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A potted history of Mazstock

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A potted history of Mazstock*

*may not be factually accurate

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My recollections of the inaugural Mazstock are hazy at best. It was held at the fabulous Winsome Hotel in the heyday of Maz’s reign there, an impossibly debauched and gloriously fun era that would have made the Swinging Sixties, the Fabulous Thirties and the Nihilistic Nineties look like a tea party in Fred Nile’s drawing room.

That was some serious rock action. If Iggy Pop had burst in wielding his favourite stage prop he would have had to sit down for a minute to take it all in. Ok, maybe I’m getting a bit carried away now, but touring bands did love to play the Winsome.

Maz always looked after them sumptuously. Her devotion to rock and roll has been a mainstay of music in Lismore for a long time, and without the Winsome flying the flag in those days there wasn’t much else around. Maz’s dedication to keeping music ablaze and relevant in the midst of her own furious political life has been a beacon for rockers on the East Coast.

Bands got paid to play, even if it was on a Tuesday night performing to the Slate-Fancier and whoever was tending the bar. They got put up in luxurious rooms, fed and watered in all kindsa ways. There were all kinds of fringe-dwellers to marvel at, as they interrupted proceedings with lunatic intensity to berate or assault the punters with an assortment of props from druidic staffs to occasional full nudity.

The PA was great and when occasionally some of Lismore’s rock fanciers did saunter in for a look there was always a full-tilt show on.

Not that they weren’t occasionally well attended. Dave Graney, The New Christs, Hey Rosetta (Canada), all had smashing crowds and the after parties were always wild, and long. When Mazstock became a thing in 2009, the Winsome was the perfect venue.

People flocked in from Bellingen, from Brisbane, from Broadbeach, anywhere that started with a B, even Nimbin. The front bar hadn’t been so crowded since Mick Elliott wearing his favourite Davy Crockett hat tried to marry all the bar staff in one night.

Black Ghost Party, The Tendons, Slug, Antibodies, Manifest and The Re-mains got that ball rolling.

There was the great Brut 66 from Bello, an old school rock and roll band that were as much about the Flamin’ Groovies as they were Television. Their set featured Pete Bufo’s psychedelic performance piece, whereby he crouched tuning his guitar for a good twenty minutes, whilst we sat silently, stunned by his insouciance. Till suddenly everyone burst out laughing and eventually, the band resumed as if nothing had happened.

That gig also starred Nimbin’s Antibodies, who are the only mob to have played every Mazstock since with their incendiary show, Ritchie out front whirling and yelping political firebombs.

Local outfits such as the invincible hard rock Claymores, Slug and Tesla Coil have also been longtime Mazstock stalwarts, while the mercurial Blurter rear their ugly heads now and then to keep things on the level.

That was the beginning of a beautiful partnership between Maz, Sideshow and the rock and roll community of the east Coast. They’ve established a hard won tradition of impeccable taste and rock majesty that’s reverberated across the shrinking cultural tapestry of this Tory-terrorised, art, music and literature-hating wilderness. In defiance of the socio-economic malaise, over the years a succession of superb bands have made their pilgrimage to Lismore to pay homage at the court of Mazstock.

2010 saw The New Christs and Celibate Rifles headline a frantic fixture, with the likes of Pineapples from the Dawn of Time, Blurter and Lennox Head’s immortal Boozehag keeping the engines at full throttle.

Later Mazstocks happened at Lismore’s Italo Club, where in 2011 in the big ballroom the likes of Kim Salmon ripped it up on the big stage, while on the smaller stage Screamin’ Stevie, draped in an Australian flag set about restoring our pride in the nation that brought us Abbott. Elsewhere Leadfinger, The New Christs and Six Ft Hick slugged it out with Slug and a horde of other great acts. Representing the roughneck bush-rockin element, Den Hanrahan and the Roadsiders put in a boisterous showing.

As an impresario, Sideshow has been without comparison in the Northern Rivers and it was here that he was really able to turn it on, with big PAs and stages and an audience that was slavering for rocking good times without stint.

Three stages and a multitude of bands is a broad palette to work with and Sidey, in his element, sleepless, occasionally feisty and never without a comeback, was born to rule in this environment. He also doubled down as bassplayer in the Re-mains on that occasion and pulled the job off with aplomb.

