3CR
 Community Radio 855am

THE RADIO-ACTIVE SHOW

With Eric Miller, Ila Marks and Cherrie

Saturday at 10.00 am

11th September 1999

ConRadSat 18.04 - 18.32 (Thursday 16th September)

Hello and Welcome to the Radioactive Show brought to you by the Sustainable Energy and Anti-Uranium Service. My name is Cherrie and with me in the studio is Eric Miller. The Radioactive Show is a weekly program bringing you news and information on nuclear, peace and energy issues. On today's show we speak with Joe Valentine about what's been happening with the international radioactive waste dump, and Pangea in Western Australia. But first we hear from Kevin Buzzacotte, Arabunna elder, who is claiming Arabunna land from WMC, Western Mining Corporation, at a camp set up on Stuart Creek Station overlooking Lake Eyre South. We heard last week that Kevin lost his case of genocide against the federal government and WMC. Western Mining Corporation own the giant copper and uranium mine at Roxby Downs 180 kilometres to the south. It is from the Lake Eyre area that WMC get the water for their mine from the Great Artesian Basin. The students on the South Australian Tour stopped and camped with Kevin and the Keepers of Lake Eyre. After the students had set up camp, Kevin lit a fire and they sat in a circle and listened to what he had to say.

Kevin Buzacott: A special welcome to you all, the whole of lot of you, OK, to Arabunna country.

Student: could we just go around and say where we're from?

Kevin Buzacott: That would be good, if you go around ….. alright.

Students: Sophie, from Melbourne … I'm Ila from Friends of the Earth in Melbourne … I'm Jennifer and I'm from Canada … Kate from New Zealand, but living in Brisbane … Jim from Melbourne … I'm Tim from Darwin, up in the Territory … Bruce from Friends of the Earth, Adelaide … Michael from Mount Barker … Heidi … Adam from Canada … Dennis from Adelaide, from the Conservation Council … .

Kevin Buzacott: So welcome, feel relaxed. I want you to relax yourself, feel at home. … We're glad you're here. That's why we lit da old fire, because the old fire is the totem, is the boss of this country. In the creation time , since creation time began the Arabunna people … our boss is here, the fire. That's our totem, for this country. It's higher than any of us, so to speak. Western Mining don't own this country, this ones the boss of this country. Also, it born me, my families, so we're like a tool or messenger carrying it out. And that's what I been doing. Any how we're all meant to be here for a reason, that's why you mob are here. You're not here for your good looks, or for your money or what ever, for you parties and fun. You can have that too, but we got to look at the cause.

Focus on the cause, what's happening. I see people as the real guardian, the keepers of this earth, and that is what we got to look at. And we just got to tell these destructionists or developers, or what ever they want to be called, straight. 'Hey, you can't do it. That's it finish. So if they drop all that development stuff now, like Roxby Downs and that, then we might have a chance, because hundreds and hundreds of years of patching up the damage they've done already. So we have to nail them pretty quick, Honeymoon and Beverley, where you people have come through, all those issues, where your going, they got to be nail quick otherwise we wont have much time. We've got hundreds and hundreds of years now, a couple of generations of work to do as it is, even if we stopped them tomorrow, or today. We going to have to spend the rest of our lives and the next lot of generation lives, and the next lot, to patch up and fix up the damage that they've done.

That was one of the reasons we set up camp here. One of our biggest nightmares here is WMC, since it started, Roxby Downs, Olympic Dam as they call it, and how they got into this country through the back door. They conned people, they brought people, they gave them grog, they gave them money, they gave them cars, they gave some people jobs, they divided people just like that, … made brothers kill brothers, sisters kill sisters. There's been big wars, big fights here about this country. And I'm saying now Hey the whole lot of you people, the whole lot of you authorities including Western Mining, the kings and the queens, I don't mind who they are … bring them here and I will show them who owns this country, who is boss of this country. And this country wasn't created to be used is that way, the way they're doing. Take the water, dig up this stuff, and go and bomb peoples and make trouble and all that disease and what ever with it, and then when its finished bring it back and dump it up here.

Cherrie: It was in the early 80's when WMC came up to Arabunna land to extract the water from the Great Artesian Basin. They developed Borefield A, part of which is on Finnis Springs Station, a pastoral lease then owned by Arabunna people. The Arabunna watched mound springs, which are fed by the Great Artesian Basin dry up. The springs a significant to the Arabunna and are unique ecosystems in an otherwise dry environment.

Kevin Buzzacott: They're frightened to come through the front door. They wouldn't even got one shovel, let alone dig what they got there. Even those roads to Borefield A and Borefield B, all that destruction and desecration of sacred places. They went where we don't even go. Since time began there's places there we've got we our old ancestors never ever went. We look at it from a long way away and we love it. … 'Hello, old country' … We not allowed there, we got to go around, whether its hundred miles around, or four days trip around, we're got to go around we can’t go to those places. These mining companies, surveyors, or what ever they're called, just walked straight in put a peg here, put this here, put that there, drill a bore here, drill a bore there. We say,

'"Hey, you've desecrated that sacred site."

"Oh we never done anything."

