When midday falls on Saturday, Port Fairy will join a global joining of hands aimed at fighting for a clean energy future.
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Entitled ‘Hands Across the Sand’ the half-hour event is a day marked across the world aimed at highlighting the risks of deep sea oil drilling on the community.
The event is one of 16 held in Australia, with only one other held in Victoria.
Organiser Ben Druitt said the event was a way of uniting the community in the protection of the ocean.
“There is all risk and no reward for the Port Fairy community for allowing this to go ahead,” he said.
“There’s been seven councils along the southern coastline who have passed a motion to oppose deep sea oil drilling because of the risk it poses to the community.
“We’re trying to help Port Fairy council to become the first Victorian council to join that list.”
Mr Druitt said he had collected 500 signatures and would be hoping to gather more at Saturday’s event.
“It’s a critical time for our oceans and environment,” he said.
“The modelling shows if there is a spill in the Great Australian Bight, Port Fairy will be in the firing line.”
“If there’s a spill out there in the Southern Ocean it will actually wrap right around the corner of Victoria.”
“You don’t need a lot of oil to cover a lot of area,” he said.
“Given the conditions out there, the wildest ocean on the planet, in terms of wave energy, it’s not easily controllable.
“There are so many reasons why it’s a bad idea.”
The beach event will be followed by a free screening of Never Town at Port Fairy’s Reardon Theatre.
Mr Druitt said he hoped to fill the cinema with surfers and ocean-lovers in the ‘Fight for the Bight’ event.
The film described as ‘part-surf film, part-conservation film, features scenery from Australia’s wildest coastlines and talks with conservationists fighting to keep them wild.
Filmed along the Southern Ocean coasts of Australia, it focuses on surfer and what they are willing to do to save the ocean.
Never Town spans Australia’s coastline from South Australia to Victoria and Tasmania.
It features the surfing of Dave Rastovich, Dan Ross, Belinda Baggs and Heath Joske, together with conversations with coastal activists against deep-water oil drilling and industrial fish farms.
The film is accompanied by a distinctly Australian soundtrack including Midnight Oil, Yirrnga Yunupingu, Ziggy Alberts and Bad Dreems.
‘Never Town’ is screening at 7pm on Saturday at Port Fairy’s Reardon Theatre on Bank Street.