Call to protect Jervis Bay
By Bruce Threlfo
SYDNEY — A special peak councils meeting of Australia's major environmental organisations on August 25 called upon the federal and NSW governments to invoke the fullest degree of environmental protection for Jervis Bay.
The groups believe that the high conservation values of Jervis Bay are increasingly threatened by the Department of Defence's persistent efforts to use Sydney's Olympic bid to support its push to relocate the Newington armaments depot from Homebush Bay.
The groups are calling on:
- the NSW government to express its opposition to the relocation of the Newington armaments depot to Jervis Bay, in writing, to the prime minister;
- the federal government to remove Jervis Bay from all future consideration as a relocation site for the Newington armaments depot, the Kingswood munitions facility, and/or any other aspects of the Navy's plans for the eastern fleet; and
- the federal government to purchase the Point Perpendicular lighthouse complex for inclusion in the proposed Beecroft Peninsula national park.
The groups want organisations and individuals to lobby the NSW and federal governments along these lines. They have also indicated they will launch a Franklin Dam-style campaign to defend Jervis Bay from Senator Ray, the Minister for Defence. Information and petitions can be obtained from ACF, the Nature Conservation Council of NSW, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the Conservation Council of the South-East Region and Canberra.