By Sonia Kohlbacher Anti-Adani protesters are preparing for a week-long demonstration against the Indian mining giant in an attempt to stop initial works going ahead on its Carmichael coal mine.
Tycoon Gautam Adani last month announced the company would break ground on the $16.5 billion central Queensland mine in October.
Demonstrators from the Frontline Action on Coal and Reef Defenders groups were undergoing training on Saturday and Sunday ahead of a planned week-long protest kicking off at Yasso Point in Bowen on Sunday night.
Whitsunday tourism operator and farmer Paul Jukes will be among the protesters.
He said governments were prioritising the international mining behemoth over thousands of north Queensland business owners who relied on the Great Barrier Reef.
A Deloitte Access Economics report released in June put the value of the Great Barrier Reef at $56 billion, more than twice that of the mine, and warned of serious economic consequences for Australia unless more was done to protect it.
“(The mine) doesn’t make sense financially, it doesn’t make sense environmentally,” Mr Jukes told AAP.
“We do feel like we’re insignificant in their minds.
“The (tourism) industry is larger than the mining industry but because we’re local business, not large corporations, we don’t seem to get the voice.”
Ken Peters-Dodd, a Birriah-Widi traditional owner, said the lasting impact of the mine and associated infrastructure on the region outweighed financial compensation or employment outcomes.
“These type of projects, we’ve seen then, they don’t deliver outcomes for local people,” he said.
“When the project is over poor people are still sitting here wondering what happened.”
The Federal Court dismissed two legal bids to stop the Carmichael mine going ahead last month.
While Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has ruled out funding, her Labor government views the enormous project as a valuable jobs generator.
Anti-Adani protesters promise week-long action against Queensland mine https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/qld-adani-protesters-promise-week-long-action-20170916-p4yvy9.html 16 September 2017 
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