The wild fires have been through again...

November 2023

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Letter to the Fire Investigation Service (15 November 2023)

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 I write again, this time about the bush fires that have recently gone through the district including 396 Wyndham Creek Road where we have lived for 27 years.

Until 2017 we used to burn off our block without any problem, starting around July when it is safe to do so. The only fires that got away were lit on the Occupational licence around us by Burtenshaw, much later… October, November (when they think the rain is coming) to green it up for their feral cattle. So, all this crap with bullying people about them safeguarding their properties by back burning at the right time must stop! Instead, people need to be encouraged about burning off at the right time. Before 2017 the rule was not to light fires during a fire ban. Now this idiot, Jason Mather from the Atherton fire brigade, is stopping all permits.

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….. It is now the 15/11/2023 and again we are lucky to have survived another planned arson attack in the area that has burnt out everything this time, starting from Watsonville, Irvinebank, Silver-Valley and Innot-Hot-Springs, and It burnt everything through here to Mt Garnet. This is the work of Jason Mather in business with the local people on Occupational yearly licences.

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A week before the fire got to us, we got a phone call from people around Silver-valley saying the biggest obstacle while trying to keep their homes from burning down was from the Atherton fire Brigade’s Jason Mather, who told them he was in charge. But when the fire came, he and his people just sat around and wouldn’t help. So, one bloke decided he’d have to save his own house and that the best thing to do was a controlled burn back into the fire (which he did and saved his house.) But now he is threatened with Court action for arson? Jason Mather from the Atherton station was the same one we had trouble with, that last big fire, in 2018.

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We got a phone call saying the fire was heading towards an old mate Chester Tuxford’s place at Silver-Valley who was at that time in the Cairns Hospital and as he listed us as next of kin to look in on his place I drove up there to check where the fire was but I was stopped from going up the Silver-Valley Rd by police and fire people. The bloke across the road said later there was no real danger driving on the road as most of the roadside escaped the fire. Like everywhere, no fire people wanted anything to do with putting out these fires. Just like here, the fire engines were parked with everyone sitting around. If it wasn’t for the bloke across the road, Chester would have lost his house and everything. There needs to be an investigation into the rural and the Atherton fire stations as it is clear to all that their agenda is to burn us out and clear us all out leaving all this land to the miners?

 

Jason came here this time as well, the day before the fire. He said that when the fire comes over the ridge to call 000 and they will be here to help? We rang late that same evening when we could see the flames but it slowed down for the night. However, when they hadn’t come by lunch time and the fire was getting very close, Frances rang again but still, in spite of the imminent threat and their promise to send a team immediately, nobody came. We did what we could but when it seemed we just couldn’t stop it, I got Frances to ring 000 again. (I now feel sure Jason and his dope growing mate who squats on the public land behind us were hoping we would also back-burn so we also would wind up in the court... or be burnt out.)

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Our complaint last time was that Mather was too much involved with the Burtenshaws and the miners. What gives Mathers the right to deny us help this time? We were told he sat there with all those fire trucks watching us on a satellite screen, laughing at us struggling to keep this fire under control. Even the people from 000 could see something was wrong. The last bloke who answered for the fire emergency said he would get a team here straight away; that he couldn’t understand why they weren’t here already. Then I found them, at least four yellow fire trucks, maybe more, were parked on our boundary between us and the Burtenshaws yearly Occupational Licence on the other side of the hill from where the fire was heading and they had no intention of coming to help us. As I waved to them they just drove down out of sight into the gully and we never saw them again.

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Then we heard from the Ravenshoe fire truck that all these fire trucks were parked out of sight down the road from here and stopping others like him from coming here. He was full of apologies for not getting here sooner. He said he was parked there most of the day with them saying someone was shooting out here; that he wasn’t allowed to proceed without a police escort. So, he got the local relieving policewoman to escort him in his two-wheel drive vehicle while all the four-wheel drive yellow fire trucks, better fit for the purpose, remained to watch us on their sat. screen. This time there must be an investigation into these people and I think we are all owed an explanation as the only issue against helping us must be what they were told by Simon Burtenshaw. But if they bothered to look at the facts, they would find the evidence all points to Burtenshaw and our opposing the illegal things they are doing on land they do not own. Like all Ols there is a condition that they cannot touch anything to do with mining so who got the pay back to look the other way?

