Melissa Chalmers, a Githabul woman, was flanked by her sister and nephew as she spoke eloquently of how the protection of cultural and spiritual landscape was fundamentally important to maintaining the culture of Aboriginal people, one of the oldest continuing living cultures in the world.
“Water to Aboriginal people is a living thing – a spiritual entity with life-giving forces which comes with certain duties and responsibilities to ensure that it is respected, protected and nurtured,” she said.
“Condamine Gorge is a cultural and spiritual home to my people. It is a part of us. Our ancestors lay within the mountain ranges and their spirit is alive within the air,” she said.
“It is my people’s responsibility and inherent right to care and protect the Condamine River as we have done for tens of thousands of years; not only the river but every living species in and around that depend on the river.
“I am asking you to leave the Condamine River crossings in their natural state. Moving forward, Githabul want nothing more than to build a relationship and engage positively with Southern Downs Regional Council for future projects on Githabul country.
Barbara George described herself as a long-time resident and spokesperson for the people who were concerned about the council’s plans for the future of the Condamine Gorge.
“Traditional owners of the Condamine Gorge stand with us and hundreds of Southern Downs residents who want to protect the Upper Condamine River from exploitation,” she said.
“Species like the platypus are still finding refuge there. People are attracted to this river exactly because it is relatively unspoiled, where people can see paddocks with cows and horses or even wildlife rather than man-made infrastructure.”
She said the road was basically an old logging track that crossed the Condamine River 14 times. It could not be treated the same as any other road, she said.
“An increasing number of people live and operate businesses inside the gorge and in recent years there has been a blowout in traffic on weekends, which has created significant issues around costs of road repairs, expectations for access and public safety which has been plaguing council for many years,” she said.
Barbara said most people who lived at the gorge accepted the fact that they lived with a river and could be prevented from getting to town and accessing their property at times. Others had been lobbying council for years hoping the road would be upgraded, their property values would increase and their business operations not be interrupted.
“Unless the road gets shifted and people no longer have to navigate the crossings, residents and tourists alike will continue to be exposed to the risk of being locked in or out of the gorge or worse, lose their lives while attempting to traverse the crossings,” she said.
“Not many manade structures stand up to the force of water. How long will residents be prevented access to their properties should one of the concrete crossings fail?”
She asked if the council had a disaster management plan for potentially 250 or 300 people who could be locked in the gorge for weeks.
“The construction of concrete crossings is not the right solution and might even make things worse. We believe the current plan has more holes than can currently be found on all the council roads put together.“
She suggested possible problems with fish passage, damming of the flow and the potential lowering of the safe threshold which would mean the road being closed earlier in a wet weather event. Concrete crossings would not addresss the issue of increasing traffic volume and would not prevent the rest of the road from becoming degraded from overuse by weekend traffic, she said. They would not make people slow down on the road, potentially endangering other users on horseback, bikes and on foot.
“Over 800 petition signatories are asking you, their representatives. not to be pressured into doing something that is a bandaid solution that will prevent a truly sustainable solution. A different solution could enable us to save the Upper Condamine River and the threatened flora and fauna that still find refuge there, all while preventing motorists coming to grief in flooded crossings by ignoring road closed signs.
“Intensive previous consultation suggested that a permit system is the cheapest and most effective way.
“Sadly this council has allowed itself to be intimidated by vandals who repeatedly and wilfully damaged gates that were installed to ensure public safety during times of emergency. Rather than exploring all other options to implement a permit system that works at many other places, the council claimed it had no other option than to go ahead with what the people of the community clearly do not support.”
