Paradise saved: Ark Energy withdraws project 

Victory can be declared in the battle to save Chalumbin Forest.

Ark Energy, a subsidiary of Korean Zinc, was just a ministerial tick away from ripping into hundreds of acres of tropical forest in the Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland.

Late yesterday, the company withdrew its application for the renamed Wooroora Station Wind Farm after receiving information from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water that the proposal would not be approved.

The war against the powerful vested interests who profit from renewable energy has a long way to go. Chalumbin was a crucial battle that had to be won, however. If this beautiful native forest landscape had been sacrificed for wind turbines, no part of Australia would have been off limits.

When I first brought the threat to Chalumbin to national attention in The Australian last July, I described it as the new Franklin, a pivotal moment in political and environmental history that will shape the Australian landscape for decades.

If Energy Minister Tanya Plibersek formally rejected the proposal, it would surely have been the end for other projects planned for areas of native landscape of equal or even greater value, like the wind development Upper Burdekin Wind Farm in a heavily vegetated landscape containing threatened species and in close proximity to the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area.

Unfortunately, the Minister squibbed the opportunity to make an express ruling on Chalumbin, which would have drawn a line in the sand on the level of environmental damage the government was prepared to accept in its pursuit of renewable energy.

If nothing else, it would have given clarity to developers, letting them know where not to waste money and time pursuing developments like Chalumbin, which were clearly beyond the pale.

Yet the institutional bias remains in favour of renewable energy. The default position of the federal government is that developments will be approved unless there is overwhelming evidence of environmental damage too significant to sweep under the rug.

As if to prove the point, the Minister chose today (Saturday) to announce she has approved the Mount Hopeful wind generation project south of Rockhampton.

Pliberseck claimed it was “another big step in the Government’s plan to make Australia a renewable energy superpower”. It is nothing of the sort. It is a step towards reliance on more intermittent, unreliable energy sources that demonstrably degrade the natural landscape and reduce biodiversity.

Mount Hopeful encompasses remnant and mature regrowth open eucalypt forest, including over 1000ha of koala native habitat.

Plibersek boasts that there are another 130 renewable projects in the pipeline.

Yet there are many positives from the Chalumbin result.

The climbdown by Korean Zinc is likely to serve as some deterrence. It has been an expensive exercise that has delivered them nothing but grief and bad publicity.

The success of the local community, including the local Aboriginal people of the Dyirbal tribe (also called Jirrbal), should encourage the hundreds of other communities in Australia, each fighting their own lonely battles against big renewables.

The case has put the obvious tension between renewable energy and the preservation of the natural environment onto the agenda, including among a growing number of green groups and conservationists.

If more renewable energy is needed (and that’s an open question when we have better alternatives available)

Chalumbin has brought the need for tradeoffs to the forefront. The theoretical benefits of reducing carbon emissions must be offset against the observable damage to the natural environment.

Many brave people were involved in saving Chalumbin. In particular, the good people at Rainforest Reserves Australia, led by Carolyn Emms, deserve special mention for leading the charge from the beginning and standing up when other environmental groups stayed silent.

Photographer Steve Nowakowski, a former member of the Green Party, was pivotal in winning the battle as a tireless campaigner and spokesperson.

Steve’s video drone footage went around the world, showing the natural beauty of the threatened forest.

Above all, we must give credit to the Jirrbal people, the land’s traditional owners. I was moved by their genuine attachment to the land occupied by their ancestors and the distress they felt at the prospect of its defilement by intrusive wind turbines and the construction of dozens of kilometres of roads.

Their fight for justice continues at the Kaban wind development, which they want to see dismantled to allow the land to be restored to its native state as nearly as possible.