Table Of ContentThe Coral Battleground, first published in 1977, records the successful
struggles of Judith Wright and others to preserve the Great Barrier
Reef from exploratory drilling for oil and limestone mining. Today,
with UNESCO on the point of declaring the Reef ‘world heritage in
danger’, Wright’s work remains an essential and inspiring call to arms in
the new battles against pollution and over-development.
–Professor Emerita Elizabeth Webby AM
Judith Wright's recount of the heroic early battles for the reef exemplifies
the incredible achievements of a passionate few, who with vision and
determination were able to succeed against the odds. This book is the
stuff of legends and is a must read for all those who consider themselves
environmental custodians. An extraordinary story in itself, The Coral
Battleground now takes on an even more pertinent meaning as the Great
Barrier Reef faces its biggest threat since the oil rigs of the 70s. May
Judith's story inspire a new generation to fight for the reef!
–Bob Irwin, Bob Irwin Wildlife & Conservation Foundation Inc.
Political intrigue, shifting allegiances, dirty deeds, and more, Judith
Wright records the environmental struggles of the 1970s, and the
people’s movement to preserve the Great Barrier Reef – for a time.
Today, as the reef faces new threats, her book provides inspiration, and a
how-to guide for a new generation of activists, for whom the beauty of
the reef matters most deeply.
–Rosaleen Love, author of Reefscape
This edition of Judith Wright’s lucid and compelling account of the
fight to save ‘the reef’ comes with added value – a publisher’s preface, a
new foreword [by Margaret Thorsborne AO] and Judith Wright’s own
prophetic warning that such victories are never really won. Today’s
campaigners will find inspiration in Judith Wright’s persistent vision in
the face of great odds.
–Margaret Moorhouse, Alliance to Save Hinchinbrook Inc.
Wonderful and timely to see this lovely new edition of a classic book
that every Australian should own. In it Judith tells the inspiring David
and Goliath story of how she and a group of friends took on massive
forces of greed and destruction that threatened the existence of the
Great Barrier Reef and won. Australia urgently needs this new call to
arms.
–Iain McCalman, author of The Reef: A Passionate History
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Judith Wright, Arthur Fenton, John Büsst
Judith Wright is considered to be one of Australia’s greatest poets; she was
also an ardent conservationist and activist. Over a long and distinguished
literary career, she published poetry, children’s books, literary essays,
biographies, histories and other works of non-fiction.
Her commitment to the Great Barrier Reef began in 1962, when
she helped found the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland.
She went on to become a member of the Committee of Enquiry into
the National Estate and life member of the Australian Conservation
Foundation.
Judith Wright worked tirelessly to promote land rights for Aboriginal
people and to alert non-Aboriginal Australians about the awful legacy
Europeans have left upon Aborigines and the land. She wrote The Cry
for the Dead (1981), We Call for a Treaty (1985) and Born of the Conquerors
(1991).
Judith Wright was awarded many honours for her writing, including
the Grace Leven Award (twice), the New South Wales Premier's Prize,
the Encyclopedia Britannica Prize for Literature, and the ASAN World
Prize for Poetry. She received honorary degrees (D.Litt.) from the
Universities of New England, Sydney Monash, Melbourne, Griffith and
New South Wales and the Australian National University. In 1994 she
received the Human Rights Commission Award for Collected Poems.
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Other books by Judith Wright
Poetry:
Birds: Poems by Judith Wright (2003)
The Nature of Love (1997)
A Human Pattern: Selected Poems (1996)
The Generations of Men (1996)
Collected Poems (1994)
The Flame Tree (1993)
Phantom Dwelling (1985)
The Double Tree: Selected Poems 1942–1976 (1978)
Fourth Quarter (1976)
Alive: Poems 1971–1972 (1973)
The Other Half: Poems (1966)
Five Senses: Selected Poems (1963)
Birds: Poems (1962)
The Two Fires (1955)
The Gateway (1953)
Woman to Man (1949)
The Moving Image (1946)
Fiction/Short Stories:
The Nature of Love (1966)
Children’s Fiction:
Tales of a Great Aunt (1998)
The River and the Road (1966)
Range the Mountains High (1962)
The Day the Mountains Played (1960)
Kings of the Dingoes (1958)
Non-fiction:
Half a Lifetime (1999)
The Coral Battleground (1977, 2nd edition 1996)
Going on Talking (1992)
Born of the Conquerors: Selected Essays (1991)
We Call for a Treaty (1985)
The Cry for the Dead (1981)
Conservation: Choice or Compulsion? (1975)
Because I was Invited (1975)
Conservation as an Emerging Concept (1970)
Henry Lawson (1967)
Preoccupations in Australian Poetry (1966)
Charles Harpur (1963)
The Generations of Men (1959)
William Baylebridge and the Modern Problem (1955)
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JUDITH WRIGHT
CORAL
THE
BATTLEGROUND
NEW EDITION
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New edition published by Spinifex Press, 2014.
First published by Thomas Nelson (Australia), 1977.
Second edition published by Angus & Robertson, an imprint of Harper Collins, 1996.
Copyright © 2014.
Copyright © Judith Wright McKinney, 1977, 1996.
Copyright © Preface, 2014 Spinifex Press.
Copyright © Foreword, 2014 Margaraet Thorsborne.
With thanks to Meredith McKinney.
Spinifex Press Pty Ltd
504 Queensberry Street
North Melbourne, Victoria 3051
Australia
[email protected]
www.spinifexpress.com.au
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above,
no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the
copyright owner and the above publisher of the book.
Copyright for educational purposes
Information in this book may be reproduced in whole or part for study or training
purposes, subject to acknowledgement of the source and providing no commercial usage
or sale of material occurs. Where copies of part or whole of the book are made under
part VB of the Copyright Act, the law requires that prescribed procedures be followed.
For information contact the Copyright Agency Limited.
Cover design: Deb Snibson
Typesetting: Palmer Higgs Pty Ltd
Printed by McPhersons Printing Group
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Judith Wright, 1915–2000, author.
The coral battleground/Judith Wright.
3rd edition
9781742199061 (paperback)
9781742199016 (ebook: PDF)
9781742199030 (ebook: epub)
9781742199023 (ebook: Kindle)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Natural resources – Queensland – Great Barrier Reef. 2. Environmental protection
– Queensland – Great Barrier Reef – History. 3. Conservation of natural resources –
Queensland – Great Barrier Reef. 4. Great Bather Reef (Qld.). I. Title.
333.709943
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government
through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding
and advisory body.
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To the memory of John and Taff
and to everyone who helped
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Contents
Publishers’ Preface xi
Foreword, 2014 by Margaret Thorsborne, AO xvii
Foreword, 1996 by Judith Wright xxi
Foreword, 1977 by Judith Wright xxiii
Introduction xxv
1 The First Manoeuvres 1
2 The Government, Science and the Reef 15
3 Move and Counter-move 27
4 Tragedy Abroad 43
5 Geologists versus Biologists 56
6 People Take a Hand 74
7 The Unions Move In 94
8 A Halt, and a Surrender 109
9 Quarrels and a Victory 120
10 From Torres Strait to Canberra 134
11 We Get Reinforcements 149
12 The Fight That Should Not Have Been Needed 162
13 Four Y ears of Looting 181
14 Finale Without an Ending 187
Postscript 191
References, Sources and Bibliography 197
Index 200
Acknowledgements 205
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