Two New Landslides and Bursting of Underground Spring.

Thursday, 2nd October, 2008.

With continuing blasting by the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) and Abigroup at and near Nerong (which is some 6 to 10 kilometres south of Bulahdelah and is not a part of the Bulahdelah 'upgrade' project) there have now been two landslides in one of the Alum Mountain's historic - and heritage listed - mining quarries.

An underground spring has also been caused to burst. This flooded the quarry and created a creek between the quarry and the 'top' car park. Although the water has now been pumped out, this has created a major mudslide hazard.

The following photographs were taken on 25th September, 2008:-

A section of the larger of the two landslides.

A section of the smaller of the two landslides.
The top of this landslide is only a few metres from walking-trail steps leading to the historic boiler site.

Rocks and boulders from the larger landslide now cover the pathway to the quarry.

This boulder came down with the smaller landslide.

Inside the quarry was completely flooded.

The water from the burst underground spring formed a creek which flowed from the quarry.

The creek flooded the 'top' car park and flowed down the mountainside, causing an extreme mudslide hazard.

And the RTA still intends to locate a new section of highway up to 25 metres deep into the western foot of the Alum Mountain - beneath the above!

And beneath cliffs from which boulders have been falling since the commencement of RTA, Abigroup blasting some 6 to 10 kilometres south of Bulahdelah!

Over a Quarter of a Kilometre of Landslide- and Rockfall-Prone Mountain is Above the Proposed Roadway.

An RTA document titled Specific Geotechnical Issues and dated June, 2008, claims in regard to ‘Risk of rock falling from [the] Alum Mountain’:

· Slope is not favourable to boulder [sic] falling to the road or township.

The above 3D depiction of the Alum Mountain is Figure 2, page 3 of Volume 7 of the RTA’s Bulahdelah Upgrading the Pacific Highway Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

The added X marks the approximate location of Bulahdelah Post Office. The post office is 10 metres above sea level. The mountain is 292 metres above sea level.

The added red lines are parts of Scott Street (which the RTA omitted from maps of the township throughout the EIS); MacKenzie Street, Church Street, Harold Street and Boolambayte Street.

The scribbled blue line over the foot of the mountain is the RTA’s portrayal of the six-lanes-plus-width Option E roadway which would be located in an excavation blasted and pile-driven to up to 24 (according to the EIS) or 25 (according to recent RTA statements) metres below current soil surface, through an existent landslide which has been documented by the RTA and beside/below another landslide which the RTA has chosen to ignore. It would also have over a quarter of a kilometre of mass movement- (landslides) and rockfall-prone mountain looming above it.

The entire above 3D figure from the EIS is facing in the wrong direction. (It was, of course, in relation to air – as in air flow/circulation from winds.) However, as the image shows, the Alum Mountain’s western foot extends all the way to the Myall River. All of Bulahdelah’s eastern residential area is located on the western foot of the mountain. This includes two schools which increase the population in that area by some 600 persons per day for over 1,200 hours each year.

This post initially published: 20th July, 2008.

Boulders Can Reach the Proposed Bulahdelah (Option E) Roadway

In regard to boulders which can readily be seen near the proposed roadway the RTA document Specific Geotechnical Issues (date: June, 2008) claims:


· Boulders that [sic] can be observed near the proposed road line are within colluvium.


And that’s meant to be a good thing? ‘Colluvium’ is the RTA’s term for the boulder-strewn ‘silty-clay-sand-gravel material’ of the ‘large scale’ landslide in which it is their intention to locate part of the Option E roadway.

In stating that boulders which travelled from the mountain’s cliffs to the area of the proposed roadway are ‘within colluvium’ the RTA seems to be implying that: they’re stable and were transported down the mountain in a landslide (instead of bouncing down independently).

The boulders which can be seen beside the power line track have been in their current locations for many years. (One has even attracted a nickname: Big Rock - and many people have been photographed sitting on it.) There is no question of instability regarding these or, for that matter, any of the many large boulders which, in years past, have travelled from the upper reaches of the mountain to its foot. No one who has seen these boulders and is in their right mind would give two hoots as to their current stability or whether their fall down the mountainside was dependent or independent. But they – and the boulder-strewn landslide area in which they are located – provide evidence that boulders have – and therefore can – reach the area of the proposed roadway.

This post initially published: 20th July, 2008.

