🚨 Please help us protect Australia’s longest estuary, Tasmania’s only mesotidal drowned river valley, home to 153 threatened species and 1/5 of all Tasmanian’s from further industrial destruction enabled by the rezoning of Agricultural Land to Light Industrial, and Crown Land to Port and Marine 🚨

UPDATE: Please donate to the Go Fund Me which has been created to help us fund legal representation. All info about this is on the go fund me page. If you have any questions, please feel free to email protectthetamar@gmail.com

This petition is calling upon the Tasmanian Planning Commission to reject the current rezoning proposal submitted by Georgetown Council in lutruwita Tasmania. See the proposal here

Rio Tinto owns a total of 1958 hectares of land, most of which is located directly along the bank of the estuary. If this rezoning goes ahead, it could set a precedent for more of this land to be rezoned in order to facilitate industrial development. 

Already situated on this Rio Tinto land and built in 1955 is Bell Bay, Tasmania's largest heavy industrial area, covering approximately 28 square kilometres. Within this precinct is TEMCO which has been under immense scrutiny for its impact on the environment, wildlife, and residents. Sadly, Tasmania’s first Environment Protection Act didn’t come into effect until 1973, and TEMCO’s first environment license was issued in 1996. 

You can read more about it here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We do NOT want a repeat of this industrial destruction which has lead to heavy metal contamination within the estuary including levels of Lead, Zinc, Cadmium and Copper above the ANZECC Guideline. This pollution has lead the Tasmanian Health Department declaring oysters within the estuary unsafe for consumption due to heavy metal contamination. You can read more here

 

• At 70km long, Australia’s longest estuary is home to protected species such as the Big-belly Seahorse & Weedy Seadragon.

• 153 threatened species are known to occur within the Tamar Valley.

• The Tamar Island Reserve (situated within kanamaluka/Tamar estuary) is known habitat for both of Tasmania’s threatened frog species The Green and Gold Frog and The Striped Marsh Frog.

• 60 species of birdlife are known to occur at the Tamar Island Wetlands including vulnerable and threatened species such as the White Bellied Sea Eagle and northern-hemisphere migrators, the Common Greenshank.

• kanamaluka is the only estuary of it’s type (mesotidal drowned river valley) in Tasmania.

• The catchment area of the estuary is around 11,000km2, which is 20% of Tasmania!

• kanamaluka / Tamar estuary contains 11 protected reserves, historic sites, and conservation areas

• The estuary supports the second-largest concentration of people in Tasmania, with a total population of 103,966 living in the 3 separate council areas (Launceston, West Tamar, and Georgetown) which border on the estuary.

• kanamaluka/Tamar estuary is also part of the East-Asian flyway; a migratory corridor which is the most densely populated flyway in the world and traverses 37 countries. All 600+ species of birds using this corridor are protected under federal legislation, and kanamaluka/Tamar estuary provides habitat to over 20 migratory bird species.

• kanamaluka/Tamar estuary runs through Tasmania’s largest wine region

 

Diagram of proposed rezoning:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rio Tinto’s Land Title:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rio Tinto’s land placed over a satellite view of the land beneath:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Levels of heavy metals found in different sections of the estuary ranging from 1966-1992. It’s important to note that the Bell Bay precinct is situated in Deceitful Cove. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If any of this interests you, you would like to know more, and/or you would like to contact the organisers of this petition, please join Protect The Tamar facebook group and contact the admins. Thank you and please share this! 💖