About Sharyn Munro

Hi Sharyn,
I must apologise for not being able to make your book launch at Avid Reader next Tuesday. I shall be out west harassing Arrow. Hope it goes well and congratulations on the book and the excellent interviews with Phillip Adams and Alan Jones.

Drew

Hi Sharyn
Today I finished ‘Rich Land, Wasteland’, which I bought after catching some of your interview with Phillip Adams. Already concerned about the obscene rush to exploit CSG, I found your book extraordinarily powerful and evocative, bringing to life the anguish and courage of people beseiged, displaced and abandoned by their governments. I ‘knew’ it was big, but your book left me reeling from the shock of grasping how widespread and unchecked this pernicious coal and CSG scourge is. Words fail me (an unusual occurrence) when I try to find an adequate way to express my dismay for the environment, the water and the air. Forget ‘Gaslands’ – it’s powerful, but it’s about somewhere else, so we Aussies are off the hook. What we need is for SBS or the ABC to do the documentary version of your book to take the stark realities into Australia’s lounge rooms. We can’t just stand by and let this destruction go on. My warmest congratulations – you’ve produced a work of epic proportions and enormous value.
Regards
Esta Knudsen

Wow, thank you for such encouraging comments Esta; it certainly felt like an epic task and all I could do was keep going and hope it would do some good– if I survived to finish it! Responses like yours give me hope it will help to bring about change.

Thanks Alec, and please send me details when your book is ready to release. We need every bit of truth to be revealed!

Thanks Jill, and you’re right: getting started is the key! Just jot stuff down, don’t try to format it at first.

Hello Di,
Thanks for your comments. Yes the industry has millions to spend on their spin and unfortunately many believe them. Let’s hope my book enlightens many more people: we need lots like you who want to know the truth! Do come back and give us your feedback when you’ve finished the book.

Thanks Paula; I do believe that all our efforts will bring about a change in the perception of political expediency in reining in these industries.

Dear Sharyn
Well done on your epic book- confronting, uplifting, depressing, inspiring- a rollercoaster of a journey for you and your readers. It will make a difference…so many communities and good people impacted by a greedy industry. Our little corner (Acland and the Darling Downs) fights on and know we are far from alone!
Congratulations

Hi Vivien,
Thanks for such encouraging words. It would be an epic bigger than Ben Hur as a film! In the meantime I look forward to being part of your radio show as we have now discussed; am a huge admirer of Beyond Zero Emissions.

Thanks Maddie. Yes it is a real life horror story. Look on the book’s website and you may find a group there that you can join. And yes please spread the word!

Hi Sharyn,
I think everyone this effects should put it on Youtube, flood it with everyones experiences, encouraging others to the same, it would reach maximum audience! then keep it up till those city dwellers realise!! and pressure politicans to change the regulations!

Hello Sharyn,
I have just bought and read your splendid book – congratulations. How power (in every sense) corrupts, and how it needs to be tramelled to serve rather than consume us. Most acts kept secret are bound to rot and your heartfelt expose shines a light on many a dark and previously hidden shameful situation. May it be a spark that iginites a (clean burning!) light for the future.
How Ferguson can still say CSG on farms is equivalent to wind power is mind boggling!

Brilliant and provocative work Sharyn, excellent documentation while written with great empathy. Congratulations. As a 70+ ex country person I am horrified at what I have not known about the extent of this scourge. I believe in the power of the multitude, while quickly learning prior to our recent QLD election that questions from a lone voice are easily dismissed by politicians.
Can I help and how?
Jenny Price

Dear Sharyn,
Thank you so much for your dynamic and informative talk today at Ashfield library on your latest release “Rich Land Wasteland”. I am reading it and will write a review for other Ashfield Library readers to look at. I will help spread the word to as many other Australians as I can. Would you be interested in giving a talk to the Ashfield Probus? I will talk to our programme officer and pass on your web address and inform him of the importance of getting this story out there so that we can do something together to stop this destruction. Like yourself, I have grandchildren and I know we must act now.
Ann

Dear Sharyn

Your impassioned talk at Ashfield Library was – like your book – both inspiring and devastating. It was great to meet you briefly afterwards. As mentioned, I am one of a group of eight concerned artists who worked together over recent years to help draw attention to the iniquity of the proposed Tillegra Dam north of Dungog, via a rolling program of regional residencies and exhibitions (2009-11).

We look forward to discussing further with you our evolving plans for a program of fossil-fuel-focused visual arts initiatives in the Upper Hunter region.