The Re-mains set got off to a roaring start with hula hoop dancers and Uncle Burnin’ Love the Banjo King vying for the spotlight. UBL had had drink taken and bemused by the bright lights and high fidelity PA, enacted a rage-filled turn before heaving his banjo across the stage. When his electric guitar also declined to satisfy his requirements, that too was ejected with great velocity and he stormed off to the bar.

Undeterred, the band dug into that big PA sound, and played what was for me one of our best shows ever.

That Mazstock saw the historic deployment of Hits, a devastatingly good rock band who have gone on to cult status after their relentless domination of Australia’s rock scene. With two undaunted women on guitars and a ferocious if diminutive frontman, they’ve gone on to conquer Europe and inevitably, the USA.

In 2012 Gravel Samwidge came down all the way from Townsville to christen the Lismore Uni Bar as part of a stellar bill also featuring a resurgent X and once again, the mighty Hits. Other highlights of that year were Substation and Thundergods of the Multiverse.

More recent Mazstocks have employed the Lismore Bowlo to devastating effect, with the overworked Sideshow bowing out for a couple of years while the entrepreneurial James Doyle flexed his fledgling promoters wings. With his own band Raygun Mortlock tying down a solid roster of local acts, 2013 saw the return of Leadfinger.

In 2014 Six Ft Hick, Substation, Hell Crab City and Sideshow’s own band Birdbrain held the fort, while Hits hung in despite the siren song of stardom screeching in their ears.

Then in 2015 Mazstock returned to the Italo Club with a roar, inducting Sydney’s bellicose Front End Loader into the Mazstock community. Ably assisted by punk rockers Dunhill Blues and the perverted maunderings of Blurter, among a huge cast, they helped keep the doldrums of Abbott’s brief regime at bay.

The 2016 event looks set to be a return to the mythical Mazstocks of yore, with 13 bands across two stages, back at the palatial Italo Club. Sideshow has come out of semi-retirement to oversee this daunting logistical feat while Maz is curating a dazzling lineup and and feverishly hunting for the perfect frock/catsuit in which to adjudicate proceedings like a great purring, whip-wielding dominatrix.

With a focus on women in rock, four great chick-rock outfits have answered the call. Lismore’s very own howling viragos, the Callachor sisters are fronting Spanx in their first Mazstock and with members of Antibodies and Bombed Alaskans backing them up, they’re bound for certain rock glory.

Brisbane is sending down two femme fronted outfits in the Dirty Liars and Marville, both raucous and racy ensembles by reputation.

Hot Sweets are fronted by the rambunctious Carrie Phyllis fresh from a support with Cherie Currie (voice of the Runaways) they’ll be in red hot form. The band boasts two members of Leadfinger who are also making the long drive up to play their fourth(?) Mazstock with their characteristically bittersweet rock and roll demeanour, located somewhere between Wilco, Big Star and the Ted Mulry Gang.

I’ve snagged three members of that brilliant outfit for my own Mick Daley’s Corporate Raiders, otherwise known as Leadfinger Lite, playing our first Mazstock.

Headliners this year are Bunt, another Brisbane mob with massive punk rock credentials, big in Japan, soon to be bigger in Lismore.

Forever Since Breakfast come back for their second bite at the cherry. This supergroup are prolific songwriters and combine years of rock experience with sizzling guitar chops. Also highly touted are Loose Pills, Sydney’s answer to Cheap Trick.

Maz is having conniptions as the big day approaches and there are not enough hours to spin vinyl while excoriating Tories and tyrannical landlords. But as the memories of bygone Mazstocks fade and new ones flare briefly, rock music will be the undisputed champ.

And in a world where Playstations and porn have become the weapons of choice for many of the front-line generations, it’s a great relief to see the formidable team of Maz and Sidey once more allying to revive the dormant beast of rock in its purest form. I for one am not planning any yoga or pilates anywhere before, say, at least 10am the following day.

 

Publicity jobs

Review of Adam Young’s 2016 album, Elementary Carnival Blues, on Stanley records

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After over a decade in the wilderness, Adam Young returns to the public eye with an alarmingly good album.

Last seen in the 90s with grunge guitar bands the Daisygrinders and Big Heavy Stuff, here Young cut his teeth on distorted guitars and the soft/loud riffing excursions de jour. After the timely collapse of Nirvana, Silverchair and Enya put paid to that era, he was resigned to a decade and a half of mainstream employment, desultory gigging and the slow accumulation of new material.

