Several community groups have united and are currently fighting against the construction of the Traveston Crossing dam on the Mary River, a couple of hundred kilometres north of Brisbane. This dam does would not bring benefits to local irrigators and does not produced hydro-electricity. It would be located on an alluvial floodplain, have an average depth of 5m and is proposed primarily to provide potable water to city dwellers a couple of hours drive away.

We are waiting to hear in the next two weeks whether our Federal Environment Minister will approve this dam. There is great concern that if it went ahead it would ultimately lead to the extinction of the Australian lungfish and the Mary River turtle (which occurs no where else in the world). In addition there are more than 20 other species of birds, plants, frogs, fish, reptile and mammals that are endangered, vulnerable or rare put at risk by the proposal. It would be an unreliable and expensive option for water for the heavily populated south east corner of Queensland.

Please visit our websites http://www.savethemaryriver.com and http://www.ourgreatsandy.com and consider writing to Minister Garrett to tell him about the experiences in the US. regarding dams.

As well as the plan to build Traveston, the current Governemnt in Queensland built the Paradise Dam on the Burnett River in 2005. This dam is now the subject of a court case challenging the compliance of the dam with conditions of approval placed on the dam when it was given the go ahead by the Federal Government. These conditions relate fish passage for the Australian Lungfish, which only occurs naturally in the Burnett and Mary Rivers in Queensland. For more info see http://www.envlaw.com.au/paradise.html

In addition the Wyaralong dam is under construction west of Brisbane.

We need all the help we can get to draw attention to alternatives and the destruction dams cause. Please help us if you can!