Putty Rally against Strategic Regional Land Use Plan

The Putty community and people downstream came together for a rally at the Putty Hall on Sunday 1 April.

The rally was organised as a protest against the NSW Government’s Strategic Regional Land Use Plan (SRLUP) for the Upper Hunter which has the Putty area mapped as an area with potential for coal seam gas extraction and open-cut and/or underground coal mining.

Two books were launched by Luke Foley, Labor Shadow Minister for the Environment, at the rally. The Putty Valley, a political landscape is an evocative picture book of the valley, showing its relationship with the National Parks. Wombats’ Tale is a children’s book of the changing world of wombats at Putty. Both books are on sale to fund independent water studies of the area.

Other speakers were Geoff King, President of the Putty Community Association, Tim Spooner, local landholder and Graham Rand, President of the Hawkesbury Environmental Network. Journalist Lee Jeloscek and a camera crew from Channel 7 filmed the event for the evening news.

The Putty Community Association’s CSG Subcommittee organised this event to highlight the following -

 - The Putty area is surrounded by World Heritage National Parks

- Putty should not be included in the Upper Hunter Plan as its water flows into the Hawkesbury, impacting on Hawkesbury roads and rivers not the Hunter

- The Government has broken its election promise of protecting high value conservation lands and stating that mining and coal seam gas extraction should not occur in sensitive areas.

- The date for submissions from the public for the SRLUP should be extended as the deadline on 3 May is the same day that the Government’s CSG Inquiry’s findings are to be released.

- SRLUP does not address the problems of exploration or exempt any land from exploration.

- SRLUP is a political document, lacking in supporting data