Queensland citizens draws to the attention of the House that Clive Palmer’s Waratah Coal has now applied to the Queensland Government for a mining lease, the final step before the mining of Bimblebox Nature Refuge. Bimblebox Nature Refuge is beautiful and invaluable: an 8,000 hectare property, 95% uncleared, in the largely cleared Desert Uplands region of central west Queensland in the South Galilee Basin. As learnt from history, de-forestation directly leads to droughts destroying livelihoods of farmers and all Queensland people and destruction of wildlife.

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to assess an environmental value of the Bimblebox Nature Refuge and to grant it a state-protected status as one of the few remaining forests in western Queensland.