Conservationists seeking to preserve tracts of the Tarkine rainforest have been dealt a decisive blow in the Federal Court today.
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The Bob Brown Foundation had applied to the court seeking to halt miner MMG from proceeding with preliminary works preceding their plans for a new tailings dam at its Rosebery Miner
The foundation had argued the works specifically threatened the habitat of the Tasmanian masked owl, and that work should be halted until the Federal Court hears its case in July.
After an all-day sitting of the Federal Court on Friday, Justice Mark Moshinsky on Monday morning handed down his decision, declining the Bob Brown Foundation's application.
The foundation's campaign manager Jenny Weber said it was a "pro-mining" judgment that was "against the environment".
"This finding reminds us that the EPBC Act is a farce," Ms Weber said.
We are now left with the protest option to continue to hold MMG out of takayna's forests.
- Jenny Weber
"If a masked owl is not safe from this proposal in takayna / Tarkine, and it is not, then it is not safe anywhere.
"If these new roads and forest destruction go ahead in the coming months it is because Australia's federal environment minister Sussan Ley has backed a mining company to dump their heavy metals tailings waste in Australia's largest temperate rainforests, when the company has a viable alternative that doesn't cost the rainforests or Masked Owl habitat," Ms Weber said.
"We are now left with the protest option to continue to hold MMG out of takayna's forests and Tasmanian Masked Owl habitat at an inconvenience to hundreds of citizens who will take a stand for this ancient pocket of takayna."
Earlier this month, mine general manager Steve Scott said the preliminary works were proceeding, and were necessary to determine the ultimate feasibility of the tailings dam the company intended to build.
"This includes conducting detailed environmental surveys to identify any threatened species potentially present at site and developing appropriate mitigation and offset strategies," he said.
At the time, he also said the company respected peoples' right to peaceful protest, but "access requirements necessitated the removal of an unlawful blockade".