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After a meeting of locals, we were told that some of the Mt Garnet and the Ravenshoe firies wanted to help but were told not to by Jason Mather from the Atherton fire station who was there giving the orders along with Simon Burtenshaw who was also there. Jason Mather said it was too dangerous because they had heard gun shots and that treats had been made… threats to who and about what? They said they could see us on the satellite screen struggling with the fire but still they were told not to help. The only thing we ever did to Burtenshaws was to deny them access through here to tend and harvest their Marijuana crop. Some of their supporters like Keith McDonald said we should live and let live? But that is what we suggested from the start telling them to go around and leave our road open. The fact that this is still going on shows how corrupt all this is.

Are these images on their sats recorded? If so, it will show no guns just two people in their seventies struggling to contain a fire that was, in all probability, lit by Simon Burtenshaw, as he usually does when he thinks the rain is coming and therefor it’s time for him to “back-burn” as he calls it. (This practice has earned him the nickname of Slimy Burn-It-All by the people at Top-Nettle.) As for people like us who live in the area, he thinks we all should be moved on or burnt out of this area as he claims it all belongs to him. John Mudge, over the other side, was also seen by people over there, doing the same thing and, like Burtenshaw, he thinks all the land belongs to him even though he also has only a yearly licence to occupy and it is not freehold land at all.

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Like a lease, the conditions of Ols are that they are exempt of all the Roads, Creeks, Dams, Free hold land and mining leases. In fact, the way the Land and the Divided Fences Acts are written is that an OL does not hold any tenure. It is a yearly licence which is not an interest in the land (such as a lease) as it does not allow for exclusive possession and does not have a tenure. The licence or lease must be for at least five years to be covered under the Dividing Fences Act. Under the land Act, it states that all roads are exempt from the lease or licences and must be adequately fenced to keep stock from getting on the roads. Before 1994 a grid had to be licenced and insured. Today there is no allowance or mention for a grid other than a licence to put a grid with third party insurance in the boundary fence line of a property. There are no council forms anymore to file to have a grid across a public road and we enquired about third party insurance and found no insurance company would touch a grid if it was across a public road.

Therefore, an OL cannot be used for cattle if it can’t contribute to fencing of the tenures inside its boundaries because they can only clear and fence the boundary of the OL. An OL is exempt under the divided fences Act 1994 from contributing to the fencing of neighbouring properties. Therefore, an OL should not be an impairment to other properties by grazing cattle they cannot contain. We fenced our property, only to have them come in the night and pull down our fences. They know there is no obligation for them in the Dividing Fences Act to pay their share of replacing the fences so they come in night and cut them down.

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The facts are clear and getting clearer that all this land is what they are after and not just for growing dope BUT mining, now with Chinese money. This area is mineralised but the problem is it is the highest part of Queensland and water runs downhill making it impossible to stop the resultant pollution poisoning everything and everyone from here to the sea on both sides of the Great Divide. It pollutes the Gulf on one side and the Great-Barrier-Reef on the other.

And that, it seems, is what this has all been about, GREED. There are others involved but the greediest are those I have already mentioned. And then there are those who are just too stupid to realise the danger of heavy mental contamination like Graham West in the local paper. It is so easy to make up propagandrous BS stories about people (which mostly happens when they are threatened with the facts and they have a gift in telling it to make people believe it.) Detective Mark Kerswell is good at spreading such BS stories and is one of several that are paid to keep us busy with phony raids and arrests. This would not happen if people had equal representation in the courts along with an independent criminal watch dog.

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The fire in 2018 came from just the creek in front of the house and it did a lot of damage, mostly to our irrigation and solar shed. Containing that fire was not easy, especially without any help from the local rural fire brigade who were called but were ordered to stay away by Simon Burtenshaw. He had even had our fire permit revoked when it was still safe to burn. We had no chance of stopping its spread on our own. But this time the fire came from the length of the property with only the two of us here, so all we could do was keep it from burning down the house and the solar shed again. We had rung 000 several times. Still, no one came and it wasn’t till the afternoon when the fire had passed the workshops heading to the back of the property where the Telstra tower is and where I had a hose ready, that I could see the fire brigade lined up along our boundary fence watching us fight the fire on our own. However, I wasn’t there long before a wall of fire was coming so I dropped the hose and got out of there to the west side, just as the Ravenshoe fire truck finally turned up with its police escort.

