A new chapter in the growing struggle to keep the imposition of heavy industry across the Kimberley commenced on the weekend with the forming of the Sydney Chapter of Save The Kimberley. This begins the spanning of the continent and the start of the awareness group’s push into the large population centres on the east coast, where feelings are already running high on this issue. Meeting organiser, Ricki Coughlan, said “The Kimberley may be a long way from Sydney, but many people here have lived there in the past, visited, or at least seen it on television and ache to immerse themselves in this ancient country, to know themselves as they are dwarfed by this massive landscape, to experience the culture of traditional owners and be amazed at the diversity and abundance of wildlife in the region; to connect with the true heart of Australia. They understand that this region is a place where humanity has until now respected the Kimberley wilderness and its values. We know that whilst we go about our business in cities like Sydney, which are so bereft of a connection with nature, that this is made more bearable because out there, in the Kimberley, nature remains unviolated: The true Australia remains unviolated. The Barnett plan to bring industrialisation to the Kimberley is short sighted and sells out millions of years of evolution, the local tourism industries, the local culture, the local indigenous population, the broader population of Australia and ultimately the world. It is a shameful deal which is being undertaken up there with reckless abandon and we are now forming to let the majority of Australian people know what is under threat so that they will rise up and tell the politicians and mining industries of this country with a voice too loud to ignore that we will never have heavy industry and mining and desolation in the Kimberley: not for anyone, not for any money, not now, not ever. There are alternatives to this ghastly plan for a LNG Processing Plant which will serve the needs of all parties and we want to see them in place, not destruction of this area of vast heritage values to the entire planet.” You can be certain that everyone is going to be hearing about and talking about this issue from here on in as the Sydney Chapter of STK opens up a new front in this struggle.