No Tillegra Dam Group

Living River Group Press Release to Dungog Chronicle Wednesday 29 November 2006:

At a Public Meeting in Dungog last Thursday night it was resolved to take the issue of the Tillegra Dam to candidates at the next State election. More than fifty people came to the Doug Walters Pavilion, many still struggling to come to grips with the Iemma government’s sudden announcement on 13th November that work on the dam would begin immediately.

Water management expert Dr Simon Fane from the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology, Sydney, spoke on strategies for cost-effective water supply and distribution and the advantages of demand management over large dam construction.

Water engineer and Newcastle City Councillor Michael Osborne urged that Tillegra Dam construction would be far less cost effective than many demand management and water conservation initiatives, citing Port Macquarie as a shining example of the application of water recycling.

Many speakers from the floor expressed powerfully their resentment at the way the decision was announced. Judy McDonald spoke of her family’s suffering in accepting that they would sell up and move out of the valley. Anne McDonald also spoke for those who had fought for decades to continue a farming tradition running for generations on Williams valley land, but who could see no way out this time.

Rodney Rumbel set the tone for resistance when he urged that the community “get stuck into this government”. But the urge to fight was tempered by consideration for those who had already opted to move on and start again elsewhere, and a concern that confronting the issue in the lead-up to the March election might just prolong the pain.

The meeting came to a consensus on four points:

• This meeting is deeply concerned at the pain and loss that the decision to build the Tillegra Dam is causing, especially to those whose homes and farms will be lost.
• This meeting appeals for the retention of the Upper Williams valley in its productive agricultural state, with its pristine river environment.
• The premier Mr Morris Iemma will be advised that this meeting strongly opposes the immediate building of the Tillegra Dam while accepting Hunter Water Corporation’s Integrated Water Resources Plan, and awaits the next election before accepting any change in the status quo.
• The member for Upper Hunter Mr George Souris will be advised that the community seeks from the Coalition a proposal to place a moratorium on the Tillegra Dam while undertaking integrated planning involving Lostock Dam, the Central Coast water authorities, Hunter Water and recycling and demand management consultants, for a long-term strategy which does not require the Tillegra Dam.

A committee has been formed to take the fight to the politicians and carry through to a further public meeting planned for December.