices will help. 👍

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  5. Definitely a worthy fight and remote is something we love. Now more than ever I think we have to register our opposition to this kind of development. Here in QLD the state and federal governments have virtually condemned the black throated finch to extinction with the approval of the Adani mine, a mine that makes no economic sense and certainly no environmental sense. Our environment is something we should be placing a higher value on as the world moves away from fossil fuels we should be looking for ways to develop new industries and tourism is one but not if destroy our beautiful environment.

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    1. The Adana mine is another bad idea, but unfortunately I think pollies appeal to the basics of this will provide jobs and money (whether that’s true or not) and get people behind it. This cause moved me enough to actually get out there.

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