The RTA's Treatment of Complaints about Boulder Falls

There have been extensive boulder falls from the forty metre high cliffs at the summit of the Alum Mountain since the commencement of blasting of the Karuah to Bulahdelah section of the Pacific Highway Upgrade at the village of Nerong, some 10 kilometres south of Bulahdelah.

As is the case with the mountain’s lower slopes, the summit is a heritage, research, tourism, and cultural area. It has been recorded by NSW State Forests as attracting thousands of visitors per annum and a car park, walking trails and two lookouts have been constructed for public use.

The RTA is dealing with the matter of these boulder falls in Communo-Fascist style: with blatantly preposterous lies.

In a letter dated 16th May, 2008, N.S.W. Parliamentary Secretary for Roads, Michael Daley M.P., claimed that ‘two geotechnical scientists and a geologist visited the mountain on Friday, 9th November, 2007’ and that they found ‘no evidence of the recent movement of large boulders’. The boulders, which are large chunks of rock from the mountain’s cliffs, shatter upon impact with the ground and the resultant fragments, some of which are also boulder-sized (i.e. over ten inches in diameter), discharge in all directions. They do not leave tracks along the ground. They do, however, smash and slice the trunks of trees and a section of the walking trail to the Ted Baker Lookout has been crushed. The trunk of a tree about a quarter of the way down the mountain road has been sliced in two places by boulder fragments. Further details, including photographs are at: http://pacific-highway.blogspot.com/

The Alum Mountain’s cliffs are porous. In his letter of 16th May, 2008, Michael Daley, Parliamentary Secretary for Roads, also stated that evidence of ‘minor rock falls’ had been found on Friday, 9th November, 2007 and: ‘Geotechnical staff attribute the falls to the recent rainfall over the past couple of months’. Yes, in the months prior to Michael Daley’s letter there was high rainfall - but there’s no way on this earth that rainfall which occurred in 2008 caused ‘rock falls’ in 2007. Michael Daley’s letter, however, provides written acknowledgement from the RTA that rain can cause rock falls on the Alum Mountain.

This post initially published: 20th July, 2008.

Risk of Rock Falling from the Alum Mountain's Cliffs onto Proposed Highway

The RTA document Specific Geotechnical Issues (date: June, 2008) claims in regard to ‘Risk of rock falling from [the] Alum Mountain’:


· No evidence of recent rock fall in the vicinity of the proposed road.


The RTA has been receiving complaints about boulder falls they are causing at the top of the mountain, not ‘rock fall in the vicinity of the proposed road’. However, as the proposed road would be almost directly beneath over a quarter of a kilometre of mountain with 40 metre high cliffs of porous rock where, the RTA has stated, rainfall can bring about rock falls, and there is more than ample evidence of the fact that boulders have been falling from the mountain’s cliffs – and that those boulder falls are undermining huge sections of rock – the RTA’s statement that there is ‘no evidence of recent rock fall in the vicinity of the proposed road’ is not necessarily correct.

This post initially published: 20th July, 2008.

The RTA's Lie Regarding Commencement of Construction

In response to some of those who query or object to the use of ‘Option E’ for the Pacific Highway Upgrade at Bulahdelah the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) is currently claiming that construction has already commenced and that it is too late and would be too costly to divert to another option. That, as is the case with the vast majority of statements made by the RTA, is absolutely untrue.

It is pre-construction activities (‘early works’) which are taking place, not actual construction. This was admitted to the few community members who are prepared to meet with the RTA and their cohorts during current RTA-conducted meetings.

The first of said meetings was held on Wednesday, 28th May, this year (2008). The RTA’s notes of that meeting state that there was a ‘budget allocation of $15 million from the recently announced Federal Budget to continue with the early works for Bulahdelah’; also: ‘AusLink 2 commences in July, 2009 [two thousand and nine]. The RTA is hoping funding becomes available for the construction of the Bulahdelah project’.

Construction of the ‘Option E’ route at Bulahdelah has not yet commenced.

It is not too late to prevent the conglomeration of atrocities the RTA has planned for the Pacific Highway Upgrade, Bulahdelah.

It is not too late to have the Bulahdelah section of the Pacific Highway Upgrade diverted to a western route e.g. Option A which is documented by the RTA as being the safest route for road users (ref. the Value Management Workshop Report).

This post initially published: 23rd July, 2008.

The Escalating Blatancy of the RTA's Communo-Fascist Behaviour.