The driver asked if it was safe because he had spent most of the day waiting a couple of Kms down the road after they had been told he couldn’t proceed past the grid because someone was shooting out here. He said he wasn’t allowed to come any closer without a police escort. I said we haven’t heard any shots but then we have been busy fighting the fire on our own. After talking to the local police officer who was filling in for the local bloke for a couple of weeks, we realised it would have been the same Bull-Shit artist Simon Burtenshaw along with his friend Jason Mather from the Atherton fire station who would have made up the bogus story about someone shooting out here as they consider people like us a threat to their illegal businesses.

There are no guns, at least on this property and, other than Alan Lutz who was licenced to shoot wild pigs and dogs out here many years ago, there have been no guns out here since. Alan Lutz was the only one and even then I had a problem with what he had to do but back then, the wild dogs and pigs were a big problem and it was Lutz who cleaned up the area. By the time Burtenshaw and Dunford started shooting up the place, the wild dog and pig problem was over. We do however have a problem with Dunford and the Burtenshaws shooting up the place but they only shoot wildlife like Kangaroos? As police records will show, we have made several complaints. They shoot each other’s livestock if the animal wanders onto what they call their land and threaten people telling them they are trespassing even though they are on a public road. There is no reason for anyone to have a firearm around here anymore. I believe the firearm lawyers did not go far enough as all Howard did was take guns off the wrong people.

The people next door keep saying they will make a complaint about illegal activity like being threatened at gunpoint or being shot at but to make a report and have it taken seriously and filed through the system has not happened because we have had too many corrupt cops. One of the neighbours next door, Cyril, was threatened by Garth Dunford who was holding a 303 rifle and Cyril suggested I report it. But after I made the complaint he was threatened even more when Sergeant Shane Smith came to see Cyril to “advise” him that there was nothing wrong with Dunford protecting his property with a 303 rifle?

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Nobody has given these people the legal right to shoot Kangaroos in the first place and that could hardly be seen as protecting his lease land. He says they eat all the grass which they don’t. They are native and protected in this area. They eat the native grasses as they have done for thousands of years, grass that cattle can’t survive on. These idiots have murdered thousands of Kangaroos, wallabies and other native animals. They even go out of their way to run over them. Cattle can’t survive on these low nutrient grasses that wildlife have for thousands of years. They bring in ferrel cattle that spread weeds which take over and cause bushfires. They also contaminate the water in the dams and eat all the water plants that are the life of these dams. These cattle are supposed to be trough watered and fenced out from the dams to stop cattle polluting the waterways with things like Guardia and Leptospirosis.

Another resident living next door is Tony who now says he will make the same statement about Dunford threatening him and his boy with that same rifle. Sergeant Smith doesn’t take statements against those who have people in high places (he wouldn’t dare). Then there’s Sandra Tutty an old woman who was around sixty at the time and a long-time friend of Frances. She was stopped at gunpoint by Dunford. He told her she was trespassing and that the road belonged to him. He made her turn around and drive all the way back to Mt Garnet and then she went on to Townsville where she still lives.

Since then, Frances and Sandy can only talk on the phone because Sandy is too scared to visit us anymore. Sandy, at that time, was the art teacher at the Townsville Corrections Prison and is now retied except for teaching art in her children’s art school in Townsville. We reported this to police at the time but have heard nothing from police, only Dunford saying when will you people lean that he has the right to keep people out of what he calls his property… his road? The road that goes through this lease land is a public road and she had every right to use this public road without this idiot threatening her life. Sandy is still available if we can get this to court and she still has nightmares about what happened.

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The only answer is to publicly investigate these people and their illegal activities on this land and the reason why they are still holding these leases and licences. They have broken every condition on these leases and licences and the best way to safeguard these areas from fire is to list the area for public purpose. The area is unallocated state land and too big an area to manage for bush fires when the land holder thinks burning early might lose him his dope crop. So, he burns too late and that is why people lose their homes. This huge area needs to be broken up and turned into hobby farms like we have done here, instead of remaining as huge areas under Occupational Licence where these people just close off public roads to keep people away from their illegal business and create fuel for the bushfires.

