QLD:Wild Rivers push leaves miners up creek

AAP General News (Australia)
12-15-2010
QLD:Wild Rivers push leaves miners up creek

BRISBANE, Dec 15 AAP - Miners say they face great uncertainty over a proposal to declare
Queensland's Cooper Creek Basin a wild river area.

The state government on Tuesday proposed protecting the basin, in the state's west,
under its controversial Wild Rivers laws.

The basin covers 244,000 square kilometres and includes communities at Longreach, Barcaldine,
Blackall and Windorah.

Cooper Creek is formed by the junction of the Thomson and the Barcoo rivers before
it spreads into an enormous area of braided, shifting streams known as the Channel Country,
where Boulia Shire occupies more than 60,000 square kilometres.

Given enough rain these waters gradually flow to Lake Eyre.

Almost the entire basin is covered by oil, gas and geothermal exploration permits and
production leases.

Queensland Resources Council chief executive Michael Roche on Wednesday called on the
government to quickly clarify how proposed high preservation areas in the basin would
affect mining activity.

He said a Wild Rivers declaration would potentially lock the sector out of large swathes
of the Cooper Basin, including 16 major tributaries and swamplands stretching to the Galilee
Basin in central Queensland.

"Alarmingly, the eastern portion of the Cooper Creek nomination overlaps a huge section
of the Galilee Basin, where a number of companies are planning multi-billion dollar investments
in mega-coal mines, including many that have secured significant project status from the
Coordinator-General," Mr Roche said.

He said the QRC would be closely examining detailed maps to understand which existing
projects are at risk, and the longer term risk of sterilising resources in lightly explored
parts of the Cooper Creek area.

There are 10 declared Wild Rivers in Queensland, and those on Cape York have provoked
bitter debate among landholders, miners and indigenous communities.

The laws were introduced in 2005 to protect the health of Queensland's wild rivers
by placing limits on development but opponents claim they unfairly restrict indigenous
people's economic opportunities.

AAP stg/tnf

KEYWORD: RIVERS QLD

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