As is the tradition around the end of the year at Duty, we take you behind the scenes of major reports from our journalists. In 2023, Clémence Pavic and Marie-France Coallier traveled to Australia. They are particularly located in Narrabri, a region where a deep divide is emerging between supporters of the coal industry and those who stand against it. Here is the genesis and the details of their journey.
Going off to cover stories in Australia is as imprecise as going off to report on Canada. The extent of the territory and the disparity of regional realities make the task rather hazardous, if not impossible, especially within a limited time frame. This is one of the common points between these two nations which share several: they are two Commonwealth countries, two parliamentary monarchies, two economies which are based on the extraction of resources – among others, oil in Canada, coal in Australia — and these are two immense and sparsely populated territories.
We therefore had to limit ourselves and make choices of places to visit. In total, over the ten days spent in the south-east of the country, just to connect the points of Sydney, Mallacoota and Narrabri, we had to cover more than 2000 kilometers of road.
Stopover in Narrabri
Very early in our research, Narrabri and its surroundings established themselves as an essential stopping point on our journey. Because not only is the area home to several mining and gas projects linked to coal, but it is also a very agricultural region.
Here, farmers are used to the wrath of the climate. Sally Hunter, a cattle breeder, spoke to us about it with emotion. She told us in particular that a few years earlier, a major drought hit the region and more broadly Australia. Then followed the big fires during the “black summer” of 2019-2020.
At the time, lacking water to water the livestock and exhausted by repeated sandstorms, Sally Hunter and her partner moved temporarily. They finally returned once the conditions became milder again.
Sitting at her kitchen table, I mention the poem to her My Country written in 1908 by Dorothea Mackellar, as I read that the writer’s family had a residence nearby in Gunnedah.
It was then that she went to look for a quilt blanket made by herself and on which we can read, in embroidered letters, these four verses which are famous in Australia: “I love a sunburned country / A land vast plains / Of irregular mountain ranges / Of droughts and torrential rains.”
Yes, the country knows the torments of the climate well, recognizes Sally Hunter. Moreover, over the past year, major floods have hit several regions. But what the farmer fears is that these events will become more and more frequent and that their magnitude will be greater and greater due to climate change.
And it is precisely for this reason that she fights against the coal industry, which is very polluting and very present around her home. Within a radius of just 30 km, his property is surrounded by five Whitehaven coal mines.
For the record, it is on one of these company sites that the family residence of the poet Dorothea Mackellar is located, recently classified as a historic monument. The mining company is now the owner and guarantor of its preservation.
A gap difficult to bridge
In addition to Whitehaven, there is also the Santos company, which wants to build a coal gas project in the Pilliga forest, “the lungs” of the Gomeroi aboriginal people, as one person from this community described it to us. .
The project aims to extract gas trapped in underground coal seams, and this particularly worries farmers who fear that the large artesian basin – on which their land depends – could be contaminated.
In this regard, it was not possible to meet with representatives of the Santos company. No more than those in Whitehaven. And it is also not possible to approach their mining sites, which are barricaded and heavily monitored.
Narrabri Chamber of Commerce president Russell Stewart agreed. “You don’t work for The Guardian, I hope ? » he asks us straight away, showing his reluctance to speak with the media. Throughout our interview, which will last almost an hour, he will emphasize the positive economic benefits of the coal industry for the region.
He will also argue that, according to him, if there are climate changes, they are not caused by human activity. However, this conviction has been — for years already — largely contradicted by the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
His comments vividly illustrate the fault line that exists between supporters of the coal industry and those who stand against it.
Before heading back to Sydney the next day, we had one last scheduled stop: at the home of Margaret Fleck, another farmer who, like Sally Hunter, has a cattle herd in the region and who is campaigning against the Santos project.
Following my interview with the president of the Narrabri Chamber of Commerce, I found Marie-France. While leafing through the local newspaper, she notices that in each photo, the speakers pose aligned “in a row of onions”. As a photojournalist, she prefers moments captured naturally, in full action.
We then hit the road and arrive towards the end of the day at Margaret Fleck’s house. At this time, the light enhances the landscape with its colors of straw and greenery.
Accompanied by her partner and one of her sons, Margaret invites us to get into their van and take a tour of the grounds. The path through the fields is bumpy to say the least.
There, arriving in the middle of the herd, we go down. As I prepare to continue my round of questions for the farmer as if nothing had happened, she cuts me off. Now is not the time to talk right away. You have to be calm while the herd gets used to our presence.
Once trust has been established, Marie-France draws her camera to capture the moment. And as she sets Margaret up to take her portrait, imagine that the cattle have lined up behind the speaker… in a row. So maybe they knew they would be talked about in the newspaper.