MOVING MOUNTAINS portrait stories

Image: Andrew Peacock, Footloose Photography

It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves  
Sir Edmund Hillary

Sometimes, when life calls you to step up, you find you are capable of things you never dreamed were possible. Our peaceful stand to protect the Scenic Rim was, for many of us, one of the most demanding and rewarding things we have ever done.

People from all walks of life, including farmers, landowners, mums, dads and grandparents, stepped out of their comfort zone. We dug deep to overcome fear and uncertainty, and we had a lot of fun.

What we achieved is a shining example of what a well-informed passionate community, powered by love and science, is capable of.

Here are the personal stories of some of the key KTSRS characters.

Innes Larkin
Spokesperson for Keep the Scenic Rim Scenic

Moving to the Scenic Rim and living at Mt Barney Lodge changed me and my awareness of our natural world. I become more aware that nature was not just out there but that we were an integral part of it, and if we poisoned the water, or the soil, we were poisoning ourselves. Read more ...

Heidi Ross
I just went to war … to make it impossible for them.

There was a time when stopping coal and coal seam gas in the Scenic Rim dominated my life. For close to two years I put everything aside and just worked to make sure it didn’t happen. Read more ...

Paul Coyne
I’m a great believer in Sun Tzu’s strategy of Win first, then go to war. My goal was to find a fatal flaw in the ambition of Allegiance Coal. Read more ...

Daniel Robins
one swift decision changes teacher to activist

On the first day I visited the Kerry Blockade I met a local man who was standing beside me leaning on the fence in shock after the arrest of a few local people, and told me his name was Rod Anderson. We both stared straight ahead at the drill rig maybe ten metres away. I had an impulse to climb the drill rig, so I turned to Rod and said “Can you hold these?” I handed him my hat and glasses and before he could reply I jumped over the gate and hit the ground running, until I got to the drill rig unchallenged. Read more ...

Cassie McMahon
Supporting communities from the Goliath

My concern about the coal industry started at a young age. I grew up in a coal mining town. We lived across the road from a coal-fired generator, and I watched my mother suffer severe asthma attacks. Read more ...

Tracey Larkin
communications for KTSRS and events coordinator

I was happily operating Mt Barney Lodge and raising a young family when plans for a dirty brown open-cut coal mine just up the road caught my full attention. Read more ...

Rod Andersen
I knew I might get arrested but I was pissed off. I wanted them to hear me out.

The first I knew of gas drilling in Kerry Valley was when Michael Undery said he was worried. I trusted him and he wasn’t a radical person. Read more ...

Michael Undery
Driving down the road wondering what is this going to do, what is actually happening and how will all this end up? This is how I remember the first day of the Kerry Blockade. Read more ...

Sally Undery
The Kerry Blockade was a life changing event. I am ever grateful for Heidi Ross and the role she played encouraging people like me who knew the dangers but were just too busy to act until it was too late! Read more ...

Linda Weston

Reclusive and insular - the words that best described my lifestyle up until 2011

The first I knew of the proposed Mintovale open-cut coal mine at Croftby was a front-page newspaper headline. Subsequent searches provided me with information that left me horrified. A boundary for the Mintovale MDL was a mere 280 metres from our back deck and I also found that our property was covered by a CSG exploration permit. Read more ...

MOVING MOUNTAINS - the kerry stockade poem

The Kerry Stockade                                     

A group of folk who saw the curse,                        

Image: Damien Caniglia

CSG on its way. 

Gathered at the drilling gates, 

at break of light that day. 

These Aussie folk can clearly see, 

foreign companies invade. 

By legislation favouring 

this CSG brigade. 

Day after day, arrests took place, 

the local's strength grew stronger. 

But some felt helpless in resolve, 

as police presence grew longer. 

“I’ll do it then, the lady claimed, 

I’ll block the road for sure!” 

With nervous courage from a lass, 

who’d never crossed the law. 

These companies are cunning, see, 

they want to buy our souls. 

Throwing money at our Bronco’s team 

to make us look like fools. 

We’re all at fault if we don’t rise, 

and make a stand today. 

In twenty years we’ll all look back, 

with nothing left to say. 