But as a Canadian by birth he was unable to keep the demons of country music out of his head and in exile, Young embraced them. The songs that started to take root were steeped in alt-country impressionism as much as REM’s outlandish architecture and the fuzzy guitars that survived the demise of smacked out flanno coutre. Bush tours with hick, shouty singers such as Den Hanrahan furnished stories and hardened his resolve.

Sensing something spectral looming, Young engaged a team of crack musicians and producers to harness the poltergeists. The result is a hard-wired simulacrum of contemporary country rock. The cinematic pedal steel and electric guitars of Jason Walker provide the panoramas that bassist/producer Mike Rix saw as the only things big enough to house Young’s vision. With Jeff Mercer also contributing guitars and the likes of Corrina Steel and Emma Swift harmonizing on Young’s paeans, Rix had a broad palette to work with.

Thus we have a fine collection of songs whose velveteen textures only wanted the gloss finish of Kate Brianna’s charming pipes. Her duets with Young are a regular feature of live sets and burnish his pocket ouvre with authentic mid-West chic.

They thrive on gaunt, enigmatic lyrics. ‘Ghost Songs’ is a standout. Bouyed by a simple, irresistible melody, it dances over jaunty countrified licks, anchored to an aching refrain; “leave a light on for an old friend”. ‘Queen of the Plains’ and Breeza occupy the same haunted stratosphere, sparse haikus leaving plenty of room for a majestic vision to unfold between your ears. ‘Wolfe Island Blues’ echoes in the room long after the albums over.

Though they easily ride the current insatiable thirst for Americana, these songs would have found a home in late 80s alternative rock charts or as no-wave dirge anthems. They stand up to the dazzling production and work hard on Young’s increasingly frequent solo outings. Indeed his solo shows demonstrate why these songs, lithe and muscular, stand out in a hi-sheen recording. Quite simply, they’re terrific ballads. Springsteen himself would stand up on somebody’s coffee table and bellow something incomprehensible about ‘em.

Youngy is back from the wilderness and he’s had a shower.

 

 

 

Music

Tiny Violins review

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Tiny Violins review – by Craig Lawler

Mick Daley’s new album “Tiny Violins” is an astonishing piece of work: dark, wordy, beautiful and bleak.

Recorded with Producer/Musician Matt Walker and Engineer Rowan Matthews at Stovepipe Records in Melbourne it is a testament to the maturity of their collective talents. After 25 years of recording, Matt Walker is at the top of his game, his latest band Lost Ragas are a triumph and he paints here with a similar sonic palette.

The muscular clamour of Daley’s usual outfit, The Re-Mains, is replaced by fresh air and a caustic lyrical stride through the Australian dystopia of 2015.

The tracks:

There are times in a troubadour life where the road, the sky, and your poison thoughts are your only companion. Lonesome Side of Down is an ode to that. Matt Walker’s slide is the pressure drop and Suzannah Espie’s backing vocals the breeze across the flatlands signalling the front about to move through. Hear the distant crack of his heart lit by a diffuse green light.

Othello’s P76 is a mandolin and pump organ re-working of the Re-Mains best recording. Written with the Rodent in mind, this darkly comic broadside remains relevant, as fuck all has changed since Howard’s demise. “Nobody is innocent” is as true now as it was then, as are the words of the Moor: “The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief”

Tiny Violins, the FIFO lament is the title track and centrepiece of this set. Who weeps for the poor downtrodden vanity-ute-driving, high-vis-wearing rubes of Australia? Not Daley. He pulls out the lyrical epee and switches rough-house hosannas on their arse as out the door they go. They’re selling hippy wigs in Woolworths, man.

Praise be to the Rooster. This jaunty dirge recounts a slice of rural noir. An escape across the Bland, from one shithole to the next, pursued by reverb-drenched guitar on the edge of feedback, and the cops.

In Sweet Delirium is he just in love or is he Talking Carlos Castaneda Blues? This is a man I once saw spot a gold-top mushroom from the window of a speeding shitbox, pull up with the assistance of the handbrake, hop a barbed wire fence into a north-coast cow paddock, like some rastafarian roo, and return grinning within seconds, proffering a gobfull of goldtop enlightenment. I’d plump for the latter.

