AUTUMN 2011 10 YEARS OF LIVING IN SIN — STRADDIE ISLAND NEWS 13

NEWS

The premier and the minister visitedStraddie to declare the 5240 hectareNaree Budjong Djara national park,covering 20 per cent of the Island andtaking in tracts of Main Beach, Fresh-

water Creek, the area around Swan Bay, Stin-garee Island, and Eighteen Mile Swamp.

The public declaration of Naree BudjongDjara national park, which means MyMother Earth in local Aboriginal language,came days after Minister Jones had pre-sented a bill to parliament legislating an earlyend to sand mining.

According to a joint media statement is-sued by Premier Bligh and Minister Jones,traditional Island owners were invited toname the new park and will jointly manageit with government. But not all IndigenousElders on Straddie were invited to take partin the naming or the public announcement.

Aunty Margaret Iselin of the Minjer-ribah-Moorgumpin Elders in Council toldSIN neither she nor her fellow Elders wereaware of or invited to the highly publicisednational park declaration. While the pre-mier and the minister addressed the mediaon the Causeway, Aunty Margaret, UnclePat and other Minjerribah-MoorgumpinElders were hosting their own VIP visitor inDunwich, the first Aboriginal minister to beordained in the Church of England. (seestory page 10).

“We were tied up with that, but in themeantime we did not know anything[about the national park announcement]

until we saw the news on the TV that night,”Aunty Margaret told SIN. “None of our Eld-ers knew it was on, there were only a certainfew that knew. It’s very sad when you’velived on the Island all your life, and you’renot informed of these things happening.

“You know, if you’re coming to an Islandto make an announcement as big as this,from making it national park to cuttingdown on the mining, don’t you think thatthe whole of the community on the Islandshould be notified? I think so.”

While accepting that sand mining willeventually end, Aunty Margaret believes thereduced timeframe announced by theBligh Government will be detrimental tothe community.

“They [the mines] have only eight yearsto work on projects. And this is what theywere hoping: to help our community geton our feet so that we would have some-thing when national parks takes over, buteight years is not enough.

“The saddest part about it from ourpoint of view, Uncle Pat and I, is that youngfamilies that are here on the Island willhave to move if the mining closes down. Wehave great grandchildren at the school, andit’s very sad that they’ll have to move away from here and start afreshwhich will be very hard on them.

“Uncle Pat and I, well, we’re over 80years old and we understand the Island ...we’d like people to acknowledge us as Eld-ers. It is a divided community with these is-

Division over new park

Premier Anna Bligh and environment resourcemanagement minister Kate Jones fast-tracked theirnational park plan, bringing cries of dismay from pro-mining circles and chants of “too little too late” fromconservationists.

KEY DATESOF MINING PHASE-OUT• Yarraman mine to close in 2015

• The largest sand mine, Enterprise,shutting in 2019

• The final mine, Vance, to close in 2025

• 75% of the Island national park by 2021

• 80% of the Island national park by 2026

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sues here on the Island and it is somethingthat I do not like because we were always aclose knit community and always helpedone another.”

Kate Jones told SIN the Minjerribah-Moorgumpin Elders were not intentionallyleft out of the announcement.

“I am committed to developing a sustain-able future for North Stradbroke Island andwant to work with the Island’s traditionalowners to achieve this,” the minister said.“We will continue to work with the Quan-damooka and their legal representatives ... toensure all interested parties are representedat future events.”

Speaking at the national park announc-ment, Premier Bligh said: “This is the start ofsomething big for Straddie. For the firsttime, it will be opened up for us all to enjoy– whether it’s families fishing and havingbeach barbecues, bush walkers exploringor campers taking time out to relax in anisland paradise.

“People from all of Queensland can feelproud that one of their favourite holidayspots is being protected and opened up forthem to enjoy for years to come.”

Minister Jones said the governmentwanted to protect Straddie’s “uniquebeauty and important cultural heritage andachieve significant land justice for Indige-nous people”.

“The Bill I introduced recognises the im-portant role that the Quandamooka peoplehave as traditional custodians through theestablishment of joint managementarrangements for the newly created national park,” she said. “Traditional own-ers and Department of Environment andResource Management (DERM) officerswill work together to develop visitor man-agement policies, and operational proce-dures for the day-to-day management of theparks including pest animal and plant con-trol, fire management, permits, presenta-tion and facilities.”

Twelve Indigenous rangers will be em-ployed to manage the park; currently thereis one. – Katie Johnston & Maria Tan

Anna Bligh and Kate Jones announce the Naree Budjong Djara National Park.