[Tectonos] Fwd: Fossil Hill, Trilobite Hill & Cliefden Caves, NSW, threatened by flooding from proposed Needles Dam

Lun Ago 25 15:30:48 ART 2014

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From: Ian Percival <the.percivals en optusnet.com.au>
Date: 2014-08-25 9:14 GMT-03:00
Subject: Fossil Hill, Trilobite Hill & Cliefden Caves, NSW, threatened by
flooding from proposed Needles Dam
To: "HARPER D.A." <david.harper en durham.ac.uk>, david.loydell en port.ac.uk,
davidru en rom.on.ca, deb en aber.ac.uk, derek.briggs en yale.edu,
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gsarmien en geo.ucm.es, gvoldman en efn.uncor.edu, gyoung en manitobamuseum.ca,
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insugeo en csnat.unt.edu.ar, ipuura en ut.ee

Dear Friend of the Ordovician,

I wish to bring to your attention an imminent and serious threat to the
Cliefden Caves area in central New South Wales, one of Australiaâ€™s most
iconic Ordovician fossil sites, that includes Fossil Hill and Trilobite
Hill. Quite a number of you will have visited these sites, possibly on
field excursions associated with the 6th International Symposium on the
Ordovician System (1991), Palaeo Down Under (2000), the 1st International
Palaeontological Congress (2002), or the 6th International Brachiopod
Congress (2010). Certainly many of you will be aware of descriptions of
fossils from the area, particularly in papers by Barry Webby, Vic Semeniuk,
Julie Trotter, Keith Rigby, and myself, amongst others.

The NSW Government has recently set aside money in its budget for a
feasibility study into building a dam on the Belubula River at a site known
as the Needles. Waters backing up the valley behind the dam would
completely submerge Fossil Hill. Trilobite Hill might not go completely
under water, but access to it would be virtually impossible. Many other
fossil sites in the Upper Ordovician Cliefden Caves Limestone and overlying
Malongulli Formation would also be submerged. Furthermore, the Cliefden
Caves themselves would be flooded and destroyed. The beautiful and scenic
Belubula River Valley and the valuable farming land surrounding it would be
lost forever.

Fossil Hill, Trilobite Hill, and other exposures in the vicinity are some
of the richest Ordovician fossil sites in Australia, home to many holotypes
of invertebrate taxa and associated algae. Although numerous scientific
papers have been published on the area, dating back to 1892, a concerted
effort to document the fossils has only been underway for less than 50
years and several significant components of the fauna remain undescribed.
To lose these sites under the waters of the proposed dam would be a
scientific catastrophe.

A petition against the proposed dam is being organised by the caving
community, who have also been active in setting up a Wikipedia article and
various webpages containing information about the speleology and
palaeontology of the area (a link to the petition, and other details of the
websites are provided below). I urge you to add your name to the petition,
with brief reasons for your action. It is especially important for the
Government to realise that the international scientific community is
alarmed by the prospect of seeing these scientifically irreplaceable sites
destroyed forever, and so your support in adding your name to the petition
is crucial.

You may wonder why you are receiving this request from my home e-mail
address, rather than my usual work e-mail. The fact is that I work for the
NSW State Government, in a different division of the same mega-department
that includes the branch of State Development that is proposing the dam.
Hence I am sending out this e-mail in my own time, from my home computer.
Given the obvious conflict of interest I find myself in, I ask that you
please do not correspond with me about this important issue by sending
e-mails to my work address (messages to my home e-mail are fine).

Please sign the *PETITION* and forward the petition link to as many people
as possible.
The link is     http://chn.ge/1iyuyWq
When you sign I encourage you to add a few of your own words in the section
"Why is this important to you".
Remember, every time someone signs the petition, the Premier, the two
relevant ministers, and the state and federal members for the Cliefden area
get an email.

The Wikipedia page is at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliefden_Caves

If you have FaceBook, check
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Cliefden-Caves/1447287828855483
(if you "like" us then eventually the stupid string of numbers will
disappear!)

The following website provides background information on the speleology and
palaeontology of the area, together with a gallery of images:

*bookproduction.org/savecliefdencaves/
<http://www.bookproduction.org/savecliefdencaves/>*

Regards,
Ian Percival
(Editor, *Ordovician News*, and Secretary, International Subcommission on
Ordovician Stratigraphy)

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-- 
Dra. Graciela I. Vujovich
Investigadora CONICET - IDEAN
Profesora Adjunta Dpto. Cs. GeolÃ³gicas
FCEyN - Universidad de Buenos Aires
PabellÃ³n II - Ciudad Universitaria
Buenos Aires - Argentina (1428)

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