“We coulda woulda shoulda mate! 

The lands now plain and rugged. 

Those farmers warned us years ago, 

this region here’d be buggered”. 

There’s plans you know for 40 thousand 

of these toxic wells. 

Scattered right across our great south east, 

Crikey! Ring the bloody bells! 

A moving scene at Kerry though, 

was when a farmer broke, 

and laid his hat upon the road, 

the crowd paused as he spoke. 

And then the Aussie flag was cast 

in bucket full of sand, 

And waved amidst a row of hats, 

this CSG be damned! 

The locals joined in, hats off head, 

and threw them down in shame. 

And more of these akubras lined, 

the driveway with no name. 

A good man from the service though, 

who saw the flag in sand 

respectfully removed it
from this path that greed demand.

 

It did not stop the truck that day, 

from driving straight ahead. 

It drove right through the hat blockade, 

our freedoms here were dead. 

It brought a tear to strongest willed, 

when as the hats were crushed. 

The spirits of the locals too, 

this company had flushed. 

See governments will come and go, 

and politicians too. 

But nothing will replace the land
that feeds both me and you. 

So now we have a chance to rise, 

to stand by foe and friend. 

To save the Scenic Rim from curse, 

and put this to an end! 

An army now has started though, 

against this corporate raid. 

Because of all those brave folk, 

from the great Kerry Stockade! 

Aidan McLindon 22.1.2012

                                                         
                                        

MOVING MOUNTAINS - the exhibition

Two open-cut coal mines near Boonah! Can you believe it ?

Are you a new resident to the Scenic Rim? Have you started a new business here in our stunning region? You may not realise how lucky you are to live and work in such a breathtakingly beautiful place in 2023. It is no coincidence that the Scenic Rim was included in the Lonely Planet’s 2022 ‘Top 10 Best Regions in the World’.

But, just over a decade ago our community found out that all the beauty and rural amenity of the Scenic Rim was under threat.

Imagine two ( yes two!) open cut coal mines between Boonah and Rathdowney. Coal trucks and coal dust along our country roads day in day out……. a large-scale gas pipeline from NSW running right through the middle of our region from the Border Ranges to Ipswich……. and a network of coal seam gas wells and processing plants right across our very best farmlands ……… the Scenic Rim was set to become a toxic gas-field.

However, the community rallied together and took action the only way they knew how …. by standing shoulder to shoulder in protest to fight against the coal and gas companies who planned to turn our Scenic Rim into an industrial zone. Less than 10% of the Scenic Rim was free of these planned developments!

Had community not rallied together back then our burgeoning agricultural and tourism businesses would not be what they are today. There would be no Farm Gate Trails, Eat Local Month, music festivals, or Lonely Planet top 10 listing of regions in the world, if community had not fought so hard to protect the Scenic Rim for those of us who enjoy living and visiting here today.

In 2011 a group called Keep the Scenic Rim Scenic (KTSRS) was formed as a subcommittee under the banner of BOSS.

KTSRS was made up of local farmers, business owners, residents and people from other regions concerned with protecting our rural and social amenity. For over eleven years they worked and stood watch to drive away the threat, particularly between 2011 and 2013 after many intense times of blockade and protest actions.

In June 2022 the final coal seam gas lease was terminated….yes….June 2022……the threat was still there less than a year ago!

But now our Scenic Rim is coal and gas free……forever.

This is a true story of people power in action.

But the history has not been fully recorded and the victory not celebrated ……. yet. With support from Scenic Rim Regional Council, KTSRS are going to tell this story in an upcoming exhibition at The Centre Beaudesert.

The ‘Moving Mountains’ exhibition will run from 17 June until 2 September with the official opening at 3pm on Saturday 17 June.

This exhibition is for you. For new and old residents and business owners who love our Scenic Rim and enjoy the benefits of its wide and varied environment and opportunities. For those who live outside the area who joined us in our fight. For everyone who cares about climate change, the environment, and community standing strong.

We invite you to come to the launch, visit the exhibition, enjoy the award-winning film screenings and associated events planned during July and August. It’s going to be fun!

