CAMBERWELL woman Wendy Bowman praised Hunter environment groups, Lock the Gate Alliance and the NSW Environmental Defenders Office in a speech after accepting one of the world’s most prestigious environment awards.
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Mrs Bowman, 83, told a San Francisco audience on Tuesday that “I don’t think I’ve done anything extra special except that I’ve done it longer than most of them”, after she was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for decades of work for communities against coal mining.
The Goldman Prize is awarded each year to people in six regions of the world who have exhibited outstanding grassroots environmental activism.
Mrs Bowman’s win against Yancoal in 2014, which left the coal giant having to convince Mrs Bowman to sell her property if it wanted the Ashton South East open cut coal mine to proceed, was a landmark win for landowners, said Lock the Gate Alliance spokesperson Georgina Wood.
In her speech Mrs Bowman said she was lead complainant in the case because “What worried me more was that if I sold it would wreck the lives of all those people” because of the mine’s expected impacts on downstream water sources.
She established Mine Watch in 1991 after battling one mine and “I just didn’t want other people to go through what we went through”.
“I’d been through hell with all these mining companies,” she said.
Mrs Bowman told the audience, which gave her a standing ovation at the end of the speech, that she was honoured and humbled by the prize but “there are so many others working just as hard”.
“I would like to thank the members of our Hunter Environment Lobby, the Hunter Communities Network and Lock the Gate. I would also like to give special thanks to the lawyers of the Enviornmental Defenders Office,” she said.
She accepted the award on their behalf because “nothing is achieved alone”.
“Water is life. Without it there is no life. When we started Mine Watch in 1991 our aim was simply to find out what our rights were as landowners.
“The work continues and our underground water supply is now particularly threatened by the mining companies desire for profits and the governments desire for royalties. Money still speaks louder than the need to protect our environment. This must change.”