Cattle don’t eat these native grasses and cattle bring in weeds that also die off in the dry and that is why every two or three years the fires come. Just give the land away as lease to buy to the people, on condition their boundaries are fire breaks like we had been doing until Burtenshaw somehow managed to own the local fire station and cancelled our fire permit? ………………….

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I have included below the letter I wrote to you in 2018 when Simon Burtenshaw came onto the place, just before midnight, during a total fire ban and set it on fire. Even the fire investigators as well as the SES who brought out a done so that they could get a more accurate picture of what had occurred, agreed that it was arson and that we were lucky to have survived. Yet no investigation ensued due to police protection of the culprit. We were lucky to survive this time too and, as we get older and slower, we need help to prevent this pyromaniac from succeeding in his mission to murder us.

Thanking you for your attention,

Gary Dunn

 

13 October 2018

To the Rural Fire investigation.

My name is Gary Dunn and I write this statement to say that, about 5PM on the 10/10/2018 while returning from Cairns to Mt Garnet I heard on the ABC radio about a fire at Nymbool near Mt Garnet. But when I got to Mt Garnet and then the 21-km drive home I didn’t see any fire or even smoke. Then just after dark, Chris Willox, a neighbour, rang to say he could see a fire far off in the distance over the ridge and I told him that is the other side of Mt Garnet and the Kennedy Hy and has never crossed before. All these areas are so dry and we all have been threatened and told for the last three months not to back burn at this time as there was a total fire ban of any type, anywhere. That is why Chris was so concerned.

This fire, 50 Ks away from here we are now told, was possibly lit by Cameron Burtenshaw who now lives near Nymbool and it would not have even reached us. So, the fire Simon Burtenshaw lit was for no other reason than arson as he meant to burn us out. To them, people like us have no right to even be here on our Freehold land. All this and more is being sent as evidence of bullying and abuse by the Burtenshaws and their people in high places in the public service, to the Royal Commission for aged home care and disability discrimination that we are part of.

While I was talking to Chris we could now see the glow as well but it was still several ridges away and judging from previous fires it would probably take 2 or3 days to get here. But just before midnight, the dog was barking madly and we could hear it crackling so very close, just the other side of the creek a couple of hundred yards from the house and it was moving faster than any fire we’ve ever seen (and against the wind.) Then we saw two people walking through the creek with some kind of firestick and lighting the dead grass along the entire bank of the creek. And they were on our private property.

I sang out to them asking what the hell did they think they were doing but they just laughed. So, I rang (triple zero) and spoke to a woman who was trying to help. She connected me to various people to whom I reported what was happening although she couldn’t get through to any local police or fire brigade. The original fire was still no threat to this side of the ridge. But this new broad fire-front was racing up our mountainside and heading northeast. I had noticed Simon Burtenshaw’s green agricultural machine beside the grid on my way home. Chris Willox, a neighbour who lives about four km towards town from here, told me that he had seen Simon go past his place on this green machine.

It passed his place followed by another four-wheeler motor bike about ten minutes later. This is the four-wheeler we saw riding around where the fire had been on the following morning. In a recorded phone conversation with the local Sergeant, Shane Smith, on 11/10/18, he said that Simon Burtenshaw had told him he was on his way out here to do some “back-burning.” The Tablelands’ Council, on their website as well as on the TV & radio and in the Newspapers, all clearly state there’s a total fire ban because it’s too dry and bloody dangerous; that no back-burning or fires are allowed. We had also been told that people over the range near Irvinebank were being charged with arson for “back burning” to protect their property before the fire arrived there. A lot of people are watching what will happen this time.

Every two or three years it’s the same story, with the fire starting in about the same place a few hundred metres from our boundary on the north bank of Wyndham creek. Their mother, Rose Burtenshaw, once came on to our property to abuse me for burning a fire brake in May or June. This is a time when it’s safe to do so. She raved on that she had the water and grass rights through all this country including private property and said I must leave the grass for her cows. I tried to tell her then that we don’t want her feral cows on our land. Neither did we want a fire hazard as cows don’t eat these native grasses because there’s no nutrients in it for cows. It’s kangaroo feed and needs burning off at the right time of the year… and that’s NOT in October to December when Burtenshaws think it’s due to rain soon. However, it’s not just the fires they start with her delusions about rights to water and grass. They came one night and stole a section of our fence we had put up to keep their cows from polluting our dam.

