Locals who protested coal and coal seam gas exploration in the Scenic Rim are sharing their story to keep it alive for generations to come.
The “Moving Mountains” exhibition, which tells the story of the 11-year Keep the Scenic Rim Scenic movement, launches on 17 June at The Centre Beaudesert and will continue until 2 September.
Keep the Scenic Rim Scenic (KTSRS) was formed as a sub-committee of BOSS (Boonah Organisation for a Sustainable Shire) in 2011 to keep the region free of coal and CSG mining.
Moving Mountains will mark one year from mining company Arrow Energy’s 2022 withdrawal of lease tenements over the Scenic Rim, a decade after the famous Kerry Blockade.
For Keep the Scenic Rim Scenic, the exhibition will be about celebrating the anniversary of the 2022 announcement and recording the history of community actions.
For 10 days in early 2012, under the banner Keep the Scenic Rim Scenic, locals and supporters blockaded a site on Nindooinbah Estate Road near Kerry in a heartfelt, around the clock protest resulting in arrests of locals and visiting supporters.
It culminated in an iconic moment when locals including Rod Andersen threw their hats down in front of Arrow Energy’s drill rig at the site.
Another iconic moment of community action was local initiative ‘Protestors on Peaks, where activists dropped banners from mountains and rolled out massive signs in pastures across the region to spread their message.
The local activism movement had been building since 2010, when a coal mining interest at Barney View and Maroon was brought to light by local journalist, the late Gary Corbett.
The Moving Mountains exhibition, which will run as part of Council’s 2023 cultural program, will be a showcase of community memories and memorabilia.
Locals like Rod Andersen, Innes Larkin and Linda Weston feature in interviews filmed by Jude Kalman of Little Drum Pictures, showcasing how they contributed to actions locally.
Those interviews will be part of the visual display alongside banners and photographs, ‘Lock the Gate’ signage and more at The Centre. The 17 June launch event is free, but tickets must be booked at http://liveatthecentre.scenicrim.qld.gov.au/Exhibitions-2023-Moving-Mountains-pg33367.html