Our team are all volunteers with a variety of skills, but we’re also engaging artists and expert technicians to create video and other materials to record these important nationally significant stories. It’s a big job but we’re passionate about keeping this David and Goliath history alive …… people power really can move mountains.

We’ve begun a crowd funding campaign to raise necessary funds for exhibition expenses. Could you chip in a little (or a lot 😉) to help us pay our artists? We have a number of donation tiers available to choose from, some with neat added perks, and if you choose to become a major sponsor there’s bigger perks and sponsored naming rights also available. Perfect for businesses wanting to support a great cause and be recognised as part of an historic event.

All major sponsors will be recognised not only this year at the ‘Moving Mountains’ exhibition …… but also in a proposed full-length documentary we’re planning for 2024.

Two local businesses, Mt Barney Lodge and O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat, have pledged early support by becoming major sponsors and we are very thankful for their support. They recognise how different they Scenic Rim would be, and the impact on their businesses had coal and gas won.


Please share the word far and wide, come see the exhibition and help to celebrate keeping our magnificent Scenic Rim scenic forever.

A call to community from Keep the Scenic Rim Scenic ...

 

The Scenic Rim has moved mountains since 2011 when Keep the Scenic Rim Scenic (KTSRS) was formed as a sub-committee of BOSS, to educate and gather community together in the fight to keep our region coal and coal seam gas free, and to keep our Scenic Rim truly Scenic!

Midway through last year KTSRS became aware that Arrow Energy had quietly renewed its CSG leases in the Kerry Valley in 2018, and feared the fight may have to begin again. Read more about that here. 

But on 24 June 2022 Arrow Energy finally withdrew its lease tenements over the Scenic Rim, and after ten long years of uncertainty our community could finally celebrate a coal and gas free region into the future. Read more about that here. 

The anniversary of that announcement approaches, and by way of celebration, and after recognising the need to record the significant history surrounding the actions of our community, we have partnered with Scenic Rim Regional Council (SRRC) to be part of this year’s cultural program, by producing an exhibition to be launched 17 June and run until 3 September at The Centre Beaudesert.

The Moving Mountains exhibition will showcase various community actions to not only record the history, but to highlight the fact that those actions have now resulted in the success of the Scenic Rim being recognized on the world stage, the creation of thriving agricultural and tourism industries, and retention of clean air and water that had been under threat from coal and gas industries.

Had community not made a stand we could now be living with an open cut coal mine beside Boonah, with a grid of coal seam gas wells crossing our prime agricultural land, a gas pipeline stretching from Casino, across the border ranges and over farmland all the way to Brisbane, and the subsequent potential contamination of our precious underground water.

The many thriving businesses that have emerged in recent years, the Lonely Planet top ten listing, the farm gate trails, festivals and environmental events we now enjoy, exist only through the determined efforts of KTSRS and community protecting the region for over a decade.

Many long term locals will remember such actions as Protestors on Peaks in 2011 where 1000 people climbed mountains, dropped banners, spelled out messages in paddocks and sent a clear message to the world about community feelings about the threat of coal and gas in the Scenic Rim.

The Kerry Blockade in January 2012 was a landmark event - ten days of vigilant protest, nine arrests, and blockading by local farmers, business owners, and community that ended with the iconic ‘Hats Down’ action which saw Arrow Energy’s drill rig drive over farmers’ hats much as they had ridden roughshod over our community from the beginning of their interactions.

But many of those new to living in the region since these events, new business owners, and our many visitors who enjoy the benefits of the Scenic Rim as it is now, may be completely unaware of this nationally significant history. Stories about our small community standing shoulder to shoulder with other similarly threatened communities to fight off a large multi-national corporation, and against all odds, to ultimately win !!

The Moving Mountains exhibition will tell that story and more, through art, digital display, audio visual, photographic and written storylines and a program of associated events such as film screenings, workshops and school holiday programs.

And so, we’re calling for help from the community.

Were you involved in these actions? What are your memories and stories? Do you still have the hat you wore and threw down to be driven over by the drill rig that fateful day they ended the Kerry Blockade? Signs? Was poetry or art created from those memories? Remember yellow triangle signs were everywhere – ‘No Pipeline’ bumper stickers on cars, shared bus trips with Ned driving us to other protests, - the memories of our community actions are vast.

