Locals and participants in the Radioactive Exposure Tour gathered to say no to Alkane's rare earths mine, on July 1. The mine, at Toongi, 30 kilometers south of Dubbo, will commence operation towards the end of the year. Uranium will not be sold, but it will be dug up and stored on site in a tailings dam, along with other toxic substances.
Bronwyn Powell
Every week since February 3, around 60 people have gathered outside the office of federal Liberal MP Kerry Bartlett to call for Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks to be brought home. The initiator of the vigils, Kevin Hardwick, told Green Left Weekly that the vigils would continue until the Hicks issue is resolved.
On October 20, 65 people attended a public meeting to discuss the campaign to make the Newnes Plateau and other areas around the Gardens of Stone National Park, on the western edge of the Blue Mountains, a state conservation area. David Brazil from the Colong Foundation explained that the area has the highest density of rare plants in the Blue Mountains, contains important sites of Aboriginal heritage and provides a refuge for cool-climate species as global warming increases.