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The government proposes to establish Australia’s first regional hydrogen hub, at a cost of $70 million, to “scale-up demand and take advantage of the advancements in this low emissions, high powered source of energy”.
Almost all the proposed locations for the hubs are close to coal mines or gas field, suggesting the government is planning on hydrogen from fossil fuels. This would lock in fossil fuel use for decades and is completely at odds with what’s needed to address the climate emergency.
Renewable energy cannot directly replace fossil fuel use in activities such as air and sea transport and industrial processes such as steel-making. It can be used to produce “clean” hydrogen and ammonia, which will decarbonise those areas.
Converting energy from one form to another form is inefficient and hydrogen should only be used where there is no other clean form of energy for air and sea transport and certain industrial processes. Hydrogen is not clean energy if it is produced via fossil fuels and should not be used to justify further investment in the fossil fuel industry.
The Society will be urging the Federal government to prioritise hydrogen produced from renewable sources.
The Society has been active in local conservation issues since 1966 and is well networked with the broader conservation movement across NSW.
The Society's Constitution states its Aims and Objectives as:
a. The education of the members and the community, particularly in the local area, in nature conservation and protection of the environment;
b. To promote ecologically sustainable land use and development;
c. To promote nature conservation including an adequate system of national parks, wilderness areas, nature reserves, wildlife refuges and corridors and urban bushland reserves; adequate protection measures for native wildlife;
d. Achieving satisfactory measures to safeguard the environment from all forms of pollution to ensure clean air, clean water and a healthy environment;
e. To work for the permanent retention and conservation of all natural areas in the local district and an increase in the area set aside for nature conservation and
f. To undertake the management of the Field of Mars Reserve with Ryde City Council as a major conservation project
We have a regular newsletter Wallumetta which is issued six times a year which attempts to update members on both local environmental issues and issues of wider impact. Our volunteer members keep the Visitors Centre open each weekend. Please contact us if you have concerns about threats to our local natural areas and the precious native fauna which depend on our sensitive bushland areas and waterways.
In the mid 1960s, with an increasing amount of waste needing disposal, Ryde Council looked to an expansion of the small tip in the Field of Mars Reserve. Council proposed to pipe Buffalo and Stranger's Creeks to facilitate a landfill area to a depth of up to 15m feet which could then be re-developed into playing fields. Local residents united to form the Anti-tip Action Group and lobbied to reverse Council's plans for a tip at the Field of Mars. The tip was moved to Porter's Creek which to this day still requires substantial funds to control the environmental damage arising from past use as a tipsite. With the Field of Mars saved the Society was established in January 1966.
In September 1966, Ryde Council advised the Society that it agreed to their proposal to development of the Field of Mars Reserve as a flora and fauna sanctuary. Hard work over following decades has seen restoration of old degraded areas of the Field of Mars and protection of the area as a Wildlife Refuge. A Visitors Centre was built and then the Environmental Education Centre which is visited by about 10,000 students each year.
(subject to current Covid-19 restrictions)
Watch here for upcoming events at the Field of Mars.
*Rug hand-knitted and kindly donated to RHHFFPS by the Holy Spirit Yarnknit Group of North Ryde.
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