I feel sick, anxious, apprehensive and at the same time confident  and keen to just get going. There have been some set-backs with extra work required and training is almost non-existent with just six walks up the Lismore hill so far. This has shown some bugs in the old kayak wheel setup but hey, a good engineer should be able to sort that out. This time I will try not to go like a bull at a gate from the start so I’m hoping the extra maturity will compensate for lack of fitness.

Two days ago Klaas’s eldest son, Dirk, ended his life. That is just so sad for the whole family. Even outsiders like me have not been immune from tears so I can only imagine their pain.

Monday is media engagements at Lismore and Ballina and then Klaas and I are off. What is not done by then won’t happen. Only 220km walking and 110km paddling by the end of January so that’s no big deal, surely.

Sunshine Coast ABC Radio with Annie Gaffney who read out this from the web site:“species loss, habitat loss, sustainable fishery loss, health problems with fisherman, scandalous performance of CSIRO, abysmal engineering practice, destruction of Curtis Island… the list goes on. The big problem is that they got away with it.”

I was able to answer that I had my information from a fish vet who was heavily involved in the biology, a doctor who was embroiled when trying to save a fisherman’s leg along with other disastrous health issues, and as an engineer following the bund wall saga.

At the end of the interview Annie asked what I thought of the  just announced USA/China emissions agreement, and would that make a difference to our leaders. I answered that the agreement was a start, and better than nothing.  Also if you are an unfettered free market capitalist believer, that will be the essence of your being, your core belief. If climate change is real then your core belief system is wrong and it can’t be, therefore climate change cannot be real. So no, our government will not be swayed. They have not been swayed by the unequivocal scientific evidence so nothing will shift them.

Then it was over to Sunshine Coast Uni with the sustainability mob and after my presentation a thought provoking exchange.

To finish off it was back to Lismore via Riverview where I picked up some things. From Bundaberg to the Sunshine Coast I had been treated like royalty. Being well remembered with a bit of ego massaging thrown in wasn’t hard to take at all. The five year anniversary of the Peter Garret announcement that the dam would not proceed was the day before the Bundaberg interview. A fitting note on which to finish a quick trip where both Connor and I  learned a lot ready for the real thing next year.

Big day. Rode down to Mackay and stopped to take advantage of Gemma’s hospitality and check emails at the Mackay Conservation Group. Kept going to Bundaberg which was about 1100km for the day.

Easy couple of hours to Airlie Beach. The area is a lot different to when I was here about three decades ago. Proserpine looks forgotten. Airlie Beach is modern and the main street area looks great, even if council is heavily in debt. Cannonvale has grown unbelievably and both places join together, so it is sort of like a mini Hervey Bay.

Drying out at the Cannonvale caravan park

I attended a Whitsunday Residents Against Dumping (WRAD) meeting which is trying to stop the Abbott Point Coal terminal ecocide. Most Queenslanders think they had a win when the Newman government said it would pump the dredged spoil to land and not dump it on the reef. What they didn’t say is that it is to go into the wetland adjacent to the port.

Jeff Seeney reckoned their original proposal was to put it into an area that was underwater desert. Ignorance in the extreme! The area is between the reef and the land which is like a marine highway. Fish spawn near the seagrass and mangroves. The resulting baby fish grow up in wetlands and seagrass and gradually move out to the reef using what are called isolates. These are very small patches where they congregate before moving on. The government’s proposal was like taking a link out of a chain and wondering why it won’t still work.

So after the public outcry they are proposing another Gladstone. Trust us they say. With a track record of one gross fail out of one? Sure.

Why did the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority agree to dumping at sea? I have no idea, because scientifically it ain’t smart. Corruption? You decide. What I would say is that GBRMPA has lost any public license to be involved in the wetland dumping debacle with its current chairman. They have painted themselves into a corner that they cannot get out of without a sacrificial lamb.

There were sixteen passionate people at the meeting – high energy and commitment – so I have hope that they will be effective.

In front of the Fat Frog cafe at Cannonvale where Gemma bought me a milkshake

The next meeting was the Whitsunday Local Advisory Committee. There were about a dozen there with four from GBRMPA. One of them gave a presentation on Crown of Thorns, they call ‘em COTs up here. This is what I learned:

1. They are natural although there is some doubt about the severity of outbreaks. If outbreaks before 1960 were as severe there probably would be no reef.
2. Need more than 15 per hectare to start an outbreak
3. They eat 150-250 cm² of coral per day per COT
4. They spawn Oct-Feb with millions of eggs that spread on the current so they have enormous reproductive potential
5. There have been four recorded outbreaks. 1960s, 1979, 1993, 2010
6. Outbreaks start near Lizard island and move south in waves
7. There are different types of COTs in many parts of the world

In summary it is likely that they have been increasing but we don’t know. If they have, we don’t know why, despite a plethora of theories. Note that it was not until the 1960s that diving and fast outboards turned up.

Stopped at Gladstone. The coal port there caused untold havoc – generation of toxic algae, hundreds of dead turtles and dugong, habitat loss, sustainable fishery loss, health problems with fisherman, scandalous performance of CSIRO, abysmal engineering practice, destruction of Curtis Island… the list goes on. The big problem is that they got away with it. An even bigger problem is that many people don’t care. It’s depressing really, so I shot through to Mackay.

Mackay greeted me with a drenching. The company was good though. During the downpour I dropped into the Mackay Conservation Group, but only Moira was home. Ellen arrived back by bus at 9.00pm and Gemma was in Airlie Beach. Moira organized for me to stay at the share house where I met Phil. He told me that Mackay was better now. The drunks on meths have gone and the streets are safe at night which 18mths ago they certainly weren’t.

Conservation is tough in Mackay. It loves mining, even though mining pushed prices of everything through the roof, and caused a loss in population of 10,000 people when the bubble burst. The local Italian eatery had a wine list with about half the bottles over $150 each. The house red at about five bucks a glass was fine though. A marina berth is still 60% more than Brisbane, so maybe there is still some rationalization left to occur.

With mines cutting jobs and increasing mechanization Phil reckons depression is a big problem. Luckily our politicians understand that coal is good eh!