Once again ours and the public’s safety have been put at risk by the corrupt and incompetent Mt Garnet police station who knew Simon Burtenshaw was going to light this fire in 2018 and, as usual, they did nothing and could not even be contacted. Can you believe it? By corrupt, we mean police officers who ignore road laws, land laws and council laws. Sergeant Smith is aware that an Occupation Licence “cannot be transferred, sold, sub-leased, mortgaged or subdivided. It does not mean they even have an interest in the land. It does not allow for exclusive possession and the right to occupy applies only to the permit holder” which in this case is Garry & Rose Burtenshaw and NOT their boys. “No term applies to the licence. An Occupational Licence is for a minor nature and no major structural improvements other than boundary fencing are allowed (such as the cattle yards.) It is not covered by the divided fences ACT meaning we can’t even claim their half of the fencing and that is why they pull down our fences.” Coolgarra station is nothing more than a Burtenshaw apparition.

They don’t own this land as they claim. It’s not even a lease. It’s a yearly license with a three-month cancellation period and it’s time this cancellation period started to count down. As I have stated, they said on the radio, TV and in the newspapers…even on the Council website it was emphatically stated that there was a total fire ban (especially where there wouldn’t have been any fire until Burtenshaw started one. That really can’t be called “back burning as he told Sergeant Shane Smith, an arrogant little man who, as the local Sergeant, would have to have known about the fire ban.” And to light it at midnight, it has to be called by its proper name… “arson” and, as it burnt through such a huge area, it is “attempted mass-murder.”

By the next day (11 Oct 2018) the fire was burning way up to the north where it crossed the creek and was headed back down towards us with the wind behind it (putting all our lives at risk again.) I made sure there was a wide firebreak on the eastern side of the shed and around the phone tower and our water tanks. We started watering for as far as our hoses would reach. We had buckets of water and wet bags along the firebreak where the hoses couldn’t reach and we waited. Just before dark, we could see the fire storm approaching, made worse by the gusty southeast wind.

After it had passed the phone tower, the winds died down somewhat and the pressure eased. A land-cruiser arrived at our gate turned around and went away. We know now that it was Simon Burtenshaw making sure the fire was out before he would let his Rural fire people in but not to help because just after we were able to take a break and walk away from the fire, the Rural fire service arrived but the danger had passed. The next evening (12 Oct 2018) about 10.30 pm, the Mt Garnet fire brigade arrived looking for Burtenshaws mythical “Coolgarra Station” where they said the fire had progressed to. It seems that simple Simon, in his fire-lighting enthusiasm to burn us out, had set fire to himself and then called for the public funded assistance that we were denied.

The fire almost did burn us out. We include photos from our security cameras that show some of the danger of this fire. One shows where we almost lost our caravan that is often occupied by Sharon White and others. Also, my tip truck was parked next to the caravan and in thick smoke. I had to hose down two cars to keep them from burning when suddenly I heard Frances screaming at me that if I didn’t bring the hose I would lose the truck. I suddenly realised I had a problem. In my panic to save the cars, I was finding it hard to breath and I was not sure which way to go. I was surrounded by thick smoke (see pictures.) So, I followed the sound of Frances yelling at me. I know now how people can perish in a fire. Then, before I could hose down the truck, I had to drop the hose and go almost the entire length of the shed that was also full of smoke and embers, to get some air and still wondering whether there was anyone in the caravan as sometimes Sharon would come home late and quietly park down the bottom garden and walk up.

It seems now that by saving the old cars first, we almost lost the caravan and truck and if the wind had kept its force we would have lost the Telstra tower and our water tanks. That would be a bill for the Burtenshaws although nobody listened last time we lost two big polly tanks. Also, we now have found our three missing hens that were sitting on their eggs in nests they made on the banks down in the creek on our property and where they had every right to be. There were two hens sitting on the Wyndham creek bank and the other was on a tributary that runs into Wyndham Creek. All were in our chook area on our land and all were burnt alive. We back-burn our land, both sides of the creek, about every second year and we make sure the chooks are clear. This was a deliberant arson attack on us and our private property by Simon Burtenshaw and this time, with him starting a fire so late, he could have killed everyone as there are several people who use this place to rest and get away.