"But the mere fact that you went there. You're the first man or human being that ever been there. You've desecrated that site."

And that's the sort of thing we've got, that we’ve got to put up with, and we're got the wear that. It doesn't go down that well in the nerve and in the heart. We got to think about things you know. When you see a sacred site destroyed before you and you can't do anything about it. You go there and touch these workers and these mobs, you get 10 years jail. You're the law-breaker, you're the trespasser. You're the bad person trying to do that, trying to save that sacred site. Like here now, we're trying to save the lake, we're trying to save the mound springs. We're trying to save these other places.

On top of that we're trying to save our own selves. Because we've been moved away, we've got not one inch of this country. We ain't got control of what this mob do. There's tourists come and go, mining companies come and go. And everyone running a mock. And we say,

"Hey here we are, what about us".

So you got that stuff .. you got all that as well to cope with, you wonder why our mobs are on the grog and all that stuff. Suicide, you wonder why people are wiping themselves out. So we just got to keep finding the strength to keep going. And somebody has to take it up to these people. And that's why I'll glad you mob are here, because you mob are part of that … to take that up to these peoples. We got to lift the game look at the course, we're fighting for peace and … really we can't waste a minute so to speak. Through my ancestors or government is to remove the evil off my land. I was born to do that, otherwise I'm not worth it to myself. I have to make peace to that land, I have to make peace to my people, and I really have to put it up to these people. And I want to try to do it best way I can …..

Cherrie: You are listening to the Radioactive Show and Kevin Buzzacotte, an Arabunna elder is telling us how he came to set up the camp at Lake Eyre South with support and help from a group called Keepers of the Lake. Kevin feels responsible for how the water is used as well as being responsible for looking after the land. The Roxby mine, 180 kilometres south of Lake Eyre is on Kokatha land. The mine is situated on a sacred site. The Sleepy Lizard Resting-Place. The uranium is mined at Roxby, but the water they use comes from Arabunna land in the Lake Eyre South area.

Kevin Buzzacott: They are very special places these springs. They not just the springs, the water, it's everything that's in it the old ancestors spirit, the whole birds and animals that created these springs. That’s their soul. When I die I go in there too as well. They are floated around, or what ever word you want to use. They're in the ground, they're in the animals they're in the water. And I keep saying that water, in the spirit in the heart, is more deadly then, I say, than the uranium. Although the uranium there is a sacred place to that animal there … it's our animal. It doesn't only belong to one group of people. It belongs to us through the fire, through the creators, all those spirits.

I said it before, I'll say it again, that the main buyers, I think there's nine countries, people have got it here, it's on paper. There's nine main buyers of Roxby's uranium. Now those nine countries have got to be fronted, and say Hey you people are killing us over here by … you're killing our religion and our belief by sponsoring, or buying that uranium from Roxby Downs. You're killing the country, and you're killing that Lake, and you're killing the people, and your killing the sacred mound springs and you're killing them hills and them stones and they mix that water with the uranium from that old animal. And then over there, those nine countries make up NATO. They are joined with others, so many other countries, nineteen all together and they are NATO. So they go in a peace group like this, and bomb, that's how they make peace, they bomb all these people and their country using that stuff.

I mean that's gone too far. It's one substance, or mineral that should never be touched. We never dig big holes in the ground and touch stuff like that. …. And then, Iike, I said at the end of the day bringing it back here. I said they're taking too much water, if they were taking water for the town at Roxby, just for people to live that's a different thing, but not to treat uranium. Not that amount of water. They have to come back and do it properly. We got a lot of water here. We was always was meant to share that water. The old people when they travel .. we got to give people water, the birds they got to have water, the animals, they got to have water. We can't stop then from having the water but not for this use what they're doing.

A couple of bits of wood there … we chuck them on .. a couple of you might grab a couple of sticks and put them on …

You need to look at the shareholders list. I think here's some around, kicking around …. The shareholders list .. people need to front these people … there's different religious groups, church groups and so and banks and all that stuff people need to go to them and tell them. So you've got a lot of work to do. And you can do that I know you can, because that's why you're here. And it's only people like us here that can do it. If we're going to make the changes, if we're going to make the peace at the end of the day, it's only people like us that's going to do it ….. videos and recording .. so each one of you go back and tell two people each, get them to tell two more people …surly you know two people … get those up here or give them a round of what you're learning up here … so you can tell this other mob to get up here…. So we can live in peace.

Cherrie :In 1991 the Arabunna People wanted to make Finniss Springs Station a National Park with them as joint managers like Kakadu and Uraru. But WMC wanted to build a pipe line across it to a new bore field further north, Bore field B. Pressure was put on the State government and Finniss was never made a National Park. The station next to Finnis is Stuart Creek Station, it is also Arabunna land. The Arabunna made it known that were interested in buying the4 Stuart Creek Station lease. However it was sold secretly to WMC, who own a number of stations in the area.

