September Special Tassie Issue
September 2007
What follows is a story about what is really happening to the people of Tasmania living in the shadow of the Gunns pulp mill.
Dear Danielle,
Anna and I are Tasmanian born and raised, and work locally as registered nurses at the Launceston General Hospital.
Eighteen months ago, around the time of our wedding we purchased our 'dream home' in the lovely Tamar Valley where we had intended to raise a family and reside happily and peacefully for the rest of our lives. Yet all of a sudden the reality of the massive Gunns pulp mill looms large on our horizon and that of our local community. We know that our lives and life of our local community, our health, our amenity and the everyday things that we use to take for granted will be impacted by this huge project, whose construction phase alone will happen all around us and last for 2 years - 24 hrs and day, 7 days a week.
Danielle, the people of the Tamar Valley may have to live with the consequences of the proposed mill which we believe with all our hearts will leave Tasmania and our local region much worse off than it was previously. We base this opinion on hundreds of hours of reading, listening and taking advice from the most independent experts we can find - including former RPDC panellist and Australia's leading pulp and paper scientist, Dr Warwick Raverty.This unfortunately presents as an option that we must consider and to say that we are devastated to be entertaining this idea is an understatement.
Anna and I both studied nursing locally then used our nursing careers to venture abroad where we worked and lived in the Northern Territory and Western Australia for four years. We earned good money and had a plethora of choices in terms of career paths and work locations, yet the desire to return home was an ever present companion. We missed Tasmania terribly. Anna and I both have very deep and longstanding family bonds here and nowhere else 'feels like home' in the way that Tassie does.
Anna and I, like many Tasmanians are not opposed to a pulp mill and the criteria which you have laid out for a pulp mill in our wonderful and unique island is very much in accord with that which most Tasmanians would support.
Danielle, contrary to the accusations and propoganda that the pro-pulp mill axis camp of Government and industry have levelled at Tasmanians who are opposed the pulp mill (I refer to this problem in a recent letter Anna and I submitted to the Wentworth Courier last week) and represent a broad cross section of the local community; and have in their own spare time made an effort to read additional information from sources independent of industry and government around a broade range of the issues around the mill. We are not 'deep-green nimby's'. Yet we are being ignored by the state government.
Danielle why i am writing today is because there are many local Tamar Valley folk who I know would like to partcipate in lobbying Gunns major shareholders, to see - as you have - if these investors can have a greater sphere of influence over Gunns to pursue a more sustainable pulp mill model which is not located in the Tamar Valley where there is a polulation of 100,000 people.
Danielle, Anna and I have submitted a letter to the Wentworth Courier last week, and we have addressed a public meeting which was conducted on 14 August 2007 requesting the West Tamar Council to actively oppose the proposed Pulp Mill.
This meeting was achieved because 1800 local residents (in a very short space of time) signed a petition. The meeting was attended by 700 locals on a cold night in the middle of the week and it resulted in our local West Tamar Council not only accepting a series of (unanimously supported) motions condemning the fast-tracked approval of pulp mill in the Tamar Valley but http://www.wtc.tas.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=405
I have also included some pictures of Anna and I and our house in Gravelly Beach.
Best Regards,
Rick and Anna Pilkington
Gravelly Beach (Tamar Valley)
Tasmania
Dear Danielle,