BY MADELAINE MCNEILL
Farmers, business owners, health professionals and families have come together in the Upper Hunter to prevent more coal mines being opened in their backyard.
A new committee has been formed in response to a proposal from Australian Pacific Coal to reopen Dartbrook underground mine which was mothballed in 2006 following three deaths at the site over a twelve-year period.
Plans to reopen the mine and extend operations until 2027 are in their final stages after the NSW Department of Planning & Environment provided a positive recommendation in January of this year.
An Independent Planning Commission
(IPC) meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 9 and new committee Friends of the Upper Hunter is urging fellow residents to have their opinions on the project heard.
The group believes the region has reached a tipping point in the number of mines it can safely sustain and hopes to see
the same success Groundswell Gloucester had earlier this year in its bid to stop the opening of the controversial Rocky Hill Mine.
A major concern for the group is Australian Pacific Coal's long-term
plan to run an open-cut mine on the site.
Committee member Kirsty O'Connell said it's not about being anti-mining but about finding balance for the community and ensuring healthy communities and clean air going into the future.
"We also need to be able to position ourselves for the future and to invest and strengthen those other industries that are going to be important as we go through these transitions with the mining industry," said Ms O'Connell.
"We really want to make sure there is enough quality land, there's enough water, there's enough space for those industries that will create jobs for everyone in the community now and into the future."
Kirsty O'Connell said it's about taking care of the health of local communities as the region continues to see worrying trends in air quality.
"There's been two separate reports now that the Upper Hunter, and particular the postcode 2333, is one of the most polluted in the country and certainly the most polluted airshed in NSW."
The group is also stressing the effect the mine's reopening could have on air quality for residents of the Lower Hunter, with unwashed coal to be delivered to Newcastle via the railway line.
Independent Planning Commission Meeting will be "Critical"
Friends of the Upper Hunter view the proposal to reopen the underground mine as a "stepping stone" towards an open-cut mine and Kirsty O'Connell believes next month's IPC meeting will be critical in the fight against Dartbrook's reopening.
"We want to make sure the community is wide awake to the strategic importance of the underground proposal, the fact that it does pave the way for an open-cut mine,
That's why it's really important that anyone who doesn't want an open-cut on the doorstep of Aberdeen and the Hunter River actually has a say now," she said.
"We're really trying to encourage as many people as possible to put in a written submission because typically people forget or they think it doesn't matter, and we're really trying to tell people strongly 'Your objection matters',
It only needs to be a sentence, it can be confidential, but please get an objection in and make sure our concerns are heard on this."
Anyone interested in having their say on the issue can
apply to speak at the meeting before April 1st or provide a written submission via the IPC
website.
Friends of the Upper Hunter has also provided a direct link to the submission portal on its
website.
The meeting will take place at 10am at the Upper Hunter Conservatorium of Music in Muswellbrook on Tuesday, April 9.
Meeting Sought With Local MP
The group has sought a meeting with re-elected MP Michael Johnsen to make sure he's clear on the details of Australian Pacific Coal's proposal.
"The state government has already set out in it's Hunter Region Plan a fantastic plan for diversification of the local economy and for transition, in fact, those are some of the priorities for the Upper Hunter," said Ms O'Connell.
"We're really encouraged that Michael Johnsen was one of the councillors who voted for Upper Hunter Council's first Coal and Coal Seam Gas policy,
He was part of that unanimous vote and what we're calling on him to do is to stand by those principles he was exhibiting in 2011 and call for the protection of farming and for the protection of our communities."
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| A map of Upper Hunter Mines. Image: Friends of the Upper Hunter via Australian Pacific Coal |
