Inarrabri

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Feature
Kim Revell - Wee Waa
“I really didn’t become part of the ‘com-
munity’ until I had children. I am a fly in
from the coast who met her husband at the
Royal Hotel in Wee Waa in 1983 and stayed.
I feel now that I am part of the community
because my kids grew up here. It’s the kids
that have connected me to place. It starts
with playgroup then you move through the
ranks to preschool, pony club, swimming
club, soccer and then school! Our family has
been involved with them all. It is joining in
that helped me find my community spirit, I
have grown personally and made some great
friendships because of it.”
“It was at the public school that I have faced
my first big challenge. Five mothers took
on the school canteen to feed the children
healthy food and improve the profits. It was
a fight who would have believed that ‘not’
serving children lollies and soft drink would
meet such opposition? We dug our heals in
and with a lot of work turned the canteen
around. I am very proud of being a part of
that team. And now all these years later with
the wonderful Debbie at the helm, the can-
teen is running profitably and running well.”
“It’s not always easy in a small community,
putting yourself out there. Other people
don’t always agree but if you have a strong
belief you just keep on pushing through. I
have always had an interest in health and
the environment but I guess when I had kids
I become more aware of it and felt I had to
take an active role. That led me about three
years ago to attend a meeting about the coal
seam gas industry which was starting up in
the Pilliga Forest. I wasn’t really concerned,
just interested in this new industry.”
“I attend quiet a lot of seminars to become
educated about CSG and the whole thing
horrified me to such an extent that I took
the massive step to start protesting. I joined
the new group ‘People for the Plains’. They
are a great group of informed and caring
individuals who are doing their best to stay
informed and educate the community about
CSG. With them I have travelled to Queens-
land to see first hand what impact CSG has
on a community and how it takes over a
landscape. The community of Tara hosted
us. Their personal stories about how CSG
had affected them, from health problems to
how they ran their businesses, was horrific.”
“Once I heard this I knew I had to step up
my involvement and do what I could to edu-
cate people and stop Coal Seam Gas in our
area. My first roll in activism was catering.
Making the scones, someone has to, and do-
ing a bit of fund raising. Not terribly radical.
One of the biggest events we held was host-
ing John Fenton from Wyoming in America
to give a talk at the Crossing Theatre. A
thousand people turned up. It was amazing.”
“Not all protest has been about getting
photo: John Burgess
Words & Photography by Namoi based
professional photographer, John Burgess.
To contact John, phone 0423 690 586 or via Humans of the Namoi
18 | iNarrabri Magazine | November 2016