Most of the fires start in the same area except this time it was late at night and they came right on to our property. There’s always a Burtenshaw around the area when a fire starts but this time there’s enough to charge him. Besides us and our neighbours knowing about Simon’s antics, the local Sergeant has also said that Simon told him he was coming out here to back-burn. That means Simon must have known his brother was lighting a fire as Nymbool is a long way from here and I don’t believe that the fire would have even got near here. I think the two brothers just decided that it was time to burn off and they are so used to doing what they want and getting away with it. Several years back and that time it was November, we could see a fire being started down the creek from here after hearing motor bikes.

So, I rang the Mt Garnet police and told them. I suggested they bring the fire truck for the fire and keep an eye out for the four-wheel motor bikes. When they finely got here, Danny the Aboriginal liaison officer walked along the track and found the tracks from the four-wheel bikes and where the fire had started but when he returned and said what he had found, the Constable, Simon Armstrong, said “no you didn’t and there’s no need for the fire truck we have been told to let it burn.” When I objected and said it’s too dry and too late in the year, he said he can always say I lit it.

That fire was the hottest for years with the entire range on fire and it burnt out just about everyone and everything from Mt Garnet to Irvinebank including Silver Valley where the damage to people was worth many thousands of dollars. This time we also have the recorded conversation with Sergeant Shane Smith where he says Burtenshaw told him he was going to light the fire but said he didn’t know it was a total fire ban. It’s time this criminal family and their pocket police were investigated.

If I can be of any further assistance in any way, please ring our home number: 4097 9298… or email: garydunn@bordernet.com.au.

 

Sincerely,

 

Gary Dunn.

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New things are happening...

April 2023

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New Developments about the Land (18 April 23) 

 

My name is Gary Dunn, I am sorry about the delay but I had to get help about sending this. I spoke to and was encouraged by Land Allocations office [ph: (07) 4222 5427] last week while enquiring about land allocations for the Mt Garnet area and what people can expect after a federal court ruling about native title in the area. This area has been held up for far too long so, after talking to several people as well as their staff, I am inquiring as to what forms there are once native title is decided one way or the other, for people desperate to relocate and claim a piece of this land here between Mt Garnet and Herberton. A lot of these people thought they had a native title claim but got nothing so what is the point in native title. They just need a piece of land to build and live on.

   These people mostly agree that the infrastructures will follow. Most are people that just want to live in the bush on a bush block. Most, like us, don’t even want power or mains water. Even Palaszczuk is aware of the pollutive damage mining does up here so, other than Native Title, there should be no problem with offering the land to people willing to relocate and so, once again, turn this area into a productive community. 

   To all those that are still interested and wondering why this land and other lands like this are still not being settled, when so many people are homeless and in need of land in areas with good climate  like this land around Mount Garnet in Far North Queensland, this land is still Unallocated State Crown  Land… and if there is no native title over it then it would make it even more available for public purpose, giving you the right to file a claim for a block of it. Every time we get to the point with these public servants about why these couple of criminal families have not yet been investigated and their lease or licence cancelled, they always come back to the native title story even with them knowing for a long time that native title is no longer the problem. The problem is public service corruption; something we have proof of and something the CCC also know but don’t know what should be done about it? We need an independent public service watch dog?

   An application has been filed by the applicant lease holder Gunther who also knows the land is free of native title so he is asking the question to the Federal court about whether native title still exists on this land. This is something that has been in question for a long time, whether native title does still exist and that is the reason the Government says their hands are tied while there is the question of native title.

   So, if you people want a piece of the land then this time do something about it before it is too late and the applicant gets his hands on the whole lot. Then the next leasee will do the same and so on. The best way to help the homeless is to open up land like this. There are hundreds of people that have come out here from places like Cairns to look at what is here as well as all those people that have responded to our web page. 

  To lease Government land does not mean you own it, you are a tenant on the public land and when that land comes up for free-hold it should be made available to everyone and not just to those who bribe public servants. The conditions put on a leasee are supposed to be there to protect the land and the environments on and around the land. That is the law. So, how can a leasee ignore the conditions of their lease and start mining or put cattle on the land without fencing the roads, dams and creeks out as stated in the 1994 Land Act? Where is the RSPCA when we send them photos of dead and dying cattle? Why is it, when they do come out, they are horrified and take their own photos but we never hear from them again? They are made to disappear. It tells me there is something very wrong with the way we are governed?