Miranda Devine’s Adventures on the Vanilla Frontier: I once jokingly described Daley as the Albury Dylan but this goes beyond any joking – it is an instant classic of the sub-Bob oeuvre. A fevered night-trip through the Abbott incursion. It uncannily apes an out-take from “Highway 61 Revisited” with Walker throwing his best Mike Bloomberg guitar shapes. This thrusting, head-loppingly-current dream diatribe could inspire Pete Seeger to once again pick up his axe and start cutting cables. A cracker.

Where do we go from here? Run Run Run. Leg it, it’s your only hope: “You better bet that bunyip aristocracy will hunt you down. Sometimes you better Run Run Run”. A fittingly Old Testament finish to proceedings.

CSG and coal mining stories

A gathering storm

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The perfect storm – Shenhua and the Liverpool Plains

The softly spoken Andrew Pursehouse is a well-known man on the Liverpool Plains. Patriarch of a long established farming family, a prominent businessman, a respected regional elder. He’s brother-in-law to former Independent MP Tony Windsor and a founding member of the Caroona Coal Action Group (CCAG), representing over 400 landholders and local businesses, the longest running opponents of the Shenhua Watermark mine.

Finally approved in July 2015 by Environment Minister Greg Hunt, this would allow a massive 35km square open cut mine in the middle of the finest agricultural land in Australia.

The mine is now awaiting final approvals from the NSW government, whose leader Mike Baird, Nationals leader Troy Grant and local member Kevin Anderson all made pre-election assurances to the members of CCAG that they would oppose the mine.

Pursehouse and a majority of farmers across the State, in a new alliance with other concerned groups have vowed to fight this mine to the end – ‘whatever it takes’. As Tony Windsor famously said, they consider it to be the wrong mine in the wrong place.

But with the federal Government attempting to strip Australians of their right to contest mining proposals through gutting the Environment Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC), a perfect storm of dissent is looming.

Andrew Pursehouse points to the dining room table of his house, just above the Mooki River, the life blood of the Liverpool Plains.

“Before the election Baird made a commitment at that table right there. He said ‘I’m going to take this on personally’. We’ve never heard from him since. So them being here was an election stunt.”

There were plenty of witnesses. The members of CCAG present, conservative farmers all, were Fiona Simpson (former president, NSW Farmers), John Hampersum, Juanita Hampersum, Jim McDonald, who used to sit on the Independent Expert Scientific panel, Susie Lyall and political lobbyist Tim Duddy.

The plain facts

Andrew Pursehouse is under no illusions as to the damage such a mine would cause on the Liverpool Plains.

“It’s not just the water issue and potential damages to the aquifer, it’s the salt and the dust on 270 degrees around it, what that can do to our agricultural products, the koalas, the Aboriginal heritage.

Fiona Simson, former president of the powerful NSW Farmers group, is adamant that the farming community will never allow this mine to be built.

Simson’s focus is on Shenhua’s passing the fit and proper person test that was put in place by this government last year. Shenhua currently has four senior executives under investigation for corruption.

John Hamparsum, whose farm lies very close to the immediate impact zone of the mine site, is rather more blunt:

“The people’s resolve is such that there’ll never be a bulldozer on that country.

“The gloves would be off and it’d be civil disobedience at a level that the government hasn’t seen in NSW. Tempers are that point now that people want action, they want blood.”

CCAG have already launched 27 anti-mining court cases.

In 2008 they first opposed BHP with a blockade at Breeza led by the octogenarian George Clift, who famously stated that he’d meet them at the gates with a shotgun before he’d let them mine the Liverpool Plains. That 635 day blockade effectively discouraged anyone from attempting to mine here till 2011, when 100 farmers blockaded Santos from exploratory drilling for coal seam gas.

Andrew Pursehouse warns of a politically ruinous anti-mining campaign, if Hunt elects to pursue this course.

“We’ve got good grounds for further legal action and we’ve got the support of the Australia Farmers Fighting Fund, because this is of national significance. We’ve already spent round about a million bucks fighting this.

“So we’re not afraid to put money where it counts. But if all else fails we’ll stand up for our rights and invite whoever wants to be here and stop this nonsense. Don’t underestimate what a farmer can do.”

A national concern

The Shenhua Watermark mine has been been mired in controversy since corrupt former Labor minister Ian McDonald first sold an exploration license to the Chinese on the misconception that it was further south in the Hunter Valley.

Now the structural price of thermal coal is steadily falling and Chinese coal imports have dramatically dropped away as their sluggish domestic economy, concerns over pollution and increasing reliance on renewables start to bite.