Yours

David Watson
for the Williams River Valley Artists’ Project

Thanks for your reply Sharyn, Our Probus meets the third Monday of the month so in November it would be Monday the 19th. I don’t think we have any guest speakers to talk that month so I will check that with the programme officer this week and let you know and then if it is around the time you are here we may be lucky enough to coordinate with you. I will be in touch,
Ann

Dear Sharyn, I spoke to our Probus, programme officer and he does have all of this year booked however he would love to have you speak next year and we have spots available from January. He asked for a telephone number to call you to arrange a time, if that is possible or is this the best way to get in touch? Your talk at Ashfield Library and the launch of “Rich Land Waste Land” exposed me not only to the scale of the coal problem here in Australia, it also gave me the opportunity to meet others who are wanting to make a difference, and hence I have joined a group in St. Peters. It is a Stop CSG gathering primarily however the meeting discusses a broad spectrum of state,national and global issues as we recognise the importance of getting an awareness “out there” that the impact of mining not done with safety and absolute care on the environment and it’s inhabitants, will continue to effect us all in an alarmingly damaging way, unless we take action,asap. I encourage anyone reading this to join a group and urge them to read your latest book. Thanks again Sharyn, Kind regards, Ann

That’s great Ann, re your joining a group and ACTING! Will be in touch re the talk later. On tour right now.

Thanks for your help Sharyn. I look forward to hearing from you once your tour is done. All the best. Regards Donna

Thanks Janine. I’ll be in touch shortly.

Thanks John. Well put, and Tim Flannery agrees with you re coal and asbestos. I make that point in my talks too.
Will put the comment up on the book’s website as well.

Hi Christine,
Thanks for commenting; it’s good to know the book is doing its job of shocking and angering Australians into action. And thanks for spreading the word. One lady bought 100 more books after reading it, and sent one each with a private letter to 100 politicians, so they couldn’t say they don’t know the harm they are doing!
May I ask how you heard of the book?
Myself and Paola from Bimblebox (see posts) are trying to get to Tassie for public book talks and screenings of the eye-opening Bimblebox film about our coal and gas rush, so if you have any contact ideas, I’d welcome them.

Hello Sharyn,
I am on the last chapter of your wonderful book, Rich Land Waste Land, and I have been horrified all the way through this book, as I was unaware coal mining and gas mining were devastating our wonderful country the way they have been so far.
I went to your wonderful talk at Taree library a few months ago, and once more, I had no idea mining was such a problem until then.
In April we drove through the rough dirt roads skirting the Wollemi forests, and on to Mudgee, where we noticed mine vehicles everywhere in and out of town, and observed how property prices had risen dramatically since mining began.
We then drove to wonderful Gulgong, where we were horrified to see such a heritage town being devastated by mining companies building eighty new houses on the outskirts of town, thus ruining the historical value of this wonderful town.
The next day we drove to Ulan, and couldn’t comprehend the enormity of the huge mines for many kilometres.
It was sad to see little villages on the way from Ulan to Merriwa as ghost towns now, when they would have been happy communities before mining came along.
We continued through to Scone, and then across Barrington Tops, which is still such a wonderful wilderness, but according to your book, not for too much longer, as mining is probably going to occur there as well.
Then onto the beautiful Gloucester, which is also about to be devastated by the greedy mining operators.
Then back to the wonderful Manning Valley, where we are lucky so far to have escaped the nasty gas miners.
I was amazed to see in your book that Mark Vaile was chairman of a mining company, but not surprised, as he was one of the rednecks wanting to divert part of the Barnard river system in Barrington Tops to Tamworth.
I have also read your wonderful Woman on The Mountain, and loved every page of it.
I hope more and more people read you wonderful books, and hope many more become aware of the dangers of mining.
Thanks for being so passionate.

Gary Hayes

Taree

Hi Sharyn

have not yet finished reading Rich Land, Wasteland but wanted to tell you how much I appreciate the huge effort you have put into this book. It is really quite depressing what is going on with the mining industry and it just shouldn’t be. I do wish you had included some graphic photos – that would have really added a lot of impact. When I have finished reading it will will post more comments.
Thanks and regards
Ken Hungerford

Hi Sharyn

Since my comment above I have now finished readinf RL, W L and really want to congratulate you on such a superb effort. Some additional commenets below are meant in the best possible way.

Firstly, as a person like you that is fearful about our future, particularly because of the health, destruction and harm to individual lifestyles, and the fact that mining is a relatively short term “boom”, if you could call it that. You document all the trauma and I won’t comment other than to say it is digusting and sad, and shouldn’t happen.

Now, on the other hand it must be recognised that millions of people rely on coal in many ways and to stop it without filing the void would be disastrous on a global scale. The greenies are always talking about wind and solar as our saviours but unfortunately in their present form they are far from solutions. Until there is viable large scale storage of energy they simply don’t work on an industrial scale. Around 5 years ago I wrote an essay, mainly for me, on electrical power generation in Australia. I had it checked for accuracy by a retired Uni professor. I updated it a couple of years ago then started a third version a year ago. The latter was based on large scale use of CSP plants spread across the top end of Australia coupled with large scale liquid salt energy storage. I gave up when I looked at the cost of the energy storage! It is politically unacceptable but the real truth is that the only source that goes close to solving the problem is nuclear.

A couple of other observations: the book does tend to become repetitive after a while and tends to mute the feelings towards the extremely badly done by folk. It would help to have a few maps, a glossary of the less well known terms, and a summary of some kind.

Nevertheless, it’s a great book and every politician should read it, although I don’t think they would understand given their avreage level of intelligence.

Well done, I will recommend it to all in sundry.

Sorry about the length of the comment.

Ken Hungerford