The Australian Country Music News reports:-

Following community support in the Caroona (Liverpool Plains, North West NSW) farming area for local farmer Tim Duddy’s stand to block access to BHP mining exploration, two of Country Music Capital’s award-winning songwriters have joined the anti-mining push.

Steve Charles and Wendy Wood (pictured) have joined forces to write and record a song commemorating “the brave and outstanding action taken to try and halt access to the Duddy’s farm”.

The Duddy’s refused access to BHP to their farm who subsequently went to court and obtained an injunction against the Duddy’s. Members of the local community, however, not affected by the injunction, took over the blocking of access to the Duddy’s property and are now manning a daily blockade of the access road to the property.

“The Caroona region is one of the most fertile and sustainable farming areas of NSW,” Steve said, “due to the underground aquifer system which became more and more apparent over the past several years of extreme drought – this region was still able to produce while the rest of the state, and nation, was turning into a dust bowl.

“Mining of the region would be a travesty unlike any other in Australian rural history and is supported by the courts and the NSW Government. The action taken by the Caroona farming community, friends and families is a direct result of multi-nationals and government forcing (their) interests on to a region which by all accounts would be devastated and cost not only family properties and livelihoods but one of the nation’s most fertile and productive farming regions and should be supported by the Australian community as a whole.”

The song written by Steve and Wendy is titled Bring It On and can be downloaded here.

“Bring It On was recorded to not only honour the stand taken by Tim Duddy and the on-going support and action taken by friends and neighbours in trying to protect their farms, livelihoods and region,” Steve said, “but hopefully will serve as a tool to highlight their plight and bravery and community unity that is not often seen in today’s modern Australia.