As national attention has focused on the Liverpool Plains it has become clear that the negative impacts of coal mining are becoming critical in the national consciousness.

An online petition garnered over 50,000 signatures, while an independent Facebook group with hundreds of members is pledging to launch a citizen’s blockade.

Gunnedah’s Namoi Valley Independent newspaper held an online poll that showed 97% of 4,700 respondents to be against the mine.

And a new crowd-funded TV campaign from citizen’s advocacy group Lock The Gate is spearheaded by Alan Jones, who in it declares that “the latest move by the Abbott government puts at risk not just our environment but our very democracy”.

That notion of democracy hinges upon a belief in the sanctity of its iconic bellweathers. Besides food and water security two other salient issues here are Aboriginal cultural heritage and the koala population.

Mitcham Neave, a traditional owner (TO) of the Gomeroi people claims that while the entire Plains are sacred there are special sites, known as the Grinding Grooves, which absolutely must be protected.

Neave says they are an important war memorial site, where warriors used to sharpen spears for conflict with marauding Casula or Wiradjuri tribes – and white settlers.

“This is our Gallipoli site right here,” he says. “You wouldn’t like it if I destroyed your war memorial, I’d be locked up.”

He says they cannot be safely moved.

“Some of those sites are the size of a double decker bus. I don’t care what rock doctor they get, as soon as they move it you can’t put it back together.”

He and his fellow TO’s, who have followed all the processes within the law to this point, are fed up with being ignored. Neaves says he’s now ready for more direct action.

“I won’t speak for other people but I’ll join a blockade. We’ve had a gutful of the destruction of our culture, we’ll rally together.”

Sue Higginson is principal litigator for the Environmental Defender’s Office (EDO), who are representing the Upper Mooki Landcare Group in a public interest case on behalf of the koala populations of the area.

“They’re alleging that when the PAC made their decision they have failed to properly consider the impacts the mine is going to have on koalas,” she said.

“Essentially there’s a requirement that questions is this mine likely to place a local population at risk of extinction? Never did they answer that question. And that’s what it comes down to.”

Higginson says that the government is proceeding in non-compliance with the laws surrounding mining developments, just as they did in Queensland, where Adani’s case was defeated after Environment Minister Greg Hunt failed to take into account the fate of two threatened species in his approval of the Carmichael mine.

The head of the Landcare group is Nicky Chirlian, a speech pathologist and farmer who lives well clear of the mine site.

“My initial reaction is these bears are just going to die,” she says.

“Shenhua’s translocation plan effectively means the koalas have to get down from the trees and run away from the bulldozers in the first instance. The Koala Foundation has warned very clearly that translocation of koalas had a very high mortality rate of 90-100%.”

Tony Windsor, former Independent member for Tamworth and New England, sees behind these emotive issues a clear legal disconnect. He’s well placed to comment on the issue, being the man who effectively negotiated the ‘Water Trigger’ bill through the Senate in 2013, ensuring that coal seam gas (CSG) and coal mining projects cannot proceed until independent scientific advice concludes they won’t damage water resources.

“My viewing of the tea leaves is that this mine won’t happen,” he said. “Part of that will be because of public resistance, part will be because of the breach of process from both Hunt and Baird.

“I believe it can be shown that Hunt, Baird and Barnaby Joyce haven’t abided by their own processes of the law. In fact by circumventing the bio-regional assessment process they’ve removed the very evidence that’s required to determine the longer term scientific implications of this mine.

“All of those things will eventually get explored in the courts, that’s one of the reasons why Abbott was on about the environmental vigilante stuff. They talk about Adani but it’s just as much about this mine and the Chinese Free Trade Agreement as anywhere else.”

“It’s the most complex issue that I’ve ever dealt with in politics and it’s the easiest one to create politics out of.”

An Alliance is formed

Now CCAG have entered into a Liverpool Plains Alliance with other groups – including traditional foes in environmental groups such as The Wilderness Society.

Instrumental in forming this alliance has been Naomi Hodgson of the Wilderness Society. She has earned the respect of north western NSW farmers for her staunch campaigning in the Pilliga forest, where some 18 local landholders have been arrested striving to prevent Santos from establishing a proposed 800 CSG wells.

“This issue has sparked a raw nerve throughout the populace,” she said. ““People who’ve never before felt strongly on coal mining issues can see that we must draw a line against the industry’s perpetual expansion, digging up some of our best food producing country for coal is a proposal that crosses that line.”