   Roads, creeks and dams should, by law, be fenced to keep stock off the roads and to stop them polluting the banks of dams and creeks that run into the rivers that go down into the Reef. This is a problem New Zealand also is facing. Half of the country’s rivers are too polluted to swim in (Cairns Post 14/4/23.) Kiwis also have ignored this health hazard. Whether the water is domestic or just to flow into the ocean, it must be clean and free of disease from these cattle and mining. With cattle, the dam and creek banks are dead. Only weeds introduced by cattle grow and die off, becoming a fire hazed in the dry. Cattle, we were told by DERM, from the start must be trough watered; that any dam that runs into a creek must be fenced so, like it is for the Kiwis, it’s time to stop risking people’s health from diseases like Giardia to people, animals and the Reef.

  The part of the area shown on the map is mostly leased land but still, like Occupational licences, they can be cancelled for a public purpose and should be cancelled when lease conditions are ignored such as when they become covered in weeds from cattle that should have been fenced out from the start.  A public purpose is anything to do with the public including land to build and live on. 

  When our block was made FREE-HOLD, they said the plan was to free-hold most of the land that has a tenure of less than 60 Ha to it. But they quickly closed that door and there’s no doubt that was to keep these land deals in the family to those who pay to have more rights than you. This does not include an Occupational licence which is a yearly licence and so does not have a tenure (like in this case lot 219 on the survey plan 285559.) The advice of the National Native Title Tribunal is that anyone, whether you’re Aboriginal or not, who wishes to become a party to the Federal court’s determination for a non-native title interest, has only to file a form 5 that is available from www.fedcourt.gov.au before 4 July 2023, to seek leave from the Federal Court to become a party to the non-native title interest.

   As someone with an interest, your next step then should be to file for some type of perpetual lease, then to free-hold your land and help open this land up. They say they can’t free-hold non leased land. Can’t or won’t? It’s time to help the homeless and those who want to get out of the cities thus freeing up those needed city properties, by allowing people to relocating to areas like here. It’s time to make little changes to Land Allocations and help the little people instead of those who want to own it all.

   An application has been made by the new registered lessee for a non-native title interest over about 60 sq KM of this land and this is just a little bit of the land that is here and available. Native title is what has held this area back all these years with the only winner being a couple of elders who sold out their people and took all they could and disappeared. What is the point of native title if those people still have no right to the land? Both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people are better off by all filing a form 5 Notice of intention to become a party to the non-native title land interest in the Federal court before the 4 of July 2023. Then that should open the door to file that interest to become a landowner. Open this land up and the rest will follow as the problem with keeping shops open is we need more infrastructure and that means more people settling this land.

  The established gazetted road that runs from Mt Garnet through this area of land in the claim is about 9 kms with power and water available throughout and along these roads. By far, the best purpose for this land would be to break it up into smaller bush lots, rather than giving it to someone who wants to own it all and pollute it with cattle or mining. Our interest is that we have had nothing but trouble from these leasees and licensees with cattle and illegal grids on the unfenced roads. They stop traffic and tell the people they are trespassing, even at gunpoint by the squatting leasee on the next lease along the road. Gunther put a young girl on her horse to stop traffic while illegally mustering cattle?

   I told her what she was doing was illegal and she should get off the road before she gets run over or causes another serious accident of which there have been many  along this road and in this area. It is no longer legal to graze cattle on public roads making it one of the road rules that needs to be properly policed.  Mining and cattle people stick together, spreading lies and stories about anyone who goes against them or if you report their criminal mining, cattle and other illegal activities.

   Everything that goes into dams or the creeks up here will find its way to the Great Barrier Reef as this area is the highest part of Queensland. Even the Premier was disgusted about the pollution from the (Baal Gammon mine) on the other side of the mountain from us, where the miners just walked away costing Millions to the Tax and rate payers to try and clean it up. Check it out. It’s on the web site and it proves how dangerous mining is up here … to everyone all the way down to the Great Barrier Reef.

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Thanking you for your interest,

Gary Dunn

 

 

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