17th August, 2008.

The blatancy of the N.S.W. Roads and Traffic Authority’s (RTA) Communo-Fascist behaviour in Bulahdelah is escalating:-

· The relatively few community members attending RTA-conducted ‘community interest group’ meetings are expected to ask questions, not make statements.

· *Said community members have been instructed that their questions must be put in writing or telephoned to the RTA prior to meetings and threatened that, if they are not, they won’t be responded to.

· If recorded in RTA meeting ‘notes’ (the RTA does not take minutes of meetings) issues raised by meeting attendees via statements are rephrased, making citizens who have spoken out against life-threatening aspects of the RTA’s intended route appear to be quislings working in collaboration with the RTA.

· Having failed to adequately/honestly reply to issues previously raised, the RTA cancelled the July ‘community interest group’ meeting on the grounds that no questions had been submitted.

*In item no. 6 of the RTA’s notes of ‘community interest group’ meeting no. 2 (25th June, 2008) the RTA has printed the following instruction:-

Note: Items for discussion at next meetings [sic] to be raised at least two weeks prior to the meeting. Phone 1800 688 153 or email.

The RTA's Current Lies re. Distance Between the Proposed Road etc. and the Mountain's Cliffs.

Extract from the Bulahdelah Upgrading the Pacific Highway Environmental Impact Statement (EIS): Geotechnical Characteristics of the Proposed Route Technical Paper 11 4.3 Colluvium Area Cut 4 (bold and coloured typeface added for emphasis)
…

Approximately 400 metres uphill and to the east of the proposed cutting, ground slopes increase to approximately 20 degrees and 30 degrees *gradually rising to subvertical [sic] cliffs some 500 metres to the east of the proposed cutting.

*[A mountain-slope increase from around 20 (or even 30) degrees to sub-vertical over a distance of about 100 metres is not gradual. (The cliffs which the RTA described in this section of the EIS as sub-vertical are 40 metres high and tilt towards the RTA’s intended roadway, schools and residences).]

Some boulder sized material (typically 0.5–5 metres in size) was previously released from the cliff faces and rolled down the hill. Scattered boulders located over the natural slope near the toe of the cliffs extending to the footprint of the proposed cutting, though the majority are located within approximately 50 metres of the toe of the cliff. A typical boulder on the slope is shown in Figure 4.4.

The proposed cutting is underlain by *colluvium extending to depths of about 25 metres below existing ground surface at the borehole locations.

…

*The Alum Mountain is prone to mass movement (landslides) and rockfall. (Ref. Landscapes of the Dungog 1:100 000 Sheet – Department of Land and Water Conservation, Sydney L.E. Henderson, 2000.) The ‘colluvium’ referred to by the RTA is the ‘silty-clay-sand-gravel material’ of a previous landslide.

Note: in the above, the EIS states that the Alum Mountain’s cliffs are ‘some 500 metres to the east of the proposed cutting’ (excavation in which the roadway would be located) and that there are ‘scattered boulders’ which have ‘rolled’ down the mountain and are in the ‘footprint of the proposed cutting’ (the area of the proposed roadway).

At the RTA’s ‘community interest group’ meeting no. 2 (Wednesday, 25th June, 2008) under the supervision/in the presence of the following RTA employees:

· Mark Eastwood – RTA Senior Development Manager (who was Project Manager for the Bulahdelah section of the Pacific Highway Upgrade at the commencement of the project in the year 2000);
· Dick Whibley – RTA Senior Project Manager;
· Mike Willing – RTA Senior Project Manager;
· Peter Carson – RTA Project Engineer;
· Janice Smith – RTA Infrastructure Communications Manager Pacific Highway; and
· Teneale Boyle – RTA Communications Officer

Colin Cresdee – RTA ‘Geotechnical Scientist’ displayed the following RTA diagram as part of a Power Point presentation:-

Note: The words at the foot of the above diagram are: distance from new road.

In the RTA’s ‘Slope profile above cut 4’ diagram the proposed new six-lanes-plus-width road is portrayed as being of nil width and the top of the mountain’s cliffs as being at a distance of over 700 metres from same:-

· The difference in distance between the mountain’s cliffs and the proposed roadway as stated in the EIS (‘some 500 metres’) and as presented by the RTA and RTA employee Colin Cresdee at ‘community interest group’ meeting no. 2 (over 700 metres) is almost a quarter of a kilometre.

