Missy Higgins & Friends - A benefit to help protect the Kimberley

After touring the U.S. on the Lilith Festival and spending most of this year writing songs for a new album, Missy Higgins is returning home to Australia to perform an intimate benefit concert to help protect one of our country’s most stunning regions … the Kimberley.

On Sunday 16th of January Missy and her band will get up close and personal with just a few hundred music lovers at Trak Live Lounge Bar in Melbourne.  She will be joined in this unique club environment by some surprise musical guests to help raise funds in support of ‘Environs Kimberley’.

Environs Kimberley is a small environment group based in Broome who have been fighting to protect the Kimberley for the past 15 years.  The group successfully stopped a 200,000 hectare cotton proposal and the damming of the Fitzroy River in conjunction with the Traditional Owners of that area.  
They now need Australia’s help to protect the Kimberley from large scale industrialization.

Executive Director of Environs Kimberley Martin Prichard stated, “the WA Government and multi-national oil and gas companies Woodside, Shell, BP, BHP and Chevron are planning to build gas refineries on the pristine Kimberley coast 40km north of Broome.  The new industrial port that would need to be built would be in the middle of the Kimberley humpback whale calving grounds and thousands of oil and gas tanker movements would threaten their future”.

Missy has confirmed that ALL profits for this special one off benefit concert will go straight to ‘Environs Kimberley’ to assist them in their attempt to lobby governments for the long term preservation of this precious part of Australia.
 
Missy has a strong personal connection with the region.  She has owned a small place in Broome for several years and many of the songs on her triple platinum selling album “On A Clear Night” were written there.  She also played a role in the acclaimed movie “Bran Nue Dae” which was filmed in the Kimberley in 2008.

“The Kimberley region is one of the last true remaining wilderness’ on the planet, and any Australian who’s lucky enough to have visited this incredible part of our country knows how special it is. It would be a crime on so many levels to allow this mammoth industrialisation plan to go ahead. Not only would it be the biggest LNG processing plant in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s just one foot in the door as far as further industrialisation goes – they are making no secret of that with plans already to extensively strip-mine the Mitchell Plateau for bauxite. Recently WA Premier Colin Barnett has begun compulsorily acquiring the land, stripping the Kimberley Traditional Owners of their Native Title rights. I find it hard to believe that this is even legal anymore and it completely undermines any progress we’ve made with reconciliation in recent years. The point is that there are alternatives to bringing the gas onshore at James Price Point, and I think it’s our responsibility to make sure that our leaders choose these alternatives over those, which are irreversibly damaging to the Kimberley Coast. It’s just too special to ruin forever.”

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD AND COME TO SUPPORT THIS TRULY WORTHY CAUSE.

Sunday, January 16, 2011 – Trak Melbourne – Doors from 7.30pm

Tickets available for $50 + BF (over 18s)

GENERAL TICKETS GO ON SALE FROM 9AM THURSDAY 16 DECEMBER and are available from www.ticketmaster.com.au or 136 100.