In short we want to gather this previously unrecorded history together from community memory, so it’s recorded and before it is lost. And we want to celebrate those shared memories.

So, Keep the Scenic Rim Scenic would love to know about your memories, your memorabilia, your gate signs, any art you may have created during those days as a response to that massive threat to our collective way of life.

We can’t promise to fit everything into the exhibition space but are planning an online exhibition presence with potential for more stories and photos etc to be included online.

It’s a tight time frame but we’re asking for notification of your items, photos, stories etc by Friday 3 March in order to collate lists to plan the layout of the exhibition. With a time frame of just four months until exhibition launch we need a relatively quick response from community. 
NB. Theres no need to deliver the physical items until a later date.

Another call for assistance is financial. Exhibitions on this scale cost money. Artists and tech experts need to be paid for their services. So we are also seeking community support financially…. through a planned crowd funding campaign with some exhibition perks/prizes available. Details coming soon on this. 

As well as the financial contribution from BOSS, we have to date gathered support from SRRC and BADCAP (Beaudesert and District Community Arts Project) for certain elements of the exhibition expenses, and Mt Barney Lodge is our first local business to jump on board with financial help.

But we’re seeking further financial support from other businesses who now benefit from our coal and gas free status. All business donations will be named and recognized as sponsors within the exhibition proper. There’s potential for a future documentary to be made around this story and foundation sponsors with a tiered support level will also be recognised in those future credits. It’s a win win opportunity for businesses to be recognised for supporting their community stories.

Updates on the exhibition and associated events will be released very soon by the SRRC Cultural team.


For further information on how to register your memorabilia items and/or stories, or for how to assist in fundraising please contact 
Erica Bates by phone or message on 0417 720 352 or via email.

xmas braids

here is our decorated tree for xmas.
check it out when you’re downtown. it's the council forecourt tree.
created from discarded sheets, CDs and tshirt yarn, our spinning messages read
💚 think green
💚 recycle, reuse
💚 repair, repurpose
💚 think global, act local
💚 peace on earth

community clothes swap

 

The annual Community Clothes Swap is our celebration of National Recycling Week, and everyone's welcome to come and join in. The event will be held at the Boonah Cultural Centre on Saturday 5 November between 9am and 1pm.

Bring along some clothes, shoes or accessories (men's, women's and children's) and it's free to swap, or it will cost just a gold coin donation to buy.

Upcycled bags will be available to purchase, and there'll be innovative displays and demonstrations on different ways to mend and upcycle textiles, as well as a fabric destash spot to supplement your supplies.

It's also the perfect place to ask questions about recycling, and bring along items for recycling like prescription drug packaging (blister packs), disposable masks, coffee bags, water and air filters, corks (natural and synthetic), pens and markers, household batteries, old plastic store cards, sturdy fabric, old sheets and curtains, and bras and swimmers for collaborative recycling initiatives. 

Many new recycling initiatives have been added to our recycling register, and info on these will be available, or check online for our recycling register which continues to be updated. 

Right next door to the Cultural Foundation's Book Fest, another great recycling week event with thousands of low cost books.

Thanks to support from the Scenic Rim Regional Council's Community Grant Program, we have now invested in some paid Terracycle recycling opportunities. Items are listed alphabetically on the Recycling Register. We'd love to help you with your 'waste' 😊

cancellation of world environment day festival

it is with a heavy heart and after much reflection and consideration, BOSS is announcing the cancellation of this year's World Environment Day Festival. the ongoing Covid-19 situation in QLD and current Public Health Orders renders the event too problematic for the organisers to ensure a safe and risk free day.

we thank the many members and friends who have been working away behind the scenes, committing time to volunteer, planting up for the plant stall, sewing bags, painting signs and much much more.

we thank all our artisans, food and coffee vendors, workshop presenters, performers and speakers for wanting to celebrate with us. 

it was a very difficult position to arrive at, but in these uncertain and volatile times, it would just would not be responsible to go ahead.

provided all is well in the 2022 vaccinated world, we will celebrate again on saturday 16 july.