Scott Street is the Bulahdelah residential street which is closest to the proposed new road in the Alum Mountain Park area (and was omitted from the majority of maps throughout the EIS).

In the ‘Slope profile above cut 4’ diagram, the RTA claims that Scott Street is 175 metres west of the (nil width) proposed new road and over 875 metres from the mountain’s cliffs. In the EIS, the RTA states that Bulahdelah Central School, which is some 160 metres west of Scott Street, is 180 metres from the proposal:-

· The RTA and RTA employee Colin Cresdee have grossly exaggerated the distance between Scott Street – and therefore also Bulahdelah Central School – and the sub-vertical cliffs of a mountain which is ‘prone to mass movement (landslides) and rockfall’.

Note: You might happen to notice that the illustration includes the statement: Bounders are found all down the profile. The only bounders on the mountain at the moment are RTA navvies – all of whom are knowingly involved in activities intended to lead to construction of a deadly section of highway and some of whom have been taunting Bulahdelah residents and visitors to the area.

This post initially published: 15th August, 2008.

The Deadly Hazards of the Acid Sulphate Rock Dust the RTA Intends to Inflict on Human Lives and the Myall River and Lakes

NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) bureaucrats are currently conducting what are meant to be monthly meetings with approximately twenty (a relative few) community members who have taken upon themselves the huge responsibility of acting for community interests. Of the non-RTA meeting attendees:

• only two are knowledgeable as to the details of the RTA’s processing of the Option E route; and
  

• only about three (including the abovementioned two) have taken the time to educate themselves regarding any of the life-jeopardising hazards to which the RTA intends to unnecessarily expose Bulahdelah residents, visitors to the township – including children who travel from other areas to Bulahdelah’s mass schooling institutions – and road users.

And those three or so individuals have not only the RTA and their Communo-Fascist tactics to contend with: some of their fellow meeting attendees are so naïve that, through their silence/their outspokenness regarding irrelevant matters, they are unwittingly supporting the RTA objective to endanger human lives – including the lives of children.

At this year’s meetings, RTA bureaucrats continue to play down, including, in some cases, by lying about, hazards involved in the use of Option E. These include the dangers of acid-sulphate dust which would be produced during construction. Facts additional to those at the Pacific Highway - NSW Government's Killer Act blogspot site are:-

In the Alum Mountain section of the ‘Option E’ proposal, there are ‘locally high concentrations of acid sulphate rock’ and that rock is ‘acid forming’. (Ref. Geotechnical Investigation for Route Selection: PPK – now Parsons Brinkerhoff – 2001)

The acid produced by the rock described by the RTA as ‘acid sulphate rock’ is sulphuric acid. Sulphuric acid is carcinogenic. Inhalation of sulphuric-acid-producing rock dust can also cause aluminosis.

Dust produced during the removal (including via blasting) of a gargantuan section of the western foot of the Alum Mountain would be acid sulphate. The acid sulphate constituents of the dust would be from: acid sulphate soils, acid sulphate clays and at least two types of acid sulphate rock: rhyolite and alum stone (alunite).

Route-processing tactics employed by the RTA include avoidance and misrepresentation of the actual concerns of citizens. The following is but one of many examples which can be found in the RTA’s own documentation:-

‘Dust would be generated during construction of the proposal, especially during earthworks. The total amount of dust generated during the construction of the proposed Upgrade would depend on the silt and moisture content in the soil and types of operations being carried out’. (Ref. Bulahdelah Upgrade of The [sic] Pacific Highway Submissions Report 2.4 Environmental Impacts of the Proposal 2.4.7 Air Quality.)

The ‘total amount of dust generated during construction’ is irrelevant to the fact that, in addition to other dust-related health issues e.g. asthma, dust which contains a fluid-triggered carcinogen and can cause aluminosis would be generated during construction of the proposal and would be ingested, including via inhalation, by community members.

From the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) document Bulahdelah Upgrading the Pacific Highway Environmental Impact Statement (EIS): Volume 6 Technical Paper 11, page 4-33:-

NOTE: THE WORDS POTENTIAL AND POTENTIALLY WERE USED IN THE EIS AS A MEANS OF UNDERPLAYING ACTUAL HAZARDS.

