The Great Artesian Basin and the traditional Pilliga country
The Great Artesian Basin - GAB is Australia's largest underground reservoir of fresh water. Once an old inland sea silted over and baked, it takes up about a quarter of the size of the land above.
This ground water system is responsible for recharging almost ALL inland rivers. Watch
How the Great Artesian Basin works.
The Pilliga forest, located at the southern tip of the GAB is the epicenter on Gamilaraay (Kamilaroi/Gomeroi) nation. For traditional owners, the Gamilaroi people are STILL fighting for what could arguably be called the heart of Australia.
Their goal?
Save what remains of their heartland and one of the most enigmatic ecosystems on the planet.
Culturally this area is understandably sacred.
To ecologists this is a hydro-geological miracle.
If you dive through the prehistoric looking vegetation, scratch down through the sun roasted sandy earth you'd plunge into the cavernous abyss of a pure aquifer and it's here you'll find ... wait for it - fish!
Just swimming under the desert like terrain.
The aquifer is home to a group of aquatic fauna collectively known as Stygofauna.
This tiny, subterranean set of species made up of small fish, crustaceans, molluscs and insects once brought the ENTIRE gas mining conglomerate to a grinding halt (read more).
(Confused? Because their still there, shaking in their tiny boots)
Nestled within the Jurassic landscape, is the earthy walls of the Pilliga sand stone caves. It's here on the geological layers of time, the ancestral stories of yesteryear express only a drop of insight into the oldest culture on the planet.
The profound spiritual and enviable connection that traditional owners has to this country is deeply connected and intuitive.
HOWEVER ... be warned, the Pilliga is rumored to be the Bermuda of Oz. There's a bottomless well of eerie stories to make trespassers with ill intentions rethink their shifty deeds.
Film maker Dane Millerd spent years collecting stories to inspire his film 'There is Something in the Pilliga'
To original owners, it's called the land of the sleeping crocodile and they say if it's woken up it will unleash a ravenous fury.
Up and over the range to the north east of NSW, 600km from the Pilliga on Bundjalung nation of the Widjable/Wiyable people. A phenomenal and historical battle against gas mining was won! Despite a silent media.
The year 2014.
Northern communities and across the continent went into the final stages of battle. It was against the exact same monstrous gas industry that's now invading the Pilliga.
Their final blow was creatively intense and swift. 3000 people rocked up over night and held down the fort, tag teaming it until the end. See The Bentley Effect.
Back at the Pilliga and taking full advantage of its remote location this greedy industry THINKS it's got the community licked. Multiplying, perforating and poisoning the Pilliga's vulnerable underbelly. Yet it is once again under a silent media.
However, the word is heamoraging out through an onslaught of independant media. Their crimes are being exposed ... So get inspired by Bentley, show up and hold fast or spread the word. Do whatever you can because, to be frank, in-action is complicit.
Smart arts produktions undying desire to inspire, be inspired by, con spire with artists from every single shire - to galvanise even the most diligent denier into an unstoppable movement that says no to the insideous GAS empire!
Contact The Leard Forest Research Node or the Pilliga Push to find out how you can help and register for this campaign. We promise to fight with all our might to save the Pilliga!
