Kay Moncrieff was not born here, but she calls Australia home.
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After hearing of the potential for a deepwater oil and gas drilling project to begin off the coast of The Great Australian Bight, Ms Moncrieff embarked on a journey to save the country she calls home, with her latest stop here in Wagga.
"If there were to be an oil spill from this drilling, the loss of sea life like whales, sea lions, all the fish and sharks and even sea birds would be unfathomable and I couldn't just sit at home and let that happen without trying to do something," she said.
The aptly dubbed 'Green Nomad' took off from her home in Adelaide in a camper van and travelled through to Sydney, up the entire east coast to Townsville, across to Mt Isa, Katherine, Broome, then down the west coast to Albany, up to Esperance, across the Nullabor, down through the seafood frontier of the South Australian coast, returning to Adelaide.
"It was more than 19,000 kilometres in over six months," Ms Moncrieff said.
The Green Nomad has now made her way to Wagga in a bid to spread her message of protecting the Bight.
"Over my journey it was sad that a lot of people didn't know about the issue, but also gratifying that 99.99 per cent of people wanted to get on board the mission," she said.
"People want to help, they understand the implications of wrecking the coastline - it has implications for all of Australia not just environmentally, but with our economy through exports and tourism as well."
Miss Moncrieff said she feared there would be no benefit to the people of Australia from the potential drilling project.
"The thing is, the money made from this venture won't even be seen by Australia," she said.
"The oil company is owned by the Norwegian government and all the jobs that will be created will be flown in from overseas, so it really beggars belief that our government could approve this."
Her journey is far from over, but Ms Moncrieff has one message for the people of Wagga: "Stand up and speak for this country".
"From the smallest road stops to the largest cities, and from the red dust to the white sands, we are all interconnected," she said.
"We're not a mine, we're a home."
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