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Steve Posselt: Journey up the Goulburn River

Steve Posselt has started his journey up the Goulburn River to highlight the madness of the Victorian Government's plans to pipe water from the Goulburn River to Melbourne. The figures given are 80 gigalitres per year, roughly half the river's annual flow.

The Goulburn River presently dries up before it gets to the sea. Steve is accompanied by a team from the Northern Rivers, including local Greens member Giovanni Ebono, who is the media liaison officer.

We will be posting regular updates on Steve's Journey.

Before embarking on his epic journey, Steve made this announcement; 

"This one is going to be very tough physically but it is a bit of a sprint at just over 500km in two weeks. The main problem is that Victoria is cold and wet and most of the trip is upstream against, at times, a 4km/hr current. Seeing as I average 6m/hr on long paddles that is significant."

 In two sentences, why am I paddling across Victoria? It is to bring to the attention of Melbourne people what the North South Pipeline means. It is a pipe that I can stand up in without bending, to pump water from the Murray River system, a system that now does not reach the sea and is drying out from the bottom up, receding upon itself, so that people and businesses in Melbourne can use the water once and discharge it to the sea on the other side of the great dividing range from which it came.

 This is wrong. It is sheer madness. Due process was not followed. As usual it was a political decision and the water industry is asked to fall in line. On top of this it seems that the Victorian Government has a phobia about recycling water.

 I am joining the fight and I ask that you at least go to my web site www.kayak4earth.com and follow the trip. We would really love your support.