Dr Lindsay Simpson is the author and co-author of nine books including the bestselling Brothers in Arms, co-authored with Sandra Harvey, the subject of a the television mini-series Bikie Wars. Her 2014 book Where is Daniel? written with parents Bruce and Denise Morcombe dealt with the disappearance of their son Daniel and the subsequent police investigation. Her novel The Curer of Souls was shortlisted for the Colin Roderick prize in 2007. That year, she also won with Sandra the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Australian Crime Writers Association Ned Kelly Awards for her contribution to crime writing.
Lindsay was an investigative journalist for The Sydney Morning Herald from 1983 to 1995. She spent 13 years as an academic as the inaugural Head of Journalism and Media Studies at the University of Tasmania and headed the multimedia journalism degree at James Cook University. She started postgraduate writing degree programs at both universities. She now writes fulltime and lives in the Whitsundays with her husband Grant. They have their own tourism business running two sailing boats, Providence V and MiLady around the islands.
Also by Lindsay Simpson
Fiction
The Curer of Souls (2006)
Non-fiction
Where is Daniel?
with Bruce Morcombe and Denise Morcombe (2014)
Honeymoon Dive,
co-written with Jennifer Cooke (2010)
Fatal Honeymoon Dive,
co-written with Jennifer Cooke (2010, ebook)
The Australian Geographic Guide to Tasmania (1997)
To Have and To Hold,
with Walter Mikac (1997)
The Killer Next Door,
co-written with Sandra Harvey (1994)
My Husband My Killer: The Murder of Megan Kalajzich,
co-written with Sandra Harvey (1992)
Brothers in Arms,
co-written with Sandra Harvey (1986)
First published by Spinifex Press, 2018
Spinifex Press Pty Ltd
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Copyright 2018 Lindsay Simpson
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Front cover concept: Elliot Miller, DigitallyBlessed
Cover design: Deb Snibson
Typesetting: Helen Christie
Typeset in Utopia
Printed by McPhersons Printing Group
Paperback | 9781925581478 |
ePub | 9781925581508 |
Adobe | PDF 9781925581485 |
Kindle | 9781925581492 |
Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge firstly my husband, Grant Lewis who has patiently supported me in the writing of this manuscript. Thanks, too, to the people who cannot be named who put themselves on the line to help the cause on the ground in India. Their assistance and knowledge was invaluable. Without them, doors would not have opened.
I would also like to acknowledge all of the hard work from the following organisations: Australian Marine Conservation Society (in particular Imogen Zethoven and her dedication to the cause), the Australian Conservation Foundation as well as all of those courageous supporters of Stop Adani and the small group of committed people in the Whitsundays who fight so hard for the reef that they love. Individuals such as Libby Edge and her group of dedicated followers from Eco Barge make all the difference to looking after our reef and caring for our turtles.
I would especially like to thank Cherry Muddle whose invitation to attend a local Christmas party for the dynamic WRAD (Whitsunday Residents Against Dumping) two and a half years ago led me on this journey.
Lastly, thanks to my Dad, Charles Simpson, and the many passionate discussions we continue to have. He is always there as an inspiration.
Contents
Chapter 1
The Courting of a Mining Magnate
The Indian businessman next to me in the window seat is crunching coated chickpeas just before takeoff at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. It is 15 March 2017 and we are heading for Gujarat in Indias far northwest. Gujarat is Indias most lucrative industrial state and home to the US$12 billion multinational Adani Group the largest port operator in India and Indias largest trader and importer of coal.
Its foggy out there, I gesture at the impenetrable mist outside. Why is that?
Madam, the businessman replies still crunching. Thats the morning.
How could I have forgotten the density of the pollution in India? For four months in 2015, while researching my new novel, I had lived in Chennai in southern India. Id forgotten the way it clogs the nostrils. Hugs the throat. Makes breathing an obvious rather than involuntary motion. Every breath signs a death warrant.
Tomorrow, on 16 March 2017, the Queensland Premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, and her eight regional mayors will begin their descent into Mumbai from London passing through the liquorice-allsort layers of impenetrable pollution. I dont know whether any of them have ever visited this continent. Representing eight regional areas across Queensland, they have secured ratepayer-funded budgets of up to $10,000 for a few days visit to India. Their mission: to ensure that Australias largest coal mine and potentially the biggest in the world the Carmichael coal mine to be built by Adani Mining Pty Ltd goes ahead. If successful, Gautam Adani, billionaire chair, one of the wealthiest men in India and founder of the Adani Group whose close friend is none other than Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the first to open the rich seams of thermal coal housed deep underground in the Australian outback previously never accessed because of the remoteness of the location.
The proposed mine is to include six open cut pits and five underground mines across an area that is 30 kms long. The companys regulatory permissions are all but in place. A mining lease, already granted by the Queensland State Government will permit the company to mine 60 million tonnes of coal every year for 60 years. If the mine goes ahead, the groundwater from the Great Artesian Basin, home to the countrys ancient well an area occupying about 22% of Australia will be under threat. Adani is also about to be granted a free unlimited 60-year water licence by the Queensland Government (this happened on 4 April 2017). The mine will use 250 litres of freshwater for each tonne of coal produced. All the company needs to do, under the conditions of the licence, is to monitor and report the amount of water it extracts under this permit that runs until 2077. Its water usage will not be subject to public submissions or appeals.
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