THE WANGAN AND JAGALINGOU PEOPLE of what is today known as Central Queensland tell a story about their founder, the rainbow serpent Mundunjudra. At the beginning of time, the Great Spirit made water fall from the heavens and the sun shine from above. The Mundunjudra came up from beneath the earth and moved through the land, creating the rivers, valleys, mountains, and life-giving waters of the Doongmabulla Springs. Doongmabulla means “place of many waters.” The vast wetlands include 187 spring vents that nourish all life. The Wangan and Jagalingou people were created from the springs. Their totem animals—the kangaroo, the honeybee, the emu, the goanna, and the eel—were created there.
Today the Mundunjudra sleeps in the valley. If the springs dry up, it’s believed that the serpent will awaken and unleash disasters.
CENTRAL QUEENSLAND is coal country. Coal defines and dominates this region. There are coal centers and coal monuments and massive piles of coal. Six coal trains pass us by as we drive into the remote interior; each has twenty carriages piled high with coal.
We’re driving west from the lush coastal city of Rockhampton to the Carmichael coal mine in the Galilee Basin, about 335 miles. The mine sits five miles east of the Doongmabulla Springs. The initial proposal from the Adani corporation entailed six open-pit and five underground mines, promising an annual yield of 60 million tons of coal. Over its proposed lifetime of sixty years, the Carmichael coal mine would open up the Galilee Basin to eight additional mega-mines. It would use 270 billion liters of water, draining the springs.
The surrounding areas have been heavily mined by corporations such as Rio Tinto, but the Galilee Basin remains pristine. Persistent opposition by the Wangan and Jagalingou people, as well as a grassroots network known as the Stop Adani campaign, has managed to slow the construction of the Carmichael mine. Over one hundred major investors have pulled out. In twelve years, only one pit has been dug.
My mum’s cousin Nigel Dsouza is driving and his wife, Lata Krishnan, has joined us