4.9 Acid Sulphate Rock [bold typeface added for emphasis]

During the Geotechnical Investigation for Route Selection (PPK 2001) rock samples were tested for acid producing potential. The test results indicated a range from nonacid to potentially strongly acid producing rock. Samples indicated moderate and strong acid producing potential on the lower slopes of Bulahdelah ([the] Alum) Mountain north of Ann Street/Bombah Point Road, from the Bulahdelah Formation geological unit through which the preferred route would be cut.

A sample from the colluvial area [a landslide area claimed by the RTA to be ‘ancient’ – located above residences and Bulahdelah Central School] was also designated as potentially acid forming. It is likely that mixing resulting from the excavation, haul and placing would reduce the risk of fill containing locally high concentrations of acid sulphate rock.

Note: As is the case with already extracted alum, when it is immersed in water the alum content of alum stone hydrolyses and forms sulphuric acid. The up to twenty four metres deep ‘cut’ into the Alum Mountain for the six-lanes-plus width Option E would include the area on the northern side of the bridge. Sulphuric acid is toxic to marine life. The RTA’s response to the fact that the alum stone dust produced during excavation would be carcinogenic and could also cause aluminosis in humans was that the dust would be ‘wet down’. Wetting alum stone dust produces both alum and sulphuric acid.

This post initially published: 23rd July, 2008.

The Company Employed by the RTA for the Pacific Highway, Bulahdelah, Project

The company the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) used as ‘consultants’ and for environmental impact ‘studies’ for the Bulahdelah project is currently called Parsons Brinkerhoff Australia Pty. Ltd. (PB). Said company has had various other names: Pak Poy and Kneebone; Rust PPK (‘Rust’); and PPK Environment and Infrastructure (PPK).

In November, 1996, the company, as Rust PPK, was employed as consultants undertaking the development of a draft Environmental Impact Statement on a second airport for Sydney. In a publication titled ‘Sydney’s second airport proposal’, which was in relation to options which were to be looked at in the Environmental Impact Statement and was circulated to the southern Sydney community and other groups, ‘Rust’ put at least three Sydney suburbs in the wrong location. Numerous complaints were made by the public regarding Rust PPK’s performance. These included protests that there was insufficient community consultation by ‘Rust’ and that the company failed to provide the community with enough early information. (Ref.: http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/s7186224.pdf – accessed 30th June, 2008.)

And, as Parsons Brinkerhoff (PB), the same company was the firm engaged to design the *Lane Cove Tunnel project. (Ref.: page 7 of the WorkCover Report:
http://www.workcover.nsw.gov.au/NR/rdonlyres/C9E17E73-6847-469B-BC10-A4024ED9EFE2/0/lane_cove_tunnel_construction_site_investigation_report_4821.pdf)

From the Bulahdelah Upgrading the Pacific Highway Environmental Impact Statement Volume 6 Technical Paper 11: 4.6 Embankments

'4.6.1 Settlement Assessment in Fills

Settlement along the fills can be critical where embankments are constructed on soft compressible soils and there is a risk that primary consolidation settlement would continue beyond the construction period. Combined with secondary (creep) consolidation of the soft soils and internal creep of the fill material itself, settlement has the potential to exceed design criteria, particularly between structures and adjoining embankments.

Critical settlement locations were identified at structures, at maximum fill embankment height and/or at soft soil foundations. In all locations except at the northern interchange, the maximum fill height and critical foundation soils occurred at a structure.

At the northern interchange the maximum approach embankment heights are not located at the overpass bridges.

Settlement is expected to be most critical at the Myall River Bridge where embankments are high and soft soil was encountered to depths of 4.7 metres at borehole locations.

The adopted performance criteria for evaluating settlements have been based on that [sic] adopted for recent Pacific Highway Upgrade Projects such as Yelgun to Chinderah, and [bold, red typeface added for emphasis] *Lane Cove Tunnel.'

*A section of the Lane Cove Tunnel collapsed in the early hours of 2nd November, 2005. According to the Executive Summary (page 4) of the WorkCover Report into the Lane Cove Tunnel Collapse and Subsidence (March, 2006) Contributing Factors included (but were not limited to) the geological conditions at the site.

___________________________________________________

The following information is from just one brief web search (on 23rd July, 2008):-

• Honolulu, 28th November, 2005: [PDF] “… a dark cloud concerning inappropriate behaviour and possible corrupt conduct hangs over the treatment of subcontractors by Parsons Brinkerhoff, the company that won this mass transit contract.” Statement by: Charles K. Djour, Councilmember CITY COUNCIL CITY AND COUNTY OF HONOLULU Honolulu, Hawaii.