The Alliance has created a major social movement on the Plains, abetted by the emergence of the Liverpool Plains Youth, comprising the sons and daughters of local farmers with perhaps less of the ingrained resistance to green groups as their forebears. They’re planning an activist training weekend in November to prepare against potential police confrontation.

This continues a phenomenon begun at the anti CSG blockade at Bentley in northern NSW, where hundreds of conservative townspeople and farmers aligned themselves with environmental groups and activists to stop that proposal.

The Bentley effect

Aidan Ricketts is a legal academic from Lismore, close to Bentley. A veteran forestry activist, he was instrumental in the conduct of the Bentley campaign. In the emergence of this Alliance he sees a similar catalyst for widespread community dissent.

“The Liverpool Plains really cracks open the agriculture versus mining issue.

“The Plains is a whole grab bag of signifiers – China and the Free Trade factor, indigenous heritage, the koalas, Tony Windsor and water, even this Pacific leader’s forum. Each one’s capable of igniting a different constituency and where you have this grand alliance coming together it all rises up and boils over. Once that happens the system as a whole becomes far greater than the sum of its parts and that’s where the Bentley effect comes in.

“It’s a bear trap for the National Party as well. They couldn’t have picked a worse place to try it on.”

Phil Laird, an ex-farmer himself and president of public advocacy group Lock The Gate, points out that following their corruption scandal, Shenhua are dramatically curtailing their capital expenditure in overseas markets. He says that detailed market analyses show a pronounced downturn in Chinese interest in Australian coal.

“Shenhua don’t necessarily want this mine. Probably if it wasn’t approved by Greg Hunt they would have quietly welcomed the decision. They don’t want to build any new greenfield sites. Their focus is going to be on brown fuel sites inside China.

“China produces about 4.5 billion tonnes of coal a year. Australia produces about 450 million. They’re reducing their production by about 10% a year so they’re effectively reducing their production by the entire Australian production. Now they’ve been stuck in a situation they don’t want. They’re looking for a face saver of some kind.”

The new landscape

Andrew Pursehouse is pinning his hopes on a political solution. In the light of a new political landscape he says there may well be a change of heart on this matter. Prime Minister Turnbull owns two farms in the Hunter Valley and he and his wife visited the Pursehouse property three years ago.

“Turnbull has been a water minister so had a pretty good understanding of the delicate water systems we have here. So he’d be more of a friend than Abbott.”

More recently, Independent MP Jacki Lambie attended an anti-mine tractor rally on the Plains and stayed two nights at the Pursehouse residence.

“In the senate recently she exposed large political donations from four Chinese names connected to Shenhua ,to Labor, Liberal and the Nationals,” Pursehouse said.

“So we’re looking at changes in that sphere, but if all else fails, well, the people that did the Maules Creek blockade are looking for a new camp, they want to come here.”

He points to the nearby town of Breeza, where Murray Dreschler, the founder and stalwart of the Maules Creek mine blockade, has established a weekend camp, on invitation from the Breeza Progress Association.

“So it’ll be more than just farmers, it’ll be the so-called green element. The passionate professionals, along with the general community. If all else fails it will come to that, but this is last resort stuff.”

Mike Baird’s office was approached for comment on Andrew Pursehouse’s claims. His press officer declined.

CSG and coal mining stories

Sorry Business – First showing in The Big Smoke online magazine

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Gomeroi people to join Shenhua Mine blockade

Sorry Business

Mick Daley © 2015

 

Gomeroi traditional owner Mitchum Neave says he’s prepared to join the new Liverpool Plains Alliance in a blockade to stop the Shenhua Watermark mine in NSW. Traditional lands and a rich agricultural sector are soon to be obliterated if final approvals are granted by federal environment minister Greg Hunt for a 35km square open cut mine in the heart of the Liverpool Plains.

“I won’t speak for other people, but I’ll join a blockade,” Mitchum said, in disgust at federal government inaction over alleged breaches of Shenhua’s Cultural Heritage Management Plan (CHMP).

The Gomeroi of Red Chief Local Aboriginal Land Council in Gunnedah say that Sections 9 and 10 of the CHMP have been siting on Environment Minister Greg Hunt’s desk for two years. They say that breaches of these two sections will clearly show that mining cannot commence on their traditional lands.

Yet Minister Hunt gave approval for the mine to proceed in June 2015, without consideration of the CHMP breaches.

