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7:20AM Saturday 09 August, 2008 Sunshine Coast weather Mostly sunny min 6° - max 21°

Kayaker's marathon to save Mary ends

11 May 2008

Exhausted environmental campaigner Steve Posselt has completed his gruelling kayak marathon, hoping for more support ... and a cold beer.

A crowd of well-wishers and onlookers cheered as Mr Posselt arrived back at Brisbane’s West End jetty from a round trip to Maryborough to protest the building of the controversial Traveston Crossing Dam.

He set out on the 861km paddle on April 12 to raise awareness of the environmental consequences of damming the Mary River.

Supporters waved placards and shouted “Don’t Murray the Mary”, while Gubbi Gubbi senior elder Eve Fesl pleaded with the Queensland government to reconsider damming the home of her ancestors.

“Our whole history and culture will be washed out if that dam is built. But not only that, a number of threatened species could be wiped out,” Dr Fesl said.

Mr Posselt, a civil engineer, last year completed a four-month journey along the Murray-Darling river system by kayak to heighten environmental awareness.

His latest journey was aimed at drawing attention to what he believes could turn out to be an environmental disaster.

“We have got to stop the dam because if we don’t stop this dam our children and grandchildren would not forgive us,” he said.

“It’s a shallow dam and I can’t see anywhere where the sums have been done on greenhouse gas emissions.

“It looks like we may be going back into an El Nino pattern, so it won’t be any good anyway.”

Mr Posselt said he would like to meet federal environment minister Peter Garrett and the state government to discuss alternative options.

“I would like to explain what I have seen. I’ve been in this industry since 1971 and I’ve been to university for 10 years so I have a bit of an idea what is going on,” he said.

“It’s certainly touched my heartstrings and the fight is not over.”

Mr Posselt admitted he was also looking forward to a bit of rest and a cold beer.

“A beer would be good – a beer would be excellent,” he said.

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