Look out for the Australian Rob McCreath, a farmer defending land and the environment, coming to Southland as the key note speaker at the ‘Keep the Coal in the Hole Summer fest- Theme-‘ Shaping our Future. We have options!’ with the festival running between Fri 18 Jan and Mon 21 January. 2013
He says he used to be quite a good farmer before he spent so much time fighting mining companies.
 |
| Rob McCreath |
Rob was founding president of Friends of Felton, a community group that recently won a four and half year long battle against a proposed open-cut coal mine and petrochemical plant in the highly productive Felton Valley, 30km SW Toowoomba, on the Darling Downs. This is the first time a coal mine has been stopped in Queensland by a community group.
Rob and his wife Sally farm 1000 hectares at Felton, where they grow crops and fatten beef cattle and occasional tourists. Crops are grown under a zero tillage controlled traffic system to conserve moisture and minimise compaction. The main crops are wheat, barley, oats and chickpeas in winter, and sorghum, sunflowers and mungbeans in summer.
In an earlier life, Rob and Sally were dairy farmers in Scotland and emigrated to Australia in 1994 with their 3 young children.
Rob has a degree in agriculture from Reading University (UK) and is a director of Lock the Gate Alliance.
He is key note speaker on Sunday 20 January at the public education day at James Cumming Wing, Ardwick St, Gore with his topic ‘ Our land, our water, our future - worth fighting for; He will challenge us and give us campaign strategies which worked for them as we gear up our campaign to stop new coal mines in Aotearoa/NZ and in particular the proposed lignite mining in the Mataura Valley.
The website with all the details of the programme, guest speakers and registration information can be found at http://nocoalsummerfest.org.nz
Blessings, jenny