“We’ve had a gutful of the destruction of our culture, we’ll rally together and march on Canberra,” said Mitchum.

Mitchum is a TO from the Breeza township, who was born and bred in nearby Gunnedah. He’s also a senior deputy captain in the Regional Fire Service. He had been a consultant to the NSW Planning Assessment Commission (PAC) when they ordered Shenhua to conduct cultural heritage surveys of the proposed mine site. The Liverpool Plains hide many relics as well as massacre sites, according to Mitchum. But the Grinding Grooves represent spiritual values unfathomable to white culture – not to mention their patent historical value.

“The grinding grooves are a war memorial site. I told them at the Planning Assessment Commission meeting, this is our Gallipoli site,” Mitchum explains.

“You wouldn’t like it if I went to your war memorial and destroyed it. I’d be locked up.”

 

In their CHRMP, Shenhua had recognized 55 Aboriginal archaeological sites, but determined that only 26 of them would be conserved. The grinding grooves, despite being identified as having high cultural value, would be moved.

“That’s just ridiculous,” snorts Mitchum. “You can’t move them. Some of those sites are the size of a double decker bus. There’s natural spring water runs through the sandstone. If you take it out of that wet environment it’ll dry out and disintegrate.

“I don’t care what rock doctor they get, as soon as they move it you can’t put it back together.”

The Grooves are deeply scored into clumps of sandstone rock. They were rallying points for Gomeroi warriors prior to white settlement. Strategically placed along the ridgeline above the plains facing south, they look out to where marauding bands of Wiradjuri or Casuli tribesmen – or for that matter white settlers would appear.

These were focal points for the Gomeroi culture – sacred space where life is so close to the veil, where death and the unknown come close to this world. Today they are the last hope for the survivors of the Gomeroi people as they seek to preserve their heritage and the land that is as dear to them as life itself.

 

But this close to final approvals, it seems that sections 9 and 10 of the CHMP will most certainly be ignored.

Sue Higginson, principal litigator for the Environmental Defender’s Office, is pursuing a case against Shenhua Watermark mine on behalf of a Landcare group protecting the large koala population there. But she says she has examined the Gomeroi people’s case and sees little hope for legal action on their behalf.

“Our cultural heritage laws are in bad shape. The tragedy is that there aren’t very many options when it comes to cultural heritage. It’s an absolute disgrace.”

It’s a sorry business indeed.

 

If Shenhua had conducted more thorough surveys of the sites, Mitchum says, they would have turned up hundreds of artifacts and sites.

Mitchum had accompanied their surveys as a consultant.

“When you do these surveys the transects are supposed to be done on foot. They done it in a four wheel drive, but the grass is three foot high – you can’t see anything.

“One of the criteria for their approvals here was they had to survey 17 percent of the country, but they only ended up doing two percent of it. But the mine people will just shop around till they find an archeologist who writes what they want.”

Like the other Gomeroi, Mitchum is utterly disillusioned with this process.

“I was told when I grew up, keep it to yourself. Two things the white man will do, they’ll sell it or destroy it.”

Fed up with following normal channels, the Gomeroi people have now joined the Liverpool Plains Alliance. It’s a group that’s uniting farmers, townspeople, Lock The Gate and environmental groups including The Wilderness Society and 350.org.

The Alliance is exerting considerable political pressure on both State and Federal governments. Legal actions are shortly to commence.

With the price of thermal coal plummeting and pressure mounting against extractive fossil fuel industries to curtail their global warming emissions, new coal mines are increasingly seen as very dangerous propositions.

Australia’s conservative state and federal governments are resisting mounting international pressure to dramatically reduce carbon output. Their determination to subsidise and promote coal over renewables has made this mine seem inevitable.

But if all else fails, the farmers of the Liverpool Plains and many members of the Alliance have pledged to blockade the mine site and refuse to allow construction to commence. Mitchum, Aunty Dolly Talbot and the Gomeroi elders are all for it. They’ve had enough of this sorry business.

“We don’t want to break the law, ‘cos they’ll paint you as the bad person, but we were trying to do the right thing and the government has failed us,” said Mitchum.

“It’s time now to stand up for our culture.”

 

The Liverpool Plains Alliance is holding an awareness and activist training weekend, the ‘Harvest Festival Against Shenhua’ on the Liverpool Plains, next to the proposed mine site, on November 6-8, 2015. See the Facebook site http://on.fb.me/1KzCizu for more details.

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