For the past few years many people from around Australia have visited
Lake Cowal in support of the campaign against Barrick Gold's mine.
These photos are taken from the Lake Cowal convergence in October 2004
photo: Natalie Lowrey
Lake Cowal is 'the Sacred Heartland of the Wiradjuri Nation'. It is the largest inland lake in NSW and is a wetland of national and international significance, situated 45 km north-east of West Wyalong in the central western NSW region of the Murray-Darling Basin. It is home to threatened birds and other species. Worthy of listing under the International Convention on Wetland (the Ramsar Convention), Lake Cowal is included in Australia's Register of the National Estate and the Directory of Important Wetlands.
In 1996, the New South Wales Government denied a mining application from North (WA) Ltd to mine gold at Lake Cowal on environmental grounds.
Just before a State election in February 1999, the New South Wales Government approved Consent Conditions for the mine after two Commissions of Inquiry.
Rio Tinto bought North (WA) Ltd in 2000 and sold its Cowal Gold Project interest to Homestake of the United States. Homestake merged with Barrick Gold of Canada in December 2001.
Since the early 1990s, the campaign to stop the gold mine at Lake Cowal has focused on the cultural and ecological significance of the area. There have been two Commissions of Inquiry and ongoing court cases over the legitimacy of the gold mine and clear breaches of environmental safety standards.
Wiradjuri Traditional Owners, environmentalists, scientists, students and concerned communities around Australia are continuing to campaign to stop the open-cut, cyanide leach gold mine.
Australian organisations that continue to support
the Lake Cowal campaign include the Mooka
and Kalara Traditional Owners/United Families within the Wiradjuri
nation, the Rainforest
Information Centre, the Indigenous
Justice Advocacy Network, the New
South Wales Greens party, Friends
of the Earth Australia, Peacebus' Cyanide
Watch Campaign and the Coalition
to Protect Lake Cowal - an alliance of more than 21 Australian and 40
international groups.
Case Study
of Lake Cowal
A collaborative project between The Mineral Policy Institute, UTS Online Journalism
1 and UTS Shopfront.
The
Lake Cowal Campaign acknowledges the Wiradjuri Nation,
Traditional Owners of the Lake Cowal area, and the fact that
Indigenous land has never been ceded in Australia
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