• Trinidad & Tobago, 3rd September, 2007: “This country spent $15.5 million for Parsons Brinkerhoff to work here for three years. This country deserves to see the report from Parsons Brinkerhoff that the government has scrapped. We need to see what it is that Parsons Brinkerhoff recommended that was so unworkable.
  
  Because PB has been performing transportation studies in Trinidad and Tobago since the 1960’s. This firm is world renown. Government had the confidence to give them a fresh contract for $37 million in May 2006. Parsons cannot be that incompetent and still be in business! Just last month, PB was awarded a contract to design a 6-mile-long bus rapid transit corridor in Springfield, Oregon.
  
  We need to see whether Parsons was in favour of this rapid rail system and whether it had proposed cheaper alternatives.” Statement by: Hon. Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Deputy Political Leader and Leader of the Opposition.

• Panama, October 8 – 21, 2006: “Parsons Brinckerhoff, in a consortium with Bechtel, was hired by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority to manage the Big Dig project. And yes, now that the cost has gone up from its original estimate of $2.6 billion to $14.6 billion and still rising, and now that Parsons Brinckerhoff is feeling the heat of bad publicity, civil lawsuits and criminal investigations for cost-cutting on safety that caused the collapse of a huge concrete ceiling panel onto the car of a couple driving through one of the Big Dig tunnels, Parsons Brinckerhoff is pointing fingers in other directions and there are plenty of fools out there who will take anything a big corporation says at face value.” Statement by: The Editor - The Panama News Panama’s English-language Online Newspaper – Volume 12, Number 19.

This post initially published: 23rd July, 2008.

The RTA's Lies about Access to the Alum Mountain

Currently, most people access the summit of the Alum Mountain by private vehicle (using the road – not ‘track’ which leads to the upper car park). Despite their numerous claims to the contrary (including in a joint *media release by Eric Roozendaal and Jim Lloyd), the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) does not intend to maintain access to the Alum Mountain – they plan to decimate the highest usage area on the mountain’s foot and sever customary access to its summit.

*The abovementioned joint media release is of RTA propaganda and does not reflect the true situation. It is available at: http://www.minister.infrastructure.gov.au/jl/releases/2006/May/l50_2006.htm
or: http://www.ministers.dotars.gov.au/jl/releases/2006/May/L50_2006.htm.

From the Bulahdelah Upgrading the Pacific Highway Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Main Volume Page 5.19 [bold typeface and statements in square brackets added for emphasis/information]:-

'Mountain Access Overbridge

A single-span overbridge, totalling approximately 60 metres in length, is proposed at Station 96650 to replace the existing section of the Bulahdelah ([the] Alum) Mountain access track [actually an unsealed roadway] which would be cut by the Upgrade [should the ‘Option E’ route be used]. The overbridge would closely match the existing access track alignment. …

…

The bridge would have a 4-metre-wide deck and an internal clearance of 4.3 metres to the truss structure. It would primarily be used by pedestrians, but it could accommodate the passage of State Forest and emergency vehicles. Throw-over protective screens would be incorporated into the design.'

At the first of their RTA-conducted meetings this year (2008) the relatively few Bulahdelah community members who are prepared to meet with RTA bureaucrats were told that the (‘Option E’) route the RTA intends to use would not prevent private vehicles from accessing the upper reaches of the mountain. RTA meeting ‘notes’ show that – again – the RTA lied to community members, with the ‘notes’ stating that access to the mountain’s summit would only be for emergency vehicles.

This post initially published: 22nd July, 2008.

Aboriginal Sovereignty Day for Bulahdelah 'the Alum' Mountain - event.

Aboriginal people and supportive non-Aboriginal people who are within travelling distance of Bulahdelah, N.S.W. (on the Pacific Highway, about half-way between Newcastle and Taree) might like to attend the following:-

There will be a gathering at the Alum Mountain Park (which is next to the eastern end of Meade Street) on Saturday, 30th August, 2008, in celebration of 1st September's Sovereignty Day for Bulahdelah 'the Alum' Mountain.

Gathering will commence at 9.00 a.m. If raining, please meet at the Courthouse Museum, Ann Street. There are BBQ facilities at park and at courthouse. Please BYO food and drinks.