Margarita Windisch, Melbourne
Up to 1800 people marched on Victorian state parliament on October 13 to protest the proposed toxic dump site at Hattah in north-western Victoria.
A "toxic" truck and eight busloads of people left Mildura before dawn to take their message of "No deal, no compromise, no surrender" to the state Labor government. Amidst a sea of placards reading "No honey, no money", "No toxic dump at Hattah", and "Hands off our trees", speakers including Mildura Mayor Peter Byrne, swimmer Tammy Van Wisse and Bronwyn Halfpenny from the food division of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union addressed the crowd, vowing to continue the fight and force the government to reconsider the toxic dump site.
According to Ray Campbell, an AMWU food division organiser, the fight against the toxic waste dump has created a very unique coalition of environmentalists, horticultural industry representatives, the Murray Mallee Trades and Labour Council, political parties and the Mildura Rural City Council.
Campbell told Green Left Weekly that Victorian Premier Steve Bracks' plans to dump toxic waste on the doorstep of the Murray River has catapulted many locals into political action for the first time. "This just shows how concerned the entire community is about the potential disasters ahead and that the only way to stop it is through taking action."
The Bracks government had to abandon its initial site near Ouyen due to community outrage. In May the government announced that the only site now in consideration is Hattah (Nowingi), which is right next to two national parks, 7km from the Hattah Lakes wetlands and 12km from the Murray River. More than 1200 people voiced their anger and frustration about the decision at a public meeting in Mildura on June 2.
According to Anne Mansell, protest organiser and president of the Save the Food Bowl Alliance, "The environmental and economic threat to our region is massive. Any leakage would seriously destroy food crops and poison the ground water. So, if it was so safe as the government tells us, why do they feel the need to transport the waste from Melbourne 500km to north-west Victoria?"
Environmentalists are also seriously concerned about the potentially disastrous consequences of the dump for the natural habitat of many endangered species in the nearby area, such as the Emu Wren and Mallee Fowl.
Mansell told GLW that the necessary deforestation of 40,000 old-growth Mallee trees on the Hattah site would lead to land degradation and to dryland salinity due to the threat of a raised water table in an already fragile ecosystem.
From Green Left Weekly, October 20, 2004.
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