Oakey is on sacred ground

It is difficult to imagine that the whole Darling Downs region was once a vast inland sea and that erupting volcanos from the Great Dividing Range poured hot molten lava into it over a period of millions of years. The sea was gradually transformed into an elevated plateau composed of basaltic and alluvial soil, which made it one of the richest and most productive agricultural areas in the world. 

It became an immense food bowl which for hundreds of thousands of years, provided sustenance for the Aboriginal tribes of the Wacca-burra dialect. Since its discovery in 1827 by the Wimbledon born English botanist, Allan Cunningham, it has been a vital source of food not just for indigenous and non-indigenous Australians, but also for a good deal of humanity. Its agricultural products are traded on the international markets for worldwide distribution and consumption. This vital function will take on increasing importance as the world population continues to expand and climate change displaces agricultural production and reduces crop yields.       

The seventh generation of non-indigenous Australians on the Darling Downs are now about the same age as I was when I stood on that hill on the outskirts of Oakey waiting for the Queen. I sometimes wonder how many Aborigines of the local Jarowair and Giabal tribes stood there and looked out along the plains, as I did, to see if anyone was coming, during those hundreds of thousands of years they occupied the land.

For the Aborigines and the Christians and people of other faiths, though the plains appear to be uninhabited, they are not. They are peopled with the spirits of their ancestors who lived and died and were buried there. They are inhabited by the living souls of all those deceased indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.      

Oakey is on sacred ground. And the Darling Downs region, which took millions of years for nature to accomplish, has been endowed with the extraordinary attribute of being capable of providing nourishment for a significant portion of mankind. The successive generations to which the region is entrusted are expected to take good care of it and treat it with respect.

That is precisely what the present generation has done. Oakey residents clearly manifested recently their profound respect for the region. With the fervent support of farmers and graziers on the Darling Downs, far and wide, they legitimately protested to the proposed extension to the existing morally reprehensible desecration of the sacred ground by miners ripping apart its rich volcanic soil to extract the coal that lies beneath it. Their protest took the form of a petition presented to state parliament requesting they reject the application of New Acland Coal Mine Stage 3 Expansion Project  to extend the company’s existing mining operations to within 5 kilometres from the township of Oakey. The petitioners do not want it to come any closer than 12 kilometres.   

Such a resolute initiative is unprecedented on the part of country folk widely renowned for their habitual complacency and easy going nature. It is not, by any means, an outright rejection of the proposed coal mining extension. It is a very reasonable and intelligent compromise, which preserves the heritage rights and obligations of the guardians of the region without depriving the nation of the economic advantage of exploiting the riches of its sub-soil on the international markets. The petitioners’ initiative is void of any venal or mercantile considerations. It is solely motivated by the desire to preserve and protect their lifestyle and rightful heritage. These are things money can’t buy.

This is not a question for technicians to decide, no matter how competent they may be. It is a moral, social and political question for our collective conscience and for those in whom we have placed our confidence to exercise it on our behalf, people with whom hopefully, we share the same sense of values and religious beliefs.