Country people take action to defend grain farming in South Australia's Yorke Peninsula

Vanguard September 2014 p. 8
Ned K.

On Saturday 2 August over 1,000 people from the Yorke Peninsula agricultural area led a rally and march in the city of Adelaide. They were drawing attention to the announcement of the SA Labor Government to approve an open cut copper mine near Ardrossan on the eastern side of Yorke Peninsula which is bordered by the Gulf of St Vincent on the eastern side and Spencer Gulf on the western side. The mine is only 10 kilometres from the coastline.

The rally and march featured many colourful placards about saving farming, saving food and condemning the intrusion of mining in to prime agricultural land.

The farmers and their families from Yorke Peninsula were joined by farmers from the South East of South Australia who are fighting the ‘invasion’ of coal seam gas exploration and drilling in farming and viticulture properties.

One person at the rally held a large sign saying “You can’t eat gas”.

Well Organised

The farmers from the Yorke Peninsula came to the city well organised. They had an effective sound system and two large grain trucks in the march with huge banners on the side of the trucks saying “Save Yorke Peninsula Food Bowl”.

They also produced and distributed to people in the city a well-produced pamphlet headed “Yorke Peninsula At Risk” and a “Say NO To Mining On YP” on the back.

Speakers at the rally were mainly farmers and their families, telling their stories of how the intrusion of mining in to their farming communities would change their own lives, next generations and the environment.

What Is Wrong With Copper Mining On Yorke Peninsula?

The SA Government is out to show it is ‘pro development’ in the face of the closure of the multinational owned car industry in SA and the big question mark about the future of the naval defence manufacturing and assembly industry at Australian Submarine Corporation near Port Adelaide.

The proposal by Rex Minerals to open the largest open cut copper mine in Australia on Yorke Peninsula has been praised by the government as an alternative employment area for redundant manufacturing workers in Adelaide’s northern suburbs and a boost to state government revenue through state mining royalties.

So what is wrong with such a mining venture?  Copper mining was in the last half of the 19^th Century the main economic growth industry in SA and the mines were on the Yorke Peninsula at Moonta, Kadina and Wallaroo.

However none of these mines back then were located on prime agricultural land. They actually complimented the farming on the Peninsula by giving rise to manufacturing industry which supported both mining and agricultural industry.

The open cut mine proposed by Rex Minerals and supported by the ‘development at any cost’ approach of Industry Minister Tom Koutsontonis is in the very heartland of grain farming which produces for both local and overseas markets.

The copper mine deposit will require an open cut of 2.4 kilometres long by 1  kilometre wide to a depth of 450 metres. The mine will only last for 15 years but has all the trappings of open cut mines – huge use of water, contamination of underground waterways and pollution of surrounding air and land from the tailings from the mine.

Farmers Ready For A Long Fight

It is unclear yet whether the majority of people in the city of Adelaide will side with the farmers or support the government’s argument about the need for ‘development’ in the State and jobs. However Yorke Peninsula coastal area near the proposed mine is also a popular holiday and fishing destination for many Adelaide city people and generations of people in Adelaide have grown up proud of South Australia as a grain producing State, central to which is Yorke Peninsula.

If the people of Yorke Peninsula have their way, the grain producing area and this central part of the food bowl in SA will be preserved and their contention that there is plenty of room for mining outside of the food bowl areas will prevail.

One second generation Yorke Peninsula farmer said to me at the rally,

 “If you’d said to me when  I started working on my farm 25 years ago that I’d be marching up King William Street in Adelaide protesting about a copper mine in my backyard I would have said you were crazy. But we have to do it. We have to take a stand. This is serious shit. The whole of farming on Yorke Peninsula is at stake.”

The government and Rex Minerals are banking on high copper prices forecasts to maximise profits and royalties. However the instability of capitalist financial and commodity markets is such that even if copper prices are high one minute, they can crash the next leaving mining sites abandoned with devastating impact on the environment and communities and leaving tax payers to clean up the mess.

For further information about the farmers’ struggle, go to the web site, yplandowners.com.au