If there is one thing that can be relied on when it comes to Lismore City Council's elected representatives, it is that Cr. Big Rob, formerly known as Robert Bou-Hamdan, will seek to tear down rather than build on past community achievements.
This is yet another case in point.....
ECHO, 13 December 2024:
Lismore councillors Big Rob and Andrew Bing have led the charge to remove all CSG (coal seam gas) and nuclear free area signs from the Lismore local government area (LGA).
Speaking to the motion at the December 10 council meeting Cr Rob made it clear he wasn’t happy with what he sees as the negative messaging that the ‘CSG and nuclear free’ statement on the welcome to Lismore signage.
‘I even don’t like the signs on the bins, it has like 20 different things you cannot do,’ said Cr Rob emphasising his point.
Supporting the motion Cr Electra Jensen told the meeting that while she had supported the ‘No CSG’ campaign at the time but ‘we don’t want to rehash history [we want to] look to the future… it is time to move on.’....
Councillors voted six to four in favour of removing the CSG signs with Crs Gordon, Battista, Rob, Bing, Jensen and Krieg in favour and Crs Dalton-Earls, Knight-Smith, Guise and Waters opposed.
Following the meeting a rescission motion has been lodged by Crs Knight-Smith, Guise and Waters.
‘The fact that 87 per cent of LGA voted to be CSG free means the Krieg team would have their own constituents who would have supported the referendum,’ Cr Guise told The Echo.
‘I’d like them to listen to the sentiment of the community and recognise that they should proudly display those signs as a symbol of community pride and what we have gained from being gasfield free.
‘We’ve got a united, powerful community, we have protected our farmland, we have clean air and water. These signs are something that a farming and a food growing region should be proud of as it is essential to a food growing and agricultural region to have clean farmland and water,’ he said.
‘CSG is still a clear-a-present danger. You have communities fighting against gas fields across NSW and Australia right now. CSG is a dirty fossil fuel on par or worse than coal.’.....
Crs Gordon, Battista, Rob, Bing, Jensen and Krieg have chosen to ignore the long history of exploration and mining in north-east New South Wales from the 19th century to the present 21st century - gold, silver, copper, tin, antimony, coal, asbestos, mineral sands & coal seam gas being the principal commodities sought by the mining industry.
These councillors turn their eyes and minds from those maps showing current mining titles and exploration leases, as well as from maps pockmarked with coal seam gas drilling holes that Northern Rivers communities fought hard to stop proliferating ahead of then proposed gas fields.
Mining industry history across Australia clearly shows that mining titles can endure across many lifetimes, often changing hands down the years as long-term investments. History also shows us that state governments can and do grant new exploration licenses in areas where mining leases have lapsed or been dissolved by previous governments.
There is no binding 'never ever' promise on the part of governments when it comes to minerals, ores & metals that can still be found in the ground.
BACKGROUND
All current north-east NSW mining titles & applications for mineral and energy resource exploration, assessment and production, where a company or individual has the right to explore for or extract resources including petroleum, minerals and coal. All current titles for mineral and energy resource exploration, assessment and production.
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| MinView Geoscience Planning Portal mapping |
All current & past north-east NSW exploratory drilling sites. Past coal seam gas drilling sites marked in yellow.
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| MinView Geoscience Planning Portal mapping |
3.GEOLOGICAL SETTING, excerpt from Assessment of Mineral Resources in the Upper North East CRA Study Area:
The Upper North East Region (UNER) has a complex geological history extending from about 600 million years ago to the present. Rocks in the region have been brought together from sites of deposition as far away as sub-Antarctic areas. The region has undergone massive upheavals and some rock sequences which now abut were formed in different parts of the globe in settings ranging from volcanic island arcs to swampy basins. The area has been relatively stable as part of the Australian continent since about 200 million years ago but there have been periods of considerable volcanic activity most recently about 40-15 million years ago. Large parts of the region are now in an active erosional cycle but deposition of new sediments is occurring in many coastal lake and river systems.
The UNER covers rocks of the New England Orogen (or New England fold belt), the Clarence-Moreton Basin and associated sub-basins, and younger rocks of Tertiary and Quaternary age which overlie these major provinces. The New England Orogen is a major geological zone which extends from the Newcastle area north to Far North Queensland. The Orogen comprises many rocks which formed in highly active geological regions where sediments from the deep ocean were being subducted and thrust into the Australian land mass at that time. They were mixing with sediments formed from the eroding mountains and volcanoes which existed on the margins of the continent. The Orogen has a complex structural history and the sedimentary rocks are generally folded and regionally metamorphosed. The Orogen includes a major plutonic province and there are numerous intrusive units, generally felsic in character, as well as extrusive volcanic rocks of similar age and composition.
In the north eastern part of the UNER the Orogen rocks are overlain by relatively flat-lying sediments of the Clarence-Moreton Basin (C-MB) and underlying sub-basins. This major basin formed after the crust had stabilised. This basin covers the New England Orogen rocks completely just north of the Region and sedimentary units can be traced across to the west to join with units comprising the vast sedimentary basins of central Australia.
During the Tertiary Epoch basaltic volcanism occurred along eastern Australia and was related to the formation of the Tasman Sea. Remnants of very large continental basaltic shield volcanoes are present in the Region, the major one being the Tweed volcano centred at Mount Warning. There has been substantial erosion throughout the region since these volcanoes formed.
Erosion has produced a major escarpment which extends through the UNER. Huge gorge systems have developed and the material removed has been deposited in coastal regions in rivers and lakes and out to sea.
[Assessment of Mineral Resources in the Upper North East CRA Study Area: A project undertaken as part of the NSW Comprehensive Regional Assessments, November 1999, p.4]
