May Thursday Forum: Bulga Decision and Community Rights

The David and Goliath tussle between locals of a Hunter Valley village and mining giant Rio Tinto will be the subject of an Armidale Forum on Thursday 1st May.

Earlier this month the residents of Bulga, a small Hunter Valley village, surprised the mining industry with a win against the global mining company Rio Tinto and the NSW government in the NSW Supreme Court and the NSW Court of Appeal. This landmark decision known as the Bulga Decision found that the negative environmental consequences of the Warkworth open-cut mine expansion outweighed its economic benefits.

At the next Sustainable Living Armidale (SLA) Thursday Forum, the Deputy Director of UNE’s Australian Centre for Agriculture and Law, Dr Amanda Kennedy, will speak about this decision and its possible implications for conflicts between mining corporations and local stakeholders. 

Dr Kennedy will also talk about the Community Rights Movement that she learnt about in the United States. The Community Rights Movement has grown from the same intractable natural resource conflict faced by Bulga and other communities living with coal or coal seam gas mining. 

Don’t miss this timely forum with an enthusiastic UNE Law-based academic who has been researching these issues.

SLA’s Open Forum will be held on Thursday 1st May at 7pm at Kent House, 141 Faulkner Street, opposite Central Park. Everyone is welcome, light refreshments to follow. Gold coin donation appreciated.