Kevin Buzzacott: This land you're sitting on here now, back here you've got Finniss Springs, where you camped last night, now you're camped on Western Mining's country, on paper, they done a deal with Kidman and now they own this Stuart Creek Station. And I think they own some of the others back towards Roxby, just like they did with Roxby, they brought it off this mob and turned it into what it is. We're squatters on this land, we're trespassers on this land. That's what I said to the mob let's go there and camp and test them out, and that’s what we're doing. And I've given them two eviction notices already. I'll give them one more. That's the last one, the final eviction, get off Arabunna country notice. That's it. They will get a notice, as soon as they draw it up. Western Mining should vacate, pull up all their doings and take it off this land or it will be moved for them. I know we've got them worried, we got the government all across this country worried about this sort of move. They don't like to see people like us stick together, to make peace, become friends

Cherrie: That was Kevin Buzzacotte, Arabunna elder. Kevin and 6 other people are at this moment camped at Olympic Dam on the leasehold area near Roxby. They are there to meet the Humps Not Dumps Camel Trekkers, who are expected to arrive in Roxby on Tuesday. The music in that interview is the Kungka Tjuta women from Coober Pedy singing a song against the radioactive waste dump planned for that area. We will keep you up to date on what happens with Kevin and the Humps Not Dumps Camel Trekkers on future shows.

But now to Joe Valentine. … Two weeks ago we heard how anti-nuclear campaigners in Western Australia were trying to get Pangea Resources, the company that wants to build an international waste dump banned in Australia. Now the Labour Opposition in Western Australia has introduced a bill into the state parliament that will prohibit a Pangea style international waste dump. Eric Miller asked Joe Valentine … did the Premier of Western Australia, Richard Court make a statement to parliament about Pangea?

Joe Valentine: Yes, the premier did say, 'no, he's not no intention of encouraging Pangea', and hasn't met with them and all that stuff. But quite frankly people aren’t really taking that at face value. We've heard that sort of statement before where the government denied having anything to do with a particular project and then you find out later that they've had lots of meetings. Or that their ministerial advisers have had lots of meetings. And that's exactly what's happened here. Ian Fletcher who used to work with the premier is right in there with Pangea. He has left the premiers employment, but of course the links are obviously still there to some extent. And probably while he was in the premier's employment he was having a lot of his preliminary meetings with Pangea.

 

Eric Miller: Now this is all to do with a leadership contest that is going on in W. A.

 

Joe Valentine: Now that's another thing. Yes, Colin Barnett who is the deputy premier, I think he played his hand too fast, too early for Pangea basically. He is very pro uranium mining want's to see uranium mining going ahead. And he says there are at least seven out of the eleven proposed mines that could be going by the end of next year. And of course he couples that with saying, 'well if we are exporting uranium we've got a moral responsibility to take back the waste'. Which of course is not cutting much ice with the rest of the people here in Western Australia or I hope around the country. Because we should not be mining uranium, but even with mining uranium our moral obligation is to look after the waste we produce, which is the tailings and the Lucus Heights left overs. So we have quite a bit to deal with of our own.

 

And he I think came our too quickly and too vermently for the waste dump proposal and he has gone very quite in the last ten days or so. The Labour Party has put up a bill before the parliament which would outlaw an international waste dump in Western Australia, but the government is saying that they are not going to support it. Despite officially they are saying that they do not support Pangea.

 

People are steamed up about it the do not want Pangea here and we will be unwelcoming the company when they open there doors here in Perth very soon.

 

Eric Miller: So the premier sees it that it will shore up his support by looking like he is against the Pangea proposal?

 

Joe Valentine: Yes, and that is one of the comments that we have heard that he has denied … is that it has been talked about with him and he has said that he is going to go very quiet on it. And this would be the smart thing to do from his point of view. You would stay very quiet about it or deny any support for Pangea, until after the state election which is not until after next year, or even into the year after that. So he has got quite a long time to stay very quiet. But his cover has been blown.

 

Eric Miller: So it looks like the people of Western Australia are doing a lot of good work in gaining support in against the Pangea proposal.

 

Joe Valentine: Yes, we have people queuing up to sign petitions, which is rather encouraging. Not that petitions on their own are going to do a dam thing. But people are actually saying they don't want this proposal to go ahead …… and like a revitalisation of the whole anti-nuclear movement around Pangea.. So certainly there is a lot of interest and that is people right across the board. They just know that we do not have a moral obligation to be taking the world's nuclear waste. The companies that make the waste in the countries overseas that are getting the so called benefits of nuclear power have got to look after the waste in situ, because of the extra-ordinary dangers with transporting, this material all around the globe

Cherrie: That was Eric speaking with Joe Valentine ex-Senator and anti nuclear activists.

We urge every one every where to contact someone ... a local group who are working with the people of East Timor ….. there's lots of demonstrations this week. Also write, fax Downer, Howard … just do what you can to help East Timore.

That’s all from the Radioactive Show now being heard on the Community Radio Satellite Network. The Radioactive Show is produced in studios of 3CR. You are able to e-mail us if you have an issue you want raised or any comments about the programs, you will find us at ra3cr@hotmail.com And of course our web address www.sea-us.org.au And you can read transcripts of the show at that address.

Transcript produced by Ila Marks - with much thanks!!!
Page last updated October 10, 1999.
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